was gone from her. We are not informed how, but somehow she has deprived herself of His presence. She, who before time, was in the closest communion with her beloved, now sees Him in the far distance. She hears his voice and recognises it. Like one of His own sheep, she knows his voice before she sees him, and easily distinguishes it from the voice of a stranger It rouses her soul from its too sound sleep, and rebukes her for her want of watchfulness. "What could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation." Beware of resting either too much in sensible comfort, or of driving it away through careless estimation of them. Observe too that the transition from the highest spiritual communion with Christ and enjoyment of His favour to "the savouring of things that are of men," is most easily and sometimes rapidly performed. Who so favoured as Peter at the moment Jesus said "Blessed art thou Simon Bar-jona ?" Who so wretched and miserable and self-degraded as that same Peter, when having denied His master thrice, self-condemned, he went out and wept bitter tears of shame and repentance ?? He presumed on the strength of his zeal. He was self-satisfied and confident in his privileges. He 1. John x. 4 & 5. 2. Mat. xxxvi. 75. ceased for a moment to watch and then fell into temptation and lost the peace and joy of salvation. And the Church (which is the Lamb's bride) seems here to be in the same fallen condition. At all events separated by many "mountains " andhills." And this is most painful. For in His presence are joys for evermore, yea, "life itself!" Who is there among the Lord's people, after having" once tasted" the power of Jesus' love and the gladness of His house and presence, that would be satisfied with a mere distant view of Him? Even Zacchaeus when he would see Jesus but could not because of the press of people, climbed up into a Sycamore tree that he might be near the Lord and behold His person.1 The woman that would be healed forced her way till she touched the very hem of His garments, and the moment she touched Him, she was made whole.2 All who have realised their own poverty and Christ's fulness, their own misery and the joy and peace which Christ's love imparts and His presence brings, stand on the watch and waits at the door-posts of His house to catch the first glimpse of returning mercies. 1. Luke xix. 4. 2. Mat. ix. 20. 9. My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, In the former verse the Church first heard His voice and then saw Him coming towards her. Here in this she observes nearer approaches of the Lord.(I.) He stood behind the wall: (II.) He looked forth at the windows : (III.) He shewed Himself through the lattices : We may understand by the wall," the Ceremonial Law," even the law of Commandments contained in Ordinances. Behind this wall of types, figures, and sacrifices, Christ shewed himself to the Church, though dimly and obscurely. Under the dispensation of Moses and the prophets, Christ stood behind the wall of carnal ordinances, ceremonies, and sacrifices "imposed on Israel until the time of reformation."2 These were but the "shadow of good things to come." When Christ came in the flesh, then the shadow fled away, and the wall was broken down. He came and realised every type, fulfilled prophecy, and made an end of sacrifices. He came as the light of the morning when the sun riseth, even a morning without 1. Eph. ii, 4-15. 66 Heb. ix. 10. clouds." He came the desire of many prophets and kings-the hope of all the nations of the earth and the expectation of the everlasting hills! "Bless the Lord God of Israel, through whose tender mercies the day spring from on high hath visited us. Abraham, and Isaac, and Moses, and all the Prophets, and all old Testament Saints, longed to see the wall broken down, and the day break, and the sun of righteousness arise. They only saw Him behind the wall. They only beheld Him dimly shadowed forth in the ordinances and types which Moses was admonished of God to ordain, when he made the tabernacle according to the pattern shewed him in the mount. Scripture has determined what these shadows meant. Jesus is the reality. He is the body. He is the substance of which these types or ordinances of Israel were the shadows. Take away their reference to Him, and they cease to have meaning. But look at them as pictures of all that Jesus was to do and suffer in the flesh, and they breathe with life and significance. So that as the great Reformer Tindal saith, "while there is a "star light of Christ” in all the ceremonies, there is in some so truly the light of the broad-day, "that he cannot but believe God shewed Moses the secrets of Christ and the very manner of his death, even in the wilderness." Just look for a moment at the chief part of the Temple service, and well might one great divine say of that Book, that it was "the gospel according to Leviticus." It is full of the gospel. It is full of Christ. The Israelite could discern Him, even though He seemed to be only standing behind the wall and shewing Himself here and there through the windows and lattices, the different ordinances and ceremonies which served (like windows do in a house) to give light to the souls of them that worshipped. But in what did the Temple Service chiefly consist ?—The morning and evening sacrifice: the Lamb without blemish: the Goat that was slain: the Bullock that was offered: the scape-goat sent forth into the wilderness: all testified of Jesus. The roasting of the pascal lamb with fires, eating it with bitter herbs, these set forth the agony and bloody sweat and Cross and passion of Jesus when He bore our sins; when He, the true pascal lamb, Christ our passover was slain, and endured for us the fires of His Father's wrath. The Temple too was a type of Jesus. Every part of its furniture a type and figure of what was to be in the humanity of the Incarnate God. Before the entrance of the Holy place stood the altar of brass |