and exemplify, far as we may, his willing presentation of himself to do and to endure the will of God. Lord, let thy priests thus be clothed with righteousness and thy saints sing for joyfulness, and both conjointly rise in holiest sacrifice of praise and love to thee. Now let us praise the Lord With body, soul, and spirit, Hath done great things for us, Praise him eternally! Moravian Hymns, No. 666. DISCOURSE VII. THE PURE OIL-OLIVE. EXODUS XXvii. 20, 21. And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee pure oil-olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always. In the tabernacle of the congregation without the vail, which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning before the Lord. It shall be a statute for ever unto their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel. THE adaptation of external nature to the world of mind, is singularly beautiful and striking: for example, I will to pluck a flower: my body stoops, my hand expands, and my fingers grasp the fair produce of the soil. I will again to survey the heavens that over-arch and encompass me: I lift my eyes thitherward, and, behold, the sun meets my upward gaze in its dazzling brilliancy, or the moon walks her pathway in serener majesty, or the stars, in the retiring distance, strew the blue sky as though they were the spanglets of His robe who made and rules them all. Thus are mind and matter conjoined in sweet accordance, each ministering to the necessities and delights of the other, and both attesting to the experience of a righteous man, the goodness and the mercifulness of the supreme eternal God. In like manner do the discoveries of science and the traditionary usages of mankind, oftentimes afford corroborative evidence to the testimonies of Divine Revelation: instance the olive as being the universal emblem of peace. Whence could the sacredness so usually attached to this particular tree have originated but from the fact so simply and beautifully narrated in Gen. viii. ? After the prevalence of the waters for a hundred and fifty days, the ark rested, in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. The waters continued to subside until the tenth month, on the first day of which the tops of the mountains became discernible. Forty days farther from this date, Noah sent forth a dove to ascertain, through this gentle creature, whether the waters were still diminishing. On her first excursion, the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and returned in consequence unto Noah into the ark again. After other seven days, he sent her forth once more, and now in the evening of her second mission, the dove came back, and, lo, in her mouth was an olive-leaf plucked off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. From this incident, no doubt, originated the celebrity among various nations of the olive-branch as emblematical of security and peace, and thus is incidental proof afforded to the antiquity and validity of the scripture-history. Moses said unto Israel in the wilderness, The Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills and as the great Lawgiver proceeds to describe the land, he calls it a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil-olive, and honey; a land, he finally adds, wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it: a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass. Deut. viii. 7-9. Here we find especial mention of the oil-olive among the rich and varied productions of Canaan. Indeed, it would seem from numerous scriptures, that olive-trees, in their cultivated state, were exceedingly abundant and very valuable in the good land of Israel's heritage. Ex. xxiii. 11. The departure of the nation from the ways and worship of Jehovah, and their adoption of any false gods instead, was threatened with loss and failure of the customary produce of the olive-yards. Deut. xxviii. 4. And in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and during the prophetic ministry of Amos, this threatened displeasure of the Highest was actually executed in the blasting and destruction of the gardens, and vineyards, and fig-trees, and olive-trees of the land. Amos iv. 9. The same desolation pervades Judea to this hour, because of the still more enormous and aggravated criminality of the nation in rejecting their Messiah; thus affording a striking illustration of the proverb, Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people. Prov. xiv. 34. A fruitful land maketh he barren for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. Ps. cvii. 34. God will enrich and bless the feeblest and most impoverished children of his grace; and at his bidding even the palmer-worm or the locust shall lay the mightiest kingdom low. It is too generally forgotten by statesmen and worldly politicians, that a nation's prosperity must be sought in the favour and loving-kindness of the Lord. A praying people form a country's bulwarks. The particular region of Judea, chiefly remarkable for the growth of olives, appears to have been a mountain east of Jerusalem, and separated from it by the brook Kedron. It is described as being a sabbath-day's journey, or about a mile distant from the holy city. This eminence was the Olivet of the Old Testament, and is the Mount of Olives so frequently mentioned in the New Testament. It was up the ascent of Olivet that David went so sorrowfully upon the rebellion of unnatural Absalom. 2 Sam. xv. 30. It was there also that Solomon subsequently built high places for the gods of Moab and Ammon, in accordance with the practices of his idolatrous wives; and hence did Olivet become the Mount of Corruption. 2 Kings xxiii. 13. Those high places were afterwards destroyed by good Josiah, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 3; and in the days of our blessed Lord, the Mount of Olives became the scene of much that is dear and interesting to a Christian's heart. Thither for privacy and prayer, rest from laborious toil, and seclusion from the strife and turmoil of earthly things, did Jesus frequently retire. Luke xix. 27, and John viii. 1. Thence he beheld the city and wept over its expected ruin. Luke xix. 41. There he delivered the prophecies which we see so wonderfully fulfilling before our eyes. Matt. xxiv. 3. Thence too, he ascended into heaven; and-what claims our peculiar notice, as a scripture verity yet to be completed,-upon that very mountain are the feet of Jesus Christ to stand again. Acts i. 9—11, with Zech. xiv. 4. The connexion and intimacy of Christ's human nature with this world, and his mediatorial acts on its behalf, are very much nearer and closer, we believe, than is commonly supposed. assume that Jesus Christ has done with earth for ever: whereas, his feet, according to the Prophet's testimony, We |