grace; but it is through Christ alone as the Mediator that we have this access; it is because we can claim relationship to Him through our common nature that we can dare to present ourselves before the throne of grace. So, again, it is true that we have been made kings and priests unto God and our Father; that we have been "built up into a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God;" but then it is from Christ alone, the one great High-Priest, that we derive authority and power to offer up our spiritual sacrifices; through Him alone can they be made acceptable unto God, in virtue of that perfect sacrifice which He ever pleads in our behalf.

Thus, my brethren, it is evident that all our acts of worship can only have any meaning, or efficacy, in so far as they are made directly to refer to the great work which our Lord as the one Mediator is carrying on in heaven. And as we cannot as individuals claim our Lord as our mediator; as His mediatorial work is being wrought, not for each man in his capacity as an individual, but for the whole Church united to Him in one body; so we cannot hope to claim the benefits of that heavenly work of mercy, we cannot plead His intercession in our behalf, unless we claim our position as members of that body for which alone He works.

Therefore it is, my brethren, that our worship as Christians must be a common worship; our sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving must be offered up by

us in our collective capacity as members of Christ. We must come into the congregation, and so claim our place in the holy Church of Christ, which throughout all the world doth acknowledge Him, if we would desire that our prayers should be accepted for His sake in whose Name we offer them. And this deeper view of the connexion of common worship with the mediation of our Lord, whilst it enhances the importance in our eyes of joining in these acts of common worship, will shew us the error into which men fall when they consider that acts of private devotion are a sufficient substitute for public worship. Though the importance of private and family devotion, of communing with God in our own chamber, whether in prayer or in the study of His Word, can never be too strongly enjoined upon us as a duty and a privilege; yet, brethren, it will cease to be either if it is suffered to interfere with, or take the place of, that higher duty of united worship whereby we bear witness to our common brotherhood. Every prayer which we offer up we conclude by pleading our Saviour's name and merits as the only channel through which we can hope that it will reach the throne of grace. Nor let us forget that that form with which all our prayers, whether private or public, conclude, pleads the merits of our Saviour not in reference to ourselves individually, but as members of a body: it is not through Jesus Christ my Lord and Saviour, but our Lord and Saviour. If we desire to avail ourselves of our Lord's

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mediation, it must be as members of that great family into which we have been admitted at baptism. We must ever assert our membership, by joining with our brethren in that united worship which is the means by which we obtain the all-prevailing intercession of our Great High-Priest. And so the prayers which we offer up in our chamber will always bear reference to, and derive their efficacy from, that union between ourselves and our Lord, which common united worship is the means of continuing; will be ever grounded on that privilege of approach which, in common with all our brethren, we claim when we come into the Lord's House. Even as Daniel, in captivity, prayed with his windows open in his chamber towards Jerusalem, because he knew that God had promised to be present in an extraordinary manner in His Temple or Sanctuary, so shall we (when we offer our prayers to God in our own chamber) when hindered by any lawful reason from frequenting the House of God, believe that we have access to God in virtue of that intercession which is offered for the elect at large, and of that sacrifice in which the whole Christian body has a common interest.

SERMON V.

The Choral Principle of Divine Worship the Characteristic of both Covenants.

PSALM lxviii. 32, 33.

Sing unto God, O ye kingdoms of the earth: O sing praises unto the Lord; who sitteth in the heavens over all from the beginning: lo He doth send out His voice, yea, and that a mighty voice."

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PSALM cl. 6.

"Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord."

praise God, my brethren, to give Him glory,

to extol and magnify His glorious Name, is the first impulse of a heart that has learned to realize the Personality of the Godhead, and to recognise the power, wisdom, and love that direct and control the whole universe. To understand the relation in which man stands to God as His creature, as the offspring of His creating love, as the being which He has been pleased to endow with faculties and powers beyond that of any other created thing; whom He has made capable of the highest enjoyment in this world, and of an immortality of happiness in the world to come; and then to realize his

entire dependence upon that Almighty Being as the sole Sustainer and Preserver of those wondrous powers; I say, to be consciously impressed with these truths, is to be filled with humble thankfulness, and an eager impulse to acknowledge the divine goodness by the grateful homage of our whole being. The sense of great favours and benefits conferred ever tends to awaken a spirit of gratitude, and to excite feelings of love and admiration towards our benefactor, and those feelings find their natural expression through our lips in the exulting strain of praise. The soul, elated with joy and gladness, and reaching forth in thankful love towards its Almighty benefactor, seeks expression for its feelings; and finding the ordinary modes of speech inadequate for its purpose, has recourse to that power of melody and song, whereby it has pleased the Creator that we should be able to represent most vividly the strongest and most varied emotions of the heart. That power whereby the harmony of sounds is adapted to convey the impressions of the mind is surely, brethren, one of the most wonderful, as it is one of the most precious of God's gift to His creatures. It is most wonderful, because of the endless variety of its application whether in sorrow and heaviness, or in joy and gladness, whether we desire to be composed and yearn for consolation, or to have our affections moved and excited; it supplies an endless combination of sounds suitable to each occasion. It is a most precious gift, because it affords a medium