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ZION, OR THE TEMPLE OF GOD.

I promised, the last time we talked of the Bible, to give you a description of Zion. It is described in the 32d chapter of Isaiah. There, my love, a King reigns in righteousness, and a man is as an hiding place from the wind, a covert from the tempest, as rivers of water in dry places, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land; where the eyes of them that see are not dim, and the ears of them that hear, hearken; where the heart of the rash understands knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers speak plainly; where the vile person is no more called liberal, nor the churl bountiful; where the Spirit is poured upon us from on high. This, my love, is the temple not made with hands. It is the body of man, filled with the Spirit of God.

You will remember that I mentioned, that the fall of Adam consisted in a change of his nature, a loss of the Spirit of holinesss; it is this Spirit which alone will raise him up, obtain for him an other change from the sentence of death to a resur◄

rection unto life in the second paradise. By this Spirit, God, the King, reigns in him. He thus becomes an hiding place from the wind, as a covert from the tempest, as rivers of waters in dry places; that is, my love, a person with the Spirit of God in him, no man can injure, nor the fruits of that Spirit in him. Like a stream which fertilizes the plains and gardens through which it passes; so does he, with the Spirit of God, enlighten, instruct, and bless, and is a blessing wherever he is, and amidst whatever society it may please God to place him. The first effects produced by this Spirit in a man are, to remove the scales from his eyes, that he may see, and to open his ears that he may hear; that is, before he had the Spirit of God, he was blind, deaf, and in darkness, as to religion and all things pertaining to God; but now this Spirit, which is called grace, acts like quicksilver on glass; for if you look through glass, you see the things of the world which are at the opposite side of the glass; but, on the contrary, if you put the quicksilver to the glass, your own face is reflected, and thus you see yourself. So the Spirit of God reflects in the same way the heart of man, by which it obtains a knowledge of its own self, its rashness in being at enmity with God; and the tongue which stammered in speaking of the things of God, now speaks plain

ly. So that a man, with this grace, no longer calls himself liberal, but vile, and abhors himself as Job did; and no longer calls himself bountiful, when his heart is churlish, and full of selfish covetousness. Man, therefore, receiving this counsellor in the grace of God, strives to overcome the world, that is, the sins of his own nature; like fire, it burns and purifies him. A piece of charcoal, my love, is black and cold; but apply fire to it, and it is no longer the black, cold charcoal; and so man's heart is cold and black with the stains of guilt, but as soon as the fire of the Holy Spirit touches it, how changed it is! It is warmed with holy love, zeal, and gratitude, and possesses heavenly feelings; like Adam in his original righteousness, his mind becomes pure and holy; he is no longer reluctant and indisposed to religious services, nor wandering, nor sluggish in their performance; perfect love to the infinitely glorious object of his worship, sweetly engages all the powers of his soul, into acts of adoration, thankfulness, and praise, and all he delights in is God his maker, and the things of God. But I must return to my story, and tell you how this joyful event was brought about, by introducing you to the ancestors of the second Adam, whose history you are so anxious to learn.

DAVID, A SHEPHERD OF ISRAEL.

In Bethlehem Judah, my dear child, lived Jesse the Ephrathite, who had eight sons, to whom Samuel the prophet was sent, that he might anoint one of them to be the king of Israel. David, the youngest of them, ruddy, and of a beautiful countenance, who was a shepherd, was the one chosen. He was a sweet player on the harp, and being filled with the Spirit of God, besides being comely, he found favour in the sight of Saul the king, who was the opposite, however, with respect to character, to David: indeed he was a very wicked king, and hated both

the laws as well as the commandments of God. David, therefore, was in the habit of playing before Saul, by which his soul was refreshed; for the evil spirit which troubled Saul, departed at the sound of the sacred minstrel. Besides this, in a mighty battle between the Philistines and Israelites, there appeared a mighty giant, named Goliath of Gath, on the side of the former, on account of whom Saul and Israel were alarmed. A reward, therefore, was offered, that if any man should meet the giant and kill him, he should not only be enriched with

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