Rebekah were of one mind, lived in

peace, and the God of love and peace was with them. The subject thus considered calls upon me to address a word

I. To Masters, and Heads of Families.

Unto what source shall we trace the holy, prayerful, zealous, self-devoted, conscientious behaviour of Eliezer in this whole matter? We hear not of any especial means of grace, or manifestations of God given to him before he undertook his momentous errand. He had doubtless profited, as God the Holy Spirit enabled him, by the faithfulness of Abraham's instruction, the constancy of Abraham's family sacrifice, and the holy consistency of Abraham's daily walk. And next to the claims of parental love, -inferior only to the calls of kindred upon our affection, are those appeals to our consciences, enlightened, converted, sanctified by the Spirit of God, which the domestics of our families are warranted to make for consistent Christian kindness and zeal in their behalf. They should be treated with the gentleness and condescension of a love, enkindled by the love of Christ Jesus towards ourselves. They should be regarded, not as those who are born to be the vassals of our will, but as those who bear a yoke

of meekness and charity, such as that beneath which the Saviour hath bowed our own hearts, if we are members of his body. They should be treated as humble friends, partners in the same salvation, heirs of the same hopes, and purchased from death to life eternal by the same infinitely precious Atonement. The pious head of a family is an unspeakable blessing to all who are embraced within the endearing charities of its circle, an instrument of their present happiness, and a helper of them towards the joys of that better state, where earthly and present distinctions shall pass away, and be no more for

ever.

II. To Servants.

While Eliezer received many blessings at Abraham's hand, as an instrument of God for his good, was he enabled to make no return? Let this history, let his whole conduct, let Abraham's answered prayers and wishes, let Isaac's happiness in Rebekah attest the contrary. Well and amply was Abraham repaid for all that he had done in the behalf of Eliezer. And could the grateful steward have any higher delight, after remembering that he had a Master in heaven, to whom his first thoughts and responsibilities were due, than to know, that he

had thus been honoured of God to promote the happiness of his earthly Master, and the good of the Church? Imitate his example in your humble spheres of duty. Employ your single talent for the glory of Him, whose you are, and whom you ought to serve. So shall those among whom you live bless the love of the Lord of all, in sending you to them, and glorify God in you.

SERMON XXXIX.

ELIEZER'S ERRAND ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE

MINISTERIAL OFFICE.

GENESIS XXIV. 67.

AND ISAAC BROUGHT HER INTO HIS MOTHER SARAH'S TENT, AND TOOK REBEKAH, AND SHE BECAME HIS WIFE, AND HE

LOVED HER.

THOSE students of the Bible, whose turn of mind is imaginative and mystical are tempted to discover types and allegories, even in its most plain and simple portions. The indulgence of this tendency opens, as hath been already remarked,1 a path as dangerous as it is attractive. Unless the disposition be restrained and chastened, unless it be watched with constancy, and disciplined with severity, God's revelation has no security against being called

1 See Sermon XXX.

to speak a language which was never contemplated by the mind of the Holy Spirit. The wholesome current of truth and mercy is thus polluted by human admixtures. When readers are more willing to bring a sense to the Scriptures, than to receive one from them, they substitute the broken cisterns of their own unauthorized device, for those wells of salvation, out of which more simple-hearted students draw the water of life with joy and gladness. Their practice serves not to illustrate, but to darken and discredit the mysteries of God. The Church has suffered to a painful extent by the unbridled licence of what is commonly called. spiritual interpretation.

We would not venture therefore, after the manner of some expositors, to affirm, that the mission of Abraham's servant to provide a wife for Isaac, is to be decidedly regarded as an allegory of the ministerial office-Eliezer himself being the unequivocal representative of the ambassador of Christ. Nor would we assert, that the marriage of the heir of promise with Rebekah, is absolutely typical of that near and endearing espousal, whereby the Incarnate Word hath betrothed the Church of believers, and every member within its pale of salvation