to Him.

Nevertheless, for the purpose of receiving the homage of his creatures in a manner more adapted to their infirmities, and more calculated to excite in them the thoughts and the feelings befitting such occasions, He vouchsafes to assure them of His more immediate though invisible presence, where they are thus assembled to give the honour due unto His Name. Hence, the warmth of feeling with which the Psalmist makes mention of the HOUSE OF GOD. "send out thy light and thy truth, that they 66 may lead me; and bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy dwelling; and that I may

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go unto the altar of God, even unto the "God of my joy and gladness.”—“We wait "for thy loving-kindness, O God, in the midst "of thy temple."-" Blessed is the man whom "thou choosest, and receivest unto thee: he "shall dwell in thy court, and shall be satis"fied with the pleasures of thy house, even "of thy holy temple."-"O how amiable are

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thy dwellings, thou Lord of Hosts! my soul "hath a desire and longing to enter into the "courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh

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rejoice in the living God."—"Glory and "worship are before Him; power and honour are in His sanctuary."

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"Hallow my sabbaths, and reverence my

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sanctuary," was, indeed, an indispensable precept of the Jewish Law; and, under that Law, "the sweet Psalmist of Israel" had been, from his youth up, tutored and instructed. But the obligation of the precept was anterior even to the Law itself. The patriarchs knew and practised it. Their sacrifices were brought unto the Lord," and altars were erected in places appropriated to that service. Traces of this are found both before and after the deluge; in the histories of Abel and Seth, of Noah, of Abraham and of Jacob. The services of the tabernacle, during the journey of the Israelites in the wilderness, and before the delivery of the Law from Mount Sinai, shew the sanctity attached to the place of God's immediate presence, as well as the Divine authority on which it was grounded.

And as this sentiment prevailed generally before the Law of Moses, so did it continue after the Law had ceased. Our Lord fulfilled the precept Himself, and taught others to do the same. He attended the temple-service; He taught in the temple; He preached in the synagogues, where the Jewish Scriptures were read and expounded every sabbath-day. He took every opportunity to maintain the sanctity of the Jewish temple,

and wrought a signal miracle to purify it from the scandalous profanations which had been connived at by the Jews themselves.

When the Apostles, after our Lord's ascension, engaged in the great work of the Christian ministry, to which they were by Him specially ordained, the same regard to stated places and times of worship influenced their conduct. The Jewish service ceased to be binding upon Christian believers, when the entire purpose of the Mosaic ritual was done away, having been fulfilled by Christ himself, and a new and more enlarged dispensation established in its stead. But under that new dispensation effectual care was taken to provide for the exigencies of the Church in this respect. Though driven, at first, by the terrors of persecution, to seek private and obscure retreats, yet it is evident, from the narrative of the Acts of the Apostles, that the regular attendance of the faithful in a place set apart for joint religious duties, was strictly observed. And no sooner did the circumstances of the Church admit of greater publicity and extent, than the erection of sacred edifices became an object of primary concern. No sooner was the Christian religion taken under the protection of the State, than Churches were multiplied on every side;

and no cost was spared in their external and internal decoration. In process of time, this was, indeed, carried to a culpable excess; and in a superstitious veneration for the externals of religion, too little regard was paid to that pure spirit of internal devotion, which can alone render such services acceptable in the sight of God. The Protestant Reformation removed these scandals, and introduced into Christian worship forms and observances more consonant with Christian simplicity. But though what was superfluous and superstitious was laid aside, the principle of becoming reverence for authorized places of public worship, was, for the most part, strictly adhered to. In our own country especially, the happy medium was preserved between vain ostentation on the one hand, and sordid meanness on the other. With us, our Churches still continue to be venerated as the hallowed sanctuaries of God;-hallowed, not merely by being set apart exclusively for such purposes, nor by "vain oblations" of pomp and ceremony, but by the spiritual services performed in them, and the pure offerings of those who worship "in spirit and in "truth."

I have made these few brief observations, chiefly for the purpose of impressing you

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with a just respect for such sacred edifices as that which we are now dedicating to the service of God, and with just notions also of the manner in which it will behove you to manifest that respect, in your own conduct and demeanour.

It is a cold and cheerless kind of philosophy, (if philosophy it may be called,) that affects to undervalue the outward forms, and modes, and decencies of religious worship. It argues but little depth of observation, and little knowledge of the human heart, to imagine that the substance of pure religion can long be retained, without the help of appropriate ordinances, and of stated occasions, to awaken slumbering piety, and to call into action the latent energies of devotion. It is no less an error to suppose, that the solitary devotions of individuals in their closets may supersede the joint acts of supplication and thanksgiving in such assemblies as that which now presents itself to our view. Nor is it much less erroneous, to regard as a matter of indifference, WHERE, and by wнOм, the public ministrations of religion shall be performed; whether under the sanction and direction of long-established usage, derived from Scripture, and from the primitive practice of the Apostles and their successors, or