tions surround the altar, to feast on that bread which cometh down from heaven, and to wash away our sins in the purifying blood of the divine Redeemer. Blessed is our destiny, if these exalted exercises are here our habitual employment and delight; the feeble and imperfect devotions of earth shall terminate in the pure and rapturous worship of heaven; the strains of time shall be exchanged for the songs of eternity; through the courts of the earthly sanctuary we shall pass into that celestial temple where, with the holy saint whose devotion we have imitated, and with the spirits of the just made perfect, we shall see the salvation of God, and rejoice evermore in the everlasting consolation of Israel. It was this "consolation of Israel" for whom, we are told in my text, Simeon "waited." He was "just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel." With the liveliest solicitude must the holy men among the nation of the Jews have anticipated those blessed days when he, who was emphatically styled the "consolation of Israel," should appear among his people as their God and Saviour. The early promises of Jehovah given in mercy to the first parents of our race and their descendants, had lighted up the expectation, and succeeding prophets had, with luminous and increasing sublimity and clearness, portrayed the divine character and benignant offices of that blessed personage who was to be "a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of his people Israel ;"* while the greater por * Luke ii. 32. tion of the blinded and sensual nation of the Jews, intoxicated with vain ideas of temporal grandeur and dominion, desired and expected a temporal deliverer and king, there were others who, with the devout Simeon, piously and wishfully waited for him as "the consolation of Israel"—as that divine and compassionate Saviour who was to "comfort his people, and have mercy on his afflicted"*-who was to be the divine Messenger of the "glad tidings to Zion," that "the days of her mourning were ended," and that "the Lord should be her everlasting light, and her God, her glory." They waited for him as "the consolation of Israel," as that compassionate Saviour who, bearing the messages of reconciliation, would "preach good tidings to the meek," would "bind up the broken-hearted," and "comfort those that mourn."‡ With what ardent desires must the pious saints of Israel-who, mourning under the weakness and guilt of human nature, felt the inefficacy of all those observances, which were but "shadows of good things to come," to shed light and peace on their sorrowing spirits-have looked forward to the coming of Him who was to "bring in everlasting righteousness;"§ who, by the sacrifice of himself, was to put away sin, and to perfect for ever his penitent and faithful people! What transport must have swelled the breast of the pious Simeon when, in that blessed babe, whom, with sacred ardour, he pressed to his holy bosom, he beheld the divine "consolation of Israel," and rejoiced in that salvation which a fallen world had so long desired to behold! Isa. xlix. 13. Isa. Ixi. 1, 2. † Isa. lx. 20. My brethren, transports not less ardent should swell our breasts, for our eyes have seen, drawn by the pencil of inspiration, the " consolation of Is rael;" we have beheld "the glory of the onlybegotten of the Father, full of grace and truth," who has proclaimed for us the glad tidings that God is in him reconciling the world unto himself. To us has this divine Teacher displayed the glorious attributes of the almighty Father, and those graces and virtues which, by conforming us to the divine image, prepare us for the fruition of divine bliss. For us has he purchased that blessed spirit of sanctification and comfort, by whose mighty power we are raised from the ruins of the fall, and comforted under the sorrows of this wearisome pilgrimage. For us, he, the divine Conqueror, hath stripped of its horrors the dark valley of the shadow of death, and opened the path to those immortal abodes where, in the presence of his Father, there is fulness of joy. We bless thee, then, O thou consolation of Israel! we ardently desire the full manifestation of thy salvation, enlightening and purifying our hearts, and conforming us to thy holy temper and spotless example; we humbly and supremely confide in thee as the all-sufficient and compassionate Saviour, in whom the guilty find a refuge, the weary and heavyladen an eternal rest. And with increasing strength and ardour may we advance in the knowledge of the living God, and of thee, O divine Jesus, whom he has sent, and whom to know aright is life eternal. After having contemplated the character of * St. John i. 14. Simeon, his exemplary justice and integrity, his ardent devotion, his holy faith in the promised salvation of God, we are not surprised at the last circumstance which the sacred writer relates of him-that "The Holy Ghost was upon him." His exalted virtues could only have been produced by the agency of that blessed Spirit who is the source of truth and holiness. Simeon indeed possessed not only those celestial graces by which the Holy Spirit enlightens, renews, and consoles the faithful servants of God, but those energetic impulses which animate the soul with prophetic gifts. We are told that "Simeon was led by the Spirit into the temple," and there beholding the infant Jesus, burst forth in a prophetic display of his future glory, character, and offices. But in the devout Simeon, as in all the people of God, this divine Spirit dwells with those less splendid, but, in the sight of God, more acceptable graces, love, joy, meekness, faith. It is the office of this blessed Spirit to enlighten, renew, console, guide us to everlasting life. What cause of holy triumph, that while we diligently work out our salvation, God, by his almighty Spirit, worketh in us both to will and to do; that, while we sojourn in this vale of imperfection and tears, God has sent forth the light and the truth of his blessed Spirit, to lead us, to bring us to his holy hill, to himself, our exceeding and eternal joy! Behold then, my brethren, in the holy saint whose character has been exhibited to you, the exalted standard of moral and religious duty at which you are to aim, and the attainment of which can alone elevate you among the ranks of the acceptable servants of your God, and qualify you for his favour. “Just," not merely in the restricted sense which renders to all their dues, but in that enlarged application which embraces every duty of personal and social righteousness. "Devout," not only acknowledging, and admiring, and venerating the existence, attributes, and providence of God, but habitually rendering to him homage, and manifesting a sense of the obligations that bind you to him, in the reverence, submission, and obedience that characterize your lives. And all your personal, moral, and religious virtues must be animated and controlled by faith in him, whom Simeon "waited for" in holy hope, as "the consolation of Israel," but who is revealed to us as "the Saviour, who is Christ the Lord,"* through whose grace we are to be sanctified, and through whose merits we are to be accepted. In the attainment of this universal righteousness, this evangelical piety and faith, without which we shall not be partakers of the salvation of God, we are animated by the exalted assurance, that "the Holy Ghost is with us," the power and strength of the third person of the adorable Godhead, inscrutably but effectually operating in us, inspiring us with good desires, and enabling us to bring the same to good effect, creating a clean heart and renewing a right spirit within us, directing us in all our doings with his most gracious favour, and furthering us with his continual help. Let us realize this truth, incomprehensible as it may be to our limited understandings, that, instead of depending |