have envied, as they envied sometimes the delights attributed to the high condition of their gods. The three men bound, were cast into the furnace. Think of the moment of their falling in! It is beyond our faculties to conceive the first sensations of men, suddenly plunged into the midst of a vast mass of fire, of the most raging intensity, in their living susceptible bodies, which even a spark would have hurt, and yet feeling no pain, no terror.

We may imagine a momentary amazement, but quickly changed into a full consciousness of exquisite delight. It is beyond our power, however, to bring such a fact to our comprehension. Consider, it is according to natural laws and relations that pleasure is produced, that is, the constituted condition of human pleasure. But when, in a rare instance, by the Divine will and agency, pleasure is to arise from a perfect and stupendous reversal of those natural laws, we are thrown off from any power and means for estimating that pleasure. It belongs to a different economy; the recipients are not then within the bounds and order of mere mortal existence, and their pleasure may approximate or partake of the quality of that of superior beings. St. Paul was evidently once in this undefinable and mysterious state.

The attention of Nebuchadnezzar seems to have continued fixed on the fiery receptacle; perhaps with some relenting for what he had done; possibly with some degree of doubt, or suspense of expectation, respecting the consequence. He seems to have been the first to perceive that his fury, and the doom he had awarded, were frustrated. And with that prompt kind of honesty which appears conspicuous in his character, he was the first to proclaim it. When immediate evidence rose before him, though to confound and reproach him, he never stayed to digest his mortification, or to seek some saving retreat for his pride.

He proclaimed, instantly, that the three men and another, were walking, unhurt, in the midst of the fire. And he did not send some official messenger, but went himself to hail, and call them forth; he ardently wished them with him again. But they were in far superior society; the “angel" of God was there, a form "like a son of God," (as Bishop Lowth observes it ought to be expressed.) The angel was, by his nature, no subject of the power of fire; and, for the time, his human companions were exalted to the same condition, by the encircling power of the Almighty.

Nebuchadnezzar loudly called them to come forth. Had he any authority to do so? He might have left it to the discretion of their splendid visitant and associate, to lead them forth when he should judge it the proper time. This once, they were clearly beyond the monarch's jurisdiction. He had, in intention, sent them out of the world; and therefore, as to him, they possessed the privilege and exemption of departed spirits; and they were seen actually associated with a being that belonged not to the earth. As to the monarch, that space of fire was as a tract of another world. And besides, they could have no wish to come forth. It was the sublimest, most delightful region they had ever dwelt in yet. In their state of feeling, that burning floor was preferable to the marble pavements of his superbest palace; nay, preferable to any spot that Adam trod in the garden of Eden, with the first green and flowers of the new world,—the charm of primeval beauty. Those waving and darting fires, aspiring aloft above them, were richer in delight than the blooming arbours of Paradise; for Divinity was more sensibly present there ;-a situation different from Eden in this signal circumstance, that, there, angels walked with man, in a scene where man was naturally safe,—was at home; whereas here men walked with an angel, in a place where, by natural laws, the angel alone could have walked,

or lived. So can the Almighty make all the elements of the creation subservient to the felicity of those that love him!

Nebuchadnezzar called them forth,-but it was a spot (the single one in his dominions), where the imperial monarch durst not go to bring them forth,-nor any in his army; it was interdicted ground! At length the three men came out from the fire,-their celestial companion being left to depart, like Manoah's angel, who ascended in the flame. They were looked upon by the amazed and humiliated assembly of grandees; and the effect of fire had not passed on their very garments or their hair. The king forgot or scorned his idol, and once more "blessed and adored the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego." He justly promoted them in his kingdom; but he had no honours to confer, after what Heaven had made to shine and flame upon them on that great day. He could not confer honour on those who had triumphed over him and his gods. And as to them, there could remain, after that day, but one thing more that was sublime enough for their ambition, the translation by Death!

December 25, 1823.

LECTURE XLI.

BENEFICIAL CO-OPERATION OF ALL THINGS FOR THE

CHRISTIAN.

ROMANS viii. 28

"We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

AT several of our former meetings, occasion was taken to describe the gloomy, disastrous, and mysterious condition of the world and the times, to make some reflections on the evident and awful prevalence of evil, and to advert to the hopes and promises of a happier age to come.

But as our lot is cast upon the present time, and in the midst of so dark a dispensation, it is very desirable to keep in sight whatever considerations are most adapted to impart consolation, and inspire devout gratitude, even in beholding the state of things as they are. In a gloomy winter of the north, while the sun is nearly absent, and a dreary scene stretches round on all sides, so much more need and value is there of the cheerful fire and the constant burning lamp. And such a warmth and light are given by the truth declared in our text. "All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

But, perhaps, the first idea suggested by such a declaration may be,-what a different thing this world is to the two different classes of its inhabitants, according to the different state of their minds,-to those "that love God," and those who do not his friends and his enemies! As simple matters

-are

of fact, the circumstances of the world are much alike, or the very same, to both. The general order of nature and providence, the aspects and influences of the earth and heavens; the vicissitudes of the seasons, with their severities and bounties; the sustenance and protection of life,the same to both. Both are fed and clothed, sleep and awake, dwell and travel. To both is the same mingled distribution of health and sickness, accidents and misfortunes. They both share in great public benefits and calamities; in the effects of a wise and beneficent government, or of an insane and barbarous tyranny; in prosperity and peace, or the devastations perpetrated by war; and if there be pestilences, famines, earthquakes, or fires. In this more favoured part of the world, the divine revelation shines on both classes alike; the Redeemer, the Son of God, is manifested before them, with all the grace, the blessings, the promises, the prospective glories of his gospel. Does not all this appear a very comprehensive likeness in the condition of men? And this fact, of the likeness or sameness in so many circumstances, in the human condition, both to the good and the evil, would be a most mysterious thing, without a light cast upon it from heaven. And this was forcibly and painfully felt by thoughtful men, even under the light, but the mere glimmering light, of the earlier revelation, as by the Psalmist and the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes.

To us is granted a light that pierces deeper through this sameness on the surface of things. And then, what an immense difference! The most striking of all kinds of unlikeness is that, where the effects are immeasurably different, while the things themselves are the same. Behold, then, this economy of the same things constituting the portion in this world, of both the good and the evil! View it as in the effects of these things upon the two classes respect