The Sunday called Sexagesima :

Or, the Second Sunday before Lent.

THE CHERUBIMS AT THE EAST OF THE GARDEN.

GENESIS iii. 24.

So He drove out the Man: and He placed at the East of the Garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the Tree of Life.

THERE is not, I suppose, in all the Bible a Chapter of more concerning interest and importance, than that which was read to us this morning for our first Lesson. The Temptation of Eve, which is a picture of our own, an exhibition made to us by GoD's Holy Spirit of the nature, history, method of all temptation at all times" Man's shameful fall," (as the heading of the chapter expresses it,) and its consequences: which is the only explanation anywhere to be found of the existence of Evil in the world; the disorganized, dislocated, confused and tangled

condition of this present system of things-the curse pronounced upon the Serpent, and his predicted abiding hostility,-in token of which. every one carries a scar-together with the penalty of pain, suffering, sorrow, entailed upon our race, of which, every heart knows somewhat; while many who hear me will freely profess that a taste of the bitter cup is their daily portion, and seems to them to be their very inheritance-above all, the penalty of Death, on the one hand; and, on the other, the promise of a Deliverer,--the prophecy of One to be born of Woman who shall bruise the Serpent's head,a prophecy to which all subsequent prophecies of the Redeemer do but give definiteness and precision; (for enlarge it or extend it, they cannot :) -lastly, the Casting of Adam and Eve out of Paradise; when

They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow

Through Eden took their solitary way,"All this, I say, constitutes a mass of Revelation without a parallel. The troubled Ocean, the turbid river, the many devious streams of human life and human history, are all traced back here to their fontal source. The whole Bible would be meaningless without this pri

mæval Revelation. With it, everything else is only too plain :-the evil within us; the evil without us; the signs of decay and death o:1 every side; the very world we inhabit, no better than a ruin; above all, the complicated machinery, the wondrous plan, for Man's Redemption; our LORD's Incarnation, (the offspring of the Woman,) as at Christmas,-His final Victory over Sin and Death which we shall call to remembrance (as we hope) at Passion-tide and Easter-all is made plain, or at least rendered intelligible by the record of the SPIRIT which has been rehearsed in our wondering ears this morning.

I propose to invite your attention for a few moments to the concluding words of the chapter. "So He drove out the Man: and He placed at the East of the Garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the Tree of Life." Of course I do not pretend to understand this passage thoroughly: but I thought you might not perhaps dislike a short meditation upon it,however inadequate to the grandeur of the theme.

We do not by any means know of what nature the Cherubims are; nor is it possible, as

it seems, to obtain a clear notion of their appearance, or of the reason of it. But they are mentioned very frequently indeed in Holy Scripture. First, of course, in this place. Next, in the directions given to Moses for the construction of the Tabernacle,-that before the Ark of the Covenant was to be the Mercy-seat, and at the two ends thereof were there to be set two Cherubims of beaten gold, stretching their wings on high; covering the Mercy-seat,—and turning their faces one towards another. Moreover, the LORD GOD of Israel declared that He would "dwell between the Cherubims," and from thence would commune with His Servants. We are not surprised to find similar representations in the Holy of Holies in the Temple; nor that they also, with their wings, overshadowed the Mercy-seat of the Ark. But it does make us attentive to find that "carved figures of Cherubims" were not only upon the walls and the doors of the Temple, but that the Veil, (which was of blue, purple, and crimson,)—also had Cherubims wrought thereon". . . . S. Paul in a certain place, when he has had occasion to mention "the Cherubims of glory overshadowing the Mercy-seat ","-remarks, with an abrupt

...

e Heb. ix. 8.

ness well calculated to awaken attention and to stimulate curiosity,-"Of which we cannot now speak particularly!" Doubtless, had he been suffered to speak, the subject would not have remained so dark and mysterious as it is at present. Concerning the Veil of the temple, however, the great Apostle, (as all are aware), is more communicative. S. Paul tells us expressly that it represented "His Flesh." In other words, the Humanity of CHRIST is found to have been symbolized by that Veil of three mysterious colours which separated the inner shrine from the rest of the Temple, and through which alone there was access to the holiest place of all. When we find this Veil inwrought with Cherubims, therefore, and moreover find the same mysterious creatures overshadowing the Mercy-seat, which we know was a figure of CHRIST's atoning Sacrifice for Sin, that Propitiation, (as the Mercyseat was itself also called,) which comes between GOD and the curse of the Law; we cannot doubt that the Cherubinical figures themselves are in some mysterious way connected with the Incarnation of CHRIST. And this suspicion strengthens as we look further into what is revealed concerning them in other parts of Scrip

ture.