LECTURE VIII.

THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL AS A REVELATION OF GOD.

And Moses said, I beseech thee show me thy glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee.-EXODUS, XXXIII, 18, 19.

THE privileges granted to Moses in his communications with God were altogether peculiar. It is said the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend; and the testimony is added after his death, that there arose no other prophet in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, in all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the sight of all Israel. God revealed his will to other prophets before and after the time of Moses. But no one had the same view of the divine character, and knowledge of the divine purposes, which was allowed to him. This difference in the method of his communications, God refers to in the controversy which arose from Aaron and Miriam against Moses. "And he said, hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithfull in all mine house; with him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold."

This "similitude of the Lord," or the apparent glory of the

divine presence, Moses saw continually while he was receiving the law from God on the mount. The cloud into which he then entered, was the cloud of divine glory that overshadowed the mountain. The request of our text was made after his having been forty days in the mount. It was presented at the door of the tabernacle. Moses had pitched the tabernacle without the camp; and when he went forth to enter into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle; and the Lord talked with Moses, speaking to him face to face, or in the most free and intimate communication, as a man talketh with his friend. The conversation which was then held, includes the request of our text. "And Moses said unto the Lord, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people, and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me, yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now therefore I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight, and consider that this nation is thy people. And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here, that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken; for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. And he said, I beseech thee show me thy glory."

Moses' petition here, pointed to some more clear and significant exhibition of the divine character than he had yet received. What he had seen of God's purposes and government, in the revelations which had been made to him, impressed the conviction upon his mind, that there was to be

a further manifestation of God to man than any which he had yet distinctly understood, and excited the desire in him to behold these peculiar exibitions of divine glory which should be made to God's people in subsequent ages. All that had been made known to him was in preparation for some future development of the glory of God; and that glory to which his institutions were thus an introduction, he longed to witness: “And he said, I beseech thee show me thy glory." In answer to this prayer God promised to give him the exhibition of his glory which he desired; and in complying with his promise, he revealed to him, as the highest possible manifestation of his glory, those purposes of grace and love which were to be made known and accomplished by the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

These remarks naturally led me here to announce the particular subject which I design to consider, as connected with the prayer of Moses.

It is the glory of the gospel as an exhibition of the divine character.

I. That I do not here go aside from the real intention and meaning of the passage, it will be my object first to show.

Moses' desire was for some fuller exhibition of the character of God. In promising compliance with this desire, God does not direct him to the works of creation; although, from them the invisible things of him are clearly seen, even his eternal power and Godhead. He does not tell him to look upon the sun as it shined, and the moon walking in brightness, and there behold the glory of the Lord who hath created these things; who bringeth out their hosts by number; who calleth them all by their names, by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power, and not one faileth.

He does not tell him to look upon the awful thunders and earthquakes, and unearthly sounds with which the law had been given upon Mount Sinai, still trembling beneath the

footsteps of a descending Deity; upon the solemn and awakening displays which were there made of the holiness of a God who cannot look upon iniquity; although here, as well as in the wenders of creation, it had been often declared that God had showed his glory to men.

Neither the glory of divine power displayed in the creation, nor the glory of divine holiness exhibited in the law, was that manifestation of the Deity, which God chose to style peculiarly his glory. And, passing by both these, were there no notice of what he did intend, we should be left to settle upon the gospel, as the only remaining manifestation of the divine character which has been made to man.

But the Lord describes his purpose and design most significantly. He says, "I will make all my goodness pass before thee." But where has all the goodness of the Lord been exhibited, but in that wonderful dispensation in which was manifested the love of God, in that he sent his Son to die for us? and how could all the goodness of the Lord pass before any mind, from which the riches of gospel grace were concealed! "And I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and I will be gracious on whom I will be gracious; and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy." But the name of the Lord, as bestowing sovereign grace and mercy, can be proclaimed only in that gospel which announces God manifest in the flesh for sinners, and the fulness of the Godhead dwelling bodily, in a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Under no other dispensation can God be gracious and merciful to sinners, for no other one makes atonement for sin.

Still more minutely describing his purpose, God assures Moses, that it would be impossible for any mortal to behold the full glory of his presence. "No man can see my face and live." He dwells in light inaccessible which no man can approach unto. No man hath seen God at any time; the only

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begotten Son that dwelleth in the bosom of the Father, he hath manifested him. And referring to this new and lasting way of intercourse between himself and sinful men, God says, "There is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock, and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, I will put thee in the cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by." That rock was Christ, and here is presented the perfect security with which the glory of God is beheld under the gospel. The believer is hidden in a cleft of the rock; while even there, but partial displays are yet made to him of the divine glory. "I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen." We know not yet what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; and even now, though we see him not, yet believing in him, we rejoice with unspeakable and glorified joy.

Thus in answer to the request of Moses, the Lord promised to make known to him the rich grace which he had prepared and designed to reveal to men, in the gospel of Jesus, as the peculiar glory of his character; and thus made known that all-important truth, which angels united to repeat on the eve of the incarnation, that the dispensation which brings peace on earth, and proclaims good will to men, brings "glory in the highest," to the character of God.

This was the promise to Moses. It was to be fulfilled on the ensuing day; and early in the morning Moses rose up, and went up unto Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him. "And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the