THE MERCY-SEAT

A SERMON

Preached on Sunday Morning December 29th, 1861

By Mister JAMES WELLS

At the New Surrey Tabernacle, Borough Road

Volume 3 Number 158

“And over it the cherubim of glory shadowing the mercy-seat” Hebrews 9:5

SOME have thought, and perhaps thought correctly, that there are in the Old Testament several allusions to these cherubim's, under the idea of the Lord with, as it were, outstretched wings, protecting those that are brought to know him in this order of mercy, and to love him. Hence, Boaz said to Ruth, “The Lord recompense your work,” the work of leaving her false gods; the work of leaving her own people after the flesh; the work of leaving her native land; the work of cleaving unto the truth; and this was the work of faith. “The Lord recompense your work, and a full, reward be given you of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings, you are come to trust.” Some have thought it is an allusion to the cherubim's, those on the mercy-seat. And Ruth through mercy knew what the reward should be, for the Lord had said to Abraham, and what he said to Abraham belongs to all Abraham's spiritual posterity, and what more glorious could be said then that upon this subject of reward that the Lord said to Abraham? “Fear not, Abraham, I am your shield and your exceeding great reward.” I will protect you all the way, and I, myself, will be your exceeding great reward; all your springs shall be in me, and I will be, as another scripture expresses it, your exceeding joy.

Now, our text divides itself into two parts, as you will perceive. Here is, in the first place, the mercy-seat; and secondly, the living creatures symbolized that are associated with this mercy-seat.

The first thing, then, that we have to attend to here is the mercy-seat. And it is a remarkable thing that the same Greek word here rendered “mercy-seat” is in another place rendered “propitiation.” The word carries the idea first of a covering. For the tables of the covenant were in the ark. So that this mercy-seat stood interposed between the tables of the law and the cherubim's; just as the work, as I shall presently show, of the Lord Jesus Christ is interposed between us and the law of condemnation. Christ came and took the law of condemnation into his hands, and interposed his work, his mercy, between us and that law; so that that law becoming dead to us and we dead to it, we are alive to God by the Lord Jesus Christ. And this mercy-seat stands in direct contrast to Sinai; in other words, in direct contrast to that law of God which can be nothing to a sinner but a law of condemnation. Men take the law in the letter of it, and there they stop; they take the Gospel in the letter of it, and there they stop. Saul of Tarsus took the law in the letter of it, and there he stopped, as every natural man must do, having a legal bias of mind. There is a wonderful pretension made almost everywhere to fleshly and creature obedience to the law, which, at the best, is but a mere cobweb-work; is, at the best, the mere pretension of the flesh; and the result is, that when such persons meddle with the gospel, not knowing the spirituality of the law, they set aside the real life, vitality, and certainty of the gospel. You will thus perceive, then, that when the Lord is pleased to convince a sinner of that one truth I am perpetually naming, perhaps too much, referring to it; but it seems to come in so necessarily this morning in this part of our discourse, I cannot forbear once more naming that scripture, because it is a great secret to know; it prepares a man for the mercyseat, and makes him listen to that gospel that I have this morning to preach, set before me by the mercy-seat; I mean that scripture where the apostle says, “The law is spiritual,” take notice of that; it enters into all the secrets of the mind, of the soul, of the spirit, and entering there it finds nothing there in the natural man, however externally excellent he may be, as was Saul of Tarsus; it finds nothing there but all manner of concupiscence; so he says, “The law is spiritual, and I am carnal; sold under sin.” You will see the two-fold evil there. First, the law is spiritual; am I that that can render to the law anything pleasing to God? No, I am carnal; so that if I pray as a natural man considered, my prayers are carnal; for “whatsoever is not of faith is sin;” and the prayers of the wicked are an abomination unto the Lord. If I love religion, it is only with a carnal love. “I am carnal;” not only carnal, but “sold under sin,” Here, then, is the state described by the apostle. Now, to be brought to see this, and to know this, it brings you down into such utter helplessness; it binds the soul hand and foot, and casts it into outer darkness, and there it lies in that darkness, the darkness of sin, and the darkness of Sinai; the darkness of the threatening's of God's word; the darkness of approaching death; the darkness of approaching judgment; the darkness of approaching condemnation; the darkness of approaching damnation. There are some that know something of what this real soul-trouble is. It is this that makes way for the mercy-seat. Now, in contrast to this, our condition, then, we have a mercy-seat, and that mercy-seat is by Jesus Christ. Hence, as I have already said, the-Greek word, ilasteerion, that is here rendered “mercy-seat,” is in the third of Romans rendered “propitiation.” And so, I shall take that scripture in the third of Romans to explain the mercy-seat, after I have just observed that the first and reigning idea is that of covering, putting things out of sight. Where there is no law there is no transgression; so that the mercy-seat covering the law denotes that the law is fulfilled, thereby our sins are covered; for our sins cannot be covered if the law be not honored. Jesus Christ must honor the law by an obedient life; he must cover all the penalty, or endure all the penalty, and thus magnify the law; and hereby our sins are covered, they are hidden, banished, and gone.

Let us notice in this part two or three scriptures upon this inexpressibly delightful subject. Hence, in the 32nd Psalm, that scripture is fulfilled in this sweet way by this mercy-seat, by Jesus Christ. “Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven.” And, my hearer, whether you have come to it rapidly, or whether you have come to it very gradually, or whether you are just approaching the conviction that the law is spiritual, and you are carnal, and just beginning to have an approbation of the mercy-seat, and just beginning to have some feeble desires after the mercy of God, and if you. cannot say with all the intensity that the Publican did, or that some others have, yet if it be your prayer, though it be feeble, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner,” then you are in the court of heaven a pardoned man; and by-and-bye you will realize that in your own conscience, “Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” See the sweet testimony, “whose sin is covered.” Jesus Christ has magnified the law; where there is no law, there is no transgression. Now, my hearer, there is no law against you in Christ, because, in order for there to be a law against you that thus know your need of Christ, in order for there to be a law against you in Christ Jesus, there must be a law against Christ. Do not you see that Jesus Christ is your righteousness, that Jesus Christ is your perfection? And therefore, the law remained quiet in the ark, and so the law is fulfilled; and in order for there to be a law against you, there must be a law against Christ. You sometimes sing those beautiful words,

“'Tis He instead of me is seen,

When I approach to God."

“Blessed is the man,” then, “whose sin,” by this work of Christ, “is covered.” Then, again, in the 85th Psalm, “You have forgiven the iniquity of your people, you have covered all their sin. You have taken away all your wrath.” Here, then, is the covering. This truth is thus represented to encourage poor sinners to look to Christ, to encourage poor sinners to hope in God's mercy, to encourage poor sinners to glorify God for his mercy. Hear the following scriptures upon this same beautiful theme. One feared that from morning to night he would make an end of him; but no, said Hezekiah, that which I feared is not come upon me, for “you have in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my sins behind your back,” and that out of love to my soul. And then take, another sweet scripture, that “You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” And then take another beautiful scripture, that “The iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found; for I will pardon them whom I reserve.” Ah, my hearer, what I have been searching after all my days is sinners; I have been laboring to turn men into sinners, in order to turn them into saints; for no man will become a saint until he becomes a sinner. A sinner in the right sense of the word is a sacred thing; the Holy Ghost has made him so; for he alone can make a man sensibly a sinner, so as to prize this mercy of the Lord in covering all our sins, casting them behind his hack, casting them into the depths of the sea, blotting them out, forgiving and forgetting them; but more upon this presently. Now I will take, I say; that scripture in the 3rd of Romans to explain what we are to understand by this mercy-seat. The apostle speaks of it like this: “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God has set forth to be a propitiation;” whom God has set forth as the mercy-seat, as the mercy-throne, for “he shall he a glorious throne to his Father's house.” And I know no throne that can he more glorious than a throne of grace; I know no throne that can he more glorious than a throne of mercy, “He shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house and he”, expressive of his eternal sympathies with the people, “shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.” Now, then, “Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past.” And why is his righteousness thus introduced, why is his righteousness thus brought forth in connection with the mercy-seat? The apostle explains the reason, and a most encouraging reason it is he says, “That God might he just, and the justifier of him which believes in Jesus.” Ah, the sweet thought, friends, “that God might be just.” Again let me remind you that the law was not thrown away, the law was not disregarded; the law was put into the most-sacred place; that was, not only as being in the holy of holies, but as being in the ark; and the ark was reckoned, as you see by the circumstances attending it, especially sacred; and that was where the law was put. And what does the Savior say upon this? “Your law, O God, is within my heart.” The fulfilment of the law, the essence of the fulfilling of the law is, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might; and your neighbor as yourself.” This law Christ took into his heart; this law Christ walked out in his life; this law Christ agonized out in his death, and every way fulfilled and magnified the law. And here, then, God is just, “and the justifier of him which believes;” there it is, “which believe in Jesus.” Ah, then, is the law spiritual? Am I carnal? Am I sold under sin? Am I sensible of this? But at the same time is there a mercy-seat? Is there a way in which my sins are covered, blotted out, forgiven, forgotten, never to be thought of, never to be named? And is Jesus Christ that way? Is it a way in which we do not make void the law, but establish the law, and magnify the law? Is it a way in which mercy and truth meet together, righteousness and peace embrace each other? Then I glory in this mercy of God, this pardoning, this mediatorial, this quickening, this sympathizing, this saving, this careful, this diligent, shall I say this industrious mercy? For the eyes of mercy are never for a moment off from her objects; she watches over them with infinite solicitude, bears with them, sympathizes with them, and presents them triumphantly at the last. And all who are thus brought to know that it is not by works of righteousness that they have done, but according to his mercy he has saved them, each I am sure will willingly bear testimony it is of the Lord's mercies he is not consumed. Such, then, is the mercy-seat, in contrast to the law. One more thought before we pass on to the next part of our subject, and it is this, that the high priest was to enter the holy of holies, where the mercy-seat was, once every year; so that there was a fresh conscience of sin; there was a fresh remembrance of sin, there was another sacrifice for sin, there was another confirmation of the people's right to the land that God had given them. That lasted only twelve months; and when the year came round again, then came another conscience of sin, then came another remembrance of sin, then came another sacrifice for sin, then came another confirmation of their right to the land. But then all this was only temporal. Now transfer these ideas to our Great High Priest, taking God's precious word as our guide; and just, my hearers, look at it for a moment, that Jesus by his one offering has done away with the consciousness of sins forever; for while those sacrifices could not make the comers thereunto perfect pertaining to the conscience, yet the bringing in of a better hope did: Christ Jesus does thus make us perfect, so that we have no more conscience of sin. Our conscience now is not to be busy so much about our sins as about Christ's sacrifice for sin; our consciences are not to be busied now so much about our faults and infirmities as about him that had no infirmities, and that took our infirmities, that bare them away, and has brought us in free from sin and guilt before a holy and a righteous God. This compels me almost again to quote that scripture I have quoted so very frequently, that “The life I now live in the flesh,” what is it? A consciousness of sin. “I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin.” I have been meditating upon my sins and faults until, like Peter on the sea, I begin to sink; but if I can lose sight of these waves and winds, and look to Him that walks with infinite ease upon the waves, then the life that “I now live in the flesh is by the faith of the Son of God, that loved me and gave himself for me.” Here, then, is a good conscience, a conscience sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ. “For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God;” to serve him by the perfection of Christ, and thereby to serve him acceptably. There is no more conscience of sin it is gone, and gone forever; and so, there is no more remembrance of sin. Ah, that is what we sometimes fear. Hence we live in a day when the greater part of the gospels that are preached are mockeries to a sensible sinner, a really convinced sinner; they bring matters into such a position that Christ Jesus might almost just as well have done nothing, according to what some people say, But the Bible speaks like this: “I,” und I know that it is by Jesus Christ, “I am he that blots out,” and I know that that was at Calvary's cross, where it was mediatorially done, “your transgressions, and will not remember your sins.” “I will remember their sins and their iniquities no more.”

“He remembers Calvary's tree, Remembers all his dying groans, And then remembers me.”

That is the way the Lord remembers us, by his dear Son. There is no more remembrance of sin. And as there is no more remembrance of sin, so there is no more sacrifice for sin; there is no more needed; perfection is perfection and to go beyond perfection must bring in superfluity. Christ has reached perfection; and we reach perfection by him. Then, again, that annual sacrifice confirmed their title to the land for one year; but Christ's one sacrifice has confirmed the title to the land for all eternity. “The redeemed of the Lord.” What is there connected with his redemption? Why, everlasting joy. “The redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.” What is there as shown in the first chapter of the first epistle of Peter, associated with the sprinkling of the blood of Christ? Why, an eternal inheritance, confirmed, and confirmed forever, Such, then, is the mercy-seat. Here is no more conscience of sin; here is no more penal remembrance of sin; here is no more sacrifice for sin; and here is no more confirmation of right to possession, because the right is perfect, and, as Christ's right, can never be invalidated; and those who are of faith are joint heirs with Christ, for you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, joint heirs with him; here the righteous are righteous, and here the right is made good; here mercy reigns and here God for ever is glorified. Bless the Lord, then, for this mercyseat, this covering of all our sins, no more conscience of sin. I should think most of you that know the Lord must feel at least, if you are, at all like me, a great deal of deficiency in your faith in this matter, I must confess that my prayer daily is for more acquaintance with Christ, that I may have more confidence in him. I am so apt to measure the Lord's mercies by my worth and worthiness, instead of measuring them by the worth and worthiness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Ah, when we can live by the confidence of what Christ has done, how it does away with hard thoughts of God, and how it reconciles us to adverse circumstances. Whatever dark cloud may rest upon us for a little, if we are blessed with confidence in Christ, we say, Well, this cloud will pass off by-and-bye; and however high or mighty adverse winds may be, as with the disciples on the Sea of Galilee the winds were contrary, yet by-and-bye the Master came and put it right, and so it will be with us; and though we may be in prison, it will not last always; and though in heaviness for a night, joy comes in the morning; and though in captivity now, and our harps hanging upon the willows, and we weeping afar off, yet the time will come when our captivity shall he turned, and we shall return triumphant into fellowship with our God; for he has a variety of ways of humbling us, and endearing to us the exceeding riches of his grace. All we want, then, is more acquaintance with Christ. This it was that made the apostle say, ah then, if this be it, to make manifest the truth that this grace is sufficient for me, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” And are there not such words as these somewhere in the language of one of our poets and I think they are words that no Christian will fall out with, namely, when he says, “More the treacherous calm I dread,

Then tempests bursting o'er my head.”

We do not like trouble; we do not like bitter herbs; we do not like our gourds to be blighted; we do not like our brooks to be dried up; we do not like these things, but I am persuaded that as the sea itself, its purity is maintained, not by its saltness, but by its tides and its action, so I am sure the excellence of the Christian is kept up by exercises and trials. Why, it made Hezekiah say, “By these things men live;” as though he would say, We are so prone to fall into indifference, into carnality and carelessness, that if the Lord did not, as the eagle stirs up her nest, stir us up, we should settle down on our lees, and should care nothing about our souls. But “by these things,” said Hezekiah, and he said it from experience, “by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit.” So, my hearer, if you are tossed about, and you are a poor creature, it is all to endear to you the mercy-seat; it is all to make you know that your only way of access to God, where you can find a real outlet to your sorrows, a true outlet to your sorrows, is the mercy-seat.

I notice next the cherubim. Now, on this mercy-seat were the cherubim, “the cherubim's of glory shadowing the mercy-seat.” When I look at the 1st chapter of Ezekiel, and there meet with four living creatures, and then go to the 4th and 5th and 19th chapters of Revelation, my conclusion unavoidably is that the four living creatures in the 1st of Ezekiel, as well as in the 10th chapter, and the four living creatures, for so they ought to be called, in the book of Revelation, are the same, and there is no question but they are the people of God. I take these cherubim's, therefore, to represent the people of God. As to the meaning of the word cherubim, the etymological meaning of the word is so exceedingly uncertain, and the learned differ so much as to what the root is, and as to what the real meaning is, that I can attach no importance whatever to the meaning of the word, and will pass it by as a matter of uncertainty, wishing to dwell only on matters that are self-evident. When I look, then, at the living creatures in Ezekiel, called cherubim's, I find those living creatures come out from a whirlwind. And our sins, like the wind, have carried us away; but when brought out from the current of sin, and united to Christ, united to God in Christ, we can be carried away by our sins no more, as we were in the first Adam. I find these living creatures come out of a dark cloud, which cloud I take to be the law of Sinai, the cloud of Sinai, darkness; brought out into the light of the mercy-seat and of God's salvation. These living creatures also come out of a fire; those three things, the whirlwind, the cloud, and the fire. Just a word now to the man that knows not the Lord; you that are not born of God. Sin in the first Adam carried you away from God, and you are without God; you are not born of God; you are not seeking the mercy of God; you are not caring for his mercy. And then there is resting upon you the dark cloud of Sinai. You do not know it; you do not see it; and behind that cloud now resting upon you, there is an unquenchable fire; and so, presently, when you come to die, you will find that behind that cloud of darkness, unbelief, and ignorance, under which you now are, there is a fire, for the fire is mentioned last, there is a fire that is unquenchable; and, dying as you are, you must lift up your eyes in hell. That must be your awful portion. That is the state of all by nature; and so those who are called by grace are led to see that they were carried away in the first Adam, like a whirlwind, by their iniquities. They are led to see the darkness they were in, and they discover God's wrath revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. This, then, is the scene out of which these living creatures came, and this is the state out of which the Lord brings his people, And, I ask, What is there so suited for them as the mercy-seat, by which they have a hope which is as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast? What so suited as the mercy-seat, where there is the shining presence of Him who is light, and in whom there is no darkness at all? What so suited to them as the mercy-seat, in contrast to that fiery indignation of God's eternal law which sin has lighted up? Then, again, when I look at the characteristics of these living creatures, for I must not stop to give in detail everything, or even half that might he said of them, when I look at their four faces, why, how expressive! “The face of a man.” There is their likeness to Christ; they are one with Christ. He, as I have lately said, is the Second Man. When Adam sinned, he lost his manhood; and there is not a true man, possessing true manhood, under heaven, not one. Your dutyfaith people say we high-doctrine people rob men of their manhood. It was sin, in the fall, sir, that robbed man of his manhood. Man's true manhood, sir, consisted in righteousness and true holiness, in the image of God in which he was created. He lost that manhood, and became degraded to sinner-ship, to brutality, to demonism. Man, by nature, is like the brutes that perish. Man, by nature, is earthly, sensual, and devilish. He has lost his manhood; and so, Christ is the Second Man. Never was a man born after the fall till Christ was born; all the rest were poor creatures, conceived in sin, and shaped in iniquity; but Christ was born in true manhood. “That holy thing which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God.” There is true manhood, the image of God. And so, these living creatures had the face of a man to denote that by Christ Jesus they have true manhood as well as true godliness: they are real men. “You, my flock, are men.” Here is real manhood, because by Christ Jesus we have holiness untarnishable, righteousness infallible, and knowledge that is a treasure beyond description. Why, says the apostle, “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.” See these living creatures, then; see where they come from, and see their likeness to the Lord Jesus Christ denoted by the face of a man. “The face of a lion,” another likeness to Christ, you see, denoting their strength of faith, and boldness for the truth. Thus, the man that is justified by faith, and has God Almighty on his side, that man is as bold as a lion. Whom has he to fear? “And the face of an ox,” denoting their patient devotedness to God, a living sacrifice, and, if need be, dying, giving their very bodies a sacrifice to God. “The eagle is always mentioned last. In hieroglyphics, setting forth spiritual things, the eagle comes last, and that is because the Lord would; thereby express the ultimate destiny of these people. By-and-bye, when they have proved their true manhood, proved their true decision, and proved themselves to be really devoted to God, the wings of faith and love shall bear them conquerors through. The last is, they shall ascend on high, range in the open sunshine of heaven, in the open canopy of heaven, in the open liberty of the gospel, there to dwell, and that forever. When I look at what these living creatures are, and what they came from; when I look at the wheels of the gospel by their side, wheel within a wheel, gospel within law as it were, grace within providence, wheel within a wheel, and glory within grace; when I look at these wheels, ever beside them, I come to the conclusion that these cherubim's are nothing else but a mystic description of the people of God. Now I am not saying anything at all of these cherubim's on the mercy-seat, I am afraid I shall not be able to do so this morning, or else there is a whole train of beautiful thought arising, like a springing well, suggested by the circumstance of their being on the mercy-seat, and a great many other things, not one of which can I touch now, but when I come to it I shall prove that they are intended to set forth the people of God in respects which I have not yet named; and therefore I make these few remarks in conclusion, by way of introduction to the other part I was going to say. I come to the 4th chapter of Revelation, and I find four living creatures called, in our translation, “beasts,” which, as Romaine says, is rather a beastly translation. The word “beasts” ought not to be there at all. It ought to be “living creatures.” I am glad to see our best scholars so render the original word. I find these four living creatures associated with God's throne mercy-seat again, you see; and I find in that chapter that they have a threefold theme. First, the holiness of God, in the highest sense of the word. “Holy, holy, holy,” three times, to denote that they stand upon holy ground, in the highest sense of the word. And how do they stand upon holy ground thus? For this simple reason, that Jesus Christ is their sanctification. Some people talk about progressing in sanctification and getting holier and holier in yourself. It is an old wives' fable, and nothing else. Jesus Christ is our sanctification; and for me to grow in grace is to grow in acquaintance with him as my sanctification. There I can give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness, because, in oneness with Christ, I am holy as Christ is holy, pure as Christ is pure; and there my soul and holiness supreme shall unite in sweetest harmony, and create intense melody, and that to all eternity.

The next part of their theme was omnipotence. “The Lord God Almighty,” to maintain our ground. We are placed on this ground, in this hope, by omnipotent power; and we are kept by the power of God, through faith, to final salvation. And then, third, the eternity of the Most High. “Which was” choosing us and providing for us before the world began; “and which is” still the same, “and which is yet to come.” Glorious theme! Ah! say you, that does not prove to me they are the children of God. Well, we will prove that, and then close. Go to the 5th chapter of Revelation, and you will find God the Father there represented for our instruction, with the Old Testament in his hand; and the proclamation was made who was able to take that book that was sealed with seven seals, to denote the entire obscurity of the book to the carnal man. Who can take that Old Testament, and carry out its promises, its prophecies, and provisions? Not an angel in all the realms of bliss would be presumptuous enough to step forward; for unto all the angels in heaven it is known that unto them is not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. Not a saint on all the ethereal plains would step forward to undertake it; for each knew that he was there by the blood of Jesus Christ; that he was there by the grace of God; that he was there by not anything done by himself. They all, with one voice, ascribe their salvation unto God and the Lamb. And John wept much, seemed to have lost sight for a moment, as you and I do for a great many moments sometimes, at least I do, of the Lord Jesus Christ. “Weep not; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the book, and to lose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb, as it had been slain, having seven horns,” to denote the perfection of his regal power; “and seven eyes,” to know everything, “which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.” Who are these living creatures? The real people of God. And who are the elders? We poor ministers; you must let us join with you, you know; we will, whether you will or not. And so the elders and the living creatures went together, and said, all of them, “You are worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; for you was slain, and have redeemed us to God by your blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.” There are the four quarters, you see, the four corners of the earth. Why, it is clear enough, quite clear. Thus, then, we find these cherubim's, these living creatures, singing the song of redemption; and, I am sure those who are brought to God by this mercy-seat, will to eternity sing this wondrous song of redemption.