{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_74370/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_74370","id":"gutenberg_74370","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/74370","summary":null,"tags":["Bible -- Miscellanea","Bible stories, English","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christian life","Christian literature"],"text":"Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed.\n\n[Illustration: THE OLIVE LEAF]\n\n\n\n[Illustration: HOUSE BEAUTIFUL BY A \u2022 L \u2022 O \u2022 E]\n\n\n[Illustration: THE ARK OF BULRUSHES]\n\n\n                          THOMAS NELSON & SONS\n                     LONDON, EDINBURGH AND NEW YORK\n\n\n\n                              [Illustration]\n\n                             HOUSE BEAUTIFUL;\n\n                                   OR,\n\n                             The Bible Museum.\n\n\n                                    By\n\n                                A. L. O. E.\n\n     Authoress of \"The Shepherd of Bethlehem,\" \"Exiles in Babylon,\"\n                      \"Rescued from Egypt,\" & c.\n\n\n                              [Illustration]\n\n\n                                  LONDON:\n                    T. NELSON AND SONS, PATERNOSTER ROW;\n                            EDINBURGH; AND NEW YORK.\n                                 \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\n                                   1868.\n\n\n\n                          [Illustration: PREFACE]\n\nTHE narrative portions of the Holy Scriptures are full of striking\nbiographies of those whose virtues are set before us as examples, or\nwhose errors as warnings. We are led, as it were, into a Gallery of\nPortraits, drawn with faultless accuracy by a sunbeam. But besides\nthese portraits, there are many objects of deep interest for the\nstudent of Scripture, the accounts of which have been \"written for our\nlearning,\" objects which we are intended to contemplate with earnest\nattention, and from which we may draw rich spiritual lessons. Such\nare Noah's Ark, the Brazen Serpent, the Manna from Heaven, which have\nbeen commented upon by apostles, and by our Saviour Himself. If the\nbiographies in the Bible form the Portrait Gallery of Scripture, such\nobjects as those to which I have referred\u2014gathered together for our\ncontemplation\u2014suggest the idea of a Museum, and we are reminded of the\ninstruction which Bunyan represents to have been gained from such in\nHouse Beautiful. I have never yet met with a work in which a number of\nsuch objects have been specially collected for the contemplation of\nChristians, and it has occurred to me that such a volume of reflections\nmight assist us more vividly to realize much of what is contained in\nthe Word of God.\n\nCome then with me, my Christian reader, and let us examine together\nsome of those ancient objects rescued by the inspired writers from\noblivion, and undimmed by the dust of many ages. Let us not handle them\nwith superstitious reverence as relics, but make use of them to raise\nour minds from the absorbing cares and pleasures of the present, to\nholy musings on the past. May the Spirit of Wisdom and Truth assist us\nin our meditations, and increase our deep reverence for those sacred\nScriptures in which these objects of interest are preserved.\n\n                                                    A. L. O. E.\n\n\n                              [Illustration]\n\n\n\n                          [Illustration: CONTENTS]\n\n      I. FORBIDDEN FRUIT\n\n     II. CAIN'S OFFERING\n\n    III. NOAH'S OLIVE LEAF\n\n     IV. ABRAHAM'S TENT\n\n      V. HAGAR'S BOTTLE\n\n     VI. JACOB'S PILLOW\n\n    VII. THE COAT OF MANY COLOURS\n\n   VIII. THE ARK OF BULRUSHES\n\n     IX. PHARAOH'S CHARIOT\n\n      X. THE TABLES OF STONE\n\n     XI. THE HIGH PRIEST'S MITRE\n\n    XII. THE HIGH PRIEST'S MITRE,\u2014_Continued_\n\n   XIII. BALAAM'S STAFF\n\n    XIV. RAHAB'S SCARLET CORD\n\n     XV. GIDEON'S EPHOD\n\n    XVI. THE JAWBONE OF AN ASS\n\n   XVII. RUTH'S BARLEY-EARS\n\n  XVIII. JOB'S SACKCLOTH\n\n    XIX. DAGON'S STUMP\n\n     XX. SAUL'S SPEAR\n\n    XXI. JONATHAN'S BOW\n\n   XXII. DAVID'S HARP\n\n  XXIII. ABSALOM'S HAIR\n\n   XXIV. SEED CORN FROM BARZILLAI'S GIFT\n\n    XXV. TEMPLE LILY WORK\n\n   XXVI. THE WIDOW'S CRUSE\n\n  XXVII. ELIJAH'S LETTER\n\n XXVIII. JONAH'S GOURD\n\n   XXIX. THE FETTERS OF MANASSEH\n\n    XXX. THE DEED OF PURCHASE\n\n   XXXI. JEHOIAKIM'S KNIFE\n\n  XXXII. THE RAGS OF EBEDMELECH\n\n XXXIII. THE GOLDEN SCEPTRE\n\n  XXXIV. A VESSEL OF THE TEMPLE\n\n   XXXV. THE TRUMPET OF NEHEMIAH\n\n  XXXVI. WRITING TABLE OF ZACHARIAS\n\n XXXVII. THE MANGER\n\nXXXVIII. THE APOSTLES' NET\n\n  XXXIX. THE BED OF THE PARALYTIC\n\n     XL. THE CROSS\n\n   XLI. THE STONE AT THE SEPULCHRE\n\n\n         THE QUEEN AND THE TWELVE NAMES\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n                          HOUSE BEAUTIFUL\n\nI.\n\nForbidden Fruit.\n\nCAN this object, so small, so beautiful, be yet through its effects\nmore deadly than any weapon of war ever forged for man's destruction,\nmore deadly than the poison-flask, the dagger, or the thunderbolt! It\nlies before us fresh and fair as when, nearly six thousand years ago,\nit hung amongst the green foliage of Paradise, more beautiful than any\nfragrant peach on which the last ripening sunbeam glows in a now fallen\nworld.\n\nOn the fruit of Eden, which could so lightly yield to Eve's touch, and\nbe marked by the soft pressure of her fingers, we see not the trail of\nthe serpent; it is goodly to look upon, and what mortal dare say that\nhad he been in the place of our first parents, the fair but fatal fruit\nwould have hung untasted on the bough? In looking on it, how awful a\nlesson we learn of the poisonous nature of what we dare to call \"little\nsins!\"\n\nWho amongst us, beholding Eve in her beauty plucking the fruit which\ntempted her eye, would not have been ready to have echoed the first\nlie ever breathed on our planet, \"thou shalt not surely die.\" Bright,\nguileless, and, until now, sinless being; God will not severely judge\nthee, He has threatened, but He will not perform.\n\nIs not the same deluding idea at the bottom of all our carelessness,\nour neglect of duty, our grasping at forbidden pleasure? \"Thou shalt\nnot surely die\" has been the whisper of the Tempter from Eve's time\ntill now. Let us answer him by pointing to that fruit. Was not the\ndeath of myriads enclosed, as it were, in its rind? Could the stain\nleft by its fatal juice be washed out by floods of tears or rivers of\nblood? Had no sin but that one sin of plucking it been ever committed\nupon earth, could that sin have been atoned for by anything less than\nthe sacrifice of an Incarnate God?\n\nSin stands not alone by itself: as the seed is contained in the fruit,\nso one transgression is the parent of many. Coveting what God had\nwithheld, longing for a luxury forbidden, ambitiously aiming at gaining\nknowledge which should make her independent as a God, Eve at once\nreceived into her heart \"the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh,\nand the pride of life.\" They came as guests\u2014to remain as tyrants. When\nwe feel their influence within ourselves, when covetousness, love of\npleasure, or pride of intellect would draw us from our lowly allegiance\nto God, from our simple obedience to His word, let us look on the\nforbidden fruit and tremble\u2014let us look on it, and watch and pray.\n\n   The fruit of knowledge still,\n   Plucked by pride, may death distil.\n\nWhen we make of intellect an idol; when we exalt reason above\nrevelation, and would draw down God's hidden mysteries to the level of\nour finite comprehension, we are putting forth our hand, like Eve, to\npluck and taste the forbidden fruit; forgetful of the warning of the\nSaviour: \"He that receiveth not the kingdom of heaven as a little child\nshall in no wise enter therein.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nII.\n\nCain's Offering.\n\nMORE of the fruits of the earth are here, though no longer the fruit\nof Eden. These, too, are rich and beautiful, and a special interest\nattaches to them, for they are the offering made to God by the first\nman who was ever born into a sinful world.\n\nHave we ever realized the feelings with which Adam and his wife\nmust have watched the dawn of intellect in their firstborn son, or\nthe mingled grief, shame, and hope, with which they would tell him\nthe history of the Fall, and the mysterious promise linked with the\nsentence passed upon them by the righteous Judge? Did young Cain share\nthe hope, which appears at one time to have been his mother's, that he\nshould be the one to whom it would be given to set his foot upon the\nSerpent's head, and crush the Enemy of his race? We know not whether\nsuch thought as this ever passed through the mind of the boy, but he\nnever seems to have entered, like his younger brother, into the solemn\nmeaning of sacrifice for sin.\n\nCain was not one to neglect all forms of religion; he had his\nthank-offering for the God of Nature. It is possible that when he\nlooked around him on swelling fruits and ripening grain, and found\nthe earth beneath the labour of his hands yield thirty, sixty, or a\nhundredfold, a feeling both of adoration and of gratitude may have\nstirred within his soul. \"Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an\noffering unto the Lord.\"\n\nBut the offering was not accepted. And wherefore was it not? Let us\nsearch a little more deeply into this matter, and see, if God help us\nto understand, wherefore that sacrifice of Cain was rejected, and if\nthere be any danger that ours may be even as his.\n\nIt is clear that the case of Cain differs from that of the man utterly\nindifferent to religion; the man who cares not to make any offering\nat all. There are those, bearing the name of Christians, whose purses\n(readily enough opened at any call of pleasure or pride) are kept\nsystematically shut when God's service or His people's need require\ntheir contributions. It may well be a startling thought for such that\nthey do \"less than Cain.\"\n\nBut what was it that marred the offering of Adam's firstborn son? Why\nwere those mellow fragrant fruits less acceptable to God than the\nbleeding lamb presented by Cain's younger brother? We have the answer\nin the words of inspiration. \"By faith\" Abel offered unto God a more\nexcellent sacrifice than Cain. And what was this acceptable faith? We\ncannot think that it consisted in a mere belief in the existence of\nGod as the Creator and Preserver of mankind, that vague belief which\nnow satisfies so many who deem it a proof of higher intellect and more\nliberal thought to reject the peculiar doctrines of Christianity.\nDoubtless Cain held such belief, yet his offering was \"not\" the\noffering of faith.\n\nAbel came before God in God's appointed way, as a transgressor,\nseeking grace through the medium of a sacrifice. We know not how far\nhe understood the meaning of the rite; whether it was revealed unto\nhim, more or less distinctly, that the promised seed of the woman was\nalso to be the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world; but\nwhether the light granted to Abel was dim or bright, he walked by it in\nfaith. The fruits gathered by the hand of Cain showed no recognition of\nguilt\u2014no consciousness of needing mercy\u2014no hope of grace to be received\nthrough a heaven-sent deliverer. And the offering was not accepted.\n\nIf the touchstone contained in the words \"by faith\" were applied to\na multitude of the gifts now placed upon the altar of God, would not\nmany\u2014would not most of them be found to be offerings like those of\nCain? Pause, dear reader, and think over your own. Have you helped to\nraise churches, or to ornament them, to provide for orphans, to assist\nneedy widows, is your name on many a subscription list\u2014your gold often\nseen on the collection-plate? Do you give the fruits of your intellect\nto religious work, the best of your time to charitable labours? Are you\ncounted an active and useful member of the church to which you belong?\nAll this may be, and yet it is not impossible that you are presenting\nthe offerings of Cain.\n\nAre you standing in your own righteousness, labouring in your own\nstrength, not deeming yourself a sinner needing forgiveness, but a\nsaint entitled to reward? Search well your motives, look closely at\nyour own heart. We shall not be judged according to the verdict of the\nworld, that sees the action but scans not the motive, but by Him who\nreads the secret thought and intent.\n\nHerod raised a magnificent temple to the Lord God of Israel, and his\nliberality may have been lauded to the skies, yet, surely, his was the\noffering of Cain. Let us be fully persuaded that no sacrifice of ours\ncan be acceptable but as made \"for\" Christ, and offered through Christ,\nthat we need \"the blood of sprinkling\" both on ourselves and on our\nworks, if we would not find that sacrifice\u2014these works, however great,\nhowever highly extolled\u2014rejected at last!\n\nAnd there is another way in which we may cause our gifts to be\naccounted worthless by the Lord, even when we believe them to be\noffered in faith\u2014when the proud spirit of malice, jealousy, hatred,\nwhich was especially the spirit of Cain, is suffered to pollute even\nthat which we bring unto God. Theological hatred has become proverbial\nfor bitterness: so fierce are the disputes upon subjects of religion,\nthat the nature of that \"faith that worketh by love\" seems to be often\nentirely forgotten.\n\nIf we would not tread in the steps of the first murderer, let us follow\nthe command of our Lord. \"If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and\nthere rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there\nthy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy\nbrother, and then come and offer thy gift.\"\n\nOf the deepest importance is it to all who come not empty-handed\nbefore their Creator and Judge, to examine whether faith hallows or\nself-righteousness mars what they bring, whether theirs be the accepted\nsacrifice of Abel or the rejected offering of Cain.\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nIII.\n\nNoah's Olive Leaf.\n\nPRECIOUS little leaf, symbol of hope and of peace; well worthy art\nthou of being thus preserved for thousands of years, to be viewed by\ngeneration after generation of the sons of men as a pledge of God's\nlovingkindness! Far more valuable art thou, leaflet once borne in the\nbill of a bird, than the glittering diadem worn by Solomon in all his\nglory. With what delight wert thou once hailed by all that survived\nof mankind, by the whole Church enclosed in the ark; and we can well\nbelieve that even in Paradise the spirit of Noah dwells with pleasure\non the recollection of that moment when he first looked upon thee!\n\nTo conceive what must have been the joy felt by the patriarchs at the\nsight of the first leaf from a renovated world, let us try to realize\ntheir position when the dove flew back with that leaf in its bill.\n\nWhen Noah and his family first took refuge in the ark, and the windows\nof heaven were opened, and the fountains of the great deep broken up,\ntheir emotions were doubtless those of thankfulness for deliverance and\nsafety, when the great judgment, so long threatened, so long expected,\nhad come at length on the earth. While the storm raged around them,\nthey were secure; the waves that swept over a guilty world could\nbut lift their floating home nearer to heaven! With their emotions\nof thankfulness would be mixed those of sorrow, pity, regret, for\nneighbours, perhaps friends and relatives, who had been warned in vain,\nthen perishing beneath the terrible flood. Had not God Himself shut him\nin, how often would Noah have thrown wide open the door of the ark to\nreceive the poor struggling, drowning wretches, whose dying eyes would\nbe turned to that refuge which they had rejected and despised until it\nwas too late to seek it.\n\nBut when the flood had fulfilled its terrible mission; when no cries\nof the drowning were borne on the blast; when the cataract of rain\nhad ceased, and the dashing of waters was heard no more; then the\nexcitement, the strong emotions of the family in the ark must also\nhave sunk into comparative rest. As the wild raging of the tempest was\nexchanged for the stillness of death, and the great vessel floated\ntranquilly over placid waters, and week after week, month after month\npassed, without bringing a change, great and probably wearisome\nmonotony would pervade the life of the inmates of the ark. That which\nthey had at first rejoiced in as a refuge, would gradually, but\nincreasingly, become to them like a prison. How long were they to be\nconfined within its narrow bounds; when would they be permitted again\nfreely to tread the earth, and partake once more of its fresh produce?\n\nIf the Israelites bitterly recalled to memory the riches of the gardens\nof Egypt\u2014the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks and the onions\u2014would no\nsuch regrets be felt by the family of Noah? Would not woman sigh for\nthe flowers that she had been wont to cherish, and an inexpressible\nyearning oppress all, a yearning to look once more on the green,\nsmiling face of nature? For how many more months, or years, were\nweary eyes to rest on the same objects, counting the beams above or\nthe planks below of the now familiar prison? A fear might even arise\nthat the supply of provisions, however large at first, might fail,\nand privation and want ensue. The venerable Noah may have waited with\nunshaken faith and calm submission for the hour of freedom, but it\nis more than probable that the younger members of his family grew\nimpatient under the restraint of lengthened confinement.\n\nAt last Noah opened the window of the ark and sent forth a raven. In\nthe monotonous routine of the life which he led, this was an event\nthought worthy of record; the creature appears to have been sent as a\nmessenger, and its return must have been anxiously awaited. But never\nagain did the dark bird re-enter the ark which he once had quitted.\n\nAgain Noah sent forth a bird, a dove; but in the beautiful language of\nScripture, \"the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she\nreturned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the\nwhole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her\nin unto him into the ark.\"\n\nNot yet had come the signal for release; patience had not yet had its\nperfect work; the fathers of mankind, the inheritors of the world, must\nwait longer ere entering into possession. Seven times the sun rose and\nset ere the dove was sent forth again by Noah. But this time the gleam\nof the silver wing was to bring joy to the waiting patriarch: \"The\ndove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive\nleaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the\nearth.\" When was earthly treasure ever received with the rapturous\nwelcome given to that leaf; the first brought from a world new-born, as\nit were, from the dead!\n\nIf we regard the Church of Christ as the ark floating now on the\ntroublous waters of the world, the story of Noah's olive leaf becomes\na beautiful parable. \"How long, Lord, how long,\" has been for ages the\nweary cry of the people of God, waiting and watching for the final\ndeliverance and restitution of all things. They are \"safe,\" for they\nrest in Christ, but the heirs of the new heaven and the new earth may\nseem to wait in vain. Unbelief suggests the discouraging thought,\n\"since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from\nthe beginning of the creation.\" Virtue still suffers; evil still\nspreads; sin and sorrow, like the waters of the flood, are covering the\nface of the earth.\n\nBut there is an olive leaf still for the family of God in the ark.\nIt is the Saviour's promise, \"I will come again and receive you unto\nMyself.\" To find it and bear it home is not granted to mere human\nreason, however keen of eye and strong of wing: the raven brought not\nthe emblem of hope. It is the Dove, the Heavenly Comforter alone who\nbrings to the waiting Church, to each weary individual heart, the\npledge and promise of a glorious inheritance, when Christ shall return\nto throw wide open the bolted door, and bid His redeemed come forth to\nrejoice and to reign for ever!\n\nHas the Dove, dear Reader, brought that olive leaf to your soul; have\nyou rejoiced in the promise? Are you eagerly looking for Him, whom,\nnot having seen, you have loved; and is His word, \"I will come again,\"\nmore precious to you than thousands of silver and gold? Well may the\nChristian, looking to the promise, adopt the language of the poet,\u2014 *\n\n   Oh! who could bear life's stormy doom,\n     Did not Thy Heavenly Dove\n   Come brightly bearing through the gloom\n     A peace-branch from above!\n\n   Then sorrow, touched by Thee, grows bright\n     With more than rapture's ray,\n   As darkness shows us worlds of light\n     We never saw by day.\n\n   * Slightly altered from Moore.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nIV.\n\nAbraham's Tent.\n\nWE experience natural pleasure in visiting spots celebrated in history.\nThough corn may wave, and fruit ripen over the scene of some celebrated\nbattle, we cannot look with indifference on the scene where was once\nheld a world-famous struggle for freedom. No modern palace would have\nthe interest which would be attached to the ruin of one which had been\ntrodden by famous monarchs of old. Were there buildings remaining of\nwhich it could be said, \"here Alexander planned his conquests;\" or\n\"there Cyrus administered justice;\" we should regard such buildings,\nhowever crumbling and defaced, as places gilded by memories which time\ncould never destroy.\n\nBut no palace of monarch, no fortress of hero, could ever wake in us\nsuch feelings of reverence as a tent of black goat's hair, such as\nthose which the nomade descendants of Abraham now pitch on the sands\nof Arabia, if it could be certified to us,\u2014\"here dwelt the father of\nthe faithful; he who in Scripture is called the friend of God. In that\ndoorway sat the venerable patriarch in the heat of the day, when,\nraising his eyes, he beheld three mysterious visitors from Heaven stand\nbefore him. Behind yon curtain Sarah listened with eager interest to\nthe conversation between her lord and the angel, laughing to herself\nat tidings which she would not at first believe. There also, when time\nhad rolled on, she laughed with joy over the babe, the promised gift\nof God; the child from whom should descend a race as the stars in the\nsky or the sands by the sea for number. It was there that Abraham first\nembraced his Isaac, and blessed God for the fulfilment of that promise\nwhich faith had grasped, when the aged man had 'against hope believed\nin hope.'\"\n\nThough the patriarch's tent was most unlike our own habitations, and\nthough the dwelling of a wealthy sheik would contain fewer comforts\nthan many an English cottage, we turn to it for lessons of what a home\nshould be in all climates, and through all ages. Not that it can be\naltogether a model even as regards the conduct of its inmates; Sarah's\nchidings, Hagar's scorn, and Ishmael's mockings must not be forgotten;\nbut in four respects, at least, the tent of Abraham offers a scene\nwhich we may contemplate with reverence and profit.\n\nFirstly, it was the dwelling of faith. Wherever its stakes were driven\nin, its cords stretched, its curtains spread, there rose a habitation\nin which God was truly worshipped. The ground upon which it stood\nbecame in a manner holy. Could that tent speak, of what fervent\nprayers, what wrestling faith, what earnest adoration, could it tell,\nand that at a time when idolatry had spread over almost all the earth!\nIn the midst of darkness a bright light shone from that tent; a light\nwhich has never been, and never will be, extinguished.\n\nAre our homes thus centres of light? Is God, the God of Abraham, Isaac,\nand Jacob, thus constantly honoured in them? Could the word spoken of\nthe patriarch be also spoken, reader, of thee? \"I know him, that he\nwill command his children and his household after him, and they shall\nkeep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment.\" Had thy walls a\nvoice, what witness would they bear to earnest pleadings in secret, or\nhumble devotion in family prayer?\n\nAgain,\u2014Abraham's tent was the abode of conjugal, parental, and filial\naffection. Sarah, with all her faults, is held up to us as a model\nwife. Though, even in advanced life, celebrated for exquisite beauty,\nSarah's adorning appears to have been no \"outward adorning of plaiting\nthe hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; she\nobeyed Abraham, calling him lord,\" yielding loving reverence to her\nhusband. Isaac was brought up in the nurture and admonition of the\nLord; and his obedience to God, and submission to his aged parent,\nwere alike shown when he suffered himself to be bound, an unresisting\nvictim, on the altar of sacrifice.\n\nIn these days, when a spirit of lawless independence sometimes pervades\neven the nursery, and wives too often forget that they have vowed to\nhonour and obey as well as to love, it is well that we should let our\nthoughts dwell awhile in the tent of Abraham, to see that a home should\nbe as a monarchy, governed by laws of love, the husband and father a\nwise beneficent ruler, emphatically a power \"ordained of God.\"\n\nAgain: Abraham's tent reminds us of the duty of hospitality\u2014that\nhospitality without grudging, which alone is worthy of the title; not\nthat interchange of worldly courtesies\u2014that asking in order to be asked\nagain\u2014that ostentation which consumes at one luxurious meal what would\nsuffice to feed starving multitudes. Never let the name of hospitality\nbe profaned by being applied to such entertainments as these. But the\nhearty welcome given even to strangers, the readiness to spread the\nmeal for the guest who may never be able to return the kindness, these\nwe learn from the patriarch. Abraham \"entertained angels unawares;\" and\nthe same may be said of many of those who exercise hospitality in a\nspirit like his. In one sense the Lord of angels visits the dwellings\nof those who welcome His servants for His sake. It is a privilege and\nan honour to entertain the humblest of His saints; for He hath said,\n\"Inasmuch as ye did it unto the least of these My brethren, ye did it\nunto Me.\"\n\nLastly, let us regard our dwellings, as Abraham did his, as a\ntabernacle rather than as a settled home. Here we have no continuing\ncity, but we seek one to come. Let not our hearts cling too closely to\nan earthly habitation, as if it were to be ours for ever, but let us\nrather remember that, like the family of Abraham, we are strangers and\npilgrims on the earth:\n\n   \"Here in the body pent,\n      Absent from Heaven we roam,\n    But nightly pitch our wandering tent,\n      A day's march nearer home.\"\n\nYes; for not only our dwellings, but even these our mortal bodies are\nbut tabernacles, to be taken down and laid aside, to be exchanged for a\nbuilding of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.\nIn the meantime let us pray that they may be the abodes of peace and\njoy and love, and that the Holy Spirit may be our guest, not as one who\ntarries but awhile and departs, but as one who comes to abide with us\nalways.\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nV.\n\nHagar's Bottle.\n\nAN empty skin-bottle is before us, such as is used by Orientals to the\npresent day to carry what they emphatically term \"the gift of God;\" a\ntitle to which our Saviour appears to have alluded when He said to the\nwoman of whom He had asked water, \"If thou knewest the gift of God;\"\nseeking to raise her thoughts from the earthly well to the heavenly\nFountain.\n\nOf the value of water in the wilderness, we, in our moist climate,\ncan scarcely form an adequate conception. Let me briefly quote from\na description of travelling in an Arabian desert, given by a graphic\nauthor: * \"On either hand extended one weary plain in a black monotony\nof lifelessness . . . A dreary land of death, in which even the face\nof an enemy were almost a relief amid such utter solitude . . . Day\nafter day found us urging our camels to their utmost pace, for fifteen\nor sixteen hours together out of the twenty-four, under a well-nigh\nvertical sun . . . Then an insufficient halt for rest or sleep, at\nmost of two or three hours, soon interrupted by the often repeated\nadmonition, 'If we linger here we all die of thirst.'\"\n\n   * Palgrave.\n\nBut the scene which rises before us, the wilderness of Beersheba, is\nnot peopled with pilgrims and travellers urging on their weary camels;\nthere are but two figures in it\u2014an exhausted, grief-stricken woman, and\nthe fainting lad at her side. That skin-bottle is in her hands\u2014empty.\nShe has watched it shrinking as the precious fluid within was gradually\nused, or wasted by evaporation; dry and parched as is her own tongue,\nshe has feared to relieve her burning thirst lest she should too soon\nexhaust the priceless treasure. With a sickening feeling of fear Hagar\nhas given the last draught to her Ishmael; and then, with faint hope,\nsqueezed the skin hard with her feverish hands, trying to press out one\nmore drop\u2014but in vain. She looks anxiously around her, but can see no\nmeans of refilling that empty bottle.\n\nThen, in anguish, Hagar turns from the parched shrub under which she\nhas cast her son; she wanders away\u2014but let the account be given in the\ntouching words of Scripture: \"She went and sat her down over against\nhim a good way off, as it were a bowshot: for she said, Let me not see\nthe death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her\nvoice, and wept.\"\n\nWhile Hagar was weeping, her son appears to have been praying; for\nit is written, \"God heard the voice of the lad.\" Ishmael's cry was\nanswered: \"The angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said\nunto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the\nvoice of the lad where he is. And God opened her eyes, and she saw a\nwell of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave\nthe lad drink.\" When the cool bubbling liquid filled out the swelling\nskin-bottle in the hand of the rejoicing, thankful mother, as she bent\neagerly over the well, far more emphatically than the first supply was\nit to her\u2014the gift of God.\n\nThere are times when life appears to us as the wilderness of Beersheba\ndid to Hagar and Ishmael. Our troubles may have been of our own making;\nlike the proud youth who had mocked at his brother, we may, perhaps, be\nable to trace our sorrows to their source in our sin; but whether it\nbe so or not, we stand in a dry, thirsty land, where no water is; we\nseem to have drained our last drop of earthly enjoyment\u2014our lips are\nparched\u2014our bottle is empty\u2014we feel that we can but lie down and die!\n\nFew pass the meridian of life, perhaps few reach it, without knowing\nsomething of this desolation of heart, this emptiness of all joy.\nBlessed to Ishmael was the trouble which made him cry unto the Lord;\nblessed to us these disappointments which dry up our cherished\nsupplies, if in our baffled thirst for happiness we turn to our Saviour\nin prayer. The same God who gave to Hagar a well in the desert has\nalso a message of mercy for us: \"Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye\nto the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea,\ncome, buy wine and milk without money and without price.\" Would we\nseek more specific direction to the Fountain that bursts forth in the\ndesert, to change that desert to an Eden, and supply our deep thirst\nfor peace and joy? The Saviour Himself repeats the invitation; \"If any\nman thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.\"\n\nWhat do we need, dear brethren in affliction, to make us come unto Him\nin whom the weary find refreshment, and the broken-hearted peace? We\nneed that by the Spirit \"our eyes should be opened.\" The Fountain is\nnear us, but we see it not until then. We view the bare waste around\nus, the withered hopes that strew it; we vainly try to press out one\nmore drop of pleasure from the earthly vessel which once held it, and\nfind the bottle utterly empty and dry. In such moments of dreariness,\nO Thou who art the Comforter indeed, Thou who canst fill up the empty\nvoid, and satisfy the aching soul with abundance, come to us, speak\nto us, open our eyes to behold the depths of Thy lovingkindness; lead\nus beside the still waters, and let the promise of our Redeemer be\ngraciously fulfilled unto us: \"He that cometh unto Me shall never\nhunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nVI.\n\nJacob's Pillow.\n\nLET us linger before this ancient stone, used first by the benighted\npatriarch as a resting-place for his head; then raised and anointed by\nhis hands in the morning, as a solemn memorial of a night to be much\nremembered by him through all his mortal life, and beyond it. If we may\njudge of the previous spiritual state of Jacob by his conduct towards\nhis father and brother, we shall be inclined to date his conversion to\nGod, the new birth of his soul, to that midnight hour when the wanderer\ndreamed his glorious dream.\n\nSome of the ideas suggested by Jacob's pillow have been embodied in a\nbeautiful hymn.\n\n   \"If, in my wanderings,\n      My sun go down,\n    Darkness encompass me,\n      My rest a stone,\u2014\n    Still in my dreams I'll be\n    Nearer, my God, to Thee\u2014\n      Nearer to Thee!\n\n   \"Then let my ways appear\n      Steps unto heaven;\n    All that Thou sendest me,\n      In mercy given;\n    Angels to beckon me,\n    Nearer, my God, to Thee\u2014\n      Nearer to Thee!\n\n   \"Then, with my waking thoughts\n      Bright with Thy praise,\n    Out of my stony griefs\n      Bethels I'll raise;\n    Still by my woes to be\n    Nearer, my God, to Thee\u2014\n      Nearer to Thee!\"\n\nBut a yet deeper meaning seems to be given to the sacred dream by the\nwords of our Saviour, if it be indeed to Jacob's ladder that they\nallude as type. \"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see\nheaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the\nSon of man.\" What the patriarch beheld in a dream, faith views as a\nglorious reality. Christ, by His incarnation, linked heaven with earth;\nby His ascension, joined earth to heaven. He formed a pathway of light,\nby which the angels ascend and descend. Wherever we receive first into\nour hearts this glorious truth\u2014first look unto the Saviour as the Way,\nthe Truth, and the Life\u2014that place becomes to us as memory's holy\nground, and we can say, as the patriarch said, \"This is none other but\nthe house of God\u2014this is the gate of heaven.\"\n\nJacob's pillow and his mysterious dream naturally suggest to us\nmeditation on the ministry of angels, of which glimpses are given to us\never and anon in Holy Writ. The bright tenants of a world unseen may be\nhovering near us, when we have little thought of their presence.\n\nHow wondrous was the scene that opened on the servant of Elisha, when,\nat a time of imminent peril, the prophet's prayer, \"Lord, open his\neyes, that he may see,\" was granted! With chariots and horses the\nfierce enemy was encompassing the city; but lo! Above, a defence,\nbefore invisible, was seen to girdle round the prophet: horses and\nchariots of fire, the legions of Heaven, guarded the servant of God,\nand no puny arm of flesh had power to hurt one hair of his head. Were\nour eyes thus enabled to behold the spirits of light, we might see\nbright winged visitors entering, as familiar guests, the lowly cottage,\nthe attic, the cellar\u2014abodes which proud, luxurious sons of dust would\nnot stoop to enter; we might see angels still encouraging a Peter in\nprison, refreshing a weary Elisha, rejoicing over a repentant sinner,\nor bending with celestial smiles over a dying Lazarus, waiting for\nthe signal to welcome a seraph new-born to the skies. But on whatever\nmissions of love these bright beings may come to our earth, we owe\ntheir ministry to the Lord of angels: they are \"descending upon the Son\nof man.\"\n\nAnd we have our \"ascending\" angels too\u2014those whose upward flight we\nfain would follow\u2014blest ones, whom we dare not even wish to detain, as\nthey mount:\n\n   \"Onward to the glory,\n      Upward to the prize,\n    Homeward to the mansions\n      Far beyond the skies!\"\n\nOur eyes are dim with tears, as in vain we try to track their course,\nlost in a haze of glory; but this we own, with thankful hearts\u2014they owe\ntheir exaltation to the King of saints alone: angels are \"ascending,\"\nas well as \"descending, upon the Son of man.\"\n\nIn the dark, bitter gloom of bereavement, we rest our aching heads on\nthe tombstone which covers the relics of one most dear, peacefully\nsleeping in Jesus. Like Jacob, we feel benighted and alone. But if, in\nthe midnight of sorrow, God reveal Himself to us as He revealed Himself\nto the patriarch, even that stone will become to us as a Bethel. Does\nit bear the dear name of our dead\u2014no, rather a name that is written,\nwe trust, in God's Book of Life! Above the stone rises the ladder of\nlight; its foot may rest in the grave, but its summit is hidden in the\nradiance of Heaven.\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nVII.\n\nThe Coat of Many Colours.\n\nA MOURNFUL relic this, all torn and stained, defiled with dust, and\nblood, and tears! We seem to hear the wail of the miserable father, as\nwith anguish he gazed upon the once goodly garment. \"It is my son's\ncoat; an evil beast hath devoured him! Joseph is without doubt rent in\npieces!\"\n\nIn the excess of his grief, \"Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth\nupon his loins, and mourned for his son many days.\"\n\nIn vain they who had inflicted the deep wound in a parent's heart,\nhypocritically attempted to heal it. His traitor sons \"rose up to\ncomfort him;\" but Israel refused to be comforted. \"And he said, For I\nwill go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept\nfor him.\"\n\nHow bitterly the marred garment of many colours recalled to the mind of\nJacob the joy and pride with which he had placed it on his favourite\nson\u2014the son of his old age, whom he loved more than all his children!\nJoseph, beauteous in person, gifted in mind, virtuous in character,\nwas well fitted to be the pride and delight of his parent. We marvel\nnot that the son of the beloved Rachel\u2014he who inherited his mother's\noutward attractions, with the piety of his father\u2014should have been to\nthe heart of Jacob peculiarly dear.\n\nAnd yet, perhaps, the first thought which this part of Joseph's history\nsuggests to the mind is, how great an evil is partiality shown by a\nparent! How it draws upon its object many dangers!\u2014Envy, enmity from\nwithout, with the yet greater peril arising from fostered vanity and\npride within. Had Joseph remained with his doting father, wearing\nthe distinctive garment with which partial affection had robed him,\nhis noble character might have been utterly marred. Presumption,\nself-righteousness, and vanity, might, and probably would, have sorely\ntempted his soul. Joseph's Heavenly Father loved him as tenderly as\ndid his earthly father, but with a far wiser love. God gave the bitter\nantidote to the sweet poison bestowed by a parent's hand. Oh, that\nthose whose blind and cruel partiality is sowing the seed of discord in\ntheir families, and that of pride in the hearts of their best beloved,\nwould earnestly consider the history of Jacob and Joseph! How terrible\nwere the trials which the old patriarch's partiality drew upon his boy!\nHis weak affection tended to injure its object: God knew that, and\ndivided\u2014for how many long and bitter years divided\u2014the father from the\nson!\n\nAgain, in yonder torn and bloody garment we see a terrible comment on\nthe inspired declaration, \"he that hateth his brother is a murderer.\"\nHow many thoughts of envy, how many glances of malice, how many bitter\nwords, must there have been in the family of Jacob, before hatred in\nJoseph's brethren ripened into the horrible crime which deprived a\nbrother of his freedom, almost of his life, and nearly brought the gray\nhairs of a father with sorrow to the grave! Was there not a time when,\nif it could have been foretold to the elder sons of Jacob that they\nwould sell their own brother into slavery, and then, by an acted lie\nof the most cruel kind, try to conceal their guilt by almost breaking\ntheir parent's heart\u2014could this have been foretold to them, would not\neach have exclaimed, in the language of Hazael, \"Is thy servant a dog\nthat he should do this thing?\"\n\nLet us be watchful against the appearance of envy, even in its least\nstartling form. If we see the crocodile's egg, let us crush it; nor let\nthe destroyer come forth and gain strength, so that it get the mastery\nover us. The slightest stirring of ill-will towards one more favoured\nthan ourselves, should place us at once on the watch. The humility that\nis content with a lowly place\u2014the love that rejoices in the exaltation\nof a brother\u2014these are the guardians of the soul against envy; and,\nwhere these are wanting, can the Spirit of God be said to dwell?\n\nOnce more, by Joseph's coat of many colours, rent and blood-stained,\nwe are reminded of the marvellous way in which God's providence brings\ngood out of evil, and makes the darkest events in His servants' lives\nlinks in a chain of mercies. The beautiful garment given by paternal\nlove, and worn perhaps with some pride, was torn indeed from the\npersecuted Joseph\u2014first to be replaced by the scanty apparel of a\nslave, then afterwards by the garb of a criminal in prison; but it\nwas from wearing the dress of humiliation that Joseph was raised to\npower and honour. It was not the garment made by his father that he\nput off, in order to assume robes of high office in the court of King\nPharaoh. Had Joseph remained in his home at Hebron, unharmed by malice,\nuntouched by persecution, he would never have been the ruler in Egypt,\nthe benefactor of a nation, the friend of a king, the earthly preserver\nof all Israel's race. It has been said that \"evil is good in the\nmaking;\" so, even from the malice of Joseph's brethren, the grief of\nhis father, and his own anguish when \"the iron entered into his soul,\"\nGod brought forth blessings unnumbered to the man who feared and obeyed\nHim.\n\nWe cannot leave the stained vestment of the ancient patriarch without\nturning our thoughts to Him of whom it is written, that \"He was clothed\nin a vesture dipped in blood: and His name is called The Word of God.\"\nIn Joseph we see a remarkable type of our blessed Redeemer, sent by His\nFather to visit man, as Joseph was sent to his brethren in Shechem.\n\"He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.\" For envy, the\nchief priests delivered Christ into the hands of the Gentiles; and the\nbetrayer received money for Him whom the children of Israel did value,\neven as their fathers sold Joseph for twenty pieces of silver.\n\nBut it is in his subsequent exaltation to be a prince and deliverer\u2014it\nis in his exercise of boundless liberality and free pardoning\ngrace\u2014that Joseph is especially a type of our Lord. \"God sent me before\nyou to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives\nby a great deliverance,\" said the patriarch to his penitent brethren,\nwho owed preservation from famine to him. And it was to those whom He\ndeigned to call brethren that Christ addressed the gracious assurance,\n\"I go to prepare a place for you.\"\n\nTo Him the sun, and the moon, and the stars pay homage; to Him all the\nworld shall bow down; in His hands is the bread of life; and His word\nis still, \"Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth.\"\nOnce sinners parted Christ's garments amongst them, and upon His\nvesture did they cast lots; but the hour is approaching when they shall\nlook upon Him whom they pierced, and behold His glory,\u2014\n\n       \"Whose native vesture bright,\n        Is the unapproached light,\n  The sandal of whose foot the rapid hurricane!\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nVIII.\n\nThe Ark of Bulrushes.\n\nA FRAIL bark, indeed, this cradle of woven bulrushes, to bear so\nprecious a freight! We read of the boat which carried C\u00e6sar and his\nfortunes; if we measure human greatness by the extent and durability\nof a man's influence over his kind, the mighty Roman is dwarfed beside\nMoses, and his \"fortunes\" appear comparatively a thing of a day. Many\nages have passed since C\u00e6sar exercised sway in the world; all that\nremains of him is a mighty name: Moses, who lived some fourteen hundred\nyears before him, is still a living power on earth. The nation which\nMoses was the instrument of delivering reverence his laws to this day,\nwhile myriads of Christians, yea, all who to the latest time will study\nthe Word of God, will honour Moses as a prophet, obey him as a teacher,\nand drink in wisdom from his inspired writings.\n\nC\u00e6sar raised a Babel structure of grandeur, cemented not with slime\nbut with blood, and it has not left even a ruin behind it. The work of\nMoses, heaven-guided as he was, resembled more one of the everlasting\nhills which the Almighty Himself hath planted and made firm, from which\nflow, and to the end of time will flow, pure streams to fertilize\nearth, and which from age to age remain unchanged in their calm\nmajestic beauty. C\u00e6sar was a great conqueror. Moses stands before us in\ndignity of a loftier kind; so glorious as deliverer, lawgiver, prophet,\nthat we almost forget that he was a mighty conqueror also. C\u00e6sar\nclimbed up to a point where a halo of fame shone around him. Moses\nsoared high above it; the glory which beamed from his countenance was\nglory derived directly from God.\n\nDid the hopes of Jochebed venture to picture anything like this, as\nshe laboured at forming this little ark, twining in and out every\ngreen bulrush with a prayer for her helpless babe? A scene of touching\ndomestic interest rises before the imagination as we think of the home\nof Amram the Levite, near the bank of the Nile, in these old, old\ndays which the Scripture narratives bring so freshly before us. There\nis Jochebed, in a retired part of her dwelling, anxiously pursuing\nher labour of love, working and weeping, and praying as she works,\ntrembling lest a cry from her hidden infant should betray the secret\nof his existence to any Egyptian ear. Perhaps little Aaron disturbs\nher ever and anon with innocent prattle, lisping in his childish\nsimplicity dangerous questions which the mother knows not how to\nanswer; while Miriam, the future prophetess, of an age to share her\nparent's anxieties and guard their secret, watches to give notice of\nthe approach of any stranger, her child-face already stamped with the\nimpress of care too natural to one brought up in the house of bondage.\n\nThe story of Jochebed and her little ark of bulrushes seems to be one\nespecially recorded for the comfort of mothers. Though in our peaceful\nland such perils as those which surrounded the cradle of Moses are\nunknown, yet every parent who watches by a baby boy may learn a lesson\nfrom the Israelite mother who, strong in faith, twined that green nest\nfor her little darling. For every infant born into this world of danger\nand trouble an ark should be woven of many prayers. In two points of\nview we may regard every such infant as in a position not unlike that\nof Jochebed's babe, when found by Pharaoh's daughter in his little\nfloating cradle.\n\nThe child has been born to danger, and under the doom of death; he is\nredeemed, adopted, and may be destined to great usefulness and exalted\nhonour. Should a mother's eye rest on these pages, let her follow out\nwith me a subject which can scarcely fail to be one of deep interest to\nher heart.\n\nYour child, my Christian sister, has, like Moses, \"been born to danger,\nand under the doom of death.\" You have transmitted to him a fallen\nnature; he has first opened his eyes to the light in a world of which\nSatan is the prince\u2014that Pharaoh whose wages is death, that tyrant\nwho seeks to destroy the babe whom you so tenderly love. You cannot\nkeep your little one from all the perils and temptations which, if he\nlive to manhood, will certainly surround him. You cannot prevent his\nbeing exposed to trials as perilous to his soul as the waters of the\nNile were to the body of the infant Moses. What can you do to guard\nyour child from dangers in which so many have perished? Like Jochebed,\nstrong in faith, make him a little ark of your prayers.\n\nAnd to turn to the brighter side of the subject\u2014if you have to share\nJochebed's fears, may you not inherit her hopes also? It is no earthly\nprincess, but the gracious Saviour Himself who has raised your child\nfrom his low estate, reversed his doom, adopted him as His own, and\nplaced him as a little Christian in your arms, with the words, \"Take\nthis child away, and nurse it for Me, and I will give thee thy wages.\"\n\nThe destiny which may await your babe, is one which is more great,\nmore glorious, than your imagination can conceive. Can the human mind\ngrasp all that is contained in the titles, \"Member of Christ, child of\nGod, inheritor of the kingdom of Heaven?\" You are tending an immortal\nbeing; a future seraph may be cradled in your arms! Those soft lips,\npressed so closely to your own, may hereafter utter words that shall\ninfluence the destiny of souls through the countless ages of eternity;\nto that mind, which can scarcely yet hold even the sweet assurance\nof a parent's love, may be unfolded mysteries into which the angels\ndesire to look. If care and anxiety press on your soul when you think\nof what your child is\u2014feeble, helpless, born to trouble as the sparks\nfly upward\u2014there is deep rapture in the thought of what that child may\nbe. Oh! Dedicate him now to his God; ask for him not fame, power, or\nwealth, not the riches of Egypt, but ask for him grace to follow the\nLord fully, to choose \"the reproach of Christ;\" ask for him the spirit\nof humility, faith, and love, which was given to Jochebed's favoured\nson. In view of the glorious destiny to which he is called, as well as\nof the perils which beset him, make him a little ark of your prayers.\n\nAn honoured woman was Jochebed, mother of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam,\nall peculiarly favoured by God; and thrice blessed is every Christian\nparent, whether her offspring live for usefulness below, or be early\ntaken to bliss above, who at the last day shall appear with an unbroken\nfamily before the Heavenly King! \"Thou whose blood hath redeemed me and\nmine, and whose grace has preserved us\u2014lo! Here am I, and the children\nwhom Thou hast given me!\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nIX.\n\nPharaoh's Chariot.\n\nIT is much more than three thousand years since the mighty wall of\nwaters fell crashing and thundering on Pharaoh and his host; since over\nhis chariots and his horsemen swept the huge billows of the sea. We\nwill not, however, look on his chariot as drawn from the watery waste,\nwhere it lay perhaps imbedded in coral, with the dank sea-weeds wrapped\naround it, pierced by the ship-worm, with the finny inhabitants of the\ndeep gliding under the decaying axle, or over the broken wheel. We\nwill survey Pharaoh's chariot in all its pomp of colour and gilding;\nas it was when the tyrant mounted it to pursue after Israel, a chariot\nmeet for one of the mightiest of monarchs, one of the proudest of men.\nWe will look on it as it was when powerful and fiery horses bore it\nrapidly onward, under the guidance of the skilful charioteer, and armed\nmultitudes followed on its track.\n\nWhat stern and terrible emotions must have darkened the countenance\nof Pharaoh as he set his foot on that chariot, which was to bear him\non, as he deemed, to his revenge! He was the tyrant from whom the\ncaptives were escaping; the lion from whom his prey had been torn; the\nbereaved father whose bitterness of anguish was turned into thirst\nfor vengeance. To Pharaoh, every forward bound of his horses, every\nrevolution of those massive wheels, seemed to brine him nearer to\nwhat he most eagerly desired: \"The enemy said, I will pursue, I will\novertake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon\nthem; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them!\"\n\nThe speed of the royal chariot would appear too slow for the impatience\nof the monarch within it. And yet to what goal was Pharaoh so eagerly\nrushing, to what was he pressing on with such fiery haste? Death and a\nwatery grave! In a few hours he was to be a gasping, struggling, dying\nman in that chariot, or to be swept out of it like a whirling straw on\na cataract by the power of the mighty waves!\n\nAs was his chariot to Pharaoh, so is ambition to those whose\nall-absorbing object is to advance in the course of worldly\ndistinction. There are many, not only in the higher but in the lower\nranks of life, whose one great wish and aim might be expressed in\nthe words \"to get on in the world.\" Rapid advancement is their grand\nobject; and they are not careful as to what they crush under their\nchariot wheels. If conscientious scruples come in their way, they pass\nover them; regard for the interests of others cannot stay them in their\ncareer; success is the goal towards which they eagerly drive, though\nthat success with each individual may take a different shape. With one\nit may be an empire, with another a thriving business; the soldier's\nhighest mark may be a marshal's baton, while the village girl's dream\nof distinction is to become one day a lady. With one the chariot of\nambition is more richly gilded, more gorgeously emblazoned, than\nwith another, but in some form it is mounted by all who seek worldly\nadvancement in this life as their chief end and goal.\n\nDoubtless there is something exhilarating in the rapid motion; the\nfeeling that every turn of the wheel brings the eager aspirant to rank,\nor power, or wealth, or fame, nearer to what he desires. This feeling\nis not confined to hardened sinners like Pharaoh. The world does not\njudge ambition severely, it rather admires the gilded chariot if it\nbear a man onward to success. But if any one of my readers should be\ntempted to mount it, let him first look forward calmly and thoughtfully\nto that point where, to all earthly ambition, it will be said,\n\"hitherto shalt thou come, but no further.\"\n\nThe waters of death lie before us, high and low; monarch and slave\nalike are swallowed up there, as the waves of the Red Sea made no\ndistinction between mighty Pharaoh and the meanest of his host. What\nwill the proudest earthly success matter to us when once those waters\nclose over us?\n\n   \"Can storied urn, or monumental bust,\n      Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?\n    Can honour's voice awake the silent dust,\n      Or flattery soothe the dull cold ear of death?\"\n\nThere is another chariot mentioned in Scripture, which affords the\nmost striking contrast to that of Pharaoh. Its circling wheels woke\nno echoes amongst the rocks, left no impression upon the sands. It\nwas prepared for a poor and weary man, whose feet had long trodden a\nthorny path of trial. I allude to Elijah's chariot of fire\u2014the noblest\ncar into which a son of Adam was ever permitted to mount. It came from\nHeaven, and Heaven was its bourne. In that chariot, borne above the\nwaters of death, which might not so much as wet the sole of his foot,\nin Elijah the corruptible assumed incorruption, and the mortal put on\nimmortality!\n\nThe subject is a very sublime one, but the lesson which we may draw\nfrom it is practical. If Pharaoh's chariot be an emblem of ambition, we\nmay regard Elijah's as the emblem of a spirit of devotion. It descends\nfrom Heaven; it is sent by our God to bear His servants upwards towards\nHim. Not all the waters of death shall quench or dim its glory, for it\nis immortal like Him who bestowed it.\n\nReader, a choice is before us: one of these chariots may receive us,\nbut into whichever we enter, it must be by turning away from the other.\nThe man whose first aim and desire is to push himself forward in the\nworld, to press over whatever impediments conscience may place in his\nway, though he may possess shining qualities, cannot be a true disciple\nof the meek and lowly Redeemer. While he who has given himself heartily\nunto Christ, in a spirit of earnest devotion, cannot rest his chief\nhopes upon any object, however grand, of mere earthly ambition. \"The\npride of life\" is not of the Father, but of the world. \"If any man love\nthe world, the love of the Father is not in him.\"\n\nWhat, then, is the direction of our most earnest desires? Is it onwards\nor upwards? Is the goal towards which we are pressing below the skies\nor above them? If the career before a man be but that of self-seeking\npride, however rapid may be his promotion, however swiftly he may sweep\non in the path of distinction, with the gaze of an admiring or an\nenvying crowd fixed upon him, every turn of the wheel but brings him\nnearer to the dark goal of destruction, where his vain ambition, like\nthe chariot of Pharaoh, must perish with the life of its possessor!\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nX.\n\nThe Tables of Stone.\n\nBROKEN; alas! Shivered and broken! The gift of the Most High\u2014the tables\ninscribed with the Law which was uttered in the thunders of Sinai,\nwith the commandments which Israel had thrice vowed to keep\u2014all broken\nthrough the baseness of man!\n\nBut man is not willing to own this. He has gathered the broken\nfragments together, as the shivered pieces of a precious ancient vase\nwere once gathered, and has placed them together, fitting bit to bit,\nand has fastened them firmly, as he deems, with the cement of his own\nself-righteousness. He believes that there are few particles missing.\nPerhaps, indeed, he has not kept the Fourth Commandment in all its\nintegrity; perhaps some fragments are wanting in the Tenth; but still,\non the whole, he believes that he can present fair, almost faultless,\ntables, on which God will look with approval, and fellow-creatures\nwith applause. When the Pharisee's eye rested on the tables of the\nCommandments\u2014that proud eye detected no flaw\u2014he cried, \"God, I thank\nThee that I am not as other men!\" When the young ruler was questioned\nby the Lord, he, too, marked no breach in the heaven-given Law: \"all\nthese things have I kept from my youth up,\" was the complacent answer\nof a conscience at rest.\n\nThe Lord Jesus, the Source and Fountain of Light, threw such radiance\non the Law of God, which man had broken, that the flaws and fractures\nin it became terribly manifest to every unblinded eye. Christ showed\nthat the Commandment extends to the words of the lip and the thoughts\nof the heart. How self-righteousness melts under the burning power of\nthat declaration from the Saviour, which sums up all the Commandments\nin two! \"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with\nall thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is\nthe First Commandment. And the Second is like, namely this, Thou shalt\nlove thy neighbour as thyself.\" No one, but Him who gave the Law, could\nkeep that Law unbroken!\n\nYet still, even to the present day, man takes self-righteousness to\ncement the fragments, and in his secret soul believes his work to be\nsuccessful. He regards the Tables of Stone as holy; he knows that they\nwere given by God; and his object, sometimes secret, but sometimes\neven avowed, is to make of them stepping-stones in the way to Heaven,\nso that he may pass the river of death without fear. He says, in his\nheart, that he has so carefully kept the Commandments, that he may\nsafely rest upon them, and so receive the reward of obedience.\n\nBut woe to man, guilty man, if he trust his safety to that which has\nbeen broken again and again, and which never can be effectually joined\ntogether again by human effort. Not to his faithfulness in keeping\nGod's Commandments, can the highest saint look for salvation. He knows\nthat he might as well place his foot on a foam bubble floating on a\ntorrent, and trust to that bubble to keep him from sinking, as rest\non the broken Law to save him from being swept away to everlasting\ndestruction.\n\nThey who have tried most carefully to keep the Law, are most ready to\nown this truth. Well does the Church of England make her children's\nresponse to each Commandment a petition for \"mercy.\" Then at the close\nof all comes a prayer that God would write His Laws in our hearts, in\nallusion to His own gracious promise: \"I will put My laws into their\nmind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and\nthey shall be to Me a people.\"\n\nWhen our Lord sojourned upon earth, a sinner was brought before Him\nwho had notoriously broken the Law. Christ appealed to the consciences\nof her accusers, and conscience convicted them all of having, likewise\ntransgressed God's Commandment. Twice on that memorable occasion,\n\"Jesus stooped down, and with His finger wrote upon the ground.\" No\naction of the Lord recorded in Scripture can be without significance.\nIf we humbly try to penetrate the meaning of this one, may we not find\nthat the Lord would remind man, that though scribe, Pharisee, and those\nwhom they condemned, had all broken the Law contained in the Tables\ngiven through Moses, yet that Christ could write that Law so indelibly\nin dust and ashes, \"with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of\nstone, but in fleshy tables of the heart,\" that it should ever remain\nthere? Thus every true believer becomes, in the forcible language of\nSt. Paul, the epistle of Christ; the Law being inscribed therein by\n\"the finger of God,\" not as a ground of acceptance, but as a token of\nadoption.\n\nAnd let us never forget that what is written in the heart will\nassuredly be read in the life; none will so earnestly endeavour to\nkeep the Commandments in thought, and word, and deed, as he who has\nreceived them in the spirit as well as the letter, \"whose obedience is\nthe cheerful heart-service of the man whose transgression is pardoned,\nwhose sin is covered.\"\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXI.\n\nThe High Priest's Mitre.\n\nA VERY remarkable scene is brought before us in the history of\nAlexander the Great. During his career of conquest, he had been\noffended by the Jews, then subject to his enemies the Persians. Unlike\nthe Samaritans, who had sent troops to the aid of Macedon's mighty\nking, the Jews remained faithful to their allegiance to Darius.\nAlexander, little accustomed to have his imperious will opposed,\nresolved that as soon as he should have conquered Tyre, to which he was\nthen laying siege, he would march against the Jews, and let them also\nfeel the weight of his wrath.\n\nTyre fell, merciless slaughter ensued, the city was given to the\nflames, and many of its inhabitants to the sword; while, with yet\nmore horrible cruelty, Alexander caused two thousand of the miserable\nTyrians to be crucified along the sea-shore! Such was the conqueror who\nwas now to march against defenceless Jerusalem!\n\nLet me give the account of what followed in the words of Rollin,\nthe historian: \"In this imminent danger, Jaddus, the high priest,\nwho governed under the Persians, seeing himself exposed, with all\nthe inhabitants, to the wrath of the conqueror, had recourse to the\nprotection of the Almighty, gave orders for the offering up of public\nprayers to implore His assistance, and made sacrifices. The night\nafter, God appeared to him in a dream, and bid him to cause flowers to\nbe scattered up and down the city; to set open all the gates; and go,\nclothed in his pontifical robes, and all the priests dressed also in\ntheir vestments, and all the rest clothed in white, to meet Alexander,\nand not to fear any evil from that king, inasmuch as He would protect\nthem. This command was punctually obeyed; and, accordingly, this grand\nprocession, the very day after, marched out of the city to an eminence,\nwhere there was a view of all the plain, as well as of the temple and\ncity of Jerusalem.\"\n\nHere the high priest and his company awaited the approach of the\nterrible conqueror surrounded by his victorious bands. The boldest\namongst the Jews might well tremble before the destroyer of Tyre. But\ngreat was the astonishment, both of the Macedonians and the Jews, at\nthe scene which ensued, when the victorious monarch met the unarmed and\ndefenceless Jaddus.\n\n\"Alexander was struck by the sight of the high priest, on whose mitre\nand forehead a gold plate was fixed, on which the name of God was\nwritten. The moment the king perceived the high priest, he advanced\ntowards him with an air of the most profound respect, bowed his body,\nadored the august Name upon his front, and saluted him who wore it\nwith a religious veneration . . . All the spectators were seized with\ninexpressible surprise; they could scarcely believe their eyes. . .\nParmenio, who could not yet recover from his astonishment, asked the\nking how it came to pass that he, who was adored by every one, adored\nthe high priest of the Jews.\n\n\"'I do not,' replied Alexander, 'but the God whose minister he is;\nfor whilst I was at Dia in Macedonia, my mind wholly fixed on the\ngreat design of the Persian war, as I was revolving the methods how\nto conquer Asia, this very man, dressed in the same robes, appeared\nto me in a dream, exhorted me to dismiss every fear, bid me cross the\nHellespont boldly, and assured me that God would march at the head of\nmy army, and give me the victory over that of the Persians.' Alexander\nhaving thus answered Parmenio, embraced the high priest and all his\nbrethren; then, walking in the midst of them, he arrived at Jerusalem,\nwhere he offered sacrifices to God in the temple, after the manner\nprescribed to him by the high priest.\"\n\nLet us now see placed before us in the Scriptures the mitre, as\nappointed by God Himself to be worn by the high priest of Israel: \"Thou\nshalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it, like the engravings\nof a signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD. And thou shalt put it on a blue\nlace, that it may be upon the mitre; upon the forefront of the mitre it\nshall be. And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead . . . And they made the\nplate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote upon it a writing, like\nto the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD.\" It was before\nsuch a mitre as this, or rather before Him whose Name appeared on the\nmitre, that the proud head of earth's mightiest conqueror was bowed low\nin adoration.\n\nWe know that there was a solemn meaning in the various portions of the\nhigh priest's garments, and the words inscribed on his \"holy crown\"\nleave us in no doubt as to what it symbolized. He who appeared before\nthe Majesty of Heaven to plead for Israel, and to offer the appointed\nsacrifices, must be holy unto the Lord. Yet how often must the weak,\nfallible high priest, have been humbled by the very dignity of his\noffice, when he contrasted his own infirmity and sin with the spotless\npurity symbolized by his mitre!\n\nWith heavy heart must an Aaron or an Eli have bound that holy crown on\ntheir brows, when conscious of having fallen under the displeasure of\nthe Most High! When we think of the sacred emblem being proudly worn\nby a Caiaphas, its being polluted by contact with that man of blood,\nour Lord's image of the \"whited sepulchre\" rises vividly before us; how\nfair, pure, holy, that which was without, while the dark mind within\nwas festering corruption!\n\nThere was but one High priest who could appear before God in innate\npurity, \"holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.\" It was He\nwho wore on His bleeding temples the crown of thorns instead of the\nmitre; He who had HOLINESS TO THE LORD not borne aloft on His brow, but\nwoven into every action of His life. What Aaron symbolized, that was\nthe Lord Jesus Christ.\n\nBefore Him, arrayed in the majesty of His spotless purity, every knee\nshall bow, earth's proudest kings shall fall down and adore Him.\n\"Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto\nGod by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.\"\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXII.\n\nThe High Priest's Mitre\u2014_Continued._\n\nTHE high priest's mitre affords to us another, and a very wide field\nfor meditation.\n\nUnder the Jewish dispensation, the priesthood was confined to one\ntribe, and the sacred crown was worn by one man; but since the\nrending of the veil that shrouded the Holy of Holies, all Christ's\nservants, even the lowly woman, even the feeble child, become \"a royal\npriesthood,\" as well as \"a peculiar people.\" The \"crown of life\" is for\nthose\u2014for all those who love the Lord Jesus supremely. The song of the\nredeemed is a chorus of thanksgiving unto Him who \"hath made us kings\nand priests unto God and His Father.\" Surely it is in allusion to the\ninscription upon Aaron's mitre that it is written of the blessed in the\nkingdom of Christ, \"His name shall be in their foreheads,\" according to\nHis own gracious promise, \"I will write upon him the name of My God.\"\n\nThere is, even in this world, a sealing, a marking of the servants of\nChrist, which conveys an idea both of dignity and of consecration. Very\nremarkable is that passage in Ezekiel which records the vision granted\nto the seer of the mysterious One whose \"likeness was as the appearance\nof fire;\" and the six, each with a slaughter-weapon in his hand, who\nsignify the ministers of God's vengeance: \"The glory of the God of\nIsrael was gone up from the cherub, whereupon He was, to the threshold\nof the house. And He called to the man clothed with linen . . . And\nthe Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the\nmidst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that\nsigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst\nthereof. And to the others He said . . . Go ye after him through the\ncity, and smite . . . but come not near any man upon whom is the mark.\"\nThe ministers of wrath were to spare God's people, marked as those who\nin the midst of a sinful generation mourned for the general corruption,\nand by doing so, showed that they at least valued and desired \"holiness\nunto the Lord.\"\n\nThis inscription, the sentence graven upon Aaron's mitre, is, then,\nwhat all God's servants should wear\u2014it is for them a distinguishing\nmark. But does this appear to be the case; is \"holiness unto the Lord\"\nthe visible sign and seal of the Christian's high calling? There are\nmany who are recognized as active, honourable, useful, zealous servants\nof God, but how few could we single out as being eminent for holiness!\n\nAnd how, it may be asked, can holiness be defined? As that purity of\nthought and heart which the Spirit alone can bestow; that abhorrence\nof sin which is something far higher than mere abstinence from sin.\nThe man who bears the stamp of holiness, will detect and grieve over\nthe lightest stain upon conscience; the coarse allusion, however\nwitty, the drunkard's song, or the scoffer's jest, will never raise a\nsmile on his lips: nor are they so likely to be heard in his presence;\nfor the world, like Alexander, is often constrained to pay homage\nwhere holiness is legibly inscribed, and the silence of one whose\nhabitual walk is with God, impresses more than the open rebuke of a\nmore inconsistent believer. Deep reverence for God and God's Word is\nan accompaniment of \"holiness unto the Lord;\" the heavenly-minded\nChristian will not jest with sacred things, nor lightly use quotations\nfrom Scripture.\n\nIt is the holy Christian, or to use the much abused, yet most\nexpressive Scripture term, the \"saint,\" who earnestly endeavours to\n\"bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.\" How\nmarvellous is that constant current of thought flowing through every\nmind, silently, secretly, like a narrow stream between banks so steep\nthat we cannot catch a glimpse of its course, and can but trace it\nby the vegetation on either side, as our usual current of thought is\njudged of by our words and our actions! How often, when seated amongst\nsilent companions\u2014as, for instance, when travelling with strangers\u2014have\nwe reflected how interesting it would be, could we gain a glimpse of\nthat stream of thought passing unceasingly through each brain; could\nwe know whether it sparkles with hope, or \"flows deeply and darkly\"\nin shadow; whether it bears along golden grains of holy meditation,\nor mere bubbles of folly to break at a touch, or if the current be\nfetid and polluted with ideas that the lips would not dare for shame\nto form into words! Could the thoughts of the travellers in one\nrailway-carriage, during a single hour of silence, be so photographed\nas to become visible to all, how marvellous would appear the difference\nbetween those of the worldling and those of the saint; though, alas!\nthe musings of the holiest child of Adam would be found no pure and\nuntainted stream, reflecting Heaven perfectly within its crystal depths.\n\nThe contrast would be yet more striking were the thoughts thus laid\nopen to view those which had flowed during an hour of public worship.\nThe posture of the body, the words of the mouth, might be the same, but\nthe current of thought would appear as different in individuals, as\nthe pestilential drainage from a marsh from the clear brooklet bearing\nhealth and fertility wherever it flows. It is impossible for us to\nobtain this glimpse of the stream, this knowledge of the thoughts in\nthe minds of others, but have we ever endeavoured to gain it as regards\nour own? Have we tried to retrace the windings of the current for\none single hour, and so enabled ourselves to estimate more correctly\nwhether God's grace has in any degree purified \"the issues of life,\"\nand imparted to our souls some measure of \"holiness unto the Lord\"?\n\nIs such purity of thought actually requisite for\u2014actually indispensable\nto a true Christian? To judge by the standard of the world, even\nthat which is called the religious world, we should at once conclude\nthat it is not. The pre-eminently spiritual Christian stands almost\nas singular amongst his brethren as did the high priest of Israel\namongst the sons of Levi. But is not this because Christians live\nbelow their privileges, so that comparatively few let their light so\nshine before men that God is glorified in His saints? Let us, ere we\nclose our meditations on Aaron's mitre and its inscription, earnestly,\nprayerfully, revolve the solemn exhortation addressed to the servants\nof Christ: \"Follow peace with all men, and HOLINESS, without which no\nman shall see the Lord.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXIII.\n\nBalaam's Staff.\n\nIT is with a sigh that we look on aught that reminds us of Balaam, the\nhighly honoured, the highly gifted\u2014he \"which heard the words of God,\nand knew the knowledge of the Most High, which saw the vision of the\nAlmighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open.\" In Balaam\nwe behold a mournful example of light without heat, knowledge without\npractical wisdom, the gift of prophecy without that more excellent gift\nof charity.\n\nHere is the staff which Balaam grasped when eagerly setting forth upon\nhis unholy errand, desiring to curse those whom he knew that his God\nhad blessed. What was in the heart of the seer, when, with repeated\nblows from that staff, he strove to urge forward the reluctant,\nfrightened ass which he rode? Not jealousy for the honour of God\u2014not\nimpatience to carry the blessing of religious knowledge to Moab; but\none absorbing desire for his own advancement\u2014his own profit, though\nat the cost of the misery and the ruin of God's chosen people! Most\nforcible is the expression used by one of our most talented writers to\ndescribe a character utterly selfish, such as that of Balaam appears to\nhave been: \"A selfish man's heart is 'just the size of his coffin;' it\nhas room to contain but himself.\" A description which presents to us an\nimage not only of narrowness, but of death.\n\nBalaam was one whose conduct belied his words. He was as a branch\ndrawn back by main strength, but as soon as the outward pressure is\nremoved, returning\u2014springing back into its natural position. Fear was\nto him as a strong force drawing him back from sin, but only as long\nas the pressure remained. \"Let me die the death of the righteous, and\nlet my last end be like his!\" Such was the aspiration on the lips of\nthe prophet; but thoughts of covetousness, followed by an act of sin\nand the shameful death to which it led, make the history of Balaam a\nterrible warning to inconsistent professors of religion throughout all\nages.\n\nIt is, then, possible that a man may preach to others, and yet be\nhimself a cast away; that he may be admired, followed, looked up to\nas a leader in religion, and yet have no real life in his faith. He\nmay guide others to wealth, yet be himself miserably poor! There is an\nanalogy between the fate of such a man and that of Rose and Dietz, two\nexplorers in North America, who discovered a creek so rich in gold,\nthat its treasures have, for four years in succession, maintained more\nthan sixteen thousand people, some of whom have left the country with\nlarge fortunes. *\n\n   * \"The North-West Passage by Land,\" by Milton and Cheadle.\n\nSurely those whose feet first trod this land of gold\u2014those who led the\nway where thousands have triumphantly followed, must have turned their\nknowledge into boundless wealth, and have been amongst the richest of\nmankind! So we might well conjecture, till we read the record of their\nfate. Dietz returned unsuccessful to Victoria, where he was struck down\nby fever, and obliged to receive help from charity. The fate of Rose\nwas sadder still. He \"disappeared for months; and his body was found at\nlength by a party of miners in a journey of discovery, far out on the\nwilds. On the branch of a tree hard by hung his tin cup, and scratched\nupon it with the point of a knife, was his name and the words, 'Dying\nof starvation!'\" Did visions flit before the eyes of the famishing\nman of the vast wealth which he had discovered, but never enjoyed\u2014of\nthousands feasting on the golden harvest to which he had guided them,\nwhile not a single crumb was his portion to save him from a terrible\ndeath!\n\nDarker must have been the thoughts of Balaam, if time for thought was\nleft, as his life-blood ebbed away where he lay involved in the fate\u2014as\nhe had been in the guilt\u2014of the enemies of the Lord! To him had been\nrevealed mysterious treasures of knowledge\u2014his eyes had been opened,\nhis mind enlightened. To him the Almighty had spoken\u2014to him an angel\nhad appeared\u2014to him had been vouchsafed a prophetic glimpse of the Star\nthat should come out of Jacob, the Sceptre that should rise out Of\nIsrael. If knowledge had power to secure, or spiritual privileges to\nsave, Balaam surely would never have perished.\n\n\"Take heed and beware of covetousness.\" The warning is addressed to\nall, but it should come with peculiar force to those who are called\non\u2014in however narrow a sphere\u2014to deliver the message of God. Their lips\nmust not teach one thing, and their lives another; they must not guide\nothers to the glorious land, and themselves wander away to perish. If\nthey stand in a clearer light than most men, greater is their guilt and\ntheir condemnation if they sin against that light.\n\nCovetousness is a snare into which the enlightened, the honoured, the\nprivileged have fallen; it has ruined a Balaam amongst the prophets,\na Judas amongst the apostles. And yet how few dread its power over\nthemselves! To be in haste to grow rich, is perhaps the leading\ncharacteristic of men in this age: they are impatient of obstacles in\ntheir way, as Balaam at the stumbling of the beast that he rode; they\nsee not the opposing angel that stands before them with the warning:\n\"They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into\nmany foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and\nperdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXIV.\n\nRahab's Scarlet Cord.\n\nNO fragile cord this, the \"scarlet thread\" which Rahab fastened in\nher window. Its firm twist has borne the weight of the two Israelite\nspies whom this woman of a doomed race, strong in faith, saved from the\npursuit of their enemies. It was a moment of deep anxiety when Rahab\nled the spies to the casement in the darkness of night, and ere they\ndescended by that scarlet cord, earnestly pleaded with them for the\nfamily whom she loved.\n\n\"Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the Lord, since I have\nshewed you kindness, that ye will also show kindness unto my father's\nhouse, and give me a true token: and that ye will save alive my father,\nand my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have,\nand deliver our lives from death!\"\n\n\"Our life for yours,\" answered the men to their brave and generous\npreserver. \"Behold,\" they afterwards said, \"when we come into the land,\nthou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou\ndidst let us down by: and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother,\nand thy brethren, and all thy father's household, home unto thee. And\nit shall be, that whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into\nthe street, his blood shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless;\nand whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on\nour head, if any hand be upon him.\"\n\nThey were gone, those men of Israel; Rahab had faithfully performed\nthe duties of hospitality, of mercy, and now she remained awaiting in\ntrembling hope, the fulfilment of the promise which they had made.\nThere hung the scarlet line from her window over the wall of the doomed\ncity: on it was now suspended the safety of herself and her household.\nWe picture to ourselves Rahab watching from that window the miraculous\npassage of the Jordan by Israel's hosts under Joshua; the priests\ndescending into the bed of the river, bearing with them the Ark of the\nCovenant; and the waters standing on a heap to let the Lord's people\ngo over dry-shod. She beholds the multitudes of Israel,\u2014warriors and\nwomen, flocks and herds\u2014streaming across the dry channel of the once\nrapid river, a countless, an irresistible force, because under the\nimmediate guidance of Him who is omnipotent. We know what was the\neffect of the marvellous passage on the minds of the people of Canaan:\n\"their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more.\" Rahab\nmight tremble like the rest; but when she looked on that scarlet cord\nshe would yet thank God and take courage. Those terrible hosts of\nIsrael came not as enemies to her.\n\nThen followed the siege of Jericho, the city on whose wall stood the\ndwelling of Rahab. Day after day the woman of Canaan beheld that\nmysterious march of the Israelites round the city. Strange and terrible\nmust have appeared the solemn procession which for seven days moved\nround its walls. First came the seven priests with their trumpets,\npreceding the Ark of God. The warriors of Israel followed in stern\nsilence; there was no sound of voice from the hosts whose glittering\narms were consecrated to the terrible work of executing the sentence\npassed by a righteous God upon His guilty creatures. Despair would have\noppressed the soul of Rahab, who knew but too well that Jericho was\ngiven into the hands of its foes, but for that scarlet line, the pledge\nand token of mercy to her and all in her house.\n\nThe seventh day dawned, the last that the city of Jericho\u2014as it\nthen stood\u2014ever should see. Seven times the march of the Israelites\nencircled the walls. Then with what terror must the household, gathered\ntogether in the dwelling on the wall, have heard the blast of the\ntrumpet, followed by that thundering shout before which crashing fell\nbulwark and battlement\u2014all Jericho's pride and strength! Fearful\nsounds succeeded; slaughter was raging in the streets; the swords of\nIsrael were bathed in blood! Rahab and her family could not but have\nexperienced emotions of pity and horror, as shuddering they listened\nto those sounds; but they needed to have no feelings of personal fear:\nthat scarlet cord was to them a surer defence than strongest bulwark\nor loftiest tower; a surer defence than a phalanx of spears bristling\naround them. There was no danger to Rahab from falling wall or from\nenemy's sword; there was no stain on her threshold, no dying cry in her\nhome. By faith, she perished not with them that believed not. She lived\nto be a mother in Israel, by adoption one of the people of God, if,\nas is supposed, it was this Rahab who became the wife of Salmon, and\nthe mother of Boaz of Bethlehem, and thus an ancestress of the blessed\nSaviour Himself.\n\nWe naturally suppose that the scarlet cord would be preserved as an\nheirloom in the family at Bethlehem; that the gentle Ruth, herself a\ndaughter of Abraham by adoption, looked with peculiar interest upon\nthis relic of her husband's Gentile mother; and that young David often\ngazed with reverential awe on this memorial kept in his father's home\nof her who, in faith, preserved the Israelitish spies. We can scarcely\nconceive that such a family relic as this would lightly be cast away.\n\nThere is much that reminds us of Christ's Church, in the position of\nthe pale, anxious woman of Jericho, watching from her casement the\nIsraelites encircling the city doomed to destruction, she herself\nsecure in a promise, saved by faith, reserved for blessedness and\nhonour. A thousand years with the Lord is but as a day, and for nearly\nsix such periods has the silent, solemn march of events, brought nearer\nthe grand consummation before us. The Church knows that \"the day of the\nLord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall\npass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent\nheat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned\nup.\" She is listening with trembling expectation for the sound of the\n\"shout, and the voice of the archangel,\" and \"the trump of God,\" when\nthe earth shall reel to and fro, and the mountains shall shake, and\nthe mighty cities shall fall! She has nothing to fear in that day: the\nblood of Christ is her salvation\u2014the angel of destruction will see the\ntoken of living faith, and touch not the redeemed of the Lord.\n\nYes, faith in Christ is our scarlet cord, and there are two lessons\nwhich we may learn from the type. Rahab's cord was not left in her\ndwelling a useless coil; it was employed in God's service, and it was\nshown forth in sight of the world. What would the mere possession of\na scarlet line have availed to Rahab, if she had not used it in doing\nGod's work? Was not Rahab \"justified by works, when she had received\nthe messengers, and had sent them out another way\"? Nor was her scarlet\ncord hidden from men; it hung from her window over the wall. So should\nthe Christian's profession of faith be open: he should not only believe\nin Christ, but serve Him\u2014not only serve Him, but confess Him.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXV.\n\nGideon's Ephod.\n\nWE doubt whether the high priest of Israel, in all the glory of his\nfestival robes, wore so costly an ephod as this. His was, indeed, to be\nof gold and blue and scarlet and fine twisted linen; gold beaten into\nplates and cut into wires, with engraved jewels in ouches of gold to\nrest on the shoulder-pieces, very fair to the eye. But a heavier mass\nof magnificence is before us than even the consecrated garment of Aaron\nappears to have been; a marvellous weight of gold, such as a Cr\u0153sus or\na Darius might have worn to dazzle the eyes of their subjects.\n\nHad we asked one of the men of Ophrah in the days of Gideon concerning\nthis gorgeous ephod, his answer might have been something like this:\n\"Behold a nation's offering of gratitude to the hero who burst the\nbonds of Midian, and made Israel to triumph over their oppressors!\nGideon, the favoured of Heaven, the honoured of men! He to whom signs\nand miracles have been vouchsafed; he whose faith hath made him the\ndeliverer of a nation, yet who hath refused to become its king;\u2014Gideon\nformed this ephod. 'I would desire a request of you,' said our hero to\nhis warriors: 'That ye would give me every man the ear-rings of his\nprey.'\n\n\"And the warriors made reply: 'We will willingly give them.'\n\n\"A garment was spread to receive this tribute of gratitude to our\nchief, and thereon was cast mighty store of jewels and gold, and the\npurple raiment that had been upon the necks of the kings of Midian.\nThen made Gideon this ephod from the spoils of the conquered foe. Those\nwho look upon it shall hold his triumph in remembrance; it shall be as\na monument to his honour, worthy of him whose valour hath won it.\"\n\nSuch might have been the reply of one of the followers of Gideon,\ndazzled with the glory of his leader. Very different appears the\nephod of gold in the light thrown on it by this brief sentence from\nScripture: \"Which thing became a snare unto Gideon, and to his house.\"\n\nIt is difficult, at this distance of time, to know exactly the motive\nof Gideon in making the ephod, or in what way it became a cause of\nsin. It has been suggested that it was a symbol of Levitical worship\nset up by Gideon at Ophrah, which drew away the people from Shiloh,\nthe appointed holy place, where the high priest abode in charge of the\nark of God. Whether it were this irregularity, or whether a race prone\nto idolatry actually worshipped the ephod, has not been clearly made\nknown. We are simply told that the ephod was \"a snare.\" The hundreds of\nshekels of gold, the purple raiment and jewels, were no real blessing\nto Gideon; he was less safe when he had become the idol of a nation,\nthan when employed in threshing corn beside the wine-press to hide it\nfrom Midianite oppressors.\n\nPopularity, however honourably won, is too apt to become, to fallen\nman, like the ephod of Gideon; the garment of glory is often \"a\nsnare.\" If it led astray a man of character so pious, so noble, so\ndisinterested as Gideon, how much need have all God's servants, when\nplaced in a position of distinction, to take to themselves the warning,\n\"Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.\"\n\nThose who have earned for themselves an honoured name in what is\ncalled \"the religious world,\" are in a situation of peculiar danger.\nThe popular preacher, the eloquent author, the active philanthropist,\nmay, like Gideon, find a snare even in their nobly won honours. Howard\nshrank from the idea of a statue being raised to him; he was not a man\nto form jewels into an ephod, he would pour them all into the treasury\nof the Lord; but in most cases celebrity and distinction are very\nintoxicating to human nature, even when that nature has been renewed by\ngrace. To be listened to as an oracle, and appealed to as a judge; to\nbe welcomed in high circles, flattered by the gifted and followed by\nthe good, is fraught with peril; all the more real because it is not of\na nature to startle conscience, but rather to soothe it to sleep. Those\nof whom all pious men think well, are naturally tempted also to think\nwell of themselves. It is desirable for such to keep before their eyes\nthe golden ephod; \"which thing became a snare unto Gideon.\"\n\nEven in the comparatively narrow sphere of home there is some danger\nto him who is the idol of the family, the pope in the dwelling, to him\nwhose will is law to those who love him, and in whose conduct partial\neyes can see nothing that is wrong. Love has its own sweet flattery,\nand he who is constantly exposed to its influence, without the\nwholesome antidote of the contradiction and opposition to be met with\nin the world, may seriously suffer from its effects. In the peaceful\nseclusion of private life, in a pious home from which temptation might\nappear to be almost shut out, there may be need to remember the golden\nephod; \"which thing became a snare unto Gideon.\"\n\nAnd in the inmost recesses of the heart lurks peril. When a Christian\nhas long maintained, through God's grace, a successful struggle against\nthe world, the flesh, and the devil; when the spiritual hero has\nresisted outward temptations and overcome inward corruptions, and is\nconscious that, like Gideon, he has triumphed nobly through faith,\u2014then\nlet him stand on his guard. How strong must be the temptation to form\nthe ephod out of spiritual trophies, when even St. Paul needed a thorn\nin the flesh to preserve him from being exalted above measure through\nthe abundance of the revelations vouchsafed him! Christian, in Bunyan's\nallegory, fought bravely in the valley, but slept in the arbour on the\nhill. Gideon gloriously triumphed in time of war, but in time of peace\nmade the ephod, which became unto him a snare.\n\nThe Christian's motto, in the days of spiritual prosperity as well as\nthe dark days of trouble, should be: \"God forbid that I should glory,\nsave in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXVI.\n\nThe Jawbone of an Ass.\n\nA GREATER contrast could scarcely be found than that presented to view\nbetween the last object of our contemplation and this. The golden ephod\nis gorgeous and fair; here we look on an unsightly bone, a relic of\nthe despised animal that crops the thistle, bears the burden and the\nblow. The jackals might reject it, the passenger's foot kick it aside.\nIt has in itself no beauty, no dignity, no value; and but for finding\nit carefully preserved in Scripture, we would not pause to give it a\nthought.\n\nThe practical lesson suggested by this bone contrasts well with that\ndrawn from the ephod: if the latter showed us the weakness of human\nnature even in the noblest of men, the former teaches us what God\ncan make of the most common\u2014most humble instrument. Through Him, the\njawbone of an ass became a more terrible weapon than the keenest steel\nhad ever been in the hand of the strongest man. Samson, after the\nvictory which he had won single-handed, exclaimed: \"With the jawbone\nof an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a\nthousand men!\" And then, as if even he despised the instrument which he\nhad used, when he had made an end of speaking, he cast the jawbone away.\n\nBut that which man threw aside, God had chosen for peculiar honour.\nSamson was to feel his own weakness in the midst of his strength. He\nwho had slain a thousand found himself ready to perish for lack of a\ndraught of water. The proud boast of Samson was soon followed by humble\nprayer:\n\n   \"Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of Thy servant:\nand now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the\nuncircumcised?\"\n\nGod heard the cry, and answered it by a miracle. The dead bone became\na spring of living refreshment: \"God clave an hollow place that was in\nthe jaw, and there came water thereout.\"\n\nOnce more the despised thing was eagerly raised by the hand of the\nmighty Samson. \"When he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he\nrevived: wherefore he called the name thereof Enhakkore,\" which is,\n\"The well of him that cried.\"\n\nThe wonders accomplished by means of this jawbone illustrate the\ndeclaration of St. Paul, which proud man is so slow to receive: \"God\nhath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and\nGod hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things\nwhich are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are\ndespised, hath God chosen.\" There is encouragement to the lowliest in\nthese words, and they may also serve as a rebuke to those who act in\nthe spirit of the man in the parable, who, possessing but one talent,\nhid it; that hopeless, apathetic, listless spirit, which those who\nfoster it are too apt to mistake for humility of soul.\n\nWe have seen the danger of self-exaltation, but there is a danger on\nthe opposite side; there is a cowardly shrinking from performance of\nduty from a sense of our own deficiencies. Even Moses fell into this\nerror: \"I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue,\" cried he, seeking\nan excuse for not undertaking the mission on which God would send him.\n\n   And the Lord said unto him, \"Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh\nthe dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord?\"\n\nAnd when Moses persisted in declining the office of which he felt\nhimself to be unworthy, \"the anger of the Lord was kindled.\" For\nwhatever work God gives His people to do, He will provide them with\nan instrument. There are those who say in their hearts, \"Had I but\nwealth, how largely would I give! How much good would I do!\" or, \"Had\nI but strength, how actively would I engage in the work of the Lord!\"\nHad Samson been like these, he might have exclaimed, \"Oh, had I but a\nsword in my hand, I would put these Philistines to flight!\" But Samson\nuttered no such idle exclamation; he caught up the nearest weapon at\nhand; he used what he found, though it was but an ass's jawbone, and\nGod made it effectual to put to flight the army of the aliens.\n\nSo the imprisoned Bunyan did not sit down in his prison despairing,\nmurmuring forth, \"Had I but 'liberty,' I would declare God's truth;\"\nnor, in our own times, Moon * exclaim, \"Had I but 'sight,' I would be\nuseful in my generation.\" No, the imprisoned and the blind both worked\nwith brave, hopeful resolution; and both have been enabled to do more\nfor God's glory and the welfare of mankind than have tens of thousands\nof Christians possessing the advantages lacked by these servants of God.\n\n   * This blind man has given portions of the Scriptures in embossed\nletters to those afflicted like himself in \"fifty-six languages!\"\n\nHope is classed by St. Paul with faith and charity: it is closely\nconnected with both. Christian Hope, born of Faith in the truth,\nthe power, and the mercy of God, gives energy to Charity in all her\nactive labours of love. \"Our Lord can make a weak instrument strong, a\nworthless instrument effectual; He could bless even 'that'!\" whispers\nHope, as she points to the jawbone so mighty in the hand of Faith.\n\nAnd thus still may the weary worker, disheartened by difficulties,\n\"faint, yet pursuing,\" drink in refreshment, and gain vigour for new\nefforts, like Samson, from the bone of an ass.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXVII.\n\nRuth's Barley-ears.\n\nMEEKLY stooped Ruth to gather up these scattered grains of the golden\nharvest which the servants of Boaz, the \"mighty man of wealth,\" were\nbearing home to his garners. But not the gleanings alone, but the\nfulness of the harvest also was to be Ruth's, by her union with the\nlord of the land; the fields in which the young widow in loneliness\ntoiled, were to become the possession of the bride.\n\n\"Blessed are the neck, for they shall inherit the earth.\" This is a\npeculiar promise, made to the lowly, of whom Ruth, bending down to\nglean in the barley-field, may be regarded as a type. In what especial\nmanner that promise is to be fulfilled in a future state we know not,\nbut it is an interesting subject for our musings to consider how the\nmeek are now \"gleaning,\" as it were, some ears of the rich harvest of\nwhich the full enjoyment will one day be their own.\n\nIt is the more needful for us to turn our thoughts to this subject,\nfrom meekness being little valued on Earth, though highly esteemed\nin Heaven. Men are apt to class it with a cringing, cowardly spirit;\nforgetting that Moses, who faced boldly both the wrath of the tyrant\nand the fury of the people, firm and lofty in soul as he was, is yet\ncalled the meekest of men.\n\nBut in what way do the meek, like Ruth, now glean the first ears of a\nplenteous harvest reserved for their possession hereafter?\n\nIn the first place, by that \"contentment\" which is proverbially better\nthan riches, the tranquil enjoyment of what God has bestowed instead of\nthe misery caused by cankering envy and restless ambition. While the\ncovetous man cannot be said to enjoy anything which he does not himself\nactually possess, and looks with pain rather than pleasure on the rich\nbeauties of property not his own, the meek already \"inherit the earth\"\nby \"the right of the eye.\" The delight afforded to the Christian by the\nfair landscape spreading before him, has been well described by Cowper:\u2014\n\n   \"He looks abroad into the varied field\n    Of Nature, and though poor, perhaps, compared\n    With those whose mansions glitter in his sight,\n    Calls the delightful scenery all his own.\n    His are the mountains, and the valleys his,\n    And the resplendent rivers; his to enjoy\n    With a propriety which none can feel\n    But who, with filial confidence inspired,\n    Can lift to Heaven an unpresumptuous eye,\n    And smiling say, 'My Father made them all.'\"\n\nSecondly, there is a special promise of the gift of \"wisdom\" to the\nhumble: \"The meek will He guide in judgment: and the meek will He teach\nHis way.\" This wisdom, \"which is from above,\" is shown in various ways,\nby those whose powers of mind are otherwise very limited, as well as by\nthe highly intellectual Christian. Those taught of God's Spirit have\nthe wisdom to set a right value on the things of eternity as compared\nwith the things of time; to choose the good and refuse the evil, to\nprefer what is perfect and imperishable to the glittering baubles of\nearth. This is higher, more sublime, wisdom than any mere intellectual\ntraining can bestow.\n\nAnd the wisdom of the meek is constantly shown in their way of\nreceiving rebuke from a fellow-creature, or chastening from the Most\nHigh. The word of counsel or of reproof which only stirs up anger in\nthe breast of the proud, is often of the utmost service to the meek:\n\"He that heareth reproof getteth understanding. A reproof entereth more\ninto a wise man than an hundred stripes into a fool.\"\n\nThe chastenings of God likewise, under which the proud spirit rebels,\nbecome blessings indeed when received with that meekness of wisdom\nwhich can say, \"It is the Lord; let Him do what seemeth Him good; His\nwill, not my will, be done.\" Surely such a spirit of true wisdom is a\nmost precious earnest of that spirit of perfect wisdom which will be\nthe portion of the blessed!\n\nThirdly, the meek have \"peace;\" not perfect, indeed, but as it were\ngleanings, of the heavenly harvest: \"The meek shall inherit the earth;\nand shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.\" Theirs is\nthe soft answer which turneth away wrath; \"only by pride cometh\ncontention.\" The meek \"overcome evil with good,\" and so show themselves\nfollowers of Him whose title is PRINCE OF PEACE.\n\nAnd lastly, it is in the hearts of the lowly that the Lord deigns to\nmake His abode: \"For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth\neternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with\nhim also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit\nof the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.\"\n\nSurely contentment, wisdom, peace, and a sweet sense of the Saviour's\npresence, are rich golden grains gleaned here of that harvest of light\nwhich has been sown for the children of light, which they will enjoy in\nperfection when the Church, the Heavenly Bride, is raised from grace\nto glory! Only gleanings, indeed, yet precious gleanings, and to be\ngathered by those who are ready, like Ruth, to stoop, to labour, and to\nendure.\n\nThe foot of Pride crushes these golden grains; Humility bends down,\ngrasps them by faith, and carries them home in her bosom. \"Learn of He,\nfor I am meek and lowly,\" said the Lord of the harvest; and it is for\nthe meek and lowly that the treasures of the harvest are laid up above.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXVIII.\n\nJob's Sackcloth.\n\nWHAT an aching, what a bursting heart throbbed under this, the garment\nof sorrow chosen by him who could once say, in the sincerity of his\nsoul, \"I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a\nrobe and a diadem.\"\n\nTo the history of Job, God's afflicted people have constantly turned\nin their hours of anguish. This sackcloth has, as it were, helped to\ndry up the tears of thousands; for who can say, \"My sorrows have been\ngreater than those of Job!\" Whose have equalled his\u2014and yet the Lord\nloved him through all, and out of all delivered him. So great was the\nvariety of the afflictions of Job, that under almost any burden that\npresses down the spirit, we can look to Job in his sackcloth and say,\n\"He also was crushed by the weight of this cross.\"\n\nIs poverty our trial, and poverty rendered more painful by contrast\nwith former prosperity? On Job it came with fearful suddenness, like\nsuccessive shocks of an earthquake. He had been a wealthy man. He had\nmultitudes of camels and oxen; the valleys were whitened with the\nthousands of his sheep. All his property was swept away from him, he\nwas left poor and bare upon earth. Yet could the ruined man meekly say,\u2014\n\n   \"The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of\nthe Lord!\"\n\nOr are we weeping sorely for the loss of one who was to our eyes as\nthe sunshine; are we in bitterness of soul because some sweet voice is\nsilenced in our home, and there is a blank left in our aching hearts\nwhich we feel that time can never fill up? Job lost all his children\nat once! Those whose successive births had given him fresh joy, new\nprecious ties to earth; those who had sported round him in childhood,\nand in youth received his counsels; those in whose happiness he had\nbeen happy;\u2014all reft from him by one stroke! Not one left to soothe his\nanguish by sharing it! Is it not a marvel that reason endured it, that\nthe patriarch's heart did not break indeed?\n\nBut we may lose those whom we have loved by a separation far worse than\nthat caused by death. This was a cross which almost crushed the spirit\nof Job: \"My friends scorn me: my kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar\nfriends have forgotten me. My breath is strange to my wife, though I\nintreated for the children's sake. All my inward friends abhorred me:\nand they whom I loved are turned against me!\" Where is the burden of\nfamily trial endured by a Christian now that can weigh in the balance\nagainst such a mountain of sorrow as this?\n\nIs our cross that of sickness and pain? We behold Job suffering all the\ntortures which the malice of a fiend could inflict, stretched on the\nrack of most acute suffering, and that for no brief space of time: \"I\nam made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed\nto me. When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be\ngone? and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.\nMy skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat.\"\n\nNor were Job's sufferings those of the body alone: his was the wounded\nspirit, the tormented mind, oppressed with fear, with temptation, and\nwith mysterious terrors: \"Thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest\nme through visions: so that my soul chooseth strangling, and death\nrather than my life. I loathe it; I would not live alway! The arrows of\nthe Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit:\nthe terrors of God do set themselves in array against me. Wherefore is\nlight given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul;\nwhich long for death, but it cometh not?\" Truly the spirit of Job, as\nwell as his tortured body, was clothed in the sackcloth of mourning!\n\nThe question naturally arises, \"Why was so good a man as Job thus\noverwhelmed with affliction; almost, as it would seem, abandoned for a\nwhile to the malice of the Enemy? God had Himself said of Job, 'There\nis none like him on the earth, a perfect and an upright man.'\"\n\nIt cannot be that Job was thus chastened only to show forth his\npatience in the sight of men and devils; great as was that patience,\nwe know that it wavered in the trial. Nor do we suppose that Job's\nmiseries were permitted only that he might be thoroughly humbled before\nGod; still less that he suffered only that his history might be for\nthe lasting instruction of the Church. All these advantages, indeed,\nfollowed; but the more we reflect on the subject, the more clearly we\nsee that some great, personal, and lasting benefit must have accrued\nto Job from every pang that he endured. There was a proportion between\nhis anguish and his subsequent joy. It is delicate ground on which we\nnow enter: it would be a perilous error to hold that sorrow of itself\nsanctifies; that because a man suffers much here, he must necessarily\nrejoice hereafter. So is it a perilous error to hold that any good\nworks of men's doing can ever earn Heaven.\n\nBut how clearly and forcibly the Rev. Mr. Arnot places before us the\nblessed effects of good works, not as a means of salvation, but as a\nprecious evidence of grace! \"As ciphers added one by one in an endless\nrow to the 'left' hand of an unit are of no value, but on the 'right'\nhand rapidly multiply in power; so, although good works are of no avail\nto make a Christian, yet a Christian's good works are both pleasing to\nGod and profitable to men.\"\n\nSo may it be with the sufferings which saints are called to endure\u2014not\nself-inflicted pangs, but trials appointed by God. Numerous passages in\nHoly Writ lead us to such a conclusion: \"Our light affliction, which\nis but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal\nweight of glory.\"\n\nYes; there is a mystery in suffering which we do not fully understand,\nnor perhaps ever will, until suffering is exchanged for bliss\neverlasting. Preeminence in pain appears to be connected with\npreeminence in glory. What was the answer of our Lord to those who\nasked for the highest places in Heaven? \"Ye know not what ye ask.\nCan ye drink of the cup that I drink of?\" We cannot fathom the depth\nof meaning contained in the words that even He, the Captain of our\nsalvation, was made \"perfect through suffering,\" but we know that the\ncup which He drained was one of unutterable woe. The very description\nof the saints in bliss seems to be the fulfilment of the blessing on\nthem that mourn: \"These are they which came out of great tribulation.\"\nTo them God hath appointed \"beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for\nmourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.\"\n\nThe fearful afflictions of Job remind us of the saying, that God, like\na human general, gives His best soldiers the most difficult post,\nplaces them under the hottest fire. There is a striking passage in the\nBook of Proverbs, which, it has been observed, makes a distinction\nbetween two metals, both precious, but one of nobler nature than the\nother: \"The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold.\" Both\nare exposed to the heat of tribulation, but the furnace-glow, the\nhottest trial, is that which the gold undergoes. If it be indeed thus,\nhow should long-continued prosperity exercise our humility as well as\nour gratitude! What the world regards as proofs of God's favour, may be\nrather signs of His indulgence for the weakness of His feebler saints!\nHe keeps on easy garrison-duty those whose faith is not yet equal\nto the greater hardships and perils, to be followed by the greater\nglories, of the battlefield of life. What a high post of honour was\nassigned by Him to the veteran Job! We look upon his sackcloth as the\nwarrior's uniform covered with decorations by the King of kings!\n\nThis view of the secret connection, in the case of the redeemed,\nbetween present pain and future pleasure, the \"evil things\" here, and\nthe \"good things\" hereafter, throws some light on the otherwise almost\ninexplicable mystery of the sufferings of idiots and of infants. These\nsufferings can neither be chastenings for wilful sin nor exercises of\npatience, yet they are permitted by a God of love who \"doth not afflict\nwillingly.\" How solacing to the affection, how strengthening to the\nfaith of parents witnessing the pangs of the innocent, to feel that, in\nsome way that we understand not, God makes the seed sown in tears rise\ninto the harvest of joy; that not one cry of pain from a baby's lips is\nuttered in vain!\n\nThus we may believe, dear afflicted brethren, that ye have indeed cause\nto rejoice in tribulation; that poverty, bereavement, depression, pain,\nthrough Him who led the way on the path of suffering, will all be found\nto enhance the joy and the glory of Heaven. Perhaps the depth of the\npit of woe may bear some proportion to the height of the monument to\nGod's love, for which its very mire and clay will furnish materials in\na future state of bliss. Therefore sorrow not as those without hope;\nnay, let your hope become brighter through your very sorrow, like the\nrainbow on the cataract which owes its beauty to the waters which seem\nin their furious washings to seek to sweep it away.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXIX.\n\nDagon's Stump.\n\nCONQUERORS are wont to hang up trophies of victories, the arms the\nstandards won from the enemy; it is as such a trophy that this\nmutilated, unsightly idol, or rather fragment of an idol, is preserved\nin the Scripture collection, a witness to the power of the God of\nsalvation, by whom at length all idols shall be utterly abolished, when\nthe knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth, as the waters cover\nthe sea.\n\nThe Philistines had won a great victory at Ebenezer; their foes had\nfled before them: there had been a very great slaughter; thirty\nthousand of the warriors of Israel had fallen on that fatal day, and\na terrible wail of woe had risen from the dwellings of Shiloh. The\nrejoicings of the victors were the more exultant from the fears which\nhad beset them before the fight began. The worshippers of Dagon had a\ndread of the power of the God of the Hebrews. The Ark of the Covenant\nhad, before the battle, been brought into the camp of Israel, and had\nbeen welcomed there as a pledge of certain victory. All Israel had\nshouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again; and the sound\nof that exulting cheer had reached the camp of the Philistines, and\nspread there a feeling of foreboding and alarm. The Philistines had\nbeen afraid, and they had said, \"God is come into the camp! Woe unto\nus! for there hath not been such a thing heretofore. Woe unto us! who\nshall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty Gods? Be strong, and\nquit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants\nunto the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men,\nand fight!\"\n\nThus with something like the courage of despair had the Philistines\nentered on the conflict. Victory seems to have taken them by surprise,\nand the more unexpected, the more welcome must it have been. Glorious\ntidings were borne to Askelon, loud were the rejoicings in Gath; Israel\nhad been signally defeated, the Ark of the Lord had been taken, the\nHebrew priests had fallen while vainly defending it. There was wild\nexultation in England after a Cressy, or an Agincourt, but there was\nan element in the triumph of the Philistines which was wanting to\nswell the joy of our ancestors; the victory of Ebenezer was not merely\nsuccess in a hard-fought battle between rival hosts or races\u2014it was\ndeemed the triumph of Dagon, the fish-god, over the God of Israel.\nIt was into the temple of Dagon that the Ark of the Covenant was\nexultingly brought, the noblest trophy of victory, a token of the\nconquering might of him whom the Philistines worshipped.\n\nBut God then, as ever, over-ruled the brief triumph of His enemies to\nHis own glory. When the priests of Ashdod arose early in the morning,\nto their horror they beheld their idol prostrate on the earth before\nthe Ark of the Lord. Surely this might have proved to them the folly\nof bowing down to that which had fallen before the symbol of God's\npresence. But the evident helplessness of Dagon seems to have made no\nchange in the infatuation of his priests. They set him in his place\nagain; he was still the god of the Philistines!\n\nYet more signally was the worthlessness of the idol to be proved in\nthe sight of his priests. When they arose early on the morrow, behold,\nDagon was fallen on his face to the ground before the Ark of the Lord;\nand the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon\nthe threshold; only the stump (or fishy part) of Dagon was left.\n\nHere was evidence calculated to convince even the most superstitious\nof the folly of idolatry. The head\u2014the supposed seat of knowledge\nand wisdom\u2014was wanting; the hands\u2014the emblems of power\u2014were broken\noff. Dagon had evidently no means of helping either himself or his\nworshippers. Might we not have expected that conviction of the\nabsurdity of adoring such an image would have flashed across the minds\nof the priests and people of Ashdod; that the temple would have rung\nwith the shout, \"The Lord, He is God! the Lord, He is God!\" Nay; the\nidol was broken indeed, but the stump remained to be venerated still!\nThe very threshold on which it had lain prostrate was for its sake\ntreated with respect. The miserable relic of superstition was still\nspoken of as \"Dagon our god!\"\n\nSuch infatuation might well surprise us, did we not so frequently see\nits counterpart now. The human heart still sets up its idol; the young,\nfull of hope and joy like the Philistines after their victory, pay\nhomage to the world, and expect from it those pleasures and delights\nwhich it is ever promising to bestow. Dagon has a lofty shrine, and\nmany bow down before it. Then comes some providential dispensation of\nsorrow, that opens the eyes to the fact that the world and the things\nof the world have no power to secure our peace. Have we not known such\na moment, when Dagon is seen prostrate on earth, and we feel that he is\nindeed but an idol?\n\nHappy for us if the knowledge make us turn to One who is over all, God\nexalted for ever!\n\nBut it is not always that sorrow and disappointment wean the soul\nfrom the world. We too often find Dagon set up again on his shrine,\nand as ardently worshipped as ever. Yes, even the gray-headed, the\nweary-hearted, who from repeated trials know the hollowness of the\nworld and its sinful pleasures\u2014who have, as it were, but the stump of\nthe idol left\u2014too often, even to the last, fondly worship that stump!\nThe dreary lament may be heard,\u2014\n\n   \"My days are in the yellow leaf\u2014\n      The flower, the fruit of love are gone;\n    The worm, the canker, and the grief\n                  Remain alone!\" *\n\nWithout one sigh of true penitence, one upward look towards Him who can\ngive rest to the heavy-laden.\n\n   * Byron.\n\nOur last subject of thought was sanctified sorrow, that sorrow which\nmust be succeeded by joy as\u2014\n\n   \"Morning is ever the daughter of Night;\" \u2020\n\nbut it is well to remember that there is also a \"sorrow of the world,\"\nthat \"worketh death.\" If God throw down our idols, it is not that we\nshould raise them again and adore them all broken and mutilated as they\nmay be.\n\n   \u2020 Tupper.\n\nRather be ours the prayer of the Christian poet:\u2014\n\n   \"The dearest idol I have known,\n      Whate'er that idol be,\n    Help me to tear it from Thy throne,\n      And worship only Thee!\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXX.\n\nSaul's Spear.\n\nREPEATEDLY do we read in the Bible of the javelin or spear of King\nSaul: it is, of course, impossible for us to know whether it is the\nsame identical weapon that is mentioned on each occasion; we may,\nhowever, take this for granted, as the mental eye rests upon this\nancient weapon, once grasped in the hand of Israel's first monarch, the\nunhappy Saul.\n\nOn three occasions that iron barb would have been stained with innocent\nblood, had not the king in his blind fury missed his aim. As David,\nthe hero-minstrel, sat playing before the king, the evil spirit came\nupon Saul, and, in a sudden paroxysm of jealous hatred, he attempted to\nsmite David to the wall. But the intended victim evaded the blow, and\nescaped from the fury of the king.\n\nAfter this proof of the malice and hatred of Saul, it is a sign of the\ntrustfulness of David's character that we find him again attempting\nto soothe with music the deep melancholy of the king. Once more David\nnarrowly escaped with his life from the javelin, which, aimed at his\nbody, struck the wall by which he had been placed.\n\nMany events had occurred between Saul's two attempts upon the life of\nDavid. The son of Jesse had distinguished himself in fight against the\nPhilistines; he had won the hand, as he had gained the affections of\nMichal, daughter of the king; Jonathan had by his influence induced\nSaul to swear that David's life should be safe in his hands; yet that\njavelin was again raised by the furious tyrant against his faithful\nsubject, the beloved husband of his child.\n\nOnce more that weapon was hurled by the king, and with yet more\nunnatural cruelty, this time against his own son, the noble Jonathan,\nwhose crime in the eyes of his father was fidelity to his friend. Never\nhad Saul more cause to thank God for undeserved mercy than when he\nreceived back that javelin unstained, not wrenched from the corpse of a\nmurdered son. It was as though the weapon refused to be the instrument\nof unnatural crime.\n\nThe last occasion on which we hear of the spear of Saul is one of\nsingular interest. Before us rises the hill of Hachilah, with the dark\nshroud of night around it, where Saul the king and his chosen thousands\nlie stretched in deepest sleep. The spear of the slumbering monarch is\nstuck into the ground close to his pillow. We almost wonder that Saul\nwith a conscience so stained by guilt, he being at the time actually\nengaged in an attempt to hunt David to the death, can sleep so soundly.\nHe does not see the forms that have approached the spot where he lies,\nhe does not hear the sound of their footsteps nor the stern whisper of\nAbishai, who stands with David beside him, \"God hath delivered thine\nenemy into thine hand this day: now therefore let me smite him, I pray\nthee, with the spear even to the earth at once, and I will not smite\nhim the second time.\" Saul's weapon may now be grasped by a hand that\nwill not miss its aim, and be wielded with a deadly force that shall\nmake no second blow needful. Surely the hour of vengeance is come! It\nis but just retribution that he who has thrice attempted murder with a\njavelin should by a javelin be smitten to the earth.\n\nSo human nature might reason, so human resentment would urge; yet\nDavid spares his enemy and reverences his king. \"The Lord forbid that\nI should stretch forth mine hand against the Lord's anointed!\" David\nonly takes the spear and the cruse of water from the bolster of the\nking, and bears them away as tokens that his foe has been in his power,\nbut that he has abstained from injuring one who has inflicted the most\ndeadly wrongs upon him.\n\nAs forgiveness is one of the most difficult of all graces to exercise,\nand yet is indispensable to the Christian, it is well for us all, as in\nthe sight of God, to search and try our hearts as regards our feelings\ntowards those who have offered us injury or insult. We may take it\nfor granted that no real Christian will deliberately seek revenge,\nand that there are few who habitually use the petition, \"forgive us\nour trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us,\" who will\nactually refuse pardon if entreated.\n\nBut I fear that we shall find that when the first ebullition of anger\nhas boiled over, and all appears quiet again, there is a residue\nof \"malice\" left behind in many a heart that is no stranger to the\nfear of the Lord. \"I forgive, but I cannot forget,\" is a very common\nexpression, and we may generally infer from it that dregs of ill-will\nremain, readily stirred up to embitter the spirit, and often to colour\nthe language and conduct.\n\nThere are few who have not something to forgive, few whose comfort has\nnot been assailed by the selfishness or envy of another. Have you, dear\nreader, suffered wrong? Perhaps you may reply, \"grievous wrong;\" but\ncalmly weigh what you have borne from the malice of men with what David\nhad to endure; with that spear before you as a reminder, think on what\nhe could suffer, and yet so forgive that not only did he twice spare\nhis enemy when in his power, but he poured forth a touching elegy to\nhis honour, in which not one of the errors of Saul was mentioned, not\none of his own wrongs recalled.\n\nWhen we receive injury, it is usually in our \"prospects,\" our \"peace,\"\nor our \"character;\" how was it with David? The man to whom he had\nrendered most essential services sought to ruin him, to blacken his\nfame; again and again Saul attempted his life; the king drove David\nfrom his home, hunted him like a partridge on the mountains, slew\nthose who had shown him kindness, and wounded him most cruelly in his\naffections by giving his wife to another! Beside such a mountain of\naccumulated wrongs, how small and trivial appear the injuries which\nwe may have had to sustain! If David, who had never heard the command\nbreathed from the lips of Him who Himself prayed for His murderers,\n\"Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you,\" if David could\nforgive even Saul, how can any Christian make excuse for harbouring\nresentment against any whom he thinks have done him a wrong!\n\nIf we look beyond second causes to the one first cause, the ordering of\nHim who maketh all things work together for good to them that love Him,\nwe shall see that no enemy can injure us, unless by drawing us into\nsin; that no wrong but will prove a blessing, save a wrong which \"we\nwill not forgive.\"\n\nIf our enemy seem to mar our worldly prospects, he is as the thorny\nhedge planted by God to keep us from wandering out of the strait path\nwhich leads through the valley of humiliation. If by a thousand petty\nacts of unkindness, he try our temper and mar our peace, he is the file\nin the hand of Him who maketh the wrath of man to praise Him; a file\nwhose roughness is to shape, polish, and prepare the living stones for\nGod's temple. If our enemy assail our character, then is his malice the\ncross which God bids us carry after the Saviour, who, though without\nspot or taint of sin, was accused of many things, condemned, and led\nforth as a malefactor.\n\nThose who, through God's grace, can forgive freely as they themselves\nask to be forgiven, will find at length that the thorny hedge will\nblossom into fragrance and beauty, the file prove but an instrument of\ngood, the cross bring them more close unto Him in whose favour is life,\npeace, and joy!\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXXI.\n\nJonathan's Bow.\n\nTHERE is pathetic interest in this memorial of Jonathan, prince of\nIsrael. When the mental eye rests on the unstrung bow once grasped in\nhis strong firm hand, we recall the touching lament of David over him\nwho fell on the mountain of Gilboa. \"How are the mighty fallen in the\nmidst of the battle! O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine high places.\nI am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou\nbeen unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women!\"\n\nThere are few characters in the Old Testament that stand before us in\nmore life-like reality than that of Jonathan, few that so much attract\nour sympathy and love. We think of him less as the hero, attacking\nalmost alone the Philistine garrison, or falling, covered with wounds,\nat the fatal battle of Gilboa, as the faithful friend, in close\ncommunion with one whom he loved as his own soul. We think of him going\nforth into the field at Ramah with his bow in his hand, to give warning\nto David, then lying concealed behind the stone Ezel; sadness on the\nprince's brow, stern sorrow in his spirit, but unchanging love in his\nheart. Touching is the account of that stolen interview between the\nprince and his persecuted friend, when they kissed one another, and\nwept one with another, till David exceeded.\n\nIn the love between David and Jonathan we see an exquisite picture of\nwhat friendship should be; and as Jonathan's constancy was put to a\nfar sharper test than that of the man whom he loved, let us for our\nown instruction examine a little into the leading characteristics of\nthe friendship of the prince of Israel. There are few amongst us so\ndesolate or so cold-hearted as not to have friendship for at least\none being upon earth; let us now try its strength and its nature by\ncomparing it with the deep, disinterested attachment of Jonathan for\none who was preferred before him, one who was to supersede him, the\nshepherd lad who was chosen to sit upon the throne to which the king's\nson seemed the natural heir.\n\nIn the first place, Jonathan's friendship had a \"religious basis,\" the\nonly one which can ensure stability. It was when David had appeared\nbefore Saul as a conqueror through faith, that the soul of Jonathan\nwas knit with the soul of David. Theirs was peculiarly friendship \"in\nthe Lord.\" In the last solemn meeting which was ever to be theirs upon\nearth, when Jonathan by the wilderness of Ziph sought out David in the\nwood, he gave religious encouragement to his friend, he strengthened\nhis hand in God.\n\nIs not that friendship wanting in the noblest attribute of which the\nbonds only regard this brief state of being? Are we indeed friends to\nthose with whom we never interchange thoughts on the highest subjects,\nthose whom we have never made the slightest attempt to draw closer to\nthe Lord? Affection is a most powerful lever; have we made use of it\nto elevate the character of those whom we love? Or do we flatter their\nfoibles, foster their vanity, make their very affection towards us act\nas a clog to their souls? There are times when unselfish attachment\nis best seen in not only \"strengthening, in the Lord,\" but tenderly\nrebuking.\n\n   \"Who speaks not needed truth, lest he offend,\n    Hath spared himself, but sacrificed his friend.\"\n\nJonathan's friendship was perfectly \"free from selfishness.\" Had there\nbeen in him the taint of ambition, covetousness, or envy, he would\nrather have been inclined, like his father, to hate than to love the\nyoung shepherd. Jonathan was of royal descent, the eldest son of a\nking; he must have been accustomed from youth to hear the voice of\nflattery, and to receive the homage of respect. Few readily part with\ndignity; but the son of Saul, without a murmur, apparently without a\nfeeling of regret, yielded place to the son of Jesse.\n\nAnd Jonathan was not only a prince but a hero; he had deservedly won\nboth popularity and fame. David eclipsed him in both. In the song of\nthe women of Israel\u2014 \"Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his\nten thousands,\" there seems not to have been even an allusion to the\ndistinguished courage of Jonathan. How a proud heart would have chafed\nunder such neglect! What drops of bitter jealousy would have poisoned\nthe friendship of most men in the position of the prince! Can we see a\nfriend of lowlier birth pass before us in the race of honour without an\nenvious pang? Are we perfectly content to let his fame eclipse our own;\nand do we feel nothing but pleasure in listening to praises bestowed\nupon him? Then is our unselfish friendship worthy indeed of the name!\n\nJonathan's attachment to David was \"firm under difficulties.\" The\nprince had duties to balance; he had to be submissive to the father who\npersecuted the friend. In a very remarkable manner Jonathan combined\nfilial respect to Saul with fidelity to David. His mild but earnest,\nand for awhile successful, pleading with his father, his remaining\nwith that guilty parent even after the tyrant had attempted his life,\nso that in death they were not divided, are beautiful traits in the\nprince. Saul was a persecutor\u2014a murderer; his conduct must have wrung\nthe heart of his pious son; but in life, as well as in death, that son\nseems to have kept near to his parent, without for one moment betraying\nthe cause of his injured friend.\n\nAnd, lastly, Jonathan's friendship was \"tried in trouble.\" He was no\nsummer-day lover, but a \"brother born for adversity,\" who clung the\nmore closely to David as the tempest raged the more fiercely around\nhim. Jonathan's was love strong as death. If our hearts be warmed with\nfriendship, is it holy, unselfish, generous, unchanging friendship such\nas his?\n\nWe are inclined, with David, to mourn over Jonathan, and feel that his\nfate was a hard one; that he suffered for sins not his own. But let us\nremember that the Lord reserves for those who love Him a far brighter\ncrown than that which Jonathan was not permitted to wear, and that it\nwas doubtless in mercy that he was called to close on Gilboa his brief\nbut glorious career, so that he survived not to witness the ruin of his\nhouse. *\n\n   * It is interesting to observe that while the family of Saul may be\ncompared to a blighted tree, the branch of Jonathan in later days\nbloomed into vigorous life. He left, as we know, but one little lame\nson; yet, centuries after Jonathan's death, we find his descendants\nnumerous. The names of twenty-five of them are given in the Book of\nChronicles, and of one of these it is written, \"The sons of Ulam were\nmighty men of valour, archers, and had many sons and sons' sons,\nan hundred and fifty.\" It is very probable that the descendants of\nJonathan may be living still upon earth. Is it quite impossible that\nSaul, the Apostle, the most illustrious of all the tribe of Benjamin,\nmay have been descended from another Saul through the prince whom in\nhis warm, self-denying affection he so mush resembled?\n\nJonathan's bow was as a type of himself. He was not as a weapon left to\nhang idle in a royal armoury, he was taken into the field of strife,\nhe was bent in the hand of the Lord; but the hand that bent supported\nhim still; his affections were strained like the tightened cord, but\nthey were strengthened to bear the sore strain; and the bending and\nthe straining were but to send the arrow of his hopes above an earthly\nsceptre or diadem, and fix them on higher joys, a crown that fadeth not\naway.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXXII.\n\nDavid's Harp.\n\nIT has been beautifully observed, \"In the Book of Psalms we have, if I\nmay reverently say it, the very prayer-book of our divine Lord Himself;\nwhich He inspired, which He Himself made use of, and has bequeathed as\nHis own book to the Church.\" We might also, speaking metaphorically,\nsay,\u2014The sacred harp on which David first played has never since been\nsilent; as the breath of God's Spirit breathed through its chords,\nits music has been the joy and the comfort of the Church through all\ngenerations; its mysterious sound was heard even in the awful hours of\nthe Crucifixion; * and never will it be silent, never will one golden\nstring be broken, till all the redeemed of the Lord join in the chorus\nof Heaven.\n\n   * Compare Matt. xxvii. 46 with Ps. xxii. 1.\n\nLet us recall some of the various periods when the now familiar psalms\nof David first burst from his lips as he touched his harp. The son of\nJesse probably acquired his skill on the instrument by practice, as\nhe sat watching his sheep in the pastures by Bethlehem, when he was a\nbeautiful ruddy-checked boy. David's fleecy charge may have been his\nonly auditors when first the sweet strain arose which has since been\nechoed by millions of human hearts. \"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall\nnot want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me\nbeside the still waters.\"\n\nBut the first occasion on which we have certain knowledge of David's\nplaying on his favourite instrument, is when his skill soothed the deep\ndepression of the half-mad king. \"David took an harp, and played with\nhis hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit\ndeparted from him.\" Gladly would we know what words were joined to the\nexquisite music which had such power to lighten deep gloom; perhaps\nno words were then heard, yet how often has a perturbed spirit been\nsoothed by such breathings as these: \"Why art thou cast down, O my\nsoul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I\nshall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.\"\n\nDavid appears to have taken his harp with him into the gloomy recesses\nof Adullam, as the companion and solace of his flight; for this is the\nstrain of his psalm \"when he fled from Saul in the cave.\"\n\n   \"Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth\nin Thee: yea, in the shadow of Thy wings will I make my refuge, until\nthese calamities be overpast . . . Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery\nand harp: I myself will awake early.\"\n\nUnder very different circumstances did the monarch of Israel strike the\nsounding chords of his harp when the Ark of God was carried in triumph\nfrom Kirjathjearim: \"And David and all Israel played before God with\nall their might and with singing, and with harps, and with psalteries,\nand with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets.\" Then indeed\nrose a sound of rejoicing. \"The singers went before, and the minstrels\nfollowed after; in the midst were the damsels playing on the timbrels.\"\nAccording to David's own striking metaphor, he who had \"lien among the\npots\" had become as \"the wings of a dove, covered with silver, and\nher feathers with yellow gold;\" and the harp of the king swelled the\nglorious chorus, \"Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered: let them\nalso that hate Him flee before Him!\"\n\nBut dark shadows were to succeed the glorious sunshine. Happier was\nDavid as the fugitive in the cave than as the king in the palace. When\nthe guilty but penitent psalmist bent over his harp, the tears of the\nstricken sinner, the bereaved father, may have fast dropped on its\nstrings as he uttered the cry for pardon and grace:\n\n   \"Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness: according\nto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions!\"\n\nCould we be permitted to possess any visible relic of King David,\nand to choose what that relic might be, it would not be the crown of\nRabbah, that was set on his head, the weight of which was a talent of\ngold; it would not be even the sword of Goliath, though with David we\nmight say of that weapon, \"there is none like that;\" no, surely it\nwould be the harp of the sweet singer of Israel that we would choose\nas the most precious relic of him whom God's Holy Spirit inspired. But\nwere that harp visibly before us, would it not appear almost sacrilege\nto lay a hand on its strings; would the mightiest or most gifted of\nmortals presume to waken its chords? Far, far better for us to have its\ndivine music preserved for us in the Scriptures, where the little child\ncan make it sound, and yet be not guilty of presumption; where it is\naccessible to all\u2014to the dying pauper on her sick-bed, as well as to\nthe crowned queen or mitred archbishop. The ragged child's Psalter is\ntruly more precious than the identical harp of King David would be.\n\nAnd we have a key to the divine harmonies of the psalms which those who\nfirst stood listening around David did not possess. The blessed name\nof Jesus sounds to us thrilling through all the deepest chords of his\nmusic. If the Psalmist's strain be mournful, a Saviour's sufferings\nare its theme. \"My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? . . . The\nassembly of the wicked have inclosed Me: they pierced My hands and My\nfeet.\"\n\nIf it burst into a loud song of triumph, its keynote is still the name\nof our Lord. \"Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of\nThy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou hast loved righteousness, and\nhated iniquity: wherefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil\nof gladness above Thy fellows.\"\n\nIt would be deeply interesting could we know how far King David himself\nunderstood the meaning of his own songs when, guided by the inspiring\nSpirit, he uttered dark sayings to the sound of his harp.\n\nLet us not quit this subject without alluding to the fact that the\nharp is the only instrument which is mentioned in Revelation as adding\nto the music of Heaven. * The elders beheld by St. John around the\nthrone of the Lamb had \"every one of them harps,\" when \"they sung a new\nsong, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals\nthereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood\nout of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made\nus unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.\"\n\n   * The trump of God, which shall awaken the dead, cannot be spoken of\nunder such a term.\n\nAnd again, recording his bright vision of the blessed above who bear\nGod's name written on their foreheads, thus writes the beloved Apostle:\n\"I heard a voice from Heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the\nvoice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with\ntheir harps.\" There again, we believe, will the voice of the son of\nJesse blend with the notes of a nobler instrument than that which he\nplayed upon earth; there may even we\u2014the weak, the wayward, we whose\nlips have been so cold in praise and whose hearts in thanksgiving\u2014lift\nup our voices with his!\n\n   \"Lord, I believe Thou hast prepared,\n      Unworthy though I be,\n    For me a blood-bought, dear reward\u2014\n      A golden harp for me.\n   'Tis strung and tuned for endless years,\n      And formed by grace divine,\n    To sound in God the Father's ears\n      No other name than Thine!\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXXIII.\n\nAbsalom's Hair.\n\nIT is not without a cause that a record is preserved in those\nScriptures \"which are written for our learning,\" of the magnificent\ngrowth of Absalom's hair, which, like a golden harvest, was cut by him\nevery year, and weighed, in the pride of his heart. It is remarkable\nthat this very hair, this mass of rich beauty, was, through God's\njudgment, the instrument of Absalom's destruction.\n\nWhen the prince fled on his mule before the troops of his injured\nfather, as Absalom was passing beneath a thick oak, the branches caught\nhis head, and suspended him between the heaven and the earth, while his\nmule passed on through the wood; and there in agony and terror hung the\nmiserable sinner, unable to release himself from the fetters of his own\nluxuriant hair, till death came in the form of a merciless kinsman, and\nthree darts were thrust by Joab through the heart of Absalom as he was\nyet alive in the midst of the oak.\n\nThere is no one in Scripture whose mortal beauty, is more vividly\ndescribed than Absalom's. \"In all Israel there was none to be so much\npraised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to\nthe crown of his head there was no blemish in him.\" And there are few\nwhose characters are represented to us as so loathsome and black with\nsin. This suggests a natural inquiry, Was the extraordinary beauty of\nAbsalom in any way a snare to his soul; was it a bane to him throughout\nhis life, as well as the immediate cause of his death?\n\nIn a certain subordinate degree, perhaps, we may find that it was\nso. Absalom's great personal attractions probably increased the\nweak, doating partiality of David for his unworthy son, while they\nmade it more easy for the prince to attain the object of his guilty\nambition\u2014\"he stole the hearts of Israel.\"\n\nShould we then represent beauty as a thing to be despised? Far from\nit. Beauty is the stamp which God hath set upon the wondrous works of\nHis creation; deformity only entered this world with sin, and in the\nrealms where sin is unknown, all will again be perfect beauty. Personal\ncharms, like rank or wealth, are a talent, for they undoubtedly bestow\ninfluence; and a blessed thing is influence used for God. There is no\nfairer sight than that of youth and loveliness united with \"the beauty\nof holiness,\" and devoted to the service of Christ.\n\nThe subject naturally opens out into that of personal appearance in\ngeneral, and a little reflection upon it may not be unprofitable to\nthose who possess few attractions, as well as those gifted with many.\nTo appear well is a common wish, confined to neither sex, nor to any\nstation or age. As beauty has its advantages and responsibilities, let\nus consider for a brief space, with Absalom's rich locks before us,\nwhat are some of the temptations to which it exposes its possessor.\nThey seem to be chiefly these\u2014love of dress, love of the world, love of\nadmiration.\n\nThe first of these, \"love of dress,\" may seem to be a folly better\nattacked by playful satire than by serious rebuke. It is not very often\nnoticed from the pulpit, though it can be very little pleasure to an\nearnest-minded pastor to see the pews like a tulip-bed before him,\nwhere, instead of being dressed with modesty and \"shamefacedness,\"\nChristian women seem to study how to evade the command to wear a\ncovering on their heads in the house of prayer, by making that covering\nas slight and as fantastic as may be. Even painting the skin is not\nunknown amongst the women of England, though she of whom it is recorded\nthat \"she painted her face and tired her head,\" is assuredly one of\nthe last whom our matrons or maidens would wish to resemble. A bold\nstyle of dress is so utterly repugnant to all our ideas of Christian\ndevotion, that we can hardly even imagine it to have been ever worn by\nthe holy women who ministered to our Lord.\n\nThe sums of money lavished on dress (nor is the reproach confined to\nthe weaker sex) is also a disgrace to Christian profession in a land\nwhere poverty abounds. I have heard that a lady (I am glad to say\nnot British) boasted that she spent a thousand a year on dress. She\nwould hardly have uttered that boast had she realized that upon her\nat that moment was resting the eye of Him who said to the rich young\nruler, \"Sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have\ntreasure in heaven.\"\n\nIt is, indeed, impossible to fix a rule as to how much it is lawful\nto spend upon dress, as the amount must necessarily vary according to\nmeans and station in life; it would be well, however, to determine\nnever to spend money on any mere ornament of the person, without giving\nat least an equal sum to purchase plain articles of clothing for the\npoor, to be bestowed \"personally.\" Were this simple plan adopted, one\nmay safely aver that the flannel and serge would be found to bring far\nmore pleasure than the jewel, the lace, or the plume; and luxuries\nwould be gradually relinquished, and that with no feeling of regret,\nfor the richer luxury of clothing the shivering forms of the poor.\n\n\"Love of the world\" is another evil to which those are peculiarly\nexposed whose attractions dispose the world to love them. To them there\nis an added gloss to pleasure; scenes of amusement are brightened by\nthe ready welcome which they ever receive there. The ornaments of\nsociety need even more than others to watch and pray lest they enter\ninto temptation, and to seek that grace which alone can keep them\n\"unspotted from the world.\"\n\nFor the \"love of admiration\" is in many minds not unlike the feverish\ncraving for intoxicating liquor which possesses the habitual drunkard.\nEager is the longing for the sweet poison of flattery, the excitement\ncaused by a sense of power over human hearts. And this leads to very\nserious evil. I am not referring only to the dark descent to actual\nvice, to which, in thousands of cases, the love of admiration has led;\nbut would earnestly protest against that common effect of it which\nmakes trifling with the happiness of others the favourite amusement\nof the vain of both sexes, under the name of flirting. One who would\nnot willingly set foot on a worm will often feel actual pleasure in\ninflicting the keenest pangs. Selfish vanity must be gratified at any\ncost to others, ungenerous as it is to desire to engross affection\nwhich cannot be returned. The man who prides himself on being a\n\"lady-killer,\" or the beauty who complacently counts up the number of\nher \"conquests,\" is making an unworthy and sinful use of the endowments\nof nature. I might quote to such the homely advice of the great Marquis\nof Montrose,\u2014\n\n   \"Let no one to more love pretend\n      Than he has hearts in store;\n    True love begun should never end\u2014\n      Love one, and love no more.\"\n\nBut I would rather take higher ground. This pride of beauty, this\nselfishness of vanity, is \"utterly inconsistent\" with a Christian\ncharacter; it is incompatible with the adoption of that spirit of\nChrist without which we \"are none of His.\" God's people are called\nto glorify Him in their bodies as well as their souls; and where the\nbeauty which He has bestowed becomes a cause of vanity, selfishness,\nand folly, its possessor may one day have reason to regret not having\nbeen a cretin or a dwarf.\n\nThere are two special antidotes to the spiritual poison which is\nconstantly offered to those in whom the world delights. The first is a\nrealization of the transitory nature of that beauty which passes away\nlike a flower; the second is meditation on that beauty which will abide\nfor ever. One great poet has, as it were, written the first on a skull;\nhe preaches his sermon in the churchyard. But it is more pleasant, and\nat least as profitable, to turn our thoughts from the dust \"sown in\ndishonour\" to what it shall be when \"raised in glory.\" We cannot but\nthink that outward beauty will then correspond with that which before\nwas inward; that they who have borne most of the Saviour's image in\ntheir hearts will bear most of that image visibly when we shall be like\nHim, for we shall see Him as He is.\n\nOh, what marvellous changes will appear on the day of the resurrection!\nThe wrinkled face, the decrepit form, the blemish, and the deformity,\nwill then, in God's saints, be exchanged for the brilliancy of immortal\nbeauty, beyond what thought can conceive! But how then will an Absalom\nappear? Let Nature's favoured ones turn from the looking-glass to God's\nWord, and test by that mirror of truth both what they are and what\nthey are likely to be; whether their goodliness be but as \"the flower\nof grass which passeth away,\" or be the faint, dim type of that beauty\nwith which God will clothe His redeemed, who, though now in the world,\nand perhaps admired and sought after there, are yet (like their Master)\n\"not of the world,\" nor look for their happiness in its vain pleasures\nor empty applause.\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXXIV.\n\nSeed Corn from Barzillai's Gift.\n\nTWICE is the aged Barzillai brought before us in Scripture. On the\nfirst occasion, when David, fleeing from his unnatural son, had with\nhis faithful followers crossed over Jordan, the Gileadite, himself too\nold to join in the approaching conflict, brought valuable help to those\nwho were to bear the burden and heat of the day.\n\nLet us notice the minuteness with which every article of the old man's\ngift is noted down in the Word of God, not even the homeliest omitted.\n\"Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim brought beds, and basons, and\nearthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched corn,\nand beans, and lentiles, and parched pulse, and honey, and butter, and\nsheep, and cheese of kine, for David, and for the people that were\nwith him, to eat: for they said, The people is hungry, and weary, and\nthirsty, in the wilderness.\" Considerate kindness was shown; the mind\nof the old man had revolved what would be most needed, and therefore\nmost welcome; his was a freewill offering, a timely offering, gladly\naccepted, and afterwards royally requited.\n\nAgain old Barzillai comes before us in Scripture, but not this time\nas bringing aid to a fugitive, but as welcoming a king at the head of\nvictorious forces. David was returning to reign when the venerable\nGileadite went over Jordan with the king. Then were the old man's loyal\nservices acknowledged and richly rewarded; his was the kiss, and the\nblessing, and the promise, \"Whatsoever thou shalt require of me, that\nwill I do for thee.\" That was a day of honour and of rejoicing to the\nfaithful Barzillai when his royal master returned in peace to his own.\n\nA few thoughts are suggested to the mind by the parallel between the\nposition of David's followers in their time of need, and that of\nChrist's soldiers now struggling in warfare against the powers of\nevil, especially as regards missionaries in heathen lands. This is a\ntime when many of the followers of our heavenly King are called, as it\nwere, into the wilderness. The missionary quits home and country, and\ngoes forth to do battle with idolatry in the dark places of the earth.\nWe read of the brave devotion of Ittai, who, when David would have\ndismissed him from sharing his perils, exclaimed, \"As the Lord liveth,\nand as my lord the king liveth, in what place my lord the king shall\nbe, whether in death or life, there will thy servant be!\" and we feel\nthat such is the spirit which should animate the Christian missionary.\nBut we need our Barzillais also, to strengthen the hands of those whose\nperils and hardships they are unable to share.\n\n\"What have I done to aid the missionary cause?\" is a question which\neach should solemnly ask his conscience. We rest in our comfortable\nhomes, on our tables are the honey and the butter, in our barns the\nbarley and the wheat. Have our offerings to our King, in the persons of\nHis servants, been proportioned to the means bestowed upon us by the\nrich bounty of God?\n\nHow much lies in that word \"proportioned!\" The widow with her two mites\ngave, we know, more than all the rich who cast into the treasury. What\nproportion does what we bestow on the cause of missions bear to what we\nspend on our pleasures? Are there not many who would be startled by the\nidea of its being their duty to subscribe to missions a sum equal to\nwhat they would, without a scruple, lavish on a single entertainment, a\npicture, or an article of plate?\n\nThe question of \"systematic beneficence\" rises before us. Some urge on\nus the duty of devoting a tenth of all that we possess to the Lord;\nothers would have us not mete out our charity thus, but would bid us\ngive as we have the power, whenever our help is required. It seems\nthat the adoption of either mode of giving should greatly depend on\nthe character of the individual, and that we should study our own\ndispositions, to know which we should make our own. There are some\nChristians whose zeal is so warm, whose hearts so liberal, that the\nidea of fixing upon any proportion as a rule would only chill and cramp\ntheir charity. When St. Paul was delighting to spend and to be spent,\nwho would have suggested to him that he should lay aside a \"tenth\"\nof his earnings for God! We do not measure out the waters of the\noverflowing river that pours its rich treasures through the land; we\nshould but mar its beauty by attempting to curb its windings and bring\nit to a uniform width. Let it contract here, or expand there; it is\never flowing onward, a type of the \"cheerful giver,\" whom God loveth.\n\nBut the bounty of many\u2014perhaps of most men\u2014is not so full or so free.\nIf we have not the river, let us dig the canal,\u2014that is, adopt the rule\nof systematic beneficence, mete out boundaries and fix embankments,\nnot to prevent the waters of charity from overflowing, but to prevent\ntheir being encroached upon by the sand of selfishness, the mud of\nworldliness. Thus has God walled in His Sabbaths, not to confine\ndevotion to one in seven, but (amongst other reasons) to insure a given\nspace for its exercise, from which earthly concerns should be carefully\nexcluded.\n\nThe Christian makes his business arrangements as if the week held but\nsix days, and inconveniences are thus avoided which would otherwise\noften arise. If he were in like manner to count but nine-tenths of his\nincome as his own, and systematically consider the remaining portion\nas not his, but God's, he would, in most cases, no more miss the\ntenth of his earnings than he now does the seventh of his days, and\nthe consecrated gold, like the consecrated Sabbath, would, with God's\nblessing upon it, yield a rich harvest through ages eternal.\n\nThe ease with which systematic beneficence enables us to give, is not\nthe only advantage accruing from it. It necessitates an increase in\ncharity proportioned to increase in our wealth. This is a point too\nmuch neglected. It might appear that a man whose income is doubled\nwould naturally also double the amount of his alms; that he who had a\nthousand a year would give much more largely upon its being increased\nto two. But it is to be feared that this is seldom \"practically\" the\ncase. Wants expand in more than equal ratio to the means of satisfying\nthem. The larger residence, the increased establishment, the better\nstyle of entertaining, place the richer man still in the position\nof living quite up to his income; the \"stereotyped guinea\" in the\nmissionary report has not at the end of the year become two, though\nsystematic beneficence might have raised it to a hundred without any\nsensible difficulty. The channel of the canal was not deepened and\nwidened \"at once,\" and the new supplies are sunk and lost in daily\nhousehold expenditure, or evaporate in ostentation.\n\nThe Jews were commanded to devote a tenth of their property to God;\nand it seems clear that a Christian cannot be required to do \"less\"\nthan a Jews who knew not, as we do, the \"grace of our Lord Jesus\nChrist, who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor,\nthat we through His poverty might be rich.\" There are many persons,\nindeed, who cannot maintain even their independence without a painful\nstruggle; to speak of systematic beneficence to such, would appear but\nmockery; \"faith\" must be their wealth, their offerings their \"prayers;\"\nbut we have our Barzillais amongst us, who, having enough and to\nspare, are bound by every consideration of gratitude and duty to give\nfreely\u2014liberally\u2014joyfully.\n\nThe time is coming when our King will return in triumph to His own.\nThen will the Shimeis who rejected Him and despised His cause fall down\nin terror before Him; and the wondering Barzillais find that their\ngifts of love, even to the \"lentiles and parched pulse and honey,\"\nnay, even to the \"cup of cold water\" given for the sake of their King,\nhave all been registered, and will be a thousand-fold requited by\nHim. Then will the deep adoring gratitude of the redeemed far exceed\nthat expressed in the words of the Gileadite: \"Why should the king\nrecompense me with such a reward!\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXXV.\n\nTemple Lily Work.\n\nIN the porch of King Solomon's magnificent temple stood two mighty\npillars of brass, nearly thirty feet in height: to the one he gave\nthe name Jachin, \"He shall establish;\" to the other Boaz, \"strength.\"\nThus would the royal preacher seem to teach all generations that to\nthe house of prayer we should come to be firmly established in sound\ndoctrine, and to receive strength to stand fast in the faith.\n\nBut we are not only told of the size and material of those stately\ncolumns, but of their ornaments also: \"The chapiters that were upon\nthe top of the pillars were of lily work in the porch.\" Such details\nwere not deemed too insignificant to find a place in the Word of\nGod. Now, the question of the amount of ornament to be desired in a\nchurch is not one into which I desire to enter, believing that where a\ndevout congregation worship God in spirit and in truth, it is of minor\nimportance whether the edifice in which they meet be fair as Solomon's\ntemple, or plain as the \"upper room\" in which the disciples assembled.\nLet us rather consider the beautiful lily work on the pillars as a type\nof that which is lovely crowning that which is lofty; the spirit of\nkindly sympathy towards our fellow-worshippers forming a complement and\naddition to exalted devotion towards God.\n\nWere we to ask the use of churches, we might receive the reply, \"They\nare buildings set apart for prayer, praise, and preaching, and the\ncelebration of the sacraments ordained by our Lord.\" This might be a\ncorrect, but it would not be a complete answer, unless it conveyed the\nidea of social worship, brethren meeting as brethren in the house of\ntheir Father, lovingly uniting their hearts and voices, as they hope\nto do in their home above. Much is it to be regretted that there is so\nlittle of this spirit of religious sympathy; that we have, as it were,\nthe pillars of brass without the lily work round them. There is often a\nchilling formality in places of worship, that makes us painfully feel\nthat the world has brought its distinctions and its vanities even into\nthe house of prayer. We see, perhaps, the large pew with its solitary\noccupant, while weary women are standing in the aisle; it is the piece\nof silver that admits to the seat, and those who are unable to bribe\nare treated as strangers, almost as intruders, in the place where,\nbeyond all others, they should find themselves welcome. Is it not\nconstantly the man \"in goodly apparel,\" the woman \"in gay clothing,\" to\nwhom it is virtually said, \"Sit thou here in a good place;\" while the\npoor must obey the implied though unuttered command, \"Stand thou there,\nor sit here under my footstool?\"\n\n\"Hospitality in church\" is not a subject likely to be treated of in\neither religious or moral essay; the very name might provoke a smile;\nbut I had once a practical sermon preached to me on the subject, which\nsank deeper into my memory than almost any sermon which I ever heard,\nwhich makes me venture to mention the trivial incident.\n\nMany years since, I entered as a stranger a church in Brighton.\nThe preacher was a very popular one, and I knew that I might have\ndifficulty in obtaining a seat, so I took the first which I saw vacant;\nit was a free seat, close to a wall. I soon found that my position\nwas a very undesirable one as regarded comfort; a large air-hole was\ndirectly in front, probably intended to warm the church with hot air,\nbut that which rose up, almost under my feet, was the chilling breath\nof November.\n\nI merely state the circumstance to introduce mention of the conduct\nof two ladies, perfect strangers to me, between whom I chanced to be\nseated. The one on my left hand surprised me by offering to change\nplaces with me: as there was no reason why she should be exposed to the\nchilling draught rather than myself, I of course declined her offer.\nI know not whether the lady on my right was related to the other, but\nshe was at least her sister in kindness; for she lent to me, an utter\nstranger, her handsome fur tippet to place over my knees, to protect me\nfrom cold.\n\n\"A very trivial incident indeed,\" may be said; but when I consider its\neffect upon my own mind, I cannot look upon it as so trivial: often and\noften has the example of those ladies recurred to me in church. I heard\nan eloquent sermon on that November day in Brighton; but I derived at\nleast as much benefit from the conduct of two of the congregation.\nI asked myself why they should be so kind to me, a stranger, and\nconcluded that they were not of those who merely attend church to keep\nup a cold, heartless form of devotion, but that they had felt the\n\"genial\" influence of Christianity while uniting in social prayer. With\nthem the pillars of brass lacked not the lily work on the chapiter.\n\nChurch is a place that often affords opportunity for the exercise of\nthe little courtesies of life. The proffered scat, the church-book\nlent, the place in the hymn-book found for the deaf, the guiding hand\nheld out to the blind,\u2014these are trifling things in themselves, but\nthey warm the heart of strangers, and make devotion itself more earnest\nby contact with Christian kindness. In church, selfishness and pride\nare peculiarly repulsive; we should feel the connecting link which\nbinds together those who are one in Christ; we should see that our\nreligion is one of humility and love. Solomon's noble pillars would\nhave looked cold and hard but for the graceful lily work which crowned\nthem; it might not, indeed, add to their strength, but it greatly\nenhanced their beauty.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXXVI.\n\nThe Widow's Cruse.\n\nWHO, on first glancing at this homely piece of earthen-ware, an\noil-cruse, with nothing to distinguish it from thousands used in the\ndwellings of the poor, would connect it with a miracle? Yet day after\nday, for the space of years, was it mysteriously supplied, while the\nprophet Elijah, the widow and her son, were fed on the store never\nfailing.\n\nWe know not whether the oil within multiplied itself like the bread in\nthe hands of the Lord's disciples, or whether an angel, pleased to be\nemployed on such a mission of mercy, each night replenished an empty\ncruse. How the miracle was wrought matters not to us; the widow who had\nobeyed the word of the man of God, who had been willing to share her\nlittle with him, found that little increased to an inexhaustible supply.\n\nWhat hallowed meals must have been those partaken of in the cottage at\nSarepta, where Elijah was the guest, and where every morsel of the food\non the board was a pledge of the peculiar favour of God!\n\nThe widow of Sarepta was evidently a woman of faith, and we believe\nthat her grace was renewed day by day, like the oil in her cruse. Yet\nit is not impossible that her faith, like that of the Israelites when\nthey were fed by manna from Heaven, like our own amid a thousand proofs\nof the watchful providence of God, may have known times of wavering\nand weakness. The widow would but have resembled others, if at some\ntime she had looked with anxious fear even at this cruse so constantly\nsupplied, and had thought, \"How small it is, how unable to contain more\nthan enough for the wants of a day! It is true that I have never yet\nfound it empty, but what if it should fail at last! The heavens are\nstill like brass, and the earth like iron; no rain has fallen\u2014or is\nlikely to fall; others wealthier far than me are perishing around me!\nIf this oil and meal should fail, whither could I turn, to whom could\nI go? I should see my only son wasting with hunger before my eyes! Oh,\nhow fearful would be the fate before us if the oil in this cruse should\nfail!\"\n\nWe can at once see the unbelief, ingratitude, and folly of such fears,\nif ever the widow entertained them; but are not such fears common\nguests within our own bosoms? What had the widow's hopes to rest on?\n\"Experience\" and a \"promise.\" And have not we the same? Have we not\nexperienced that God can and will help us; that He has brought us\nthrough past troubles; that He has known how to fill the cruse in time\nof need, though He may not cause it to overflow, nor give more than\nsufficient for the wants of the day? And have we not His promise, \"Seek\nye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to\nyou. Take no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take care for\nthe things of itself?\"\n\nWe are slow to trust God's providence and love. We would have visible\nstores laid up for the future; we are not content with the cruse. While\nwe torture ourselves with the thought, \"What if at last it should\nfail?\" We need the Saviour's reproof, \"Ye of little faith, wherefore\ndid ye doubt?\"\n\n\"Give us this day our daily bread.\" There is a lesson conveyed in\nthese words of the prayer put by our Lord Himself into the mouths of\nHis servants. We ask\u2014not for luxuries\u2014but \"bread;\" we ask not for\nstores, but for \"this day's\" supply. It is more difficult for us, in\nour artificial state of society, to exercise the simplicity of faith\nas expressed in this prayer, than it was for the first disciples. We\nmultiply our wants, and are discouraged if they be not abundantly\nsupplied. It is no common attainment to be able from the heart to say\nwith the apostle, \"I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith\nto be content.\"\n\nIt is not only for the supply of our earthly need that we should look\nwith calm trust to God. There are those who have never known what it is\nto want anything that money can buy, who yet require to reflect on the\nwidow's cruse in order to strengthen their faith. We are oppressed with\nfears for the future: \"If that trouble come upon me, how shall I meet\nit? If that sorrow be sent, how shall I bear it? Will not grace fail\nunder such a temptation?\"\n\n   \"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within\nme? hope thou in God: far I shall yet praise Him.\"\n\nHath He not said, \"As thy days, so shall thy strength be?\" May we not\n\"come to Him boldly, for grace to help in time of need\"? We are indeed\nbut weak and frail, earthly vessels that have held but little; but the\nblessing of God, if vouchsafed to us, will make us even as the cruse at\nSarepta\u2014grace will secretly be supplied, by means of which the world\nknows nothing.\n\nAnd let us remember that the famine time will not last for ever; the\nday draws near when there will be a sound of an abundance of rain.\n\"Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down\nrighteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation,\nand let righteousness spring up together; I the Lord have created it.\"\nGrace and peace will not then be meted out, as it were, drop by drop,\nbut flow as the river, and as the waves of the sea; the supply in the\ncruse will be exchanged for measureless joy, the handful of meal for\nthe banquet prepared in the mansions of bliss!\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXXVII.\n\nElijah's Letter.\n\nOVER this letter a strange mystery hangs, such as is attached to no\nother writing of man. This is a letter to King Jehoram, a letter of\nstern rebuke, of terrible denunciation: it stands as a death-warrant\nissued by the Almighty on the idolater, the oppressor, the murderer,\nwhose hands were stained with the blood of his six brethren, the sons\nof the noble Jehoshaphat.\n\nBut by whom was this letter written? The Bible informs us by Elijah;\nbut\u2014before Jehoram had ascended the throne, or had committed his\nfearful crime, Elijah the prophet had gone up to Heaven in a chariot\nof fire! Hence arises a difficulty which has perplexed the minds of\nthe learned, and which has given rise to various conjectures. Some\nhave imagined that for Elijah we should read Elisha; but, as has been\nforcibly remarked, \"we have no evidence whatever that any mistake has\nbeen made by the copyists, but all the evidence lies on the other side.\nThe Septuagint version, which was very early made, and very widely\nspread, has it Elias\u2014that is, according to Greek, 'Elijah'; and not\nElisha, which latter word in Greek is 'Eliseus'. Again, the Jewish\nhistorian Josephus, referring to this event, has expressly the word\nElijah.\"\n\nKr\u00fcmmacher appears to hold that the mysterious writing actually came\nfrom the world of spirits; that that hand which had never known\ncorruption had traced the letters denouncing judgment upon a most\nwicked king. There is a third conjecture, which seems to bear with it\nmuch of probability; that the prophet, foreknowing both the crimes of\nJehoram and their punishment, wrote the letter before his ascension,\nand left it to be delivered in the ripeness of time. If either of these\nlatter conjectures point to the actual fact, what a solemn interest\nattaches to this message from the departed, the letter to a monarch of\nearth from one who dwelt upon earth no more!\n\nIt is interesting to reflect on the power and influence which writings\nmay possess after the death of the writer, nay, in consequence of\nhis death. A parent's letter, received after his departure from this\nstate of being, may penetrate a heart that was closed against all the\nwarnings of that parent when alive. We set an especial value upon\n\"last\" messages, \"last\" words; they are like proofs of an engraving\nmade more precious from the plate being broken.\n\nAn instance is given by the traveller Palgrave of a writing left as\na legacy, in itself so beautiful, and written under circumstances so\ninteresting, that I cannot forbear transcribing the greater part of it.\nThe reader will, I trust, forgive what may appear as a digression.\n\nPalgrave received the following account, on the occasion of his visit\nto Moharreb, an island on the eastern coast of Arabia, from a learned\nArab named Mogheeth, who was scarcely able to finish his recital from\nthe emotion which it caused him.\n\nThe famous Ahmed el Ghazalee, native of Toos in Persia, a poet who\nlived in the twelfth century, said one day to his disciples, \"Go and\nbring me new and white garments, for the King hath summoned me to his\npresence.\"\n\nThey obeyed, and on their return they found their master lifeless.\nBy the side of the corpse lay a paper, on which were inscribed the\nfollowing lines. It is impossible not to be struck with the spirit\nbreathing through the poetry, which appears not to be Mohammedan, but\nChristian. Some of the ideas seem actually to be gleaned from the\nwritings of the apostles; there is St. Paul's sublime view of death,\nSt. John's lofty revelation of God as love, though there is no allusion\nto the great doctrine of justification by faith. As the religion of\nChrist prevailed in early ages in the islands of the Persian Gulf, we\ncannot but think that it left traces behind, as the \"garden flower\ngrows wild\" where it once was carefully cultivated, springing up in\ncongenial soil, though no longer tended by man. These are the lines by\nwhich the dead Ahmed el Ghazalee spake, as if from the realm of spirits:\n\n   \"Tell my friends who behold me dead,\n    Weeping and mourning my loss awhile,\n    Think not this corpse before you myself;\n    That corpse is mine, but it is not I.\n    I am undying life, and this is but my body,\n    Many years my house, and my garment of change.\n    I am a bird, and this body was my cage;\n    I have winged my flight elsewhere, and left it for a token.\n    I am a pearl, and this my shell\n    Broken open and abandoned to worthlessness.\n    I am a treasure; this was a spell\n    Thrown over me, till the treasure was released in truth.\n    Thanks be to God who has delivered me,\n    And has assigned me a lasting abode in the highest.\n    There am I now the day conversing with the happy,\n    And beholding face to face unveiled Deity;\n    Contemplating the Mirror wherein I see and read\n    Past and present, and whatever remains to be.\"\n\n        *        *        *        *\n\n   \"I have journeyed on, and left you behind;\n    How could I make an abode of your halting-place?\n    Ruin then my house, and break my cage in pieces,\n    And let the shell go perish with kindred illusions;\n    Tear my garment, the veil once thrown over me,\n    Then bury all these, and leave them alike forgotten.\n\n   \"Deem not death\u2014death, for it is in truth\n    Life of lives, and goal of all our longings.\n    Think lovingly of a God whose name is Love,\n    Who joys in rewarding, and come on secure of fear:\n    Whence I am I behold you, undying spirits like myself,\n    And see that our lot is one, and you as I.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXXVIII.\n\nJonah's Gourd.\n\nWE look on a dry and withered thing, killed by the worm, shrivelled\nby the heat. Not so appeared the plant when its broad leaves, full of\nlife and beauty, afforded a cool green shade to the prophet Jonah. The\ngourd formed a kind of bower, under the shadow of which the weary could\nrest, and was thus a beautiful emblem of that charity which \"covereth a\nmultitude of sins.\"\n\nIt was a worm at the root which destroyed it; and when we read in the\nsacred story how, with Jonah himself, charity was so dried up and\nwithered that God's mercy to thousands could afford him pain instead\nof joy, we naturally ask,\u2014What was the worm at the root with him? If\nwe search a little under the surface, we shall find that the worm was\n\"pride;\" and that, not only with Jonah, but too often with ourselves,\nhidden pride eats the life out of charity, and leaves but a dry,\nsapless skeleton, worthless in the sight of God and His angels.\n\nThere is something to admire, but little to love, in Jonah, as his\nportrait stands in the gallery of Scripture, drawn by his own vigorous\nhand. We admire the straightforward truthfulness of the man who\nsoftens not one harsh feature, but represents his own defects with\nunsparing fidelity. We admire Jonah's calm courage when he bade the\nmariners fling him into the raging billows, and save their own lives by\nsacrificing his. We admire the faith which sustained him, and made him\nlook towards God, even When the depth closed him round about, and the\nweeds were wrapped about his head.\n\nBut we shrink from the severity of character which marked this prophet,\nwho could contemplate the destruction of a large heathen city with\nstern satisfaction, and betray irritation because the mercy of God far\nexceeded his own. We imagine that, if Jonah had lived in these days,\nthough he would have been a man of spotless integrity and unblemished\nlife, he would probably have appeared as a severe master, or a hard\nlandlord, far more just than merciful; that little ones, who \"cannot\ndiscern between their right hand and their left,\" would not have clung\nto his neck, or smiled up into his face, reading there\u2014as children\nintuitively do \u2014the impression left there by a spirit of kindliness.\n\nWe contrast the character of Jonah with that of St. Paul; the hardness\nof the prophet with the intense desire of the apostle that sinners\nmight be spared, and his readiness to spend and be spent for others:\n\"To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak. I am made\nall things to all men, that I might by all means save some.\" Paul's\ncharity, like the gourd of miraculous growth, spread its glorious\nbranches far and wide; nor did opposition, cruelty, or ingratitude,\ndestroy its vigour or wither its leaf.\n\nPerhaps the chief cause of St. Paul's tender indulgence and yearning\nsympathy towards sinners, is to be found in his deep sense of personal\nsin. When he was a proud, self-righteous Pharisee, we find in him\nno trace of mercy towards those who differed from him in religious\nopinions. We have no reason to suppose that the perishing state of the\nGentile world ever then cost him a sigh. Saul might have seen a Nineveh\ndestroyed with as much cold indifference as Jonah himself would have\ndone. But he who deemed himself the least of saints and the chief of\nsinners, loved much, because he had been forgiven much; he delighted\nin dwelling on the free grace which had saved his own perishing soul;\nhe felt that that grace alone had made him to differ from others, and\nhis heart's desire was that Jew and Gentile should participate in the\nblessing.\n\nNow, this deep sense of sin does not appear in Jonah. He confessed,\nindeed, to the sailors, that the storm was a judgment upon his flight\nfrom duty; but we discover in him none of the lowly humiliation on\naccount of sin which marked a David, a Peter, or even a righteous Job.\nPerhaps the very nature of his punishment rather fostered the pride\nthan abased the spirit of the prophet. The elements were moved on his\naccount; his transgression had raised a storm\u2014his generous sacrifice\nquelled it. God wrought a special miracle for his preservation from\ndeath. Then, scarcely had Jonah declared the Almighty's message to\nNineveh, than the whole mighty city repented in dust and ashes. When\ndid the voice of preacher ever command more sudden, more marvellous\nsuccess? Truly, Jonah was set on a very high pinnacle indeed! He was\nreverenced by monarch and people as the inspired oracle of God. We\ncannot marvel that pride was fostered in the heart of Jonah; and are\nless surprised that it had such an effect upon his charity\u2014that, to\nmaintain his lofty position as a prophet, he would have been content\nthat the judgments which he had threatened should all be terribly\nfulfilled.\n\nHow gently did God, in His love and wisdom, deal with the haughty\nJonah! He who had seemed to grasp the thunderbolt was taught that he\nwas but man\u2014but a weak, sinful man. The bodily frame, once miraculously\npreserved, was shown to be subject to pain and fatigue, even like those\nof others; the mere force of the wind, the mere heat of the sun, were\nsufficient to exhaust its strength. Jonah was ready to faint. The soul\nthat had been so lofty and firm in the prospect of instant death, was\nprostrated and brought to despair by the withering of a gourd!\n\nWhere was his courage\u2014where his power of endurance? Jonah, under a\ncommon form of trial, shows, not the dignity of a prophet, but the\nimpatient querulousness of a child. It must have been with shame that\nhe afterwards recorded the almost impious complaints which bodily\ndiscomfort drew from his lips.\n\nThe story is abruptly ended. Jonah tells not the effect on his own mind\nof the gentle rebuke of the Lord; but we may trust that it caused him\nto bow down in shame, and search for the worm at the root, and learn to\nextend to others that mercy which he found that he so greatly needed\nhimself.\n\nWhat are our feelings towards \"them that are without,\" those whom\nwe deem grievous sinners, like the men of Nineveh? Is there a cold,\nself-righteous complacency, in the thought that we are not as they\nare-something of satisfaction in the belief, that, though they may\nrevel in prosperity now, judgment will ere long overtake them? When the\ntower of Siloam falls, are we eager to show that those crushed beneath\nit were sinners above all that dwell at Jerusalem?\n\nLet us beware of a censorious spirit, ready to judge and to condemn. If\nwe see the leaf of our charity shrivelling, let us search for the worm\nat the root. Many a sorrow and many a fall may God permit His servants\nto suffer, in order to humble and to prove them, and to teach them,\nas He taught Jonah, that they are but dust. The most exalted saints\nhave nothing wherein to glory but the Cross of Christ; through which\nalone they, as well as the lowest and worst of transgressors, can be\ndelivered from the righteous judgments of God.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXXIX.\n\nThe Fetters of Manasseh.\n\nWE bless the Lord for our creation, preservation, and all the\nblessings of this life; but how strange are some of the things which\nthe white-robed saints on high will number amongst these blessings!\nThere may be heard a Nebuchadnezzar praising for the blessing of\nmadness; a pardoned thief for the torments of a cross; and a Manasseh,\nremembering, in a song of loud thanksgiving, those Babylonish fetters\nof which the iron entered into his soul!\n\nManasseh, King of Judah, had perhaps descended into lower depths of\ndepravity than any other sinner of whose conversion we read in the\nBible. He might have been thought beyond reach even of the mercy of\nGod, so deep had he sunk in the pit of iniquity. Dr. Kitto thus sums up\nthe list of the transgressions of this most wicked man: \"The crimes of\nall former kings seem light in comparison with those which disgraced\nhis reign. He upheld idolatry with all the influence of the regal\npower, and with such inconceivable boldness, that the pure and holy\nceremonies of the temple were superseded by rites of an idol image, set\nup in the very sanctuary . . . The practice which was, of all others,\nthe most abhorrent to Jehovah, the king sanctioned by his own atrocious\nexample, for he devoted his own children by fire to strange gods, in\nthe blood-stained valley of Ben Hinnom. Wickedness reigned on high,\nand, as usual, persecuted righteousness and truth; so that, by a strong\nbut significant hyperbole, we are told that innocent blood flowed in\nthe streets of Jerusalem.\" It is said that the prophet Isaiah was\nmartyred by the command of Manasseh, and underwent a terrible death, by\nbeing sawn asunder!\n\n\"God spoke unto Manasseh, and to his people, but they would not\nhearken.\" Who could have marvelled, then, if the sentence had gone\nforth, \"Manasseh is joined to idols\u2014let him alone?\" \"He that, being\noften reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and\nthat without remedy.\"\n\nBut Manasseh, son of Hezekiah, had doubtless been the child of many\nprayers, and the Spirit of his heavenly Father yearned still over this\nworse than prodigal son. God sent other messengers, to whom Manasseh\ncould not choose but hearken. The Lord brought on him \"the captains of\nthe King of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound\nhim with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.\" Those chains were as the\ncords of love, with which mercy would draw the wretched sinner back\nfrom the gulf of destruction into which he was plunging.\n\n\"When he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled\nhimself greatly before the God of his fathers.\" The prayer attributed\nto Manasseh, though not contained in the inspired record, nor perhaps\nwritten by Manasseh himself, well expresses what must have been\nthe feeling of his broken and contrite heart. \"I have sinned above\nthe number of the sands of the sea. My transgressions, O Lord, are\nmultiplied, my transgressions are multiplied, and I am not worthy\nto behold and see the height of heaven, for the multitude of my\niniquities. I am bowed down with many iron bands, that I cannot lift\nup my head, neither have any release; for I have provoked Thy wrath,\nand done evil before Thee. I did not Thy will, neither kept I Thy\ncommandments. I have set up abominations, and have multiplied offences.\nNow, therefore, I bow the knee of my heart, beseeching Thee of grace.\nI have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned, and I acknowledge my iniquities.\nWherefore, I humbly beseech Thee, forgive me, O Lord, forgive me, and\ndestroy me not with mine iniquities . . . For Thou art the God, even\nthe God of them that repent; and in me Thou wilt show all Thy goodness,\nfor Thou wilt save me, that am unworthy, according to Thy great mercy.\"\n\n\"The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.\" The history of\nManasseh is a most striking comment upon such a text as this. If \"he\"\nwas saved, who need despair? If \"he\" was granted true repentance, what\nheart so dead in sin that it cannot be quickened by the Spirit of Life!\n\nWhen God released the prisoner from captivity, and brought him again to\nJerusalem to reign on the throne of his fathers, Manasseh proved the\nsincerity of his contrition by the change in his life. \"He took away\nthe strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the Lord, and all\nthe altars that he had built, and cast them out of the city. And he\nrepaired the altar of the Lord, and sacrificed thereon peace-offerings\nand thank-offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of\nIsrael.\"\n\nWe believe that amongst the ransomed of Christ, Manasseh will at the\nlast day be found with the pious Hezekiah his father, and the holy\nprophet Isaiah, whose inspired words were so touchingly fulfilled in\nthe case of his own cruel murderer. \"Though your sins be as scarlet\nthey shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they\nshall be as wool.\"\n\nThe history of Manasseh is fraught with hope and comfort, not only for\nthose bowed down under the weight of manifold sins, but for parents\nenduring that anguish which is only second to that of remorse, grief\nfor the wickedness of a child. Hezekiah was a man of prayer; he had,\nwe doubt not, often fervently prayed for his boy, and long after his\nown decease his prayers were abundantly answered. The supplications of\nHezekiah may have helped to forge these fetters for Manasseh, they may\nhave helped to draw the Assyrians upon him.\n\nLet us close our meditations upon this most striking history of God's\nabounding grace, in the words of one who was himself a miracle of\npardoning love,\u2014\"Godly sorrow worketh repentance not to be repented of.\nThe wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through\nJesus Christ our Lord.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXXX.\n\nThe Deed of Purchase.\n\nA LIFE of bitter trial was that of Jeremiah, the messenger of wrath\nand of woe, the prophet who announced evil tidings of disgrace and\nruin to a profligate court and a wicked people. Jeremiah stood like\na light-house on a desolate rock, exposed to the fury of the blast\nof calumny, the fierce billows of persecution. What would be the\nposition of a seer, even in these days, who should announce the utter\ndevastation of our land by famine and sword, who should declare amongst\nus that we should become \"an execration and an astonishment, a curse\nand a reproach,\" who should pronounce a sentence of death upon monarch\nand noble, bid our soldiers sheath their swords, and our volunteers\nsubmit to a foreign foe without so much as a struggle? Jeremiah has\nrecorded his own sufferings in language which shows how deeply he\nfelt them. \"I am the man that hath seen affliction. He hath made me\ndesolate. I was a derision to all my people, and their song all the\nday.\"\n\nNor were hatred and mockery all that the prophet had to endure. His\nliberty was taken away; his life was in imminent peril;\u2014it is said that\nhe fell at last a victim to his countrymen's hatred. When we consider\nalso that the ruin of his nation was the source of deep affliction\nto one who was a patriot as well as a prophet, that\u2014like the blessed\nSaviour\u2014Jeremiah wept over Jerusalem while he foretold her destruction,\nwe shall conclude that amongst God's saints few drank more deeply of\nthe cup of sorrow and will scarcely wonder that in his anguish Jeremiah\ncursed the day of his birth.\n\nBut the deed of purchase which we are now contemplating reminds us of\nan occasion when a gleam of joy may have shone on the darkened path of\nthe prophet, a drop of sweetness have been mixed in his cup. The whole\ntransaction connected with it is very remarkable.\n\nWhen Jeremiah was shut up in the court of the prison at Jerusalem,\u2014when\nthe Chaldeans were investing the doomed city which he knew must fall\ninto their hands\u2014then received he an intimation from God that he should\npurchase a field in his native place Anathoth, of which the right of\nredemption was his.\n\n\"What have I to do with buying land!\" may have been the first thought\nof the wondering seer; \"is this a time to receive olive-yards and\nvineyards? I am a prisoner and cannot get forth; Anathoth is now in the\nhands of the enemy, and soon will Jerusalem be so also. My people will\nbe led into captivity; the Gentiles will rule in the land: what profit\ncan there be in this field to me or to mine!\"\n\nBut if such a thought arose, Jeremiah's faith suffered it not to\ninfluence his conduct. The purchase was to be made as a pledge and\ntoken that the captivity of Judah was not to last for ever; that the\nransomed of the Lord should return to Zion; that Anathoth of Benjamin\nshould again belong to the chosen race. Jeremiah would not live to see\nthe return of his people, but he foresaw it by faith, and in faith\nbought the field as the Lord had appointed. We see the prisoner with\ncalm thankfulness weighing out the seventeen shekels * of silver in the\nbalances; a small sum, and yet probably deemed by many a desponding\nJew too large to be thrown away upon what might seem to be a worthless\nclaim. Mocking smiles may have been interchanged between the witnesses\nto so strange a transaction, when the prisoner subscribed and sealed\nthe deed, and gave it to the faithful Baruch to be carefully preserved\nfor a time yet remote. But Jeremiah had full assurance that such a time\nwould arrive; for thus said the Lord of hosts to His prophet: \"Houses\nand fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land . . .\nfor I will cause their captivity to return.\"\n\n   * Not much above forty shillings. See note in D'Oyly and Mant's Bible.\n\nWe look upon Jeremiah's deed of purchase as a type of that claim\nwhich both Israel and Judah hold still on the land of their fathers.\nJerusalem, with all the inheritance bestowed by God upon Abraham, is\nnow in the possession of the followers of the false prophet; Judea,\nfor the sins of her people is again in captivity, and her sons are\nscattered abroad amongst the Gentiles. The olive-yards and vineyards of\nPalestine are now\u2014and for many ages have been the spoil of strangers.\nBut it shall not be so for ever. Not by purchase but by promise is\nthe whole land reserved for the sons of Abraham. The deed has been\ncarefully preserved, not\u2014as Jeremiah's\u2014in an earthen vessel, but in\nGod's own Book. The whole deed is too long for transference to these\npages, but a portion may be transcribed, gathered from various books\nof the Old Testament Scriptures; each prophet, as it were, setting his\nseal to the precious document.\n\n   \"I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of\nJerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall\nlook upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as\none mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as\none that is in bitterness for his firstborn.\" *\n\n   \"Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with\nall the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord hath taken away thy\njudgments, He hath cast out thine enemy: the king of Israel, even the\nLord, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more.\" \u2020\n\n   \"At that time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather\nyou: for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the\nearth.\" \u2021\n\n   \"All nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome\nland, saith the Lord of Hosts.\" \u00a7\n\n   \"For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among\nall nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least\ngrain fall upon the earth. And I will plant them upon their land, and\nthey shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given\nthem, saith the Lord thy God.\" \u00b6\n\n   * Zech. xii. 10.    \u2020 Zeph. iii. 14, 15.      \u2021 Zeph. iii.20\n   \u00a7 Mal. iii. 12.     \u00b6 Amos ix. 9, 15.\n\n   \"And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when\nMy sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.\" *\n\n   \"At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and\nall the nations shall be gathered unto it.\" \u2020\n\n   \"He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall\nblossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.\" \u2021\n\n   * Ezek. xxxvii. 28.     \u2020 Jer. iii. 17.     \u2021 Isa. xxvii. 6.\n\nSt. Paul, himself a Hebrew of the Hebrews, looked with faith and hope\non this deed, and thus subscribed himself as a witness: \"Blindness in\npart is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come\nin. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall\ncome out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from\nJacob: for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their\nsins.\" \u00a7\n\nYes, the time is coming, and now may be near, when it shall be said,\n\"Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love\nher: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her\"; \u00b6 when the\ngathering of her people shall be \"as life from the dead.\" \u2551\n\n   \u00a7 Rom. xi. 25-27.     \u00b6 Isa. lxvi. 10.     \u2551 Rom. xi. 15.\n\nChristian brethren, is this nothing to us? Shall we be cold and\nindifferent, nor strive to hasten the time of Israel's restoration by\nour prayers, and by such efforts as God may enable us to make? Oh!\n\"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, they shall prosper that love thee.\"\nThe word of the Lord to Israel still standeth firm, \"blessed is he that\nblesseth thee!\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXXXI.\n\nJehoiakim's Knife.\n\nIF the shadow of a curse could ever be said to lie on the inanimate\ninstrument employed by man to work his evil will, surely it lies upon\nthis, the first, as far as we know, ever used in the attempt to destroy\na portion of God's holy Word.\n\nOn the dethronement of his brother by the King of Egypt, Jehoiakim\nhad mounted the throne of his father Josiah, and for eleven years he\nreigned in Jerusalem. The sins of this wicked monarch drew down upon\nhimself and his people the wrath of the Lord. For many years had the\nProphet Jeremiah uttered the voice of solemn warning; sadly had he\nforetold the coming desolation. \"The harvest is past, the summer is\nended, and we are not saved. Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes\na fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of\nmy people! This whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment,\nand these nations shall serve the King of Babylon seventy years.\"\n\nAt the command of the Lord the prophet dictated to Baruch the scribe\nall the words of his prophecies against Israel and Judah, and they were\nwritten down upon a roll. The prophet confided the roll to Baruch, and\nbade him read it aloud in the ears of the people in the house of the\nLord.\n\n\"It may be,\" said Jeremiah, \"they will present their supplication\nbefore the Lord, and will return every one from his evil way: for great\nis the anger and the fury that the Lord hath pronounced against this\npeople.\"\n\nThe solemn announcement of coming ruin, though it led not, as in the\ncase of Nineveh, to national repentance, yet excited interest and\nalarm. The princes of Judah sent for Baruch, and at their desire, he\nagain, in their presence, read aloud the prophecies of Jeremiah. Fear\nfell on the nobles; \"we will surely tell the king of all these words,\"\nsaid they unto Baruch. But aware of the storm of anger which might be\nroused in the monarch's breast, the princes counselled that both the\nprophet and the scribe should conceal themselves, and let no man know\ntheir hiding-place.\n\nThen was Jehoiakim informed of the prophecies written against himself\nand his guilty land; and he sent Jehudi to fetch the roll, and read it\nin his presence where he sat in his winter palace, with all his princes\nassembled around.\n\nStriking and solemn must that scene have been! There would be deep\nstillness in the royal chamber, broken only by the voice of the reader,\nuttering words of living power, which would fall on the ears of such of\nthe silent listeners as had faith in prophecy, much as the voice of the\njudge pronouncing sentence of death falls on the ear of the criminal.\n\nThe nobles would watch the effect of the reading on the countenance of\ntheir king; would he, like Ahab, rend his clothes and put sackcloth\non his flesh, and by humbling himself before God avert the threatened\njudgments at least for a time? Would he, like Josiah his father, go up\ninto the house of God, call around him the priests and the people, both\nsmall and great, and read to them the Word of the Lord, honouring it,\nand mourning because of the curses written in the Book?\n\nTo Josiah a message had been sent, \"Because thine heart was tender,\nand thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest His words\nagainst this place . . . behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and\nthou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes\nsee all the evil that I will bring upon this place.\"\n\nBut the spirit of Josiah was not in his son. Instead of repentance\nand humiliation, anger and stubborn resistance to the will of the\nAlmighty might be read on the darkening countenance of the King of\nJudea. He would not even suffer Jehudi to read to the end of the roll;\nJehoiakim grasped it, and cut it with his knife, and not satisfied with\nthis open insult to the Word of God, this defiance of the terrors of\nthe Almighty, the king flung the mutilated roll into the fire which\nwas burning before him, as if with the blackening parchment he could\ndestroy that Word which abideth for ever! In vain two of the nobles\npresent endeavoured to stay the rash hand of the king, entreating him\nnot to burn the prophetic roll; the rage of Jehoiakim was not satisfied\nby the crime which he had committed, he wished to wreak his fury on\nthe living witnesses for God, as well as upon His inspired Word; he\ncommanded the seizure of both Jeremiah and Baruch, but the Lord hid\nthem from the anger of the king.\n\nWhat availed it to the wretched Jehoiakim that he had consumed to ashes\nthe writing of the prophet against him? The Word of the Lord came to\nJeremiah, saying, \"Take thee again another roll, and write in it all\nthe former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the King\nof Judah hath burned, and thou shalt say to Jehoiakim, King of Judah,\n'Thus saith the Lord; thou hast burned this roll . . . therefore thus\nsaith the Lord of Jehoiakim, King of Judah, he shall have none to sit\nupon the throne of David; and his dead body shall be cast out in the\nday to the heat, and in the night to the frost.' Then took Jeremiah\nanother roll, and gave it to Baruch, who wrote therein from the mouth\nof Jeremiah all the words of the Book which Jehoiakim had burned in the\nfire, and there were added unto them many like words.\"\n\nSuch was the result of this first attempt to mutilate the Scriptures,\nand stop the free course of the Word of God. It may have been the\nfirst, but it assuredly was not the last effort of that kind.\nJehoiakim's knife and Jehoiakim's fire have but been precursors of\nother instruments used for the same unhallowed purpose, notwithstanding\nthe awful warning which is found almost at the close of the Revelation.\n\"If any man shall take away from the words of the book of this\nprophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life.\"\n\nSuperstition has been actively employed from early ages in using the\nknife to mar and mutilate the Scriptures; she has tried to cut away\nthe Second Commandment, to rend from the roll all the texts on which,\nas emblazoned in light, are written the doctrine of justification by\nfaith. Nay, when she has found, like Jehoiakim, the knife insufficient\nfor the work, she has literally cast the Bible into the flames, and\nnot only the Book, but the bodies of many of those who counted its\ndoctrines more precious than life! But superstition has had no power to\ndestroy one inspired sentence, \"The Word of the Lord endureth for ever.\"\n\nHeresy, also, has diligently plied the knife on various parts of the\nsacred roll. Here one would cut away the testimony to the Divinity\nof Him \"whose goings forth are from everlasting,\" here another would\ndeprive us of the consolation to be derived from the truth that Christ\n\"was in all points tempted as we are\" though \"without sin.\" But vain\nhas been every wild attempt to destroy any part of the sacred Book, let\nman or Satan do what they may, \"The Word of the Lord abideth for ever!\"\n\nIn the present day many an eager hand is stretched out to grasp the\nknife. Now this part\u2014now that part\u2014of God's truth is fiercely assailed.\nUnbelief would cut away the record of miracles, would cast aside much\nof those sacred writings of which He who is the Truth itself said,\n\"Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and\nthey are they which testify of Me.\" Sceptics and unbelievers may, like\nJehoiakim, draw down on themselves a heavy doom; but they will find at\nlast that the so-called wisdom of man is foolishness with God, and that\nthey have no more power to destroy His Scriptures than passing clouds\nhave to extinguish the sun which shineth in glory far far above them!\n\"The Word of the Lord endureth for ever!\"\n\nIs there no danger of our falling into the sin of mutilating Scripture,\nthough not, like Jehoiakim, with the knife? If we search the Bible in\norder to \"confirm\" our own views on religion instead of to \"form\" them,\npassing lightly over everything there which clashes with our notions,\nalmost secretly wishing that some passages in sacred Writ were not to\nbe found there, do we truly honour God's Word? There were parts of\nJeremiah's roll which probably even Jehoiakim would have willingly\npreserved. All would gladly keep the promises, could they put out of\nsight the warnings and threats.\n\nAnd so likewise in matters of doctrine: one treasures all the texts\nwhich proclaim free salvation through faith, another lets his mind\nonly dwell upon such as enforce the necessity of a holy life and good\nworks. I was once surprised at the dissatisfied feeling with which an\nexcellent man regarded the Epistle written by St. James, who has been\ncalled \"the apostle of duty.\" The Christian did not seem to realize\nthe truth which has been well illustrated by one who represented St.\nJames and St. Paul as soldiers fighting \"back to back,\" under the\nsame banner, against the same foes to the truth, but necessarily from\ntheir position facing different errors; each soldier strengthening and\nsupporting his comrade by guarding him from strokes \"from behind,\"\nwhere the enemy might have taken him at disadvantage.\n\nLet us receive\u2014honour\u2014and keep the Bible in its integrity, deeming no\nportion superfluous which God hath thought fit to preserve; waiting for\nmore light from above to reveal its hidden mysteries, and being assured\nthat though heavens and earth may pass away, yet \"the Word of the Lord\nendureth for ever!\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXXXII.\n\nThe Rags of Ebedmelech.\n\nWHO can doubt that the God of Love notices the minutest act of\nkindness done to His servants, when even these rags of the Ethiopian\nare carefully preserved in the Scriptures, memorials of considerate\nthoughtful tenderness shown to His afflicted prophet.\n\nLet us review one of the most interesting passages in the history of\nJeremiah.\n\nThe miserable Jehoiakim fell into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, by\nwhose command he was bound with fetters and ordered to be carried to\nBabylon. As no account is given in Scripture of Jehoiakim's death, it\nis surmised that the prophecy which foretold that his burial should be\nas \"the burial of an ass,\" was fulfilled by his dying on the way to\nBabylon, and his corpse being thrown into a ditch, exposed to the heat\nof the day and the frost of the night.\n\nFor three months Jeconiah (or Coniah), a youth of eighteen, reigned\nin the place of his father Jehoiakim. Of him Jeremiah had prophesied,\n\"Thus saith the Lord . . . I will give thee into the hand of them that\nseek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, even\ninto the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, and into the hand of\nthe Chaldeans.\"\n\nAnd even so came it to pass that the young king and his mother, his\nofficers and princes, and thousands of warriors and artizans were\ncarried away captive to Babylon, with the vessels of Solomon's Temple.\n\nZedekiah (the son of Josiah), the last native monarch of Judah, then\nmounted the throne of David, to suffer one day a fate even more\nterrible than that which had befallen his two brothers and his nephew,\nwho had successively reigned before him. Zedekiah sought help from\nEgypt, and, as it appeared at first, with success, as on the approach\nof Pharaoh's army, the Chaldeans, who were besieging Jerusalem,\nretired. If the heart of Jeremiah had shared in the joy which this\ngleam of returning hope had caused in Jerusalem, it must have been to\nhim a task all the more bitter to quench that hope in utter darkness.\nAnguish must have been his when he thus declared the message of God!\n\"Behold Pharaoh's army which is come forth to help you, shall return\nto Egypt into their own land; and the Chaldeans shall come again, and\nfight against this city, and take it, and burn it with fire.\"\n\nAfter uttering this terrible prophecy, Jeremiah made an attempt to quit\nJerusalem, and return to his native land of Benjamin; but he was seized\nas a traitor by a captain of the ward, brought before the princes as\none taken in the act of falling away to the Chaldeans, maltreated, and\nthrown into prison. For a time, the rigour of Jeremiah's captivity was\nsoftened by the king, who appears never to have doubted the innocence\nof the prophet. But Jeremiah's enemies were not satisfied with his\nimprisonment; they were determined to have his life, and to destroy\nhim by a death of lingering suffering. Abusing the weakness of King\nZedekiah, who delivered the prophet into their hands, the princes of\nJudah cast Jeremiah into a dungeon, or rather pit, in the court of the\nprison, which had mire at the bottom, in which their victim partially\nsank, and there his merciless foes seem to have left him to perish by\ninches from hunger and damp.\n\nSuch would probably have been the fate of Jeremiah, but for the\nintervention of Ebedmelech, not one of his own countrymen, but an\nEthiopian in the service of the king. This African went to Zedekiah,\nand roused him to make an effort to save his innocent subject from so\ncruel a death. \"My lord the king,\" said Ebedmelech, \"these men have\ndone evil in all that they have done to the prophet, whom they have\ncast into the dungeon; and he is like to die for hunger in the place\nwhere he is.\"\n\nEbedmelech succeeded in obtaining the king's order that he should take\nthirty men, and release the prophet from his dreadful situation. And\nhere occurs the little trait of womanlike tenderness in the African,\nwhich God hath deemed worthy of record. Ebedmelech knew that Jeremiah\nmust be drawn out of the pit by cords; he knew that in his probable\nstate of weakness and emaciation the ropes would be likely to gall and\nhurt him. So he \"went into the house of the king under the treasury,\nand took thence old cast clouts and old rotten rags, and let them down\nby cords into the dungeon to Jeremiah. And Ebedmelech the Ethiopian\nsaid unto Jeremiah, Put now these old cast clouts and rotten rags under\nthine armholes under the cords.\" And Jeremiah did so, and was safely\ndrawn to the top.\n\nThe Lord did not fail to requite the deed of the Ethiopian, to whom\nwas granted a special promise of deliverance in the coming time of\ntrouble. \"Thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom\nthou art afraid.\" And here the African disappears from our view, and\nwe know nothing further of Ebedmelech; but the soft wrappings which\nhe collected to put over the rough ropes may afford us a pleasant and\nprofitable subject for our reflections.\n\nEbedmelech not only did a substantial service to Jeremiah, but he\ndid it in a tender considerate way; he did not, as most men would\nhave done, hurt the prophet even in helping him. The complaint of the\ningratitude of those who have received great benefits is very common in\nthe world, but we shall often find that ingratitude has been caused by\nthe want of delicacy in the benefactor who complains; he has supplied\nthe \"ropes\" but neglected the \"wrappings.\"\n\nFor instance, a sufferer is sunk in the pit of poverty; he has seen\nbetter days, his feelings are tender, the very means used to raise him\nare likely to wound him, to gall even while they relieve. But Christian\nlove must regard the feelings as well as the outward wants of the\nsufferer; it should bestow a gift almost as if it were asking a favour;\nit should smooth what is rough, soften what is hard, and let down the\nwrappings with the rope.\n\nAgain, there is the same, and even greater, delicacy to be observed\nwhen he whom we would help is sunk in the pit, not of poverty, but\nof sin. We earnestly desire to draw him forth, for we know that if\nhe stay, he must perish. Fervent exhortation, faithful reproof, may\nbe as the cords in our hands, and with a prayer for success we use\nthem; but our efforts will be far more likely to avail, if gentleness,\nconsideration, and tenderness accompany earnest effort; if, shrinking\nfrom galling pride, or giving one needless pang, we let down the\nwrappings with the rope.\n\nNothing is really insignificant that affects the happiness or the\ncharacter of men; a look or a word may awaken far more kindly feeling\nthan the gift of a purse of gold, and that reproof is usually most\neffectual which is uttered in a tone of love.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXXXIII.\n\nThe Golden Sceptre.\n\nVERY different is the object of our present contemplation from the\nlast\u2014the gold from the tatters, the sceptre of a powerful monarch from\nthe rags of an African servant\u2014and even so our theme rises from man's\nmercy to that of God, from the kindness of Ebedmelech to the free grace\nof our Lord.\n\nFor it is not on the history of Esther herself that we will now dwell,\nexcept so far as she appears an emblem of the Church, the queen \"all\nglorious within,\" whose clothing is \"of wrought gold.\" Let us muse on\nhow she, and with her every individual believer, dares to approach Him\nwho is of \"purer eyes than to behold iniquity,\" the great and terrible\nGod, \"who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted\nout heaven with the span.\"\n\nThere is, indeed, far too little of reverence in the way in which\nwe too often enter by prayer the presence of our Lord. The careless\nposture, the wandering thought, the hastily-uttered supplication, seem\nto denote that Christians little realize how solemn a thing it is to\ndraw nigh to the King of kings. Not thus did Esther approach the throne\nof Ahasuerus. If the traditional account preserved in the Apocrypha be\ntrue, her heart was in anguish for fear, she turned pale, and fainted,\nand fell. Not that God wills that such terrors should oppress His\nredeemed; they are permitted to \"come boldly\" to the throne of grace,\nthey are commanded to draw near with a true heart, \"in full assurance\nof faith;\" but a certain degree of holy awe should be mixed with holy\nconfidence; \"let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God;\nGod is in heaven, and thou upon earth, therefore let thy words be few.\"\n\nBut for the golden sceptre of grace held out to us through the mercy\nand merits of Christ, the sentence of death would indeed go forth\nagainst us when we appear before Him. \"For our God is a consuming\nfire.\" \"The mountains quake at Him, and the hills melt, and the earth\nis burned at His presence. Who can stand before His indignation, and\nwho can abide in the fierceness of His anger?\" But the love of Persia's\nking for his bride was but a faint shadow of the love of the Lord for\nHis Church. \"What wilt thou, Queen Esther? and what is Thy request? it\nshall be even given thee to the half of the kingdom.\"\n\nSuch were the gracious words of Ahasuerus to the trembling supplicant\nbefore him; and so the Church hears the tender assurance of her King,\n\"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find. Whatsoever ye\nshall ask the Father in My name He will give it to you.\"\n\nAnd what was it that Esther came to entreat, when the golden sceptre\nof Ahasuerus was stretched out towards her? In the first place, the\npresence of the king at her banquet, and, beyond this, the preservation\nfrom destruction of herself and her people. Much the same as hers is\nthe petition of Christ's Church to her heavenly King, only with the\nloftier blessings implored their order is reversed. The Church prays\nfirst for salvation, deliverance from death eternal, and then for the\npresence of her Lord\u2014not for an hour or a day\u2014but even for ever and\never.\n\nIf Esther, an orphan exile, born to bondage and sorrow, was able in\nroyal garments to approach her lord, and invite him to a sumptuous\nbanquet which she had prepared in a palace, the robes which she wore,\nthe feast which she spread, were all the gifts of his love. She could\nbut offer him of his own. How strikingly does this exemplify the\nposition of the Church in regard to her Lord! By free grace He holds\nout to her the sceptre of pardoning mercy; by free grace He clothes her\nwith the royal garments of righteousness; by free grace He enables her\nto welcome Him and minister unto Him. He is more ready to hear than she\nto pray, more ready to grant than she to implore. He has loved and will\nlove her for ever, will save her from all her enemies, and crown her\nwith joy everlasting.\n\nSuch are some of the comforting thoughts suggested to us by the golden\nsceptre, thoughts of mercy, grace, and love. It is a \"sceptre,\" the\nemblem of power and dominion; a \"golden\" sceptre, reminding us of the\nword spoken of Christ our King, \"Thy throne, O God, is for ever and\never: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom.\" It\nis a token of free salvation; they to whom it is extended shall live\nin the presence of God, shall stand accepted before Him; and it is a\nsceptre held out to every one who, in lowly faith, approaches Him who\nloved and gave Himself for us.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXXXIV.\n\nA Vessel of the Temple.\n\nBITTER must have been the shame and grief of the Jews when\nNebuchadnezzar, King of Assyria, plundered the glorious building which\nthey had raised, the Temple which, eleven years later, was itself given\nto the flames. Well was it for the good King Hezekiah that he lived\nnot to see that day when his precious things, his silver and his gold,\nwith the consecrated gold of the Temple, were carried away to Babylon,\naccording to the word of the Lord spoken by the Prophet Isaiah. Great\nwas the quantity of sacred vessels taken from Jerusalem, even if Ezra's\nlist of those restored comprises them all. Thirty chargers and twenty\nbasins of gold; a thousand chargers of silver. \"All the vessels of gold\nand of silver were five thousand and four hundred.\" It was a humbling\nday to the captives from Jerusalem when the treasures of the sanctuary,\nthe pride of their fathers, were placed as trophies in the idol temple\nof the Gentiles.\n\nBut we conceive yet stronger indignation excited in the breasts of\nJewish exiles, when the sacred vessels were brought forth to add to\nthe magnificence of the feast of King Belshazzar, when the heathen in\nriotous mirth quaffed wine out of those splendid chargers, and praised\ntheir own gods of silver and gold, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of\nstone! It was a sacrilegious hand that Belshazzar laid on the golden\ncup before us, a blasphemous lip that pressed its brim; and God at\nonce avenged the insult to His Majesty. Part of a man's hand appeared\nwriting on the wall terrible mysterious characters that no one present\ncould read, and the king's countenance was changed, he trembled, his\nknees smote one another with fear. On that night was proud Babylon\ntaken by the Persians under that Cyrus who subsequently restored to\nthe Jews the vessels of their Temple, to be once more devoted to the\nservice of the one true God.\n\nThe image of a vessel is repeatedly employed in the New Testament to\nrepresent human beings. St. Paul writes of God making known the riches\nof His glory on the vessels of mercy which He had before prepared unto\nglory; he describes a believer as \"a vessel unto honour, sanctified,\nmeet for the Master's use,\" and he was himself spoken of by the Lord as\n\"a chosen vessel.\" It does not appear improbable that in each instance\nthe idea was suggested by the vessels of the Temple. It seems as if\nsome light might be thrown by the use of this simile upon the subjects\nof baptism and conversion.\n\nIn baptism every Christian adult or child becomes a vessel solemnly\nconsecrated to God, even like the treasures of the Temple dedicated by\nSolomon to the Lord. Happy those who are never suffered to fall into\nthe hand of the Enemy! What myriads of babes will there be in Heaven,\nlittle vessels of mercy that have never been defiled by wilful sin,\nbut which have been safely laid up in the treasury above! But there\nare many baptized beings whose history is like that of the golden\ncharger on which the mental eye now rests. They were indeed once\nsolemnly devoted to God, but the world has them now, Satan has carried\nthem away, they are no longer used in the Master's service. They are\ngiven to idols, they are filled with iniquity, and though some in the\nsight of men may be precious and beautiful still, they are no longer\n\"vessels unto honour.\" They need to be washed, and cleansed, and given\nback\u2014restored to their lawful Owner, and to their rightful use, and\nwhen God's grace has accomplished this, we call the blessed restoration\n\"conversion.\"\n\nIt is therefore with feelings of grief, yet not unmingled with hope\n(like those which the Jews of old must have experienced in regard to\ntheir Temple plate), that believers should look upon the unconverted\naround them. It is not with loathing and contempt that the drunkard or\nthe thief should be thrust aside; it is not with proud disgust that\nthe Christian should turn from the multitude whose daily course of\nlife proves them to be under the dominion of the Prince of this world,\nthough they were baptized in childhood. These are all precious vessels,\nonce dedicated to God, and which may be restored to His service still.\nThey are in Babylon now, but they may be rescued from thence; that\nwhich has been filled with iniquity may yet overflow with grace; saved\nfrom the idol temple, snatched from the revel and the riot, they may\nyet be reserved to shine in glory amongst the jewels of their Lord.\n\nWhat marvellous instances of such conversion have formed themes for the\nsongs of rejoicing angels! Such men as John Newton and Vine Hall, and\nmany others besides, were as vessels grasped by Satan himself and held\nup on high in unhallowed triumph: but they were to be wrenched from his\nhold, filled with grace and filled with glory, and made chosen vessels\nof the heavenly Temple which is built not by man but by God.\n\nFervent should be our prayers for the unconverted, whether they be\nthose whom the world condemns or the world admires. There are some\namongst them whose characters seem to bear no dark stain or spot: all\nacknowledge the metal to be precious and the form to be fair: they\nare so goodly\u2014so bright\u2014that it is hard to believe that they are not\n\"vessels of honour.\" But alas! If they be not truly devoted to God's\nservice and receiving His grace, they are like the golden chargers of\nthe feast of Belshazzar, they are yet but \"vessels of wrath.\" They are\nlike beautiful chalices made to hold the wine of blessing, but taken\nfrom the church to the godless banquet. It is profanation when any\nbaptized being is given up to the service of the world; the familiar\nsound of his own Christian name should remind him that he has once been\ndevoted to God.\n\nLet us close our meditation with the words of the apostle: \"Every one\nof you should know how to preserve his vessel in sanctification and\nhonour . . . And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, . . .\nfaithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXXXV.\n\nThe Trumpet of Nehemiah.\n\nTHE trumpet of Nehemiah is one of the objects in what we may call the\nsacred museum of Scripture, on which the mind rests with pleasure. It\ntells of earnestness and unanimity in a great work; its sound was a\ncall to God's servants to help one another in a time of difficulty and\nof danger, when the Jews, after their return from Babylonish captivity,\nrebuilt the wall of their Zion. What a scene of anxious and yet joyful\nlabour rises before us as connected with that trumpet!\n\nWe picture to ourselves the brave men of Judah, with the tool in one\nhand and the weapon in another, toil-drops beading their sun-burnt\nfaces, labouring from the rising of the morn till the stars appeared;\nsome, as we know, not even putting on their clothes at night, but\nthrowing themselves down in their garments to snatch needful rest, till\ndawn should rouse them to fresh exertions. We picture to ourselves not\nonly the men bending their strong backs under the burden, and straining\ntheir muscles to lift great weights, but the matrons and maidens of\nZion, nay, even the little children, lending what help they might,\ntrying to make up by zeal for want of physical power, bringing food\nand water to the workers; bearing, perhaps, the lighter burdens, or\ncarrying rubbish away, and speaking those words of encouragement which\nwould add new strength to the strong, and energy to the active.\n\nWe hear them repeating one to another the rousing call of their leader\nwhen bidding them prepare for attack from their foes: \"Be not ye afraid\nof them; remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for\nyour brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your\nhouses.\"\n\nAt one blast from Nehemiah's trumpet, weapons would have flashed from\ntheir scabbards, and a rush have been made to the spot whence the\nwarning note proceeded, for thus writes Nehemiah: \"He that sounded the\ntrumpet was by me; and I said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and\nto the rest of the people, The work is great and large, and we are\nseparated upon the wall, one from another. In what place therefore ye\nhear the trumpet, resort ye thither unto us: our God shall fight for\nus!\"\n\nEven such a scene of active, earnest labour is around us now,\nrealized by faith; in the midst of an opposing world, surrounded by\ndifficulties, encompassed by snares, the labourers for God are raising\nthe walls of the spiritual Zion. The Word of the Lord is their trumpet\ncall, bidding them quit themselves like men and be strong; to fight\nagainst their own besetting sins, and at the same time to be ready for\nevery labour of love, and especially such labours for souls as are\ntypified by the building of the wall of Jerusalem, that city of the\ngreat King.\n\nThere is something delightful and exhilarating in the feeling of\nworking together, combining in efforts for God. The labourers are\nindeed engaged on different parts of the wall, they may be \"one far\nfrom another,\" yet is there a union of purpose between them, and the\ntrumpet at any moment may call them to union in action. Not all are fit\nfor the same kind of work; some are employed but to clear away rubbish,\nothers are laying the strong, deep foundations, those prepare mortar,\nthese hew stones, the work of many shows no visible result, whilst\nbeneath the busy hands of their brethren the wall rises with marvellous\nrapidity. But all are helping in the building for God, and when the\nbulwark is completed, the glorious task done, how joyfully may the\nweakest of the workers exclaim: \"I, even I, was a labourer too!\"\n\nYes\u2014on this building there is room for the efforts, not of the pastor\nalone, but of the \"people;\" not of the men alone, but the women; nay,\neven of the feeble little child. Something will be found for each\nto do, if all combine together. And how inspiriting is the feeling\nof brotherhood and sisterhood between those engaged in working for\nGod! We may regard the great and successful efforts of some highly\ndistinguished Christian, as a Jewish child, bringing but a few pebbles\nto add to the wall, may have regarded the giant strength of some\nSamson, heaving up to its place a huge mass, which the boy's feeble\narms could not have stirred. The child would admire and rejoice in\nthe strength of the man; and, if humbled, yet not discouraged, by its\ncontrast with his own weakness, would do the little which he could do\nwith the cheering thought, \"I, even I, am a labourer too!\"\n\nOh, how far preferable the humblest kind of spiritual work, to the\nshame of standing all the day idle, while God's people are anxiously\ntoiling around us for Him!\n\nThere are very many ways in which we may help to raise the wall of our\nZion. Missionary labour amongst heathen abroad and heathen at home\nis the most lofty kind of building work. The earnest clergyman, the\nragged-school teacher, the Bible-woman, the Christian visitor to the\nhaunts of poverty and the dens of sin, are those \"directly\" engaged in\nraising stone upon stone. Such need refreshment, encouragement, help;\nand to give it to them for the sake of the cause is \"indirectly\" to\nforward the building.\n\nThere is one way in which we can, as it were, bring our little\ncontribution of mortar to fix the stones, which, though a way neglected\nby many, is beyond the strength of but few\u2014by \"the circulation of\nreligious literature.\" There is, indeed, judgment required in the\nchoice of religious works for such distribution. The mortar should in\nitself be good, and be \"laid\" on, not carelessly \"thrown\" on; but no\ngreat courage is usually required, except by novices in the work. In\nnineteen cases out of twenty, the book or tract which is courteously\noffered is civilly received, and sometimes thankfully and eagerly\naccepted.\n\nA Protestant lady, just before entering a French church to see the\ninterior, gave a tract to an old woman who chanced to be near the door.\nOn the lady's leaving the church, the woman\u2014who was doubtless a Roman\nCatholic\u2014returned the tract, which she probably regarded as heretical\ntrash. The lady, whose English companion did not sympathize with her\ntract-giving, took back the despised paper with a little feeling of\nembarrassment, which instantly passed away as a man held out his hand\nfor what the woman had rejected, so that the lady had merely to pass\nthe tract from the one to the other.\n\nTravellers, while in search of health or amusement, would do well to\nremember that valuable opportunities may be afforded to them, when thus\ncasually meeting with those whom they never again may see, of helping\nto build the wall of Zion. They are not likely to behold any effect of\ntheir work here; but labour for God, with faith and prayer, is \"not in\nvain in the Lord.\"\n\nWould that reflection on this subject would induce every reader who\nmay glance at this little volume to form a prayerful resolution never\nto let \"one day\" pass without doing something, be it ever so little,\ntowards raising the spiritual wall! How cold is our zeal, how careless\nour efforts, compared to those of the Jews under Nehemiah! \"They\" did\nnot sit quietly in their homes, buried in studies, or absorbed by\nbusiness, while the din of earnest work was going on around them, or\nthe blast of the trumpet summoned all true sons of Abraham to do brave\nbattle for the right. The nobles thought it an honour to be engaged\nin the work; the governor himself set an example of devoted energy in\nit. It was a day of triumph for Nehemiah and his companions when their\nglorious work was finished; when, in the words of the leader, \"all our\nenemies heard thereof, and all the heathen that were about us saw these\nthings, and were much cast down in their own eyes, for they perceived\nthat this work was wrought of God.\"\n\nBut what will be the joy of those who have toiled for Christ, and in\nHis strength, when they gaze on the jasper wall of \"the holy Jerusalem,\ndescending out of heaven from God,\" wherein those shall dwell who,\nransomed and pardoned by the Saviour, have loved, lived, and laboured\nfor Him! The trumpet in the hand of the archangel shall sound then no\nsummons to conflict. And when the blessed review the time of their\nsojourn upon earth, with all its mingled trials and blessings while\nGod's work was slowly rising to completion, will it not be one of their\nsweetest joys then to be able to say, \"Unworthy as I was of a privilege\nso glorious, I, even I, was a labourer too!\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXXXVI.\n\nWriting Table of Zacharias.\n\nTHOUGH mentioned but once in Scripture, there are circumstances which\ninvest the writing table of Zacharias with peculiar interest, as on\nit may be said to have been traced the first written sentence of the\nGospel\u2014the fulfilment of the words of the angel, with the name of him\nof whom the prophet Isaiah had foretold, that he should be \"a voice\ncrying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord.\"\n\nAs soon as Zacharias had written the words, \"His name is John,\" what a\nthankful utterance of joy burst from the lips of the aged father! He\nthat had been dumb now spake\u2014his mouth was opened at once to prophesy\nand to praise. Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, as his\nvenerable wife had been before, and rejoiced in the Day-spring from\non high, that was rising to give light to them that had long sat in\ndarkness and in the shadow of death.\n\nAs the rosy clouds, flushed with his upward beams, seem to cradle\nthe rising sun, so we find, at the first advent of the Sun of\nRighteousness, a holy radiance brightening the latter days of four\naged saints, who were chosen, as it were, to reflect the first rays of\ncoming glory, and bear witness to the Messiah.\n\nFirst Elisabeth, then her aged husband, afterwards the venerable Simeon\nand Anna, gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of the coming blessing to\nall them that looked for redemption in Zion. The song of the one seems\nto have been appropriate to all: \"Lord, now let Thy servant depart\nin peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.\" With these saints,\nindeed, was the hoary head a crown of glory, for it was found in the\nway of righteousness.\n\nThe spirit of wisdom granted to these four aged believers reminds us of\nthe words of the poet\u2014\n\n          \"Both worlds at once they view,\n   Who stand upon the threshold of the new;\"\n\nand lead us to reflect upon some of the privileges of a holy old\nage. When an aged Christian lady was once speaking of the different\ngenerations in a family, she remarked, \"It is like a ladder\u2014happy\nthose who are near the top!\" The observation contrasts strikingly with\nMoore's melancholy regrets for departed youth, and gloomy views of\nadvancing age\u2014\n\n   \"Dim lies the path to death before me.\"\n\nAge is commonly described by the expression, \"descending into the vale\nof years:\" with Christians, it should rather be, mounting towards\nthe height of Pisgah; not going \"down\" into darkness, but \"up\" into\nlight\u2014nearer to God, and nearer to Heaven.\n\nThus it was with the four New Testament saints on whom we are\nreflecting; and the privilege which was granted to them, of witnessing\nto God's truth and rejoicing in His salvation, seems to be the especial\nportion of \"aged\" believers in every generation of mankind.\n\nThe old in years can, in a peculiarly forcible manner, witness to the\ntruth and faithfulness of God.\n\n   \"I have been young, and now am old,\" said David, \"yet have I not seen\nthe righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.\"\n\n   \"Behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth,\" cried the\nvenerable Joshua; \"not one thing hath failed of all the good things\nwhich the Lord your God spake concerning you.\"\n\nSuch words had additional weight from the very fact that those who\nuttered them were aged. When the old tell of the goodness of God\u2014His\npower to sustain in trouble and to guide in difficulty\u2014they speak, not\nmerely of what they believe, but what they have \"experienced.\" The\nrespect due to the aged is enforced by the command of the Most High:\n\"Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the\nold man, and fear thy God: I am the Lord.\"\n\nThe law is general; but never do we more strongly feel its force than\nwhen the hoary head has the halo of piety around it\u2014when the old man,\nlike Zacharias, stands up as a witness for God. His feeble broken\naccents may then have more power than the most fervid eloquence of the\nyoung, to lead the heart to trust in the love of Him who so fulfils His\npromise:\n\n   \"Even to your old age I am He, and even to hoar hairs will I carry\nyou: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will\ndeliver you.\"\n\nBut if age has its privileges, it has also its own peculiar trials,\nespecially in the case of the childless, and those who are encompassed\nwith many infirmities. Solomon calls theirs \"evil days, . . . when thou\nshalt say, I have no pleasure in them; . . . when the keepers of the\nhouse shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the\ngrinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the\nwindows be darkened, . . . and fears shall be in the way, . . . and the\ngrasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail.\" How touching\nand how true a picture is here given of decrepit age, bowed down with\nfeebleness and infirmity! When loneliness is added to all this\u2014when\nthe childless man has outlived all the companions of his youth, and\nthe years of his long life have been marked out by gravestones\u2014how\ndeeply does he claim the sympathy and compassion of his brethren and\nsisters in the Lord! He may have a long, tedious time of waiting by the\nbanks of Jordan, while they who were behind him press on before him;\nand though the prospect on the other side of \"the narrow stream\" be\nineffably fair, on this side it is indeed a dry and barren wilderness\nto him.\n\nBut there is divine love even in the decree that so often weakens the\npowers and dims the faculties of the aged. Very beautiful is the simile\nused by a departed authoress, * when, alluding to the decay of sight\nand hearing which is natural to extreme old age, she remarks, that God\nacts towards His feeble servants as a tender mother towards her child\nas the time for rest approaches she draws the curtain to shut out the\nlight, and stills every sound in the chamber, that, the outer world\nexcluded, her beloved may more quietly sink into slumber. We may draw\nout the parallel further. When the memory ceases to retain its grasp\nupon what were once objects of interest, what is it but the same loving\nParent gently taking from the child the toys of life's little day as\nthe evening shades fall around, and laying aside whatever might keep\nthe mind restless and awake?\n\n   * Mrs. Gaskell. I quote from memory.\n\nGod's love is remembered when the things of earth are forgotten. Who\nhas not heard of the Christian, aged and dying, whose memory had so\nfailed that he knew none of the friends around him, not even the wife,\nso fondly beloved; but when he was asked, \"Do you know the Lord Jesus?\"\nThat name was so deeply imprinted in the heart and memory that the\nerasing of all besides left it but more distinctly legible, and the\nsaint, in his second childhood, exclaimed, \"Precious Saviour! He is my\nonly hope.\" So, to pursue the simile, though the light was darkened and\nthe room stilled, and all that had once delighted the senses was put\naway, God's child felt beneath him the everlasting arms, and knew the\nvoice of the Parent hushing him to that sleep from which the same voice\nshould awake him to life and to joy in the dawn of the everlasting day.\n\nSuch are a few thoughts suggested by a relic of the aged Zacharias, the\nsaint well stricken in years, whose latter days were, we doubt not,\nhis brightest and best. We know nothing of the struggles of his youth\nor the efforts of his manhood; but we know that the angel's visit and\nthe message from God\u2014the father's rejoicing, and the prophetic hymn\ninspired by the Holy Spirit\u2014were reserved for the evening of a life\nwhich had been devoted to the service of God.\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXXXVII.\n\nThe Manger.\n\nIT is in no spirit of vain superstition that we regard this cradle\nof an incarnate God. Were the very manger in which Mary laid her\nheavenly Babe to be placed before our bodily eyes, we should not dare\nto fall down and worship it. But it is well that faith should linger\nby the manger of Bethlehem, and endeavour there to gain a more vivid\nperception of the amazing condescension of Him who came to visit us\nin great humility. While, therefore, with the shepherds, we adore\nthe Infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger, let us\nattempt to raise our thoughts to the divine nature of Him who, in His\npoverty and His helplessness, appears to us here so truly human.\n\n\"He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.\" There was no room\nfor Him in the inn. In one sense we might say that there was no room in\nthe world for One:\n\n     \"Whom heaven cannot contain,\n      Nor the immeasurable plain\n Of vast infinity enclose and circle round.\"\n\nFor, while we rejoicing cry, \"Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is\ngiven,\" we must also with awe remember that \"His name shall be called\nthe Mighty God, the Everlasting Father.\"\n\nLet us glean from the Scriptures a few from the many proofs that He who\nwas very Man was also very God; that the Babe who lay in the manger\nwas one with Him who filleth the throne of Heaven. Unless we keep this\n\"central truth\" steadily before us, we shall have a very faint idea of\nthe love and grace implied in the words, \"who for us men, and for our\nsalvation, came down from heaven.\"\n\n\"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word\nwas God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made\nby Him.\" Such is the sublime commencement of the Gospel of the beloved\ndisciple, upon whom rested the Spirit of Truth.\n\nJohn had probably been present when the lips of the persecuted Jesus\nof Nazareth uttered the mysterious sentence, \"I and My Father are\nOne;\" and he heard from the risen Saviour that revelation of Himself,\n\"I am Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last.\" Here was the Lord of\nHeaven, repeating His own solemn declaration, uttered when He abode\nupon earth\u2014that declaration for which the Jews would have stoned Him as\na blasphemer\u2014\"before Abraham was, I AM.\" In that mysterious sentence,\nChrist assumed to Himself that incommunicable name by which God made\nHimself known unto Moses as the eternal Deity, to whom the past and the\nfuture form but one everlasting present. Eternity, it has been said, is\nthe lifetime of God.\n\nSt. Paul also bears witness to Him who lay in the manger of Bethlehem,\nas the Creator and Preserver, as well as the Saviour of the world.\n\"God . . . hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He\nhath appointed Heir of all things; 'by whom also He made the world:'\nwho, being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His\nperson, and 'upholding all things by the word of His power,' when He\nhad by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the\nMajesty on high.\" St. Paul quotes from the Psalms the testimony of the\nEternal Father to the dignity of the Redeemer: \"Unto the Son He saith,\n'Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever!'\"\n\nMicah the prophet witnessed of Him who was to be born in Bethlehem,\nthat \"His goings forth have been of old, from everlasting.\" Zechariah,\nin a passage, part of which our Lord Himself quoted, exclaims: \"Awake,\nO sword, against My Shepherd, and against 'the Man that is My Fellow,'\nsaith the Lord of hosts smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be\nscattered.\" This is He who, \"being in the form of God, thought it not\nrobbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and\ntook upon Him the form of a Servant,\u2014\" yea, even that of a feeble\nInfant, lying in a manger, in an obscure corner of the world which He\nHimself had created.\n\nSuch a mystery as this the understanding of man cannot grasp; but faith\nmeekly receives it, and reason bids us acknowledge, that He whose\nsacrifice was to be of \"infinite\" merit must needs Himself be infinite;\nthat no created being could possibly have made satisfaction for the\nsins of a whole world, the redemption of which is a work as marvellous\nas was its first creation.\n\nBut nowhere do the marvels of that creation strike us with more\noverpowering force than when we muse on them beside the manger of\nBethlehem. Let us consider Him who deigned to become a mortal Babe in\nthe single attribute of power, as displayed in launching into space\nthis globe in which we live, on which He stooped for a while to dwell,\nand which, as compared with the heavenly bodies around it, is but as a\ngrain of dust in the universe created by Him by whom \"all things were\nmade.\"\n\nThough the giving motion to our world was but a comparatively \"small\"\nexercise of such power, how overwhelmingly great it appears when set\nbefore us in the scientific page! Let us make an extract from \"The\nChristian Philosopher\": *\n\n\"However rapidly a ball flies from the mouth of a cannon, it\nis the flight of a body only a 'few inches' in diameter . . .\nThe earth contains a mass of matter equal in weight to at least\n2,200,000,000,000,000,000,000, or more than two thousand trillions\nof tons, supposing its mean density to be only about two and a half\ntimes greater than water. To move this ponderous mass a single inch\nbeyond its position were it fixed in a quiescent state, would require\na mechanical force almost beyond the power of numbers to express. The\nphysical force of all the myriads of intelligences within the bounds of\nthe planetary system, though their powers were far superior to those of\nmen, would be altogether inadequate to the production of such a motion.\nHow much more must be the force requisite to impel it with a velocity\n'one hundred and forty times swifter than a cannon-ball, or sixty-eight\nthousand miles an hour,' the actual rate of its motion in its course\nround the sun! . . . The ideas of 'strength' and 'power' implied in the\nimpulsion of such enormous masses of matter through the illimitable\ntracts of space are forced upon the mind with irresistible energy far\nsurpassing what any abstract propositions or reasonings can convey,\nand constrain us to exclaim, 'Who is a strong Lord like unto Thee?\nThy right hand is become glorious in power! The Lord God Omnipotent\nreigneth!'\"\n\n   * By T. Dick, L. L. D.\n\nAnd it was He whose Word could thus launch forth, and for thousands\nof years keep the world and the other planets whirling round the sun\nat a speed that baffles thought to conceive, it was He who deigned to\ninhabit a human form so helpless that a woman's weak arms were needed\neven to lift Him out of the manger in which that woman had laid Him!\nThe thought is overpowering, we can but prostrate our souls in silent\nadoration. Well might the angels, bending over the manger, desire to\nlook into such a mystery; \"God was manifest in the flesh\"!\n\nO blessed Redeemer, when even a faint glimpse of the riches of Thy\nglory falls on the mental eye, it seems to dazzle and blind; and yet,\nfor our sakes, Thou didst become poor, so poor that the stable was Thy\nfirst earthly dwelling-place, and Thy cradle this manger! Grant unto\nus, feeble worms, the grace of Thy Holy Spirit, that we may be able\nto comprehend, at least in part, \"what is the breadth, and length,\nand depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth\nknowledge;\" that love which is infinite as Thy power, and everlasting\nas Thy existence!\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXXXVIII.\n\nThe Apostles' Net.\n\nTHERE is a danger, especially to imaginative minds, when meditating on\nScripture, to allegorize what ought to be taken literally, to lose the\nclear outlines of fact in a haze of fancy. May we be watchful against\nthis! But the Bible is full of types and emblems, and many objects of\nwhich we read in Scripture naturally form themselves into such.\n\nThe miraculous draught of fishes is at once a fact and an allegory;\nthe fishes were types of souls; something far beyond a mere present\nsupply of food was betokened by the abundance in which these fishes\nwere caught by the apostles. That such was the case is evident from the\nSaviour's promise, \"I will make you fishers of men.\" The net therefore\nappears to us as a type of what St. Paul calls \"the foolishness of\npreaching,\" by which it has pleased God \"to save them that believe;\"\nand it may not be unprofitable to us to pause for awhile by that net,\nand to consider some of the characteristics in which it resembles the\nteaching of the gospel by the ministers of God.\n\nTwo especially suggest themselves to the mind; its imperfection in\nitself, and its power when blessed by the Lord.\n\nThis net before us is twined of the same homely material as that of\nother fishermen, the hemp has undergone the same rough process of\nmanufacture, toil-hardened hands have with patient labour formed every\nknot in its meshes, there is nothing in its appearance to charm the\nsenses or attract the eye. Yet we do not turn from it because the web\nis not silken; we look not\u2014care not for brilliancy of dye in the net\nwhich enclosed the miraculous draught. But how strangely critical are\nmany amongst us in regard to the preaching of the Word! A blemish in\nstyle, a defect in pronunciation will sometimes mar the effect of an\nearnest discourse. The net must be silken to attract us; truth, when\nhomely, too often offends. The ear and taste must be satisfied, though\nheart and conscience be left untouched!\n\nThen, again, the net is not only of common material, but it requires\nboth cleansing and repairing; we read of the apostles both as washing\nand mending their nets. Here the application of the lesson seems to be\nrather for the minister than his flock. The popular preacher, to whose\nwords hundreds\u2014thousands listen with rapt attention, who feels his net\nheavy with the richest of prizes, needs constantly to remind himself\nof the weakness and imperfection of the instrument which the Lord is\ndeigning to bless. It was when the apostles were drawing in a multitude\nof fishes \"that their net brake.\" When in the midst of their successes,\nservants of God suddenly feel their net breaking, when their physical\nor mental powers are crippled, so that they need to beckon to their\npartners that they should come and help them, is not this sign of the\nimperfection of their noblest talents sent to them lest they should\nfall into the sin of pride, and, albeit unconsciously, \"sacrifice unto\ntheir net, and burn incense unto their drag;\" rest complacently in\nthose powers which at any moment might fail?\n\nBut if the net be but a poor instrument in itself, how marvellous its\npower when blessed by the Lord! How mysterious the faculty of stirring\nsouls to their very depths, of sending forth words like arrows, which\nGod Himself guides to the hearers' hearts! St. Peter, the illiterate\nfisherman, must have marvelled at the effect of his first recorded\nsermon. Three thousand souls gathered in at once, a number far larger\nthan appears to have been drawn in during all the years of Christ's\nsojourn upon earth by the ministry of Him who spake as never man spake!\n\nWhat were the emotions of the apostle when his preaching, by the might\nof the Spirit, brought into the Church such a harvest of souls? We know\nthat the miraculous draught made him fall on his knees, humbled and\noverpowered under a sense of his own unworthiness, and exclaiming to\nthe Divine Being who had wrought the miracle, \"Depart from me, for I am\na sinful man, O Lord!\" May we not believe that St. Peter was far more\nhumbled by the miraculous draught of souls, the mighty success granted\nto one who had, but a few weeks before, so sinned against light and\nlove!\n\n\"What is this honour vouchsafed to me!\" Such may have been the\napostle's thought ere he laid down his head to rest that night, with\nhis soul overflowing with thankful joy: \"Have these lips, so lately\npolluted with cursing and swearing, these lips that have thrice denied\nmy Lord, been permitted so to preach the gospel, that thousands are\ngathered into the Church! What am I that I should be chosen to enjoy a\nprivilege so glorious!\"\n\nBut though on that occasion the confession, \"I am a sinful man, O\nLord!\" may have been uttered with far deeper consciousness of guilt\nthan it was in the boat on Gennesaret; the \"depart from me!\" would\nnever more be heard from the contrite Peter. His sense of sin would but\nmake him cling the more closely to Him who taketh away sin; the greater\nhis guilt, the greater his need that the Saviour should not depart, but\nabide with Him for ever!\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXXXIX.\n\nThe Bed of the Paralytic.\n\nWHEN was a burden ever lifted more joyfully than this was, when at the\nSaviour's command the light bed was raised by the strong arms that had,\nbut a few moments previously, rested in helpless weakness upon it!\nHow joyfully did the restored paralytic make his way on his own feet\nthrough that crowd whose presence had rendered it impossible for his\nfriends to bear him in on his bed! We know not of a single word spoken\nby the rejoicing pardoned believer in that hour of intense happiness,\nbut surely the utterance of his heart must have been like that of the\npsalmist.\n\n   \"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits! Who\nforgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases;\nwho redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with\nlovingkindness and tender mercies, . . . so that thy youth is renewed\nlike the eagle's!\"\n\nWe would gladly follow the restored sufferer to his home, and hear him\nrecounting to eager listeners there what great things the Lord had done\nfor him; describing his feelings of hope as\u2014borne on that bed\u2014he had\napproached the house in which the Master was teaching, then the fear,\nthe anxiety, the difficulty which had followed when it was found to be\nuseless to attempt to carry the invalid in. How grateful must he have\nfelt to those friends whom difficulties would not daunt, especially to\nwhoever first offered the suggestion to let him down through the roof!\n\nThe sufferer could not help his friends in their labour of love, but\nhow anxiously he had watched it, and, when gently lowered down by kind\nhands, with what a trembling hope had he found himself in the immediate\npresence of the Redeemer! To hear such scenes described by those who\nwere the immediate actors in them, may probably be one of the joys\nreserved for God's children in Heaven.\n\nHow would the restored paralytic in the course of his after-life regard\nthat bed on which he had lain perhaps for weary year after year! Would\nthe associations connected with it be those of pain or of pleasure?\nWould he dwell on the long wearisome days, the dreary nights which he\nhad spent on that bed when he had no power to lift himself from it?\nWould he sigh when he looked on it from the recollection of all that he\nhad had to endure? We cannot think this, however long, or painful, or\ntrying, his illness may have been; it is far more likely that the sight\nof that bed would bring to his mind recollections on which memory would\ndwell with rapture.\n\n\"It was when stretched on that bed that I first looked on my Lord, and\nmet His glance of ineffable love and compassion! It was when stretched\non that bed that I heard those accents which will thrill delight\nthrough my soul to my dying day, yea, and through all eternity,\u2014'Son,\nbe of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee!' Oh, God be praised that\nI ever was sick! I thank, I bless, I adore Him for the weakness, the\nhelplessness, the disease which brought me so close to my Lord, and\nmade me a monument thus of His everlasting mercy and grace!\"\n\nAnd thus will many a dear Christian brother or sister, long afflicted\nby sickness, look back on the couch of suffering when the Lord has\nrestored health to the feeble frame, or when\u2014through what man calls\ndeath\u2014He has bidden the pardoned believer \"arise,\" never more to lie\ndown in pain. Many will doubtless have cause to say, \"It was in love\nand mercy that sickness and suffering were permitted to chain me down\nto my bed; it was from thence that I first looked through faith on\nmy Saviour\u2014there first I knew that my sins were indeed forgiven. My\nweakness made me rest in Christ's strength\u2014my sufferings brought me\nto His feet. I would not exchange the lessons learned, the privileges\nenjoyed on that sick-bed, for all the wealth of the world!\"\n\nThe story of the paralytic man is fraught with comfort also to those\nin sorrow for loved ones afflicted either in body or in mind. It is\nterrible to watch sufferings which we cannot relieve, to seek aid from\nphysicians but to find that their utmost skill is exerted in vain.\nWhich of us has not known the wearing anxiety, the sickening suspense,\nwhen a precious life is at stake? Oh! Let us not then rest on earth,\nand put down our loved burden in despair. We must \"go up higher,\" we\nmust carry our friend upwards on the strong arms of prayer, we must lay\nhim at the feet of the Saviour. The Son of Man hath still power to say,\n\"Arise, take up thy bed and walk.\"\n\nStill more earnest should be our efforts when the sickness of him for\nwhom we pray is that of the soul\u2014the sickness of sin. Bodily health\nand strength and beauty may be united with deadly spiritual paralysis.\nSome seem as if they would not\u2014could not\u2014come to the Saviour; they have\nno power to rise, they are chained down by the cares or pleasures and\nfollies of the world; when others are pressing in to hear God's Word,\nthey remain in peril without.\n\nLet us, as it were, carry those who will not or cannot walk, let\nus bear the burden on our hearts. God is trying our faith and our\npatience. Have we clambered the outward stair, have we toiled to\nuncover the roof\u2014to remove as far as we can the obstacles which divide\nthe paralyzed soul from the Lord? And then, using the bands of love,\nthe \"cords of a man,\" have we gently placed our burden even at the feet\nof our Heavenly Master? He has still power to say to the diseased and\nparalyzed soul, \"Thy sins be forgiven thee,\" and to bid it arise to\nwalk in newness of life, to tread in the paths of holiness, to run with\nvigour that blessed race of which Heaven itself is the goal!\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXL.\n\nThe Cross.\n\nIN the olden times when legends and traditions, like parasites mantling\na tree and hindering its healthy growth, had appeared well-nigh to\nchoke gospel-truth while meant to adorn it, the day of the supposed\ndiscovery of the true cross was made a festival; * its name was given\nto province and city; and fragments, however small, of what was deemed\nso inexpressibly sacred, were esteemed amongst the greatest treasures\nof princes. Satan would be well pleased to see adoration paid to\npieces of wood, if he could so draw away the minds of the pious from\ncontemplation of the true cross, as it is preserved for believers in\nthe Bible alone, to be touched only by Faith as she repeats the words\nof St. Paul, \"God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our\nLord Jesus Christ.\"\n\n   * \"'Invention of the Cross,' an annual feast solemnized on the 3rd of\nMay, in memory of Helena's (the mother of Constantine) finding the\n(supposed) true Cross of Christ deep in the ground on Mount Calvary,\nwhere she erected a church for the preservation of part of it.\"\n                                           _English Encyclop\u00e6dia._\n\nWith the deepest, most solemn reverence, let us now draw nigh in\nspirit to this altar, on which was offered the one \"full, perfect, and\nsufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the\nwhole world.\" Let all worldly thoughts be put off; it is on holy ground\nthat we tread, as the cross\u2014stained with that most precious blood which\nalone cleanseth from all sin\u2014draws our contemplation to Him who upon it\nagonized and died for mankind.\n\nThat Christ \"could\" suffer proves that He was human; that He could\n\"so\" suffer, proves that He was divine, for Deity alone could so hold\nthe tortured frame in subjection as to keep it suspended for six hours\nin agony upon the cross. A mere man, by the force of strong will,\nmay give himself up to death\u2014may so overcome the shrinking of nature\nas to spring down the chasm, or throw himself into the waves. Many\nmartyrs have yielded up their lives willingly and cheerfully, \"but\nwho could die as Jesus died?\" His was no single effort of will, but\na prolonged exercise of it, hour after hour, amidst sufferings more\nexcruciating than the mind can conceive. We cannot doubt that He who\nis \"the mighty God\" could at any moment have ended those sufferings;\nno nails could have fixed Him to the cross; not the united powers of a\nthousand peopled worlds could have kept Him there for an instant! The\nunutterable pangs which the Saviour endured were His own deliberate\nchoice, and it was His own infinite love which made Him sustain them\neven to the end. We know this from the Lord's declaration:\n\n   \"I lay down My life . . . No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it\ndown of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take\nit again.\"\n\nChrist had but to will it, and the cross of shame would instantly have\nbeen exchanged for the throne of glory, and the mocking crowds have\nbeen stretched blackened, blasted corpses before Him! We speak of our\nLord's temptation in the wilderness\u2014what must have been His temptation\n\"on the cross\"? Such as none but Deity could have resisted\u2014none but\nGod have overcome. A Paul might have consented to be crucified for the\nsake of his brethren\u2014but could even a Paul have remained long on the\ncross had it needed but an act of volition to release him? Human nature\nmust have failed under the trial. The fondest of mothers clinging by\nher hands to the edge of a precipice, with her infant fastened to her\nshoulders, must let go ere long, though conscious that her child as\nwell as herself will be dashed in pieces by her fall.\n\nThe weight of a world's salvation hung on the Redeemer, and He \"would\nnot let go.\"\n\n\"Come down from the cross!\" shouted the rabble.\n\n\"Come down from the cross!\" urged the tempter.\n\n\"Come down from the cross!\" cried out agonized human nature,\u2014Christ\ncould, but He would not come down. This was constancy beyond that of\nhumanity; this was the endurance not of a man but of a God!\n\nThere appears to be a mysterious analogy between the great act of\nthe Creation and that of the Redemption of the world. After the six\ndays in which the Lord made earth and the things within it, He \"did\nrest the seventh day from all His works;\" and so, after the six hours\nof anguish, the Saviour rested in death from the more awful work of\nredemption. Another analogy arises in the mind, though it is mentioned\nwith some hesitation, as Scripture warrant cannot be brought forward\nto support it. It is an ancient well-known tradition that the world\nwill endure six thousand years under our present dispensation, and that\nthen will come the long Sabbath of rest. If it be so, is it impossible\nthat each hour on the cross may have had a mysterious relation to each\nthousand years\u2014that the two first hours of agony may have expiated\nthe guilt of the antediluvian race; the succeeding, that of its\nsuccessors; the increasing numbers of sinners corresponding with the\ntortures which, towards the close of the awful time of sacrifice, would\nnaturally most fearfully increase?\n\nIf such a suggestion be admitted, what a peculiar interest have we, who\nlive in these latter times, in the dying thirst\u2014the agonized cry, which\nappears to have marked the climax in the sufferings of our blessed\nRedeemer! The idea links itself on to another. Is it impossible that\nbefore Him who knoweth all things may have passed in prophetic vision\nevery human being who should enter Heaven through the merit of those\npangs which He at that moment was enduring? That the Lord \"waited,\"\nwith arms outstretched, strained muscles and bleeding hands, until the\nlast, the very last, should be safe; and till\u2014knowing that none, not\nthe least of His flock should perish\u2014Christ could at length exclaim,\n\"It is finished\", and so bow the head and yield up the ghost?\n\nThere is something inexpressibly touching in this thought, especially\nif we regard the possibility that some one now breathing on this globe\nmay have been the last one for whom the Lord waited on the cross!\nPerhaps some prodigal for whose soul a mother is now wrestling in\nprayer; perhaps some poor heathen slave in a distant land; perhaps\nsome despised one brought up in haunts of vice, the answer to whose\nfirst cry of faith and repentance, \"God be merciful to me a sinner,\"\nwill be the sound of the trumpet announcing that the world's great\nsuffering-time is ended, and that the last saved soul being gathered\nin, the glorious Sabbath shall commence!\n\nLet us pause for a few moments, and with closed eyes and bended knees\nattempt to realize the thought,\u2014\"the Saviour waited on the cross for\nme!\" For \"me\" was that awful thirst, for \"me\" that intolerable pain.\nChrist would not save Himself from a death of torture, because\u2014with all\nmy coldness, selfishness, sinfulness\u2014He could not, would not, suffer me\nto perish!\n\nA few words inscribed under a picture of the Crucifixion were once made\nthe means of converting a soul; they were as a question from Him who\nhung on the cross, these touching words are addressed to us all\u2014what\nreply dare we return? \"I suffered this for thee; what dost thou for Me?\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nXLI.\n\nThe Stone at the Sepulchre.\n\nWHO has not known the pang of bereavement,\u2014\n\n   \"When sorrowing o'er the stone we bend,\n    Which covers what was once a friend,\n    And from his hand\u2014his voice\u2014his smile,\n    Divides us for a little while?\"\n\nLet the mourner draw nigh to this stone which closed the sepulchre of\nthe Lord, and beneath its quiet shadow meditate on the solemn and most\nblessed doctrine of the resurrection.\n\nWith aching hearts, with drooping heads, the disciples of the crucified\nSaviour turned from the sepulchre in which they had seen His sacred\nbody laid. For Him, indeed, the awful trial was over; He was beyond\nreach of the cruelty of soldier, or the malice of priest. Those holy\neyes were clothed in death, no cry of anguish would ever more burst\nfrom those pallid lips, the blood had ceased to flow from the pierced\nhands and side. For the Master indeed there was rest, but for the\ndisciples desolation, for none in that hour of anguish appears to have\nbelieved or understood the re-iterated promise,\u2014\n\n   \"After three days I will rise again.\"\n\nWhat was the world, then, to the followers of Christ, without Him who\nhad been their Friend and their Guide, the Life and Light of their\nsouls! That tombstone seemed to shut them out from all that remained to\nthem of One so deeply reverenced, so tenderly beloved.\n\nAnd when early in the twilight which preceded the Easter morn, women\ndrew near to the grave to pay the last honour to the body of the Lord,\nthis same stone, heavy, sealed and guarded, appeared to their anxious\nminds as a barrier between them and Him.\n\n\"Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?\"\nwas the perplexed enquiry of those whose love was stronger than their\nfaith. But the stone had been rolled away by an angel's hand, and had\nbecome the seat of a messenger from Heaven, whose countenance was like\nlightning, and his raiment white as snow; at the sight of whose glory\nthe guards had trembled, and become even as the dead!\n\nThe Lord of Life had risen indeed, the first-fruits of them that\nsleep; the sepulchre had yielded up its heavenly guest; Christ had\nled captivity captive, and by dying abolished death! Thenceforth all\nbelievers could exclaim, \"O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where\nis thy victory? Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through\nour Lord Jesus Christ!\"\n\nThis stone stands as a representative of all that shuts out from the\neye of love, from the sunshine of Heaven, the mortal forms that once\nheld souls that Christ hath redeemed. The little grassy mound in the\nchurchyard over some babe whose brief span of life\u2014\n\n   \"Left no trace behind,\u2014save in a parent's breast;\"\n\nthe heavy monument in the cemetery, the solid walls of the vault, the\nearth-covering in the deep pit on the battlefield, the unfathomable sea\nwhich rolls over the dead,\u2014all, all shall yield up their trust!\n\nAgain shall an angel of God descend from heaven; again shall the\nsolid earth tremble and shake; again shall rocks be rent and graves\nbe opened; and as Christ, the Head, arose, so shall the body\u2014the\nChurch\u2014arise! Hear the glorious words of Isaiah's prophecy, omitting\nthe italics which are not in the original text, and which seem to\nobscure its meaning:\n\n   \"Thy dead shall live, My dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing,\nye that dwell in dust: for thy dew the dew of herbs, and the earth shall\ncast out the dead.\"\n\nOh, joyful Easter morn, for which Faith is watching and waiting! When\nthe first dawn of its coming light is around us, and the shadows of\nnight are beginning to flee, well may our Lord address to mourners for\ndeparted saints the question, \"Why weepest thou?\"\n\nChrist when He rose from the dead was again restored to His loving\nfollowers, but, as regarded visible presence, for only a little space;\nbut when the graves of His saints shall be opened, when from countless\nsepulchres the heavy stones shall be rolled back, it is to no transient\nglimpses of the Lord, to no brief moments of blissful intercourse that\nthey will then be admitted.\n\n   \"I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter\nday upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body,\nyet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine\neyes shall behold, and not a stranger\u2014\" (marginal reading).\n\nNo, NOT A STRANGER! When Mary first beheld her risen Lord, her eyes\nwere holden that she should not know Him, and as a stranger she\naddressed Him! But the saints as they burst from the sod in the morn of\nthe resurrection shall at once recognize Him, whom not having seen they\nhave loved! They will know the voice of the Good Shepherd who has led\nthem through the wilderness of life, and the valley of the shadow of\ndeath!\n\n   \"And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited\nfor Him, and He will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for Him,\nwe will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.\"\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe Queen and the Twelve Names.\n\nWE find in the seventh chapter of the book of Revelation a description\nof the sealed ones, the spiritual Israel, under the names of the\ntribes to whom was granted the promised inheritance of Canaan. If\nit be, as many believe, that we here behold Christ's Church under\na different symbol, yet identical with her of whom we read in the\nforty-fifth Psalm, the twelve names in Revelation beautifully fill\nup the description of \"the King's daughter, the Queen,\" who is \"all\nglorious within,\" for all these names have meanings. The virgins,\nher companions, that shall be brought into the King's palace with\ngladness and rejoicings, may be regarded as representing \"the multitude\nwhich no man could number, of all nations and kindreds, and peoples\nand tongues,\" who appear to be distinct from, and yet in some degree\nsharers in the blessedness of the sealed ones, \"the hundred and\nforty-four thousand.\" Let us examine the meaning of the names mentioned\nin Revelation vii., and see if they are not as twelve stars in the\ncrown of the \"Church of the firstborn,\" * placed on her head by Him\nwhom she worships, because He is the Lord her God.\n\n   * Heb. xii. 23.\n\nAnd, first, we mark what name is \"omitted.\" DAN had a place amongst the\ntwelve tribes of Israel under the Law, but none amongst the spiritual\nIsrael. The signification of the word may throw light upon what is\notherwise dark and mysterious. Dan signifies judgment. There was\njudgment stern and terrible under the Law, but in the Gospel \"mercy\nrejoiceth against judgment.\" The curse has been removed, the penalty\nendured by another; Dan is, as it were, absorbed and disappears. It is\nremarkable that when Jacob on his death-bed blessed his sons, after\nspeaking of Dan, \"judgment,\" then, and then alone, he burst forth into\nthe exclamation, \"I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord!\"\n\nFollowing the order in which the names of the tribes are given by St.\nJohn, the first of which we read is:\n\nJUDA, \"the praise of the Lord.\" And so praise unto Him who hath chosen\nand redeemed her is, as it were, the first gem, the central star in the\ncrown of the Church, the spiritual Bride.\n\nREUBEN, \"see the Son, or who sees the Son,\" a name of deep meaning if\nwe may take it as descriptive of the precious privilege of her whose\n\"eyes shall see the King in His beauty, the pure in heart\" who shall\nlook upon God.\n\nGAD, \"a band,\" or \"happy,\" or \"armed and prepared.\" * The\ninterpretation seems to speak for itself. The Church is a chosen \"band\"\nof those who are \"happy\" in the love of their Lord; who have been\n\"armed\" to fight the good fight, and \"prepared\" for the coming of Him\nwhom, not having seen, they have loved. Of such is the spiritual Israel.\n\n   * See Cruden's Concordance.\n\nASER, \"blessedness,\" or \"happiness.\" The Church, when she enters the\npalace of her Lord, will shine in blessedness for ever. Immortal\nhappiness will beam from her countenance, the reflection of the light\nof Him in whose presence is the fulness of joy, and at whose right hand\nthere are pleasures for evermore.\n\nNEPTHALIM, \"my wrestling, or one that struggles.\" Here we are reminded\nthat they who bear the palms of victory are they that have endured the\nconflict. A reference may also be made to earnest wrestling in prayer.\nEsther, ere the hour of triumph, might be said to have earned the\nname of Naphtali. The Church who will wear the garment of praise, now\nappears in the spirit of heaviness, wrestling, struggling, till He with\nwhom she pleads grant her more than she dares to ask for, or to desire.\n\nMANASSEH, \"forgetfulness.\" This name was given by Joseph to his\nfirstborn in Egypt; \"for God,\" said he, \"hath made me to forget all\nmy toil, and all my father's house.\" The patriarch's words sound\nlike a response to the exhortation addressed to the bride in the\npsalm,\u2014\"Hearken, O daughter, and consider . . . forget also thine\nown people, and thy father's house.\" The vanities of earth, with its\nsorrows and sins, put away and forgotten for ever!\n\nSIMEON, \"that hears or obeys.\" In this word is described a special\nattribute of the Church of Christ, the obedience of faith. \"He that\nhath My commandments and keepeth them, He it is that loveth Me,\" saith\nthe Heavenly King. It is the Church that listens to His voice, that\nseeks to follow wherever He leads. Of Reuben, the patriarch, it was\nsaid, \"unstable as water thou shalt not excel;\" but Reuben's name\ntaken in its hidden meaning may remind us that \"even water, hearing\nand obeying\" the Lord, became as a well at His bidding, or firm as a\npavement under His feet.\n\nLEVI, \"joined,\" or \"held and associated.\" Here is a description of that\nunion of which, alas! amongst those who are called Christians, we now\nsee so little. There is too much of the party spirit which cries, \"I\nam of Paul\u2014I of Apollos,\" with believers who should be one in Christ.\nShould mere form and ceremonies, the colour of a garment, a posture,\nor a name, have power to separate those whom God Himself hath joined\ntogether? We need larger Christian charity. The higher we rise towards\nHeaven, the wider spreads the horizon around. Not but that purity of\ndoctrine must ever be jealously guarded, we must earnestly contend for\nthe faith once given to the saints; but as regards those non-essentials\nby means of which the enemy would divide us, and bring discord into the\nChurch, well may we say,\u2014\n\n   Judge not thy differing brother, nor in aught\n     Condemn; his prayer and thine may rise above,\n   Though blending not in \"unison of thought,\"\n     Yet mingling in the \"harmony of love.\"\n\nISSACHAR, \"price, reward.\" A touching allusion may here be contained\nto the truth that we are not our own, but \"bought with a price;\" that\nthe salvation of the Church is the \"reward\" of a Saviour's merits,\nthe purchase of a Saviour's blood. To the spiritual Israel comes the\nmessage, \"Fear not, for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy\nname, thou art Mine.\"\n\nZABULON, \"dwelling.\" Under another figure we find the Church\nrepresented as the temple of an indwelling God. \"If a man love Me,\"\nsaid the Lord, speaking of each individual believer, \"he will keep My\nwords: and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make\nour abode with him.\" St. Paul reminded the early Christians of this\nhigh privilege granted to them. \"Know ye not your own selves, how that\nJesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? Know ye not that ye\nare the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?\"\n\nJOSEPH, \"increase.\" Here we have in the name of Israel's best beloved\nson the description of one of the essential attributes both of the\nChurch and of each of her members; \"growth\" in grace, \"increase\" in\nknowledge and brotherly love. The Church is not only a temple but a\nliving body, that must be nourished and exercised, till \"it come in\nthe unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a\nperfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.\"\nIt is the Spirit of God whose effectual working \"maketh increase of the\nbody unto the edifying of itself in love.\"\n\nBENJAMIN, \"the son of the right hand.\" The impression conveyed by\nsuch a name as this is that of power, honour, and strength. It is the\nname which Jacob substituted for that bestowed on his youngest son by\na dying mother, BENONI, \"the son of my sorrow.\" By birth every child\nof Eve \"is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward;\" as Benonis\nwe enter into the world, and as Benonis we must have left it, had not\nthe Father of mercies and God of all comfort changed the nature of His\nchild, as Jacob with his changed the name; so that the worm * should\n\"thresh the mountains,\" and to the feeble be given \"power over the\nnations.\" \u2020\n\n   * Isaiah xli. 14.       \u2020 Rev. ii. 26.\n\nThis very slight sketch of the features of the Church as drawn in the\nnames of the tribes of Israel must be considered as little more than\nsuggestive; an abler hand than mine may fill up the outlines, and so\ngive us a glimpse of the spiritual beauty of the Queen when she shall\nbe presented to her Lord \"without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing,\"\nrobed in His righteousness, bright with His glory, and blessed in His\nlove!\n\n\n\n[Illustration: FINIS]","title":"House beautiful : $b or, The Bible museum","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":49166}