equally anxious to banish every wandering thought, to drive far away from us every worldly imagination-those unclean birds which come down upon our offerings, and sully, and taint, and disfigure every sacrifice which we would bring to the altar of the Lord.

At length the time arrived when Abram's faithfulness and watchfulness having been sufficiently tried, the Lord redeemed his promise.

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When the sun was going down," says the inspired historian, "a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him." It was while in this supernatural ecstacy, that the Almighty delivered to him the following prophecy of the fate which awaited his descendants. "Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years." The middle clause of this sentence, "and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them," is to be considered parenthetical; for the actual servitude of the Israelites was only for a period of about eightysix years, and we should therefore read it, "Know of a surety, that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, four hundred years." " And also," continues the prophecy, "that nation whom

they serve, will I judge; and afterwards shall they come out with great substance." Here was a distinct and circumstantial prediction of the long sojourn of the seed of Abram in a strange country; of the bondage to which they should in after times be subjected in the land of Egypt; of the plagues with which the Almighty, when bringing forth his people with a high hand, and a stretched-out arm, should judge the Egyptians; and of "the jewels of silver, and jewels of gold," which should be presented to the Israelites by their terrified taskmasters, by which they should spoil the Egyptians, and come forth from the house of their captivity "with great substance.”

The only point of difficulty in the prediction, is the period of four hundred years, since we are told in the 12th chapter of Exodus, that "the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years." To reconcile these apparently contradictory dates, it is only necessary to observe, that in the vision of which we are speaking, when the Almighty says, "Thy seed shall be a stranger in.a land that is not theirs four hundred years," the sojourning of the seed of Abram in a foreign land is dated from the time of the birth of Isaac, from which event, to the deliverance from

Egypt, was exactly four hundred and five, or in round numbers, four hundred years. While in Exodus, the sojourning of the Israelites is dated from the arrival of Abram himself in Canaan, which was twenty-five years earlier, and thus, both these conflicting dates are perfectly reconcilable to the same event.

It is interesting to observe how completely we are enabled, by the light of inspiration, to trace the employments of Abram throughout the whole of the important day of the events of which we are speaking. It was in the early dawn of this day, that God led the patriarch to the door of the tent, before sunrise, and pointed out to him the innumerable stars shining in the firmament. It was in the succeeding part of the day, that the animals were killed and prepared, as God had commanded; it was when the sun was going down, that a deep sleep fell upon Abram, in which he heard the prediction of which we have been speaking; and again, it was when the sun went down, and it was dark, that the sign he had requested was vouchsafed.

What a day was this! How do the constant intercourse and daily walking of the patriarchs with God, put to shame all our feeble and momentary communings with him! We can hardly believe that

ours is the same God, and that we are bound to Him by ties as close, and by relationship as endearing, as these holy men of old. Well may the hourly aspirations of our souls for closer walk with God!"

ever be, "O for a

But we must hasten on to the consideration of the sign which the Almighty had promised Abram, and which was no longer withheld. The following is the remarkable description given by the pen of inspiration; "And it came to pass, that when the sun went down and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp passed between those pieces" of the creatures which Abram, at God's command, had killed and divided. You who are acquainted with the customs of the nations of antiquity, will see in this something more than a mere unmeaning sign; you will recollect that the usual ceremonial in important national covenants, of which we have some very remarkable instances in ancient lore, was to divide an animal into two or more parts; the persons covenanting passed between these parts; intimating that should they break the covenant, they should deserve to be cut asunder, and divided limb from limb, as the animal was, between whose mangled remains they were passing.

The smoking furnace which passed between the pieces, is usually considered as an emblem of the dark furnace of trouble, affliction, and bondage, which the Israelites endured in Egypt, to which reference is so peculiarly made in the fourth chapter of Deuteronomy, where it is said, "The Lord hath brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even Egypt;" while the burning lamp which followed the smoking furnace, symbolized the shekinah, or glorious majesty of God, which should be with the Israelites in their great deliverance from the house of bondage, when in the words of the prophet, their salvation went forth "as a lamp that burneth." The Almighty thus, under the symbol of the smoking "furnace" and " burning lamp," passing between the pieces, not only gave to Abram the requested sign, but, as we are told in the following verses, corroborated his promise, by thus making a covenant with Abram, that He, the Almighty, would not desert the progeny of Abram in their day of trial, but that he would accompany them in all their wanderings, and finally establish them in the promised land.

The land of Canaan therefore was given and solemnly made over: but the actual possession of it was withheld for four generations. The reason af