dence has assigned them; and at a third, treacherously, through some bias of private interest, passion, or party, selling the trust committed to them, to the foe. Happily, in the case before us, the head which directed, and the hand which executed, were in perfect unison. The spirit that fought, and the spirit that prayed, were one.

up to God in the heavens, from whom his help came. It was clearly the intention of Providence, that the deliverance which should be wrought for Israel on this occasion, though not wholly independent on the use of means, should evidently appear to flow chiefly and only from the interposition and grace of Heaven. "It came to pass when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, that Amalek prevailed."

Let us first ascend the hill with Moses and his two friends, and adopt the feelings of men, who at once felt for the public cause, were not without well founded apprehen- This is the first battle which Israel was sions from the common enemy, and at the called to fight; and it was designed to be a same time feared and trusted the Lord. model of all that should follow; of assured Moses has given his orders to Joshua, and success to them, and victory over all their he has so far done well; but to stop there enemies, provided they constantly acknowhad been doing nothing. He has set the ledged God, with hands continually lifted up means to work, and now he can confidently to heaven. And it had undoubtedly a farlook up to Heaven for that blessing which ther view, namely, to represent in general, can give success to the means. He ascends the powerful and certain effect of prayer to to meet God, but ascends not alone. As God, and of a sense of dependence upon him; wickedness seeks to fortify and to keep itself to show that our strength is in exact proporin countenance by the society of the wicked, tion to the perception of our own weakness, so the fire of devotion keeps itself alive by and to our confidence in almighty grace. the sacred communication of a kindred flame. The lesson inculcated in this history is the The hands of Moses alone had soon become same which Christ taught his disciples in the feeble, and must have dropped down, and parable of the unjust judge and the importuAmalek finally had prevailed; supported by nate widow, "That men ought always to Aaron and Hur, they continue " steady till pray, and not to faint."* If importunity and the going down of the sun;" and Amalek the love of ease have power to constrain a and his people are discomfited with the edge man to do his duty, though he have no incliof the sword. nation to it, how much more certain the effect of earnestness and importunity with the Hearer of prayer, the Father of mercies; who is ever more ready to grant than man to ask? "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in hea ven give good things to them that ask him."

Of Aaron, one of the companions of Moses upon the mount, we know much; of Hur, the other, the scripture account is more sparing. Those who are never at a loss so long as fancy and invention can create, make him the son of Caleb, and the husband of Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron. It appears from the history, that he was the father of Uri; and the grandfather of Bezaleel, the famous artist, employed, by special endowment and appointment of Heaven, for the construction of the more curious and costly furniture of the tabernacle and sanctuary. But it is of more importance for us to know him, and for him to be reported, as a person of the first quality, and his quality supported by that which gives rank its highest lustre, genuine piety. Moses left him, in commission with Aaron, to judge the people, when a short while after this he went up alone into Mount Sinai, to meet God. This is argument sufficient of his high rank; and the assumption of him to assist his devotion in Mount Horeb, while Israel was engaged with Amalek, is a proof equally clear and decisive of his extraordinary piety.

Behold then the man of God, supported and encouraged by two such companions, discovering all the honest anxiety of the patriot, together with all the confidence and fervour of the saint; with his eyes eagerly bent on the conflicting armies in the plain below; and his hands, with his heart, lifted

Have you considered then, my christian friend, what a powerful instrument is put into your hand, mighty as the rod of God in the hand of Moses, wherewith he did wonders? "Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth for the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit." Surely, then, "the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." God has not given you assurance of success in all your undertakings, but he has bestowed upon you the privilege, and promised you the spirit of prayer, by which you shall certainly obtain one of two things; either that blessing from above upon your honest endeavours, which maketh rich, which insures success, and makes it durable; or, that resignation of spirit, and submission to the will of God, which subdue misfortune, and which turn calamity and disappointment themselves into advantage. God

has not given thee, my friend, the promise of | Let us now turn our eyes to the struggle riches; but he has given thee, what is much in the valley below. There we meet "the better, the spirit of grace and supplication to confused noise of the warrior, and garments form thy soul to contentment. You have no rolled in blood :" the alternate shouts of acsecurity against pain and sorrow; but you clamation and triumph, mingling with the have that which produces patience and for- piercing shrieks of the wounded, and the titude. You cannot promise yourself long groans of the dying. Israel, now hurrying life; but habitual intercourse with God by on to victory, and anon flying before the inprayer, overcomes the fear of death. sulting foe. The event for a while is awfully in doubt; turning upon the strength and feebleness, not of thousands, but of one single arm; decided at length, not by the edge of the sword, but the elevation or depression of a rod; and that rod swayed, not by the skill and prowess of Joshua, but the firmness and devotion of Moses.

HISTORY OF MOSES.

LECTURE LII

And Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and did obeisance, and kissed him: and they asked each other of their welfare: and they came into the tent. And Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done unto Pharaoh, and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, and all the travail that had come upon them by the way, and how the Lord delivered them. And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the Lord had done to Israel: whom he had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians. And Jethro said, Blessed be the Lord, who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand

of Pharaoh, who hath delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods: for, in the thing wherein they dealt proudly, he was above them And Jethro, Moses's father-in-law, took a burnt-offering and sacrifices for God. And Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses's father-in-law before God.-Exodus xviii. 7—12.

THE great Author and Ruler of the world nas evidently in view the pleasure and happiness, as well as the wisdom and virtue of his rational creatures. We find, through the widely expanded frame of nature, and the extensive plan of Providence, as many sources of joy as there are means of improvement. What an infinite, beautiful, and pleasing variety in the works and in the ways of God! all ministering to human comfort, all aiming at making men good. The mind of man is formed to desire and to relish variety. The objects with which he is conversant are therefore varied without end, to gratify that desire, and to correspond with that relish. The glare of perpetual sunshine and the fervid heat of an eternal summer, would speedily oppress and destroy mankind: but, relieved by the tranquillity of darkness, the freshness of spring, the sedateness of autumn, and even the gloom of winter, they become no less grateful than they are beneficial. In surveying the globe, the eye is not permitted to tire by having to crawl along a boundless plain; but sparkles with delight as it springs from valley to valley, and from hill to hill. And even the glories of the starry heavens are rendered still more glorious by being kept in continual motion; and thereby are made continually to exhibit a different appearance.

The very structure of the sacred compo sitions is inimitably calculated, by a beautiful and easy transition from subject to subject, and from scene to scene, to relieve and yet to preserve the attention: presenting always a new and interesting object, or the same object placed in a new and interesting light. Thus the tumultuous, noisy, and bloody scenes of Horeb and Rephidim-scenes of murmuring, rebellion, and war, are happily relieved by scenes of domestic tranquillity, love, and joy; and we are prepared to attend Moses, to meet God in the mount, by mixing in the virtuous, cheerful, and affectionate intercourse of his private family.

Let us then thankfully take the relief which a gracious God has in his word provided for us; and contemplate one of those calm, but neither uninteresting nor uninstructive representations of human life, which come home to the bosom and the fireside of every man who has a heart, who has a relation, who has a friend.

The history of Moses now looks back, and reminds us of his being "a stranger in a strange land:" namely, of his fleeing from Egypt into Midian, of his arriving there, condueted of Providence, just at the moment to render a seasonable service to the daughters of Raguel, or Jethro, the priest of Midian; The events of human life, for the same of the hospitable reception afforded him by reason, are endlessly variegated like the that worthy man, and of the alliance which objects of sense. Wretched were the dull he formed with him, by marrying his daughstagnation of constant prosperity, success, ter Zipporah. Upon his being called back and ease. Intolerable would be the agitation to Egypt to undertake the weighty charge and distress of unceasing, unabating, unre- which God had assigned him, he had intendlenting toil, pain, disappointment, and vexa-ed and attempted to carry his wife and chiltion of spirit. But, one thing being set over against another, the great, the prosperous, and the happy are forever admonished, reproved, and brought low; the poor, the despised, and the miserable are cheered, supported, and exalted.

The word of God exhibits a resemblance to the system of nature, and to the conduct of Providence. In it we have the same pleasing, engaging variety; the same happy accommodation to the tastes, occasions, and necessities of mankind. The antiquarian and the naturalist, the politician and the legislator, the poet and the philosopher, the moralist and the divine, the man of retirement and the man of the world, the man of reason and the man of fancy, all find in scripture an helper toward the discovery of truth, and the attainment of happiness; a guide to the understanding, a corrector and supporter of the imagination, a comforter of the heart, a teacher of wisdom, a rule of faith, a source of joy.

dren along with him. But being reproved of God by the way for neglecting in his own family the rite of circumcision, the seal of God's covenant, and, either specially admonished from Heaven, or following the dictates of human prudence, he sends them all back to his father-in-law, as likely to prove either a burden or a hindrance to himself, in the discharge of his great trust. For true piety, while it reposes entire confidence in God, will never presumptuously load Providence with what is the proper work and business of man. Diligence and foresight, as well as faith and hope, are its genuine offspring. But the tempest being now blown over, and Moses, of a messenger and a suppliant unto Pharaoh, being now become the head and leader of a great nation, it was natural for him and for his family mutually to desire to be restored to each other. Jethro, therefore, having received information where Israel was, and what the Lord had done for them, takes his daughter and grandchildren,

and carries them with him to the camp of Israel.

The innocent endearments of natural affection, and the honest communications of private friendship, are graciously intended to alleviate the cares of public life, and to strengthen the mind by diverting it from incessant and intense application to serious business. No man can always be a general, a statesman, or a king. And happy it is for those who occupy these exalted but troublesome stations, that they are frequently permitted to sink the public in the private character, and to drop the hero, the senator, the judge, the sovereign, in the man.

Distance has not alienated affection between the man of God and his family. A slighter affection is effaced and destroyed by absence; a stronger love is confirmed and inflamed by it. Good old Jethro satisfies not himself with sending by the mouth of another a compliment of congratulation to his son-in-law; neither will he permit Zipporah and her sons to go unaccompanied, unprotected through the wilderness; but, aged and infirm as he was, chooses himself to be their companion and their protector.

Public men have too often two different characters. Plausible and specious, humble, modest, and insinuating before the world, they are self-willed and tyrannical, confident, assuming, and brutal in private; they often fawn where they fear, and domineer where they have power. Not so the meek and gentle prophet and judge of Israel. He waits not in state till his relations are admitted to pay their homage. He reckons it nothing derogatory to his high dignity to go forth to pay the respect due to age; and to humble the son, however high in place, at the feet of the parent. "And Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and did obeisance, and kissed him; and they asked each other of their welfare; and they came into the tent." Were it after the separation of but a day, friends have a thousand questions to ask, a thousand little incidents to relate: about their health, their 'entertainment, their dangers, their deliverances; about the observations which they have made, the projects they may have formed. What must it then have been for two such friends, for such a father and son, after a separation of many months, during which, events of such high moment to both Moses seems to take delight in delivering had taken place, to meet together again in to us this passage of his life. He is amiably health and comfort, to communicate mutualminute and circumstantial in the detail of it. ly the full soul, to retire into the tent, to shut He dwells upon the tender and affecting re-out the world, and give vent to the overflow. collections of sorrows and of joys that are ings of tenderness and affection! past. His heart is in it. He stops in his narration to tell us the names of his two sons, and his reason for giving them those names. "The name of the one was Gershom: for he said, I have been an alien in a strange land: and the name of the other was Eliezer; for the God of my fathers, said he, was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh." Is this beneath the dignity of history, of sacred history? No, it is the most honourable province of history, to exhibit the honest, unsophisticated feelings of nature, the genuine workings of the human heart, the real, though humbler scenes of human life. What signifies to us the meeting of two old men three thousand three hundred years ago? Much every way. One of them is a Moses, and that Moses is describing his own sentiments, unveiling his own heart. He can serve as an instructer and an example to none, in respect of the prophetic dignity, as the bearer of the potent rod, as the man whose face shone, by forty days' intimate communion with God. He can instruct but a few, by his wisdom and sagacity as a prince and a lawgiver. But as a son, a husband, and a father, he is a pattern to myriads, and shall continue to teach to the end of the world.

How pleasant it is to find this great man the same in retirement and privacy that he is upon the great theatre; and delineating a battle, a triumph, and a family meeting, with the same simplicity and godly sincerity!

And with what a subject of conversation are they furnished;" And Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done unte Pharaoh, and to the Egyptians, for Israel's sake, and all the travail that had come upon them by the way, and how the Lord delivered them." The most trifling incidents which befall a brother, a friend, a child, are interesting and important. What must then have been the emotions of Jethro to hear the wonders of Egypt, to learn the great things of God, astonishing in themselves, and acquiring an additional weight, creating a new interest, from the person who related them, and who was himself so deeply concerned in the event?

But the good man is elevated, as he wondering listens to the wonderful tale, above all personal and selfish regards, above the partiality of private friendship, above the tenderness of natural affection. His heart dilates at the thought of a whole nation delivered, of a tyrant trampled in the dust, of the power, wisdom, and mercy of God magnified." And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the Lord had done to Israel; whom he had delivered out of the hands of the Egyptians. And Jethro said, Blessed be the Lord, who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh, who hath delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods; for in the