and grapes for food. And in its recess, under a vase of lilies of the valley, he placed her little ark of Gopher-wood, in which her ancestral copy of the Law was deposited. He had saved that treasure, on the day when the Elders pronounced the house of her fathers unclean, and whilst the people were razing it to the ground.

Nothing gratified Rachel so much, as this attention. That ark contained the covenant of her God, and her own covenant with Esrom: for the deed of her betrothment lay beneath her Pentateuch and Psalter. She did not for

get her ark on the day of her exile from her father's house; but she was afraid to bring it away under the veil of her leprosy. She felt,

as if its sacred contents would be less dishonoured by perishing in the ruins of her habitation, than by escaping in the shadow of her shame. She was even afraid to name it to Esrom; and he was too considerate to name it

to her. Rachel had never wept, during her calamity. Her eyes burned like coals of juniper in a furnace of brass; not like dew-stars in the firmament. Esrom hoped that nature, as well as grace, would find relief, by the surprise he had prepared for them, in the little sanctuary in the wilderness. He judged aright. She entered the tent leaning upon his arm. Its coolness did not revive her, nor its fragrance soothe her: but when her eye fell upon her Ark, her spirit melted. Rachel wept. Esrom blessed the God of his fathers, in silence. It was a holy hour! Angels heard each of them say unto God, "I have gone astray like a lost sheep seek thy servant, for I do not forget thy commandments." THE ANGEL OF THE COVENANT heard each of them cry, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Wash me, and

I shall be whiter than snow."

It was evening: and this was their evening

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sacrifice. When it closed, Esrom said, "The

sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, He will not despise,' whoever else may do so." With this salutation, Esrom left the tent; and, having wrapped himself in the skin of a young lion, which had perished in the swellings of Jordan, he ascended the great rock above the tent, to keep watch during the night. He watched "unto prayer," also. So did Rachel. Neither slumbered nor slept. Both prayed as in the days of old. Neither remembered the Elders, except to ponder, how men of one idea may have much devotion.

When Esrom entered the tent in the morning, he found Rachel still a leper; but the unnatural brightness of her eyes had been softened by her tears, and the dry and deathly coldness of her hand was moderated. She had just de

posited the Covenant in her ark, and replaced the vase of lilies upon it, so arranged, that their broad leaves, like wings, overshadowed it.

"The emblem is but too true, Esrom," she said: "the leaves of the frailest of the flowers of the field, not the wings of the CHERUBIM have overshadowed my ark. I rather garlanded than guarded it; and, therefore, the glory departed. Will that glory ever return? I have read the Covenant of Promise this morning, with relish: shall I ever read it again with hope? Will my present penitence be as fading as the lilies of the valley?"

Esrom had not anticipated this application of his device. He had placed the flower she loved most, upon the ark she deemed lost; that pleasure might soften her surprise, when she found it again. "I meant no moral, Rachel,” he said, "when I set the vase of lilies upon the lid of the ark." But Sheshbazzar

would say," the root of them will not die, when their leaves wither, and their fragrance passes away. Their root is still in the valley, and will continue to yield flowers in its season, whilst it continues in its native soil. Let us

keep our spirit in the valley; and we shall not

only grow as the lily, but cast forth our roots as Lebanon." Rachel had never named Sheshbazzar, from the moment she was pronounced to be a leper. She saw how his high character was staked upon her integrity; and felt that she was not likely to redeem, by her own future character, the pledges he had given to the Elders. He often vouched for her sincerity, to them; and now, they said, "God had branded her a hypocrite." And, what answer could Sheshbazzar give to this charge against his judgment? She could think of none-if she

were to be a leper until the day of her death: and she had no hope of recovering.