and like Noah, took his weary and weak dove into the ark at once.

It had been with great difficulty, Esrom had persuaded her to meet "the Guide of her youth" in the wilderness. Even when she consented to go forth, she said, "Jephthah's daughter knew not the pang, which her sudden appearance would inflict upon her father. Her timbrels and dances brought him 'very low :' but she was the unconscious cause of his anguish. Sheshbazzar will be equally shocked: and what can I say when he rends his clothes, exclaiming, 'Alas, my daughter, thou hast brought me very low; thou art one of them

that trouble me. "Nay," said Esrom, “such lamentation will not rush to his lips; like Moses with Miriam, he will intercede for thee at once, and be the first to welcome thee unto his

camp and counsel again; for, like Moses, he is as meek as he is wise."

The case of Miriam was so often quoted and referred to by Esrom, as a parallel to her own case, that Rachel could not forget it altogether. Again and again she proved to herself, that she was not a Miriam, but in her sin and punishment for she had never been as a sister to the Elders she had spoken against; nor had her timbrel ever led the song of the Red Sea, when the people celebrated the EXODUS. But still the parallel haunted her. It was a case in point, so far as their sin and sentence were alike :and, might not their pardon be alike too? This question, if it did not create hope, maintained prayer. And when Sheshbazzar identified her case with Miriam's at once, her prayer, which had only risen upon the one wing of submissive desire, rose on the twin wings of meek solicitude and humble hope. "Sheshbazzar as well as Esrom," she said to herself, "takes the same view of my case." Whilst Rachel was reflect

ing thus, Sheshbazzar dismissed the Pilgrims to Beersheba. "I tarry in the wilderness,” he said, "to lead on this lamb of the flock as she can bear: return ye to the fold in peace; and see that ye limit not the Holy One of Israel by interpreting her calamity, as Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar did the trials of Job. Leave it to them, to mistake providence; and to Satan to impugn motives. Let us who are aged, especially, judge ourselves, that we may not be judged: for if these things be done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry tree, if it become fruitless?" The Pilgrims departed in silence; but not in sympathy with their leader, or with his lamb. They were afraid to speak; but they were not afraid to suspect the prudence of Sheshbazzar, or the sincerity of Rachel. He understood their looks; but said nothing more. He turned from them; and, "leaning on the top of his staff, worshipped,"

until they were out of sight. Whilst thus musing, the fire burned: then, spake he with his tongue. "I am too much humbled by the leprosy of the spirits of all flesh, to be shocked or surprised at bodily leprosy. Not that I think lightly of it. It is the strangest of all God's 'strange works;' his Rod of rods, and cup of trembling, when he visits our sins with stripes, and our iniquities with chastisements; but, lo, all these things worketh God, (and many such things are with him,) that he may save souls alive." Some souls can only be saved from unhallowed curiosity and vain imaginations, by startling judgments which, like the sword of the Destroying Angel, so weaken their hearts in " one night," that they

:

dare not turn again to folly and others require a flaming sword perpetually before their eyes, or a clearing cross upon their shoulder, in order to keep them from folly; because, like Eve,

they are least suspicious of themselves when most happy, and like Lucifer, most aspiring when brightest. The Son of the Morning speculated in heaven, and the Daughter of the Morning, in paradise; and both fell.

66

Rachel, thou hast fallen too: but not like Lucifer, to rise no more; but like Eve, to be raised up again. I meet thee in the wilderness; but not like Cain, fleeing from the presence of Jehovah; but like Abel, worshipping before the Sheckinah. God will not despise the sacrifice of a broken spirit, in the desert; and he will accept thy burnt offering, in the sanctuary. Mercy will yet rejoice over judgment, and over thee, with singing."

"Sheshbazzar, I was the tempter," said Esrom; "and first in the transgression. But for me,-Rachel had not fallen."

"And, but

for you, Rachel had not been restored," said

Sheshbazzar." It was a "dark saying:" neither