her heart, even in the closet; and, in the Synagogue, they often diverted it from both the Word and Worship of Jehovah. Sheshbazzar did not suspect this. He saw, indeed, that Rachel's preparations were upon a scale worthy of her Tribe and her parentage; and that her own taste would preside over every thing—from her own robes, to the veils of her maidens, and even down to the lamps and torches of the procession. But, why not? Who had such ex

quisite taste? about many things," said the old man; "but her good sense is a pledge that nothing will be extravagant or vain. She is sure to adorn herself and others, only according to the manner of holy women of old. There may be 'nets of checker-work and wreaths of chain-work,' here and there in her arrangements, as around the pillars of the Temple; but the crown of the whole, like the capitals of Jachin and Boaz, and the bor

"Rachel is, indeed, troubled

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ders of the molten Sea, will be lily work ;'—the still grandeur of gracefulness, the calm majesty of meekness; as from the chisel of Hiram of Tyre.”

Sheshbazzar did not know that Rachel had plunged into the bustle of preparation, in order to forget her penitential vows, and to hide from herself the backslidings of her own heart. And, had her heart still been what he supposed, he would have been more than justified in taking for granted, that she would plan and execute all things as in the sight of God. For, until Esrom's critical levity betrayed her devotional spirit, she could turn any series of domestic duties into a Bethel Ladder between earth and heaven. But, when she became a critic in the house of prayer, she soon lost her simplicity in the closet. At first, she was shocked on discovering, that unhallowed associations of the ludicrous or frivolous, were blending themselves with phrases which once breathed her holiest

feelings. Then, she could not use, in the closet, expressions she had blamed, or smiled at, in the Synagogue. Then, she sat musing in silence about prayer, instead of kneeling before the Lord with supplication. At length, she became equally ashamed and afraid to be alone with God!

Thus Rachel's heart condemned her, and to escape from its censures, she filled her hands, to overflowing, with the duties of her betrothment; leaving neither time nor thought for any thing beyond the ceremonials of religion. She fasted without humility, and worshipped without love, except when Sheshbazzar presided. And even then, he was often to her, only

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as one that playeth well upon an instrument."

All this process and result of spiritual defection, she concealed from him. She tried to persuade herself that, like the cloud which had occasionally come over her spirit, before she knew the Lord; and which, when it passed off,

left her more cheerful than it had found her; so this hiding of the Divine presence would only be temporary, and enhance the brightness of the Candle of the Lord, when it should shine upon her own tabernacle :—for she had vowed, that the house of Esrom and Rachel should be in all things "the tabernacle of the righteous," whenever she entered upon its management. In its closet, she was sure to renew her communion with God!—at its family Altar, sure to pray in the spirit! by its hearth in the evening, and under its fig-tree in the morning, sure to shake off from Esrom and herself, all the mildew of backsliding! Nothing of this, however, was attempted in the mean time. All improvement, and penitence too, was postponed until Sheshbazzar should "sanctify the household" of the betrothed, upon his return from Jerusalem. But, before he returned, Rachel was become “A LEPER, white as snow!”

No symptoms of this awful malady had shown itself, when Sheshbazzar left Beersheba. He had marked the throb of her veins, and felt her hand burn, and seen the hectic flush and the pallid hue succeed each other on her cheek, without increasing or diminishing the strange glaze of her eyes: but he dreamt not of leprosy. There was no "bright spot in the skin," and no "whiteness in the hair;" and thus, although he parted from her with a heavy heart, it was mental, not bodily, disease he foreboded and that fear, he was too wise to utter or betray. He blessed Rachel, in the name of the Lord, and placed himself as usual at the head of his brethren, to conduct them to Zion.

Sheshbazzar exemplified, at Jerusalem, the spirit of his favourite maxim: he shook the mulberry-trees of every typical ordinance, and prophetic promise. He was the first, daily, at the morning sacrifice, and the last to retire