And what then is Jerusalem,

This darling object of his care?
Where is its worth in God's esteem?
Who built it? who inhabits there?

Jehovah founded it in blood,

The blood of his incarnate Son;
There dwell the saints, once foes to God,
The sinners whom He calls his own.

There, though besieged on every side,
Yet much beloved, and guarded well,
From age to age they have defied

The utmost force of earth and hell.

Let earth repent, and hell despair,
This city has a sure defence;

Her name is called, "The Lord is there,”
And who has power to drive Him thence?

Cowper.

VISIT TO RAMAH, THE HOME OF SAMUEL.

PART II.

WHEN we left Ramah of Samuel the other day, we promised ourselves the pleasure of looking across to the places to which the prophet "went in circuit from year to year,"-viz., "to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpeh"-and seeing how they would further develop his history.

But there is another spot mentioned in connection with his public life, the circumstances of which are so full of interest and importance to the times we are considering, that we must first allude to it-viz., "Ebenezer."

Israel, led as it appears by Ephraim, determined to be as the nations of the earth, and to free themselves from their enemies by their own valour, at their own time, and in their own way; there was no voice of God to His

people except in Samuel's word, for they had separated themselves from Him by their idolatry and sin.

A war was undertaken just when their impiety had grown to its height. Without consulting the Lord or seeking His aid, "they went out against the Philistines to battle, and pitched beside Ebenezer." Now, that Ebenezer was not far from Shiloh we may conclude from 1 Sam. iv. 12, 13.

The natural results of Israel's presumption followed in an utter defeat, the death of Eli, and the capture of the ark.

As the burning of Shiloh most likely took place at the same time, Samuel, who must now have been a grown up man, would probably return to his native home in Ramah ; not there to neglect God's work until better times came, but, although cut off from the duties of the sanctuary, to continue true at all risks to his Master's service, and declare faithfully His justice and sovereignty until some effect appeared to be produced, for "Israel lamented after the Lord."

To test the sincerity of this repentance, Samuel demanded that they should "put away their strange gods, and serve the Lord only" (1 Sam. vii. 3). The people complied, and then the prophet said, "Gather all Israel to Mizpeh, and I will pray for you unto the Lord."

No sooner did the "lords of the Philistines" hear of this great gathering of their hated foes than they flocked up against them, and Israel "trembled" before their old masters. They said to Samuel, "Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us, that He will save us out of the hand of the Philistines."

What a moment it was when Samuel's prayer ascended with the smoke of the sacrifice which he was offering at the very time the Philistines proudly drew near to battle!

The Lord accepted that atonement and mediation. "He thundered with a great thunder upon the Philistines, and discomfited them," so that they were subdued, and came no more into the coast of Israel all the days of Samuel. Well might the prophet set up a stone in memory of that day, and say, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.

Well

might he wish Israel never to forget Ebenezer-the place of their failure and of their triumph, of their weakness and of their strength, of their sin and of its expiation.

That day at Ebenezer appears to have been a turningpoint in Israel's history. Samuel's teaching and guidance, so faithfully and patiently persevered in, brought forth this fruit; and did not his wise administration prepare the twelve tribes to be led unitedly, so that within one century from this time Israel became the chief of all the nations of the earth?

We must not forget Ebenezer; but now we will look towards Bethel, where a stone was set up many years before in memory of a wondrous dream. Near as Bethel

is to Jerusalem, I have not yet been to it, the distance is rather too far for a return the same day with my poor old donkey; but my desire to see it is much increased since I accomplished Ramah.

Dean Stanley, in his choice work on Palestine, says of Bethel, "There is indeed nothing to indicate the Divine Presence, no awful shades, no lofty hills. Bare, wild rocks, a beaten thoroughfare, these are the only features of the primeval sanctuary of that God of whom nature itself there teaches us that if He could in such a scene so emphatically reveal Himself to the houseless exile, He is with him and with His true servants everywhere, and will keep them in all places whither they go.'

To use the happy expression of the same elegant writer, Bethel has "a peculiar antiquity of interest; from its heights Abraham viewed the land when the Lord said to him, "Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward for all the land which thou seest to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever."

To those same heights of Bethel Samuel went up year by year to judge Israel; he lived to see the promise in part performed, and we, as we now look at the fulfilment of God's word by the prophet Amos, "Bethel shall come to nought," will not forget the "for ever" of the promise to Abraham.

After the captivity Bethel was inhabited by the returning Jews. In the fourth century it is spoken of as only

a village; yet still the ruins of its site betoken something more than this even to a later period, so that it probably has had many revivals since the days of Samuel.

Of Gilgal no trace remains at the present day; it was probably never anything more than a village, but there the twelve stones were set up as a memorial of the miracle of passing through the Jordan; and it was the resting-place of the tabernacle, and the meeting-place of the Israelites during all the time of Joshua's wars with the Canaanites.

It might therefore well be a remembered and cherished spot in Samuel's day: the faithful prophet held in it his circuit court, and offered sacrifices in Gilgal. The present halting-place, at (so-called) Jericho, of pilgrims going down. to the Jordan, is by many thought to be the ancient Gilgal; and if so, it is still "year by year" a camping ground for weary travellers.

Mizpeh implies a post of observation, and at least four Mizpehs are mentioned with circumstances of special interest in the early history of Israel.

At Mizpeh, in the territory of Gad, Laban and Jacob entered into a covenant of friendship, and Jephtha with his only and darling daughter dwelt (Gen. xxxi. 49; Judges xi. 34).

Another Mizpeh must be meant in Josh. xi. 5, 8. And it was to Mizpeh in Moab, David conveyed his parents during his days of trial. The Mizpeh of Samuel was without doubt one of the heights of Benjamin, and that called Neby Samuel appears to answer to the Scripture narrative.

The ruins that crown Neby Samuel give evidence of the Crusaders' undoubted faith in its identity, and Moslem tradition points it out as associated with the prophet's history; therefore with some degree of assurance I lately revisited Mizpeh, and allowed myself to enjoy its sacred memories. One of these we have already alluded to-the gathering at Mizpeh on the day of Ebenezer. A few more years and the holy Samuel "called the people together again before the Lord at Mizpeh" (1 Sam. x. 17), that he might proclaim Saul as their king; and how much of Samuel's character is seen in that event!

It appears that his two sons helped him in his arduous duties as judge of Israel, and their place was in the south of Judah, where Samson had once exercised authority; but they were unlike their father in integrity and uprightness; they accepted bribes, and perverted judgment. In disgust the people came to Samuel, and petitioned for a king. Deeply as he must have felt this, we read not of a word of reproach to them; but he made known his distress to the Lord, and received help and direction.

It was the object the people had in view rather than their request that was sinful, for in Deut. xvii. 14-20 we see that the Lord had by revelation prepared for those circumstances, and had given directions for king and people. Just such a king as their proud hearts desired was given to them in Saul-he was their idea, not the Lord's. The purity and disinterestedness, the kindness and firmness, and the power of Samuel are seen at Mizpeh.

Perhaps it was after this change in the civil government of Israel that Samuel established his school at Naioth (the meadows) of Ramah ; and it is very probable that in the work of this school, which was so eminently adapted to benefit his people and his country, he passed his closing years, only leaving the important oversight of it to "circuit from year to year to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpeh," as