the minister of the Lord. His return was to Ramah, for there was his house, and there he judged Israel, and there "he built an altar unto the Lord." "And Samuel died, and all the Israelites were gathered together and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah" (1 Sam. xxv. 1). Mrs Bailey.

QUESTIONS.

What happened at Ebenezer? Where was it? What may have been the fate of Shiloh? What did Samuel do at Mizpeh? What did the Philistines do? How did God answer Samuel? What was the result? Why should the Jews remember Ebenezer? What place is near Bethel? What had Samuel to do with it? What did Amos say of it? What is it like now? What happened at Gilgal? Where was it? What does Mizpeh mean? How many places were so called? What happened at each ? What did Samuel set up at Naioth ? What does "Naioth " mean? Where was Samuel buried?

SICKNESS IN THE CRADLE.

"They brought young children to Christ, that He should touch them."

"A CHRISTIAN child in pain!
Oh sad amazing thought!
A babe elect and born again,

With blood of Jesus bought,

That never yet knew dream of sin,
Nor throb of pride, nor will unclean;
Yet faint with fever see him lie,
Or in strong grasp of sinner's agony !"

O mother fond and wild,

Stay the complaining word!

What wouldst thou have?

Is as his Saviour Lord.

Thy suffering child

Or ever eight brief days have flown,

He, the unstained, must have his moan,
Must taste the sacrificial knife,

Must to the cross devote the tender life.

Behold, the Virgin blest

Calls on her babe to wake

From His sweet slumber on her breast;
How should her heart not ache?
From her pure bosom, where all night
He softly slept, that maiden bright
Resigns her well-beloved at morn
To shed His blood; for therefore was He born.

Pierced is her heart, yet still :

For why that mother's love
Is one with His Almighty will,

Changed by the o'ershadowing dove.
Oh freely then your treasures yield,
With the dread cross so lately sealed,
Yield to the chastening of th' unseen,

The Saviour's presence-tokens, sweet as keen.

THE SEER.

Lyra Innocentium.

"It shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark." Zech. xiv. 6.

THAT is the heart for thoughtful seer,
Watching, in trance, nor dark nor clear,
Th' appalling future as it nearer draws;
His spirit calmed the storm to meet,
Feeling the rock beneath his feet,
And tracing thro' the cloud th' eternal Cause.
That is the heart for watchman true,
Waiting to see what God will do,

As o'er the Church the gathering twilight falls:
No more he strains his wistful eye,

If chance the golden hours be nigh,

By youthful Hope seen beaming round her walls.
Forced from his shadowy paradise,

His thoughts to Heaven the steadier rise:
There seek his answer when the world reproves :
Contented in his darkling round,

If only he be faithful found,

When from the east th' eternal morning moves.

Keble's "Christian Year."

THE HISTORY OF THE ARK OF THE

COVENANT.

THE ark was a large box, or chest, made of Shittim wood, two and a half cubits long, one and a half broad, and one and a half high. It was made in the wilderness by God's command, for keeping the two tables of stone, and the other laws which God gave to Moses.* These laws were

the covenant, or agreement made between God and His people. They were to keep these laws, and He would protect and feed them, and give them an inheritance. He would be their God, and they should be His people.

The sides of the ark were afterwards covered with silver plates, made out of the censers of the two hundred and fifty men with Korah, who offered incense in the rebellion against Aaron, and who were burnt by the miraculous fire that came out from God. Its lid was of pure gold, a bright light shone upon it, and two cherubims stood over it, their wings overshadowing it.

The ark always stood at one end of the tabernacle, when it was set up in the wilderness, and it was looked upon as God's throne (the mercy seat), and а thick curtain hung in front of it. When the people marched on their journey, the ark always went first, and was carried on poles, which were run through rings on each side of it. It was carried by the Levites, and the pillar of cloud floated over it.

When the people were going into Canaan, the priests carried the ark on in front, and went into the river Jordan with it; but as soon as ever the soles of their feet touched the surface of the water, the river stopped running above where they stood, while all the water below ran on into the Dead Sea, till the bed of the river was dry. So the priests went on into the middle of the Jordan and set down the ark there, till all the people had crossed over through the dry bed: then the priests carried the ark out of the river, and as soon as they brought it up on to the opposite bank, the river flowed on again as before.

* See Book I., p. 97.

It remained in Joshua's camp at Gilgal, in the plains of Jericho, till the country was conquered. Then Joshua pitched the tabernacle at Shiloh, which he chose because it was about the centre of the people, and it was in a quiet, retired valley, off the high road that goes from Bethel to Shechem. Besides the two tables of stone, the ark had a pot of manna put into it, as a memorial, and Aaron's budded rod.

It was placed at one end of that tabernacle, which became now a fixed church, where the priests lived, and where all the people came up to worship at the great feasts. Sometimes it is called the Temple.

When Eli was high-priest, and there was a war between the Israelites and Philistines, and the latter had won a battle, you will remember the people sent for the ark to come down to the camp at Aphek, because they thought God would fight for the ark, and so the Philistines would be beaten but God was angry with them, and the two priests who were with the ark were bad men, so they were killed in the battle, and the ark of God was taken.

:

The Philistines took the ark down to their own country as a great trophy, and they put it into the temple of Dagon (the fish-god), at Ashdod; and when they went into the temple next day, they found the image of Dagon had fallen down flat on its face before the ark, and was broken, because it was only a stone idol. Then God struck all the people with a plague, and they died by thousands; and He sent swarms of mice, which ate up all their corn, and caused a famine. So the people of Ashdod would not keep the ark, but sent it on to Gath.

Then all the people at Gath began to die of the same disease, and the mice followed the ark to Gath, and ate up all the corn there, till the people of Gath sent the ark off to the next city, Ekron. But wherever it went the same plagues followed it, till all the five cities of the Philistines had suffered in the same way: and no one would have the ark; it brought such bad luck.

At last, when it had been there seven months, they determined to get rid of it; so they made five golden models of the disease and five golden mice (one for each

city), put them into the ark as an offering, and put it into a new cart, made on purpose. Then they took two cows, that had lately calved, yoked them to the cart, took their calves from them, and tied them up. Then they let the cows go; and we should have thought they would have gone to their calves, but they did not. They went straight off with the cart up into the land of Canaan, and left their calves behind, and they never stopped till they got into the field of Joshua, at Beth-shemesh, where some Israelites were reaping their corn.

When these Israelites saw the ark come back, they were very glad, and the Levites took it down, and put it on the great stone of Abel. And they cut up the cart, made a pile of it, slew the two cows, put them on the wood, and offered them up as a sacrifice to God for a thank-offering that the ark was come back.

But some of the people opened it, and looked in, and God smote them for doing so, and a great number died; so they sent to tell the people at Kirjath-jearim to fetch it, and they did so; and they put it into the house of Abinadab, on the hill, and sanctified his son Eleazer to keep it.

There it remained for twenty years, till David went with a long procession, and all kinds of music, to fetch it to Jerusalem, after he was made king. But as they were going by Nachon's threshing-floor, it shook, and Uzzah put out his hand to steady it, and God struck him dead. So David was afraid to go on with it: and he put it in the house of Obed-Edom, the Gittite; and God prospered his house, and it remained there three

months.

Then David fetched it up to Jerusalem, and he offered sacrifices, as they went; and the king himself danced before it, and he put it into a tabernacle he had made for it on Mount Zion, the city of David: but he allowed no one to carry it but Levites.

When Solomon built the temple on Mount Moriah, he brought the ark into it.

"Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, unto Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion.