THE PASSAGE OF THE JORDAN.

JOSEPH H. CLINCH.

And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.-JOSHUA iii. 17.

THE hosts of God, by Joshua led,

Approached the Jordan's eddying tide,
And priests, with veiled and bended head,
Bear to its grassy side

The Ark, beneath whose cherub wings
Are kept the pure and precious things;-
Behind the morn its radiance flings

On bannered lance and buckler bright,
And brazen trump, whose music rings
To hail the dawning light.

The flood before them boils and leaps
Along its deep and rocky bed,
But still the moving column keeps
Onward its fearless tread,

As though no foamy current flowed
Between it and the blest abode,

To which, by many a thorny road
And desert plain its steps had passed,
And which in morning's glory glowed
Green, beautiful and vast.

And now the Levites' sandalled feet,
Are moistened by the river's edge,
Which curls and breaks with murmur sweet,
Amid the bending sedge.

Yet pause they not; with heart of prayer,
And faith-supported strength, they bear

That which the torrent shall not dare

Submerge, or mar with angry tide— They know not how-but know that there God will a way provide.

Their faith hath triumphed ;-with the sound
Of rushing thunder backward fly
The affrighted billows, and the ground
They moistened now, is dry.

Cleft in the midst the waters stand
Obedient to their God's command,
Towering aloft on either hand,

A glassy and resplendent heap,
Where scenes which blessed the promised land
In mirrored beauty sleep.

And fearless down the dark defile

The countless hosts of Israel go,

And loud from trump and harp the while,

The strains of gladness flow.

THE PASSAGE OF THE JORDAN.

The depths, that voices never gave,
But those of warning wind and wave,
Send from their dark and oozy grave

The echoing tread of joyous throngs,
And praise of Him, whose hand can save,
In loud triumphant songs.

And now the farther shore they gain,
And kneeling kiss the promised spot,
Which, through long years of toil and pain
Their anxious steps had sought.

Whilst with a wild and maddening roar
The tides, disjoined from shore to shore,
Their long suspended waters pour
To fill the yawning gulf between;
Closed is the bright mysterious door,
By which they entered in.

Christian, behold the typic shade

Of that dim path prepared for theeBehold in Jordan's tide displayed

Death's overflowing sea.

Thou treadest still life's desert plain
In toil and sorrow, care and pain;
Trials and doubts and fears maintain

With thee a fierce and bitter strife,
And but for heavenly aid would gain
The conquest o'er thy life.

Yet soon that toilsome war shall cease,

And thou beside the flood shall stand,

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Beyond whose waves are realms of peace,
A pure and holy land.

But if thou still hast kept the Ark
Of God before thee as a mark,

Fear not the troubled waters dark,
Howe'er they rage and chafe and roar;
On that mysterious voyage embark,
And God will guide thee o'er.

Pass boldly on in faith and prayer,

And waves of doubt and floods of fear
Shall part and leave a passage there
To changeless glories near.

The dim obscurity shall fail

In death's dark pass and shadowy vale,
And thou, with gladdened eye, shall hail
Bright glimpses of the glorious things
Which lie beyond, and render pale
The angel's flashing wings.

And when thou'st gained that blessed shore,
For ever freed from sin and pain,
Death's cheated waves shall hiss and roar,
Mingling their streams again.

Thence ever closed, that shadowy door
Shall entrance give to earth no more-
But thou shalt reach the golden floor
By Jesus lit, and angels trod,
Ever and ever to adore

Thy Saviour and thy God.

THE MIRACLE AT GIBEON.

JOSHUA B. VAN SCHAICK.

Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, “Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon."

And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.

And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the Lord fought for Israel.-JoSHUA X. 12, 13, 14.

THE day rose clear on Gibeon. Her high towers
Flash'd the red sunbeams gloriously back,

And the wind-driven banners, and the steel
Of her ten thousand spears caught dazzlingly
The sun, and on the fortresses of rock

Play'd a soft glow, that as a mockery seem'd
To the stern men who girded by its light.
Beth-Horon in the distance slept, and breath
Was pleasant in the vale of Ajalon,

Where armed heels trod carelessly the sweet
Wild spices, and the trees of gum were shook
By the rude armour on their branches hung.
Suddenly in the camp, without the walls,