manner Elijah, when waiting for his ascension into heaven, said to Elisha, "Ask now what I shall do for thee, before I be taken up from thee"-believing his intercourse with him, and his acting for him, would then be terminated. This is a solemn, and should be a useful thought. Look at your children, your relations, your friends, your neighbours, and see in what way you can serve your generation. Now you can bless them by your prayers, your counsels, your example, your liberality-but all these opportunities are confined to life-and this life is a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away! Isaac did well in seizing the present moment to set his house in order before his death. But there are two things in which he was blameable.

First. He shows too great a regard for the indulgence of his appetite. It is mournful to see a good man, and especially an old man, instead of mortifying the deeds of the body, studying his sensual gratification, and making provision for the flesh, not to fulfil the wants, but the lusts thereof. Carriages are dragged as they are going down hill.

Isaac Had he

Here we

Secondly. He was more influenced by natural affection, than a regard to the will of God. He wished to make Esau heir; but God had expressly declared, "the elder shall serve the younger." could not have been ignorant of this. forgotten it? Or did he disregard it? see his frailty. But this does not render the purpose of God of none effect. His counsel shall stand, and he will do all his pleasure.-Rebecca, on the other hand, was fond of Jacob-and a father has no chance against a mother, who has a favourite whom she is determined to advance; especially such a selfish, crafty, cunning creature as was here at work. Rebecca's aim, indeed, fell in with God's design: but this concurrence arose, not from her piety, but her partiality. Her conduct was unjustifiable and

sinful for we must not do evil that good may come. She had the Divine promise on the side of her preference; and she should have rested in the Lord, and waited patiently for him; and not have fretted herself in any wise to do evil. "He that believeth maketh not haste." Had she quietly committed her way unto the Lord, he would have brought it to pass, without those wretched consequences that afflicted the family. For God uses instruments without approving of them: and though he makes the folly and passions of men to praise him, he fails not to prove that it is an evil and bitter thing to forsake him, and to act without his fear in our hearts.

How painful would it be to go on, and see a mother teaching her child to tell lies; and to see a son imposing on the blindness of an aged father! We have no notion that Rebecca was ever religious. And what proof have we that Jacob was pious at this time? Was he not converted in his journey from Beersheba to Haran? At Bethel God met with him; and there he spake with us.

JUNE 12.-" And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, to go by day and night. He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people." Exod. xiii. 21, 22.

THIS institution was necessary: for there was no path in the desert; and they had no maps, no pioneers, no guides. But, says God, I have not brought you out of Egypt to leave you to wander and perish in the Wilderness-Behold your Conductor, to the rest and the inheritance which the

Lord your God giveth you. Accordingly, by this, they were to be regulated in all their journeying. As this rose, they rose; as this paused, they paused; as this turned to the right hand or to the left, they turned. It sometimes called them to leave a more endeared spot, and to stop in a less inviting scene; but they were not at liberty to cling to the one, or decline the other: the signal was instantly decisive. This pillar was obviously nothing less than a real miracle-yet how little were the observers affected by it-They sinned with this hovering prodigy always over them; and even committed idolatry! We are prone to ascribe too much moral efficacy to such supernatural appearances. They soon became as unimpressive and uninfluential as the ordinary means of grace are with us.

It was a symbol of the Divine Presence-"The Lord was in the pillar." It was this nearness of God that insured their safety, and gave them their distinction and pre-eminence. There he was always at hand, always in view. "And," says Moses, "what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for?"

the

But how extensively adapted was this provision to their state and exigencies! It was both a pillar of a cloud, and a pillar of fire, to lead them in the way-The one appearance was for the day; other, for the night. Fire by day would have added to the dazzling and fervidness of a burning sky— the pillar was therefore a cloud by day, and screened them like a large umbrella from the scorching rays of the sun. Cloud by night would have added to the gloom, the darkness, and the dread of dangerthe pillar was therefore a fire by night, to lick up the unwholesome damps, to warm the chilling atmosphere, and to afford them a light, by which they could see to move about in their tents, and also to travel, as they often did after the sun was set.

If this ordinance shewed his wisdom and goodness; the continuance of the blessing evinced his patience -for, notwithstanding their unworthiness, and their provocations, and their various corrections; this pillar was not taken away from before the people, till they reached the border of Jordan, and came to their journey's end!

He has a people for his Name now. They are only strangers and pilgrims on earth, bound for a better country, that is, a heavenly. This they would never reach, if they were left to themselves. But the God of Israel is with them. They have not the same sensible proof of his presence as the Jews had. But they have real evidence of it; and it is satisfactory to their own minds. He keeps them from falling. He accommodates himself to their conditions. He is a very present help in trouble. He makes his goodness to pass before them. He leads them by his Word, and his Spirit, and his providence. He has also said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Therefore they may boldly say, This God is our God for ever and ever: He will be our guide even unto death.

"Thus, when our first release we gain,
"From Sin's old yoke and Satan's chain,
"We have this desart world to pass,—
"A dang'rous and a tiresome place.

"He feeds and clothes us all the way;
"He guides our footsteps lest we stray;
"He guards us with a pow'rful hand;
"And brings us to the promised land."

JUNE 13.-" The censers of these sinners against their own souls, let them make them broad plates for a covering of the altar." Num. xvi. 38.

He had solemnly forewarned and admonished the rebels themselves before they suffered and thus,

in wrath, he remembered mercy. When Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, who headed the conspiracy, were buried alive; and their companions, the two hundred and fifty princes, men of honour, were burned with fire; he would make them beacons ; and prevent others from coming into the same condemnation. Orders, therefore, were given to take up the censers in which they had dared to burn incense; and make of them broad plates to cover the altar of burnt offering-that they might "be a sign unto the children of Israel:" i.e. a memorial to the Levites, and the comers thereunto, of the revolt of these men; and that they were punished for invading an office which God had forbidden them. Whence we note, that the sin which is hurtful to the transgressors, should be useful to the observers.

"These sinners against their own souls!" Yes; whenever men sin, they sin against themselves. Society cannot exist without laws: and laws are nothing without penalties. Connivance at the guilty would be cruelty to the innocent. In every wellordered government crimes are punished. And will they, can they, escape in the empire of a Being, holy in all his ways, and righteous in all his works? What would you think of a magistrate, who bore the sword in vain? and who was not a terror to evil doers, as well as a praise to them that do well? What would you think of him, if, when you brought before him the incendiary of your house, or the murderer of your child, he should say, Oh, this does not regard me-and smile, and say-Go in peace! We dislike the word vindictive justicethere seems something malignant in it: but substitute in the room of it, the vindicatory, or punitive justice of God, and we contend that this is essential to the excellency of his character; and that you could not esteem, or even love him, without it. What regard could you have for a being, who equally respected lies and truth? cruelty and kind.