a covert from the storm, and the shadow of a great rock in this weary land.' Then, why flow these tears in such copious streams? Let the mourners in this wilderness repair to the refuge provided for them; that which God shews in the gospel; that to which grace leads by the spirit: then may they with cheerfulness exclaim, under these painful bereavements, Although our dear departed friends shall no more return to us, we shall go to them.' So may they' comfort each other with these words!'

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No. IV.

How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel.

NUMBERS, chap. xxiv, ver. 5.

THIS might well have been the exclamation of one, who was not, like Balaam, impelled by inspiration. The tents of the thousands of Israel, spread abroad over the wilderness, must have afforded a goodly spectacle to the view of the most uninterested observer. What What encampment can the page of history exhibit, which shall compare with that, whose captain was the Lord of Hosts! which, of all the various objects that have instigated hostile armies, could vie with that which animated this mighty host to march against the devoted land of Canaan?Wonders had already been achieved;

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wonders were yet in store: the camp had already resounded with the song of victory and of triumph, from one extremity to the other; every voice united in the joyful chorus, Sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he cast into the sea.' But the waters of Jordan, now rolling on in their usual channel, were yet to be arrested, and leave a path for the chosen people to pass over. The walls of Jericho, now defying attack, and appearing invulnerable to human force, were yet to fall with a mighty crash, and yield up the guilty inhabitants they enclosed, to the swords of the invaders. Who, when contemplating this mighty host, guided and protected by the strong arm of Jehovah, as the instrument employed to accomplish his vast designs, could have refrained from joining in the exclamation, 'How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel!'

And when the mind takes a similar survey of a Christian country, and compares

it with heathen lands, where the light of the gospel has not yet beamed; when it contemplates the tents of the true Israel, scattered everywhere abroad, and like brilliant gems embellishing it, by shedding their benign lustre all around; when it reflects on the warfare in which this great company is engaged, and the Divine purposes of which those who compose it are the objects or the instruments, well may we exclaim, with wonder and admiration, How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel!'

More especially, when, contracting our view, we take a similar survey of a church of Christ—a distinct assemblage of Christians-we may well indulge the high encomium. But, alas! when the exclamation was originally uttered, the people were yet on this side the promised land; they were yet travellers in the wilderness; and however goodly the spectacle might have appeared collectively, a minuter survey of each individual tent would have proved that, in a spiritual sense, they

were not all Israel who were of Israel.' Their general history proclaims the lamentable fact, that, notwithstanding their songs of triumph; notwithstanding the repeated occasions they had to sing of mercy, as well as of judgment, they still remained a stiff-necked and a rebellious people. And, O! had all those families, to whom this appellation more especially belonged, been swept away in a moment, as in the case of Dathan and Abiram, how thin would the ranks have appeared! What desolate chasms between tent and tent! verifying what was afterwards spoken by him who well knew what was in man;' that' narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it ;' that many are called, but few are chosen.' And can we, after taking a closer survey of distinct Christian communities, indulge the hope that some gaps would not thus be made amongst them also, were every family to be detached which has only a name to live,' or every