sanction of the Lord, the failure in two consecutive instances is frought with difficulty. In v, 18, the nation asks counsel of God what tribe should first go up to fight against the Benjamites; "and the Lord said Judah shall go first." And in v, 23, the Israelites wept before the Lord and asked counsel whether they should again go up against their brother the children of Benjamin, "and the Lord said go up against him." Now how can this be explained? I can only account for it on the supposition that Judah in the first instance had presumptuously conceived that his tribe was amply sufficient to crush by itself so small a tribe as that of Benjamin, and had arrogantly volunteered to rush single handed into the struggle. And God answered him. as He often does when He sees man wilfully bent on selfdependance, Go in thy own strength, but trust not in my aid. Was it not thus the man of God answered Amaziah, king of Judah, who, when about to wage war against Seir, hired 100,000 of the Israelites to assist him and was told not to take the children of Ephraim with him as God was not with Israel. "But," says the man of God "if thou will go, do it, be strong for the battle. God shall make thee fall before the enemy, for God hath power to help and to cast down," (2nd Chronicles, xxv, 5-10). And when again the whole of the eleven tribes went up against Benjamin their defeat might be owing to an over-wheening pride of superior numbers. And God may have mocked them as Micaiah mocked Ahab before Jehoshaphat king of Judah, when he ironically exclaims, "Go up to Ramoth-Gilead, go up and prosper, for the Lord shall deliver it unto the hands of the king;" and what was the consequence; Ahab was slain. Israel was scattered as sheep that have not a shepherd, and Jehoshaphat returned a humbled and a better man to his own country (1st Kings, xxii).

Now in these instances we see that the prophets of the Lord were not consulted; Amaziah and Ahab both acted on the strength of their own carnal hearts; the first had the wisdom when warned to listen to the voice of God, speaking by His prophet; but the last was too far gone in iniquity to heed any admonition, and this Micaiah knew. May we draw the inference from these citations that Phinehas the accredited medium between God and his people was not consulted. And as in those days each man did that which seemed good in his own eye. The tribes may have imagined

that the mediation of Phinehas was of no consequence. And God answered them according to the fixed purposes of their hearts, in order to try them, and to shew them that there was only one way by which He could be approached. Man may vainly fancy he can come nigh to God by his own deeds and acts and work out his own salvation, but the only way is that of God's own appointment, and of this we clearly see a proof in the 28th verse; for when the Israelites come a third time in God's appointed way to seek guidance through Phinehas, the high priest, they obtain the assurance that the Benjamites shall be delivered into their hands. As Phinehas is here mentioned for the first and only time, I feel I am justified in interpreting the victory to his mediation.

JUDE, 12.

"Clouds they are without water, carried away with winds."

The clouds here spoken of are frequently seen about the middle of the Jewish harvest, which event occurs during the latter part of April; they are seen early in the morning, and disappear as soon as the sun ascends above the horizon. They are without water (nephelai anudroi), but to the anxious husbandman who watches the skies with upraised eyes, his life almost depending on the genial shower to moisten his crops, the sudden dispersion of these clouds by the summer's heat, fills his soul with despair; his hopes are fled, his heart dies within him; and it is to this that the apostle compares the false teachers of this and every age. As the clouds distil no refreshing showers to cheer the heart of man, so do these dreamers who defile the flesh, despise dominions, and speak evil of dignities, pour no balm, no consoling words of truth into the hearts of those sore tried with fears and doubts, regarding the efficacy of Christ's blood to redeem and receive the wavering soul; therefore shall these false teachers, and, alas! their name is legion, "be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney;" they are carried about by their evil passions, as

those light and fleecy clouds are carried about by every passing breeze, "whose end is perdition, whose god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things." Well may the loving God exclaim in anguish of heart, "O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? For your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away" (Hosea vi, 4; Job xxx, 15; Proverbs xvi, 15; Isaiah v, 6; Proverbs xxv, 14; 2nd Peter ii, 17).

1ST KINGS, XVII, 6.

"And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening, and he drank of the brook."

After Elijah had foretold to Ahab that for three years and a half there should fall neither rain nor dew in the land, the prophet was commanded by God to turn eastward, and hide himself by the brook Cherith, that is, before Jordan, and there, as stated in the above quotation, ravens brought him his daily food.

I am satisfied that in this narration much is adumbrated which at present is not clearly manifested, for all scripture is a matter of progression, and God in different ages opens out as He deems fit such portions of the Word as are suited to the times, and to man's wants and comprehensions. Cherith signifies "slaying;" Jordan, "the river of judgment. Some latent mystery lies concealed here: the bread and flesh, drinking of the brook, and the drying up of the brook soon after, typify or prefigure some incident or eventuality not clearly defined. It were easy to draw upon one's imagination, and invent some fanciful interpretation which might charm the itching ears of foolish women, and meet with applause from those who love spiritualism and mysticism better than the pure and unadulterated word of God, which through faith is able to make us wise unto salvation.

Admitting, therefore, my blindness in the hidden meaning of these figures, I proceed to point out a remarkable parallelism in one portion of this narration with that which happened to Peter in Acts, x. The raven was an

unclean bird (Leviticus, xi, 15; Deuteronomy, xiv, 14), and any contact with forbidden things was strictly prohibited; even if it occurred by accident the individual was unclean, and required priestly mediation and sacrifice before he could again recover his standing in the eyes of a Holy God; yet here we see Elijah, by the express mandate of God, receiving his diurnal food through the instrumentality of an unclean animal, and that without a murmur or expression of dissent. Elijah's wonderful submission to God's instructions, and faith in their wisdom, has never I think been sufficiently commended. Contrast it with Peter's remonstrances in similar circumstances. Peter, it is true, was in a trance, but it is evident from the whole narrative that he at first objected to the ordeal. This comparison is not intended to convey in the remotest degree any disparagement on Peter's conduct, for throughout it was most beautiful and commendable, but I think the surpassing faith of the holy prophet is enhanced thereby.

Observe another point of similarity: immediately on the brook drying up, Elijah is sent by God to Zerephath, a city of Sidon, to a widow woman who, consequent on her Gentile origin, was out of the pale of Jewish sympathies; and the prophet, without a word of remonstrance, takes up his abode with her, drinks water from her hands, and eats the cakes she prepares for his use, and after the wonderful miracle of the cruise of oil in her behalf, subsequently raises up her son from the bed of death. Setting aside the miracles, Peter, immediately after he has been shown that nothing is unclean that God cleanseth, proceeds to the house of Cornelius, the Roman centurion, and commands that he and his household shall be baptised in the name of the Lord. It will also be remembered that the day prior to this event Peter had raised up Dorcas from the dead, so that considerable points of analogy are observable in the acts of these great and holy men. And does not the act of Elijah most clearly demonstrate the calling of the Gentiles, . of which the instance of the Roman centurion is the first fruits?

Eating food brought by an animal unclean in the Levitical category, living and eating with a Gentile woman and raising her son from the dead, all manifestly prefigure the wondrous mystery of the wild olive being grafted on the real olive tree and partaking with it of its fatness, and of

the Gentiles being joint heirs, joined in the same body, and joint partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel (Ephesians, iii, 6).

SONG OF SONGS, V, 14.

"His belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires."

The Septuagint read on this passage "an ivory box or tablet on a sapphire stone." The word employed is 'puxion," a box or tablet, and ivory is prefixed with the epithet "prepared," so that the sentence would read, "His belly is a prepared ivory tablet overlaid with sapphires."

The belly aptly represents a box or tablet, for in it are enclosed the most precious things, the issues of life. In John, vii, 38, we are told that he who believeth in Jesus out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. The belly is employed as typical of the constraining, overwhelming desire to express thoughts by words; it is thus that Elihu uses it when he cries out in his pent-up agony of desire to rebuke Job: 66 My belly is as wine which hath no vent; it is ready to burst like new bottles. I will speak that I may be refreshed," &c. (Job, xxxii, 19, 20). It is employed by Jesus in that Messianic psalm portraying to the Father the deep anguish of His heart, at the contumely and suffering He was subjected to by the people of His love. "I was

cast from thee from the womb; thou art my God from my mother's belly (Psalms, xxii, 10). Anguish like this is as wounds which go down to the innermost part of the belly (Proverbs, xviii, 8. See also verse 20; chapter xx,

27-30; Habakkuk, iii, 16).

The belly may also represent the heart, as the above passages seem to indicate, and in that sense 2 Corinthians iii. 2, 3, may be applicable, that the believer was an epistle written in the heart, known and read of all men. The heart may then be said to be white with holiness, resting on stones of sapphire, because the whole longing is bent on heavenly things, see Ezekiel i. 26, where the throne of God is represented under the appearance of a sapphire-celestial blue-type of holiness (chapter x. 1); its preciousness was illimited. See Job xxviii. 6, 16, Lamentations iv. 7, Revelation xxi. 19, Isaiah liv. 11, Exodus xxiv. 10, xxviii. 18.