this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.-2 Cor. iii. 13-16.

The letter with the Jews, was a "letter that killeth." They forgot that though the bark is good, the inner wood of a noble tree is better. The skin is good, but brain, nerve, heart and lungs are better. Earth and time are good, but man is an inhabitant of two worlds; and though he must go out into earth and time to fix his character, yet all his higher thought, all his highest affections must rise at frequent intervals to heaven. On the mountain of holy love to the Lord the soul is warmed, brightened, and refreshed, and in that mountain, the prophetic words are fulfilled, "He will destroy in this mountain, the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations."-Isa. xxv. 7.

An alternation of state is good. Evening and morning are truly good in spiritual things, as in natural. We must be diligent in business, thus serving the Lord; but we must also look up to the mountains from whence cometh our help (Ps. cxxi. 1), and open our inmost hearts and minds to the Spirit of the Lord. The Sun of heaven will then enlighten and bless us. A warm and sunny glow will make our faces to shine. We shall enjoy for a time the lustre of holy light. We shall go in and out and find pasture.

This ascent and descent, like that of the angels on the ladder which the patriarch saw, will bring a double blessing a blessing on the mountain where we commune with the Lord; and a blessing in the valley where our inner states are covered; which at the same time are the causes of making our interior light so shine before men that they see our good works-our religion in act, and glorify our Father who is in heaven. Thus, till Moses has done speaking he must put a Veil upon his face. But when Moses goes in before the Lord, to speak with Him, he must take the Veil off until he comes out.

SERMON XLIX.

THE SPIES AND THEIR REPORT OF THE PROMISED LAND.

"And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not."-Num. xiv. 7-9.

The Israelites had passed from Sinai, where they had made a long sojourn, and advanced into the wilderness of Paran. When the first enthusiasm of their deliverance was over, they had passed through strange experiences. They had suffered themselves to fall into doubts and rebellions. They murmured at times against their food, and loathed the manna. They had become seditious, objecting to Moses and Aaron, as taking too much upon them: not considering that order requires subordination, and some must necessarily occupy the chief, and others the inferior position, for the good of the whole. And, where humility is in the heart, the greatest ruler may be the meekest man. Where each takes the position for which Divine Providence has fitted him, from a sincere allegiance to truth and goodness, it is not man who rules, but the Lord through man.

These chequered states brought chequered joys and sorrows. At times they began to doubt whether the Promised Land was, after all, worth the labour and the trials they had to endure in this long journey, and its various hardships. To meet their state of despondency, and to rouse their hopes, Moses selected twelve chief men, one from each tribe, and ordered them to go and explore, and bring back a faithful report. The explorers went forth and saw the Land of Canaan; they were away forty days, and observed much of the southern portion of the land. It was the time of the first ripe grapes. They saw the glorious mountains

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of Judah. They went as far as Hebron, the old home of Abraham and Sarah; and as they returned from the magnificent hills and fertile vales, they cut down a bunch of grapes, so large as to need a staff borne by two men to carry it. They brought also excellent pomegranates and figs.

So far as the land was concerned, they all agreed that it was indeed a noble country. In other respects they exemplified the observation that in this world as well as in the next, each person sees what he is adapted to see. The timid saw difficulties, enemies, and giants; they trembled at the dangers to be encountered; they shuddered at the walled towns, and the men of great stature while the valiant Joshua and the courageous Caleb cared little for the obstacles, for God was with them. Their exhortation was, "Let us go up at once and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it."

The distrustful and fearful Spies, dwelt so much upon the terrors, partly of the real dangers, and partly the exaggerated horrors of their excited and alarmed imaginations, that they carried the whole people almost with them, and spread through the host a chilling discouragement and deep despair.

If it had not been for the firmness of Moses and Aaron, and the two brave men who faced the excited people, and roused them with generous energy to be ashamed of their false fears and rouse up to noble sentiments, the whole people would have perished. They were bent on going back to certain ruin. "Let us make us a captain, and go back to Egypt," they said, insanely determined to let their prospective difficulties overcome all their experience of Divine guardianship of days gone by, and the living protection they enjoyed every hour from the present and all-seeing God, whose pillar of fire was with them every night, and the pillar of cloud each day.

Let us bring these circumstances livingly before us. The excited people, in a tumult of grief and discouragement, ready to stone their best friends; Moses and Aaron prostrate with shame; the desert around, the sacred enterprise half completed, and for want of manly firmness about to be completely ruined; and then see the excitement quelled and the danger averted by the two brave servants of God, who stood forth and uttered the noble, indignant, and grand words of our text, "The land which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us: a land flowing with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the Lord; neither fear ye the people of the land: for they are bread

for us.

with us

Their defence is departed from them; and the Lord is fear them not."

One can hardly contemplate this whole exciting scene without being astonished at the blindness of mortals in days gone by: and we are apt to assume that we have a right to condemn such folly as quite beyond any reasonable excuse. We are satisfied, thankless as we often are, we should not have been so faithless, so ungrateful for mercies past, and so wanting in confidence in the divine promises and protection as these unhappy Israelites. Yet, let us not be too confident. The Church of the past, is a type of the Church of the future. "The law was a shadow of good things," (and a manifestation of evil things,) "to come."

We must never forget that we cannot be made heavenly all at once. Between Egypt and Canaan there is a long and chequered journey to be effected spiritually, as well as there was one naturally in the days of Moses.

The events which took place with the sons of Jacob, are just the picture which the Divine Word holds up to us of states to be realized in the experience of to-day. Let us ponder over this chart of our spiritual life, that we may walk wisely in a perfect way, and be of those concerning whom it is written, “He that ordereth his way aright, shall see the salvation of God."

Our experience has, no doubt, corresponded to that of the Israelites, in discovering more difficulties in our way to the land of Canaan we seek than we expected.

We have been discouraged at times; troubled at things around us, troubled with things within us. We had hoped we should have attained a state of serene peace before this time; and although we have won many a victory, and rejoiced on many a happy day, yet there have been periods of weakness which have humbled us into the dust. We have been obliged to confess, our supposed strength has not preserved us from bitterness, when we have been annoyed from slips of temper under provocation; and from defects in word and work, at which we feel greatly humbled and abased. Canaan lies before us, but at a great distance. The thought comes home with a sigh, Shall we ever reach it? Is it indeed worth all this labour, all this endurance? Is not peace a long time in coming? Will it ever come?

We are prompted by the Divine Word within, our Moses, to send Spies forward. We have thrown our contemplations forward. The observations which are made respecting states which lie before us, but which are not yet realized, are the observations of Spies.

He who has fully made heavenly states his own, has become a citizen of the heavenly Canaan. Those blessed principles which the Lord implants in the inmost nature of children, and which give them the capacity of becoming angels are natives of heaven, "of such is the kingdom of God."

But as to the lower part of our nature, the natural man, when the work of reformation and regeneration commences, there is a calling up of sentiments, ideas, and impulses, which have been in captivity there, and which have to be transferred from the memory and lower regions of the mind, into the heart and the inner man. This great emigration has to be effected by changes which were prefigured by all that happened to Israel.

There are apparent pauses in this great work. There are periods of disheartenment, times of spiritual dryness and cold. And then it is needful to send Spies forward to animate our flagging courage by a knowledge of the blessings which are to be attained, and lie in the certain future. We send our minds forward in meditation, and ponder on the blessed things of heaven. We have the means in ourselves, and by the Word, of exhibiting to ourselves all the riches of heaven.

Within the hearts of all men lie

These promises of future bliss,

Which blossom into hopes that cannot die

In sunny hours like this.

All that hath been majestical

In life or death since time began;

Is native in the simple heart of all,
The angel-heart of man.

The Spies were twelve, one from each tribe, representing every department of religious life and thought. Moses directed them to go southward, and to ascend into the mountainous region of Judah, which lay before them.-Num. xiii. 17. This going southward and up into the mountain corresponds, in spiritual language, to entering into the light of heavenly intelligence, and into celestial love; the south where the sun is at mid-day corresponding to the full light of intelligence in the soul; and the mountain to a high state of love.

The season of the exploration is said to have been the time of the first ripe grapes, and it represented for us the period when spiritual life had matured some virtues of real christian faith. Some branches of the holy vines had begun to bear. Some holy states of worship had been fully realized. Some purposes, and aims, and efforts, had been really accomplished, and made us feel how happy we should be if it were always so. It is "the time of the first ripe grapes."