said to Joshua, "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success."-Joshua i. 8.

In considering the spiritual lesson presented in the leadership of Joshua, as representing the power of the interior life of the Lord Jesus in the soul, we must notice the first division as the groundwork of all the rest. "Thou must go with this people unto the land." The truth taught here was declared by our Lord Himself, and to the thoughtful mind is self-evident. "Ye must be born again." There must be inner conquest, and a new heart. MUST. Without it, there is no happiness on earth or in heaven. A bad temper must be overcome. A sordid disposition must be subdued. An unjust over-reaching spirit must be expelled. Self and all its offshoots-pride, vanity, self-will, obstinacy, contempt of others, and all the unchaste lusts of the soul must be rooted out, as the Lord shews them to us. We must tread on the lion and the asp, the young lion and the dragon within, or we can never have peace, never see peace.

Let us consider what the unregenerate heart is according to the divine description. "Out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these things come from within and defile the man."

Can we look at this sad list of vicious things which exist in germ in the heart, and not feel the solemnity of the divine words of our text? "Thou must go with this people unto the land which the Lord sware unto their fathers to give them."

Canaan with the sensual, corrupt, and horrid nations that possessed it, was exactly the type of the unregenerate heart. The heart gives character to the whole man. If this Augean stable is uncleansed it will pollute and break down all the faculties of the soul, and after defiling, enflaming, and degrading the entire man, the end will be insanity in some of its forms. But if the Spirit of the Lord Jesus enters, leading in a whole army of better principles, like Joshua and his host, then indeed new health comes in with every sin expelled. Tract after tract is won. Giant after giant-passion falls before the power of truth and love. Canaan becomes a little heaven. The heart, transformed like the land, realizes the description given in another place. "A land of hills and valleys, drinketh water of the rain of heaven. A land

which the Lord thy God careth for the eyes of the Lord are always upon it, from the beginning of the year, even unto the end of the year."-Deut. xi. 11, 12. The selfish arid heart gives place to holy, pure, and generous sentiments, and loving actions. "The wilderness blooms like Eden, and the desert like the garden of God." There is a heaven within, and so there is a heaven around. "Old things have passed away: all things have become new."

Hence,

This work of making the heart anew, and rejecting the evils which so readily beset us, is what all feel to be the one thing needful, but there is great disbelief in the power of accomplishing it. Many sincere souls sorrow over inward sin, but are faint-hearted as to their power of its entire removal. the necessity of never forgetting the second assurance we have in the charge to Joshua. "The Lord, he it is that doth go before thee: he will be with thee.' It is said, the Lord will go before thee, meaning the Divine Love has prepared everything for this great end, that the soul may become like heaven. has arranged all things, from the first dawn of our being, that we shall become angels. He has implanted remains of good within us. He has stored up truths in our minds. He is wonderfully working in the secret recesses of our being, that all things may work together for our good. He goes before us. And, then,

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the power that is working in His truth, in all its promises, and in all it forbids, however harsh it may sometimes seem, is still Divine Love, and Omnipotent Love. "He will be with thee." Our own power is small enough, but His power is Almighty. If we lean upon it in loving faith, there is nothing can stand against us. The influences of the dark world know their master, and at His voice their most awful rage is stilled. "The Lord sitteth upon the floods the Lord sitteth king for ever. Trust in Him, remember He is with thee, and cannot fail; and then no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that riseth against thee in judgment thou shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me saith the Lord."-Isa. liv. 17.

The third sure warrant for victory to Joshua, and to us, is the study of the Word, and obedience to it. "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth: but thou shalt meditate therein day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein.

To the Christian pilgrim the Word is the treasury of all he needs. It is his counsellor in every state. It is his meat and

drink; his light in darkness; and the brightest glory of his noblest hours. It is his sword, his helmet, his shield and breastplate. It is the lamp to his feet, and the light to his path. It contains mines for him of heavenly gold and silver. He, therefore, meditates therein, and is sustained and directed by it in every variety of his life. And thus his way becomes prosperous, and he has good success. There is no success so triumphant, and no prosperity so true as those which come from victories over self. These are attended by present peace, and heartfelt satisfaction, and such conquests last for ever.

Let us then say to every earnest soul, "Be strong and of good courage." Fear nothing. Only be resolute. Evil has no vested right, or vested wrong in you. The Lord has made you for heaven, and heaven for you. He has promised to your fathers to give you that land, and if you will be guided by His Word He will certainly cause you to inherit it. Look at what needs to be done. Pray for light to see your evils, and by the Saviour's power and guidance to overcome them. "He will not fail thee nor forsake thee." Fear not. Conquering them may be hard, but sparing them is harder. Fear not. Be courageous. What is sin that you should dread it. It has no right in creation. It is a disease, an excrescence, an anomaly in the world, an ulcer, a plague, an enormous expense, and worth less than nothing. The strength of sin is in our fear and follies. Be of good cheer. See how brave souls have dared in every age to encounter perils of the most terrible kinds for the welfare of man, and the glory of God. Look up to the Conqueror of all the powers of darkness combined, who is your Saviour, and resolve in His might to overcome. He will be with you. "Fear not, neither be dismayed." "He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." Conquering sin you gain yourself, you gain a new heaven, and a new earth. You gain peace on earth, and everlasting blessedness among the good.

SERMON LIII.

THE DEATH AND BURIAL OF MOSES.

"So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-Peor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day."-Deut. xxxiv. 5, 6.

The last chapter of Deuteronomy was certainly not written by Moses. The account among the Jews is, "That the seventy elders who are spoken of at different times as accompanying Moses and Aaron, formed a great sacred council to preserve the inspired records, and aid in the conduct of divine things in the establishment of the nation." To some hand, which they would regard as inspired, we owe probably this finishing chapter of Deuteronomy, which though obviously not written by Moses, since it contains the account of his death and burial, yet is undoubtedly inspired, for it contains the inner spirit and life which can be brought out by the divine law of correspondence, and which are the result and the proof of inspiration from the Lord. human body is a divine work, proved by the surpassing wonders it contains, no matter who was its earthly parent. So the Divine Books prove their own inspiration, by the spiritual wisdom they contain in a series, no matter whether in part or in whole, some of them were written by authors different from those to whom they are ordinarily attributed. The Word is the Word of the Lord, and it is because it is inspired from Him that it is divine, not because of the dignity of the pen of the human authority to which it has been attributed, or whose name it bears.

The

The departure of Moses from the people, after the sublime blessing he pronounced over them as the last expressions of his love, must have been a solemn sight, and one most affecting to the people. Their eyes would follow their heroic, glorious, venerable leader as he ascended the side of Nebo, until his aged

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form was no longer visible, as the eyes of children giving a long, last look after a vanishing parent. On Pisgah, Nebo's highest summit, he was to have a full view of the promised land, and then be removed to a still better country,—a lovelier, higher Canaan. He descended the mountain, but to die, and be buried by Divine Providence, in a sepulchre that no man knoweth even unto this day.

The children of Israel wept for Moses thirty days, and well they might. He had led them bravely, faithfully, gloriously, in storm and in triumph, for forty years. He was visibly the servant of God. His wonderful career had been a constant protection to them. He was the instrument of having raised them from being a multitude of slaves to be a nation, not only illustrious in its own annals, but the type of the Church of God in every age and in every land.

Moses had no fear of death; no sigh, no murmur escaped him. He knew that a better world was near, although unseen. He had heard a voice proclaiming, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," and he felt that God was not "God of the dead, but of the living: for all live to him."-Luke xx. 37, 38. His life had been consecrated to God, and his departure to a higher life was an illustration of the Saviour's meaning in a still brighter, better time, which ought to be realized by every Christian. "He that liveth and believeth in ME shall NEVER die."-John xi. 25.

But now from the personal, let us ascend to the spiritual Moses. For here, as well as everywhere else, we must remember, "the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul."-Ps. xix. 7. The Death of Moses, equally with his life, is intended to pourtray the progress of the law of the Lord in the human soul.

Moses, we have often seen, was the symbol of the law given by him, and is thus used constantly in the Sacred Scriptures, especially in the New Testament. Those who hear the law are regarded as still hearing Moses. "If they hear not Moses and the prophets," said our Lord, "neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." When the whole Word was represented, as testifying to Him as its soul and centre, in the wondrous scene of the transfiguration, Peter, James, and John saw Moses and Elias talking to Jesus. In heaven they sing "the song of Moses and the Lamb," because every song of angelic joy is expressive of obedience to precept, from a spirit of love to the Divine Lamb.

Religion must be felt first as a law, a law strict and severe, but