This circumstance was represented by the literal actual condition of Jericho, when the best person in it was called by that unhappy name. The Church at its end was also represented by the two women who were concerned in the marvellous judgment of Solomon of which we read. "Then came there two women that were harlots unto the king and stood before him."-1 Kings iii. 16. We know the two were inwardly very different beings, though spoken of by the same name.

Of the Samaritan woman who heard the Lord gladly, He said, "Thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband in that saidst thou truly."--John iv. 18.

These things were literally as stated, no doubt, but they were expressive also of spiritual facts. All who are united to falsehood instead of to truth, are spiritually described as not having their proper husband. But there are two great differences amongst them. There are those who love falsehood, because their deeds are evil; and there are others who love falsehood only because they have been taught to believe it true, and they know no better. This latter class can be brought into a new and better state. They are only outwardly joined to an old and evil superstition, and are not inwardly in the love of it. They are represented in this divine narrative by Rahab, who, though a harlot, inwardly feared the Lord, and whose house was upon the wall. ver. 15. Such have many errors, but they are so far right that the Lord can deliver them, and unite them to His Church. Wall especially represents doctrine. The doctrines of the true Church are meant when it is said, "They shall call thy walls salvation, and thy gates praise." The false doctrine that our salvation does not depend upon purifying the heart, but upon mere instantaneous belief of what a preacher vividly proclaims, this is the wall of Jericho.

The two messengers turning in and lodging with Rahab represent the reception of truth and love by one in the way to be saved, and the welcome which is given to them. They were placed in the roof, and hidden amongst stalks of flax which were laid in order.

The same spiritual circumstance is doubtless intimated by bringing them up to the roof of the house, as was intended by our Lord, when He said in the Gospel, "And let not him who is on the house-top come down to take anything out of his house." To place on the house-top, is expressive spiritually of making an object of supreme regard; lifting into the interiors of the mind. Among the flax that was set in order, would mean

among such truths as were clearly seen and accurately arranged, as things supremely regarded. Flax, from which linen garments are made, would represent the separate truths from which a spiritual heavenly system is wrought. "The fine linen is the righteousness of the saints."

The prevarication of Rahab in denying the men to be there, and sending away the officers of the king with a falsehood, represents the fear and weakness of a soul not yet confirmed in the truth.

She saw, however, that her safety lay with Israel, and, therefore, she at once threw in her lot with them, and looked to them for safety.

The circumstance thus presented to us in the case of Jericho, is verified also in the case of every fallen Church, of every decayed system of superstition. The majority, probably, love to have it so. They love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. But there are also many who pray for better things, and will embrace the light, when it is suitably introduced to them. They look for the light, and hail it when it comes, that it may be manifest that their works are wrought in God. The two malefactors crucified with the Lord Jesus illustrate the same truth. They were both outwardly joined in the same condemnation, yet how different; they were both railing somewhat at first, but when they looked at the Divine Sufferer, and felt His sacred purity and majestic pity, how the heart of one was melted, while the other railed on. Such are the Rahabs of all times. They are enclosed in the meshes of a perplexing and unworthy system which has been hallowed to them by the recollections of childhood, and being associated with parents and friends, venerable and dear, yet they see higher and holier light has come in, and their best affections leap to the light. They have many a struggle, but happily at last the truth makes them free, and they become free indeed.

While experience enforces upon us the conviction in relation to any body of persons united in any project, or in any bond however pure, all are not actuated by the same pure purposes; all is not gold that glitters; it is a consolatory and cheering maxim, that sometimes in bushels of chaff there are many grains of wheat, and when these are called out and planted and watered they will be the germs of fresh harvests. "There shall be a handful of corn in the earth, upon the top of the mountains: the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon; and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth."-Ps. lxii. 76.

The Spies going into the mountains and tarrying there three

days, represented the strengthening of faith and love by interior devotion, while evil excitements are around, until they are fully prepared for the trials which are to follow.

In the rescue of Rahab, though she had many faults, the discriminating mercy of our Heavenly Father at Jericho was shewn, as it was in the deliverance of Lot from Sodom. Each single soul is cared for. The angels told Lot that nothing could be done until he was gone from the devoted city, and bade him "Escape for his life, and flee to the mountain." So is it in the judgments of the eternal world. "He who seeth not as man

seeth, who looketh not on the outward appearance, but looketh upon the heart," (1 Sam. xvi. 7), provides that all the outward coverings of circumstance and seeming should be removed, and what the inward character is should be unveiled, for all is known to Him.

The sign which the men required Rahab to display at her window, had a deep spiritual significance. Colours are symbolic. Such as partake of red, the colour of fire, represent states which relate to love, the fire of heaven. Colours of a colder cast, the blues, greens and whites, though bright, are the symbols of states of a character more intellectual.

Scarlet, as a secondary red, represents brotherly love, the affection next in value to the love of God. Without this heavenly quality there is no saving state. "By this we know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren."-1 John iii. 14. He who thinks he loves God but does not love his brother, is but a self-deceiver. If he has not the lower virtue of love to those around him, whom he sees, he can never really have the higher love to the Lord, whom he has never seen. It is a bad sign when there is no scarlet thread seen bound at the window. "Above all things put on charity," said the Apostle, "which is the bond of perfectness." There be these three, faith, hope and charity, and the greatest of these is charity. Such, then, was the meaning of the requirement from Rahab, "Thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window."

Scarlet was one of the three sacred colours to be offered to the Lord, and to be used in the clothes of service in the holy place, and in the holy garments for Aaron.-Ex. xxxix. 1. A scarlet thread was placed on the hand of the most important child born to Judah from Tamar. In the offering of the cleansed leper, it was commanded that cedar wood, scarlet wool, and hyssop should be used (Lev. xiv. 4.), to represent the rational thought, the loving affections, and the painful but salutary truths, which have

all to bear their part in the return to health of the spiritual leper. Sins against charity are represented by the scarlet of the bad man, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool," (Isa. 1. 18); while the same bright colour in the cloth of scarlet covering the table of shewbread was a sign that all true love to the Lord manifests itself in love to the neighbour.-Lev. iv. 5. In all the souls, then, that can be saved there must be the scarlet thread displayed in the intellectual window; or in other words, whatever may be their defects in other respects, there must be kindly sentiments in all their thoughts. They must be disposed to think tenderly of every sufferer and desire to do them good. The Lord in the judgment will regard those only as His who have been ready, according to their ability and best judgment, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick, and free the captive. The King says to them, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”—Matt. xxv. 40. The same gracious and important lesson is taught in the circumstance, that John, the apostle of brotherly love, was the one selected to behold the descent of the New Jerusalem. It is not without a beautiful import that it is written, "I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, descending from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."Rev. xxi. 2. If there were more "Johns," more would see the golden city coming down from God to men.

Rahah was, lastly, to bring her whole household, father, mother, and brethren into her own house, and not to utter the business in any wise to the citizens of Jericho, or she would peril her safety. And in this circumstance we may perceive the representation of decision of character. We who sever ourselves from the evil, must have no part nor lot with them; we must have no divided mind, or tell the business of heaven to the adherents of the kingdom of darkness; we must cast no pearls before swine; but resolutely close our house against the evils around, and wait in humble confidence for the salvation of the Lord. Then shall we assuredly find that when ruin and death are around, the walls of superstition and falsehood crumbling on every side, and the sensual and the vile sinking into the miseries they have made, Joshua will save Rahab, and her father's household, and all that she has alive, and she will dwell in Israel, or in other words, the Lord Jesus will preserve His own, and plant them in His Church, where they will be saved and happy with the whole Israel of God.

SERMON LV.

THE FALL OF JERICHO.

"Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in. And the Lord said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour. And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days. And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him."-Joshua vi. 1—5.,

The fortified and powerful city of Jericho must have looked very formidable to the Israelites, as they pitched their tents between the Jordan, and the city which barred their way to the land they had come to possess. Its high walls, its frowning battlements, and closed gates, would threaten the army unaccustomed to assail strong places, with difficulties and dangers not easy to overcome. Yet they must be overcome, or else the ordinances of the Jewish Dispensation could not be carried out, nor could the lessons of the regenerative life be given in the Word of God. Jericho then must fall. And its Fall was directed to take place in such a manner, as altogether to represent how falsehood sinks before the majestic power of truth. A careful reading will enable any one to conclude that, every arrangement was commanded, to symbolize a lesson, as well as to declare a fact. A city corresponds to the Church, especially as to its doctrines. These surround the minds of the members of the Church, as walls surround a city. The Church is called by Paul, "the city of the living God."-Heb. xii. 22. The prophet says "Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain."-Zech. viii. 3. Our Lord said of His disciples, "Ye are the light of the world, a city which is set on a hill cannot be hid."-Matt. v. 14. The holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, has clearly a similar signification. The doctrines of truth in general, forming a spiritual

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