dislike, for he is no respecter of persons. But it was because of their evil character, in the first place, and their symbolical character in the second, that they had to be driven out.

“He smote great kings; for His mercy endureth for ever. And slew famous kings: for His mercy endureth for ever." Sihon king of the Amorites: for His mercy endureth for ever. And Og the king of Bashan : for His mercy endureth for ever." The Lord desires the salvation of the whole of the principles of the human soul, yet man cannot be saved unless he expel selfishness, and root out falsehood, unless he cease from doing evil and learn to do well. He must spiritually extirpate the Canaanite, the Hittite, and the Amorite.

The other two, the Hivite and the Jebusite are representative of what also exists in man in the evil state. The Hivites were a very peculiar people. They were internally bad, but they were anxious by deceit to make a league with the Israelites. You will remember a very curious history in the 9th chapter of Joshua, where it is said the men of Gibeon united themselves together and said, let us send ambassadors to Israel. They pretended to have come from a very far country, with mouldy bread and old wine bottles, and they made it appear to the Israelites that they were a very peaceable and harmless people who wished to live without strife. They made a covenant with the Israelites, and continued for a long time to live amongst them: they were made hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation. They are not true of heart, but they submit.

The Jebusites continued for a longer period. They remained in possession of some important portions of the country, and the great fortified place of Jebus to the time of David. You will find an account of these people and of the last transaction in connection with them in the second book of Samuel, where it is said David was insulted and defied by the Jebusites who placed upon their strong walls, blind men and lame men, and dared David to come and take them away.

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The Jebusites and the Hivites as we have described them represent in the spiritual sense, those habits and dispositions which often exist in such as are really bad, but appear outwardly moral and useful, and outwardly worship the Lord. These are they who come and say we are quite willing to submit; we will conform." But there is no real heart, soul, and purpose with them of becoming regenerate. The spiritual Hivites and Jebusites learn something about religion, talk about it, write about it, and will do anything about it, except really live it. If you

can only pass through the walls you will find lame things and blind things, inside. For blind and lame are the obstinately bad who make no efforts to live for heaven, who have all the trouble of trying to appear religious, and even all the appearance of persons who are learned about religion, and who can write about it, and talk about it; but who have not the enjoyment of its true possession or even the enjoyments of vice. These have not the sense to be truly good, any more than the recklessness to be truly bad. These lukewarm beings are about the blindest and lamest of any. They are the spiritual Jebusites. They are not true countrymen of Israel, yet they are always there. All persons who have unregenerate hearts have more or less of this character. They endeavour to serve God and mammon.

They try the lukewarm condition of being neither cold nor hot, and cannot make up their minds either to give up heaven or to give up evil. These are they who are represented by the Hivites and the Jebusites. We must truly face all these classes of sin. If we examine ourselves we shall find that we have our Canaanite and Hittite and Amorite, the known evils of selflove, false idea, and outward vice, to fight against, and drive out. We have also appearances of goodness,-mere habits, and the appearances of truth, all those semblances that have no life or heart in them, all these are to be given up. The prophet says, "Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity; therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed." Woe to those who have the appearances of goodness and truth without the noble reality! Blessed are they who fight the good faith! They shall come into the heaven of the Lord, the land flowing with milk and honey; or in other words flowing with truth and goodness. Milk is the symbol in the divine Word of that heavenly truth which feeds the soul, as the apostle Peter so beautifully expresses it, "I have fed you with the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby," and the same sort of milk is meant by the prophet when he says, every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price." The land, the heavenly state that we acquire, flows with milk-flows with all that celestial truth and wisdom, which gives the mind a meat to eat, of which the world knows nothing. Honey means the delight of truth, the sweet

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pleasure of putting good thoughts into practice. Those thoughts are like the honey bees who go about and do their work; and there is such a heavenly satisfaction, such a delightful state of feeling in every act of religion which flows from those heavenly thoughts, that it is the sweet honey of the kingdom of heaven. This idea is very beautifully expressed in the Psalm LXXXI. 16, where the Lord speaks of the delay in be coming regenerate, because of our being so half-hearted in our religious career. "Oh, that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments; then would I soon have subdued thine enemies. I would have fed thee with the finest of the wheat; and with honey out of the rock would I have satisfied thee." And is it not so? Do we not when we genuinely endeavour to serve the Lord in the acts of our daily life, when we read the Word thoughtfully, and especially when we endeavour to bring it into practice -do we not find that it is to us so charming in its sweetness, so delightful in the heartfelt joy which it inspires, that we can say as the Psalmist said, Thy Word is dearer to me than honey; yea, than the droppings of the honey-comb." It is this then that the land of Canaan signifies to us. This state is one of perpetual enjoyment, in proportion as we have faithfully fought against, and never shrunk from the antagonism of our sins. Our daily career is then a daily endeavour to introduce ourselves into a life of loving usefulness to man and devotion to God—thus preparing ourselves, whether we are taken earlier or later from this world, to go to that heaven where love and wisdom, peace and joy, fill the land-the eternal Land

of Promise.

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SERMON XIII.

THE PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA.

"And Moses said unto the people, fear ye not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you to-day for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace."-Exodus xiv, 13, 14.

The passage of the Red Sea was an event of incalculable importance both to Israel and to mankind. To Israel it was the passage from Africa to Asia, from the civilization of one great portion of the earth to that of another, an event always solemnizing to the thoughtful. It was the passage also from bondage to freedom, from terror to triumph, from fear to faith. That night the first national emancipation took place. For mankind this lesson was sanctified for ever. The deliverance of Israel was the sublime type of the redemption of the world from hell. Israel's God was the Redeemer in both cases. Help was not in Deliverance was from the Lord alone. We are ever redeemed by the Eternal. "Thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth shall he be called."-Isa. liv. 5. But when we are redeemed we must walk, using our powers by divine direction all the days of our life. This is ever true equally of individuals and of nations.

man.

Another reflection presses itself upon us. This deliverance of Israel was not one act, but a series. For months fainting Israel was cheered, and Pharaoh was warned. By reiterated blows, the malignant power that held Israel in bondage was subdued.

We have seen Pharaoh and his people hardening themselves against renewed warnings, and determining to continue holding their victims if possible. Brought through a succession of sinnings and of sorrows, to that point, at which they felt that no possibility of keeping their dominion longer, they yielded at last. We considered in our last discourse, the

there was

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preparations of the Israelites for quitting their condition of peril and of pain. The clutch of the tyrant was at length broken. The rescued slaves had commenced their march. Let us watch

their progress further. The first day they proceeded to a spot called in the Egyptian language by a word that signifies "the tents," about sixteen miles from the chief city from which they had started. In the Hebrew language it is called, as we are told in the chapter immediately going before, Succoth, a word expressive of the same meaning "the tents," and subsequently in the Greek language Scone, which is also a translation of the same word. The second day they passed on, twenty-two miles, to Etham, on the edge of the Wilderness, and after staying the night there, again commenced their march, and they got to the Red Sea, now called the Gulf of Suez, where they encamped again. Between a place called Migdol or "the tower," (a sort of fortified spot, of which, it is believed, some remains exist down to the present day), on the one side, with Baal-zephon, or the Sanctuary of Typhon near; and a place called Hahiroth, or Pi-hahiroth, that is, "the pastures" on the other, they rested.

A valley in the neighbourhood of this arm of the sea led to the coast, so that the people when they had descended this valley had reached the sea-side, having gone slightly towards the north, or towards the head of the gulf. They were then told that they must turn southwards, and go down away from the part where alone there could be a passage by land. Before them was the arm of the sea. They were not to go up, or north, because that would have taken them towards the land of the Philistines, really a part of the country of Canaan, and not more than 200 miles distant. But this would have brought them to a land possessed by an exceedingly warlike people. The Israelites just escaping from bondage, half armed, with an immense number of hangers on, and of women, and children, were in but poor condition for facing the ferocity of the warlike tribes of the Philistines; therefore, they were not to go that way, although it was near.

But they were to go down again towards the south, where there is a spacious plain between the hills and the sea, closed up however at last by the mountain Jebel Attaka, which adjoins the water, and bars the passage to an army. The sea here is seven miles across.

In the meantime the Egyptians had gathered courage. Pharaoh had again determined that these rescued captives should not get away. As we have said, their position was such, that only one valley led towards the spot where they were. They were not to go up to the north. High lands, difficult for so vast a multitude to traverse, lay between them and the