of Canaan. He dared, with Caleb, to stand forth. against the infatuated and faithless multitude; to rebuke them for their want of confidence in God, and to exhort them to the exercise of trust and obedience. This great man had received not the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. To the refractory and gainsaying nation he gave this counsel: "Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread to us; their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us; fear them not." These words were spoken at the peril of the speaker, and they indicate a disposition in happy accordance with the following farewell address of Moses to him: "Be strong, and of a good courage; for thou must go with this people unto the land which the Lord hath sworn unto their fathers to give them and thou shalt cause them to inherit it. And the Lord, He it is that doth go before thee, He will be with thee; He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed." It is no marvel if the belief of such assurances as these inspired the highest courage; but Joshua had still greater words on which to rest his confidence. The Lord himself from heaven thus addressed him: "There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so will I be with thee. I will not leave thee, nor forsake thee, only be thou strong and very courageous." He who has such promises, and who believes them, cannot be other than great, and to that greatness there can hardly be a limit.

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Joshua was great in war: but there the military tended, in some degree, to obscure the moral qualities of the man; it is, therefore, during the peace which

succeeded, that his moral greatness breaks forth as the sun from behind a cloud, which has, for a season, interposed to obstruct his beams. Every step of his subsequent career is impressed with moral grandeur. His soul was cast in a noble mould. The spirit which dwelt in him, the principles by which he was guided, and the model of Moses, which was ever before him, all tended to form a character of boundless magnanimity. The military spirit, when subdued by the grace of God, forms a solid foundation of true moral greatness. Some of the finest specimens of manly piety existing at this moment in the world, are to be found in men who spent their early days in camps and fleets! Joshua, after the peace, is seen to vast advantage as a man, a master, and a magistrate. No nation can present any thing approaching to a parallel, although ancient and modern history furnishes two or three cases somewhat analogous.

Joshua supplied an illustration of a well-established fact, that men of very robust mental constitution are always versatile; they are rich in resources; fertile in expedients; they have what resembles an intuitive knowledge of things; they also possess a hand so dexterous that they seem able to perform any thing. In the tumults of war, in the tranquillity of peace, in courts and in cottages, they are equally at home. Thus it was with Joshua; he did every thing, and always seemed to do best that which he was immediately engaged in.

Joshua was strongly marked by decision of character. This high and precious attribute was early developed by him, and it distinguished him up to the very close of his glorious career. How intensely it braced his mind

when before his death he exhorted the tribes of Israel at Shechem, with the heads, elders, judges, and officers! Never did such exhortations emanate from the lips of an old man on the brink of the grave. Every sentence glows with all the fervour of youth and prime. Hear the venerable orator discharging his conscience and witnessing for his God: "Now, therefore, fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served, that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods. For the Lord our God, he it is that brought us up, and our fathers, out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed. And the Lord drave out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land: therefore will we also serve the Lord; for he is our God. And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the Lord: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions, nor your sins. If ye forsake the Lord, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good. And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the Lord. And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves,

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that ye have chosen you the Lord, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses. Now, therefore, put away (said he) the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel. And the people said unto Joshua, The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey. So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem."-Such were the last words of Joshua, the son of Nun. Having thus spoken, he had nothing to do but to die; and accordingly he forthwith ceased from his labours, and his works followed him.-Behold the decision and elevation which eminent piety imparts to Christian character!

SAMUEL stands forth with prominence among the great men of Israel. It were difficult to mention any character more nearly approaching to perfection. He is, in all points, a finished model of human excellence. His progress from youth to age was one ascending path, illumined by constantly augmenting lustre. He lived in an age of deep degeneracy, when the truly faithful were reduced to a small number, and of that number he was the head and chief. He was instrumental of a great revival of true godliness in the land. His qualities as a judge were as striking as his qualities as a prophet. In this two-fold character he conferred benefits unspeakable upon the nation; but public bodies are seldom just, still more rarely grateful; and hence the reverse, the disgrace, to which he was subjected. After he had attained to a well-deserved and unprecedented popularity, the fickle multitude, taking umbrage at the misconduct of his sons, and blind to the beauty of the father's character, called for a change of government, and demanded a king. The events which followed tried his

temper, proved his principles, and illustrated his moral greatness. How noble was the prophet's address to the people, after the coronation of Saul! "Behold," said he, "I have hearkened unto your voice, in all that ye said unto me, and have made a king over you. And now behold, the king walketh before you and I am old and grey-headed; and, behold, my sons are with you; and I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day. Behold, here I am: witness against me before the Lord, and before his anointed! Whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind my eyes therewith? and I will restore it you! And they said, Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken aught of any man's hand. And he said unto them, The Lord is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that ye have not found aught in my hand. And they answered, He is witness."

How beautiful! Here is true greatness, true glory! His deportment, also, towards Saul, in the unhappy affair of the Amalekites, was highly dignified. "Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on. And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed thee king over Israel? And the Lord sent thee on a journey, and said, Go, and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have