in the country, and only permitted them to sharpen their agricultural implements at particular places. "But they had arms in the Wilderness, when they fought Amalek and others." Amalek and others." Yes, they had carried away a few weapons concealed, and made others out of the materials they had with them; and above all, they furnished themselves from the spoils of Pharaoh's army thrown on shore-But they were now only going out from Egypt. The margin is, they marched "five in a rank"-But this would have extended the train more than fifty miles in length. Others, therefore, have rendered it, "in five squadrons." But all the meaning seems to be that they moved out-not armed-but in soldier-like order; as regularly organized and slowly as disciplined troops-and not like a rude rabble, or a huddled jostling multitude. It shows that they did not go out by "haste or by flight." And this is very remarkable, considering their numbers, and the quality of the people, and how natural it was for those behind to dread lest their task-masters should overtake them, and therefore to press forward, to get before. But there was nothing of this: they moved with such steadiness and stillness, that "against none of them did a dog move his tongue." We are also informed that "there was not found one feeble among them." Indeed, they had enough to do to take care of themselves and their goods, without being incumbered with invalids. But did ever such an immense multitude leave a place before without one individual unable to follow? It was the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.

The other circumstance in this march regards "the bones of Joseph, which Moses took with them." This rendered it a kind of funeral procession, and such as no other history relates. Much people of Nain followed the bier of the widow's son; but Joseph's corpse was accompanied with every

man, woman, and child, of a whole nation. There is generally some time between death and interment, though in warm climates this is very short: here was an interval of near two hundred years. Other bodies may have been carried as far, but were never so long in their conveyance to the gravefor here forty years were taken up in bearing Joseph to his burial. We read at the death of Joseph, that " they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt;' and when we consider that he was the prime minister and the saviour of the country, and the most popular man in the realm, we may be assured that this was done in a manner the most perfect and sumptuous. The descendants of his own family would be likely to have the care of this precious deposit; and they would feel a peculiar veneration for itBut it was dear to all; and useful to all. It was a memento of the vanity of all human greatness. Joseph had risen in life to an unexampled degree of eminence. But what, where, now is the Governor and idol of Egypt? Mummied within those few inches of board! It was also a moral, as well as a mortal memento. Joseph was a very pious character: he had been highly exemplary in every relation and condition of life; and much of God, of Providence, and of grace, was to be read in his history-What an advantage to be always reminded of such a man, in having his remains always in the midst of them! But the body would be, above all, valuable, as a pledge of their future destination. It was a present palpable sign of God's Covenant with their fathers, on their behalf.

For observe how they came in possession of this

treasure.

It was according to the dying wish and prophecy of Joseph: "For he had straitly charged the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones away

hence with you." His charge did not arise from a superstitious principle, as if it were better or safer to moulder in one place than another. Nor even from a principle of natural and relative affection-This feeling, indeed, is often strong, and the wish of persons to lie with their kindred seems to grow with the decline of life. How affectionately does Jacob express this sentiment, when dying! "I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite, for a possession of a burying-place. There they buried Abraham, and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac, and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah." This, however, was more than the language of Nature in the father-and so it was in the son. The Apostle tells us, "By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones." If he did it by faith, his faith must have had a divine warrant; and it had. It was the promise of a God that cannot lie, that he would give Canaan for a possession to the seed of Abraham.

"And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them: and they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge and afterward shall they come out with great substance." And this was, at the very time, ratified by a solemn covenant. Joseph knew of this engagement, and believed it; and though the time was remote, and the difficulties in the accomplishment many, like a true son of Abraham, he staggered not at the promise of God, through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God. This raised him above the treasures

of Egypt; this kept them from naturalizing there amidst all his prosperity-there he was only a stranger and a sojourner-another nation was his peopleanother land was his home: and therefore, instead of being entombed in an Egyptian pyramid, he ordered his body to be taken immediately to Goshen, and kept by them till they should go as a body to possess their inheritance, and then bury him with his fathers.

And behold the fulfilment! Enslaved as they were, they are delivered. Their enemies perish. They live by miracle for forty years in the Wilderness. The Jordan is crossed. Canaan is takenand, says the Conqueror to the people he had led to victory, "Behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in all your hearts, and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof." "So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. What more? "And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for an hundred pieces of silver: and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph." Here we leave his hallowed remains till the resurrection of the just; inscribing over his sepulchreA MEMORIAL OF THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD.

"O for a strong and lively faith
"To credit what th' Almighty saith:
"T' embrace the message of his Son,
"And call the joys of heav'n our own."

MAY 11.-" The lame man which was healed held Peter and John." Acts iii. 13.

How perfectly natural and picturesque are the narratives of the Bible; serving at once to vouch for their truth, and to leave their representations fixed in the memory.

The circumstance here mentioned is too simple, striking, and touching, to be overlooked. The poor man had been lame from his mother's womb, and was placed daily at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, to ask alms of the worshippers. Silver and gold, Peter and John had none: but they gave him something far better. In the name of the Lord Jesus, said they, rise up, and walk. And immediately his feet and ankle-bones received strength. And he, leaping up-stood-and walked-and entered with them into the temple-walking-and leaping-and praising God. The people also, seeing what was done, hastened to Solomon's Porch, greatly wondering-But the man that was healed held Peter and John.

Was this the effect of apprehension? Did he imagine their influence was confined to their bodily presence? and that if he let them go, his lameness would return?

Or did it result from a wish to point them out to the multitude? "Are you looking after the wonderful men who have made me whole"-eager and proud to proclaim them; "Here," says he, “Here they are-These are they."

Was it not still more the expression of his attachment? "O my deliverers and benefactors, let me attend upon you; and enjoy the happiness to serve you. Entreat me not to leave you, nor to return from following after you. Let me live, let me die with you."

-So it is in our spiritual cures. It is natural to feel a regard for those who have been the means of our