We are sometimes made to sigh even when we are merry. "Surely in laughter the heart is sad." On every annual festival we involuntarily repeat, What changes another year may bring ! But they who love God are sure that nothing will happen to them by His appointment which will not be for the purpose of enlarging the sphere of their spiritual vision. Christian peace and joy, therefore, are well founded; they are rational. It is not fanciful to suggest that every miraculous gift bestowed on the apostles has a spiritual counterpart in the experience of all who are born of the Spirit.

Our Saviour, speaking of His own marvellous works, says to the apostles, " And greater works than these shall ye do, because I go to my Father."

That we do not err in supposing that there is a designed connection between these two passages, and that the contemplation of the heavens is here designed to illustrate the wisdom and power of God in His treatment of the afflicted whom He loves, we have only to recall the following words: "Lift up your eyes on high," says the Great God, "behold, who hath created these things? that bringeth out their hosts by number; He calleth them all by their names by the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power, not one faileth. Why sayest

thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainted not neither is weary? There is no searching of His understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength."

XV.

THE REMOVAL OF ISRAEL'S CLOUD TO THE REAR.

"And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them."-Exodus 14: 19.

N the border of the Red sea the children of

Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold the Egyptians marched after them, and they were sore afraid. Six hundred chosen chariots were there and with them all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them. Destruction seemed sure. The Israelites were an undisciplined host; their wives and children were mingled with them; no munitions of war; a desert on either side; the Red sea in front; all Egypt in pursuit infuriated by the plagues which the God of these Hebrews had sent upon them. The faith of Israel gave way to despair. They said to Moses, "Because there were no graves in Egypt hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been bet

ter for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness." Little did they dream, however, that they were brought there to be a spectacle to the world through all ages; they did not remember that man's extremity is God's opportunity.

The pillar of cloud which had been to them a pioneer in the desert now began to countermarch, and took its position at the entrance of the camp. Dark as a rising storm to the Egyptians the cloud shed light upon Israel, "So that the one came not near to the other all night." The leader of Israel, by divine command, stretched his hand over the sea and straightway the waters saw it and fled; the bottom of the sea, which for ages had not seen the light, became a floor for their feet, a solid road for their beasts of burden; the waters stood up like a heap on either hand. "They went through the flood on foot, there did they rejoice in Him." But as much as they enjoyed the wall of waters on either hand and the marvellous faith which gave them firm foothold over the bottom of the deep, they were ever thinking of the whole military force of Egypt in their rear. What if they should be suddenly overwhelmed by horses and chariots? These walls of water hemmed them in; flight was impossible. Has God dried up the sea to make a grave for Israel? With an eye of faith one and

another looked behind to the pillar of fire which had now planted itself in their rear. God was

there, the angel Jehovah who smote Egypt in their first-born, whose mercy endureth forever. While before them the light from the cloud reached to the further shore, the cloud itself formed an impenetrable veil between Israel and the pursuers: no sight of horses and chariots affrighted them any more; they saw their enemies only when the returning waters washed their dead bodies to the shore.

All this was effected by the removal of the pillar of cloud from before them to a position in their rear, mercifully bringing darkness between them and their enemies. The veil hung down to keep the pursued from seeing the pursuers, while it hid them from their enemies.

Some of the painters, and an artist in the mother country who has illustrated the "Pilgrim's Progress," have had wonderful skill in throwing light forward and making darkness behind it. But no pencil is like the hand of Him who at creation divided the light from the darkness; which He did here, making the past dark and the onward way bright. He can let down a veil from heaven to earth, and on one side of it there shall be darkness which can be felt, and on the other side light.

Though Israel had seen the power of God in