in one important respect. In the middle and upper Egypt, the rain scarcely ever falls to moisten the earth, and bless the labors of the husbandman. He is often obliged to toil hard to supply this deficiency. To many places the inundations of the Nile do not extend; and the water must be conducted through channels, at the time of its overflowing, into ponds and reservoirs; thence to be distributed to the spots where it is needed. But Canaan, as Moses informs them, is " a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven." If obedient, God will give them rain in due season, the former and the latter rain, and abundance both for man and beast. But if disobedient, his wrath will be kindled against them; and he will shut up the heaven, and withhold the rain. The land will yield no increase, and the people perish with hunger.

If obedient, they shall dwell in perfect security. No man shall be able to stand before them; but the fear and dread of them shall fall upon all the inhabitants round about. Thus, adds Moses, "Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse: a blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day: and a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known."

We find, succeeding these solemn exhortations, a series of statutes and ordinances, most of them a recapitulation of what had before been promulgated, respecting the domestic, social, civil, military, and religious institutions of the Israelites, and the manner in which they should treat the inhabitants of Canaan; to rehearse which would be to repeat almost verbatim the portions of Scripture that record them. They are contained in the Book of Deuteronomy, from the twelfth to the twenty-sixth chapters inclusive; to which the reader is referred, with the advice before given, of making these, and the other parts of the same subject, matter of careful study and investigation.

We must not fail to notice, however, one very remarkable passage in the eighteenth chapter, in which Moses utters a prediction concerning the Saviour of mankind. When at Horeb, the Israelites having entreated that they might not again hear the voice of Jehovah, nor see the great fire, lest they should die, the Lord thus spake unto Moses: "I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him." "And it shall come το pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.

What prophet, after Moses, ever has appeared

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among the Jews, to answer to this description, except the Lord Jesus Christ? This has been abundantly shown by the most able expositors of Scripture, and is, indeed, put beyond all doubt by the express declarations of Peter and Stephen, in the third and seventh chapters of the Acts of the Apostles; and our Saviour himself, it would seem, confirms this testimony when he says to the Jews, in asserting his claims to their reverence and belief; "Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me." Having rehearsed, in the presence of the assembly, the various statutes and ordinances which God had commanded him to do, Moses reminded the people of the solemn covenant into which they had entered. It was made between them and Jehovah; they promised fidelity and obedience, and, in this case, God pledging himself to regard them as his peculiar people, and to distinguish them, by his blessings, above all the nations of the earth. What an honor to enter into such a covenant! What exalted privileges it confers! What affecting obligations rest upon the Israelites, to preserve it inviolate!

Certain religious ceremonies, after they had entered the promised land, were to be performed by the Israelites, to impress still more deeply upon

their memories, and their hearts, the divine injunctions. They were commanded by Moses, to set up in mount Ebal stones of a great size, and so prepared that on them could be written the words of the law-which he had announced to them. On the same spot they were to erect an altar to the Lord their God, and on it offer up their burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, and have a season of religious festivity and rejoicing, in grateful remembrance of the blessings which had been bestowed upon

them.

Mount Ebal was near Shechem, and over against mount Gerizim, from which it is separated by a valley of about two hundred paces in width. These mountains are seven or eight hundred feet high, and the sides of both are barren and dreary. Here, in addition to the setting up of the stones, and the other religious ceremonies which have been mentioned, one more transaction of deep and imposing solemnity was to take place.

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Moses commanded the Israelites when they had performed those ceremonies, to separate themselves into two grand divisions; six of the tribes standin on mount Gerizim, and six on mount Ebal. The former were to utter blessings on the people, in case of obedience, and the latter, curses, should they prove disobedient. A portion of the Levites, also, were to pronounce the curses of God against

certain peculiar offences; the people acknowledg ing themselves justly liable to these denunciations, should they prove guilty, by a responding Amen.

Still further, as if he could not do enough to lead such a perverse and fickle nation to feel their obligations, and the power of the motives to obedience, Moses proceeded, himself to pronounce a series of blessings upon them, of the most distinguished kind, if they would hearken diligently unto the Lord their God and obey his commandments.

These he followed with a corresponding succes sion of curses, severe, desolating, and terrific; which might well fill them with horror at the very idea of provoking such manifestations of the divine vengeance by their transgressions. Alas! they did thus provoke them; and the exact infliction of the evils contained in these denunciations, has formed one of the most striking fulfillments of the sacred prophecies.

When will the tender mercies of the Lord, on the one hand, and his awful terrors, on the other, affect the heart of man, and bring him to obey his Maker? How self-willed, how selfish, how sensual is that heart; how opposed naturally to the divine requirements; how prone to set them all at defiance!

Truth, motives, blessings, curses, make no efficacious impression on that heart, without the accompanying influences of the Spirit of Grace. The Is raelites of old often grieved that Spirit; and God