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of Spain, once the first among monarchies, to the lowest depths of degradation; the elevation of Holland, in spite of many natural disadvantages, to a position such as no commonwealth so small has ever reached, teach the same lesson. Whoever passes in Germany from a Roman Catholic to a Protestant principality; in Switzerland, from a Roman Catholic to a Protestant canton; in Ireland, from a Roman Catholic to a Protestant county, finds that he has passed from a lower to a higher grade of civilization."* Ignorance, according to Popery, is the mother of devotion. It certainly is an essential source of her power, and she resists with almost frantic effort every attempt made to diminish it. Thus the Queen's colleges in Ireland, notwithstanding all the concessions which the Government could make to render them acceptable to the Papacy, have been denounced by it as an insufferable evil, and the Pope's anathemas have been thundered against any who should dare to cross their threshold. Ireland is a vast preserve of ignorance and superstition, a paradise for priestly owls and bats, and that the ignorance should be lessened, and the thinking faculties of the people brought into exercise, was an innovation not to be endured. Such is one of the many phases of Popery. It hates the light, it fetters and disables the thinking faculty, that it may retain the soul in slavery. Darkness is its congenial element, and if it rested with Rome, nothing but the gloom of a perpetual twilight would await the human race; and this is the system to which, from the splendours of the Reformation, many in our Protestant establishment seem anxious to return!

G. G.

JERICHO-ITS SIEGE AND ITS FALL.

"So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city."-Josh. vi. 20.

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GREAT rivers and great cities have ever kept company, and rendered each other mutual service. If the river, from its natural resources, has created the city; the city, from its skill and enterprise, has made capital of the river. In the cities, reared upon the banks and borders of rivers, commerce has found its centres and emporiums; and through the rivers to the oceans that commerce has made its way to all the tribes and territories of the world. Now, Jordan is not to be compared with rivers like its neighbours, the Nile on the one side, and the Euphrates on the other. It was unnavigable; it flowed into a sea that could not boast a single port; and it never was "a high road to more hospitable coasts." Yet Jordan was not without its city, although, from its having but one considerable city on its banks, Jericho has been called its capital.

Jericho was about two miles from Gilgal, and nineteen or twenty from Jerusalem. As a city it was remarkable for its beauty and its strength. All the way from Jerusalem to the Jordan a com

"History of England," vol. v., p. 48.

paratively dull and leafless desert stretched itself, and white limestone mountains made up the scene; but on the approach to Jericho the aspect at once changed, and became romantic and beautiful. "As Joshua witnessed it, it must have recalled to him the magnificent palm-groves of Egypt, such as may now be seen stretching along the shores of the Nile at Memphis. Amidst this forest (of palm-trees, eight miles long and three broad) would have been seen stretching through its open spaces, fields of ripe corn; for it was the time of the barley harvest, and on the morrow after the Passover they ate for the first time of the old corn of the land, and parched corn in the self-same day.'"* Even at the present hour, "almost every reed in these regions distils a sugary juice, and almost every herb breathes fragrance. Palms have indeed disappeared (there was a solitary one not long since) from the neighbourhood of the city of palms; yet there were groves of them in the days of Arculfus, and palm branches could still be cut there when Fulcherius traversed the Jordan, A.D. 1100." Like Jerusalem, Jericho was beautiful for situation."

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It was also a city of strength. Both inside and outside it was ably defended. Outside it looked impregnable from massive walls, which were three miles in circumference, and of great width. it possessed soldiers of fierce spirit, and dauntless energy. people be strong," said the spies, "that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled and very great." To them the inhabitants appeared giants" themselves but "grasshoppers." And while this language is swollen by fear, and tinged by cowardice on the part of the spies, Moses, who knew neither, confirms the impression it conveys of the strength of the city, and the stalwartness of the citizens. Hear, O Israel Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven; a people great and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast heard say, Who can stand before the children of Anak?" (Deut. ix. 1, 2.)

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Yet against a city so formidable, and a people so fierce, how were the Israelites to proceed? Singular enough, the means to be employed were such as some would be ready to designate foolish, and all would regard as feeble. What was to be done? "Ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days." On the seventh day the ceremony was to be rep eated seven times, but with additional commands. "And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpetst of rams' horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. And it shall come to pass, that when

Stanley.

"The Hebrew word denotes trumpets of Jubilee, Jubilee trumpets; but they were called rams' horns, because shaped like rams' horns. There is a brass musical instrument, still called a horn, though it is really made of brass. There is another musical instrument called a serpent, simply because it is in the form of a serpent. And there is mentioned here a musical instrument called a ram's horn; not that it was literally so, but that it was in the shape or form of a ram's horn. And these trumpets were instruments consecrated to announce the different feasts and festivals of the Jewish religion; and, therefore, had a definite, sacred, and solemn meaning." -Dr. Cumming.

they make a long blast with the ram's horn, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him." And so it was. As soon as the signal was given by the priests, a "great shout" arose from the people, and in "a moment, in the twinkling of an eye," the massive walls fell as if by the action of an earthquake, and the armed men of Israel in all directions seized the city and its citizens! Was there ever a siege so singular, or an adventure so extraordinary, or a victory so speedy and signal? No trenches were dug; no siege-train was planned; no breach effected; no attack hazarded; yet the walls were levelled, and the city was captured more thoroughly than they ever were by trenches, sieges, breaches, and onslaughts! How was this? Whence the marvellous power ? The truth is, the people were but actors. God was the author: the people were but wheels and chains in the mighty engine, the motive power was from God! But why did God give them this great city by means in themselves so simple and so powerless? Why, indeed, since the means were in no way adequate, or even auxiliary to the effect, were means employed at all? It was, no doubt, to teach them important lessons, while there was gained for them a signal triumph it was to convert the arena of warfare into a school of education! And pray what did it teach?

I. That there is in the world a mightier force than arms and armies. Jericho was a strongly fortified city, and its inhabitants were hardy soldiers. The Israelites, on the contrary, were at best selfmade, and neither very courageous nor clever soldiers; but they approached the city in the name of their God; they performed a series of merely mechanical exercises; and for this the victory was theirs. There could be no mistake as to the real cause of success; it was manifestly not due to the genius of the commander, or the advantage of some newly-discovered military implement, or the heroism of the army. No; the power was none other than the power of

God!

Now, respecting this power I observe, that it is—

(1.) Unseen.-In itself all power is unseen. The earth, for instance, rotates daily on its axis, and revolves yearly round the sun; but the power that produces this rotation and revolution, however named, cannot be seen. The seasons of the year, in quick succession and short duration, pass before us with endless varieties of aspect, and endless contributions of blessing; but they obey a power which defies the perception of any eye, and the detection of any microscope or telescope. In short, power is a secret, subtle, mysterious thing which no observation can detect, and no philosophy analyze. It moves in whatever is movable, and pervades whatever is visible; yet in itself it is invisible.

Nevertheless, power is sometimes so interpenetrated and interlaced with what is visible, as to give itself visibility. When, for instance, the sea is stirred to its depths by the action of a furious storm; when it rises high as mountains, and roars as if it had the voice of thunder; when gigantic rocks are broken by it into atoms, and iron ships are driven before it as feathers in a storm, we instinctively exclaim, What a power! When we see a locomotive, dragging with equal ease and

speed a train which contains tons upon tons of merchandize; or an army, aided by the enormous weapons of destruction which this century has produced, levelling strong fortresses, blowing up granite walls, and spreading devastation and death in all directions, we reasonably exclaim, What a power! In these cases the subject that wields the power is beheld. We can see the ocean, the steam-engine, and the army. But the power of God is unseen except in its effects. "No man hath seen God," the great centre and primal source of all power; "no man can see God." He sees every one; no one can see him. He moves the springs that move the universe, but he, the creator and controller of all, is "the King invisible." "God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth

unto God."

Now it was this invisible power that worked for Israel. The ark, indeed, was there, the symbol of it, but only the symbol. When the walls of Jericho fell there was no seen power!

(2.) Unequalled.-Power is expressed and embodied in manifold forms-as, for example, physical. Gravitation, steam, electricity, are words which denote immense and almost immeasurable forces. By the force of gravitation suns and systems of incalculable number and inconceivable magnitude are kept in their places, and whirled in immense and endless cycles. Steam works wonders by land and sea, and presents feats of power before which anything that Samson or Hercules did is as insignificant as the dust of the balance. And as

for electricity, it is annihilating space, uniting continents and islands the most distant, and giving to thought more than the wings of the wind. Then, again, there is mental power. Mind is greater and stronger than matter; indeed, matter in all its forms is but the servant of mind. It is mind that controls, directs, and superintends the forces of Nature. "Mind, indeed," says Robert Hall, "to a certain extent, and within a certain sphere, is absolute power; and whatever motions it wills, instantly take place."

But there is a power above these. What are the forces of Nature or the creations of finite minds compared with the power of God? As man is above Nature, so God is above man. As man can combine, control, and direct physical forces, so as to give effect to the plans of a fertile brain, or the inspirations of a noble genius; so God can inspire, constrain, or counteract human spirits, so as to develop the plans of his omniscience, and the purposes of his unbounded beneficence. For, first of all, did not all the forces of matter and mind come from God? Nature and reason alike rebel against the idea that they were self-made and eternal. Moreover, do they not continually depend upon him? If he withdrew his energy, the physical universe would fall to pieces. If he withheld his breath, human beings would perish. "Though," says the author just cited, "we are far from supposing that the Divine Being is the soul of the universe, or that he bears the same relation to the visible world as the soul does to the body-a notion replete with absurdity and impietyyet the power which the mind exerts over the whole of our corporeal system may afford an apt illustration of that control which the Deity exercises over the universe." He, therefore, is above all, beyond all, mightier than all. "No man," and no number of men,

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whatever their rank or their resources, can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?"

(3.) Wisely and beneficently guided. Power in itself is not necessarily a boon; indeed, it may become, and often does become, a bane. In the hands of the capricious power is doubtful; in the hands of the ignorant, dangerous; in the hands of the wicked, terrible. When power, and especially unlimited power, is so lodged, woe to the liberties, the rights-nay, even the lives of subjects! And if God were possessed of power alone-were he to embrace and exhaust the perfections of his nature when he says, "I am the Almighty"—then where the intelligent creature that would not thrill and tremble beneath a well-grounded fear, and the material fabric that might not any day crash and crumble beneath his stroke? But God is allwise and all-good, as well as almighty. He is "the only wise God;" and his wisdom finds a mirror in all his works, whether large as the largest sphere, or small as the most tiny atom; for "in wisdom hast thou made them all." Nor is his love less manifest or less extensive. "God is love;" and this love of his breathes in everything that has breath, and reflects itself in brightness and beauty in everything that is made. "Like his emblem, the sun, which sheds his rays upon the surrounding worlds, and enlightens and cherishes the whole creation without being diminished in splendour, he imparts without being exhausted; and, ever giving, has yet infinitely more to give."*

"You in His wisdom, power, and grace

May confidently trust;

His wisdom guides, His power protects,
His grace rewards the just."

This, then, was the power which fought for Israel and overturned Jericho- —a power which no spy on the out-look could detect, which no army, however accoutred and marshalled, could match; and a power, withal, obedient to the directions of infinite wisdom, and the promptings of unbounded love. What are generals, though gifted as Wellington, Napoleon, and Cæsar-what are armies, though countless as the stars and indomitable as heroes-what are absolute monarchs, and imperial parliaments, and fortified cities, when placed side by side with it? If this power be against us, we may well exclaim, with Elisha's affrighted servant, "Alas, my master! how shall we do?" If this power be for us, we may, with the prophet, calmly reply, "Fear not for they that be with us are more than they that be with them." All history, not less than all true piety, declares that "it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes."

II. That the simplest means, if ordained and blessed by God, secure the greatest achievements.-What could be simpler than the means instituted to secure the fall of Jericho? To understand them no skill was required; to execute them, no strength. Two things, and only two, were needed on the part of the Israelites. First, faith. If they had not had faith in the plan propounded and in the promise of God, they never would have compassed the city once a day for six days and seven times on the seventh. Second, obedience. If they had not obeyed when they believed God, the walls would not have

* Watson.

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