it fits to become substantial comforters to others. Their progress in grace we believe to hinge, in a great measure, upon the dissolution of these desponding thoughts. Distress appears an infallible emblem of imperfect Christianity. And if there were no additional motive, their personal comfort is enough to stimulate us to heartfelt earnestness on their behalf. Their spiritual joys are another source of gratification and sympathy. When the vine of Christianity flourishes, and happiness clusters in its boughs; when holiness abounds, and grace prevails like an overflowing fountain; when the bud ripens into bloom, and infancy matures to manhood; when darkening thoughts are replaced by fixed confidence; when the pale and sickly plant, nourished by the dews of heaven, enlarges its bulky stem, and brings forth the full grown ear; when dawning grace terminates in maturity, who can behold the change, and not languish with delight? who can consider the growth, and not abound with joy? who can witness the transformation, and not fall prostrate with adoring thankfulness? full power; it has not been carried out into full operation. There is not the affection that will lead us charitably to form apologies for the wants and weaknesses of others. And there is not diminished self-love, which is alone compatible with an enlightened consideration of our real state, and a generous estimate of the feelings, the motives, the attainments of others. 3. From the esteem in which the saints are held, there will be a strong desire after their spiritual welfare. Nothing more delights the mind, than to behold those, in whom we are deeply interested, raised to the very summit of perfection. In this there may be a slight admixture of interested feeling; but it is such as appears not merely excusable, but in the highest degree commendable. Our souls are wound up in their souls; our hearts in their hearts. When their character is at stake, we feel as poignantly as if it were our own. Their attainments afford us unfeigned pleasure; and their exaltation proportionally uplifts our head. The same sentiments mingle, nay, they are perfected and purified in religion. When the diadem of grace in its loveliest form, with gems of transcendent lustre, and pearls of surpassing hue, is placed upon their head, we feel as proud as if these brilliants adorned ourselves. When any distinguished act of faith is done, it is equally an occasion of triumph, because it proceeds from an integral part of Christ's mystical body. When the power of religion is shown forth, God is equally glorified, whoever be the actor, whatever the instrument. The hosannahs of angels will equally sound, when grace is pre-eminent, and sin subdued; and saints, imitating the example, will lift up the same exalted anthem, though they are not individually the subjects of such admiration, the sharers of such peculiar mercy. 2. From the principle of love, we are led, after the apostle's maxim, "to esteem others better than ourselves." This feeling involves in it the basis of humility, and the essence of noble-mindedness. To account another holier than ourselves, when no stain adheres to our character, and no pungent recollection broods upon our mind, is a climax of self-denial, equally foreign to the unrenewed, and difficult to attain. It is one, however, that springs spontaneously from the deep fountain of Christian love. The well known characteristic of love is to hold in the most endearing light, those whom we esteem. The object of affection is carefully robed in all its amiable qualities; every personal grace appears in bold relief to our admiring view; every commendable action is noticed and recited; and a charitable veil is drawn over the venial faults. Add to this, the diminished power of self-love, and you may easily account for the superior estimate we form of others. The heart is alone cognizant to its own deceit; the mind to its own corruption; the conscience A SHORT time after her arrival in New York, Mrs BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. MRS ISABELLA GRAHAM. Graham commenced an establishment for female education. The school was opened on the 5th October 1789 with five scholars, and before the end of the same ing attracted universal admiration; and what tended to enhance the value of her instructions, in the estimation of many parents, was, the uniform desire which she evinced to train up her pupils in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. All other knowledge she regarded as subordinate to the knowledge of divine truth; and accordingly, under her wise and judicious instructions, several young persons became savingly acquainted with the Gospel of Christ. to its own carelessness; the judgment to its wrong decisions. There are in every saint sins to humble him, coldness to reproach him, convictions that quiet self-month they had increased to fifty. Her mode of teachapplause. Every person is acquainted with the evil of his own thoughts; but there is an impervious shadow that conceals from him the thoughts of others. And, oh! what innumerable evils lurk in the deep recesses of the soul-blind presumption, tardy indolence, unprincipled cowardice, indifference to God, facility of temptation, with occasional wicked and daring thoughts, upon which it would be imprudent to bestow a name. All these are carefully laid open under the dissecting knife of self-examination. All these are clearly depicted on the map of conscience. All these shake and mar the beauty of the inner man. All these disturb the quiet of the believer, so that he is led to exclaim with the apostle, "Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Upon these grounds, self-love is diminished; and we are forced to acknowledge, with the same apostle, that we are "the chief of sinners." In what light, and to what limit, are others esteemed, more than ourselves? If not, Christian love has not fulfilled its perfect work. There is great deficiency. It has not been felt in its Mrs Graham joined in communion with the Presbyterian Church under the pastoral care of the late Rev. Dr Mason of New York. This excellent and devoted minister became her intimate friend and counsellor; and under his ministry, two of her daughters were led to join themselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant never to be forgotten. The joy which she felt in seeing her children walking in the truth, may be seen from the following extract from her Diary, under date 10th October 1791: have cast my fatherless children on the Lord, and he Glory! glory! glory! to the Hearer of prayer. I has begun to make good my confidence. One thing, one only thing, have I asked for them, leaving every thing else to be bestowed or withheld, as consisting 742 with that; I seek for my four children and myself, first of all, the kingdom of God.' My God, from day to day, adds many other comforts, and strengthens my hopes, by promising appearances, that the grain of mustard seed' is sown in the hearts of my three daughters. They have joined themselves to the people of God, and I have reason to think the Lord has ratified their surrender of themselves to him: he has made them willing for the time, and he will hedge them in to the choice they have made." About this period, Mrs Graham's son, who had been left in Scotland, to pursue his education, and who had afterwards entered upon a sea-faring life, paid her a visit. He remained some months with her, when she fitted him out for a situation in the navy-the profession to which he was most strongly inclined. Her reflections on his departure are peculiarly affecting :"This day my only son left me in bitter wringings of heart he is again launched on the ocean,-God's ocean. The Lord saved him from shipwreck, brought him to my home, and allowed me once more to indulge my affections over him. He has been with me but a short time, and ill have I improved it: he is gone from my sight, and my heart bursts with tumultuous grief. Lord have mercy on the widow's son- the only son of his mother!' : "I ask nothing in all this world for him: I repeat my petition. Save his soul alive, give him salvation from sin. It is not the danger of the seas that distresses me; it is not the hardships he must undergo; it is not the dread of never seeing him more in this world: it is because I cannot discern the fulfilment of the promise in him. I cannot discern the new birth nor its fruits, but every symptom of captivity to Satan, the world, and self-will. This, this is what distresses me; and, in connection with this, his being shut out from ordinances, at a distance from Christians; shut up with those who forget God, profane his name, and break his Sabbaths, men, who often live and die like beasts; yet are accountable creatures, who must answer for every moment of time, and every thought, word, and action. O Lord, many wonders hast thou shown me; thy ways of dealing with me and mine have not been common Call, convert, reones add this wonder to the rest. generate, and establish a sailor in the faith. Lord, all things are possible with thee: glorify thy Son, and extend his kingdom by sea and land; take the prey from the strong. I roll him over upon Thee. Many friends try to comfort me; miserable comforters are they all. Thou art the God of consolation; only confirm to me thy gracious word, on which thou causedst me to hope, in the day when thou saidst to me, 'Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive.' Only let this life be a spiritual life, and I put a blank in thy hand as to all temporal things. I wait for thy salvation.' Amen." This young man passed through various changes and sufferings. The last letter which his mother received from him was in 1794, from Demerara, and contained the intelligence that he had been taken prisoner, and then retaken, and was at that time intending to go to Europe with the fleet which was soon to sail under convoy. This letter expressed deep contrition for the errors of his past life, and a wish to amend his ways in future. No further tidings from this profligate son ever reached Mrs Graham; and she could only indulge the hope that He who has the hearts of all men in his hands, had effectually turned him from the service of Satan to that of the living and true God. In this hope she felt encouraged, from the eventful history of her younger brother Archibald Marshall. He too had gone to sea, At length, and for many years he was never heard of. some time after his death, the family received encouraging accounts of his having been a decided Christian. A young man residing in a boarding-house, kept by a pious This In July 1795, Mrs Graham's second daughter, Joanna, was married to Mr Divie Bethune, a merchant in New York. This union was peculiarly suitable, both parties having given themselves to the Lord before they gave themselves to each other. But in one short month after this event, so pleasing to Mrs Graham, she was called to endure a very painful bereavement in the sudden death of her first daughter, Mrs Stevenson. amiable and excellent young woman had been for several years characterized by remarkable piety, and her end was peaceful and happy. Her mother, who had the privilege of witnessing her dying moments, was deeply affected; but when the spirit of the youthful saint had taken its flight, she wiped the tears from her eyes, and raising her hands to heaven, she exclaimed, "I wish you joy, my darling!" This was the triumph of faith over the feelings of a mother's heart. She felt assured that her child had entered the mansions of the blessed, and therefore she gave vent to an ecstasy of holy joy. It may be interesting to our readers to peruse some of her remarks on this distressing occasion: Why, O why is my spirit still depressed? Why these sobs? Father, forgive! Jesus wept: I weep, but acquiesce. This day two months the Lord delivered my Jessie, his Jessie, from a body of sin and death; finished the good work he had begun, perfected what concerned her; trimmed her lamp, and carried her triumphant through the valley of the shadow of death. She overcame through the blood of the Lamb. "I rejoiced in the Lord's work, and was thankful that the one, the only thing I had asked for her, was now completed. I saw her delivered from much corruption within, from strong and peculiar temptation without. I had seen her often staggering, sometimes falling under the rod; I had heard her earnestly wish for deliverance from sin; and, when death approached, she was more than satisfied: said she had been a great sinner, but she had a great Saviour; praised him, and thanked him for all his dealings with her: for hedging her in, for chastising her; and even prayed that sin and corruption might be destroyed, if the body should The Lord fulfilled her debe dissolved to effect it. He lifted upon ber sire, and, I may add, mine also. the light of his countenance; revived her languid graces; increased her faith and hope; loosed her from earthly concerns; and made her rejoice in the stability of his covenant, and to sing, All is well, all is well, good is the will of the Lord.' I did rejoice, I do rejoice; but, O Lord, thou knowest my frame; she was my companion, my affectionate child; my soul feels a want, O fill it up with more of thy presence, give yet more communications of thyself. "We are yet one in Christ our Head; united in him; and, although she shall not return unto me, I shall go to her, and then our communion will be more full, more delightful, as it will be perfectly free from sin. Christ shall be our bond of union, and we shall be fully under the influence of it. "Let me then gird up the loins of my mind, and set Mrs Graham's active Christian spirit was unwearied in devising plans of benevolence and charity. She devoted regularly a tenth part of her earnings to pious and charitable uses. The formation of a female society for the relief of poor widows with small children, took place at her house in 1797, and she herself was elected first directress; an office which she held with the utmost honour and usefulness for ten years. In the month of September 1798, Mrs Graham's daughter, Isabella, was married to Mr Andrew Smith, a merchant in New York; and all her children being now bonourably settled in life, she was prevailed upon to retire from her school into private life. It was during that year that the yellow fever raged with unusual violence, and it was with the utmost difficulty that Mrs Graham was prevented from risking her valuable life, by visiting the sick; but after the disease had abated, she was unwearied in her attention to the widows of those who had been cut off. In a letter to her brother, dated 11th November 1799, she gives a very affecting description of the state of matters in New York during the prevalence of this appalling disease: In the "Before this reaches you, the public papers will have informed you of the desolation of New York by the yellow fever. We are among the escaped; and there are no breaches in the family. My health, and that of the family, made the country necessary to us at any rate, and we had left town previously to its becoming general; but Mr Bethune kept in the city, only sleeping in the country, till forty-five were carried off in a night. The inhabitants abandoned the city in crowds, spreading over the adjacent countries; in Long-Island, Jersey, and New York, for sixty miles round. most busy trading streets, a person might have walked half a mile without meeting an individual, or seeing an open house or shop. Eleven physicians and surgeons fell sacrifices to it; five of them men of eminence; several were confined by mere fatigue, and had to retire to rest, relieving others when recruited. Dr B——, one of our oldest and most eminent physicians, who had retired from business two years ago, and lived on his estate in the country, hearing of the distress of his brethren, and the impossibility of their answering all the calls of the sick and dying, left his retreat, returned to town, and slaved to the last. His affectionate wife would not be left behind, but determined to share or witness his fate. It has pleased God to preserve them both. Notwithstanding the general flight, the mortality among those that remained was so great, that for three weeks from forty-eight to fifty-four died every twenty-four hours: this was no vague report, but that of the physicians, and published in the daily newspapers. The churches were shut up, except those which stood out of danger. Great numbers carried the infection with them to the country, as far as sixty and eighty miles, and died there; almost every one that took it in the country died, having no proper medical assistance. I do not remember one that recovered; many did in the city and in the hospitals. Some died without getting sight of a doctor; some, alone, deserted by every creature. The coffins were ready made, the graves ready dug, and the minute the last breath was fetched, they were buried with the utmost despatch. Many widows had to put their own husbands into the coffin, with the assistance of the maker; and often, very often, there was not a creature at the burial, but the man that drove the hearse, who assisted the sex ton to put the body under the ground. I myself met a hearse, followed by three well-dressed females, not a man but the driver. Long before this your heart has asked, what became of the poor? Wonders were done for them; yet many suffered for want of nursing. A number of humane men formed themselves into a society, sought them out, and ministered relief from the public funds. Two cooks' shops in different quarters of the city prepared soup, meat, vegetables, and bread. A committee sat in the alms house every day from nine to one o'clock, to receive such reports or applications as might be made to them, either by, or in behalf of, the sick or poor; and they were visited, and nurses and medical attendance provided by the public, as well as every species of necessaries; but, alas! nurses were not to be had; doctors could be at only one place at a time. When speaking of the poor, I omitted mentioning the large donations which were sent from both town and country to the committee :-flour, meal, fowls, sheep, vegetables, money, and clothes. One of the members of this society told me, that there was a plentiful supply; and temporary hospitals, and other buildings, were erected for the reception of the sick and recovering; every thing that could be done was done to soften the calamity." As Mrs Graham had now abundance of leisure time, she dedicated it to the promotion of the benevolent society over which she had been called to preside. In the fatherless and the widows she felt a lively interest, and endeavoured, in every possible way, to comfort and relieve them. The society at length assumed an importance and an influence which they had not anticipated. It received a charter of incorporation, and some pecuniary assistance from the legislature of New York. Thus raised to a greater prominence, the board of directors thought of extending their plans of usefulness. With this view, they purchased a small house, where they received work for the employment of poor widows. They opened a school for the education of orphan children, which was superintended by several ladies in rotation, who volunteered their services for that purpose. Several other day schools were opened in different parts of the city, besides two Sabbath schools, one of which was superintended by Mrs Graham herself. In short, she was indefatigable in her exertions for the promotion of the temporal comfort and spiritual well-being of the poor and the afflicted. She enjoyed, in all the rich intensity of happiness, the luxury of doing good. Her's might be said to be the character of the righteous Job: "When the ear heard her, then it blessed her; and when the eye saw her, it gave witness to her; because she delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon her: and she caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. She put on righteousness, and it clothed her: her judgment was as a robe and a diadem. She was eyes to the blind, and feet was she to the lame. She was a mother to the poor; and the cause which she knew not she searched out." At each annual meeting of the society, Mrs Graham delivered an address along with a report of the proceedings of the managers during the preceding year. And not confining her exertions to one object alone, she took an active interest in every benevolent design. An asylum was proposed, in 1806, for orphan children, and besides entering warmly into the scheme, and aiding it by her subscription, she, or one of her family, taught the orphans daily until the friends of the institution allowed of a teacher being procured. This society, which was afterwards incorporated, owed its origin, in a great measure, to Mrs Graham, and down to the time of her death, she continued to visit the hospital, and to act as a trustee. The females in the State Prison occupied a considerable share of her atten tion, and in seasons of depressed trade she provided employment, at her own expense, for a number of poor industrious women. At length, from the infirmities of age, she resigned the office of First Directress of the Widows' Society, and took the place of a Manager. In the year 1810, her constitution suffered a severe shock from an accident which occurred to her while bathing. She was carried beyond her depth, and with great difficulty she was rescued from her perilous situation. During the last two years of her life, Mrs Graham seemed to be fast ripening for heaven. She withdrew almost entirely from public engagements, and spent her time chiefly in private reading, meditation and prayer. The only instance in which she emerged from her retirement, was for the purpose of joining some ladies in forming a society for the promotion of industry among the poor. This was an object which she had long had at heart, and the last public act of her life was devoted to it. For some weeks before her last illness, her health was unusually good. The greater part of her time she dedicated to reading. Owen, Romaine, and Newton, were her favourite authors. On the two Sabbaths before she was attacked with the disease which terminated her earthly career, she partook of the Lord's Supper. Her last meditation was written on one of these occasions, and closes with these words. Let us love, and sing, and wonder Let us praise the Saviour's name! "Mrs Graham then fell asleep, nor did she awaken until the voice of the Rev. Dr Mason roused her. They had a very affectionate interview, which he has partly described in the excellent sermon he delivered after her decease. She expressed to him her hope, as founded altogether on the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. Were she left to depend on the merits of the best action she had ever performed, that would be only a source of despair. She repeated to him, as her view of salvation, the fourth verse of the hymn already quoted : Let us wonder, grace and justice Join, and point at mercy s store: When thro' grace in Christ our trust is, Justice smiles, and asks no more: He who wash'd us with his blood, "Having asked Dr Mason to pray with her, he inquired if there was any particular request she had to make of God, by him; she replied, that God will direct then, as he knelt, she put up her hands, and, raising her eyes towards heaven, breathed this short. but expressive petition, Lord, lead thy servant in prayer. "After Dr Mason had taken his leave, she again fell into a deep sleep. Her physicians still expressed a hope of her recovery, as her pulse was regular, and the violence of her disease had abated. One of them however, declared his opinion, that his poor drugs would prove of little avail against her own ardent prayers, 'to depart, and be with Christ, which was far better' for her, than her return to a dying world. "I ate the bread, and drank the wine, in the faith that I ate the flesh, and drank the blood of the Son of man, and dwelt in him, and he in me! took a close view of my familiar friend, death, accompanied with the presence of my Saviour, his sensible presence. I cannot look at it without this. It is my only petition concerning it. I have had desires relative to certain circumstances, but they are nearly gone. It is my sincere desire that God may be glorified; and He and to him she expressed also the tranquillity of her knows best how, and by what circumstances. my one petition Only to me thy countenance show, I ask no more the Jordan through." 666 I retain On Tuesday the 19th July, 1814, she began to complain slightly, but for two days her illness was not alarming. At length she became convinced that her end could not be far distant. Her mind remained calm and collected. Observing Mr Bethune standing by her bedside, with a countenance somewhat agitated, she said, My dear, dear son, I am going to leave you, I am going to my Saviour.' I know,' he replied, that, when you do go from us, it will be to the Saviour: but, my dear mother, it may not be the Lord's time now to call you to himself.' Yes,' said she now is the time; and, Oh! I could weep for sin.' Her words were accompanied with her tears. Have you any doubts then, my dear friend?' asked Mrs Chrystie. Oh no,' replied Mrs Graham; and looking at Mr and Mrs Bethune, as they wept : My dear children, I have no more doubt of going to my Saviour, than if I were already in his arms; my guilt is all transferred; he has cancelled all I owed. Yet I could weep for sins against so good a God; it seems to me as if there must be weeping even in heaven for sin.' After this, she entered into conversation with her friends, mentioning portions of Scripture, and favourite hymns, which had been subjects of much comfortable exercise of mind to her. Some of these she had transcribed into a little book, calling them her provision prepared for crossing over Jordan: she committed them to memory, and often called them to remembrance, as her songs in the night, when sleep had deserted her. She then got Mr Bethune to read her some of these portions, especially the eighty-second hymn of the third book of Newton's Hymns, beginning phus "On Monday the Rev. Mr Rowan prayed with her, mind, and the stedfastness of her hope, through Christ, of eternal felicity. She "Her lethargy increased; at intervals from sleep, she would occasionally assure her daughter, Mrs Bethune, that all was well: and when she could rouse herself only to say one word at a time, that one word accompanied with a smile, was, peace.' From her there was a peculiar emphasis in this expression of the state of her mind; Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you,' had been a favourite portion of Scripture with her, and a promise, the fulfilment of which was her earnest prayer to the God who made it. also occasionally asked Mr Bethune to pray with her, even when she could only articulate, as she looked at him, Pray.' She was now surrounded by many of her dear Christian friends, who watched her dying-bed with affection and solicitude. On Tuesday afternoon she slept with little intermission. This,' said Dr Mason, may be truly called falling asleep in Jesus.' It was remarked, by those who attended her, that all terror was taken away, and that death seemed here as an entrance into life. "At a quarter past twelve o'clock, being the morning of the 27th of July, 1814, without a struggle or a groan, her spirit winged its flight from a mansion of clay to the realms of glory!" Thus died a most consistent and devoted follower of the Lord Jesus. Her light had shone with resplendent lustre during her life, and her sun set in serenity and peace. The intelligence of Mrs Graham's death excited a deep feeling of regret in the minds of her friends bota in America and England. The loss was regarded by the Christian world as one of no ordinary kind. Her unwearied exertions to promote the advancement of the cause of Christ, and her benevolence and kindness to the poor, attracted the esteem and respect of all who were capable of appreciating these beautiful traits of | palling; the design of God, in thus subjecting character. "The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance." THE RESEMBLANCE BETWIXT THE PASSAGE OF ISRAEL THROUGH THE DESERT AND THE PROGRESS OF THE CHRISTIAN THROUGH THE WORLD CONSIDERED AND ILLUSTRATED: A DISCOURSE. BY THE REV. JOHN BALFOUR, One of the Ministers of Culross. "And thou shalt remember all the way in which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness."-DEUT. viii. 2. AT the time when Moses delivered this affecting address to the people of Israel, they had sojourned for forty years, as the text bears, in the deserts of Arabia, called, in another part of the chapter before us, by one general appellation,-the "great and terrible wilderness." Within, or towards the close of the year, their protracted migrations were to terminate in the possession of the promised and long expected inheritance. And within the same period of time, they were to lose their faithful leader and illustrious lawgiver, who, though he had conducted them to the confines, was not to be permitted to cross the Jordan at the head of their tribes, and introduce them into, and establish them in, the promised land. In the wise but inscrutable destinations of Providence, his labours and services were not to be rewarded by the peaceful enjoyment, for a season, of the country flowing with milk and honey. All that was now in reserve for him on earth, in regard to the great promise, the hope of the fathers of Israel, and the hope they taught their little ones from age to age, was but a Pisgah view of the fertile, the farspread, and delightful region. That miserable and sequestered portion of the globe, which had been the scene of many of his strivings with a stubborn and untoward people, and the theatre of many of his astonishing and miraculous acts of power, was to receive and retain the mortal remains of this man of early renown, this distinguished servant of God. The chapter from which the text is taken may be considered as the concluding speech of the prophet, his last advice to the people, whose cause, by the special direction of heaven, he had espoused, and whose fortunes he had followed under every variety of vicissitude, in Egypt, and in the desert, at Massah, and at Meribah, and in every rugged and painful step as they advanced on that frightful and trackless expanse of waste and sterility. Of this advice, the words now read form a prominent and important part, and in them we may observe these three things: The condition of the Israelites from the time of their departure from the dominions of Pharaoh down to the period of their entrance into the promised land, they wandered in the wilderness, in an unsettled state, but with difficulties the most discouraging, and exposed to dangers the most ap them to a species of discipline, in its nature so severe, and in its duration so extended, it was to humble them, and to try what was in them; and the direction of Moses, tendered to them under the form of salutary and faithful counsel,— to remember and consider the ways of God, and the dispensations of his providence towards them, during the long period of their probationary sojournment. But these words, as they were applicable to the people of God in the days of old, and in the arid and inhospitable region which they traversed, so they are no less applicable to us, in the present state and age of the world. The deliverance of Israel from the house of bondage, their subsequent migrations, and their final settlement in Canaan, are a lively emblem, or rather, I should say, a series of emblems and representations of the state of a Christian, rescued from the bondage of sin, passing through the world of temptation and trial, and landing at last, after all the horrors and hardships of his pilgrimage, in heaven, the city of his rest, and the place of his everlasting abode. It is my design, in the present discourse, to trace out and illustrate the resemblance betwixt the passage of Israel through the desert and the progress of the Christian through the world. The features of this resemblance, indeed, are strongly marked, and must have often arrested the attention of the observant and reflecting mind. I. The first particular that strikes us, when we look into that portion of the Jewish history which relates to the residence of Israel in the wilderness, is the unsettled and shifting nature of their condition, and of every thing connected with it. When they effected the passage of the Red Sea, and entered on the desert, they were quite aware that it was not a land they were destined finally to possess, but a land in which it was intended only they should sojourn a while, in obedience to the divine ordination and command. In unison with this idea, and emblematical of their fleeting state, their habitations were but temporary erections, tents or booths, admitting of being taken down on every successive remove, and of being reconstructed at any time, and in any place, when and where the migratory tribes required to rest. The Arabian wilds, it may be remarked, had never been explored by the interesting people whose progress we are tracing, and consequently they were altogether unknown to them. Being alike unacquainted with the country and with astronomical science, there were no natural objects, either on the earth or in the heavens, that might be to them for landmarks, or for signs, to direct and lead them forward through those cheerless and monotonous scenes of wide extended desolation. But the want of such guides was amply supplied by the superintending care and providence |