he had gone preaching the kingdom of God should see his face no more. But the certainty of this approaching separation made him more anxious to acquit his soul in this last opportunity for the exercise of zeal, fidelity, and affection. "I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God. Take heed therefore, unto yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood." Shall not he then, who humbly aims at the same mind which was in Christ Jesus, glory in bearing the last testimony to his Saviour's goodness, and in impressing upon all around him the sacred and weighty obligations with which the unmerited goodness of God has charged them.

I. Consider then, the blessedness of Joshua's EXPERIENCE. These things of which he spake were not cunningly devised fables. He, and they whom he addressed knew in all their hearts and in all their souls the truth and certainty of every declaration. When he left Egypt, with the host of Israel, the future seemed to him, to Moses, and to all the camp like the prospect of a distant country, magnificent in character, and alluring in promise; which yet was separated

by rocks and mountains, and desarts of sand, that might perhaps prove too formidable to be passed. The case was now altered. The ground was traversed, the difficulties overcome, the dangers escaped, the land reached, and trembling hope exchanged for delightful reality.

(1.) At the very outset of their miraculous career, God had promised them deliverance from the bondage and misery of the land of Egypt.1 Did he then alter the thing that had gone forth out of his mouth; or did not the event verify the declaration? Their deliverance was wrought, not by a simple act of power, but by a series of miracles, more stupendous than any that had been witnessed since man was made upon the earth. They had been brought forth from the iron yoke and heavy bondage of their oppressors, with a mighty hand and with a stretched out arm. The generation indeed so delivered had sinned presumptuously, and perished in the wilderness, except Joshua, Caleb, and the younger followers of the camp: but the whole astonishing transaction was written upon their memories, as with a sunbeam, and could not be forgotten. There was a time, when the dying Christian, whose testimony to the fidelity of God we are now considering, lay "tied and bound

'Exod. iii. 8, 17.

with the chain of his sins," unable to deliver himself, and looking around him, with an anxiety that would have assumed the character of despair, if the Holy Spirit had not translated him from the darkness of such a state, into the light of the gospel; and from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Redemption visited him through the death of Christ, even the forgiveness of sins. Vainly, however, would this ransom from the penalty of transgression have been given in his behalf, if it had been possible, that he should continue enslaved to the love or practice of iniquity. But whom the God of mercy justifies from the punishment of sin, he sanctifies from its power. The gracious call was heard and obeyed, "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." He followed the divine guide, as Peter followed the angel who led him forth from prison. Sin had no longer dominion over him, because he was not under the law, but under gruce. Becoming the freeman of the Lord, and a new creature in Christ Jesus, he cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light. He delighted in that service which is perfect freedom, and in that warfare to which he was solemnly vowed, against sin, the world, and the devil. Often indeed had he felt the returning

power of the enemy who once held him in slavery. But, in these dark moments, the power of the Holy Ghost, and of his Almighty Saviour permitted him not again to be brought under the yoke of Satan. His renewed and sanctified nature pants for an entire deliverance; and longs for the arrival of that blessed hour, when, purified in the blood of Christ from the slightest taint of evil, and with every affection of his soul hallowed from the prevalence, or even from the presence of one pollution, to obscure its lustre for a moment, as the passing breath obscures the mirror, he shall dwell in the presence of a holy God, and among the spirits of just men made perfect. That hour is swiftly approaching and from the dying bed, whence he shall arise to meet it, he remembers the true sayings of God in the oracles of life. He compares the promises they contain, with the record of his own experience; and what is the conviction irresistibly impressed upon his mind? God is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it, or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good?

(2.) The divine promise included guidance and provision through the wilderness. Little would have been gained towards final deliverance, if the chosen tribes had been conducted

out of Egypt, and then cast forth upon the waste and howling desert, that lay between the land of captivity and the land of promise, and abandoned to their own resources. They were however, assured of every needful supply, and of infallible direction to pursue their dangerous way. How well and amply these pledges had been redeemed, their experience could testify. The Red Sea had been passed. The pathless mazes of the desert had been made plain. God had led the blind by a way that they knew not; he had made darkness light, and crooked things straight before them. Bread from heaven, and water from the bosom of the rock had sustained them. Their raiment had not grown old, neither were their feet swollen during forty years: and now the plenty of Canaan supplied every want, in unfailing abundance. This experience will have its parallel in the recollections of a dying Christian. He was called forth from the house of bondage: but instead of being then left to himself, like a vessel launched upon the pathless ocean without rudder, or chart, or compass, or instruments to discover the height of the sun, or the position of the stars,—a state in which he must have made shipwreck of faith and of a good conscience, God supplied all his need. The word of salvation in the Bible was a light to his feet, and a lantern to his paths.