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"unto the utmost sea and the south." And last is the view directly south, beginning with "the plain of the Valley of Jericho" at hand, and extending down the bleak eastern shore of the Dead Sea, "unto Zoar," the city in which Lot found refuge when the guilty cities of the plain were overthrown.

How far the prophet may have been absorbed in his immediate impressions, we can of course only conjecture. Yet it is easy to think that, while surveying the scene, memory would busily recall the past, and prophetic anticipation dwell upon the future of this goodly land.

Nearly five hundred years after, Abraham, the Father of the Faithful, under the divine call, had entered the land; and of his sojourn in it, as also of that of Isaac and Jacob, Moses had himself written in his book of Genesis. And his eye now fell on the very localities hallowed by their presence and worship; how could he prevent the delights of memory? To the north-west he would behold the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim sheltering Shechem, in front of which he knew was "the Plain of Moreh," where Abraham, entering the land, first built an altar unto the Lord, and where afterward Jacob dwelt, with his family and his flocks, digging for them the well destined to yield its waters to remotest ages. A little to the south from here would be seen the heights of Bethel, near which the elder patriarch built his second altar to Jehovah; where subsequently he sojourned with Lot, until the strifes of their herdsmen divided them; and where, at a still later period, Jacob beheld the visions of God and found "the gate of Heaven." Mount Moriah, directly opposite, where Abraham had proved his faith in the matter of the sacrifice of the son of promise, was probably concealed from view by the intervening Mount of Olives; but the higher ridge of Bethlehem, a little farther south, near which Jacob had buried his beloved Rachel, must have risen conspicuously before him, beyond the wilderness of Judah; while the still loftier mountains enclosing Hebron and Macpelah, and the famed oak-grove of Mamre, with their manifold attractions, would long hold his contemplations as he looked to the more distant south.

Were such his memories, what may have been his anticipations? Shall we think that, gazing on the scene, he beheld the procession of coming ages marching across it; the ears of Judges and Kings, of Captivity and Restoration, of Grecian and Maccabean conflict, and of Roman Domination-these changing intime the map of the country-until, Messiah having come to His own and been rejected, Jerusalem, the glorious and golden, was trodden down of the Gentiles, the Jewish people were scattered abroad, and the Jewish religion made vital by Christianity.

And who shall say that he saw not still further. and that it grieved him sorely to see the "twelve tribes scattered abroad?" He would see those who had stood forth conspicuously in the very centre of the world-a Pharos, the light of which was reflected on the gloom of surrounding polytheism, superstition, and idolatry-the byword of the Gentiles-made to cringe and fawn before the haughty lords who called themselves Christians, made to endure a great fight of affliction, but amid all the scorn and contumely cast upon them, amid all the barbarities practised by their persecutors, still preserved-a bush burning with fire, but not consumed. It is asserted that the number of the Jews in these days answers very nearly to the number that left Egypt. They are scattered over the face of the earth. They have wandered on the banks of the Nile, by the waters of Babylon, by the Jordan, the Tiber, the Mississippi, the Thames; they have mingled, but have never united, with other nations; and if Moses saw in vision the dispersion of the Jews, he would see also their wonderful preservation—a preservation not to be accounted for except on the ground that they have still a mighty work to do. Moses, if he foresaw their trouble, would foresee their triumph. when a great restoration should be effected, and, looking upon Him they rejected, they would see in Him, in very truth, the King of the Jews-the Messiah whose day Abram saw and was glad.

CHAPTER V.

THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN.-FROM B.C. 1451 TO B.C. 1171.

Of the Seven Nations that Dwelt in Canaan-Joshua's Experience-Rahab and the Spies--The Passage of the Jordan-Capture of the City-Description of Jericho and the surrounding Neighbourhood-Defeat at Ai, but subsequent Success Gibeon-Great Battle and Discomfiture of the Amorites-The Division of the Land-Renewal of the Covenant-Death of Joshua-The Judges— Defeat of Sisera-Gideon-Lamps and Pitchers—Jephthah and his DaughterSamson.

No less than seven nations were dwelling in Canaan when the Israelites approached it. These had their fortified towns, their mountain-fastnesses, and in the plains their horses and chariots of iron. The invading Israelites possessed small experience of war, and were utterly destitute of war-horses and chariots, and of engines needed for the reduction of walled cities and fortresses. They were not so much an army as a people. Besides the fighting-men, there were women, and children, and cattle. And the problem of supporting these, without commissariat resources, seemed as difficult as that of conquering the country without stores or ordnance. Yet they were under divine guidance, and were executing a divine mission; and, exerting themselves to the best of their ability, they had promise of divine aid and of success. Joshua was their leader.

The experience of Joshua was something marvellous. He was, it appears, about forty years old when Moses and Aaron came into Egypt, and demanded of Pharaoh the liberation of his slaves. He knew all about the terrors of that cruel bondage, all the aggravating circumstances which surrounded it, and he must have seen the deadening influence which slavery always has on the human heart and mind, sinking its subjects into a listless, stagnant apathy. And Joshua was a witness of all the wonders wrought in the land, how plague had followed plague in rapid succession, until the first-born of Egypt were all smitten dead.