particular regulations concerning the right of inhe ritance.

These things being determined, he received the Divine command to "get up into Mount Nebo," and there to leave a world of sin and care for a land of eternal rest. But the soul of Moses was still fondly set upon the good of perverse, rebellious, and ungrateful Israel. He was very desirous to conduct them into the good land, and he prayed earnestly to be indulged in that wish; but when he found that the word of the Lord was immutably fixed, he submitted to the Divine will, and only prayed that an able and pious leader might be appointed to succeed him.

According to his request, Joshua was appointed his successor, and Moses presented him to the high priest, to be consecrated to that important office "before all the congregation."

The few remaining days of this great man's life were spent in acts for the public good, in encouraging the people against the fear of their enemies, and charging Joshua to be stedfast in the important work to which he was consecrated.

Moses was also careful to provide for the future generations of Israel: he established a general release for the poor at the end of every seven years, on which great occasion the law of GOD was to be read before all the people. At this solemnity, which was intended to put an end to all feuds and jealousies, as well as to commemorate the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, the priests were directed to assemble together "the men and women, and children, and the strangers within their gates, that they might hear and learn to fear the Lord their God, and observe to do all the words of the law."

Having thus manifested his tender solicitude for the welfare of Israel, and provided the means of preserving among them the ordinances by which they were set apart from all other nations, Moses pro

nounced, in the hearing of the assembled tribes, a sublime ode or song.

What can equal the opening of this exquisite piece; "Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew; as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass; because I will publish the name of the Lord; ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the rock, his work is perfect; for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he."

A review is then taken of the mercies of God to the descendants of Jacob; and of their various provocations and rebellions. In the midst of this affecting detail, the feelings of the speaker were overpowered by the remembrance of the ingratitude and insensibility of the people around him, and in the fervour of piety he exclaimed, "O that they were wise, that they understood this; that they would consider their latter end!".

Before his final departure, Moses, like Jacob, predicted the future condition of the different tribes; and at the close, he describes in the loftiest terms the stability of their establishment in Canaan by the goodness and power of God.

"There is none like unto the GOD of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky. The eternal GOD is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms; and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee, and shall say, Destroy them. Israel then shall dwell in safety alone; the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew. Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people, saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon their high places."

When the man of GOD had taken his solemn and

affecting leave of the people, he ascended the mountain, and from Pisgah he beheld the fertile plains of Canaan. Though at the age of one hundred and twenty years, his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.

Having been gratified with a view of the promised land, and observed the portions which were to belong to the different tribes, the legislator of Israel closed his eyes on all worldly objects, and experienced

A death-like sleep,

A gentle wafting to immortal life.

The character of Moses is fully delineated in the various events of his life. Intrepidity and modesty, zeal and benevolence, wisdom and piety, appear to be the leading features; and the close of his career is a bright display of the exalted purity of his mind, in passing over his own family, and selecting an assistant and successor from another tribe.

The sacred writer who completed the history of Moses, has the following remarkable observation : "And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face." This is a plain reference to the promise delivered by Moses himself to the people, when he framed and published the particulars of the Levitical ritual: "The Lord thy God will raise up like upon thee a prophet from the midst of thy brethren like unto me: unto him shall ye hearken.'

This prediction was not fulfilled in Joshua; neither can it be said to have had its completion in any of the prophets under the Jewish polity, for none of them assumed a superior authority to Moses, or made an attempt to abrogate any part of his institutions. Now the declaration of Moses evidently points to such a change; and the time and occasion when he made it prove as much, for it was at the settling of the ceremonial law, and fixing the duties and powers of the priesthood.

While engaged in that judicial and legislative em

ployment, he suddenly broke off, and assumed the prophetical character, declaring that this part of his institution was to continue only till another leader should arise, whose laws and ordinances were to be obeyed in preference to those which were then enacted.

So clearly did this prophecy mark a limited duration to the law and authority of Moses, and point to a more powerful legislator, that the ancient Jews nade no scruple of grounding upon it their expectation of the Messiah.

By the coming of Christ the prediction of Moses was exactly fulfilled; for though under the new dispensation the moral law sustained no change, the ceremonial did; and since that period the Jewish nation has lost its power, sacrifices, and priesthood.

In the legislator of Israel we have another type of the blessed Redeemer; for as Moses rescued the chosen seed from the house of bondage, so Jesus hath broken the chains of our captivity, and hath brought us out of the prison-house, into the "liberty of the sons of GOD."

Moses fasted forty days and forty nights in the wilderness, and so did our Redeemer, when he was tried by the Tempter, and came off conquerer. Moses indeed could not lead the people into Canaan ; neither can the law bring any sinner unto God. Here then the Saviour rises superior to the Jewish legislator; for he not only conducts his church safely through the wilderness, but he will carry it triumphantly into heaven. "Thus the law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."

i 17.

John

BALAAM.

Slain by the Israelites Anno Mundi 2552.

A MEANER passion affects not the human heart

than an inordinate love of riches. Other evil propensities may be corrected by frequent disappointments, or become tiresome by too much indulgence: avarice, on the contrary, is checked by no impediments; but increases as wealth accumulates. It takes such fast hold of the mind, that when the senses decay, and a man totters on the brink of the grave, he still grasps his beloved mammon with eagerness, as though it were to be his god in eternity, as it has been in time. This debasing principle deadens every generous feeling, blunts the common sensations of humanity, renders the heart insensible to every tender impression, and has a direct tendency to destroy all regard for religious and social duty.

In the Scripture history we have numerous instances of the baneful effects of this passion, some of which we have already considered: but we are now to contemplate one which is peculiarly remarkable, as showing how far the love of gain will carry a man, even against the special warnings of Providence, the light of Divine inspiration, and the powerful convictions of his own conscience.

The Israelites, during their progress in the wilderness, excited no small uneasiness among those nations on whose borders they occasionally encamped. The wonders which had been wrought on their behalf in Egypt and the Red Sea were universally known, and filled the minds of those who heard of them with astonishment and dread.

A people so distinguished by heaven were not likely to continue always in an erratic state, and therefore the countries round them were afraid of falling