these imaginary deities were under the control of the God of Israel, and could be employed by him at his pleasure.

It is a history which teaches us the power of that God whom we serve; the wisdom of securing the protection and favour of him who governs all worlds, and can change the course of nature at his sovereign pleasure; and the efficacy of faith in him.

I have not time to trace, step by step, the conquests of Joshua. Victory constantly attended him, because the Lord fought for Israel." Frequent. confederacies were destroyed; the strongest cities were taken; thirty-one kings were defeated and slain. In the whole history, we see the faithfulness of God to his promises; and should learn to dismiss all undutiful fears and unbelieving despondency, if we are interested in the covenant that was ratified by Him of whom Joshua was the type. And on the contrary, if we have hitherto been unaffected by his threatenings, and have abused his long-suffering, we should learn, in the tremendous displays of his vengeance upon the Canaanites, the impossibility of finally escaping his punishment, if we continue impenitent; and the dreadful woes that shall crush the sinner when he has filled up the measure of his iniquities.

When at last Joshua could lay down the sword, we behold him as great in peace as he was in war; no less admirable as a magistrate than he had been illustrious as a general. He divided the country by lot, according to the divine injunction, among the different tribes of Israel. Having undergone so many labours, performed so many illustrious exploits, been exposed to so many dangers, he was certainly authorized to demand some splendid por

tion in a country to the conquest of which he had so much contributed: he contented himself with Timnath-Serah, a barren spot in the tribe of Ephraim. He regulated the civil government; he caused the tabernacle to be reared with great solemnity at Shiloh; he showed the utmost zeal and fervour in the concerns of religion; he dismissed the two tribes and a half who were about to return to their possessions beyond Jordan, with that devout spirit which appears in all his conduct: "Take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the Lord charged you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul."

Of the events in the life of Joshua for some succeeding years, there is no record, except in the book of God's remembrance. There doubtless are inscribed many acts of piety and devotion that will be announced to us in the last great day, and that through eternity will be joyfully remembered by him. His last days harmonized with the faith, the dependence upon God, the zeal for the divine glory, the love of Israel, which were displayed during his whole life. At the advanced age of one hundred and ten, when he was daily looking for his departure from earth, he twice assembled the elders, rulers, and people of Israel; and, in his farewell address to them, points out the mode in which their felicity may be established upon the firmest foundations, and extended to the remotest posterity. Behold this veteran warrior, this patriotic statesman, venerable for his years and his hoary locks, venerable for the scars which he has acquired in his country's service,

more venerable for the piety and virtue which ennobled him; behold him surrounded by the thousands of Israel. Age, which has bent his body to the ground, has not chilled the warmth of his attachment towards his God and his people. With an energy and feeling which gratitude inspires, he retraces to the Israelites the long course of miracles which God had wrought in their favour since the time of Abraham; he recalls to them the wonders performed in the wilderness; he shows them how God had fulfilled his promises; he places before their eyes the mercies they may yet expect from the divine munificence, if they continue obedient, and the woes they must endure if, after such favours, they prove ungrateful. Having presented to them these powerful motives, he adds, to show that God accepts only voluntary homages, “Choose you this day whom you will serve." "As for me," my choice is already made, and nothing can induce me to change it; "as for me, and my house, we will serve the Lord."

The people were deeply affected by the address made by Joshua in circumstances so solemn. At his request, they sealed their vows, by entering into an express covenant with the Lord. He himself, shortly after, passed to glory; and it is recorded to his praise, that " Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua.”

Happy those, who, after a life devoted to God, can look to death with the complacency of Joshua. when he cried, "I am, this day going the way of all the earth;" who like him, in their last hours, can counsel and encourage their surviving friends to cleave to the Lord; who with their dying voice can

testify that the Master whom they have served is faithful and gracious; that all his promises have been fulfilled; and that "not one good thing has failed." Would we thus finish our course with joy? we must, then, devote our days to God; cultivating the temper that Joshua displayed, we shall, both in life and death, enjoy happiness, and benefit those that are around us.

SERMON XXIX.

LIFE OF RUTH.

RUTH i. li. iii. iv.

THE domestic circumstances of a small family are under the watchful care of providence as well as the fates of mighty nations. The neediest widow is as really an object of the paternal government of God as a sinking realm. The hand of the Lord may appear to us more full of majesty when it regulates the rise and fall of extended countries, but not more full of love than when it wipes the tears from the eyes of the afflicted widow. The one exalted and gracious

ruler of the universe attends to the smallest as well as
the greatest events. As nothing is so vast as to be
beyond his control, so nothing is so minute as to es-
cape
his observation. These truths, so consolatory
to the heart, and so abundantly confirmed by reason
and observation, are perpetually recalled to us while
we retrace the histories recorded in the scripture,
and by few more strikingly than by the history of
Ruth.

Under one of the earliest of the judges that ruled Israel there was a famine in the land. It drove many of the Israelites from their once fruitful country, and obliged them to seek bread in the neighbouring lands. Among these was Elimelech, of the princely house of Nahshon, an inhabitant of Bethlehem, that spot, interesting to the pious for so many reasons; for the sepulchre of Rachel, for the hymns which David here chanted, and which still animate the devotion of believers; for the song of the angels, when they descended to felicitate the earth upon the birth of the Saviour; and for the incarnation of our adorable Saviour. From this place Elimelech went with his wife and two sons, into the adjoining land of Moab, to rescue himself and his family from hunger. If at all times it is painful to leave our native land, it was peculiarly so for a pious Israelite, since he passed from the country where alone the true God was known and worshipped. But, doubtless, the heart of Elimelech, if, as is probable, he was a good man, like that of David, when he was in the tents of Kedar, in the city of Gath, or in Ziklag, was often directed to the sanctuary of the Lord. Ah! christians, are we as grateful as we should be for those ordinances of religion which we so abundantly enjoy, while so many countries are still unvisited by the heavenly light