must have succumbed. The complete discomfiture of the powerful Ama.lek struck: terror into the hearts of the neighbouring peoples, a.nd induced them to leave Israel for nearly forty yea.re unmolested. 3. WONDERFUL. Amalek wa.s warlike, accustomed to contend with the great nation of the Egyptians; Israel ha.d ha.d a.11 warlike aspirations checked a.nd kept down by a.hove 400 years of servitude a.nd peace. Amalek was no doubt well armed; Israel can have possessed few weapons. .Amalek knew the country, could seize the passes, a.nd select a. fitting moment for attack; to all Israel, except Moses a.nd Aaron (eh. iv. 27), the country wa.s strange, the passes unknown, a.nd per- haps the very idea. of their being attacked unforeseen and unexpected. The attack actually ea.me close upon the great suffering from thirst, when Israel was "feeble" and "faint a.nd weary" (Deut. x.xv. 18). So signal a. mercy deserved special remembrance. Men soon forget the favours they receive a.t God's hands. That this favour might not be forgotten, God required two things: 1. That a record of it should be inserted in his book. There is no other memorial comparable with this, whether we consider the honour of it, since to obtain record there, a.n event must be indeed an important one; or the enduringness, since God's book will continue to the world's end; or the celebrity since it is read by all nations. And God's special co=and for the insertion, stamps the event with an extra mark of dignity. 2. That it should be handed on traditionally to Joshua, and through him to others. Tradition is one of the modes by which God ~aintains the knowledge of his truth in the world, and is a.t no time wholly super- seded by the written Word, since there are at all times persons in the world too young or too illiterate to have direct access to the Word, who must receive their religious instruction orally from teachers. Tradition alone would be a very unsafe guide; but tradition, checked by a book, is of no little value in enlarging the sphere of religious knowledge, and amplifying and rendering more intelligible the written record. To the two modes of securing continued remembrance of the defeat of .Amalek required by God, Moses added a third-the erection of a material monument, to which he gave a com- memorative name. Many victories have been thus co=emorated, a.s those of Mara- thon, Blenheim, Trafalgar, Waterloo, etc.; but no erector of such a memorial has ever given to his work su noble a.nd heart-stirring a name a.s Moses gave. "The Lord is my banner "-under no other standard will I serve or fight-no other leader will I acknow- ledge-no other lord shall have dominion over me. "The Lord is my banner"-under this banner I engaged .Amalek-he, and he alone, gave me the victory-through him, and him alone, do I look to discomfit my other enemies. Be the enemies material or Mpiritual, external or internal, to him only do I trust to sustain me against them. None other name is there under heaven, through whom salvation is to be obtained, the adversary baffled, .Amalek put to confusion.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS .AUTHORS. Vers. 8-16. Ohrist our Banner.-" J ehovah-Nissi." Ex. xvii. 15. Historical introduction: The .Ama.lekites-their territory-reasons why they barred Israel's way. 1. Fear. 2. Religious animosity-incidents of the engagement-the two memorials, book and altar-judgment pronounced on .Amalek, and why-the slow execution through the centuries, ending in the final blotting out of the nation. "'l'he counsel ot the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations." Show further that the rod of Moses wa.s in reality the banner of Israel; the pole of a. banner without drapery, affording a rallying-point for Israel's armies, a memorial of past achievement, a force therefore, a. guide, an appeal to neaven, an earnest of victory. By that ban_ner Israel conquereu. Hut again, as with the water and the rock we ascended to the First Cause of all refreshments, so here we ascend beyond the rod-banner to the Real Cause and Giver uf all victory, i.e., to Jehovah, i.e., to Christ. I. ALL m THE WILDERNJsSS MUST FIGHT.-ln the moral wilderness there are only two great hosts (on this division into two only, see most valuable and suggestive paper in Dr. James Martineau's "Hours of Thought" on "The Soul's Forecast of ltetribution.") Am::ilek and Israel, pilgrims going to the heavenly country, and children of the desert that withstand their way. 1. Amalek cannot let Israel alono-1f of the world we must fight-for there seems a certain constraint that will not permit us to lca,·c the truth, 7G THE DOOS: OF EXODUS. [cu. xvn. 8-IG.