emphatic in their doctrines of holy orders is that th~ ·priest is easily made, his work eaHily clone, his claims easily &Hserted and enforcecl. But to make men prophets, or catch the inspiration of heaven, is not at all so easy. It takes a happy concurrence of gro.ce and nature, 11 "bridal of the earth and sky," to make him. Naturally, therefore, because the prophet's is a higher taste demanuing higher powers, the prophet rnnks before tlie prie&t. Lastly, observe as the conclusion of the above- , III. PROPHETS ARE THE GREAT WANT OF THIS AND EVERY AGE. True priests are invaluable: such o.s by their pity and their love are spontaneous, fervent intercessors for their fellow-men. We shoulcl covet to be such: whether in or out of "orders," we may belong to "the Royal Priesthoocl," whose mark is not an official garb, but a compassionate heart. But the great want is prophets-not prophets of the almanack sort, dealing with the curious questions of the future; but prophets of the Bible sort-pre-eminently engagecl with "present truth" ancl present duty. The great want of the age is not priests at the altar, but inspired men in all the pulpits of the land-men who, walking with God, can bring to us the trnth, the consolations, the requirements of God, with the authority of those who have learned from His lips what they address to our ears. Such men would speak " with autho- rity " which all would recognise without needing demonstration of it. Their lips would feed many. Their utterances would find or make a way :nto all hearts. And reason approving, the heart accepting, the conscience endorsing, all their words, the people of our land would become "obedient to the heavenly vision" and "walk in the light of the Lord." Not after formal authority of the priest, but after the living inspiration of the prophet, let us all aspire.-G. Vere. 19-24.-Memoriala. • The passage of the Jordan has been called a. "priestly miracle," e. nature.I event "turned into a miracle" by the historian for the sake of exalting the priestly office. We fail, however, to see that any such special prominence has been given to the priestly element. It is the ark that is the medium of the miracle-working power, the priests are but its servants and attendants. The ark, as the symbol and throne of the Divine presence, is the centre around which all the supernatural glory of the inciclent gathers. Indee,1, there is rather a notable suborclination of the priestly element at this period of Hebrew history. Joshua clid not belong to the priestly order any more than Moses did. There was no sacerdotal rule. The twelve men who gathered these memorial stones from the bed of the river were not priests, but men chosen by the tribes for that particular work. The priestly functions were not those most brought into prominence by these incidents. There is no sign of anything like undue homage being paid to the priesthood at that period, and even as regards the religion of the people it was, as Stanley says, "a part of the mechanism of that 1·eligion rather than its animating spirit." The raising of these stones, then, to commemorate the great evant that had just taken place, was the act of the whole people through their chosen representatives. Two piles of stones were raised : the one by direct Divine command, at Gilgal, where the Israelites rested for the night after the passage, and where they observed their first passover in the lo.nu of Canaan ; the other, apparently without Divine command, on the other side, at the spot where the feet of the priests first touched the brink of the flooded river. The words of Joshua present them in two lights before us : (1) As a memorial for the men of that genera- tion, ancl (2) as a means of instruction for their children. I. A MEMORIAL FOR THAT GENERATION. 'fhe wisdom of Goel is seen in the com- mand to raise such a memorial. It meets that weakness in hum11n uuture by which it comes to pass that the most sacred impressions are prone to die-the la:rse of time and the succeeding waves of circumstance obliterate them. i\Iost D1nne institutions have rested on this principle. God "set his bow in the cloud" as o. sign and pleclge of His faithfulness. 'fhe Sabbath was intended to quicken in men the sense of their Divine relo.tions and their longing for the" rest tlmt rcmaineLh." Tho passover and other feo.sts were to be "for memorials;" atlll when Christ sai,l to His disciples, "Do this in rememLre.nce of me," He asserted the same principle. 76 TRE BOOK OF JOSHUA. [cB, IV, 1-24,
T_he ~ign WRS to be a ~timt1;lus to spiritual apprehension and a help to faith. The history ?f the olden fames 1s full of examples of the way in which men, as by a nntnral mstmct, have sought to cre9:te ~or themselves some permanent record of the most momentous experiences of then· hfe, by the names they gavo to certain scenes, or by the erection of altars, &c. (Abraham at Mount Moriah "Jehovah Jireh " Gen. xxii. 19; Ja.cob at Bethel, Gen. xxviii. 18; Moses at Rephidim, Exod. xvii. 14; Snnrnel at Mrnpeh, "Ebenezer," 1 Sam. vii. 12). All memorials of this kind have their outlook towards the past and towards the future. They serve a double pur_pose ; they keep alive precio?s memories and awaken buoyant hopes, they· e:-c1te gratitude and _strength~n fatth .. We do well to set up such way-marks in the p1lgnmage of om hfe. Theu value lies not so much in the fact that they record the extraordinary-that which happened once and is not likely to happen again- but rather in the fact that they link the past with the fntw·e. They show us that through_ al~ change something abide~. O_ur nature is the sa.me in its needs, dangers, re~)ons1b1hties ; God 1s the sa.me m His loving regard for us and His powor to deh,·er. E,·ery pa.ssing experience of His grace is a pledge that He will not foil us in emergencies yet to come. Anything is good that deepens this impression, provokes to thankfulness, and rebukes distrust. The darkest passages in our history thns lea.ve benedictions behind them, are transformed into occasions of triumphant joy: ' " Ont of our stony griefs Bethels we raise,"