Yer. 20.-Delusive trust. "The wall fell down flat." A strong city besieged; yet no trenches opened, no batteries erected agaipst it, no engines of assault em- ployed. Armed men in two divisions, separated by the ark o.nd priests who precede it, compass the city once e. do.y in silence, save for the sound of the horns Llowu by the seven priests. After six days the marching commences early in the morning, and the circuit is completed seven times, when the priests blow e. long peculiar blast, the whole host upraises a loud cry, o.nd behold the wall of Jericho, with its lofty battlements, totters and falls, The joyful soldiers, in perfect order, rush triumphantly into the city, o.nd put to the sword the dismayed inhabitants. Many days have these inho.Litants wondered at tbe strange method in which they are besieged. Fearing the Isro.elites, they have remained behind the shelter of their fortifico.tions, and wo.ited to receive their foes' o.ttack, and lo I in e. moment they are laid bare to a merciless onslaught. History is instructive; it contains lessons for all ages. Let us try and reo.d some lessons written clearly on the prostro.te walls of Jericho. I. Vl'e are reminded of THE INSECURE DEFENCES ON WRICH MANY RELY. All men are not unmindful of the il1B of life to whi-ch they are exposed ; mo.ny distinctly recognise the fact that the castle in which they dwell is, or soon may be, surrounded by foes. But o.gainst these they have me.de preparation, o.nd are confident of their aLility to resist the most impetuous o.ttack. A store of wee.Ith has been accumu- lated to guard against poverty; and to be the centre of e. group of friends will surely prove an adequate security against the invasion of loneliness or melancholy. Alas! Low unstaLle are the foundations on which rest the hopes of men. Succes- sive losses reduce the millionaire to beggary ; and remove.ls and deaths strip the gayest man of the company in which he delighted. " After summer evermore succeeds Barren winter, with his wrathful, nipping cold." Lest a good mo.n should be forgotten, we erect e. tablet "in lasting memory," and ere a year has elapsed a fire consumes it to ashes. II. THE SUDDENNESS WITH WRICH TRUSTED DEFENCES ARE CAST DOWN. Often there is little warning prior to the co.tastrophe, scarcely the rumbling that prece~es an earthquake. FeastiDg o.mid splendour, the handwriting is seen on the wall, wh!le the enemy is enteriDg the city by the dry bed of the riv~r. The he~d of a family laL0uring to provide for its wants is stricken down by disease or accident, o.nd the strong arm which kept the foe o.t bay is suddenly powerless. III. THE BEASON OF THE DESTRUCTION IS SOMETIMES TO BE FOUND IN THE FA0'l OH. VI. 22-27.] THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. 107
THAT MEN WERE FIOIITING AGAINST GOD. Hitherto we have comidered the general lot without distinction of persons. All are subject to a reverse c,f fortune ; " There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked." Yet the author of this last clause remarks, " Surely I kuow it shall be well with them that fear God ; but it shall not be Wflll with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days,-which a.re as a shadow, because he feareth not God." The downfall of the seemingly impregnable fortifi- cations of Jericho was due to the might of Jehovah fighting on behalf of His people. It was a strife between true religion and idolatry. And to-day, whilst "all things work together for good to them that love God,'' the troubles \vhich beset the ungodly may be intended as correctives or judgmenta. We cannot be oblivious of modern instances where the thunderbolt of Divine wrath has fallen on guilty nations and individuals. The hand of the Almighty can be as truly traced as in the sudden overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah. His day comes upon men "like a thief in the night," and just when the wall of defence is most '1),eeded does it fall, leaving the inhabitant a prey to terrible assault. If the vessel's unseaworthiness wern discovered in the harbour, what mattered it? but to find it out on the tempestuous ocean, this is misery indeed. Call to mind Voltaire's wretched lament upon his deathbed, that popular applause could then do naught to help him : "I have swal- lowed nothing but smoke ; I have intoxicated myself with the incense that turned my head." Happy may we count ourselves when God exerts His power, and shows us the penetrable character of our security, while yet there is time to seek a remedy. Did not Paul rejoice that the bright light from heaven revealed the darkness in which he had been travelling, and that the "knowledge of Christ" completely over- came his old self-righteous ideas? His boasted privileges and conformity to law yielded at the first breath of the words of Christ, and Christianity, defied so arro- gantly, reigned •within his breast. Perhaps, 0 Christian, thou wast rating too highly some of the pleasures of earth, refined though they were, and in mercy thou hast been at a stroke deprived of them I IV. Tim IRRETRIEVABLE DESTRUCTION which God effects. The walls of Jericho were not rebuilt, at lee.st by the inhe.bitants; and on the man who in after-years presumptuously endeavow-ed to act in defiance of the threat of Joshua was seen a terrible fulfilment of prophecy. The temple of Jerusalem is another exa.mple of lasting ruin. But in the spiritual realm it is no matter for regret that a curse rests upon the reconstruction of a wicked security. The obstacle to the admission of the Saviour into the heart once surmounted should never again be built up. The hold of the world once loosened should never be allo.wed to environ us again. Never can the how- in which the utter defencelessness of the soul was reo.lised be blotted out of the book of memory; and all the after-lessons which stern experience has taught us are indelibly imprinted upon the mind. The uprooting of ow- affections caused by the loss of a loved one; the failure of friendship in the time of exigency; the sickness that dismissed the shows of life and confronted us with the realities of eternity: these events have burnt themselves into our very beiug, and are become part of ourselve~. To bring the matter to a practical issue, ask, Where do we place our trust? Is it not wisdom to ohoose as our refuge the unchanging God ; not to tru~t any arm of flesh, bnt to rest in the mercy and love of the Eternal? Not to structures which human skill erects, but to the everlQ,sting hills will we look for aid. "As the mountains are round about Jernsalem, so the Lord is round about his people."-A.