a command came from his Lord, he tells us, "Immediately we conferred not with flesh anrl blood." III. THE WITNESS TO VIR'.l'UE AND DUTY THAT IS MADE DY MILITARY MEN. Lord Nels~n's words ei:nbody the witness all soldiers make. We must work for, suffer for, and, 1f need be, die for, duty. "England expects that every man will do his duty," And in this time-serving, self-seeking, money-getting age we cannot afford to lose any agency which renders public witness to the fact that there is somethin"0 nobler than even life-it is duty. If it could be so that, in the world of the future, tho military genius was no longer needed, still even a world at peace would need the story of the heroic ages, and its witness to the dignity of endurance, obedience, promptitude sacrifice for a high idea, and above all to the paramount claicis of duty.-R. T. • Ver. 55.-The mission of the Kenites. This people is first mentioned in Gen. xv. 19, They were a nomadic tribe, and their principal seat seems to have been the rocky tracts in the south and south-west of Palestine, near the Amalekites (see Numb. xxiv. 21, 22). Jethro was a Kenite. J ael was wife of Heber the Kenite. Saul spared them in his expedition against the Amalekites (1 Sam. xv. 6). David maintained friendly relations with them (1 Sam. xxx. 29). The house of the Rechabites belonged to this tribe. The friendly feeling between the two tribes, based on tho conduct of the Kenites at the time of the Exodus (Exod. xviii. 10-19; Numb. x. 29-32), led to their intermixture and almost amalgamation with the Israelites-Kenite families not only dwelling among them, but being actually regarded as of one blood. Their semi- mc,nastic austerity is their chief feature. They preserved their nomadic life and customs even when dwelling in the midst of the cities of Israel. Dean Stanley thus pictures a colony of them, that of Heber, the husband of Jae\: "Between Razor, the capital of Jabin, and Kedesh-Naphtali, birthplace of Barak-each within :a day's journey of the other-lies, raised high above the plain of Merom, amongst the hills of N aphtali, a green plain. This plain is still and was then studded with massive terebinths. Underneath the spreading branches of one of them there dwelt, unlike the inhabitants of the surrounding villages, a settlement of Bedouins, living, as if in the desert, with their tents pitched and their camels and asses around them, whence the spot had ac- quired the name of 'The Terebinth,' or 'Oak,' of the 'Unloading of Tents.'" It is from this peculiarity of the Kenites that we learn their mission. L TREIB NOMADIC LIFE REMINDED IsnAEL OF Gon's MERCIES. For they had once been what the Kenites then were-a mere tribe or aggregation of tribes. But God had, in a most glorious and gracious way, made them a nation, and given them a land. &uch a reminder brought home to them the claims of Jehovah, and should have renewed their devotion and allegiance to him. Compare the witness made by the hermits in the times of the early Church. II. TREIB STRICT OBEDIENCE TO RULE REPROACHED JSRAEL FOR THE NEGLEOT OF THE coVENANT. They were loyal to the customs and rules of their founder, whatever disabilities such loyalty mi2:ht seem to entail. Illustrate by the story of testing thu Hechabites with the offer of wine, given in Jer. xxxv. Impress that we need still the witness of virtue and excellence in those who are not with us; who are among us, but not of our party. And in this we may see some good in the associatior. together in one nation of differing religious sects. Each may teach the others somo valuable lessons, and find effective expression of some essential virtuo. Our Lord, in his teachings, even ventured to draw lessons from the quick-witted example of the bad man. We may learn something of God and duty from all those with whom we are brought into even casual contact.-R. T.
EXPOSITION. birth, Hebron or Jerusalem: the remain CHAPTERIIL ing verses with the line of kings of hi1 Vers.1-9.-The whole of this chapter ill house to Jeconiah and Zedekiah (ver. 16). occupied with the descendants of David: the grandsons of Zerubbo.bel (ver. 21 ), and the first nine verses of it with his own sons, descendo.ntsofShecho.niah (ver. 24). To the classified o.ccording to the place of their seven years and six months (2 Saw. ii 11) en. m. 1-24.] 'l'I-IE FinST DOOK OF THE CHRO.N ICLES. 33