would hnve been renl truth In it, if a. fomily could be called a. nation. "Israel" went into Egypt "three score and ten souls" (Gen. xlvi. 27); Israel ea.me out of Egypt a untion born, that night of the Passover-I\ vast separate nation, a peculiar people. 1-Iezekia.h'e celebmtion of the Passover, therefore, at this time sug"gested to every feeling and instinct of honest national love and pride tha.t king, priests, and people should live worthily of thoir origin, raise the fortunes and restore the glory of the nation that had so greatly declined (ver. 6). If, 'fHE VIVID MEMORIAL OF THE GREAT DELIVERANCE WHICH GOD WROUGHT FOR BIB PEOPLE, FROM BORE BONDAGE, UNDER CinGUMSTANCES OF AN EXTRAORDINARY NATURE. The power and the pity of God were alike demonstrated by the rescue of the hosts of Israel from the miclet of Egypt, His pity heard their groanings, his power subdued their oppressors. Of such things as these the people n€eded at this time the teaching and the inspiriting influences. Every observance of the Passover was a com- memoration and rehearsal of this great deliverance, and suggested the long and thick succession of Divine interpositions during a period of now nearly eight centuries. III. lloTH THE OUTCOME AND THE FOUNDATION OF A COVENANT. The Passover marked a foregoing/aith and obedience on the part of Moses, Aaron, and all the houses of the rescued, and it inferred an unending continuance of the Ra.me, so often as they should be called for on special occasions, as well as for the rule of every day's life. Upon these conditions being met on the one side, God's great deliverance and his continued protection took effect on the other side. Upon this practical aspect it is evident that Hezekiah laid great stress (vers. 7-9). 'l'he remembrance of the saving of all the first- born of the Hebrews, by the side of the slaying of all the firstborn of the Egyptians, both man and beast, was fitted to be a most powerful incentive of loyalty to him who had thus bought a people to himself most significa!!tly. This was an inevitable memory of the sprinkled blood of the Paschal lamb in every celebration. IV. 'l'HE FORESHADOWING OF THE ONE ETERNAL SACRIFICE. For the devout Hebrew, the Israelite who was "an Israelite indeed," even in these most degenerate days of the nation, the Passover must have taken a leading share among all other sacrifices, in teach- ing and shadowing forth "the 11;ood things to come; " the "better hope;" the "better covenant; " the "better sacrifices" (Heb. vii. 19, 22; viii. 6; ix. 23). 'l'he "fore- shadowing" itself was indeed plain and powerful, which used such a designation for the central fact of all the observances of the Passover, as "my sacrifice" (E:s:od. :s:xiii. 18; xxxiv. 25); and nothing can be deducted from our estimate of the meaning of snch passages, and generally of the typical virtue of the whole celebration, when we remember the language of St. Paul respecting "Christ our Passover" (1 Cor. v. 7). The faith of the people of Israel and their sacrament were looking forward to this Passover, as our faith and our sacrament look back to it, and of a truth ever upward! The sugges- tions that St. Paul awakes within us by the fulness of the last-quoted verse, as ,vell as the time and all the circumstance of the death of Christ, compel us indeed to see in the entire features and services of the completed Passover the type of our One sacrifice and our second sacrament I The peace offering, the thank offering, the solemn dedica- tion of ourselves, as "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation," the unbroken "unity of the body" (Exod. xii. 46; John xix. 36), the "keeping; of the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth," and all the sacred, unbounded eucharistic enjoyments of that foast,-in a word, the need of deliverance, the Deliverer, and our joyful acknowledgment of the same, are all outlined for us in the Hebrew's Passover, and according to the measure of his faith and illumination were once all outlined for him, even in Hezekiah's time and celebration.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vere. 1, 10, 11.-Letters to Ephraim: generosity. Hezekiah now took a very bold and decided course. There had been no direct dealings between the king or court of Judah and the people of Ephraim (Israel) since the kingdom of David was rent in twain. If we understand that this action was taken in the first year of his reign, while Hoshea was on the throne of Samaria, it certainly was bold even to audacity, and was calculated to rouse the resentment of that ruler. If, however, we hold (with Keil and 364 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLE!:!. [on. xxx.1-27,