I am, o.nd beeide me there ie none. How ehe ie become desolate I A resting-place for wild beasts 1 Every one the.t paseeth by her shall hies, He shall shake bis head." T"·o facts are suggested. J. THAT MEN ARE OFTEN PRONE TO PRIDE THEl[SELVES ON THE GREATNESS OF THEIR COtn."TRY. The men of the city of Nineveh-the capital of Assyria-were proud of their nation. It is called the "rejoicing city," and represented as saying, "I am, an<l there is none beside me." This was the voice of the population. '!'here was much in the city or Nineveh to Mcount for, if not to justify, the exultant spirit of it~ population. It was the metropolis of a vast empire; it was a city sixty miles in compass, it bad walls a hundred feet high, aud so thick and strong that three chariots could be driven abreast on them; it had twelve hundred massive towers. The boasting spirit of the men of Nineveh concerning the grandeur of their country is by no means uncommon; it beats in the hearts of modern nations. Italy, Austria, Ger- many, America, England, each says in its spirit, 11 I am, and there is none beside me." Nations are egotistic, they exult in their own greatness, they sing their own praises. This spirit of national boasting is unjustifiable. '!'here is nothing in a nation of which it should be proud, except moral excellence; and, alas I how little moral excellence there is in the most virtuous kingdom of the earth! On the contrary, how much ignorance, sensuality, worldliness, intolerance, impiety, that should humble us in the dust! It is, moreover, afoolish spirit. It is a check to true national progress, and its haughty swaggerings tend to irritate other countries. II. TH.AT THE GREATEST COUNTRY MUST SOONER OR LATER FALL TO RUIN, "He will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria," etc. This great city, peopled with pompous boasters, became a receptacle for beasts. "Flocks shall lie down in the midst of her," etc. "All the beasts of the nations: both the cormorant [the pelican] and the bittern [the porcupine] shall lodge in the upper lintels of it." The wild grim birds that haunt all ruins. Not only a receptacle for beasts, but a <lerisioo to travellers. "Every one that passeth by her shall hiss, and wag his hand." Such was the doom that c-ame on this great city when Cyaxares and Nabopolassar, 600 years B.c., struck it down. This is the fate that awaits all the nations under heaven, even the greatest. Egypt, Syria, Babylon, Rome, Greece, have risen, pros- pered, and decayed. The symptoms of decay are man~fest in many of the gr~ndest nations of Europe. The more tboughtfol amongst us discover those symptoms lil th_e life of our Eno-land. Eno-land has nothino- more to become, they say; the plum 1s overripe, and it must rot; the tree has exhausted all its latent vitality, and it must wither; the sun has passed the meridian, and it must go down. 'fboughtfu\ men point to the sad lack of capa.cit.y in our statesmen, the unsc~upulous greed_ of our traders, the grumbling of onr artisans, the weakuess of our pulpits, the haughtmess of our ecclesiastics, the hollowness of our religion, the infide~ities of our scientists, the diminution of our revenue and the increase of our pauperism, the arrogance of one class and the :fl.un.keyism of another, pampered indolence here and ~tarv:ing toil there, jobbny in politics, swindling in commerce, cant in religion, and strikes Ill trade,-and say these are unmistakable marks of national corruption.-D. T.
EXPOSITION. Filthy; rather, rebelliolJ.8, i.e. against God. CHAPTER III. The LXX., mi,taking the word, renders, Vere. 1-5.-§ G. The prophet turn,1 to brupa11f,r, "note.ble." !So the Syriac. Jerome has provocatri:i:. The true sense is seen Jerusal,em, and warn, her that, if God by the expansion of the term in ver. 2. p,muheB the heathen, he will not ,pare the Polluted by her many sins. Jerome, follow- hardened ,inner• in Judah. ing the Septuagint a.1rol\.,A.1rrpc,iµh11, "ran- Ver. 1.-Woe to her! This is a.ddressed somed," has, redempta, which he exple.in~, t<J Jer11Salem, as is seen by vers. 2~. " Capti vitatiuus tradita, et rursum re- OU, Ill, 1-20,] THE BOOK OF ZEPHANI.AH. 49