permitted him to view the land from the top of Mount Pisgah before he died; and he saw how rich and beautiful a country it was, and how happy and prosperous his countrymen would be when they had such a place as that to dwell in.

God promised to the children of Israel a rich land to live in-a land which should be flowing with milk and honey. And so has he also revealed to us, through Jesus Christ, a still better and happier land, which will be ours, if we do his will. In that country there will be no hunger, nor thirst, nor pain; there will be no languor nor weariness; and all tears will be wiped away from our eyes. There God will be manifested, and Christ will talk with those who have been his true disciples; and all will be love, and peace, and joy.

Let us labour then to enter into that blessed land. Let us not think that this earth is better than it, or that our hea

venly Father will fail of his promise. Let us not murmur and rebel against Him, as the children of Israel did; but let us trust in his great goodness, and strive always to do as he has commanded us. Thus shall we have peace at our death, and God will receive us into heaven, where we shall be happy for ever.

JOSHUA, THE LEADER OF THE ARMIES OF ISRAEL.

(The Book of Joshua, particularly chapters iii. iv. vi.)

AFTER Moses was dead, Joshua was the leader of the people of Israel. He was a good and a brave man, and the favour of God was with him, as it had been with Moses before him.

As the Israelites marched forward into the promised land of Canaan, they soon came to the river Jordan; and there was

no bridge for them to pass over; but Jehovah, their God, made them cross it in safety. Joshua gave orders to the priests to take the ark, or sacred chest, which contained the book of the law, and to pass on to the river. So they took the ark, and went before the people; and as soon as ever their feet touched the brink of the river, its waters parted asunder; those which came from above stood up like a heap, and those which were below failed, so that the people of Israel passed through on dry ground, as they had before passed through the Red Sea.

Then Joshua, by God's command, chose twelve men, one from each tribe, and ordered each of them to bring up a large stone from the bed of the river. These stones he set up in Gilgal, where the people lodged the first night: he set them up there, in order that it might be remembered how the Lord had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the

Israelites, till they had passed over-that all the people of the land might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, and that the Israelites might fear the Lord their God for ever.

When they had crossed the river Jordan, they came to the city of Jericho, and God told Joshua that he would give it into his hands; and he ordered that all the people should march round the city, and that the ark should be carried round also, and that seven priests should go before it, with trumpets of rams' horn; and that on the seventh day they should go round the city seven times; and that when the priests should blow their trumpets, the people should shout, and the walls of the city would then fall down before them.

Then they did as God had commanded them. The armed men went first, and then came the priests with their trumpets of rams' horn; and next came the ark, and after it the rest of the people.

In this way they all marched round the city, the priests blowing upon the trumpets; and, on the seventh day, instead of marching only once round it, they marched seven times; and as they were going round the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua commanded the people to shout, for that the Lord had given them the city. So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets; and the walls fell down flat, so that they went up into the city and took it.

Under the command of Joshua, the people of Israel conquered nearly all the wicked inhabitants of the land; and Joshua divided the land by lot among the twelve tribes, who were descended from the twelve sons of Jacob or Israel -except that Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph, were each considered as the head of a tribe, while the Levites, who were the priests, had no land given to them, but lived in cities in different