grace of God, both to will and to do. When he takes up his stand on the sure ground of faith, when he has put before his eyes as his goal the honour and glory of his redeeming Lord, how secure is his station, how certain his victory. He stands not indeed alone. He is but one of an innumerable invincible army. For he stands in the array of the host of the Church of God. He is surrounded by its invisible army of saints. The trumpet of the martyrs and confessors is sounding in his ears. The voice of his great Captain of salvation is cheering him on. Let him in spirit call around him this glorious company, this holy confederacy. Let him cast aside with indignation all unworthy compliances with a selfish and grovelling world, and surely knowing, and deeply feeling whose soldier he is, he will in body and in spirit defy all its banded powers, will march boldly to the conflict, and, like the generous warhorse, cry Ha! ha! at the sound of the trumpet.

EZRA,

B. c. 467.

CONSIDERED in an historical view, the Old Testament conveys the revelation of God's secret working in the moral world. The veil is taken off from the engines of his awful energy. Hence every act narrated is the embodied expression of the whole class of the acts of God's providence to the end of the world, just as in a book of natural history, is given the pictured individual animal to illustrate, and represent all the undelineated members of its class. Among these illustrative events however, is one, which at first sight, seems contrary to what has ever been held to be an universal rule, namely, that no nation, having run its career of progress and decline, and fallen at last through its viciousness, has ever risen, or will ever rise again. But the facts, when looked into, only prove the certainty of the rule. The re-establishment of the Jewish nation was through the special interference of God, and the impossibility of a nation being renewed to repentance, so universally true, was in this particular instance annulled by God. The Jewish nation started afresh with all the innocence and vigour of an infant state. The single-minded obedience of the days of Abraham was renewed, and after his example, princes, and priests, and people

quitted with joy the ease, the comfort, the connections, the civilization of the land of their birth, and exchanged it for the peril, the unsettledness, the barbarism of the land of their fathers. After a vexatious delay of twenty years, the Temple at last was completely rebuilt and dedicated, and the labours of the prince Zerubbabel, the high-priest Jeshua, and the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, who were unwearied in stimulating the work, were finally rewarded. But although the main object (which was no less than the visible re-establishment of the Church of God) had been happily accomplished, very much still remained to be done. The laws had to be reestablished, the people to be instructed, the priests to be arranged in regular courses of duty. This part was reserved for Ezra, to whom his grateful countrymen assign the honour of a second founder, and put | down next to Moses in the list of the upholders of their polity.

Ezra was of a sacerdotal family, and of the house of Aaron. Among his nearer ancestors he numbered the high-priest Hilkiah, who restored the lost word of God in the reign of Josiah, and Seraiah', also high-priest, who suffered martyrdom at the hands of the king of Babylon, when he burnt the Temple 2. Thus he had every incitement and generous motive which splendour of ancestry can bestow. He therefore gave himself up with all diligence to the study of that law which his forefathers had maintained with such zeal, and resistance even unto blood. He became a ready scribe in it, and was therefore properly

1 Ezra vii. 1.

22 Kings xxv.

entrusted by the Persian king, with the conduct of a second body of returning Jews, and commissioned to settle on a permanent footing the civil and religious constitution of the country. It was indeed time. Fifty-seven years had elapsed since the completion of the Temple. And yet the nation could scarcely be said to be restored. The powers granted to Ezra were very ample. He had authority to appoint magistrates, and judges, and the infliction of capital punishment, even to death. He took with him a great quantity of silver and gold, to which not only the captive Jews, but even the king and his councillors largely contributed, expressly offering to the God of Israel. He was furnished also with vessels for the service of the Temple, some of which, perhaps, had belonged to the former house, and were now on their return with the people. Having completed his preparations, he quitted Babylon in the beginning of Spring, and in about a week joined the caravan which he had appointed to assemble on the river Ahavah1. Here he spent three whole days in reviewing the people. He found but two families of priests, and to his grief and dismay not one of the Levites. With much difficulty and entreaty he prevailed upon some families to accompany him. This unwillingness of the sacred tribe arose, no doubt, from the consideration, that they could have no portion in the land, but must depend upon tithes, the receipt of which could not but be precarious in an unsettled country. This obstacle was but imperfectly met by the king excusing the whole tribe of

1 Probably a tributary to the Euphrates. It cannot now be identified.

Levi from tribute. Here too he delivered into the custody of the priests all the silver and gold, and vessels for the Temple. He then proclaimed a fast, that they might humbly entreat their God for guidance and protection. What an inestimable treasure would have been an account of the reflections of Ezra on this occasion. He was a scholar of celebrity in the history, and laws, and religion of his country. And now he was on his way to the land of his fathers, to the spots which were painted in his imagination in glowing colours, and associated with most heartstirring events. He was going to breathe the same air, to look on the same scenes, to drink from the same wells, and rivers, to have all the same outward impressions as Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Samuel, and David, and Solomon; and Jerusalem, and Hebron, and Jordan, and Hermon, all the cities, and rivers, and mountains, sanctified by some work of God's mercy, rose to his mind. He was even proceeding to tread in the very track which Abraham had made when he first entered the land. But then he bethought him, that he should every where meet with ruins, and monuments of God's wrath executed upon his fathers. He would find their very tombs rifled. Yet from these mournful thoughts he could turn to themes of overpowering joy. He was going to restore the civil and religious polity of his country, and this was in effect to restore the visibility of the kingdom of heaven upon earth. He was bringing back from captivity and abeyance the prophecies, the sacrifices, the people which were to announce, and to give the Redeemer to mankind. He was bringing all mankind out of spiritual captivity, he was carry