the country of the Moabites will be locally affected in this grand catastrophe, we know not as yet. Again, there follows one of those prophetic songs, which exhibit to us what will be the expectations and trials of God's people in these last times.

1. In that day,

Shall this song be sung in the land of Judah:

We have a strong city,

Salvation shall he substitute for wall and rampart.

This is, I believe, explained by parallel passages, to denote that the Jerusalem attacked by the last foe is unfortified, and rests for protection on divine aid alone.

2. Open ye the gates that the' nation may enter; He is' righteous, he will keep the promises.

3. The covenant' will be maintained; thou wilt ordain peace, Peace, because they have trusted on thee. "

4. Trust ye in Jehovah for ever,

For in Jah Jehovah is an everlasting fence.

2

5. Surely he hath humbled those that dwell on high, He will bring down the exalted city.

He will bring her down to the ground,

He will level her with the dust.

6. The foot shall trample her,

The feet of the meek, the steps of the poor.

7. A way for the just one is rightly prepared,'

THOU wilt level a path for the just one.'

8. Ah! in the way of thy judgments we have waited for thee, O Jehovah!

Thy name and the record of thee 'is' the desire of our' soul.

All this, no doubt, expresses what, at that awful and eventful season, will be the hopes and encouragements of the waiting people of Christ, of restored Jerusalem especially, at least of a remnant there, contemplating the preparations of her great adversary, but at the same time remembering the promises.

9. My soul hath desired thee in the night,

And my spirit within me seeketh thee with the dawn.

Surely, when thy judgments are on the earth,

The inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness!

Such is the charitable surmise and prayer of the pious. But no; no kindness, no lenity, no forbearance of the Almighty, can accomplish this renovation of a guilty world. The Judge must be manifested with his fiery vengeance: nothing else will stop their hatred and their rage against his cause and his people.

10. Should favour be shown to the wicked, he would not learn righteousness.

In the land of uprightness he would deal unjustly:

11. He would not regard the majesty of Jehovah;

O Jehovah! were thy hand lifted up, they would not see.

They shall see thy' jealousy for thy' people, and be confounded;

Ay, a fire shall consume thine adversaries.'

12. O Jehovah, thou wilt establish peace to us,

For truly, all the works ordained for us hast thou wrought.'

13. O Jehovah, our Elohim,

Other lords besides thee had the possession of us;
Through thee alone can we celebrate thy name."

14. Dead, they live no more!
Deceased, they rise not!

15. Inasmuch as thou hast visited and destroyed them, And hast made every memorial of them to perish.

16. Thou hast added to the nation, O Jehovah!

Thou hast added to the nation; thou art glorified,
Thou hast extended' it' to all the ends of the earth.

The speaker in the mystic song is represented in these words, as marking with astonishment the great and sudden increase of that people, which so lately appeared

1 Such appears to be the sense of the present text: but the Septuagint seem to have had a different text, verse 10: "For the ungodly shall cease; every one who will not learn righteousness upon earth, who will not do the truth. Let the ungodly be taken away, that he may not behold the glory of the Lord. O Lord, high was 'thy' hand, and they did not perceive; but knowing, they shall be ashamed. " Thy' zeal shall seize a people uninstructed, and now shall a fire consume the adversaries."

as the rare berries left on the olive that had been gathered. It was, too, as appears from the following lines, after a season of their own great despair. Their efforts seemed to be in vain; their labours had proved abortive.

16. O Jehovah, in distress they sought thee,

They uttered a suppressed complaint when thy chastisement was upon them.

17. "As she that travaileth, that draweth near to her delivery, That is in anguish, and crieth out in her pangs,

So have we been in thy sight, O Jehovah.

18. "We travailed, we were in pain, we brought forth, as it were, wind:

Salvation hath not been accomplished on the earth,

Neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen."

This strongly expresses what will be the despair of the people of God during the last triumph of the enemy. "Their strength is gone," as the song of remembrance* expresses it their disappointment, as far as sense is consulted, is complete. The answer given to the desponding people of God in the next verse is very remarkable:

19. Thy dead shall live, their dead bodies' shall rise!
Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust:

For thy covering shall be as the dew of the morning,
And the earth shall drop the deceased from her womb.

This seems to say to the afflicted church," Reduced as you are, and almost unable to maintain your ground in the world of living men, fear not, your numbers shall be recruited from the dead. Amid the corruptions of the last days, and the dreadful afflictions with which the natural Israel, and perhaps the professed church at large, is visited, it appears the cause of Christ will be reduced very low indeed, and the hopes of the very small remnant preserved be almost ready to expire. The sudden prosperity of the last day is not, it should seem, in the first instance at least, from any success of the means of grace, with which the servants of Christ are intrusted-their last efforts were remarkably unsuccessful; but the increase and prosperity of the church is from the sudden occurrence, in that awful crisis, of the resurrection of the just.

"Thy covering is as the dew of the morning;" that is, in a beautiful metaphor, as the rising sun disperses the morning dew, and discovers the various objects on the surface of the earth, which it had before involved in its "misty covering;" thus shall the concealment of death and Hades be destroyed, and the veil that covers the unseen world from mortal sight be undrawn, in that day. As we read above, the Redeemer will penetrate or perforate the veil that hides from all living the abodes. of the dead. The covering mist shall be removed before the rising of the Sun of Righteousness; and his glorious hosts shall be discovered ascending from their graves, and glittering in his shining beams. On this is grounded a general exhortation to the church in all seasons of her affliction, down to the period of "Jehovah's coming out of his place to visit the inhabitants of the earth," to be content to wait, and to look upon the grave as a safe and quiet retreat which her dying members may enter,