piety and benevolence. They need not fear lest the approach of death should be accompanied by guilty tumults of mind, or dismal forebodings of the future, but will be enabled calmly to resign themselves to the disposal of a faithful and merciful Saviour *."

Mrs. Beaufoy lent Harry, as she had promised, an edition of Pope's Messiah, with references to Isaiah. One evening, after he had occupied himself for some time with examining the references, he called his mother's attention to the prophecy relating to John the Baptistt. "How much grander this is," said he, "than the corresponding passage in Matthew."

"You know, my dear, it was quite suf

* Burnet's Lives, and Murray's Power of Religion. + Isaiah, xl. 3, 4.

ficient for the purpose of the evangelist, to refer to a prophecy which was already very well known: there could be no occasion for him to repeat the whole of it."

"The language of Isaiah is beautiful, but I suppose it is not to be understood literally."

"The images employed," replied Mrs. Beaufoy, "are evidently taken from the practice of Eastern monarchs, who, when they entered upon an expedition, sent harbingers before them, to prepare all things for their reception, and pioneers to remove impediments arising from the nature of the country. It is said, that when Semiramis was marching towards Ecbatana, she came to a mountain which was full of craggy precipices and deep hollows. Rather than make a long circui tous journey, she ordered the precipices to be cut down, and the hollow places to be filled with earth. Thus a plain, open

road was formed, which for ages afterward was called the road of Semiramis *." "That is a very natural and easy explanation."

"It is so; but yet I would not have you suppose that this passage has no other meaning than to represent the approaching Saviour under the figure of a sovereign about to enter his dominions. The imperfection of language, and the inadequacy of our conceptions, often make it necessary for divine truths to be inculcated by sensible images. John the Baptist was sent to tell the Jews that their descent from Abraham availed them nothing while their lives were wicked—to show them the evil of sin, and the dreadful consequences of persisting in it. In a word, he was sent to preach repentance, which implies a change of mind producing a voluntary and lasting renunciation of all bad habits. As the rugged mountain and pathless

* Harmer's Observations, vol. i. p.

106.

desert were levelled at the approach of Semiramis, so must the human heart be prepared for the reception of its spiritual Sovereign. Pride, envy, hatred, and every evil passion must be brought into subjection: the crooked must be made straight, and the rough places plain*, This is evidently the case with real Christians; the gentleness and equanimity of their characters proving that they acknowledge the government of the Prince of Peace."

"I had no conception that the prophecy had any such meaning as this!"

"I dare say not, my dear Harry; and I am glad that you showed it to me. There is a beauty and fitness in the prophetic declaration, which must be lost to every body who is not acquainted with the allusion+."

"I always thought the prophecies too difficult for me to read," said Harry;

• Isa. xl. 4.

+ Harmer, ibid.

"but they are very interesting when explained."

"I could easily point out many quite as striking as those I have mentioned," replied his mother: "they are indeed sufficiently numerous to furnish subjects of useful inquiry for years. But there is only one other prophecy relating to Christ, which I am desirous to explain at present. It constituted part of the communication made by the dying Jacob to his sons.

The sceptre shall not départ from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh tome, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be*.

"Is Shiloh, then, another name for Christ, mamma?"

"The word Shiloh is said to have several meanings: among others, The peaceable One, and is therefore an appropriate appellation of the Prince of Peacet. Be this as it may, Christians universally un