the _seven_ golden lamps, the same grand truth foreshadowed, namely, the indissoluble unity of Israel's twelve tribes. Thus it was then, and thus it is now. The night is dark and gloomy. There is not, in all this lower world, so much as a single ray by which the human eye can trace the unity of Israel's tribes. They are scattered among the nations, and lost to man's vision; but their memorial is before the Lord. Faith owns this, because it knows that "all the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus." It sees in the upper sanctuary, by the Spirit's perfect light, the twelve tribes faithfully memorialized. Hearken to the following noble accents of faith: "And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers: unto which promise our _twelve tribes_, instantly serving God night and day [νυκτα και ημεραν], hope to come." (Acts xxvi. 6, 7.) Now, if King Agrippa had asked Paul, Where are the twelve tribes? could he have shown them to him? No. But why not? Was it because they were not to be seen? No; but because Agrippa had not eyes to see them. The twelve tribes lay far beyond the range of Agrippa's vision. It needed the eye of faith and the gracious light of the Spirit of God to be able to discern the twelve loaves, ordered upon the pure table in the sanctuary of God. There they were, and Paul saw them there, though the moment in which he gave utterance to his sublime conviction was as dark as it well could be. Faith is not governed by appearances. It takes its stand upon the lofty rock of God's eternal Word, and, in all the calmness and certainty of that holy elevation, feeds upon the immutable word of Him who cannot lie. Unbelief may stupidly stare about and ask, Where are the twelve tribes? or how can they be found and restored? It is impossible to give an answer. Not because there is no answer to be given, but because unbelief is utterly incapable of rising to the elevated point from which the answer can be seen. Faith is as sure that the memorial of the twelve tribes of Israel is before the eye of Israel's God, as it is that the twelve loaves were laid on the golden table every Sabbath day. But who can convince the skeptic or the infidel of this? who can secure credence for such a truth from those who are governed, in all things, by reason or sense, and know nothing of what it is to hope against hope? Faith finds divine certainties and eternal realities in the midst of a scene where reason and sense can find nothing. Oh for a more profound faith! May we grasp, with more intense earnestness, every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord, and feed upon it in all the artless simplicity of a little child. We shall now turn to the second point in our chapter, namely, the apostacy of Israel after the flesh, and the divine judgment thereon.