These are the men for the present crisis. What can be more deplorable, more saddening and discouraging, than to find those who make a lofty profession, who talk loudly of death and resurrection, who boast of their high doctrines and heavenly privileges, but whose walk and ways give the lie to their words? They love the world and the things of the world; they love money, and are eager to grasp and hoard as much as possible. Beloved Christian reader, let us see to these things; let us honestly judge ourselves as in the very presence of God, and put away from us every thing, no matter what, that tends to hinder the complete devotion of ourselves, in spirit and soul and body, to Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. May we, to use the language of Joshua xxii, so carry ourselves as not to need any altar to see to, nor any thing to declare where we belong to, where we worship, whose we are, and whom we serve. Thus shall every thing about us be transparent and unquestionable, our testimony shall be distinct, and the sound of our trumpet certain; our peace, too, shall flow like an even river, and the entire bent of our course and character shall be to the praise of Him whose name is called upon us. May the good Lord stir up the hearts of His people, in this day of hateful indifferentism, lukewarmness, and easy-going profession, to more genuine self-surrender, true consecration to the cause of Christ, and unshaken faith in the living God. Will the reader join us in pleading for all this? CHAPTERS XXXIII. & XXXIV. The first of these sections gives us a wonderfully minute description of the desert wanderings of the people of God. It is impossible to read it without being deeply moved by the tender love and care of God so signally displayed throughout the whole. To think of His deigning to keep such a record of the journeyings of His poor people, from the moment they marched out of Egypt until they crossed the Jordan—from the land of death and darkness to the land flowing with milk and honey. “He knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing.” He went before them every step of the way; He traveled over every stage of the wilderness; in all their afflictions He was afflicted. He took care of them like a tender nurse. He suffered not their garments to wax old, or their feet to swell, for these forty years; and here He retraces the entire way by which His hand had led them, carefully noting down each successive stage of that marvelous pilgrimage, and every spot in the desert at which they had halted. What a journey! What a Traveling-Companion!