There is the idea of infallible guidance. The Oriental host will not permit his guest to set forth alone, but goes with him on every new track, grasps his hand in every steep ascent, and holds him back from the brink of every precipice. God said to Israel: "I will send my angel before thy face, to lead thee in the way, and bring thee into the land whither thou goest." Yea, he said more: "My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." Both promises are ours, my brethren; and something better than the pillar of cloud and fire, or the manifest glory of the resident God upon the mercy-seat, marches in the van of his pilgrim host through the wilderness, and will never leave us till the last member of his redeemed Israel shall have passed clean over Jordan! There is the idea of a blessed destiny. Their divine Guide is leading them "to a good land, that floweth with milk and honey"--"to a city of habitation"--"a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God"--"a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens"--the Father's house of "many mansions," where Christ is now as he promised preparing a place for his people, and where they are at last to be with him and behold his glory. Oh! with what a sweet and restful confidence should we dismiss our groundless fears of the future, saying with the psalmist--"Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory!" The pilgrim has a home; the weary has a resting-place; the wanderer in the wilderness is a "fellow-citizen with the saints and of the household of faith;" and often have we seen him in the evening twilight, after a long day's march over stony mountain and sultry plain, sitting at the door of the tent just pitched for the night, with calm voice singing: "One sweetly solemn thought Comes to me o'er and o'er-- I'm nearer to my home to-night Than e'er I was before-- Nearer the bound of life, Where falls my burden down-- Nearer to where I leave my cross, And where I take my crown!" and with the next rising sun, like a giant refreshed with new wine, joyfully resuming his journey, from the first eminence attained gazing a moment through his glass at the distant glory of the gold-and-crystal city, then bounding forward and making the mountains ring with the strain: "There is my house and portion fair, My treasure and heart are there, And my abiding home; For me my elder brethren stay, And angels beckon me away, And Jesus bids me come!"