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only present, but even past in their eyes. The waxing fat," and "kicking of Jeshurun;" the sacrificing to devils," which Moses recounts and bewails-as yet (like the fertility and wealth in which they originated) existed but in the foreknowledge of God. Yet does this genuine "seer,' aided by the All-seeing eye of Him to whom the long ages of futurity are "as yesterday, or a watch that is past," trace through their remotest consequences, blessings not yet conferred, and sins not yet conceived.

There is no external testimony so strong as this internal one to the divine inspiration of the Old Testament prophecies. Impostors might (on the strength of probabilities) hazard predictions; but it is the "man whose eyes God hath opened" who can alone overleap, like Him, the bounds of time and space, and relate, with the warmth of an indignant eye-witness, events as unborn as the generations who are to be engaged in them.

What proof of this transportation, as it were, into futurity have we in Moses's expressions in the 19th verse?

MARY.

He says " And when the Lord saw it, He abhorred them; on account of the provoking of His sons, and of His daughters."

MAMA. It is not without reason that the

latter were particularized. Do you remember what Jeremiah accuses the women of doing in

his time?

MARY.

"Baking cakes to the queen of heaven," Mama. I remember your telling me that meant worshipping the moon, which God, in our yesterday's chapter, particularly forbids. But though I do not so much wonder at foolish people who forget God, adoring the beautiful sun and moon, I don't remember any nation but the Jews that were wicked enough to worship "devils."

MAMA. If the character of deities, like that of their votaries, is to be "known by their works," truly might it be said of the heathen divinities, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the works of your father ye do." For there was not a sin (of all which we know him to be the author) or a barbarity (and he, we know, "is a murderer from the beginning") which had not its place in the rites of the demon-worship of antiquity. If we see the absurdity of the Jewish notion of "Satan casting out Satan," with equal clearness may we judge, that the gods by whose worship his " kingdom" was sustained and advanced, were (in as far as they existed at all) evil spirits of kindred nature and malignity.

But leaving the nation "void of understand

ing" (as they are called by God) who could "turn after them" to reap the bitter fruit of their apostacy, let us conclude our review of their crime and punishment, by taking home to ourselves the merciful expression of even an offended God-"O that they were wise-that they understood this-that they would consider their latter end!"

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MORNING TWENTY-FIFTH.

LESSON.-Deuteronomy, Chapters xxxiii, and xxxiv.

MAMA. The chapter which stands first in our reading on this day-when (with regret on my part at least, and I am apt to think on yours also) we shall take our leave of the amiable, as well as eminent person whose blessing on his nation it records-is far from being capable of such minute and clear explanation as the wonderful prophecy we were considering yesterday. Not only are the general features of the national history of the Jews far more easily traced and familiar to us than the family distinctions and peculiarities of the tribes of Israel, but the blessing itself (like the corresponding one of Jacob, which it much resembles) is couched in language so oriental and figurative, that to assign its precise meaning has been too much for abler commentators than ourselves. Nor is it necessary

that we should do more than glance at the remarkable coincidence of many parts of the prediction with the position and state of the various tribes; because we shall find ample and more edifying matter for reflection in the noble manifestation of the Almighty with which the chapter begins and terminates.

From whence does Moses represent the glory of the Lord as first illuminating his chosen people?

MARY. From "Sinai," Mama, and "Seir," and "Mount Paran." I know the law was given from Sinai; where were Seir and Paran ?

MAMA. Mount Seir (the lot of the children of Edom) lay, as we have read, in the course of the Israelites through the wilderness of Paran ; the general name of which is here used for the adjoining summits of Horeb. Why is it said the Lord "shined forth" from thence?

MARY. Because I daresay His glory must have been very bright there, when even Moses's face shone so when he came down that the people could not look at him till he put a veil on. I suppose on account of the "thunders and lightnings, and fire," the law is here called a “fiery law."

MAMA. It was such, in a literal sense, Mary; and not less so in its purifying and refining tendency, and consuming severity, when resisted and