ever a nation makes its glory, when that glory supersedes the commands or dislodges in its heart the supremacy of God, that God will blast. If you will search authentic history, you will find that never did a nation glory in something that was its own, without sooner or later having reason to regret that it gloried in that which was not worth glorying in. Now here we read, "The daughters of Zion walk with stretched-forth necks;" that is, "in a haughty manner;" with, it is said, "wanton eyes;" that is, more strictly interpreted, "with eyes dyed." In Eastern nations they used to tinge the eyelash, which gave it greater darkness, and the eye in consequence greater brilliancy; though, of course, like all such attempts to beautify nature, tending to the permanent injury of the organ itself. "Walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet." Among the Hindoos still, at least among some Eastern nations, they not only wear rings on the fingers, bracelets on the arms, but bracelets also on the ankles, commonly called anklets; and among the more fastidious and fashionable of the ancient Jews they used to have small bells attached to these anklets, which made a faint tinkling noise as they walked in stately procession. Then also it is said, he will take the hair from the head, which was their beauty and glory; he will take away the bravery of the tinkling ornaments; "and their cauls," a sort of network laden with gold and silver and precious stones, which they wore upon their heads over their hair; "and their round tires," which were worn across the forehead, having gold and precious stones set in them. “The chains, and

the bracelets, and the mufflers, the rings, and nose jewels;" the last a very strange decoration, but very common in the East, and still I believe not uncommon. "The changeable suits of apparel, the fine linen, the hoods, and the veils ;" and instead of the aromatic perfumes, with which Eastern nations always saturate themselves, there shall be the reverse; and instead of a girdle, a beautiful girdle, in which were all sorts of gems, and ornaments, and decorations, there shall be desolation; instead of the wellset hair there shall be baldness; instead of the stomacher, another part of the decoration, there shall be a girding of sackcloth, common, coarse, and repulsive, indicating mourning. And there shall be the sun-burnt visage, for the word here "burning" means sun-burnt, instead of that fairness on which the Eastern nations specially pride themselves. "The description which Pietro della Valle gives of his own wife, an Assyrian lady born in Mesopotamia, and educated at Bagdad, whom he married in that country, will enable the reader to form a pretty distinct idea of the appearance and ornaments of an Oriental lady in full dress. Her eyelashes, which are long, and according to the custom of the East, dressed with stibulum, (as we often read in the Holy Scriptures of the Hebrew women of old, and in Xenophon of Astyages, the grandfather of Cyrus, and the Medes of that line,) give a dark, and, at the same time, a majestic shade to the eyes. The ornaments of gold and of jewels for the head, for the neck, for the arms, for the legs, and for the feet, (for they wear rings even on their toes,) are indeed, like those of the Turks, carried to great

excess, but not of great value: for in Bagdad, jewels of high price either are not to be had, or are not used; and they wear such only as are of little value, as turquoises, small rubies, emeralds, carbuncles, garnets, pearls, and the like. My spouse dresses herself with all of them, according to their fashion; with exception, however, of certain ugly rings, of very large size, set with jewels, which, in truth, very absurdly, it is the custom to wear fastened to one of their nostrils, like buffaloes; an ancient custom, however, in the East, which, as we find in the Holy Scriptures, prevailed among the Hebrew ladies, even in the time of Solomon. These nose rings, in compliance to me, she has left off; but I have not yet been able to prevail with her cousin, and her sisters, to do the same; so fond are they of the old custom."* Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war.” At this day on the triumphal gate of Vespasian at Rome, over the central arch of which is the picture of the captivity of the Jews, we have the representation of a woman seated under a fig-tree or a palm tree, lamenting and desolate upon the ground; the exact and minute fulfilment of the 26th verse; "She being desolate shall sit upon the ground."

We cannot suppose that this chapter was exhausted in the carrying away of the Jews into captivity in Babylon for seventy years, though much of it of course was fulfilled then; but that some of the judgments predicted in this chapter are now resting on the Jewish race; and those judgments we know will not be removed until they repent of the sins of

* Paxton.

their forefathers, returning with mourning and sorrow and repentance to that Just One whom their fathers denied and crucified, and worship and adore him as their only Saviour.

FUTURE GLORIES.

ISAIAH IV.

THERE can scarcely be a doubt that the expression, "that day," refers to the whole period embraced by the previous three chapters, and that it either immediately precedes or actually constitutes the time when the mountain of the Lord's house shall be exalted on the mountain tops; when they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; when those judgments which are enumerated in the previous chapter shall descend in tempestuous showers upon all that have rejected the only Saviour; and they only whose names are in the Lamb's book of life shall be exempt from the judgment, and experience the great and promised mercy. "In that day," the day the details of which and the judgments of which have been enumerated and described with great minuteness in the previous chapter, he says, "Seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach." The idea is, that there shall be exterminating judgments in the last

act of that drama in which we play so momentous a part, and of which angels are the spectators, and which shall usher in that new and grander genesis, the burden of all the prophecies of the Old and New Testament Scriptures. There shall be such slaughter, such destruction, such extermination of the flower and chivalry of all lands, that women only shall be left, and men shall have perished on the field of battle, or fallen in their struggle for what they believed to be right, or for what is really and truly right. In ancient Israel, to be unmarried was a reproach: every woman in Israel hoped that she might be honoured to be the mother, according to the flesh, of the Light that should lighten the Gentiles, and of the glory of his people Israel. It came to be generally felt there, however unjust, however unjustifiable, however unwarranted by anything in the Bible-that to be unmarried was to be a reproach in the midst of the land. Well, women shall say the figure is simply to denote the intense affliction, the great slaughter of which this is the proof-" we will eat our own bread;" we will not trouble you; the whole seven shall ask to be called by his name; showing us that in ancient as in modern times it was the custom for the wife to merge her own name and to accept the name of her husband. It was so in Rome. Thus we read of the petition of the wife of Cato. She wanted nothing from him, none of his bread, none of his provision, but simply that she might be called by his name, that she might go by the name or bear the rank of the wife of Cato. So here again they say, We will wear our own apparel; only let us be

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