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Then the bounds of Israel's peculiar Inheritance are described, as reaching on the north side from the Great, or Mediterranean Sea, along by Damascus towards Hauran; and then the east side, from Hauran to the East Sea; and then on the south side, from Tamar in the wilderness, to the Mediterranean Sea; along which shall be the border on the west side. Although the Lord shall have his peculiar portion in the midst of the land; and Israel his in the midst of the earth: yet neither shall the Lord the less inherit all nations, nor Israel cease to fill the face of the world with fruit: encompassing all nations with blessing, as well as for being a glory unto the Lord in the midst of all the Gentiles, whom also it was promised they should inherit. And as the Lord's house is to be an house of prayer for all people, and as Israel shall be followers of God as dear children; they shall make their land a home for all people: who, from year to year, shall come up to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles: rejoicing together in the unity of brotherly love; and in holy reverence towards their King; and outwardly expressing in acts of true devotion, and joyful fellowship, their hearts' obedience to these two great commandments, love to God and love to man, the law of this blessed kingdom of the glorified Messiah:-Thus accordingly love shall be shown by the children of Israel to the strangers: "They shall have Inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel. And it shall come to pass that in what tribe the stranger sojourneth, there shall ye give him his Inheritance, saith the Lord God." Thus shall the Inheritance of Israel be;-not for selfish gratification, but for the communication of blessing unto all, ch. xlvii. 13—23.

Then we have the order in which the tribeships shall lie in stripes, as it were, eastward and westward: beginning with Dan on the north side, and so proceeding with Asher, and Naphtali, and Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Reuben, and Judah, to the north of

the Holy Portion, for the Temple and the Priesthood, and the city, and the prince. And then, on the south side of this holy oblation, the tribeships are appointed of Benjamin, and Simeon, and Issachar, and Zebulun, and Gad. "This is the land that ye shall divide by lot unto the children of Israel for Inheritance: and these are their portions, saith the Lord God." The division of the tribeships is not that which was when Israel were previously in the land: neither is the description correspondent to that which is prophesied of the tribes by Jacob, as to what was to befall them in the last days: the application of which prophecy, as well as that of Moses, must be looked for elsewhere; and may serve for the recognition of the tribes in their present localities, as in dispersion.

The stretching out of the tribeships, in peaceful lines, seems to indicate that they are placed together, not that each may gather itself up in individual strength, as for conflict, but spread itself out to the uttermost for intercommunion; and as if to embrace the globe from the east even unto the west. Reuben, whose by birth was the birthright, is placed between Joseph, who got by adoption the birthright, and Judah who obtained the dominion. This may express the forgiving grace of the Father of Israel; and the courteous affection with which his children shall dwell together in unity near the courts of his house. The removal of the curse is most strikingly manifested in the case of Judah, who is, of the three, nearest to the house of the Lord, in which they shall now indeed praise the Lord, and in truth bow the knee to Him whom formerly they rejected. And the Lord's choosing his portion between those of Judah and Benjamin, who previously joined in putting Him away from them, casting him out of their city, is indeed a lesson of forgiving grace. The fulness of the earthly blessing of Judah and Benjamin, as given by Jacob and Moses, remains to be possessed; and it shall be

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tures were unfolded, and there was free opportunity of learning the revealed will of God: but still there was comparative blindness as to the operations of Providence; and of the Spirit of God, by which alone true instruction can be conveyed to the mind: and even to the light to which he has attained, and which he has nationally recognised, he has been unfaithful. Through the fear of those he has overcome, he falters in the protest in which his God hath supported and prospered him. Well may Ephraim be astonished, ashamed, yea, even confounded, at his so long retaining that spirit and conduct for which he was reproved in the days of his youth, as in Hosea, ch. xi. 3—8: "I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them. I drew them with the cords of a man, with bands of love. And I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them. He shall not return into the land of Egypt; but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to return. And the sword shall abide on his cities, and shall consume his branches, and devour, because of their own counsels. And my people are bent to backsliding from me: though they called them to the Most High, none at all would exalt Him, How shall I give thee up Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah?

How shall I set thee as Zeboiim? My heart is turned within me. My repentings are kindled together." And when Ephraim shall be made sensible of all this; and be made truly to confess his worthlessness, weakness, and want of wisdom— when he shall come to some understanding of the multiplied instructions of his Father, and of his own utter stupidity, under the Lord's dealings with him, both in mercy and in judgment when he shall cast himself upon his God, in humble repentance, and for undeserved grace, then shall he know the truth of his Father's welcome, in recognition of his returning

son, to whom he gives the place of the first-born, saying, "Ephraim!" for now Ephraim will have brought forth the desired fruit, a distrust in himself, and an entire resignation of himself to the will of his God-“ My dear son!" accepted in the Beloved

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a pleasant child," delighted in by the Father, as becoming adorned with the graces and the gifts of the Spirit of his God and Saviour "For since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still. Therefore my bowels are troubled for him. I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord." It will be found that, throughout the Old Testament prophecies, even after Ephraim was to appearance lost—left to destruction under the hands of his enemies, he was not forgotten, but most earnestly remembered by the God of Israel, who hath had compassion on him in his low estate, even so as to give the Son of his love into our world, to seek and to save that which was lost; and so as to send more especially to him the offers of his grace, and the bounties of his providence. Northwestward, according to special direction from the days of old, have come the messengers of peace, with, in their hands, the Book of Remembrance, testifying of the Lord's gracious purposes with regard to his people, and spreading before us the riches of his New Covenant mercy: a Covenant sealed with his own blood, providing the fulness of blessing, for those who know they were lost, and who, having no confidence in the flesh, are willing to be received back into favour, and fitted for the glorious kingdom of our God upon the terms of sovereign grace.

Yea God hath ever remembered Ephraim in tenderness, and hath been extending to him loving-kindness, although he hath perceived it not. Truly may Israel, as looking-back upon all the way in which the Lord hath led them, exclaim, "His mercy endureth for ever." And that mercy will be yet more abundantly bestowed: in reference to which are the words (Jer. xxxi. 20), "I will surely have

mercy upon him, saith the Lord."So saying, he falleth on his neck, and kisseth him, and bestows upon him the blessing of the First-born, acknowledging him as his son, who was dead, and is alive again—who was lost, and is found. Thus delightful and full will be the recognition of the Father by the son, and of the son by the Father, when the son shall know and acknowledge himself, as, in himself, utterly lost. Our safety is as being made one with that Son who abideth for ever—as wholly taking refuge in the Lord our God.

The same prophet who so clearly foretold the utter taking away of Israel whilst Judah would be preserved; and also the taking away from Ephraim the very name belonging to his people, Hos. ch. i. 6—9; and who so strikingly describes, as we have seen, the shame of his youth,—that same prophet ends with an invitation remarkably expressive of the kindness with which the father will receive the returning prodigal, Hos. xiv. 1: "O Israel! return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to the Lord. Say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips." The calves, which were apt representations of Ephraim's foolishness, and which were kissed in idolatrous worship by him, as, if they had been gods, these even all their modern counterparts, will be rendered up.Neither will there be any more a trust in man, or creature deliverance of any kind: "Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses." Neither to Assyria, on the left hand; nor down into Egypt, on the right, will we go for deliverance: "Neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods, for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy."

Ephraim will have said, "Though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not, yet doubtless thou art our Father." And the Father will have so received in blessing

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this fulness of nations, promised to come of Ephraim, as that "All Israel" will desire to be partakers of the salvation enjoyed by the first-born. And the Lord promises to heal their backsliding, to love them freely, and to bestow upon them beauty, strength, and fulness of blessing. And thrice is Lebanon spoken of as descriptive of his case. And this, it may be remarked, is almost the only part of the land which, till near the time of Israel's return, has been left under any careful cultivation.

Ephraim, in order to lead thus in blessing, must be clear and decided in his protest against that which the Lord hath resolved utterly to abolish.

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Ephraim shall say What have I to do any more with idols?" and the Father saith, "I have heard, and observed him." Ephraim saith, "I am like a green fir-tree"—fair, hut unfruitful. This he makes his complaint, and he longs to bring forth fruit unto God, and the God of his salvation replies, "From me is thy fruit found,"—from me thou art worthy of thy nameFruitful. Soon, indeed, may Ephraim bring forth fruit meet for repentance. Soon may his Father undo that which was done, when he had not mercy upon them, but utterly took them away. "I will surely have mercy upon him," implies the revocation of that sentence of expulsion from the land. As being taught the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom, a full permission—yea, kind command, is given to the outcasts of Israel to return, to where more especially the refreshing and the fruitfulness in God, are promised to be bestowed—"Who is wise, and he shall understand these things?—prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them; but the transgressors shall fall therein." Soon may Ephraim cease to be an unwise son; and know that the Lord is indeed a Father to Israel, and that Ephraim is his firstborn.

The people recognised as, in Christ, the Lord's first-born, having been brought to true repentance, to a preparation of heart, by fully submitting unto the free grace of God in the Gospel, will be assuredly given the fulfilment of the promise," He that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land, and inherit my holy mountain, and shall say, Cast ye up! east ye up! prepare the way! take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people." He will be given the means of removing both the spiritual and physical obstructions to the speedy and joyful return of the great body of the people, who shall be privileged to honour the Lord in the land, where he hath been so long put to shame; there hath the Lord been put to shame by the open opposers of the gospel, and not less by the false professors of Christianity. The fulness

of the nations promised to be brought forth of Ephraim, having come in, so all Israel shall be saved. Rom. xi, 25, 26.

God will work, but he will not only work for his people, he will work in them—yea, he will work in them mightily, and cause them to be instrumental in their own, and one another's good. He will lay liberally to their hand, and that with which he thus supplies them, they will use, even to the preparing a highway for our God, whereby the redeemed of the Lord may come to Zion, with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads. He will make all his mountains a way, and the highways shall be exalted. He will bring down every mountain and hill, and lift up every valley. He will make the rough places plain, and the crooked places straight, along every line of highway, and this by the instrumentality of his people, who are