empire's capital from the seven hills of Latium to the plain of Shinar.

Besides, old Babylon never was the persecutor of the saints. She had Israel in captivity, but she shed no blood in wanton persecution. Therefore it cannot be in her skirts that the blood of all who have been slain upon the earth is to be found. Rome has been a steady persecutor of the saints. In her, more blood of martyrs has been shed than in any other city. And as she has begun so shall she end. In her Pagan days she shed much; in her Popish days she shed more; and what she is to do in her Infidel days, remains yet to be seen.*

Probably the time may be near, and the great crisis on the point of being reached; for East† as well as West are shewing symptoms of convulsion, which will ere long alter the face of Palestine as much as that of Italy.

The dates we know not; the signs we do know. And this is the time for watching.

The world's days are numbered. No power of armament, nor expansion of commerce, can long ward off the collapse. Men talk of durable kingdoms and stable dynasties. But the time for these is gone by. Hereditary claims are pronounced obsolete, and new ones are dependent on the people's ostra

* It is remarkable that the worst persecutors of the Church were the ancestors of Victor Immanuel. And another thing is remarkable, that he is said to be the legitimate heir to the title of King of Jerusalem. Strange that he should be both King of Jerusalem and King of Rome !

+ The Eastern question does not bid fair for speedy settlement; if, indeed, it can be settled by anything but the sweeping out of Moslems and Moslemism from Syria. The question between Maronites and Druses might perhaps be settled, if either the French or Mohammedans wanted it settled. But they don't. And they will foment it till Druse and Maronite have extirpated each other, or have been extirpated by Turk, or Arab, or Frank. The French stir up the Moslems; the Moslems stir up the rival sects against each other; and there is small prospect of peace. Cruel as the Druses have shewn themselves, they are the best of the conflicting tribes; and had the Maronites triumphed over them, the cruelties would in all likelihood have been much more atrocious than they have been. Louis Napoleon has blundered, or rather failed in his plan. He wished to destroy the Druses and to unite with the Maronites as co-religionists. But he has overshot himself. The quarrel has gone further than he thought, and the victory has been so completely with the Druses that he has hardly any co-religionists left in Lebanon; so that he has neither got the footing nor the pretext for it which he expected to have. French influence has been weakened, not augmented, by the issue of his own plot. But still the question remains, What is to be done with Syria and Palestine? Restore the Jews, say some. Right; but how are you to get quit of the Mohammedan hordes? Probably the Eastern question will be solved only by the expulsion of these demons from a land which they only curse and destroy. Then all will be ready for Israel's restoration. This is what we look for:-Israel in his old place and land ready for Gog's invasion; and the ten tribes in the position in which "the stone" is to smite them.

cism. These last days are not for dynasties. Individual men or things will rise up and do the work assigned, but that will be all. They will try to found a family, but it will not do. The time for founding dynasties has gone, not simply because the end is near, but because the idea on which dynastic fabrics are founded is now numbered with the past. It is now simply the will of the people, or the sword of the strong man, be he dictator or despot.

ART. V.-READINGS IN FIRST CHRONICLES.

CHAP. VII. 1-19.

THERE are two ways, it has been said, of looking on the Cathedral of Milan. The traveller may fix his scrutinising gaze on the minute ornaments, so perfectly finished, on some one of the hundreds of columns, on some one of its statues, or on some figure, human or angelic, cut out on the stone, and embowered in delicately-traced foliage. He may spend thought and admiration in this manner on the building's separate parts; but he may next pass his eye over the cathedral at large, and survey the grand features of the whole great edifice. It is thus we do in reading the Word of God. At one time we tarry at some one spot, and seek to rifle it of some of its stores; we meditate on some one portion of a book, and delight ourselves in what it yields. Then, at another time, we let our eye pass from Genesis to Revelation; we follow the bend of the Bow of Promise from Paradise under the first Adam to Paradise under the second Adam, admiring and adoring. The great temple may be surveyed in detail,-here its gates, there its pinnacles; here its altar, there its sanctuary; yonder its sacrifice ascending in smoke heavenward, by our side its sweet incense filling the holy place; there its white-robed singers and harpers, here its worshippers in every varied vesture. But the great temple may be also surveyed as one whole, and we may pause on its one grand purpose, while the song of praise fills our ear, and the light of the glorious sun is bringing out to view the complete edifice as one mount of alabaster, whiter than the snow of Lebanon.

We study prophecy in both these ways; and we study individual books of Scripture also in both ways. At present, in 1st Chronicles, we are dwelling on the minute details, all of which have a purpose and a specific meaning. We are not, however, always able to detect the special purpose. The eye

of the skilled architect is not the same as the eye of the spectator; and so the latter may be at fault, and become weary in gazing, while the former could point out the use and the admirable end attained by what we wonder to find there.

One thing let us always keep in mind in our readings in this book, viz., we are very far from supposing that there is only a single specific end in view in these Chronicles. On the contrary, we believe that the ends are manifold. Ruskin speaks of the foxglove as exhibiting at one and the same time three states, the germ of a coming flower, a flower in present bloom, and the withering leaf of some former flower. It is thus with this book. Its chronicles have a lesson for us who now read it; they taught another lesson in the past to the men of Israel who first read their pages; and we believe they are yet, in a future day, to speak out a lesson and furnish uses to Israel and the world such as we do not now perceive. There is in the Book of Chronicles, in the case of its genealogical records, a past, a present, and a future.

THE TRIBE OF ISSACHAR.

Ver. 1.—“ Now the sons of Issachar were, Tola, and Puah, Jashub, and Shimrom, four."

Let us keep before us the prophecy of Jacob in regard to this tribe," Issachar is a strong ass," but he is one "couching between two burdens. He saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant, and he bowed his shoulders to bear," (Gen. xlix. 15.) And so also Moses sang, "Issachar in thy tents," (Deut. xxxiii. 18.) This tribe in its very names has something of these peculiar features referred to in prophecy. While as to numbers it was (Num. i. 29) mightier than Ephraim, (Num. i. 33,) there are symptoms of inactivity and a spirit of indolence apparent, as well as a tinge of despondency, in the names.

Tola, "Worm," as if his father's heart had sunk at the hazard which Jacob's family ran, feeling himself, in comparison of the Canaanites, feeble and ready to be crushed; and so at the birth of his son he named the child "A worm." If this be so, we may see significance in our Lord's cry, in His day of humiliation, crushed under our burden,-"I am a worm, and no man," (Ps. xxii. 4.) The term is in; just as it is again in Isa. xli. 14, when Worm Jacob is promised to be made a mighty conqueror.

Puah, not (, as Exod. i. 15, but NE), "Mouth," or perhaps "Breath of the mouth," is a name that may speak of feebleness, like the former. Jashub," He shall return," speaks

hope of a better day than that of Jacob's family wandering from place to place. Shimrom, "Preservation," or "Watching," tells how Issachar felt the need of continued care, and perhaps intimates that his mind allowed anxiety to rest upon it. These four names of Issachar's sons seem to indicate a man of desponding views; and if descendants often receive an impress from their forefather, we may recognise in him the original of his tribe's peculiarity-viz., readiness to succumb under difficulties, rather than resolutely to face them, and take arms against them.

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Ver. 2." And the sons of Tola; Uzzi, and Rephaiah, and Jeriel, and Jahmai, and Jibsam, and Shemuel, heads of their father's house, to wit, of Tola. They were valiant men of might in their generations; whose number was in the days of David two and twenty thousand and six hundred." Here is the reverse of the coin-" The strong ass.” Here is Issachar seen in his might. The descendants of the "Worm" Tola are apparently all mighty men. We may find in this fact a sort of historical promise, or at least an illustration by facts of the after-promise," Worm Jacob shall thresh the mountains," (Isa. xli. 15.) For the eldest son of Tola, "The worm," is Uzzi, "My strength;" the next is Rephaiah, "Jehovah heals;" then follows Jeriel, "God will provide," and Jahmai, "Jehovah is a wall;" and last of the train of sons are Jibsam, "Sweet-smelling," like a field which the Lord has blessed, and Shemuel, "One whom God has heard." The names given to them at their birth indicate their father's expectations and feelings; and he was not disappointed, for they were all valiant men, (2.) And then their descendants in the days of David maintained their character for valour, besides being numerous; for it is of this one branch of Issachar's tribe that it is said there were 22,600 of them in David's time. The descendants of Puah, Jashub, and Shimrom are referred to afterwards, (ver. 5,) but are not here included. Ver. 3.-"And the sons of Uzzi; Izrahiah: and the sons of Izrahiah; Michael, and Obadiah, and Joel, Ishiah, five: all of them chief men."

Uzzi had his father's hopeful spirit in him; for he calls his firstborn Izrahiah, "Jehovah shall arise," like the sun going forth at morning-a fine suggestion. It may have been meant originally to declare his hope of deliverance from Egypt; it might also declare his hope of deliverance under every trial; but it might even stretch onward, and point to the long-lookedfor rising of the Sun of Righteousness, the Messiah of Israel. It is a name that we too, in our day, might use, as we bend forward into the future to discover the first streaks of the approaching dawn, the rising of the Sun in the morning of the millennial day. Expressive of the ground of such a hope was

the name that followed,-Michael, "Who is like God?" what may we not expect of Him? We found Levi's descendants (chap. vi. 40) employing that happy and cheering name. Obadiah, "Jehovah's servant," and Joel, "Jehovah is God," are names familiar to us elsewhere. The former, indeed, occurs not less than twelve times, and the latter, fourteen. Ishiah, "One whom Jehovah lends," or "gives," seems to be an appellation given him with the design of acknowledging the Lord's mercies.

Ver. 4, 5.—“ And with them, (,) by their generations, after the house of their fathers, were bands of soldiers for war, six and thirty thousand men for they had many wives and sons. And their brethren among all the families of Issachar were valiant men of might, reckoned in all by their genealogies fourscore and seven thousand."

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In addition to the families of Tola (for by seems to mean this) were bands of soldiers from other families of Issachar to the number of 36,000. To which must also be added nearly thirty thousand more not included in these—“ Bands of soldiers -a body of men whose use and standing cannot now be ascertained. Putting all together, there were 87,000 valiant men in Issachar in David's days. "Their brethren, belonging to (?) all the families of Issachar, were valiant men of might. They were reckoned 87,000 in all."

This was indicative of the "strong ass," a term of high commendation in the East. Yet may we not notice the "multiplying of wives," ver. 4, (,) as characteristic of the tribe in its other respect, viz., inclined to ease and domestic enjoyment; "They saw that rest was good;" they "rejoiced in their tents?

Let us not forget to add, that it is with a special eye to the shewing forth of David's greatness that the strength of Issachar is mentioned. (See ver. 2.) David's power was a token of the Lord's favour; the Lord delighted to honour him and his; and David in all this was typical of Him whose hosts are to be more than the dew of morning, each one a man of might, a man with a resurrection-body of power.

THE TRIBE OF BENJAMIN.

Ver. 6." The sons of Benjamin; Bela, and Becher, and Jediael, three." Jacob's prophecy in Gen. xlix. 27, " Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf," suits remarkably the name of the eldest son of Benjamin; for Bela means "Destruction," or "Destroyer." Is not the propensity of the father seen in the name he gives his son? Is not this the disposition of the ravening wolf? Why he called his next son Becher, "Young camel," (Ges.) does not