Moses, the servant of the Lord, was dead. Type of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Deliverer of His people, he had finished his work. He had delivered them by the blood from the midnight judgment which had overtaken Egypt, and from the stubborn grasp of the mighty Pharaoh by passing them through the sea. He had faithfully led them through the wilderness for forty years, and with such patience and meekness that he had won for himself the enviable title of "Moses, the servant of the Lord." All this brings out the character of our Lord as the One who has delivered us from the wrath to come by His precious blood, from the thraldom of sin and Satan by passing us through His death, and who now leads us along our journey with utmost faithfulness and grace.

But Joshua unfolds to us another character of our Lord. It is as the risen and glorified One He now appears in this new servant-as the One who leads His delivered people into the present, practical possession of the inheritance to which He has given a clear title. Who that thinks of the return of our Lord to His glory-no longer simply "Son of God," but now also "Son of Man," and thus introducing man into that glory,-who that thinks of it with faith and does not feel new throbbings in his bosom? The same Man who was on Calvary's cross, crying from the heart of the darkness, " Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani," as far from God as a man can be, because of sin-our sin,-that same Man now at home in the presence of the glory of God. And we, poor things who merited the judgment of God, not only freed from it, but introduced thus, in the person of the glorified Jesus, into the glory of heaven-of the immediate presence of God ! This it is that makes us sing in truth,-

" We are but strangers here,
Heaven is our home !
Earth is a desert drear,
Heaven is our home !

What an hour for the hosts of heaven when He concerning whom they had received the command, " Let all the angels of God worship Him," returned to His place of glory clothed in humanity for evermore ! What unspeakable honor bestowed upon us! What exaltation after such degradation ! Oh the triumphs of grace !

But the laying hold of this in our souls-the taking possession of it till it marks our daily life as citizens of heaven and no longer of earth-this is what our Lord, after delivering us, labors continually to lead into. So earthly-minded are we, however, such lovers of our own will and way, so afraid of the difficulties which arise from this, that to encounter and overcome all, the leader of the people is three times admonished to "be strong, and of a good courage."

The admonition to the leader marks the tendencies of the people, and it necessarily applies also to all such as follow on ; for if the leader has to overcome these tendencies in them, they have to overcome them in themselves.

The first admonition (5:6) is based upon the certainty of final success. None would persevere through the hour of trial without faith as to the end. Being heirs of God, and our inheritance sure, He now labors to bring us into the practical enjoyment of it. If our earthly mind roots itself in wife, children, houses, lands, money, position, He will faithfully blow upon them all, root us up, and in mercy hasten us on toward our inheritance. It was all right for a Jew to be earthly-minded,-his inheritance was the earth,-but it will not do for a man to whom "an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, is reserved in heaven." (i Pet. 1:4.)

The second time, it is based upon the necessity of being wholly governed by the Word of God-of being permeated with His mind and will therein made known (10:7, 8). Mere acquaintance with the Scripture,-mere ability to delineate it, and classify its varied and marvelous contents will not do. Revelation was not given to entertain the Athenians, but so to communicate the mind and will of God to the man whose will is surrendered to God as to mold him afresh, and transform him both in mind and ways. We are always in special danger as to this, and more so now than ever perhaps, because of the pre-eminence given to intellect over conscience. This second admonition, therefore, is intensified:" Only be thou strong, and very courageous." Is there any thing in which we need the Lord's ministration more than for the hearty enjoyment of and conscientious subjection to the Word of God ? Yet by this alone it is that He can promise, " Then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success."

The third rests upon the whole matter itself issuing from God, and His own presence among them (5:9). "Have not I commanded thee?" To faith, this is the whole secret. If God be the source of it, there can be nothing small or insignificant in it, or that would be unworthy of the most courageous battling. Then His presence goes with His oracles, so that whatever difficulties there be in the way (and is there greater difficulty than to walk here as Christ walked ?), there His presence is to meet us :" The Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." Who is the foe we cannot overcome if God be with us as well as for us ? Let the walls of Jericho tower up to heaven, and all the hosts of the enemy gather themselves together, what are they all to the weak few, though they be, who have the living God among them ?

Brethren, the necessity of our souls, through conscious sin and guilt, made it imperative for us to follow Moses our Deliverer, but strength and courage are needed now to follow Joshua our Leader into the land. There be not a few who have followed Moses-partaken of the salvation, and yet forget that God said to Joshua, "As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee" (5:5),-that is, Joshua's part is as important before God as Moses'. They have tasted the sweets of grace, but have neither strength nor courage to break loose from the world and cross boldly over with Joshua, as men who have there an inheritance of their own,-who appreciate it, and intend to take possession of it, cost what it may. What a loss ! which no amount of activity of service or works of benevolence can ever make up for.

Through David's courageous warfare, the enemies had been subdued, and "Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig-tree, from Dan even to Beersheba," and an abundance of materials had been gotten together to build there a place of delights to the Lord. Alas ! it did not last. The man who could make every letter of the alphabet celebrate the virtues of the Word of God (Ps. 119:) was no more. It had, in time, even come to pass that the high-priest had to say, " I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord" (2 Kings 22:); and so all Israel had fallen into decrepitude, and become a prey to the horde of enemies who were but too glad to spoil and ravage what, for a time, had been so humiliating to them.
But (oh, the mercy of God !) the priest finds the book ; the king eats it, and from the strength thereof he renews the holy warfare and keeps such a passover that it is written of it, "Surely there was not holden such a pass-over from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah ; but in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, wherein this passover was holden to the Lord in Jerusalem." (10:22, 23.) Yet the determined and near judgment of God had not been set aside, but rather declared afresh with greater emphasis (10:15-20). It was therefore no spirit of enthusiasm in Josiah, based on some false hope or ambitious purpose. It was the quick and powerful Word of God in a man whose heart was true, and who "walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left."

Beloved, is it so with us? Lord, is it so with me? P. J. L.