"Would to God we had been content." Josh. 7:7. There is nothing more pathetic had been content." in Scripture than Joshua's pouring of heart to God upon Israel's defeat at Ai. He realizes the very existence of the nation is in danger; and, what is more, that Jehovah's great name is linked up with it. His own heart is linked up with both, and he is in anguish. If the nation goes down, the glory of God is involved, for God has made it plain to the eyes of the whole world that Israel is His own.

In this sore moment he regrets their having crossed over Jordan. He exclaims, "Would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan ! "

How natural this is-how painfully natural! The Jordan side in which they now are is God's purpose for them. That is where He plants His tabernacle, where His Presence is to be enjoyed, where the people must follow if they would learn His grace and respond to all that is in His heart toward them. It is where He will in due time place His feet in glory.

It is, therefore, where the enemy is going to give battle most determinedly, and where an Achan in the camp will bring defeat and sorrow; for where Gcd's presence is no sin can be allowed; and there it is where Satan will labor to introduce it.

"On the other side Jordan," at a distance there from the presence of God, such a small matter as Achan would have made no trouble, and there would have been no such defeat as that of Ai, and no such distress as now in Joshua.

How true to the core all this is still! How many, like Joshua, fear the near place, and turn their eyes "on the other side Jordan," for ease! How many, unlike him, actually turn back to it, yielding back to Satan the blessed possessions which others with more faith and devotedness of heart had fought to wrest from him! "Behold, I come quickly:hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown" (Rev. 3 :11).

"The Former Days." Heb. 10 :32.

How sad that there should be need of referring to days of the past to stir up present faithfulness! But the love that brought our Saviour here to make us His own and win our hearts never changes nor grows indifferent, and He so desires our hearts that He will use every means to rekindle in them the love that is waning.

So He appeals to the Hebrews by the mouth of His servant, reminding them of what they once suffered for Christ's sake, and how they had compassion on him in his trials for the same cause. What power of love was in them then, when they took joy-fully the spoiling of their goods, knowing they had in heaven a better and an enduring substance.

Is there no need of such pleadings now ?-any proofs that we are not what we once were ?-any usurpation in our hearts of the place which Christ once occupied ?-any seeking to lay up treasures on earth, rather than in heaven ?-any following after our pleasure, instead of His will ? Oh, then, let the pleadings of love concerning "the former days" reach our hearts, and melt them in responsive love! That, and that alone, will make us overcomes in an evil day.