difficult to procure; the word can be received into the heart by simple faith; all can come to his dispensary, he varies his medicine according to the disease. 5. Experience: Christ has had 6,000 years' practice ever since it was said the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head. Age does not impair his skill; he saves to the uttermost, even in Heaven the song is worthy the lamb; cholera baffles doctors, but Christ searches the reins, and checks all diseases; he can make Paul's thorn in the flesh contribute to his humility, 6. Attentive: Comes at all times without being asked, and watches the crisis. 7. Generous to the poor: Christ takes no fees; says buy without money or price, Is. 55. I; Christ is the poor man's doctor; he healed the woman who had spent all her money on doctors, Luke 8. 43. 8. Perseveres Christ makes the dry bones live, Ez. 37. 4; he has the brand plucked from the burning. 9. Successful: Christ said come all that labour. Adam's rebellion, Noah's drunkenness, Manasseh's tyranny were cured; even death is cured, Is. 25. 8. The Persians say of ordinary physicians-when fate arrives the physician is a fool. 10. Accessible: Christ is always so; he never sleeps. Christ differs from earthly physicians in nine points : (1) Sometimes deceived, kill sometimes instead of curing; (2) require to be sent for, Luke 19. 10; (3) charge for services, Is. 55. I; (4) make few sacrifices for their patients. Christ gave his blood; (5) cannot raise the dead; (6) sometimes impatient; (7) visit only one patient at a time; (8) subject to disease themselves, Heb. 2. 17; (9) their medicines lose their virtue by long keeping. Talmud.-A doctor at a distance is blind. Bengali.-He who has had the ringworm knows what it really is. Tamul.-Faith in medicine makes it effectual. Japan.-No medicine for lovesickness and a fool. Tamul. Is there any medicine for a bad temper? Tamul.—The friendship of the doctor ends at the threshold. Telugu. Are you to ask the bullock before you put on the pack-saddle ? Urdu.-The barber washes everyone's feet, but thinks it beneath him to wash his own. Tamul.-He who has killed 1,000 persons is half a doctor. Urdu.-There is no physic for false ideas. Who are Pilgrims on Earth ?—HEB. II. II, 13. Moses gave his son the name of Gershom (the stranger), to signify he was not in his own land, though it gave him shelter when treated with neglect by his own countrymen, and driven away from a royal court, Ex. 2. 22. The Jews' journey in the desert—a type of the Christian pilgrimage in ten points : 1. A journey from a house of bondage; the Jews worked in hot weather in Egypt, a land like a furnace, and were deprived of their children; so the righteous were slaves to Satan, and their offspring were heirs to misery, serving divers lusts, I Pet. 2. II. God says to them, as the angel did to Lot, "Escape for thy life, look not back," Gen. 19. 17. 2. A journey through a dangerous desolate wilderness, hunger, fiery serpents, burning sand, flinty rock, a land of drought, of the shadow of death, Deut. 8. 15; so is this world; no food for the soul, temptations for the trial of faith, storms, quicksands of affliction, the enemies of the Christian are fear, Prov. 22. 13; unbelief; sloth, 1 Tim. 5. 13; covetousness, Mat. 16. 24; presumption. 3. A journey to a land of Promise: the Jews in the wilderness saw this not, yet they had God's word for it; R the stones were iron; a land of fountains flowing with milk and honey, Deut. 8. 8; so the Patriarchs were not mindful of that country from whence they came out, Heb. II. 15. 4. A long and roundabout journey. The Jews might have reached Canaan in one month instead of forty years, but thereby their trial and punishment were intended, Deut. 8. 2; so Christians have a variety of experience, joy, and sorrow; rest will be therefore more sweet. 5. Rely on a heavenly guide coming up from the wilderness leaning on the beloved, Cant. 3. 8; underneath are the everlasting arms, Deut. 33. 27. A journey under Divine Government; the Jews were few in Egypt, yet kings were reproved for their sake; they multiplied in slavery; in Babylon God was with the Jews, but in the desert there was the pillar of cloud by day, of fire by night; they had angels' food; their garments and shoes waxed not old; so Christ is with his Church to the end of the world, Mat. 28. 20; as an eagle over her young ones, Deut. 32. 11; they mount up with wings as eagles, Is. 40. 31; there are various pretended ways, but Christ is the true one. 6. A journey with a happy termination; Jordan crossed, each sat under his vine and fig-tree, so a rest for God's people, Is. 35. 10; all journeys in this world not certain of success. 7. Enter by the straight way—of religious conviction, their foot on the flesh, their eye on the cross. 8. Their Provision on the way, bread from heaven. 9. Perseverance-of all that came out of Egypt few entered Canaan, so Lot's wife with regard to Sodom, like man putting his hand to the plough and looking back, Luke 9. 62. 10. In motion always, but towards home, Gen. 47.9. Afghan. To every one his home is kashmir-i.e., very good. Badaga.-A single coal burns not well, a single traveller finds the way heavy. Ramayan.-As a man going to another village stays outside, and next day leaving that abode proceeds on his journey, so home and property are only men's resting places. Providence Rescues from a Horrible Pit.-Ps. 40. 2. This text alludes to the custom of digging pits to catch wild beasts, and covering them with straw or dust, or such like things, that they might not be discerned, The Psalmist in this, as in some other passages of his writings, means by digging a pit to express the mischievous designs of the wicked, who, in trying to do him harm by their subtlety, treated him as men did wild beasts which they endeavoured to catch. Joseph was cast into a pit by his envious brethren, where they would have left him to perish, if Judah had not interposed on his behalf, Gen. 37. 26. "Pit" also signifies the grave, and the Psalmist expresses the despair he should be in if God slighted him. He should become as a dead man, lost and undone. Nothing is so painful to a gracious soul as the want of God's favour and the sense of his displeasure. His frowns are worse than death and the grave. "Pit" also means trouble. Despondency of spirit under the sense of God's withdrawings, and prevailing doubts and fears about our eternal state, are like unto a horrible pit and miry clay. David found himself sinking more and more into inward disquiet and perplexity of spirit, out of which he could not work himself. Atonement a Propitiation through Faith in Christ. ROM. 3.25. Christ's death as an atonement was typified by the Paschal Lamb, Ex. 12; the smiting the rock, Ex. 17. 6; our sins are imputed to Christ, as Adam's were to us, Rom. 5. 12-21; in England, when a woman is married, her husband is responsible for her debts; the Church is Christ's bride, and he pays her debts, so David was kind to the house of Saul for Jonathan's sake. The atonement was also typified by sacrificing the firstlings of the flock, Gen. 4. 4; by Isaac, about to be offered, Gen. 22. 2; by the mercy-seat not approached without blood, the scapegoat was type, Lev. 16. 21. The atonement is a washing out stains, Ps. 51. 2; a passing by, Mic. 7. 18; scattering a cloud that hides the sun; removing sin far away, Ps. 103. 12; healing, Ps. 30. 2. The brazen serpent which cured the Jews bitten by the snakes on their looking at it typified the eye of faith looking on Christ, curing the soul bitten by the serpent--sin. If the mercies of God be not loadstones to draw us to heaven, they will be millstones to sink us to perdition; the wicked are no better for mercies, as the Dead Sea or ocean is no sweeter from the rivers of fresh water that flow in. Death Rest to the Righteous.-JOB 7. 3; 3. 17-19. Rest spiritual differs from worldly rest in four points :— The saints are weary of battling with their three great enemies the world, the flesh, and the devil, like Job, 2 Pet. 2. 8. Paul wished to depart and be with Christ. On Jewish monuments is this inscription: "Rest in peace in Eden." This rest is not the rest of a stone, but is a change to a better state, not like the rest of Jonah in the whale's belly. How strong was Job's wish for rest when he had to clean his burning boils with a potsherd, 2.8; his flesh was clad with worms, 7.4, 5; his breath was corrupt; his bones cleaved to his skin; his friends knew him not, 19. 14. The righteous ought not to be in death like a child compelled by the rod to give up play; but like one who, |