While all were resuming their places, Myron seemed somewhat disappointed at the loss of the adventure which he had promised himself, to season the insipid sameness of the caravan's march, Elisama turned himself in the direction of Jerusalem, and in an attitude of prayer repeated, When I call my enemies turn back; In God have I put my trust, I will not fear; Thy vows are upon me, O God! I will pay my thank-offerings unto thee: That I may walk before God in the land of the living? The guide was not willing to remain till midnight in this place, and gave the signal for departure. The alarm into which they had just been thrown, the terrors of their fellow-travellers, and the tumult of departure, were unable to turn the minds of Helon and Elisama from the glories of the age of Solomon, and they rehearsed together the following psalm, which, composed primarily in his honour, was sup posed to carry also a secret reference to one much greater than Solomon. The mountains shall declare peace to the people And the hills announce righteousness. They shall fear thee, as long as the sun and moon endure, Throughout all generations. He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass, As showers that water the earth. In his days shall the righteous flourish, And abundance of peace, so long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion from sea to sea, From the river to the ends of the earth, They that dwell in the desert shall bow before him, And his enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents, The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. All kings shall fall down before him, All nations shall serve him A handful of corn, scattered in the earth on the top of the mountains Shall wave its fruit like the trees of Lebanon. And the peopled cities shall flourish like grass of the earth. His name shall endure for ever; His name shall be continued as long as the sun. Men shall be blessed in him; All nations shall call him blessed !-Psl. lxxii. CHAPTER VI. THE HALT AT RHINOCORURA. THEY arrived in safety, and at an early hour, at Rhinocorura, and encamped where a copious stream from the mountains had produced verdure and fertility upon its banks. Elisama, who from his advanced age was easily exhausted by any unusual excitement, was compelled to lie down to rest immediately on his arrival, and it was not till after the meal that he was able to resume his narrative. "I have," said he, "a long and melancholy history to relate. The vicissitudes of five hundred years were necessary, in order to impress upon the mind of Israel the conviction, that the retributive Providence of God watched over their observance of the law, and rewarded or punished them according as they kept or broke it. Yesterday we left our nation on the highest and most brilliant pinnacle of national prosperity, possessed of the law, of the land of promise, and of a temple in which all the outward rites of Jehovah's worship might be observed. One thing only was wanting to make Israel that blessed people, by whom all other nations were to be blessed-willing obedience. But something more was necessary to produce this obedience, than the possession of the law and the means of keeping it. It must be regarded as an extraordinary mark of the favour of Jehovah towards Israel, that every thing was so combined, as to impress the doctrine of retribution upon them, both by fact and precept. No people exhibits such a quick succession and such a striking alternation of reward and punishment, so that Jehovah may be said to have set it up as a monument to the nations of his retributive justice. Its history, however, was not designed merely for the instruction of others, but primarily to teach Israel itself this great lesson; and for this purpose a succession of prophets was raised up, to enforce by their instruction the moral which the events of history were teaching." Myron was about to interpose, but Elisama made a sign to him and continued, "I guess what you are going to say." "Allow me, however, this once to interrupt you in your narrative, for you seem to me to be going too far in your panegyrics. Has not every nation and every religion its priests, its prophets, and its inspired teachers?" "You know," said Elisama, "that I do not relish the Grecian mode of interlocutory debate: let me, if you please, go quietly on, and I hope, before I have done, to remove all your objections. Your own statement shows the difference. Our prophets were not always priests. They were sometimes shepherds, and were chosen by God from all the tribes without distinction. They were chosen messengers of Jehovah; their office raised them above both priest and people, and through them he made. known his judgments and his mercy. They remind the people of the law, they point out in |