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molten image, they had taken out of Micah's h Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasse. sons were priests to the tribe of Dan, until the day o of the land. And they set them up Micah's graven he made, all the time that the house of God was in S passage establishes two important points: First, that Dan was thus early considered the representative of t secondly, the enormity of this apostasy is surely in represented as greatly enhanced, by contrasting it v that the true temple of GOD, and the ark of the coven Divine service of typical sacrifices was conducted, was the south. Shiloh, we know, is one of the earliest and names of our LORD-" until Shiloh come.”

So it is seen that within the short space of twenty y ing to the received chronology, after Israel's esta Canaan, a system of false worship was fully organised from whence Antichrist is to spring, and in open defiance of JEHOVAH's worship at Shiloh.

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The next important passage to be noticed relative to in Moses' blessing of the tribes, Deut. xxxiii. 22. he said, Dan is a lion's whelp: he shall leap fro Taken by themselves, the words are of course suscepti a benedictory or a maledictory interpretation. We mu case be guided by the light which a comparison of the notices concerning Dan will throw upon what is of itself If then we remember that there is about almost every of in which this tribe is mentioned, something fearfully teriously significant, pointing it out as in some way or nected with the powers of hell, a kind of fount whence was ever springing up to be a snare and a trouble to Israel, we shall not be at a loss for the true interpretation words.

The connection of Dan with Bashan is seen at once deration of their migration to Laish, or Leshem. A leap as a lion's whelp. For as our LORD is "the Lion o of Judah :" so we know there is another lion," who walk seeking whom he may devour." And Antichrist is whelp," as it were the progeny of that other lion-see xvii. 12-passages which S. Augustine explains of and his instigator and possessor, the devil. And he in from Bashan. He in the north sets himself against th the south; against that Incarnate GOD Who "stooped, an as a lion, and as an old lion,' on Calvary, before He ar might and glory of His resurrection in the same holy hi Lion, this King it was, Who was born amongst the hills o

1 Gen. xlix. 9.

Who received His first earthly homage in the hill country of Hebron in the south, when S. John the Baptist leapt in his mother's womb for joy at the presence of His Incarnate GOD; and Who, from Olivet, another Mount of the south, leapt as it were heavenward, when His earthly work was accomplished. In opposition then to this "King of the south," Antichrist unfurls his banner in the north. He is the lion's whelp who leaps from Bashan. And still further, to connect Bashan with the enemies of our GOD, and with Satanic power, we read in Ps. xxii. 12, that in His Passion " strong

bulls of Bashan beset Him around." He was then sore beset with legions of devils. As then Dan was the first tribe of Israel which fell into idolatry, from which at no subsequent period in Old Testament history was it ever purged, so also, immediately upon Jeroboam's defection it became one of the two chief seats of the worship of the golden calves, by which Israel was made to sin, and which ultimately brought about the final apostasy of the ten tribes, their utter ruin, and as far as we can learn from observation, their complete extinction. But if it indeed be that Holy Scripture points to their restoration at a day known to Him Who "gathereth together the outcasts of Israel," and "brings them back from the north country whither He had driven them;" then may we well conclude that Dan will return with them and play no unimportant part in the world's future history.

To sum up the actual history of Dan as a tribe. It was the first which fell into idolatry, and the first which was carried captive1 to Assyria. It was, as we might conclude, one of the six tribes who stood upon Mount Ebal to curse.2 It was the tribe which was made use of as an instrument by the prince of darkness to overthrow God's ancient Church; and in which he succeeded so far as to draw ten out of those twelve "tribes of Israel to whom the Word of the LORD" came, into an apostasy which has lasted fully three thousand years, since Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin, set up the two golden calves, one at Bethel and one at Dan. In another respect Jeroboam only followed the example which had been set at Dan four hundred years previously-making Priests of those who were not of the seed of Aaron to minister at the High Places.

Lastly; though Dan is apparently to return with the rest of the tribes, and to be located again in the land of Israel,3 it will, if the testimony of antiquity be true, be once more the seat of an apostasy which shall seduce all but the elect. And we may remark in passing, that this very mention of Dan in connection with the restored city and temple, in the latter part of Ezekiel, is partly a proof that the Prophet is not speaking of the city Zion which is above, nor of the new Jerusalem, in which S. John saw no temple; but that it is rather a prophecy descriptive in mystical language of 1 1 Kings xv. 20, &c.

2 Deut. xxvii. 13.

3 Ezek. xlviii.

the restored polity of the children of Israel, when they shall return to their own land, and GOD shall feed them " upon the mountains of Israel." Thus we have examined, with scarcely an exception, every mention of Dan in the Old Testament Scriptures, and we have found them uniform in the hints which they give, and the light which they seem to throw upon some mysterious connection between this tribe and the powers of evil throughout the entire course of Old Testament history and prophecy.

We are come now to examine if there be anything in the New Testament which may assist us in our inquiry. It is at once obvious that there is no mention, by name, of either the city or the tribe of Dan in any part of the New Testament Scriptures. Cæsarea Philippi, as the ancient Laish was then called, is mentioned upon one occasion.1 But it was one of the very highest importance. It was when S. Peter pronounced his memorable declaration in answer to the question of our LORD, "Whom say ye that I, the Son of Man am?" "Thou art the CHRIST, the SON of the living GOD." And then CHRIST Himself replied immediately, "Verily I say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

Thus, if we have been correct in our previous conclusions with respect to Dan, we see that the tribe and the locality which are especially connected with the rise of Antichrist were chosen by the Providence of GoD as the very spot above all others, where the Incarnate SoN should be confessed and proclaimed in the most solemn manner, by express revelation from the FATHER, as emphatically "The CHRIST."

We come now to what is, perhaps, the most significant of anything which has been adduced, the omission of any mention of the tribe of Dan in the seventh chapter of Revelation, which records the sealing of the 144,000 out of all the twelve tribes of Israel. These are they who correspond to and represent the innumerable company of the faithful, which no man could number, out of every nation, and tribe, and people, and tongue. All are found there except the tribe of Dan. Here it finally disappears, and another is found in its place, the tribe of Manasses. All the rest are there, the other tribes, sinful and wayward as their course had been, still of them all it might be said as in the early prophecy of the destiny of Gad, "The troop of false gods shall overcome them, but they shall overcome at the last." Even so the name of Judas, hypocrite and traitor though he were, appears in all the catalogues which are given in the Gospels of the twelve Apostles, until at last he falls for ever, and his "place is no more to be found." Then the prophetic curse is fulfilled, "Let his habitation be desolate, and his bishopric let another take." His name occurs no more in the sacred story, and Matthias takes the place "from which Judas by 1 S. Matt. viii. 13, &c.

transgression fell." So it is with the tribe of Dan. The longsuffering of GOD bore with it through all the long course of Scripture history. The tribe is restored with the rest, and obtains an honourable position in the renewed earthly Zion; if indeed, as seems most probable, this be the meaning of Ezekiel xlviii. 32, "And at the east side three gates; one gate of Joseph, one gate of Benjamin, one gate of Dan." But without doubt he will still be the "serpent in the way, the adder by the path." From him, as S. Gregory says, that Antichrist, of whom all other antichrists have been but faint types and shadows, shall arise to "bite the horse heels," that is, to afflict the bodies of the faithful; to vex, and make war against, and "wear out the saints of the Most High." But the Apocalypse looks onward still-beyond the fulfilment of all the prophecies which concern the earth. It looks onward to the heavenly and eternal life of the saints. It gives us blessed glimpses, and opens out to us glorious vistas of the New Jerusalem, the city "not made with hands," the eternal spotless "Bride of the LAMB." Then, when its blessed possessors are numbered finally in mystic numbers, as 144,000 of all the tribes of the true "Israel of GOD," who are without guile, Dan is no longer amongst them. His name is blotted out of the Book of Life. The beast and the false prophet, Antichrist and his members and followers, all who have obeyed them and all whom they have seduced are cast together into the lake of fire, and the smoke of their torment goeth up for ever and ever.

FAITH AND PRACTICE.

Sermons on Faith and Practice. By JAMES R. ALSOP, M.A. Masters, and J. H. Parker.

ONE other grateful proof that in the by-ways of our land bright lights are burning, pure notes are sounding, in man's behoof, and for the honour of GOD. Little known and less reputed-amid the clangour of deaf and deafening work, within the shade of hedgeside solitude, "buried alive," as the world would call them,-and in truth too little valued by their fellows, rudely jostled by the coarse, superciliously decried by the shallow, unsought and uncheered, or only sought to be discouraged by those "over them in the LORD," many servants of CHRIST are daily witnessing in this our island, to eternal truth, humbly, steadily, and effectively.

These are they which are really keeping truth alive in our wilderness of unbelief or falsehood, they which are preserving know

ledge in the waste of ignorance; these trim the lamp of the lone Church in the thickening darkness, silently gather in souls to the fold, jealously keep watch and ward over the glory of their GOD, and by their pious course win the Divine blessing for our Church and people.

If men knew it, it is to these they owe much of the light which yet glimmers. To these they owe GOD's Presence, and that the curse of His withdrawal has been at least stayed; nay, perhaps to these they are indebted for national and individual prosperity, or national and individual immunity, amid the provocations of a scornful or defiant ungodliness. Yes, there rise continuously the offerings of holy lives, examples quickening the precepts of faithful teachers of GOD, with fine intellect, chastened tastes, acute sensibilities; they are devoting the choice endowments of their nature in simplicity, and unwearying struggle, for the inculcation of a sound faith and the education of a godly practice. Nothing would be more incongruous with the teaching or tone of such, nothing whose sin would so glaringly appear, as flattery of them or of their works. Their deepest grief, not to say shame, would be to make much of what is but simple duty, the best discharge of which is defective, the neglect of which would be sinful. But it is pleasant for ourselves to think upon these men; it is instructive for others to speak of their deeds; and even for themselves, if a word of commendation reach them, may it not cheer some lonely heart, soothe perhaps and nerve for stouter action the spirit of some attached, and wounded and struggling hero of his LORD?

The volume before us is, if we mistake not very much, the gathering of a few waifs and strays from precious things cast abroad from time to time by one of these. Four and twenty sermons on such subjects as-The Conscience; The Holy Scriptures; The Ministry, Creeds, and Sacraments; The Holy Spirit; The Life and Light of Men; The Martyrdom at Bethlehem; Fasting; CHRIST'S Passion in the Church; CHRIST's Life and the Life in the World; Cornelius; The Living Mediator; A right Judgment in all things; The Holy Trinity; Eli, Paternal Duty; The two Masters of the Soul; Temptation; Naaman; Daily Trust in Providence; The Nobleman of Capernaum; Prayer; The Guileless Man; The wealth and honour of the Saints on earth; The suffering Saints; and Robbing GOD,-while forming indeed but a minute portion of a teaching extended over several and eventful years-eventful in offences to the Church which our Parish Priest did not hesitate to speak of to his people very plainly and very practically-eventful it must have been in the peculiar circumstances and changes of the parish itself-furnish a fair criterion of the tone, character, and mode of ministerial action, especially in the public and private instruction, of the author.

Sad reproach indeed to a Church and to its particular members,