miah, already considered. The opening words are the key to the whole of Israel's defence and deliverance: "Keep not thou silence, O God; hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God!"

In the books of the Prophets, the doom of Moab is so repeatedly declared on him by name, that, to save time and avoid the charge of prolixity and repetition, instead of presenting any comment upon each of them, we shall refer our readers to the passages, and limit our closing remarks to one of the many. See therefore Isa. xi. 14; xv. passim ; xvi. passim ; xxv. 10—12; Jer. ix. 25, 26; xxv. 21; xxvii. 3; xl. 11; xlviii. passim; Ezek. xxv. 8--11; Dan. xi. 41; Amos ii. 1-3; Micah vi. 5-9; and Zeph. ii. 8-11. We select the last mention of him in Jeremiah, which is the fullest of all; and, following the light already obtained, we feel our way plain to the interpretation of it.

The opening of Jer. xlviii. is awfully abrupt, and indicates utter desolation: "Against Moab, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Woe unto Nebo! for it is spoiled; Kiriathaim is confounded and taken; Misgab is confounded and dismayed there shall be no more praise of Moab." Nebo means a speaker, the very idol of the Evangelical world; the others are names of cities, or places of meeting, as Exeter Hall, and the fashionable houses called churches in these days, where the idols are worshipped, and where Moab has been giving and receiving praise too long in peace. But the word of the Lord now saith, "No more praise of Moab." "A voice of crying from Horonaim" (the city of Sanballat),“ spoiling and great destruction: Moab is destroyed: her little ones have caused a cry to be heard," &c. (vers. 1-6). Ver. 6 seems to hold out a ray of hope for the escape of such as flee; but they must flee for their lives, and leave all, and be stripped clean, like a naked tree in the wilderness. Ver. 7 declares the first grand reason of his judgment, self-confidence in his works and treasures. The Evangelicals denounce the true ground of confidence, the love and mercy of God manifested in the coming of Christ into our fallen flesh, and therein tasting death for every man; and they must therefore be trusting to some other stay; whether a doctrine, or a feeling, or a work of flesh, it matters not. The second grand charge against him is in verse 11: "Moab hath been at ease from his youth, settled on his lees, not emptied from vessel to vessel; therefore his taste and scent are unchanged." The Evangelicals boast of their consistency, and refuse to admit even the returning Spirit of God, whom they call an innovator, and disturber of their quiet, a troubler of their peace, bringing painful agitation to their all but seared conscience. The third charge of God against Moab is in verse 14, for his boasted selfsufficiency for the war: the Evangelicals, without feeling their

need of the power of the Holy Ghost, as of old, to do the least work for Christ in his church, have, in their self-sufficiency, rushed to the fight with Papists, Infidels, Jews, and Heathen; but are now, to every eye but their own, proved incompetent for the war. How could it possibly be otherwise? The fourth charge is in verse 26: "He hath magnified himself against the Lord;" that is, the Spirit of the Lord, by derision of the work of the Spirit; therefore the word is, Make ye him drunken." (See Isa. xxviii. and xxix. for the interpretation of this; and note especially verses 9-14 of chap. xxix.) The fifth charge is for pride, lofty, arrogant, haughty pride of heart, ver. 29.

This follows necessarily from the last, and the whole body of the Evangelical world is bloated with it: the manifestation of the Spirit has brought it to light; and its usual forms of expression," wrath and lies," ver. 30, are so notorious, that even worldlings and infidels are crying out shame upon it!

These fearful charges against Moab are severally followed up by the most tremendous strokes of judgment. For the first the Lord awards him captivity-his idols, and their worshippers, their priests, and their princes together and the utter spoliation of every city and valley and plain: the Evangelicals shall be driven out from all their refuges of lies, by the sweeping hail and the smiting sword, ver. 7, 8. Again: the call, "Give wings to Moab, that he may flee and get away, ver. 9, seems to betoken a remnant escaping. But the adjuration in ver. 10 forbids all compromise, and casts away the scabbard from the sword of vengeance. Who meets an Evangelical now, meets a deadly foe, and to parley for a moment with him is treason against Christ. Remember Saul's rebellion in sparing even Agag and the spoil, and remember his doom. (1 Sam. xv.) Oh, but the dreadful recompence which God has prepared for the modern Moab's boasted consistency in resisting the Spirit of Jesus! Wanderers! aye, wandering stars, legious of unclean spirits, from the pit of the abyss! ver. 12. For his arrogance and self-sufficiency in the matter of the war, the Lord the King sends all his chosen young men to the slaughter, ver. 15; and his swift calamity and hasting affliction, seen by all around him, is a call to bemoan him, and lament the breaking of the strong staff and the beautiful rod, by all who know his name, ver. 17. "Thou daughter of Dibon, come down from thy glory, and sit in thirst!" ver. 18. Dibon means "understanding, the reason," which is the strong snare of Moab now the little that he has he erects into a god, and sits in judgment on the things of the Spirit of God, as if he had the master key of the world of spirits. For this he shall sit in eternal thirst: not a drop of water shall cool his flame-tormented tongue for ever! Judgment is laid to the line on "all his cities, far or near his horn is cut off; his arm is broken, saith the Lord," vers.

19-25. Another call is yet made to the dwellers in Moab, to leave the cities and dwell in the rock, ver. 28. Leave your churches and confederacies, ye who are in the snare of the Spiritdespising Moab, and dwell in Christ, the Rock smitten for you, and flowing with the living water for you, even for you !

The closing portion of the prophecy is chiefly calling for grief and lamentation over the doom of Moab, vers. 31-39; and reiterated assurances of the inevitable and swift desolation about to come upon him, 40-46. Ver. 47 may import the gathering of a remnant after the great tribulation: but the words of Balaam recur to us when we read it, "Alas! who shall live when God doeth this?" In reference to the mourning, so solemnly enjoined on us in the prospect of such dreadful days of visitation, it is but a cold truth. to say that it is easier to be angry with the Evangelical world than to weep for its coming destruction: yet we can say, that of the howling and weeping, the mourning and crying out, the sounding of heart and lamentation, so largely called for over Moab, we have both seen, and somewhat felt, the burden; that in those in whom the Spirit of the Lord now speaks, the same spirit often weeps over the multitudes whose characters and doom we have now been shewing forth; and that, while the opening of this mystery of Moab by the all-revealing Spirit has proved to our own souls one of the chief blessings for which we have to praise our heavenly Father, the warning and guidance and counsel it has furnished have but enlarged our earnest long. ing for the speedy deliverance from the cities and plains of the Evangelical world, of all the members of the body of Christ; that the Father may be glorified in the Son, and the Lord Jesus quickly come again to be glorified in all his saints.

Having thus traced out the most prominent characteristics of Moab, as they are recorded in the Scriptures; and having shewn how conspicuous a place he occupies in the prophecies, especially in such as relate to the last times; and having also pointed out similar characteristics which are observable in a large class of professors, occupying a very conspicuous place in the religious world; we would now in few words complete the demonstration by adverting to some of the passages in the New Testament, in which the prominent features of the nominal church of the last days are given, agreeing very strikingly with the characteristics common both to Moab and the religious world, and often identified with them by the naming of Balaam, or some other mark equally indisputable.

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The backsliding, faithless, and apostate portions of the Christian church are often charged with the sins of Moab, and with the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication" (Rev. ii. 14).

These charges are especially brought against the church of the last days, and these sins are made the peculiar characteristics of that generation, against whom the Son of man shall come in judgment; revealed from heaven in flaming fire to take vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Peter describes them as false teachers, who privily bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction: and many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of: and through covetousness shall they with feign words make merchandize of the church. They are further described as following the way of Balaam, the son of Bosor; and as the scoffers of the last days, who say, "Where is the promise of the Lord's coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation;" wresting the Scriptures unto their own destruction (2 Peter ii. 1-15, iii. 3-16). Jude characterises them as crept in unawares, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ; as despising dominion, speaking evil of dignities, speaking evil of those things which they know not; as running greedily after the error of Balaam for reward; their mouth speaking great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage; as being the mockers of the last times, who walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves (themselves draw the line of separation), sensual (judging and acting by sense), having not the Spirit (Jude 4, 16, 18, 19.)

And because they judge by sense only, without having or seeking the Spirit, they are characterised in both Epistles as brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed, who speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption (2 Pet. ii. 12): for what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves: Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, (Jude 11), hating their brethren for no other cause than that the Lord hath respect unto the offering of Abel.

Some may think these characteristics, of Moab, and of the lastday scoffers, are too strong to be justly applicable to the religious world now. But this can only proceed from inattention to the constant downward tendencies of the natural man, a working which is as invariable in the mind as in the body, and still more dangerous because it is less perceptible, and because it corrupts that which should have been the preservative and the remedy. When any one is become "sensual" in his mind, and thinks that he can understand the things of God without having the Spirit,

such persons will soon become irrational, corrupt that which they touch, speak evil of the things that they understand not, and shall utterly perish in their own corruption: and even in those things which they know naturally, shall corrupt themselves as brute beasts.

The carnal mind is enmity against God, the spring of enmity there sends forth all the various streams of corruption, and to heal the stream we have sought to cleanse the fountain. Our readers well know that we have tried every form of expostulation and argument, and only had recourse to strong reproof in those cases which have resisted all gentle methods of treatment: the honest physician must probe the wound, and expel the humour, if he would save the patient's life.

It has been our endeavour to be both honest and tender, to shew both love and faithfulness: "of some to have compassion, making difference: and others to save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh." And if in any case we have passed beyond our commission, or come short of our intention, it has been from infirmity, not from design; such sins of ignorance we know assuredly will be forgiven by our heavenly Father, who searcheth the hearts, and whose glory we have ever sought to advance. He is now about to take the controversy into His own hands, and it will speedily appear on which side truth is to be found. The people of God are called to flee out of Babylon, and when this call is answered Babylon shall fall: Moab is charged to hide the outcasts of the Lord, and for bewraying these wanderers Moab shall be trodden down like straw for the dunghill: and the Lord shall bring down their pride, together with the spoils of their hands. Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee, hide thyself as it were for a little moment until the indignation be overpast. (Isai. xxvi.)