CHAPTER XXIII.

HE days which immediately followed, were days of peculiar trial to the Madden family. Cora had not been altogether mistaken in her conjecture; Sir Thomas not only wished, but had internally resolved, to clear the castle of the troublesome connections of his brideelect, but the task was a delicate one, and required some tact and management. Mrs. Madden was a great deal too good-natured and kind-hearted, and had too much regard for the world's opinion, to like any strong or violent measures; nor were such measures suited to the cautious disposition of Sir Thomas himself. He wished no open quarrel with any one, especially with any one who might soon be put into possession of thirty thousand pounds. The uncertainty of the issue of the lawsuit was Sir Thomas's great difficulty in forming his plans. This uncertainty was becoming every day a greater source of torture to the Maddens. Every morning the opening of the post-bag was awaited with feverish impatience, and ever-recurring disappointment threw its shadow over the rest of each day.

Arthur could not avoid sharing the intense anxiety felt by his brother and sisters; he had indeed a cause for such anxiety which was peculiar to himself, for he well knew that should the verdict be unfavourable, the ruin of the family would be, rightly or wrongly, laid at his door. The sensitive nature of the young man could hardly have endured the protracted suspense, had not his thoughts been every day necessarily turned into a different channel by his occupations at Wildwaste. Arthur found that relief to his mind in teaching and visiting the poor, in giving instruction and comfort, that his family vainly sought in various kinds of amusement. Arthur in pursuing his labours was forced to think of the trials of others rather than of his own, and when compared with such afflictions as those of Deborah Stone, his troubles seemed easy to be borne.

So passed. time with Arthur, chequered with fear and hope, sorrow and joy, till on the next Friday evening he again made one of the little congregation assembled at the cottage meeting.

Arthur happened to be a little late on this occasion. Mr. Eardley was already in his place, and young Madden quietly took the seat which had been left for him, without exchanging a word with any Lottie was almost opposite to where he sat, and Arthur, very soon after the lecture had commenced, was struck by a look of surprise and fear on the little girl's face, as she glanced towards the door.

one.

Following the direction of her eyes, Arthur turned on his chair, and saw indistinctly a tall figure, which reminded him of Ford's, standing in the shadow of the doorway, but he could not catch a glimpse of the face. Whether the publican had been drawn thither by curiosity, or by a desire to ingratiate himself with Mr. Eardley, whose influence was great in the neighbourhood, or whether even he had felt some better impulse leading him to return thanks to God for late preservation, neither Arthur nor any one else ever knew. When prayer had followed the lecture, and Arthur rose from his knees to join in the closing hymn, Ford had disappeared from his place.

LECTURE VII.-MOSES AS LAWGIVER.

Before we proceed to consider a transaction most solemn and glorious,—God's delivering the Law to Moses amidst the thunders of Sinai,—we will for a few minutes pause to reflect on the nature and the necessity of a law for man.

What is sin? It is disobedience to the will of our great Creator and Preserver; it is rebellion against our heavenly King. But how can we know what is His will unless He be pleased Himself to reveal it? Unless God make known to us His commandments, we are too blind even to distinguish the right from the wrong.

It may be said, "Have we not conscience, are not

its dictates like a Law of God stamped upon our very souls ?"

It is so indeed when conscience is enlightened by the Truth which God has revealed in His Word, but without that light, conscience is much like a sundial when the darkness of night is around it. To prove this, we have but to turn to heathen tribes who have never possessed a Bible, nor known the commandments of God. We find in many of them that falsehood is a habit, theft is an instinct, revenge is regarded as a virtue; while their dim ideas of religion take the shape of idolatry, often stained with cruelty and murder.

There was then a great necessity that God Himself should teach His creatures the eternal difference between evil and good; that He should declare His will, and have it written down, so that all generations of men should know, reverence, and obey the Law of their heavenly King.

We read that on the first day of the third month after coming forth from Egypt, the Israelites encamped before the Mount of Sinai.* And the Lord called to

* As there are various opinions as to the exact part of the Red Sea crossed by the children of Israel, so are different views held regarding the precise mountain chosen by the Lord for the solemn delivery of the Law. Jebel Moosa, or the Rock of Moses, Mount Serbal, and another called Ras-es-Sufsafeh (or as the Rev. T. Tyrwhitt spells it, Sassâfeh), have each been thought of as the possible Mount Sinai, where, from amid clouds and darkness, sounded forth the voice of the Omnipotent God. These typographical questions, though very interesting in themselves, are foreign to the object which the authoress had in view in writing this little volume. She leaves them for the consideration of such of her readers as have the opportunity of searching for themselves the various works in which the exact locality of Sinai is made a subject of study. She will only transcribe a striking passage contained in the New

Moses out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel. Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto Myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then shall ye be a peculiar treasure to Me, above all people: for the earth is Mine, and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation!

Moses, charged with this most gracious message, called together the elders of the people, and rehearsed to them the words of the Lord; and all the people answered together and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.

This was the solemn Covenant, or agreement, between God and the nation of Israel; a promise of peculiar favour on the one side, and of faithful obedience on the other. Man entered readily into this Covenant; but, alas! we shall find that he as readily broke it, and so forfeited his claim to the blessings which God had conditionally promised.

And now Moses was commanded to charge the

Monthly Magazine, in reference to the general scenery of the place where God spake to Moses, introducing it by the observation that, "Horeb embraces the whole range of mountains in that region, while Sinai is applied to the particular mountain peak on which these events occurred."

"So great in its wildness is the whole aspect of this region, that a traveller, Sir F. Henneker, tells us that if he had to represent the end of the world he would model it from Mount Sinai." He calls it "a sea of desolation," and adds: "It would seem as if Arabia Petræ had once been an ocean of lava, and that while its waves were literally running mountains high, it was commanded suddenly to stand still." Another traveller remarks that Etna and Vesuvius "are nothing compared with the terrific solitude and bleak majesty of Sinal."