your fingers into your ears; cry to the Holy Spirit of peace and strength and life to help you, lest you fall; and when the floods of temptation come in strong, and the roving eye would lead you into danger, think of Achan, his fall, his sin, his detection, his death, and cry to the Lord," Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe." Do not make light of sin, do not trifle with what seems small and of no consequence; remember, "he that despiseth little things shall fall by little and little." 2. Another reflection is suggested by the circumstances of this solemn history. See how the presence of one offender brought misery upon the whole camp of Israel. So it is with individuals and with Christian communities. Oftentimes an Achan troubles their peace, spoils their usefulness and checks their progress. Oh! how careful should the members of churches and congregations be lest they be Achans in the midst of their brethren. And if any individual among us mourns over backwardness or spiritual declension and sloth, let him search for the secret cause. Some root of bitterness has been allowed to spring up; some worm is gnawing at the core; some "dead fly is spoiling the ointment; some cherished sin is hindering the blessing. Bring out the troubler, resign him to judgment, let the Achan die. While he is undetected or fostered, the favour of God cannot shine upon you. God will not be with you except you destroy that which is accursed. VIII. EBAL AND GERIZIM: THE CURSE AND THE BLESSING. “And all Israel, and their elders, and officers, and their judges, stood on this side the ark and on that side before the priests the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, as well the stranger, as he that was born among them; half of them over against mount Gerizim, and half of them over against mount Ebal; as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel. And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women, and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them." -Josh. viii. 33-35. VIII. EBAL AND GERIZIM: THE CURSE AND THE BLESSING. WHEN we were considering a previous passage in the history of Israel, their ready obedience, in a national point of view, to the requirements of God's law, and their strict observance of religious duty under circumstances which might seem to excuse it, stood out conspicuously before us. I refer to the circumstances of their encampment at Gilgal, as related in chap. v. Flushed with recent victories, possessed at length of a standing-place in the long-expected land of promise, aware of the terror with which the hearts of the Canaanites were stricken, they nevertheless halted for nearly a week, and devoted themselves to the celebration of such religious rites as not only stayed their progress for a time, but put the whole people in a position in which their enemies, to speak humanly, would find them easy of assault and overthrow. Their time, however, of inaction was not lost time: and the career in which they proceeded, subsequently to the circumcision and Passover at Gilgal, showed the truth of God's promises, and was a pledge for the performance of Deut. xi. 22, 23. "If ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him; Then will the Lord drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves." Thus, at the very outset of a career of great temporal prosperity, God taught this nation a great lesson, one of the greatest which men can learn. It was this: that men are never losers by religion. It is indeed impossible that they can be. For, what is religion? It is the cultivation of the highest and best interests of man. If religion were merely a thing of books and creeds and words and forms; if it were really that which its many counterfeits falsely represent it to be, there need be no question that time spent upon it would be lost. But when it involves the greatest and most real concerns for time and eternity-pardon, acceptance, holiness, knowledge of the will of God—that man must be blind to his true weal who fears that he will be a loser by giving heed to the things of Jesus Christ, the things which accompany salvation. A similar case to that of Gilgal is recorded in the |