devious pathway of our existence, almost up to our entrance upon life. Who does not remember the sunny days of childhood; the cheering voice of a tender mother; and the gaudy tinsel of a new world? Who does not call to remembrance how, by degrees, he found out the bitters of experience; the gloom of sorrow; the anguish of bereavement, and the shadow of death? And Oh! would that this were all! would that the filmy trail of our memory were not defiled and clogged by the slime of sin! the lie; the unclean thought; the act and deed of wilful crime. Alas! 'tis a thorny path, the path of our memory; and yet 'tis one we must tread, over and over again, as we exercise ourselves in self-examinings, and bethink us of the guidance of God; above all, as we avail ourselves of the ministry of Christ, to save our souls alive.

'Thou shalt remember,' said Moses to Israel, at the commandment of God; do not shrink from this plain duty; do not let engagements of the present cause thee to forget experience of the past; for it is mainly out of the past, that wisdom gathers strength, and the character is nourished for good.

You may surely take it as a bad sign, when a man declines to avail himself of his memory, and to go back, with this sacred lamp in his hand, to visit the dark places of his past experience, of his former self. If you cannot stand the scrutiny of the eye of your own conscience, Oh! how will you stand the search of the all-seeing eye of God, in the great day of reckon

ing? If a wicked man tampers with the eye of his memory, and will cut himself off from the noble attributes of his being, seeing backward and forward; Oh! what an awful scene will burst upon him, when the great Judge shall cause the scales to fall from his eyes, and he beholds himself, his real life and experience, from his cradle to his coffin. Oh! now, my brethren, think me a friend, if, borrowing the words of Moses to Israel, I set you on the work of remembrance; thou shalt remember.'

Besides, it shall not be all gloom; I will not force on your thoughts, your own wayward

but rather the way which the

course, and that only, Lord thy God led thee. This is God's world, and we are His creatures, and He knoweth the way that we take; and, Oh! pleasant thought, the ways of a good man are ordered of the Lord.'

Israel, at the time of which we are speaking, had a past; a past, like a cabinet, full of rare treasures. England has a past; we have a past; yes, each one of us, that is forty years old.

When Adam and Eve stood forth majestic, with the impress of heaven on their every feature, they had no past; memory had no office to perform; but soon it was called on to work. you remember, Eve,'—

Do

• do

so might Adam have said; you remember when you gave birth to Cain, and thought you had gotten the man from the Lord? Oh! do you remember the foul spots of Abel's blood, on the green carpet of God's world?" How he might have proceeded, drawing from

the storehouse of his memory. And Noah to his children after the flood; how he might have brought out of the treasure of his memory, things, marvellous things, new and old. And the patriarchs, and the Pharaohs of Egypt; and Israel, as a nation, standing by the brink of the river Jordan, after his strange wanderings in the desert; yes, and this is the scene before us. Behold there, in the land of Moab, the people of the Lord solemnly assembled together, and hearken to the words of the law-giver, seeking to impress their minds-"Thou, O Israel! thou shalt remember."

The infancy of a great nation is generally spent in the endurance of hardships. Israel was no exception. The iron bondage of Egypt was a rough cradle for God's son to be laid in, but God appointed it. To endure hardship is no bad sign. Patience, and experience, and sympathy for others, are soonest learnt in the school of adversity. A past of toil and suffering is more profitable to reflect on, than one of dalliance and ease; it reminds us too of the great retrospect ;— "these are they who came out of great tribulation, and washed their robes, and made them white, in the blood of the Lamb." My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into diverse temptations: for the memory of a Christian delights to ramble amid tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril and sword; signed, as he ever is, with the sign of the Cross.

The country that stretched itself across from the borders of Egypt, to the borders of the land of promise, was a waste, howling wilderness; yet, what strange sights and scenes were there displayed; the food-the manna; the drink-the water from the rock; the guiding-cloud; the strange tabernacle, and the goodly tents; the quails; the fiery serpents (the one on the cross!) the waters of Marah; Korah and his company; Aaron, between the dead and the living; the sound of the trumpet; the trembling of the mountain. Oh! wonderful desert! fertile with prodigies; types and figures of a strange experience. O, Israel! thou shalt remember; remember all these. Thou shalt visit again and again, in thy after life, when dwelling in the land flowing with milk and honey; thou shalt visit the past, and remember the many trials, dangers, and hair-breadth escapes of the land of the desert. I said, types and figures of a strange experience; yes, and I mean what I said; for, between the borders of our earthly life; or rather, between the confines of our spiritual life; between baptism and the grave; there is a strange country which we have to pass. This is the land of our experience; this is the place of our pilgrimage. The food provided for us; the living water; the guiding cloud; the cross, the cross! to which we look, for healing and for glory,-Oh! what miracles, wonders, and signs, in this border land of heaven.

Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah
Pilgrim through this desert land!

Thou shalt remember; yes, Christian, thou shalt remember, the marvellous items of thy heavenward pilgrimage.

You understand what I mean, beloved. Perhaps, as you go back, through the years of your past life, and memory lights up the principal objects that once engaged your attention; those objects are of a worldly cast; a feast; a funeral; money, lost or gained; your wedding day; or-What shall I say? Allow me to call you off, from this set of objects to others of equal, or rather greater importance, in the long run. 'Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee, these forty years, in the wilderness.' It is true, that feast and that funeral, and that set of objects just named, were great points in your experience, but are there not others? Well! let us see- -Your early consciousness! You cannot remember the time, of course, when your parents and friends, in obedience to command of heaven; encouraged too by sacred promises, brought you as an infant to Christ, in the ordinance of His own appointment. You regarded not the prayers that were said in your behalf, nor the vows solemnly made; nor do you remember the impress of that sacred sign, on the tender skin of your forehead; Oh, no! but remember, if you please, that this was done for you; and it was the good hand of your God; it was His gracious providence. You were not born in a heathen, but in a Christian land; and you will depart out of this