"DOE THE NEXTE THYNGE."

On the wall of an old English parsonage is engraven, in old Saxon letters sunk in the granite, the motto, "Doe the Nexte Thynge." Like many other groupings of plain words, it has, wrapped up in its quaint simplicity, a treasure of significance. For how many doubts would be solved, how many cares would be lightened, how effectually the problem of life would be wrought out, if, instead of halting in the way, or fretting at visionary difficulties to come, we should each day and hour just go on to do the next thing. The word may have twc meanings. If that which we are trying to do is plainly impossible, pass on to the next duty that offers. If what we have aspired to as the best is plainly not at once to be reached, go on to do the next best. And it also means, do the thing that comes next in order; that lieth nearest to your hand. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do "not what your dreams picture, but what your hand find to do-do it. Not wish it were done, not resolve some time to do it—but do it at once, and with a will. This is the secret of efficient working and successful living.

To do the next thing freely and heartily we must let go the last, draw off the eyes from the past. This was Paul's method in that mightily energetic life of his. "Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark," &c. The last thing may have been a failure. You cannot afford to let it discourage you the next thing may be a success; or the last thing may have been a victory-don't rest on your laurels. The next thing may be a grander triumph; at least, it may be more needful to be done. Do it. To do the next thing we must not be too anxious about results. Act with what light you have and what strength you have at the time, and leave results with God. If the path of duty leads through a stone wall, or a solid phalanx of bristling difficulties, take the next step,-go at it. Your going through is God's business, not yours.

With Christ each successive step brought Him nearer to the cross of shame and anguish; yet He kept steadily on,-for us. With Paul, when Roman bonds and a dungeon were before him, and weeping friends hung around his neck to detain them, he broke away from them, and step by step went on to his martyrdom.

If one attempt to bring a soul to Christ has failed, go seek another. If you have produced a serious impression by Sunday's lesson, follow it up on Monday by a call, or a tract, or a note to deepen it. If a scholar has given evidence of a change of hearts follow on to train him in knowledge, and bring him to confess Christ. Do not leave your work half finished. Do the next thing necessary to mature and the next thing essential to complete it. Do it patiently, reverently, trustfully, and with thy might; for thy might is His omnipotence "who worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure."

NEWS OF THE CHURCHES.

B.

THE chapel in Wellington-square, late of the Metropolitan Tabernacle Hastings, under the care of the College, of the church in Commer Rev. J. Barker, has been re-opened, cial-road, Oxford; the Rev after enlargement and improve Humphrey, late of Llangollen ment. The foundation-stone of a College, of the church in Upper new chapel has been laid at Sheer- Medlock-street, Manchester. ness, for the ministry of the Rev. THE following reports of MINISJ. Hadler. The memorial-stone TERIAL CHANGES have reached us of a new chapel has been laid at since the publication of our last Tonypandy, for the ministry of the issue:-The Rev. J. Lee, of the Rev. O. Tidman.-The chapel at Colllege, Manchester, to Idle, near Little Stoughton, Beds, under the Leeds; the Rev. H. Rix, B.A. forcare of the Rev. C. Warner, has merly of Regent's-park College, to been re-opened after alteration.- St. Thomas's-square, Hackney, to The chapel in Drummond-road, be co-pastor with the Rev. J. Picton, Bermondsey, near London, under M.A.; the Rev. J. Wilson, of the the care of the Rev. J. A. Brown, has Metropolitan Tabernacle College, been re-opened after alteration.- to Charles-street, Woolwich; the The memorial-stone of a new Rev. R. P. Javan, late of Lower chapel has been laid at Curtesden Norwood, to Warkworth, NorthGreen, Goudhurst, Kent, for the umberland; the Rev. D. Lewis, ministry of the Rev. J. J. Kendon. of Pontypool, to Noddfa, Aber-The chapel at Thorpe-le-Soker, sychan; the Rev. H. W. Meadow, Essex, under the care of the Rev. of Gosford-street, Coventry, to G. W. Pope, has been re-opened Wolston and Dunchurch, Warwickafter alteration.-A new chapel has shire; the Rev. T. Hagen, of the been opened in Victoria-street, Metropolitan Tabernacle College, Bristol, for the congregation lately to Wellesley-road, Great Yarmouth; worshipping in Counterslip Chapel, the Rev. J. Voice, of Bristol under the care of the Rev. W. R. College, to New Park-street, HolySkerry. A new chapel has been head; the Rev. R. F. Handford, opened at Gateshead, for the minis- of Rawdon College, to Bishop try of the Rev. E. P. Riley.-The | Auckland; the Rev.T. H. Holyoak, chapel at Weston-super-Mare, under late of Brompton, to Moss Side, the care of the Rev. D. Davies, Manchester. The Rev. H. Angus has been re-opened after repairs. has resigned the pastorate of the The Rev. J. G. Wilson, late of the church at Church, Accrington, Metropolitan Tabernacle College, Lancashire; the Rev. J. T. Roberts, has been publicly recognised as the of the church in Freeman-street, pastor of the church at Southend, Grimsby; the Rev. J. Wilson, of Essex; the Rev. J. C. Lacey, of the the churches at Rowley and Shotleychurch at Wolvey, Warwick; the bridge; the Rev. E. Schaffer, of Rev. C. A. Fellowes, of the church the church at Tondu, Bridgend, at Keynsham; the Rev. J. Mostyn, Glamorganshire. of the church at Stoke Green, Ipswich; the Rev. J. C. Foster, at Cheltenham, of the Rev. W. late of the Metropolitan Tabernacle College, of the church at Braintree, Essex; the Rev. G. Phillips, late of King's Hill, Bucks, of the church in Carey Chapel, Moulton, Northamptonshire; the Rev. W. Hackney,

WE regret to announce the death,

Liddell, at the age of seventy-five; also of the Rev. J. Burtle, late of Aldborough, Suffolk, at the age of thirty-two; also of the Rev. S. Pearce, late of Crewkerne, Somerset, at the age of sixty-seven.

THE BLESSING OF THE TRIBES; OR, HOW MOSES, THE MAN OF GOD, BLESSED THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL BEFORE HE DIED.

BY THE REV. T. G. ROOKE, B.A., PRESIDENT OF RAWDON COLLEGE.

No. VIII.-GAD.

Deut. xxxiii. 20, 21.

GAD was the seventh of Jacob's sons in order of birth. His mother was the slave woman, Zilpab, whom her mistress, Leah, forced upon Jacob as a secondary wife in that mad rivalry concerning offspring with her sister Rachel, which so embittered the domestic relations of the patriarch Israel. She named this child in the exultation of an impulse that was half pious, half heathenish, which indeed was the mingled complexion of most of the religion which we find in Jacob's household for one-and-twenty years, until the vision of Peniel turned the whole current of his own life into a better and holier channel than before. There is a little confusion in the Hebrew text of the passage which describes this incident, and the English version of Gen. xxx. 11 has preserved the less authentic reading. The verse should read: "And Leah said, With good luck! and she called his name Gad," which is both the Hebrew for "good luck," and also the title of a very popular deity of the ancient East, corresponding with the well-known classic deity-Fortune.

We are able to form a more than usually distinct idea of the personal character which pertained to Gad, and which he transmitted to his descendants. Scripture hints and Jewish traditions bear one another out in suggesting that this man was wild and turbulent and headstrong above his brethren; and that, being by no means content with the peaceful occupations of pastoral life which belonged to his family, he threw himself with ardour into the fierce forays which then, as now, kept the land of Canaan in a state of chronic warfare and unsettlement. It was to this feature in his son's habitual experience that Jacob probably referred in his dying prophecy, in which he introduces a characteristic play upon the name which Leah had bestowed :—

"Gad, a plundering troop is plundering him,

But he is plundering at their heels."-Gen. xlix. 19.

When the children of Israel went out of Israel, Gad marched and encamped, not as we might have expected with his whole brother Asher, but with Reuben and with Simeon, two tribes which closely resembled his own in character and occupation. All these three retained the nomade habits of their father's earlier life in a marked VOL. XXI. N.S. X.

degree, and had not, like some others of the Hebrew tribes, settled down in Egypt into the ways of an organised and civilised nation. They still preferred to live in tents as did the unreclaimed Ishmaelites of the desert. All their wealth consisted in huge flocks and herds of cattle. All their sympathies were with the freebooting mode of life which lies on the border line between civilisation and barbarism. Thus, when Canaan was settled, although Simeon parted off from his former companions and sought his fortunes alone in the dry south land of Judah, Gad and Reuben kept their alliance fast, and took united possession of the country east of Jordan, where alone there was room for their immense flocks, and opportunity for the predatory raids in which they so much delighted. In this alliance, Reuben seems to have willingly yielded the first place to his younger brother, whose character was evidently stronger than his own; and it is curious to notice how invariably Gad speaks and acts as the leader in all the transactions that attended this settlement in Eastern Palestine, drawing Reuben after him apparently as a matter of course. We recognise the same masterful character in all the men who rise up before us in the after history of the Bible as members of the tribe of Gad; viz., Jephthah, the eleven heroes who joined David at the most critical period of his fortunes, and Elijah the Tishbite, in whose rude strength and fearlessness we seem to behold the Gadite type in its best development, and to recognise the noblest aspect of the comparison which Moses had instituted in his blessing between this tribe and the shaggy forestlord "which is mightiest among beasts, and turneth not away for any."

The authorised English version scarcely brings out the true meaning of this blessing, which is therefore subjoined in a new and closer rendering:

Ver. 20. "And of Gad, he said:

Ver. 21.

Blessed be He that enlargeth Gad!

Like a lion he lieth down,

And teareth the arm, yea the crown of the head.

And he chose the first (conquered) part as his territory;

For there was laid up the portion fit for a leader;

And he went at the head of the people,

To execute the justice of the Lord, and His judgments, with

Israel."

The opening words of this stanza are peculiar, for they do not invoke blessing from Jehovah upon Gad, but they contain a devout ascription of praise to God as to One who has already conferred the blessing. A similar feature is observable in the words uttered by Noah concerning Shem in Gen. ix. 26, and in that instance the significance of the language is probably deeper than it is here. For in the case of Gad, Moses simply calls attention to the fact that his por tion in the Promised Land is already allotted and taken into full possession; there is no need to ask any further inheritance for this

tribe, because God has given him the broad expanse of territory in which he dwells permanently, whilst his brethren, the other tribes, are still only sojourners in a land which is not theirs. But we are by no means certain that this early settlement of Gad on the East of Jordan was any part of the original purpose of Jehovah concerning him; whereas in the case of Noah's blessing upon Shem, the peculiar language implies a prophetic recognition by Noah of God's eternal and irrevocable purpose to do that which the inspired seer regards as being done already, although as yet no sign of it is vouchsafed to the eye of sense. When such a determinate counsel of the Almighty is revealed, the utterance of praise is more appropriate than any prayer. And such an utterance becomes the members of that new covenant church upon which the blessing of Abraham and of all the Hebrew patriarchs has descended in spiritual things. God has declared His decree, whereby we are made partakers with Christ in an eternal and unspeakably glorious inheritance. Why, then, should we fear to adopt the unfaltering accents of Noah concerning Shem, and of Moses concerning Gad, and to exclaim, in full assurance of faith and of holy triumph, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessing in heavenly things in Christ"? (Ephes. i. 3.)

Such confidence will carry with it a continual pledge of victory in all the spiritual conflicts which we shall have to wage for the unimpaired possession of our Divine inheritance. A signal triumph was won by the Gadites over a confederacy of the Arabians who roved up and down their borders, and the inspired record of this incident ascribes the victory to the trust which the tribe put in Him who had enlarged them. But the same record also chronicles the utter defeat and expatriation of these Gadites in another war which was not "of God," and which their own backsliding from His covenant had provoked (1 Chron. v. 18, 22, 25, 26). For the blessing of God's elect is always circumscribed by the terms and conditions of the calling within which they are continually to abide. And therefore it is said to the children of the new covenant, "Let us fear lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any one of you should seem to come short of it " (Heb. iv. 1).

A wider meaning than is perhaps apparent at first sight lies in the further phraseology of the opening words, "Blessed be he that enlargeth Gad." The suggestion is that God had provided for this tribe unlimited scope for expansion in a territory that was practically unbounded save by the needs of the Gadites and their warlike strength. The region assigned to Gad shaded off by imperceptible lines into the great Eastern desert, which is by no means an uninhabitable waste, but a place where pastoral nomades can always find subsistence, as hundreds of thousands of Bedawin do to this day. All this expanse of feeding-ground for his flocks and herds