father. He was general in one of the battles they fought.

Grandfather. I am glad to see that you remember so well. He was their leader when they fought against the Amalekites. Joshua is the same name as Jesus; they both mean Saviour. Joshua was a type of Christ; as he led the chosen people into Canaan, the land promised to their fathers, so the Captain of our Salvation will bring his own people safe into the heavenly Canaan, our land of promise. It was an important task that was given to Joshua to perform. We may suppose him anxious and thoughtful. He had not the wonder-working power of Moses, and the people, he might think, would not have the same confidence in him that they had in that great prophet. But when the Lord has a work to be done, he can give strength to the instrument who is to do it. He spake to Joshua, telling him, that as he had been with Moses, so would he be with him— "I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." At that time the promise was repeated to Joshua, that the Israelites should possess all the land of Canaan, and the gracious Promiser tells Joshua to meditate on the law by day and by night, that he might know it and obey it, and so his way would be prosperous, and he would have good success. This shows us the only way in which we ought to seek for prosperity, which is keeping the commandments of God, and doing his will. The address given by the Almighty to his servant Joshua at this time ends with these encouraging words, "Be strong and of a

good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." We come now to one of the most remarkable sieges that the world ever saw, the siege of Jericho. Jericho was a city about seven leagues from Jerusalem, and two leagues from the Jordan. Joshua, before commencing the attack, sent two spies secretly to make observations on the city. They were guided by Providence to the house of a woman named Rahab, who it is thought kept a place of entertainment for travellers. She had formerly been a woman of bad character, but was changed now, so changed that both St Paul and St James have celebrated her as a pattern of piety. This teaches us never to despair of any one, nor to think it too late to repent. While the spies were lodging in this woman's house, the news was brought to the king of Jericho that they had come, and also the errand they came upon. He sent to Rahab to ask her to give them up, for they were come to search out all the country. She took them up to the roof, and hid them under stalks of flax laid out by herself to dry, which shows us that she was an industrious woman. When she had hid them there she went down to speak to the king's messengers. She told them that two men came to her, she knew not from whence; when it grew dark they went away, she knew not where, but if they would follow quickly she thought they might overtake them.

Marianne. That was not true, grandfather; she knew quite well where they were.

Grandfather. No, it was not true.

Some have said,

as an excuse for Rahab, that some other men may have gone to her house of whom she knew nothing, and they may have left when it became dark. But that is not a sufficient excuse; for though she may not have told a direct falsehood, she certainly spoke with an intention to deceive. We must, however, remember that Rahab was brought up in a heathen country, with a conscience unenlightened by the knowledge of the truth, and so could have had little idea of the sinfulness of a lie, and no idea how hateful all falsehood is to a God of truth. Rahab's motives were good; it was because she believed in the God of Israel that she saved the lives of these men of Israel. When the king's messengers had gone in pursuit as she directed them, Rahab went up to the roof to speak to her guests. "I know," she said to them, that the Lord hath given you this land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the Red Sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Ogg, whom ye utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you; for the Lord your God, he is God in Heaven above, and in the earth beneath.

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George. How did Rahab know that, when she lived among heathens?

Grandfather. By the wonderful works that the Lord had done, she was led to despise the idols that her countrymen worshipped, and to glorify God in her heart. Therefore she shewed kindness to his servants, and asked them in return to shew kindness to her, by saving her alive along with her father and mother, her brothers and sisters.

Johnnie. But surely they were not thinking of killing her when she had been so good to them.

Grandfather. She did not expect them to kill her then, but she knew that they were coming back to take the city, and she believed that they would put all the inhabitants to death.

Marianne. Did they promise to save her alive and her relations too?

Grandfather. They did; they told her to bring all her father's household into her own house, and engaged that no one who was in that house would be hurt. That they might be certain which house it was, they told her to bind a line of scarlet cord to her window.

George. How did they get away from the town?

Grandfather. Rahab let them out of her window by a piece of scarlet cord, the same which she afterwards bound on the window to secure her own safety. Her house stood on the town wall, so that when they reached the ground they were without the town. She told them to go to the mountain, and to hide themselves there for three days till the pursuers had returned, and then they might go their way. They followed her advice, reached

the camp in safety, and told Joshua all that happened to them; and as a sign that the Lord had delivered

the land into their hand, they said that the inhabitants fainted because of them. Early in the morning Joshua rose, and he and all the people of Israel removed from Shittim, the place where they then were, and encamped beside the river Jordan. Before taking Jericho they must cross the Jordan, for they were on the east side of the river, and Jericho is on the west of it.

Johnnie. Was there a bridge across the river, grandfather?

Grandfather. There is no mention made of a bridge, and we have no reason for supposing that there was one, but the contrary.

Johnnie. But could they get across without, was it broad?

Grandfather. It was broad at the season that they were crossing it. It was the time of barley harvest, which in that country is in spring, in the month Abib, which begins about the middle of March. The melting of the snow on the mountains swelled the streams, and caused the Jordan regularly to overflow its banks at that season. Joshua told the priests to take up the ark and go before the people, and he told the people that they were to follow the ark of the covenant of the Lord their God.

Johnnie. Was the ark a large thing, grandfather?

Grandfather. It was two cubits and a half long, a cubit and a half broad, and the same in height. Reckon