EAGLES' WINGS. 287 Eagles' Wings. EXOD. xix. 4.* "I bare you on eagles' wings;"-a high expression of the wonderful tenderness God had shewed for them. It is explained, Deut. xxxiii. 11, 12. It notes great speed: God not only came upon the wing for their deliverance-when the set time was come, He "rode on a cherub, and did fly”—but He hastened them out, as it were, upon the wing. Also, that He did it with great ease—with the strength, as well as with the swiftness of an eagle. They that faint not, nor are weary, are said to "mount up with wings as eagles" (Isa. xl. 31). Especially it notes God's particular care of them, and affection to them. Even Egypt, that iron furnace, was the nest in which these young ones were hatched, where they were first formed as the embryo of a nation; when, by the increase of their numbers, they grew to some maturity, they were carried out of that nest. Other birds carry their young in their talons, but the eagle (they say) upon her wings; so that even those artists which shoot flying, cannot hurt the young ones but they must first shoot through the old one. Thus in the Red Sea, the pillar of cloud and fire, the token of God's presence, interposed itself between the Israelites and their pursuers— lines of defence which could not be forced, a wall which could not be penetrated. Yet this was not all: their way so paved, so guarded, was glorious; but their end much more so: "I brought you unto myself." They were brought not only into a state of liberty and honour, but into covenant and communion with God. This was the glory of their deliverance; as it is of ours by Christ, that He died, "the just for the unjust," that He might bring us to God. This God aims at in all the gracious methods of His providence and grace; to bring us * This, and the following, are our only extracts from the "Exposition." We hope that it is already in the hands of most of our readers. back to Himself, from whom we have revolted; and to bring us home to Himself, in whom alone we can be happy. He appeals to themselves, and their own observation and experience, for the truth of what is here insisted on: "Ye have seen what I did ;" so that they could not disbelieve God, unless they would first disbelieve their own eyes. They saw how all that was done was purely "the Lord's doing." It was not they that reached towards God, but it was He that brought them to Himself. Some have well observed, that the Old Testament Church is said to be "borne upon eagles' wings;" noting the power of that dispensation, which was carried on with "an high hand and an outstretched arm:" but the New Testament Church is said to be gathered by the Lord Jesus, as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings" (Matt. xxiii. 37); noting the grace and compassion of that dispensation, and the admirable condescension and humiliation of the Redeemer. 66 Esrael. GENESIS XXXii. 27, 28. The angel puts a perpetual mark of honour upon him, by changing his name. "Thou art a brave fellow (saith the angel), commend me to thee for a man of resolution: what is thy name?" "Jacob," saith he; "A supplanter," so Jacob signifies. "Well (saith the angel), be thou never so called any more. From henceforth thou shalt be celebrated, not for craft and artful management, but true valour. Thou shalt be called Israel ('a Prince with God'), a name greater than those of the great men of the earth." He is a prince indeed that is a prince with God; and those are truly honourable that are mighty in prayer,-Israels, Israelites indeed. Jacob is here knighted in the field, as it were, and has a title of honour given him by Him that is the Fountain of honour, which will remain, to his praise, to the end of time. ISAAC WATTS. IN the gloomy reign of the second James, the most diligent boy in the Grammar School of Southampton was a little Puritan. So tiny, that he would hardly have passed for eleven years of age, he was so grave and good, as to be at once a model and a reproof to his sturdier class-mates; and, although in repose there was nothing peculiarly prepossessing in his pale face, with its prominent cheek-bones, and a forehead far from lofty, the moment that some hard question posed the form, the sparkling eye and the slight nervous figure quivering with the pent-up answer, betrayed the genius and the scholar. Already he had made good proficiency in French, Latin, and Greek, and had delighted his mother, whilst he astonished his companions, by ingenious acrostics and clever impromptu stanzas ; and altogether, with his quiet, docile disposition, and his precocious attainments, he made glad the heart of the Rev. Mr Pinhorn, who, like many a disconsolate preceptor before and since, at last foresaw a dim and distant Ararat, and hailed the youth who should yet "comfort him concerning his work and the toil of his hands." The little Nonconformist, so dear to the good rector of All Saints, probably owed something of his early sedateness to his family circumstances. His father, a man of gentle and noble nature, and an excellent scholar, had kept a boarding-school; but, whilst his first-born was a babe, he lay in prison to expiate his crime as a frequenter of conventicles. On the sunny days his wife used to come and sit on a stone near the cell of her husband, nursing her child; and now that he was grown to be dux of the grammar school, whatever might be a father's pride and pleasure, he was obliged to forego all personal share in superintending the education and forming the mind of his: boy. For the last two years, Isaac Watts the elder had been a fugitive, hiding somewhere in London; and the best holiday known in the household, was when a letter arrived to assure them that he still had escaped from the hands of his persecutors. The "grandmother Lois" is often as influential on the opening mind as the "mother Eunice." Our young friend's mother carefully taught him the Shorter Catechism, encouraged him to write verses, and helped him with his tasks; but the venerable lady of threescore-and-ten, in addition to the hold which maternal tenderness takes upon the heart, had for her grandson the fascination which saintly worth and a beautiful old age exert on a susceptible and imaginative childhood. The husband of her youth had been a gallant sailor. In "the piping times. of peace," he wielded the pencil and played on the violin, and, with his wit and his traveller's tales, he was the life of the friendly circle; but his favourite tune was the breeze whistling through the shrouds, and the music which he could not resist was the roar of the cannon. With Blake for his admiral, and with the Dutch for his foe, the young captain hasted out to sea; but in the battle a shot penetrated the powder magazine, the ship blew up, and Mrs Watts was a widow. And now, in her old age, her grandson loved to hear the story of those terrible sca-fights, and how his bold ancestor had fought with beasts as well as men ;-how, for instance, in the East Indies, he had once run into a river to escape from a tiger, but the enraged creature followed him, and it was only by putting forth a wild paroxysm of strength, and holding under water, till it was drowned, the head of the struggling monster, that he saved his life. But deeply as such recitals stirred the listener's spirit, they enkindled no emulous aspirations. To the cutlass and truncheon he preferred the captain's flute and fiddle, and shewed more disposition to copy his drawings, than THE DISSENTING ACADEMY. 291 to rival his deeds of naval daring. Had he been a strong and active boy, the nautical succession would have developed in boating, "pluck," and pugilism. As it was, with the tarry-athome necessities imposed by a feeble frame, it only imparted to the thoughtful lad a tinge of romance, and a certain tone of unselfish and chivalrous feeling. At last King James's indulgence allowed the persecuted Nonconformist to return to his family. There he was cheered by the gentle virtues and studious dispositions of the "Isaac whom he loved," and soon had the unspeakable satisfaction of finding that the lessons and musings of these carefully instructed and well-guarded years had ripened into earnest piety. All along an affectionate onlooker might have hoped the best for a child so duteous and so blameless; but it was not till his fifteenth year that his apprehension of the gospel became so distinct, and his love to the Saviour so influential, as to mark to his own mind the commencement of personal Christianity. Impressed with his piety and his promise of rare ability, a kind friend offered to send him to the University, if he would consent to study for the Church. But no one will wonder that Isaac Watts had "determined to take his lot among the Dissenters." He was no bigot. Many have felt more strongly on questions of religious worship and ecclesiastical government. But he had his preference; and, after all that his parents had done and suffered in the cause of Protestant Nonconformity, he would have felt it a filial treason, as well as an apostasy, to go over to the other side. Accordingly, as soon as he had learned all that his father and Mr Pinhorn could teach him, he went, in his seventeenth year, to study at the Dissenting Academy then kept at Newington, a pleasant village now nearly absorbed in London. At the time we speak of, and for nearly a hundred years thereafter, a Dissenting academy was a very simple and unostentatious institution. Its local habitation was usually a |