term as new to my sisters, perhaps, as I confess, it is to me. What is a Theocracy?

MRS. M. A little recollection would enable you to answer yourself; as the word is derived from the language you are now studying. A Theocracy is a form of government of which God is himself the Legislator.

But this whole system-the scanty outline of which I have given you, so costly, so burdensome, was but the shadow of a substance, "the scaffolding to the building," to be wholly abolished when that should be erected.

FANNY. Did the people who lived under the Mosiac dispensation, consider it in that light?

MRS. M. They did certainly look beyond the emblems exhibited to their senses, for something more substantial. Every hour beheld their infractions of the moral law-the perfect and imperishable rule of their obedience,-the frequent repetition of their expiatory sacrifices, would teach them that their guilt and pollution still remained-and we find a writer of their own nation, appealing to their common understanding against the possibility of a remission of sin, by the blood of an animal.* Yet we cannot suppose them to have discerned the way of salvation, with the clearness and certainty afforded to us, who have seen the accomplishment of prophecy-and the verification of signs-in Jesus Christ, the glorious antitype; the one, only, and efficient, expiation of our offences.

* Hebrews, x. 4.

NUMBERS.

MRS. M. No longer compelled to encounter the terrible ensigns of justice on the burning summit of Sinai, the will of the Sovereign Disposer was now declared to Moses from the seat of Mercy. Thence he was commanded, in the second month of the second year after they had come out of Egypt, to Number the children of Israel; or, as we should now say, to make a census of the population. Accordingly upon an enumeration of every male of twenty years old and upwards, the result was found to be "six hundred and three thousand, five hundred and fifty men, able to go to war," excluding the Levites. That tribe, being wholly devoted to the service of the altar, in stead of the first-born. of every house, was reckoned from one month old and upward, and the amount was twentytwo thousand. The sum of the first-born then being taken, exceeded the number of the Levites by two hundred and seventy-three. An equivalent in money was accepted for this excess, and the price of their redemption was paid into the sacred treasury. The Levites were not to be admitted into the ministry under thirty years of age; nor was their service protracted beyond that of fifty.

In the beginning of this second year, on its appointed anniversary, the passover was regularly celebrated; and on the twentieth day of the second month, the bright

cloud, the signal of their movements, was taken up from the tabernacle; the silver trumpets were sounded, and the congregation proceeded on their journey. The tabernacle, and all its appurtenances, borne in order by the Levites, went first, and the tribes, in their respective ranks, preceded each by its appropriate standard, followed. Three days they pursued the path of their heavenly guide, and in the wilderness of Paran, obeying its silent mandate, they again encamped. (B. C. 1489.)

At this station, near a place called Kadesh-Barnea, they remained a considerable time, and occasioned great trouble to Moses by their turbulent conduct, which seems to have been originally excited by the strangers, a mixed mul titude," who had followed them out of Egypt.

FANNY. I am surprised to hear of strangers in the camp of Israel-I thought that the rigid laws of Moses excluded all such from their community.

MRS. M. Very different, indeed, was the benevolent system of the Hebrew legislator. Not one of his laws bears an inhospitable aspect; on the contrary, a variety of provisions ensured kindness and justice to the stranger who should either live in their cities or become proselytes to their religion." Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger-nor of the fatherless-nor take the widow's raiment to pledge. When thou cuttest down thy harvest; and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it-when thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterward- it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless and the widow,"-was the compassionate language in which they were commanded to consider the stranger as one of themselves; and we hear Moses affectionately entreating his brother-in-law, Hobab, when he visited him at Kadesh, to remain with them, to

aid them in their journey through a country with which he was acquainted; assuring him, that he should partake liberally of the good things they were going to receive ;— though the chosen people were at the same time enjoined to beware of imitating their impure manners or worship. But the propensity to this crime, which they had very naturally contracted in Egypt, betrayed them often into serious calamities. The aliens who had been induced, by seeing the stupendous power of their God, to unite their lot with that of the Hebrews, had promised themselves the immediate enjoyment of a land" flowing with milk and honey." Disappointed in this expectation, they repented of their hasty emigration, complained of their privations, and instigated the ungrateful Israelites-though daily fed by a visible miracle-to loathe their heavenly bread, and look back with regret to the flesh and herbs of Egypt-the scanty wages of their miserable servitude! "We remember," they exclaimed, while they wept at the doors of their tents, we remember, the fish and the cucumbers, and the melons, of which we ate freely; but now our soul is dried away, for there is nothing besides this manna before our eyes!"

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"Wherefore," cried their afflicted chief, to the Hearer of Prayer, "hast thou laid the burden of all this people upon me. I am not able to bear it alone. Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? Kill me, 1 pray thee-let me not see my wretchedness." In answer to his complaint, seventy elders were graciously added to the magistracy, and imbued with the spirit of wisdom, to assist him in the management of his restless community; and quails were again sent in abundance to gratify their longing for flesh; but, with the gratification came the punishment. Whilst they yet feasted with thoughtless

avidity, the plague broke out amongst them, and swept off great numbers of the offending people!

From the bosom of his own family, where, if any where he might have looked for harmony and support, he was next distracted by dissention and humbled by resistance. Zipporah, the wife of Moses, had given some umbrage to his brother and sister; and he, perhaps, supposed it became him to interpose his good offices; but his mediation was entirely rejected, and he himself even accused of presumptuously laying claim to an exclusive degree of inspiration, not alike imparted to them. To silence for ever such ambitious pretensions, they were reproved by an awful voice from the Cloud, descending to the door of the tabernacle" Were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses," inquired the Great Supreme. "To other prophets will I make myself known in visions and dreams, but to him will I speak mouth to mouth." And the deluded Miriam was additionally punished by disease-she became leprous, and was banished seven days from the society of her brethren.

FANNY.

What could possibly be meant by that mysterious expression-" With him will I speak mouth to mouth ?"

MRS. M. The mystery lies alone in the expressionthe meaning is plainly, to vindicate the disputed authority of Moses, by reminding the perverse people of that immediate communion with Deity to which this most favoured servant was admitted. Other prophets, He told them would be instructed" in dreams and visions"-but to Moses, He would speak by a Voice-as the orignal words import, in conformity with our ideas of the most clear and intimate mode of intercourse. But the spirit of sedition had