fallen away to idolatry. And hence they were subsequently accused by the Gentiles, as we learn from Juvenal and Strabo, of worshipping the clouds.

This remarkable pillar was the visible symbol of God's especial presence. It must not be understood that Jehovah was exclusively confined to this pillar, because he is everywhere present; but he manifested himself in a peculiar manner from the cloud, to guide the Israelites through that vast and trackless desert, and to serve as a veil from the heat of the sun, amidst a barren waste, without shade or shelter, under the

By some writers this beneficent miracle has been thought to consist of two separate pillars; one a clond, and the other fire. But in reality the substance was ONE; dense, as a cloud, by day; luminous as fire, by night. The former to protect them from the burning heat of the sun, and to direct their movements in a pathless wilderness; the latter to afford light by night, and as a protection from any sudden attack from their enemies; who, deterred by this remarkable appearance, never made any such attempt.

He of And he

" Thus explained by Masius, cited by le Clerc. "The angel is the redeemer, of whom it is written, because my Name is in him. That angel who said to Jacob, I am the God of Bethel. whom it is said-and God called Moses out of the bush. is called angel because he governs the world. For it is written, Jehovah brought us out of Egypt; and in other places, he sent his angel and brought us out of Egypt. Besides it is written and the angel of his presence hath made them safe. Namely, that angel which is the presence of God, concerning whom it is said, my presence shall go before. and I will cause thee to rest.”

"In the time of Moses the Theocracy was in its most flourishing state. God prescribed the laws-decided all difficult questions by his oracles-appeared in the pillars of cloud and fire-and inflicted punishments in the most public manner. (See Michaelis on the Laws of Moses, vol. i. p. 190.)

torrid zone. Moses terms it the angel of God or Jehovah. Without some guide they were in danger of wandering out of their way, and might have been utterly cut off by the inhabitants of the neighbouring countries; and unless that guide had been divine, they must have perished by famine in a thirsty land where no water was. In this dispensation therefore, the goodness of God is displayed to his chosen people, by leading them safely through the wilderness like a flock of sheep.

9

To endeavour to account for this phenomenon by natural causes, would be the height of absurdity. It was preternatural in all its appearances and all its effects. As well might we endeavour to comprehend and explain the nature of the Deity, his omnipresence and eternity. The Israelites saw the cloud-it varied not for the space of forty years-they heard the voice of the Lord speaking from it to the whole congregation

7 Quintus Curtius informs us that Alexander the Great erected over his pavilion an artificial signal, to give notice for any decampment of his army; that it was contrived of materials so as to be conspicuous in the daytime by a great smoke issuing from it; that in the night time it appeered to be on fire. A modern writer insinuates the pillar of the cloud and of fire, which directed the marches of the Israelites to have been a contrivance of Moses of a like nature. Others have intimated it to have been no greater miracle, than the pillar of light which conducted Thrasybulus and his followers from Phyla. But it must be remembered that these are deistical opinions and at variance with fact.

8 Exod. xiv. 19.

'Moses describes its motions in the Pentateuch. (Exod. xl. 36-38.)

at the delivery of the law-and therefore they were bound to believe that it was an appearance entirely beyond the ordinary course of nature. It was

evidently but one single pillar; for this reason, that it removed from before the people of Israel on the borders of the Red Sea, and passing over the heads of the whole assembly, placed itself between them and the Egyptians, with its dense or cloudy side towards the latter," from which streamed peals of thunder,

10

They called it a Shekinah, or beam of glory. This beam shone upon Abel and his sacrifice, and is thought by some to have been the moving cause of Cain's envy. God testified his approbation of Abram's sacrifice by the same glory, which, like the flame of a lamp, passed between the sacrifices. The pillar of a cloud, and the clouds which filled the tabernacle and the temple, were of the same nature; and according to the scriptures were Jehovah or Christ. Consult the 1st chap. of Hebrews, v. 2, on this point, and you will find St. Paul saying to the Jews that these bright effulgences vouchsafed to their ancestors were beams of glory from the eternal Son of God. And that they might know who this Son of God was, he further reminds them of the Shekinahs to which their forefathers had been long used for the purpose of training them up to expect the appearance of his son in a visible manner. Thus he says, "who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high." This brightness of his Father's glory, and express image of his person, was Jesus Christ the Son of God.

11

"In the pillars," says Bro. Willoughby, of Birkenhead, in a communication to the author, "I see a continuation of the allegory of the two dispensations, commencing in Paradise at the fall of man, when the three transgressors were summoned before their Creator to hear the sentence consequent upon their transgressions, and to receive the first prophecy-I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed, (the commencement of the two dis

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attended by the forked lightning, which served to make the darkness more terrible, and other awful phenomena; and with its luminous side towards the former as their guide; although this was scarcely necessary, except to assure them that their divine deliverer was present; because when Moses had divided the sea with his rod,13 the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on the left."

pensations,) it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel, (the origin of Masonry.) How soon the two seeds began to show themselves, and how soon was the enmity displayed! The firstborn of Adam became his brother's murderer. It is remarkable that the heathen philosophers venerated darkness in preference to light, in consequence of its prior existence; but not having the light of revelation to guide them, they could not, of course, see in the circumstance any allusion to the two dispensations. The speculative Mason observes a symbolical allusion to the law and the gospel, in every type of which there is such a beautiful connexion. Chaos preceded light, Cain, whose deeds rendered him an emblem of darkness, was of the unsanctified line, and preceded righteous Abel. Noah, who had taken into the ark both the clean and the unclean, when the waters were subsiding, sent out first the unclean raven, an emblem of darkness, without gaining any light from its mission. He afterwards sent out that emblem of innocence the dove, which returned to him with the olive branch, as it were, an emblem of glad tidings, or the gospel of peace through him who is called the Branch."

12 This would be the more terrible from the recollection of the storm of thunder, fire, and hail, by which their land had been so recently visited.

1 Some of the Rabbins think that our G. M. King Solomon, had this event in view when he wrote that beautiful passage in the book of Proverbs. "Who hath ascended up into heaven or descended? Who hath gathered the wind in his fists? Who hath bound the waters in a garment? Who hath established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou canst tell?" (Prov. xxx. 4.) They say that "it is necessary to add the

Another question presents itself respecting the nature of the nocturnal pillar; whether it was a real fire, or only a luminous appearance which was created for the purpose of giving light to the camp, like to the reflected light of the moon and stars. It has been urged that a fire of the necessary magnitude to enlighten the whole camp, must have been so intense as to have consumed the tabernacle and everything else within its focus, besides casting so fierce a heat, that the people would not have been able to endure it."

name of Moses to the verse, explaining who besides Moses ascended to, and descended from heaven? as he did at the time the law was given. Who gathered the winds in his fists like him? when by taking a handful of ashes and throwing them up, he infected the air and caused boils. Who like him tied the waters in a cloth? When in the Red Sea he gathered the depths, and the divided waters formed a wall. Who raised the earth as he did, when he formed a lake that swallowed up Korah and all that belonged to him? If there was any one like him, let him tell his name, or the name of his son if you know it." (Concil. vol. ii. p. 286.)

14 It is distinctly stated in Numbers ix. 15, 16.

15 From hence probably it was that the Jews, in their idolatries, were addicted to the superstitious adoration of fire; a practice which they justified from their own scriptures. God, they say, appeared over the gate of Eden as a flickering and flaming fire, and accepted the sacrifice of Abel in the same element. He revealed himself to Abraham in flame; and to the whole assembly of the people in one pillar of fire and a cloud; and again at Sinai, he descended upon the mountain in fire. He answered the prayers of Elijah, and those of Solomon at the dedication of the temple by fire. And they further urge that Moses himself had told them their God was a consuming fire; whence, in imitation of the same practice amongst idolaters, they instituted commemorative rites, in which they were weak enough to worship the material substance instead of the invisible and the eternal God. Ash, the Hebrew word for fire, amongst the