resemblance to those of the Egyptian lakes and reservoirs, but were all clear, "clear as crystal," and mostly running, "living waters." Some, like the "soft-going" ones of Siloah, glided forth from the very heart of rocky hills; some, like the concentrated dews or the melted snows of Hermon, trickled down from the acclivities of lofty mountains, and almost all the rest silled or gushed in perpetual flow from caverns, wells, or chalkstone fissures. They therefore perfectly combine their adaptation to the purposes of agriculture with an adaptation to all other uses. They were always and everywhere as suitable for drinking, and cooking, and cleansing, as for irrigation; they possessed as high power to cleanse men by their purity, as to feed plants by their constituency; and they served as appropriately to accomplish all the symbolical ablutions of figurative Christianity in the temple, as to give efficiency to all the processes of instructive agriculture in the field. How justly, then, and with what high significancy, do the Bible's manifold allusions to "clear water," "clean water," and "living water," stretch out to the immensities and the infinite benignities of the moral working of God! Let us but duly reflect on the typical character of the land of Israel, the typical character of its "peculiar people," and the limpidity, and power, and pervading agency of its waters, and we shall see in every dew or shower upon it a symbol of God, in every well a symbol of the Redeemer, and in every rill a symbol of the

Holy Spirit. When," says an old writer, "we read of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, digging wells in this and the other place, and the Philistines filling them up, and strifes between the herdsmen of the two parties about them-nay, the Scripture recording the names of these wells as containing matters of instruction—we are apt at first to say, how come these matters to interest the New Testament Christian? But, whenever we think of them as pointing to the great fountain, and that these patriarchs brought their families to the neighbourhood to drink of the waters for the same reason that Israel drank of the rock that followed them, then these histories appear in a new and interesting light. We see the wells to be spiritual, and the Philistines and their herdsmen stopping the wells to be acting in the same manner as antichrist and her clergy have long been doing in later times." We might notice the water in the earthly temple, the river which makes glad the city of God, but shall only add, that the hour is fast approaching when the water of that river, which many are now attempting to defile, will appear proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, clear as crystal. This is the water of life of which it is said, "The Spirit and the Bride say, come; let him that is athirst, come; and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."

THE CEDARS OF LEBANON.

THE Cedar of Lebanon is a wide-spreading tree, from fifty to sixty feet high, with numerous large and long branches, which extend in a horizontal manner nearly straight out from the trunk, and with their evergreen leaves form a spacious shady covering. How beautifully does the prophet describe the character of the cedar when he speaks of its high stature, its top among the thick boughs, its multiplied boughs, its long branches, and its shadowing shroud—Ezek. xxxi. 3–7. In proportion as its branches extend, so do its roots spread; and as the extremities of the roots are the chief parts by which nourishment is received from the soil, they are thus brought into such a position that the refreshing rain which drops from the heavens falls on the ground directly above them. This is a beautiful provision made by the all-wise Creator, and is well fitted to call forth our admiration. While the spreading roots enable the plant to acquire food, they also fix it firmly, and prevent it from being blown down by the wind. In alluding to the future prosperity of Israel, Hosea (xiv. 5) says, "He shall cast forth his roots as Lebanon," implying great vigour, as well as firmness and strength. The streams from Lebanon likewise furnished a supply of water to the cedar. Hence, when comparing the Assyrian to this tree, Ezekiel (xxxi. 4, 5) says that the waters made him great,