ple. We may here find a striking parallel between the history of the Hebrew nation and of our own.

Enlightened physiologists very generally teach, that, to a great extent, all the varieties of life, whether in the vegetable or animal world, are improved by a change of place, by being transferred to a new region and a new atmosphere. Races or families of plants have been known to become extinct from being kept too long in the same soil; the shepherd has seen his flock pine away from the want of a new pasture ground; and how the bodies of men are invigorated by like changes, is an every-day observation. But I would now speak more directly as to the effect of migration on the moral and mental condition of a people.

We all know something as to the influence of local associations. They not only shape our tastes and desires, but they also have at times a most controlling power to warp and pervert the mind. We may have seen the plant or the tree taking root in the cleft, or on the side of a rock. It is often made to grow out of shape from the circumstances of its situation. As it rises it is met by some projecting crag, or it is bent down by some overhanging fragment, around which it grows, and thus is distorted from its natural form and beauty. So is it with the human mind. It is influenced and directed

by surrounding circumstances. Its opinions are of ten formed so as to accommodate themselves to long existing evils; and, like the tree, grasping and adhering to the point of rock that had marred the beauty of its growth; so also will the mind often embrace and cling to the very errors and wrongs which had deformed and depressed it.

Would you remedy this, you must do with the man as you would with the herb or the tree. You must transplant them both to another soil. You must break up old associations. You must free the man from his familiar and habitual contact with long existing abuses, and enable him to view them at such a distance as to comprehend their magnitude. and deformity. Paths of thought can become so beaten, and the mind so worn into them, that it can see nothing beyond them; and if you would give a man new and improved views, you must take him where he can overlook the barriers that once confined his vision. The freshness, the vigor, the elastic spring which are imparted by such a change to the mind and the character, whether of a man or a people, are the result of those great laws by which the Most High governs life in all its forms.

Now observe how uniformly he respects this principle in his most conspicuous movements for the instruction and improvement of man as a rational

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and immortal being. There are two great periods in Old Testament times, when he was pleased to make special revelations of his will for this end. The first was at the call of Abraham, the commencement of what is styled the Patriarchal dispensation; during which the oracles of God, and the ordinances of his worship were known and preserved in the family of that patriarch. And what was the first command which God laid on Abraham when he was about to elevate him in knowledge and religion above all around him? It was, "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing." He had hitherto dwelt in Ur of the Chaldees, a chief seat of the idolatries and other evil practices of that ancient people; and now when he was about to become a new man, and to acquire a new name, he is directed at once to seek a new home. And to this do we find Prophets and Apostles afterwards referring as the first step which led to his subsequent greatness as "the friend of God," and the "Father of the Faithful."

When the Mosaic dispensation was made to succeed the Patriarchal, a still farther impulse was given to the cause of knowledge and righteousness

in the world by new revelations from God, showing more clearly than ever, the way of salvation through a Redeemer; and giving to the great principles of moral law the form and extent which they retain to this day. It was an era of vast magnitude in the condition and history of the human race, when the "two tables of stone," inscribed with the Decalogue, were given from Sinai, followed by the institutions which were "the example and shadow of heavenly things." From that day forward men began to enjoy

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a better hope" towards God, and to feel new responsibilities in all their relations to each other, whether domestic, civil or religious. Accordingly, when God was about to render the Hebrews the depositaries of this world-enriching and world-reforming knowledge, he led them, as he had before led Abraham, from their former abode, and transferred them to a new country; a country where all was new to them; a new soil, new scenery, a new atmosphere; in one sense, a new heaven and a new earth; where new vigor might be imparted to both mind and body for the more perfect discharge of their newly revealed duties to God and to man.

Passing by other examples showing the influence of migration, and which occur in the history of the church and of the world, let us look more carefully at the removal of the Hebrews into the land pro

mised to their fathers, and we shall find still farther designs of wisdom and mercy in it. It would have been migration to a new home, had God led them from Egypt to India or China. Indeed there were countries on every side, where all would have been as new to them as in the land of Canaan. We ask then, was there anything in the character or situation of this land, which rendered it better adapted than others to display his designs of mercy to the nation, and through them to the world at large?

We would naturally suppose there was some good reason for the selection, if we reflect upon the manner in which it was promised to Abraham as the future abode of his descendants, when they should be multiplied into a great nation. It seems in that day to have been the Paradise of the world. It is repeatedly named, as a "land flowing with milk and honey," an expression describing not only extraordinary fertility, but also fertility in everything which contributes to either the health or enjoyments of man. 'I am come down," says God, "to deliver my people, and to bring them up out of the land of Egypt, into a good land, and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey." We have a still more full description of it, when Moses tells the people, then near the end of their journeyings in the wilderness; "For the Lord thy God bringeth thee

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