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see it vanish. Paul expressly says: "Moses put a veil on his face, that the children of Israel should not look steadfastly on the end of that which was passing away." (Revision.) They were not prepared to see that light expire. They were not ready to receive the greater light. "For," says Paul, until this very day at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil is uplifted-unto this day whensoever Moses is read, a veil lieth upon their hearts." They think the light is still there. They think if the veil were only lifted the face of Moses would shine now as when on Sinai he talked with God. Ah! how sad, how sad! to see this ancient people worshiping an empty veil, back of which is now no face and no light. The Old Covenant as a way of life is vanished. Gone nearly two thousand years ago. Its glory is perished. And yet they gather around the veiled emptiness and talk of the light that must there be hidden. God in mercy let down that curtain that they might not witness in anguish the last expiring spark. But when they will turn to the Lord, that greater than Moses, whose covenant, as a way of life, is founded on better blood, better promises, a better surety, then will that veil on their hearts be removed. Then will they find a shining which never dies but waxes brighter and brighter forever. Then they all, as Christians, "with unveiled face, reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, will be transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit." This last verse

of the third chapter of the second Corinthians is a wonderful scripture.

Historians tell us that the ancient Incas of Peru had, at Cuzco, a wonderful temple of the sun. It consisted of three walls only and had no roof. The walls were north, west and south. It was open towards the east. The west end was covered with hammered gold-a mirror of smoothly polished gold. Just before dawn the worshipers would stand in the open, east end of the temple and face the golden mirror. When the sun rose above the horizon its beams of light would fall upon the mirrored wall of the west end, which would reflect its golden light on the upturned faces of the worshipers and crown them with an aureole-his own image. But this scripture seems to make the Christian the mirror, placed before Christ the Sun of righteousness, until it catches and reflects his image. Or, to vary the figure, the Christian is an unshapely block of marble, placed before a perfect model, so that the sculptor may shape it from glory to glory until it is the express image of the model. There remains to be considered one practical reflection, suggested by the fact stated in the text:

5. "Moses wist not his face was shining."-That is, he was so absorbed in God, so lost to self, so wrapped in contemplation of heavenly glory, he was unconscious of the majesty and dignity and glory of his own appearance. The Lord God was "the health of his countenance," but he himself did not

know how luminously "the beauty of holiness" was crowning him. How suggestive this fact. And how valuable the suggestion. Let us mark it down so we may not forget it: When we become conscious of our shining we cease to shine! When we begin to reflect with complacency upon our gifts and endowments they lose their virtue. The charm is broken. No one, however beautiful, can seem beautiful while vainly conscious of beauty. But when one, like Moses, forgets himself, denies himself, enters into and appropriates another's woes by tender sympathy, when looking out of self, he becomes absorbed in prayer, in God, then that face, however homely in features, takes on a glorious beauty. One airy, conceited smirk will spoil the charms of the fairest belle. One penitential tear out-glitters a pearl. One tender grasp of a loving, helping hand, however hard or scarred with toil, will make it shapelier in God's sight than any Beau Brummell's soft, kid-covered fingers.

Moses wist not his face was shining. Oh, this sweet, unconscious light, how beautiful it is! That is why, at the judgment, the humble, self-forgetful saints will be startled at the Saviour's plaudit, and begin to inquire: "Lord, when did we see thee sick, hungry, cold, naked and ministered unto thee?" They have forgotten their goodness. But heaven remembers. O ye modest violets that unconsciously fill the earth with fragrance; ye, ye are the light of the world.

VI

WATCH, WORK, WAR

"For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side, and so builded: and he that sounded the trumpet was by me."-Neh. 4:18.

T

HERE are no more interesting and no more profitable themes of study recorded in all the annals of time than God's dealings with the Jews. He had assured them that if they kept his laws he would prosper them and give them their land forever, but if they transgressed his commandments that he would send them away into captivity. First, the ten tribes went into captivity and their vacated country was peopled by imported mongrel hordes, afterwards known as Samaritans. Later the kingdom of Judah, except a miserable remnant, was borne away in a similar ruin and God said they should be captives for seventy years.

Now, one of the captives in that strange land of Babylon heard through visiting brethren from Jerusalem of the condition of the few people that were left in the land of Judah, that they were in great affliction and under great reproach, and that the walls of the city were destroyed and they were at the mercy of their enemies. It caused him great

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affliction. He sat down and wept and fasted and prayed for many days and nights. And he implored God to grant him favor, that he might be the means of rebuilding that city and re-establishing that banished people, and in order to this that God would give him favor in the sight of the Persian monarch, which dynasty had overthrown the dynasty of Nebuchadnezzar, who had led them away captive. So he went before this king and stated his case. The king heard it. He granted him permission to go back and rebuild the city. He gave him letters to the governors of the provinces lying between Babylon or Shushan and Jerusalem. He assisted him in other ways.

When he reached Jerusalem he found matters to the last degree desperate and deplorable. Outside of almost irreparable internal disaster, he found the mongrel Samaritans allied with Israel's ancient enemies. This coalition not only rejoiced in the downfall of Jerusalem but also conspired to perpetuate its desolation. So vigilant were their efforts against its restoration and so watchful of him that he had to survey the ruins by night. And his heart bled at the expanse of those ruins, doubly horrible when viewed at night, and the apparently hopeless undertaking of the restoration. Nevertheless he called the remnant of the people around him and set forth his great purpose.

I shall not recount the various steps that were taken in the successful re-establishment of the city