hand will be upon us. Then we shall have to say, 'The hand of our God
was upon us,' and as we look from the watch-towers of the city, on the
desert that stretches to its very walls, and remember all the way by
which He led us, we shall rejoice over His vindication of our poor
faith, and praise Him that 'not one thing hath failed of all the
things which the Lord our God spake concerning us.'



THE CHARGE OF THE PILGRIM PRIESTS

'Watch ye, and keep them, until ye weigh them ... at Jerusalem, in the
chambers of the house of the Lord.'--EZRA viii. 29.


The little band of Jews, seventeen hundred in number, returning from
Babylon, had just started on that long pilgrimage, and made a brief
halt in order to get everything in order for their transit across the
desert; when their leader Ezra, taking count of his men, discovers
that amongst them there are none of the priests or Levites. He then
takes measures to reinforce his little army with a contingent of
these, and entrusts to their special care a very valuable treasure in
gold, and silver, and sacred vessels, which had been given to them for
use in the house of the Lord. The words which I have taken as text are
a portion of the charge which he gave to those twelve priestly
guardians of the precious things, that were to be used in worship when
they got back to the Temple. 'Watch and keep them, until ye weigh them
in the chambers of the house of the Lord.'

So I think I may venture, without being unduly fanciful, to take these