healthy ones, I suppose, by this fourth verse," added Martin.

"And the ground was to be fruitful, and the flocks and herds were to increase rapidly," said Janet.

"And be blessed in the basket and store;' what does that mean?" asked Stewart.

"Much the same as the eighth verse, I fancy," replied his mother. "Their goods and stores were to turn out well, keep well, and not get mildewed and mouldy; and then in all that thou settest thine hand unto '—their manufactures and arts, that would include-they were to have plenty of ability, so that all people of the earth would see that God blessed them and prospered them, and they would respect them and fear them."

They would see that they had rain when other lands hadn't," said Martin, "and that somehow they could always lend, and never had to borrow; that it was no use coming against them in battle, because their enemies always got conquered; in short, that the Israelites were the head, and not the tail, as long as they kept to the true God. That was it, wasn't it, Mrs. Conway?" "And now, Harry," he continued, on ? "

"won't you go

"No; I'm a wretched reader, you know; and my voice is husky. You go on, Martin."

So the youth finished the long chapter, reading every passage with an appropriateness of tone and emphasis, and sometimes with a vehemence that made the others feel as if they had never read the passage before.

"It's a frightful picture; isn't it?" he said, as he finished. "I never saw till yesterday what horrors were set before those rebellious Hebrews."

"God will punish the impenitent, you see," said Mrs. Conway, solemnly. "He is ready to open the very heavens themselves and pour us out blessings more than

we can conceive; but on His own terms only. He will not be mocked; that's our lesson. But let us look into these curses, as we did into the blessings. What were they? Let us sum them up, that we may realize the threatened punishment."

66

First, I think the reverse of all the good things promised," said Janet. They were to look for failure and misfortune in everything,-in their city business, and in the fields, in their children, and in their flocks, herds, and stores. A curse was to rest on everything they had or did, as it seems to me; and that's enough to make one shudder. The curses are more detailed than the blessings."

"Yes, the people couldn't have been better warned. If these curses ever came on them, they knew beforehand wherefore it was, and all their horrors," said the mother.

See, here are all sorts of illnesses threatened," pursued Martin, who was still poring over his book. They were to have consumptions, fevers, and inflammations; all kinds of boils and gatherings, and horrid diseases too, such as before they had hardly heard of. Then the heaven was to become as brass, and the ground as iron. They were to be always beaten by their enemies, instead of always beating; while their enemies were to seize everything they had,--their wives and children, their houses, their vineyards, their flocks and herds, as fast as they got them. Besides, their vineyards and oliveyards and corn would all get blighted and spoilt. And to crown all, the whole nation would be carried away, king and all, into other countries; and strange nations would come and live among them, and grind them down till they had nó peace of their lives, and no comfort in them."

"Yes; it is a terrible picture, most terrible; but it gets worse as you go on. Will you finish your sketch, Mar

tin?" said Mrs. Conway. "See that forty-ninth verse seems to introduce us to another chapter of horrors, and to hold before us the worst scene of all."

"Just what I thought," replied Martin; "surely it must refer to some special time. The Lord would bring against them,' it says, a nation from far,-one whose language they did not understand;' and then there were to be sieges, and all the horrors of sieges, people eating their own children, even ladies doing that. Their plagues were to be wonderful and long. The people were to be left few in number, and scattered all over the world; and when scattered, they were to have no peace, nor ease, but were to be always in a fright. When it was morning, they would wish it were evening; and when it was evening, they would wish it were morning. And to end all, they were to be taken back to Egypt in ships, the very land out of which they had only lately escaped."

66

Why, the story ends without any hope," cried Harry. "And so Moses had to die with only that prospect before him, that prospect for his people, I mean."

No, no; you are wrong; look on at the thirtieth chapter," said his mother. See, there is a prospect of repentance and return; of going back to their own land, and of the curses which enemies had been the means of inflicting, turning back upon themselves."

"And where are we to look for the next prophecies, mamma?" asked the quiet Stewart.

"I do not wish to take any more at present," said Mrs. Conway. "It is time now that we began to follow the course of events, and to turn back to those old records so implicitly believed by the Jewish people, and so distinctly referred to, as we have seen, by heathen writers previous to the Christian era. We

have now got a prospective history of God's chosen nation from its rise to the present times, and even beyond; and if I were to multiply passages, you would only get confused. As we go on, and see how it all came true, we will refer to passages from the prophets; but for to-day we have done enough."

57

CHAPTER VI.

THE CHOICE OFFERED.

"I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing."DEUT. XXX. 19.

"A

ND now to begin our investigation of what was included in those copious blessings," Mrs. Conway said as the young people quickly took up their places, as if anxious to lose no time.

"We start with the narrative containing the account of their rise from a Chaldean ancestor. Men lived (according to this book) much longer in those days than they do now; so, that which was written and handed to the people by Moses, would also be handed down from father to son, by the very few generations which had in many cases intervened. There were, therefore, persons living when it was written, who could testify to its correctness. I mean they would immediately say, 'Yes, these are the old stories which our fathers have told us.' But had these persons, on the contrary, said, 'Oh, but I know this or that to be false; for my grandfather spoke with such and such a person, and he had quite a different tale from him,' you see what would have been the result?

"Of course, the book of Genesis never would have been received at all," said Martin. "It would have been instantly pronounced an imposture.'

"Yes; this was the conclusion at which we had arrived," said Mrs. Conway; "and now, as we are