we know nothing about it, and have no right to attempt to describe it. But the moments are most sweet in the intervals of the conflict; - sweeter than honey itself is the heavenly manna to the pure soul who has acquired a taste for it. It is truly "angel's food." It is the good of that truth which can alone lead us safely through the wilderness; it falls every day if we will but gather it, and is the bread of heaven whereby only we can truly live. Another particular suggested by this subject is, that of all who came out of Egypt, scarcely any entered the land of Canaan, but died in the wilderness through which they travelled. This is not to be viewed as a mere natural consequence of the forty years' travel, for that time was not too long to conduct many to Canaan, who even started from Egypt. But the truth here involved is of an exceedingly interesting spiritual nature. None that desired to return to Egypt were finally conducted to the promised land. But the children of the Israelites, those born by the way, with Caleb and Joshua, these entered into the land of Canaan. The truth here taught is, the destructive nature of yielding to temptations, and also, that the death of the natural man must be complete. All Egypt must be thrown off before entering Canaan. This desire to return back, and this murmuring by the way, are all significant of the evils and falsities with which the natural man is filled. These must all die in the wilderness. Only the spiritual, or the natural when it is made spiritual, can enter into heavenly rest; and this is signified by the children newly born to the Israelites by the way. These find the way to Canaan, and so does every man who is newly born of the spirit. Caleb and Joshua found the way there, for they "wholly followed the Lord." (Num. 32: 11, 12.) In like manner, all whom they represent. Thus particular is the Divine Word! What treasures it contains, far beneath the letter, for our instruction and guidance! And in all our temptations, let us ever remember that there is ONE who hath endured them all as our great Leader and Deliverer, - who has passed through the same “wilderness," and is thus "able to succor all who are tempted." He knows the terror and darkness of the way, for he has been there before us. And IIe it is who gives us power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy." It is only by repeated and long-continued temptations, that we finally achieve a permanent victory. For by every successful resistance, something is weakened in the evil organism of the natural man; the spiritual vessels are then set up in their due order and consistency; good and truth flow in from the Lord; and the whole human constitution is thus by degrees permeated by a new spirit, and built up, fair and beauteous, in the form and order of heaven. CHAPTER VII. FLUCTUATIONS. "O ever-swaying, conscious soul, "From wave to wave, from land to land, And now on heavenly heights I stand, And now in dreadful deeps am lost."-Landerf. - some IT is the experience of almost every one who has really begun the new life that leads to heaven, not only to be in warfare and temptation, but to be subject more or less to certain vacillations; to be, at times, elated and depressed; times to endure the extremes of heavenly joy and assurance, and at others, to be cast into the depths of despair. Even in natural life, such fluctuations continually occur, but in spiritual life they are of a different character. They do not come of natural things, but of spiritual things. Who hath not felt them? We need not cite the experience of the "old saints," for it is the experience of the humblest Christian. And it seems almost invariably the lot of those who reach the highest summits of holiness and joy, who catch the clearest glimpses of the heavenly beatitudes, to be most familiar with the deeps that range beneath them. At least it is so until perfect rest is obtained. These fluctuations are frequently alluded to in the Psalms, and in other portions of the Word:-in the Psalms more particularly, because throughout this wonderful composition, the temptations of the Lord, his combats with the hells, and his victories over them, are continually referred to, and by connection and analogy, the like states in man who is regenerating. Thus, in the 69th Psalm in unto my soul. ing: I am come me. "Save me, O God, for the waters are come I sink in deep mire, where there is no standinto deep waters, where the floods overflow Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness; and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none: (1, 2, 20.) referring to the terrible inundation of falsities and evils which came flowing in upon Him from the hells, and the almost despair which enters the heart on such occasions. Again, but shortly after, being delivered from this state and mounting up to another," My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee; and my soul, which thou hast redeemed. My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long; for they are confounded, for they are brought unto shame, that seek my hurt." (71: 23, 24.) Again, from the gloomy depths goes up the cry- "Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto thee. Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble, for my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as a hearth. My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread. By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones cleave to my skin. I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I am like an owl of the desert." (102: 1-6.) And again, in the very next Psalm "Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." (103: 1-5.) And so we might go on through many of the Psalms, from high to low, and from low to high, in a succession so rapid and consecutive, that, read with this point particularly in view, they present to us quite a new and interesting feature. The Psalms, indeed, without this view of them, are an unsolved problem. With all their beauties and manifest proprieties, there is no sufficient reason why a soul should thus pass so often from one state to another, and from the extremes of depression to the extremes of elation, without the admission of temptations and trials from the unseen world. It is strikingly manifest in the 107th Psalm. Six times is it there said that the people cried unto the Lord from the depths of humiliation and trouble, and as many times, that He "led them forth by the right way". that He "brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death," and "out of all their distresses." And in a beautiful correspondence taken from a life upon the sea "They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths; their soul is melted because of trouble." Then "He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still," and with gladness and quietness bringeth them to the desired haven. These things, in their spiritual import, all relate to the fluctuations experienced in the regenerating life. Human life is often compared to a voyage at sea, but the comparison becomes all the more interesting when seen in the light of genuine correspondence in application to our spiritual progress. These fluctuations are also what is referred to in the account of the Flood in the time of Noah. The flood here spoken of was an inundation of spiritual waters - falsities and evils from the unseen world. And we read, according to the truest translation, that "the waters returned from off the earth [that is, from the earth of the natural mind] in going and returning." (Gen. 8: 3.) That is, by a continual fluctuation between truth and falsity. The nature of the fluctuation, however, can only be understood by the nature of the temptation. If the temptation is celestial, the fluctuation is chiefly between good and evil; if it is spiritual, it is between truth and falsity. But inasmuch as the states of all, in the present condition of the world, are more or less mixed, that is to say, not celestial nor spiritual entirely, but a mixed mass of good and evil, truth and |