Oh, if we could only look into it and see!—if we could only see unveiled before us and around us, the dark and desolating places through which we are travelling!-if the spiritual eye could be opened to behold only for once, the deep and dreadful forests, where no sun of heaven casts its light into its dens and caverns; where the wild beasts of the desert have their habitation; where serpents hiss, and scorpions sting, and every unclean and hateful thing is besetting us at every step; — a wilderness more terrible and more real than any which the material world has in it; and thus to see the places we have frequented so much, and how near we have lived to the brink of fearful and horrible destruction, and what human company in the shape of spirits we have allowed to be with us; how would the sight awaken in us the prayer of the Psalmist - "Lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies; lead me to the Rock that is higher than I."

And if the spirit of this prayer really dwells in us, the Lord will be with us, as with his people of old, "to guide our feet into the way of peace," to feed us with manna, and comfort us by the way. And then also will be fulfilled these words of the Lord, spoken to his disciples while on earth. "Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you." (Luke, 10: 19.) Here is an allusion to the same serpents and scorpions, viz., those spiritual enemies which attack us in the wilderness of life.

Such, however, is the ignorance, and in fact, the total want of faith, concerning the temptations which man experiences from the spiritual world, that we are moved to transcribe a passage from the great Seer of the church, touching the particulars of this subject.

"Evil spirits never make assault against any thing but what a man loves, and their assault is violent in proportion to the intensity of the love. Evil genii are those who assault what has relation to the affection of good, and evil spirits are those who

As soon as

assault what has relation to the affection of truth. ever they observe the smallest thing which a man loves, or perceive, as it were, by the smell, what is delightful and dear to him, they assault and endeavor to destroy it; consequently they assault and endeavor to destroy the whole man, since his life consists in his loves. Nothing is more pleasant to them than thus to destroy man; nor do they ever desist from their attempts even to eternity, unless they are repelled by the Lord. Such of them as are more particularly principled in malignity and cunning, insinuate themselves into man's very loves, by soothing and flattering them; thus they introduce themselves to man, and presently after such introduction they endeavor to destroy his loves, and by so doing to kill the man; and this in a thousand ways and methods altogether incomprehensible. Nor do they carry on their assaults only by reasoning against principles of goodness and truth, such assaults being of small account, (for if they be baffled a thousand times, still they persist in their attempts, since reasonings against principles of goodness and truth can never be wanting); but they pervert the principles of goodness and truth, and enkindle a sort of fire of lust and persuasion, so that the man does not know but that he is immersed in such lust and persuasion; and these they inflame at the same time with a delight which they fraudulently steal from man's delights derived from other sources: thus with the utmost cunning they infect and infest the man, and this so artfully, by leading from one thing to another, that unless the Lord were ready to administer help, the man would never know but that he is really such as their suggestions represent him. In like manner they assault the affections of truth which form man's conscience. As soon as they perceive any principle of conscience whatever, they frame to themselves an affection out of the falsities and infirmities appertaining to man, and by this affection they overshadow the light of truth, and thereby pervert it, or cause anxiety, and thus occasion pain and torment. They have, moreover, the art of keeping the thought fixed intently on one object, by which they fill it with phantasies, and then at the same time they clandestinely infuse lusts into those phantasies. Not to mention innumerable other artifices, which it is impossible to describe so as to give any just conception of them." A. C. 1820.

So writes the Seer of the New Jerusalem. Is it possible to

invent such an account? Is it the language of imagination, or guesswork? No, it is undoubtedly the sober reality of the dangers amid which we are living. "Watch and pray, lest

ye enter into temptation."

There are still a few particulars suggested by the subject here opened to us, which are profitable to attend to. One is, that notwithstanding the manna which was miraculously provided for the Israelites was constantly given, and was 66 sweet like honey to the taste," and was even called "angel's food," significant of the blessed properties of this principle of celestial love, yet they frequently turned from it with loathing, and lusted after the food of Egypt. “We remember the fish,” say they, "which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick; but now our soul is dried away; there is nothing at all besides this manna before our eyes." (Num. 11: 5, 6.) That is, in the spiritual sense, concerning those represented by them, they looked back with pleasure upon the lowest things of the natural mind, and the "flesh pots of Egypt" began to be coveted as luxuries. But the heavenly manna was held in repulsion.

Is it not just so with many a regenerating mind? Oh! the terrible delusions of mere sense and nature! It is the Devil's business, thus to insinuate a distaste for heavenly things, and before a man has got half way-nay, before he has fairly entered upon the great life before him, to tempt him in a thousand ways, to try him with all possible hindrances,—to spread out before him the enticements of the world, and the false glories of a perverted nature, and thus to send him back again in the way of death. How often is it experienced! That old sphere, that old company of devils and satans which we are beginning to leave, but which is not so ready to leave us! It is, in fact, a dismemberment of spiritual societies. It is a strife and a struggle between opposing principalities. In the individual it is felt frequently as pain and anguish of spirit. The natural man dies hard. If we have not felt it,

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 He 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.