All will remember the remark of the disciples respecting Lazarus, John xi. 12, " Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well."

In like manner, death brings advantage to the faithful.

"To depart and to be with Christ," says Paul, " is far better;" to me to die is gain; while we are in this tabernacle (the body) we do groan, being burdened.

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In sleep all the senses are benumbed, and no longer perform their proper and usual functions. Hence Orpheus describes sleep as binding the frame with chains, though not of brass." And Virgil, b. 10, "An iron sleep o'erwhelms his swimming eyes." And Homer calls it," all subduing sleep." So death, or at least its forerunner, old age, is described by Solo'mon, Eccl. 12,

"The keepers of the house (the arms) tremble,

The strong men (the limbs) bow themselves.

The grinders (the teeth) cease because they are few,
Those that look out of the windows (the eyes) are darkened,
The daughters of music (the ears) are brought low,

The almond tree (the grey hair) flourisheth,

Because man goeth to his long home,

And the mourners go about the streets."

As sleep is generally enjoyed in a bed, the grave also is called by that name, Isa. lvii. 2, " They shall

rest in their beds."

Sleep implies waking. So it is said of death, Dan, xii. 2, " Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."

Sleep is a divine bestowment, Ps. cxxvii. 2.

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Though the guardian of Israel never slumbers nor sleeps," Ps. cxxi. 4, yet sleep is attributed to

God, speaking of him after the manner of men, as in Ps. xliv. 23; Isa. li. 9, and similar passages; in all which is meant merely, a suspension or delay of divine help and interposition, according to that view of sleep, in which the active powers are suspended.

SMOKE, considered as hindering or obscuring the sight, may signify gross errors, which obscure and darken the understanding.

When considered as a thing of no substance and that quickly disappears, it then signifies ambition, and the vain promises of courtiers.

When considered as proceeding from incense offered to God, it is the same as a cloud of covering or protection.

When considered as proceeding from fire only, it then signifies, according to the Oneirocritics, diseases, anger, punishment, and war.

And agreeably to this, smoke is in Virgil explained of war, Æn. 1. 7, v. 76, 81,

"Yet more, when fair Lavinia fed the fire

Before the gods, and stood beside her sire,

(Strange to relate!) the flames, involved in smoke,
Of incense, from the sacred altar broke,
Caught her dishevell'd hair, and rich attire,
Her crown and jewels crackled in the fire.
From thence the fuming trail began to spread,
And lambent glories danced about her head."

DRYDEN.

And in the sacred writings, smoke is for most part the adjunct of war and destruction. See Gen. xix. 28," And he looked towards Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and beheld, and lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace." Also Josh. viii. 20; Judges xx. 40; Ps. xxxvii. 20; and Isaiah xiv. 31, "From the north

there cometh a smoke;" i. e. as Lowth observes, a cloud of dust raised by the march of Hezekiah's army against Philistia, which lay to the south-west from Jerusalem. A great dust raised, has at a distance the appearance of smoke: "fumantes pulvere campi.” Virg. Æn. 11, 908.

To which may be added those places where smoke is said to come out of God's nostrils, as in Deut. xxix. 20; 2 Sam. xxii. 9; Ps. xviii. 8—lxxiv. 1, for that is the same as his anger, according to the constant rule of the poets.

σε Χολα πολι деть

καθηται.”

"Disce, sed Ira cadat naso."

THEOCR. IDYL. 1, 18.

PERSIUS, SAT. 5. 91.

PLAUT. AMPHITR. Act 4.

"Fames et mora bilem in nasum conciunt."

Hence Virgil,

"Premens volvit sub naribus ignem."

And Martial,

GEORG. 1. 3. v. 86.

He

"Fumentum nasum vivi tentaveris Ursi." 1. 6. ep. 64. In Pindar, smoke likewise signifies anger. says, ""Tis the lot of a good man to bring water

against the smoke to them that make peace when men fall out.

quarrel;" that is, to Nem. Od. 1.

A house filled with smoke, denotes punishment from persons in authority, or the Supreme power. See the Oneirocritics, c. 160.

In Isa. iv. 5, smoke seems to be connected with images denoting defence :

"Then shall Jehovah create upon the station of Mount Zion, And upon all her holy assemblies,

A cloud by day, and smoke,

And the brightness of a flaming fire by night,

Yea, over all shall the glory (the Schechinah) be a covering."

A plain allusion to the pillar of cloud and fire in the wilderness. See Exod. xiii. 21-xl. 38; and Zech. ii. 5.

"The smoking flax will he not quench;" Isa. xlii. 3; Mat. xii. 20, "Christ will deal tenderly with all who come to him."

"A perpetually ascending smoke;" an emblem of future punishment. Rev. xiv. 11, &c.

Rev. xv. 8, " And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power," &c. In the judgment of Korah, the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the congregation, when he and his companions were swallowed up by the earth. Num. xvi. 19,"And when the congregation murmured against Moses and Aaron, this appearance of the glory was the forerunner of judgment." So that the smoke here is an emblem to express the execution of judg

"When the Almighty scattered kings in it,
It was white as snow in Salmon.'

i. e. it was bright and cheering to the victorious party, the people of God. Joshua, ch. 12, where the discomfiture of thirty-one kings is mentioned, may throw light on the passage, which is a very difficult

one.

Snow being rare in Judea, it was much admired. Hence the son of Sirach speaks of it with a kind of

rapture, Eccles. xliii. 18, " The eye will be astonished at the beauty of its whiteness, and the heart transported at the raining of it."

The Psalmist, cxlvii. 16, says, "He sendeth forth snow like wool." So Virgil, Georg. 1, 397,

"Tenuiæ nec lanæ per coelum vellera ferri.” And Martial, 1. 4, ep. 3, v. 1,

"Densum tacitarum vellus aquarum.”

Herodotus says, "That the Scythians called the flakes of snow, liga, feathers, and that those parts which are situated to the northward of their territories, are neither visible nor practicable, by reason of the feathers that fall continually on all sides. For the earth is entirely covered, and the air so full of these feathers, that the sight is altogether obstructed." L. 4, c. 7.

Pope, Il. 3, line 284, mentions "the fleeces of descending snows."

In some countries, the snow falls in very large flakes.

Jerem. xviii. 14, " Will the snow leave Lebanon before any rock of the field?" i. e. as Blayney explains it, it would be very unnatural if the snow should quit the tops of Lebanon, whilst the rocks of less height in the adjacent country were covered with it. It is equally monstrous that my people should desert their own God, and adopt the superstitions of a strange idolatry.

But see Parkhurst on sheleg, Heb. Lex. p. 700.
Prov. xxxi. 21,

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She is not afraid of the snow for her household,

For all her household are clothed with scarlet;"