O well may angels gaze

Upon the lovely sight,
And well to heaven may raise
The song of deep delight:
For richer incense ne'er arose
From Eastern shrines to God,
And lovelier scene did ne'er repose
In India's bright abode.

This is a triumph of that love

That shines afar from worlds above!

ON THE

MIRACULOUS SHOWER OF STONES,

RECORDED IN JOSHUA, CHAP. X.

A GLORIOUS day was that for Israel, in which they drove the kings and the hosts of the Amoritish confederacy from before the walls of Gibeon- -a day worthy of endless renown -a day, the memorial of which might be conceived to have formed a guarantee sufficient to have secured for ever, the undeviating allegiance of the Israelitish nation to their covenanted Jehovah. The great city of Gibeon, with the country thereto tribu

tary, had just entered into an alliance with Joshua and the children of Israel. This alliance derogatory to the honour and interests of the neighbouring states was no sooner formed, than these states sent forth their armies, commanded by their kings, who, encamping in the plains around the city, threatened it with a murderous siege. With all haste, the Gibeonites despatched heralds to Joshua at Gilgal, who, faithful to his engagements with his newly formed allies, immediately set his troops in motion, and marching all night, came by the morning with that suddenness upon the besiegers, as to strike the most fatal panic through their ranks. The siege was raised-the encampments abandoned, and the five kings with their glittering hosts fled with precipitation before Joshua and his "mighty men of valour."

The enemy, however, were not permitted to escape. They were followed with great slaughter; and that they might not elude the vengeance of their pursuers by the darkning of the evening shades, “Joshua spake to

the Lord, and he said in the sight of his vic torious troops, "Sun, stand thou still in Gibeon! and thou moon in the valley of Aja lon! And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed until they had avenged themselves upon their enemies."

But this sublime prodigy was not the only interposition of Divine Providence which signalized that memorable victory, for "it came to pass, as the enemy fled from be fore Israel, and were in the valley of Bethhoron, that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, so that there were more which died with hailstones, than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword."

Respecting this miraculous shower of stones, commentators are not altogether agreed. Most of them, however, are of opinion, that although the storm might have been in this case, similar to that which constituted one of the ten plagues of Egypt, yet that from the former expressions, it is more than probable, that it was also literally accompanied by the fall of what are termed in

the language of science, æroliths, or meteoric

stones.

Presuming that such was the fact, what a fearful spectacle must the retreating armies have presented! Some notion of what must have been the desolating circumstances of that scene, may be afforded by a perusal of the following table, which includes an account of some of the more recent exhibitions of this marvellous phenomenon.