^ A. Maulareu. ' W. R. NicoU, Suiuiay Eveniv^g, 83.
NUMBERS X. 29-31 385
^ Think of the Church's task in its widest aspect — to claim the world for God, to let them that sit in darkness see the great light, anointed like the Church's Lord to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. Think of the terrible warfare to which it is committed — to subdue the beast in man, to oppose evil in high places and in low — a warfare that knows no truce, relentless, lifelong; and, as here in this corner of the field we are hard bestead and appeal to you for reinforcement, will you sit at ease and refuse the call ? ^
V Come with us, if not for the good you will get, then for the good you will do. You shall be to us for eyes, if it shall turn out that you can see more clearly and farther than we. You shall come in with your organic faculty unimpaired and use it to the utmost ; with your natural tastes and tendencies that are sinless, unde- preciated ; with your points of natural superiority to be acknow- ledged and used. You shall be eyes to us to see what you only can see ; and tongue, if you will, to tell the seeing for the good of all : and I think this, that if there be one spark of nobleness un- tarnished left in you, you cannot resist such an appeal. It is not to your selfishness ; it is not for your own salvation ; it is for the guidance and the good of God's struggling people ; it is for the salvation of your fellowmen who may become God's struggling people through your means. There lives no man who has not something characteristic and peculiar to himself by the full development and expression of which he can benefit his fellow- creatures as no other but himself exactly can do. That idea can become fully real only in the Church of God.*
^ Though you know nothing about the passion of the saints, what about the service of the saints ? You are not sure about the supreme claims over your life which Christ makes ; but have you no opinion about the great purposes He seeks to accomplish in the world, the high ends He seeks to serve? And as you see Him go to the world's redemption, have you never thrilled to the tacit appeal to come to the help of the Lord against the mighty ? You who may be instead of eyes, can you hold back ingloriously ? '
The Son of God goes forth to war, A kingly crown to gain; His blood-red banner streams afar: Who follows in His train?
•Hugh Black. 'A.Raleigh. 'Hugh Black.
GEN.-NUM. — 25
Look and Livb.
Literature.
Aitken (W. H. M. H.), Ood's Everlasting Yea, 117.
Banks (L. A.), On the Trail of Moses, 201.
Keble (J.), Sermons for the Christian Year, Holy Week, 114, 480.
Mackay (J. J.), Recent Letters of Christ, 156.
Maclaren (A.), Christ's Musts, 1.
„ Expositions : Exodus, Leviticua, Numbers, 362 ; St. John
i.-viii., 162, 171. Macplierson (W. M.), The Path of Life, 105. Parker (J.), The City TevipU Pulpit, iv. 12. Pearse (M. G.), Moses, 25a Price (A. C), Fifty Sermons, ix. 169. Reid (J.), Jesus and Nicodemus, 185.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xxv. No. 1500. Talbot (E. S.), Sermons in Leeds Parish Church, 147. Thome (H.), Foreshadowings of the Gospel, 57.
„ Notable Sayings of the Great Teacher, 26. Trench (R. C), Sermons in Ireland, 228. Christian World Pulpit, xx. 237 (Walters).
Churchman's Pulpit (Second S\inday after Easter), viii. 15 (Caley). Preacher's Magazine, iv. (1893) 469.
Look and Live.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a 6ery serpent, and set it upon a standard : and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he seeth it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it upon the standard : and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked imto the serpent of brass, he lived. — Num. xxi. 8, 9.
[And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up : that whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life. — John iii. 14, 15.]
1. While the children of Israel were roaming homeless through the wilderness, their heart, we read, failed them because of the way, and, as was their wont, they vented their vexation in angry thoughts and rebellious words against God. On this occasion God sent among them judgment in the form of fiery serpents. The bite of these serpents was deadly, so that when a man was once bitten by their venomous fangs his life was forfeited, and, although he did not drop down dead on the instant, in one sense he was a dead man already. What a moment of agony and terror it must have been as all around unfortunate victims were being attacked by these messengers of death! In this terrible emergency the people cried to God, and in doing so confessed, " We have sinned " ; and in answer to their prayer Moses was instructed to make a fiery serpent of brass and set it on a pole, and it should come to pass that, if any were bitten by a fiery serpent, on looking at this they would live.