^ Mackay of Uganda, 385.
JOSHUA V. 12 119
amid golden cornfields and rich pastures and luxuriant vineyards they would have to practise in even higher degree the virtues which the wilderness life called forth. The tenure of the Holy Land was a moral one, and only on stern moral conditions could it be owned. They had to enter it as armed soldiers, and to conquer every inch of it ; and they had to hold it by a repetition of the same toils and self-denials by which they had won it. And how symbolical was the new corn of the land — the bread for which they toiled in the sweat of their face — of this life of self-conquest and devotion which it sustained ! It might seem that their life in the wilderness, directly supported by God and under His immediate care, was higher and more heavenly than their life in Canaan — sowing and reaping their fields, and pro- viding for their wants by their own labour. But it was not so; for the wilderness-life fed by the manna of heaven was only an introduction to, and a preparation for, the higher life of Canaan fed by the corn of earth, which was none the less the gift of God that they had to toil for it.
^ In George Eliot's Stradivarius there occur the following suercrestive lines: —
^co^
Stradivari speaks. The masters only know whose work is good: They will choose mine, and while God gives them skill I give them instruments to play upon, God choosing me to help Him.
Naldo. What! were God
At fault for violins, thou absent?
Stradivari. Yes ;
He were at fault for Stradivari's work.
That is one view of the work of life in its relation to God — He needing us, demanding that we become " workers together with him." Another view — the complementary one — is that which recognizes our need of Him. And, while both are undoubtedly acknowledged by Browning, it is the latter on which I think he lays the greater emphasis; as, for example, in the closing lines of "Eabbi Ben Ezra" —
So, take and use Thy work: Amend what flaws may lurk. What strain o' the stufip, what warpings past the aim !
120 EXCELLENCE OF THINGS ORDINARY
My times be in Thy hand! Perfect the cup as planned! Let age approve of youth, and death complete the same ! ^
II.
God's Method of Pkovision is feom the Supernatural to THE Natural.
1. The incident of the manna of the wilderness giving place to the corn of Canaan is in entire harmony with all God's dealings with man. The dispensation that was inaugurated by supernatural manifestations is carried on by common helps and through the homely experiences of human life. The signs and wonders which opened a new era, or were needed to produce faith in great emergencies, are not perpetuated in ordinary circumstances. The creation commenced with a stupendous miracle, but is preserved by the quiet and uniform methods of nature. The Law of Moses, which was given amid the thunders and lightnings of Sinai, was put in force throughout the continuous history of Israel by its own solemn sanctions. The Christianity which first took its place in history by the aid of astonishing miracles appealing to the senses, now main- tains its position by its own unobtrusive spiritual power. The gifts of Divine inspiration, which were shown objectively to men in the tongues of flame and the mighty rushing wind of Pentecost, were discontinued when the work of the Holy Ghost was carried on spiritually in all places and in all hearts.
The ceasing of the manna gave to Israel new views of the presence and providence of God. It taught them to see God in common things, and to realise His presence in the fields. The manna was not wholly natural ; it was a miracle. It was a striking and supernatural provision. It came from heaven — it was the bread of angels ; it was not an ordinary part of the economy of nature. And so when the children of Israel thought of providence, and when they meditated on the care of God, that care for them would always be associated with wonderful and strange interpositions. But the day came when
' J. Flew, Studies in Browning, 198,
JOSHUA V. 12 121
the manna ceased to fall ; the providence of God was shifted elsewhere. It was transferred from the miracle of manna to the corn that ripened in a thousand fields. And we see what that achieved for Israel, and how it taught them larger views of providence, for the God of the manna and the God of miracle had become the God who ripens every harvest. No longer in an isolated miracle did Israel find the hand of the Divine. The manna ceased; they were cast back on nature to find in nature the same care of God. And so they learned — what is so hard to learn — that providence had a wider reach than once they dreamed, and that the common field may be as full of heaven as the manna which is the bread of angels.
^ God gives at appropriate times meat to eat which the world knoweth not of — hidden manna, living bread direct from heaven. And when the manna is withdrawn and we are supplied with corn — with human nature's daily food — let us seek to profit by what the manna has done for us and taught us. We have received spiritual food that we may have grace and strength to carry on the common duties of life. We have tasted on the Holy Mount that the Lord is gracious, that we may follow hard after Him along the beaten paths of life. The life imparted by Divine power must be sustained by human means. The extra- ordinary, appropriate to times of religious excitement, must pass into the ordinary experience. What is the birth of a remarkable occasion must become the habit of an ordinary life.