Exod. xvi. 16 — 18. This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded : Gather of it every man according to his eating ; an omer for every man according to the number of your per- sons: take ye every man for them which are in his tents.
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And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less. And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack.
TO exercise faith, in opposition to all the dictates of sense, is no easy attainment. For instance ; the Jews in the wilderness soon found that they had no means of subsistence ; and no prospect was before them, but that of speedily perishing by hunger and thirst. Yet they did not well to murmur against Moses and Aaron, who, as God's appointed agents, had brought them forth from Egypt : in fact, their murmuring was against God himself, to whom they should rather have applied themselves in earnest prayer for the relief of their necessities. The wonders which he had already wrought for them were abun- dantly sufficient to shew them, that, whilst under his care, they had nothing to fear. Doubtless the pressure of hunger and of thirst rendered it difficult for them to believe that God would provide for them ; and God therefore mercifully bore with their impa- tience, and relieved their wants : he gave them water out of a rock ; and supplied them with bread from the clouds, even with bread sufficient for them from day to day. In relation to the manna, which was rained every night round about their tents, and which they were commanded to gather for their daily use before the risen sun had caused it to melt away, there was this very peculiar circumstance daily occurring during the whole forty years of their sojourning in the wilderness, that, whilst the head of every family was to gather a certain portion (an omer, about five pints,) for every person dependent on him, " those who had gathered more" found, when they came to measure it, that they " had nothing over ; and those who had gathered less, that they had no lack." Now this circumstance being so very peculiar, I shall en- deavour to unfold it to you in its proper bearings : in order to which, I shall consider it,
I. As an historic record —
A more curious fact we can scarcely conceive : and