Manoah's wife for the pacifying of her husband's mind : " If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt-offering or a meat-offering at our hands, neither would he have shewed us all these things, nor would, as at this time, have told us such tilings as these h." Past mercies are rather urged by them in prayer as pleas for further blessings. It was thus that David regarded them: "Thou hast delivered my soul from death : wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the hght of the living1?" And in this way will God's special favour operate on every ingenuous mind. Instead of being satisfied with a taste of his love, we shall hunger and thirst after the full banquet ; and never cease from aspiring after a further growth in grace, till we have at- tained the full measure of the stature of Christ, and our graces are perfected in glory.
Nor shall we be anxious about our own advancement only : we shall feel for God's honour also ; and for the welfare of those around us. This appears, in a striking point of view, in the conduct of Moses on this occasion : for, not content with finding grace himself, he adds, " And consider that this nation is thy people ;" in which words he combines a tender regard for God's honour with an anxiety for his people's welfare. His further pleading also deserves attention: " Wherein shall it be known here, that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight ? Is it not in that thou goest with usk ?" Now this shews us the true effect which a sense of God's love will produce : it will make us not only anxious to obtain richer communications of grace and peace to our own souls, but more earnest also to promote to the utmost of our power the good of all around us.]
The answer given to this petition leads us to notice, III. The plea admitted —
God, in his mercy, vouchsafed to Moses an answer of peace —
[The plea peculiarly honoured God, in that, whilst it acknowledged his sovereign grace in the blessings already bestowed, it regarded him as a God of unbounded goodness, able and willing to fulfil all his petitions. And God's answer to it shewed how greatly it was approved by him : " The Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken, for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name1." Here, I say, God not only grants the peti- tion, but specifically founds the grant upon the very plea that had been urged.]
i» Judg. xiii. 23. [ Ps. Ivi. 13.
k ver. 16. with ch. xxxiv. 9. ] ver. 17.