thousand other evils, are visible enough to others, when the per- sons influenced by them give themselves credit for very different motives. Doubtless, at times, this is the case with all of us. If indeed envy become in any respect a governing principle in our hearts, our religion is altogether vainq. Let us there- fore watch our own spirits, and be thankful to any friend, who, like Moses, will " point out to us a more excellent wayr."]
2. Take diligent heed to the word of God —
[The word of God, if duly attended to, would correct every bad principle in us. It is a two-edged sword, that lays open the inmost recesses of the heart s. To that St. Peter directs us, as the means of subduing envy, and every other evil propensity*. By the word the Apostles themselves were sanctified ; and by that also must we be made clean11. Meditate then on that day and night : and let it be your earnest prayer, that it may dwell richly in you in all wisdom ; and that, being cast into the mould of the Gospel, you may be " changed into the divine image, from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord."]
i Jam. hi. 14—16. r 1 Cor. xii. 31. 8 Heb. iv. 12.
* 1 Pet. ii. 1—3. u John xv. 3. and xvii. 17.
Numb. xii. 8, 9. Wherefore ivere ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses ? And the anger of the Lord ivas kindled against them : and he departed.
WHEN men are angry, we may often, and with reason, doubt, whether there be any just occasion for their displeasure: but when we see Almighty God expressing indignation, we may always ask with confidence, "Is there not a cause?" It is no slight degree of anger which God manifests in the passage before us. And what could be the reason? We are told that " Aaron and Miriam spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married3." But this seems only to have been, if not a fictitious, at least a secondary, reason. (It must be strange indeed if they now began to be displeased with a thing which they knew to have been done many years, and which had never, in that instance,
a ver. 1.