you is, " Fear not, little flock ; it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." Only " commit your souls to God in well-doing, as into the hands of a faithful Creator," and he will "preserve you blameless unto his heavenly kingdom."]
Numb, xxvii. 15 — 21. And Moses spake unto the Lord, saying, Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation, which may go out before them, and which may go in before them, and tvhich may lead them out, and which may bring them in ; that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd. And the Lord said unto Moses, Take thee Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay thine hand upon him ; and set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation : and give him a charge in their sight. And thou shalt put some of thine honour upon him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may be obedient. And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall ask counsel for him, after the judgment of Urim before the Lord. At his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he, and all the children of Israel with him, even all the congregation.
WHEN great and good men are taken away, we are apt to suppose that their places cannot be ade- quately supplied. But God " has the residue of the Spirit," and can raise up instruments at any time to carry on his gracious purposes in the world. When Elijah was taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot, his servant Elisha was ready to imagine, that all the stay and support of Israel was removed ; " My father, my father! the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof!" but Elijah's mantle fell upon Elisha. Thus, when Moses had received God's final decision re- specting his dying in the wilderness, it seemed as if the nation of Israel would be left as sheep without a shepherd : but God, in answer to the prayer of Moses, appointed one to succeed him, who fulfilled his trust as well as Moses himself could have done.
The points for our present consideration are,
I. The concern of Moses for the people committed to him —