IV. It will be a further consolation to us to reflect that Jesus Christ is the same i/i the tenderness of his cojnpassion —
It was Christ who led the people of Israel through the wilderness, and who directed them by his servant Moses. This appears from the express declaration of St. Paul. We are told that the Israelites " tempted God in the desert, saying. Can he give bread also, and provide flesh for his people ?" And St. Paul, speaking of them, says, "Neither tempt ye CHRIST, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of the destroyer*"." Now the tender compassion which Christ exercised towards his people in the wilderness, is made a frequent subject of devout acknowledgment in the Holy Scriptures. Isaiah says, " In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his pre- sence saved them : in his love and in his pity he redeemed them ; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old'. Moses himself, who both experienced and witnessed his compassion, describes it in terms as beautiful as imagination can conceive. See Deut. xxxii. 9 — 12. " The Lord's portion is his people ; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness : he led him about ; he instructed him ; he kept him as the apple of his eye." Then comes the image of which I speak : but in order to enter fully into its meaning, it will be proper to observe, that the eagle, when teaching her young to fly, flutters over them, and stirs them up to imitate her ; she even thrusts them out of the nest, that they may be forced to exert their powers ; and if she see them in danger of falling, she flies instantly underneath them, catches them on her wings, and carries them back to their nest. In reference to this it is added, *' As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings, so the Lord alone did lead him." Can any thing present a more beautiful
^ 1 Cor. X. 9. 1 Isai. Ixiii. 9.