TO DEAu IMMEDIATELY WITH ALL THIB ANGUISH,AND BONDAGE OF MEN, There is a plausible ergument-----<>ne very frequently urged, and alas I very easily deceiving-that the Gospel of Christ does nothing immediately for the social improvement of the world. What is more common than the cry, when some hideous blot and ulcer of society ie isuddenly revealed, " Here we stand, having only got so far, after more than eighteen centuries of Christianity ! " And in hearing talk of this kind, which is sometimes sincere, but oftener is mere cant, we have not so much to reply to others as to enlighten and reassure ourselves. How easily it might have been said with respect t-0 these Israelit.es, "God is no deliverer, else he would at once take these people- this living, suffering generation-----<>ut of all their pains." What God might have done we cannot tell; we only know what he actually did. 'l'he light of the whole transaction shows that Jehovah was unquestionably a deliverer; that however a single generation might suffer, the whole nation was in due time, and at the best time, fully redeemed. And in like manner, by the consideration of ultimate results as well as present experiences, we gain the assurance that God is truly the ,deliverer of men from all spiritual bondage, all spiritual pain. Our frequent folly as defenders of the faith is in saying more than there is any need to say. Let us keep within safe, practical, provable assertions, and these will give an answer enough for the present need. The Gospel of Christ, we },now, does something, immediately, for every one who, in response to its great invitation, believes in the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour. Heal belief in him will at once irradiate the meanest hovel, the most squalid circum- stances, with a light which may most truly be described as The light that never was on sea or land. No combination of favourable social surroundings will ever bring that light; nothing will bring it but the soul's own free and intelligent admission of Jesus as Saviour and Lord. l.:fis presence thUll obtained gives joy in the midst of the bitterest anguish, Ii bertv in the midst of the most grinding bondage. 'l'he more that people believe in Christ, the more we shall have of his effectual presence in the world; and the more we have of his effectual presence, the nearer we shall come to that perpetual summer when the ice that now wraps so many human hearts will be utterly and lastingly melted away. Social reformers who are not also hnmble Christians, with ell their pretensions and all their zeal, are only t-Ouchina secondary causes ; relieving symptoms without cutting at the root of disease. No h ~ beina ever did or ever will get clear of anguish and bondage except by submitting t-0 Christ. . And no _one ever submitted t? C_hrist without hal"ing the certain assurance given, that m due time all sorrow and sighing would for ever flee away.-Y. EXPOSITION previonsly had " believed " his report ( eh. iv Y ers. l 0---12.-The Israelites bJlviD.g shown themselves, for the time, unimpressible, God 31)? • commands Moses to ma.k.e his next effort Ver.~11.-0ut of his land. Note the o.d- 1.:pon the Pharaoh. He is to enter into his vance in the demand. No longer is there any presence once more, and demand, without cir- limitation to e. three clays' journey, os at first ( eh. iii. 18; v. 3). The children of Israel are cumlocution or obscurity, that the Israelites to be let go altogether "out of the land." So be allowed to quit the land (ver. 11). Moses, generally, if God Jays a light burthen upon us however, demurs. He had done God's will and we refuse it, we may expect him to ex- with respect to the people readily and at chs.nge our light burthen for a heavier one. once, expecting that, as he had persuaded We had better accept the first cross he offers. them before, so he would e. second time But Ver. 12. - trnoircumoi.sed lips, i.e. "lips inefficient for the purpose for which lips a.re he had been dise.ppointed ; the people had given ; " as " uncircumcised ee.rs " are ears that ref used to listen to him. Immediate!y all his cannot hee.rken (Jer, vi. 10), and an" uncir- origin.al self-distrust and diffidence recurred- cumcised heart" e. hee.rt tbJlt cannot under- even the old form of diffidence, distrust of his stand ( ib. ix. 26). The meaning is the same ability to persuade men (eh. iv. 10). How as in eh. iv. 10, where Moses se.ys that he is "slow of speech and of e. slow tongue." No- shall he expect to persuade Phare.oh, who had thing can be determined from the expression lllreo.dy rejected him (eh."· 2-5), when hfl as to the exact cause of the imperfection of had jll.8t failed with his ew.11 countrym.e.11, who which CQIIlplaint ia i;ne.de. OU. VJ, 9-14.] '.!.'HE BOOK JF EXODUS. 151
HOMILETICS. Ver. 11.-The servant of God must labour uncea.~irlgly. Scarcely has Moses made one attempt e.t service and failed than God requires of him another service. "Go in, speak unto Phnre.oh." In. the career of God's servants there is "no rest, no pause." Failure here must be redeemed by effort there. And in this unceasing continuance of service one thing is especially remarkable. After failure, not a lighter but a heavier duty jg commonly imposed on men. If they prove unable to convince their kindred, they are given a mission to strangers; if they fail with men of low degree, they are appointed to preach to princes. God will have them redeem failure by fresh effort. God knows the causes of their failure, and introduces them to new spheres, where those causes will not operate, or operate less. A man who has failed in a humble sphere not unfrequently succeeds in a higher one. 'rhe servant of God must not care greatly about the sphere to which he is called, but seek to do his best in each while he remains in it. He will thus-I. Be always labouring for God; 2. Be always exercising and so improving his own mental and spiritual gifts; and 3. Be of far more benefit to others than if he sat idle half his time waiting for such a call as seemed to him altogether fitting and suitable. "The time is short." We must "work while it is day-the night cometh when no man can work."