them openly, daily pressed upon them. He who starves here in England can scarcely Harve save by his own fault-because he will not stretch out his hand to gather of the bread of life, will not take it when it is offered to him, rejects it, despises it, " loathes" it. Ill. lT WAS WHITE, A~""D SWEET TO THE TASTE, AS ClmIBT IB PURE AND BPOTLEB!\, A~"'D SWEET TO THE SoUL. A master mind of these modern times has made his hero, a well-disposed heathen, see in Christ, even before he could bring himself to believe in him, "the WHITE Christ." "Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners," he presents himself to all who will read his life, and contemplate his character, as pure, stainless, innocent. The Lamb is his fitting emblem. Driven snow is not purer or more speck.less. "Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee" (Cant. iv. 7). Aud he is sweet also. "Thy lips, 0 my spouse, drop as the honeycomb; honey and milk a.re under thy tongue" ( ib. 11). " How sweet a.re thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey unto my mouth!" (Ps. cxix. 103). His words, his life, his promises, his influence, his presence, are all sweet, especially the last. Let those who know him not, once "taste and see how gracious the Lord is," and they will desire no other nourishment. IV. IT DESCEKllED :r<OISELESSLY IN THE NIGHT. So Christ comes to us, not" with obserrntion "-not in the \\ind, or in the fire, or in the earthquake, but in silence and in quietude, when other voices a.re hushed within us and a.bout us, when we sit and watch, in patience possessing our souls. His doctline drops as the rain, and his peace distils as the dew. It comes down "like the rain into a fleece of wool, even as the drops that water the earth." In the whirl of passion, in the giddy excitement of pleasure, in the active bustle of business, there is no room for Christ, no fit place for his presence. Christ comes to the soul when it is calm and tranquil, when it waits for him, and believing in his promise that he will come, is at rest. V. lT REQUIRED TO BE GATIIERED EARLY, AND IF NOT GATHERED MF.LTEU AWll.Y. "Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth." Unless ;ve will seek Chrbt early, we have no warrant to expect that he will condescend to be found ofus. If we slight him, if we dally with the world, if we put off seeking him till a. "more convenient sea.son," we may find, when we wake up from our foolish negligence, that he has with- drawn himself, has (as it were) melted a.way. lf an Israelite put off his gathering of the manna until the sun was hot, he obtained nothing-the manna. no longer lay ready to his hand. So with the Christian who is slothful, self-indulgent, careless-when, after long neglect, he a.t length seeks spiritual food, he may find it too late, the oppor- tunity may be irrevocably gone. Vers. 19, 20.-Goa's curse upon iil-gotten gains.-In order to try the Israelites, whether they would be obedient to him or no (ver. 4), God gave them, by the mouth of Moses, a positive law-" Let no man leave of the manna till the morning." By some the law was disobeyed. Disregarding the Divine command-perhaps distrusting the Divine promise (ver. 4), to give them food day by day, a certain number of the Israelites, kept some of the manna till the morning. They wished to have a store laid up, on which they might subsist, should the daily supply fail. But God would not be disobeyed with impunity. His curse was on the ill-gotten gain-it bred worms and stank, becoming a source of annoyance both to themselves and their neighbours. So, God's curse is ever on ill-gotten gain&----e.g. ;- 1. WHEN KEN SET TBEIB BEAJITS ON HOABDING ALL THEY OAN. Some provision for the future is required of ~- "Go to the ant, thou sl~ga.rd," says t~e wise man, " consider her ways, and be wise." "He that doth not provide for them of his own house- hold," St. Paul declares, " is worse than an infidel." ~ruden~ is a Christian, no less than a heathen virtue. But to hoard everything, to give nothmg away, to make the accumulation of wealth our main object, is to fly in the face of a. hundred plain precepts, and necessarily brings God's curse upon us. The wealth rots-the concerns wherein it is invested fail-it disappears and is brought to nought-and a.11 our careful saving advantages us nothing. God vindicates his own honour; and disperses or destroys the hoard accumulated contrary to his will. II. WHEN, TO AUGMEST TREIB HOARDS, HEN BREAK A Dl'\'1NE COMMAND. There a.re IIOllle who, in their haste to be rich, disregard tho Divine ir.~nction to keep l.oly one en. xvi. 4-3G.] THE BO,)K OF EXOD'C'S. 43
day in eeven, and pursue their secular calling without any intennh1sion. Conveyancers tlraw out their deeds, barriHtcre ~tudy their briefs, business men balance their books authors ply their pens, BS busily on the Sunday as on week days. What blessin; can be expected on the gains thus made? Is it not likely that they will breed corruption? Still more wholly under a curse are gains made by unlawful trades or dishonest practices-by the false weight or the scant measure, or the adulterated article-or again by usurious lending, by gaming, by brothel-keeping. III. WHEN THE MOTIVE FOR THE HOARDING 18 DISTRUST OF GoD's PROMISES. God bids us not to be anxious for the morrow, what we shall eat, or what we shall drink, or what we shall put on (Matt. vi. 31)---and promises that, if we will "seek first thr kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these things shall be added unto us" ( io. 33). He caused holy David to declare-" I have been young and now am old, yet saw I never the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging their bread." If men hoard in distrust of these gracious words, not believing that God will make them good, and thin.king to assure the future of wife or child, or both, by their O\VD accumulations, they provoke God to bring their accumulations to nothing. Riches, however invested, can make them.selves wings and disappear, if God's blessing does not rest on their possessor.