if the wrath of man does not turn to praise, it will glorify God in being restrained (Ps. l.uvi 10). v. IT IS C'LEAB THAT GoD ONLY ACCEPTS WBAT HE HIMSELF Dl'SPIRES. This is the lesson of this sad providence. We must bring back to God what he has given. Inde- pendent offerings are not acceptable. To come to him in a way of our own devising, instead of by Jesus Christ; to come to him in a self-confident spirit, instead of in the humility inspired by the Holy Ghost; to come to him with proud, cold hearts, instead of with warm and ardent ones, is to be sent empty away. He refuses all such counter• feit offerings; he must have Divine fire or none.-R. M. E. Submission in bereavement. Oh. x. 3-7; 12-20; cf. 2 Sam. xii. 15-23; Job i. 18-21; John xi.; 1 Thess. iv. 13-18. The conduct of Aaron under the bereavement is most instructive. He holds his peace and is prepared to do whatever Moses co=ands. And here we have to notice- I. GOD'S SERVICE AND GLORY MUST TAKE PRECEDENCE OF EVERY OTHER CONSIDERA- TION. The surviving priests were to leave the mourning and the funeral arrangements to their brethren. The bereavement is not to interfere with their priestly service and eonsecration. God asserts his claims as paramount. 11 He that loveth father or mother more than me," said God incarnate, "is not worthy of me : and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me" (Matt. x. 37). It is ideally possible, therefore, to be so filled with a sense of consecration to God that every other con- sideration is made to dwindle into insignificance. Is not this wha\ we shall realize in heaven? IL SUBMISSION TO GOD'S CLEARLY EXPRESSED WILL IS A BELIEF TO THE SOUL WHICH HAB BEEN UNCERTAIN DEFORE IT. 'l'he thought that God willed the death of those dear to us, has a wonderfully calming influence upon us. We may see no reason for the stroke, and God may not for a long season show us his reason, but we can believe he has one and a good one, and that II he doeth all things well." The death of Ne.dab and Abihu was as clearly a token from God as the previous manifestation. Job, again, shows the same submissive spirit under a still greater bereavement (Job i.18-21). So did David on the death of his child (2 Sam. x..i.i. 15-23). So did Mary and Martha on the death of Lazarus (John xi.). All these worthies rested, as we all may rest, and there is no other rest but in the will of an all-wise God. Uncertainty is trying, but even the certainty of bereavement and of sorrow has an element of rest in it. III. AARON IS CAUTIONED AGAillST ANY UBE OF wura 0B STRONG DRINK WHEN ENGAGED IN PRIESTLY SERVICE. Doubtless the primary significance of this injunction was, as already noticed, that Ne.dab and Abihu had e1nd therein. But it seems to carry also a beneficial caution. For at no time are people more tempted to resort to wine and strong drink than when in bereavement. A little stimulus, they fancy, will sustain them. So they take to II the bottle" to replenish their courage. The result is that they fall into deeper troubles than ever. Aaron is the better of this injunction to abstain at this time when his sorrow is so keen. IV. SORROW NECESSITATED FASTING INSTEAD OF FEABTillO. After the terrible trial, Aaron and his surviving sons had no appetite for the feasting to which they were entitled; and so they seem to have burned the sin offering in its entirety instead of eating of it. Moses, in directing the sorrowing priests to proceed to the feast of fellow- ship, made no due allowance for their condition. Aaron instinctively saw the incongruity of feasting when bis heart was so sore, and therefore be acted in the spirit of the Law, which disposed of what could not be used in the fire of the altar. And might not those who turn a house of mourning into a house of feasting learn a lesson of propriety here? Eating and drinking in connection with wakes and funerals aave been carried oftentimes to most unseemly excess. The whole spirit of sorrow evaporates before the copious offerings to the II belly-god," and instead of spiritual profit there is spiritual deterioration. Fasting is an effort of nature to say a word for the spirit within. Sorrow takes the edge off appetite, and rebukes feasting that the soul may have a season of repair. If the sad heart gets fair play, it will emerge from its sorrows purified and elevated. V. Tm: SPIRIT MAY SOMETIMES MOST PROPERLY SUPERSEDE THE LETTER. We have seen how fatal was the innovation of the presumotuous priests. But in this ijlllll8 15! THE BOOK OF LE Vl'l.'ICUS. [CH. X, 1-7.
chapter we come across an innovation <>n the part of Aaron, at which Moses and God were content. There is all the difference between rigidity which must not be broken and a law whose spirit can move freely amid its forms. 'rt was the latter which God gave. There are necessities which arise from time to time and are themselves laws to- the spiritual mind: We should be je~lous of ourselves in the _exercise of our liberty, but, at the same time, we ought to realize our freedom as God gives it to us in his Law. -R.M.E.