present writer may, however, be excused if he points out once for all that the- testimony of our Lord and of the Apostle Paul ie clear and emphatic to the typical and prophetical character of the incidents here narrated. Such a reference as that in John iii. 14 and such a statement as that in I Cor. x. 4- 11 cannot be explained away. Here then is the hear~ and kernel of the inspiration of the Book as recognised by our Lord, by his apostles, and by all his devout followers. They who live (or die) before us in these pages are -rinro, 11µwv, types or patterns of ourselves; their outward history was the fore- shadow of our spiritual history, and its records were written for om behoot Having this clue, and holding this as of faith, we shall not greatly err. The questions which a.rise may perplex, but may not shake us. And if a wider acquaintance with scientific criticism tend at first to 1lllSettle our faith, yet, on the other hand, a wider acquaintance with experimental religion tends every day to strengthen our faith, by testifying to the marvellous and profound con-espondence which exists between the sacred records of that long-vanished past and the ever-recurring problems and vicissitudes of Christian life.
LITBB.ATURB ON NID41.lERS.
A Tast nmnber of Commentaries may be consulted on the Book.of Numbers, but. as a rale they deal with it only as a portion of the Pentateuch. It is indeed so inseparably united to the Books which precede it that no scholar would make it the subject of a separate work. , It ie therefore to works on the Pentateuch that the student must be referred, and amongst these the Commentary of Keil and Delitzsch (translated for Clark's Foreign Theological Library) may perhaps be mentioned as the most ueeful and available for careful interpretation and explanation of the text. The' Speaker's Commentary,' and the smaller works which have followed in its wake, must be pronounced very inferiClr in thoroughness and general usefulness to the equally accessible standard German Co=entariee. Ewald, Kurtz, and Hengstenberg, in their several works, have treated of the incidents and ordinances recorded in Numbers with considerable fulness from very varying standpoints ; the last-named has also a lengthy mono- graph on the history of Balaam. For the homiletical treatment of the Book there is nothing so suggestive within a moderate compass a.a what may be found in the Bishop of Lincoln's Commentary. It must be frankly acknowledged that tbe student who wishes to form an intelligent opinion on the many difficult questions which arise out of this portion of the sacred narrative will not find all these questions honestly faced or satiafactorilr answered in any one of the existing Commentaries. He will, however, by combming what appears best in each, have before him the materials by means of which he may either form his judgment, or suspend it until in God's good time a clearer light shall 11hine. THE
BOOK OF NUMBERS. -- THE CENSUS OF SINAI (CH. I.).
EXPOSITION. purposes, combined with great variety of CHAPTER I. character, of tradition, and even of tendency THE CENSUS DIVINELY COMMANDED (vers. -was the ideal of the life of Israel The 1-16). Ver. 1.-In the tabernacle of the number of their name■ . It is impossible congregation-where the Lord spake with to help thinking of the parallel expression Moses "face to face" (Exod. xxxiii. 11), and in Acts i. 15, of the similarity in position of where all the laws of Leviticus had been the two peoples, of the contrast between their given (Levit. i. 1). On the ll.rat day of the numbers and apparent chances of success, of second month, in the second year. On the the more striking contrast between their first day of Zif (or Ijar); a year and a fort• actual achievements. night since the exodus, ten months and a Ver. 3.-By their armie ■. Every citizen half since their arrival at Sinai, and a month was a soldier. The military monarchies of since the tabernacle had been set up. mediieval or of modern days, with their uni- Ver. 2.-Take ye the sum of all the con- versal obligation to service in the ranks, have gregation. The census here ordered had (so fe.r) but followed the example of ancient clell.l"ly been anticipated, as far as the numbers Israel. were concerned, by the results of the half. Ver. 4.-A man of every tribe. The for- shekel J?Oll-tax for the service of the sanctu- mer census, which was for religious purposes ary levied some time before on all adult only, we.s me.de with the assistance of the males on pain of Divine displeasure (E:x:od. Levites. This, which we.s rather for politicnl :xxx. 11, sq.). Since all who were liable had and militery purposes, wes supervise4 by the paid that tax (Exod. xxxviii. 25, 26), it would le.y heads of the people. only have been requisite to make slight cor- Ver. 5.-These are the names of the men. rections for death or coming of age during The tribes are here mentioned (through their the interval. The totals, however, in the princes) very nearly in the order of their two cases being exactly the same, it is evident subsequent encampment-south, east, west, that no such corrections were made, and that and north. Gad alone is displaced, in order the round numbers already obtained were that he may be classed with the other sons accepted as sufficiently accurate for all prac- of the hnndme.ids after the sons of the free tical purposes. After their families. This women. was to be a re~stration as well aR a census. Ver. 7.-Wahahon-the brother-in-law o! No doubt the lists and pedigrees collected et Aaron (Exod. vi. 23), and ancestor of David this time laid the foundation of that exact and of Jesus Christ (Matt. i. 4). and careful genealogical lore which ployed Ver. 10. - Eliahama - grandfather of so important a part both in the religiouR and Joshua (1 Chron. vii. 26), All th11 rest 11.re in the secular history of the J ewe down to unnamed elsewhere. the final dispersion. Every Jew had not only Ver. 16.-Heada of thousands. Septu&- his national, but also (e.nd often even more) gint, chiliarc/1$; but the word is used for his tribal and family, associations, traditions, families (see Judges vi. 15), and, like e.11 such and sympathies. Unity, but not uniformity, words, it rapidly lost its numericl\l signifi- -unity m all deepest interests and highest cnnce. NUMBEBS. D 2 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [cH. t. 1-lG.