an is:ilnted unit before God ; but., on the contrary, DY RECOGNISING AND UTILIBINO BUMAN DIVISIONS. " Every man shall pitch by his own standard, with the ensign of their fatl,er's house." Even so within the common life of the Church of Christ there is room and use for many strong and lasting diverg·encies of Christian character and cast of thought due to national or social or educational distinctions. V a.riety embraced in unity is the law of the Spirit. There is a true sen$e in which a.II Christian truth nnd virtue a.re the proper heritage of each Christian soul, which ea.eh ought to po8sess ; but there is also a. true sense in which the Christian virtues, and even the complemental truths of the Christian faith, a.re rather distributed among the various portions of the Church than equ~lly spread over all, or perfectly combine~ ii:' ai:iy one. If we would haYe a true concept1011 of the full beauty and power of Chnshamty, we must embrace in one view all the ages of faith, we must have respect unto east and west and north and south alike. If our own sympathies are chiefly with one or other, there will be the more reason to give heed that we do not overlook the excellence mo8t remote from our own. Dan and Simeon, whatever might be ea.id or feared of them, had their place in the camp of God as well as Judah and Ephraim. Consider, again, ?n a closer inspection of the camp--1. That it lay foursquare in twelve great divisions, with the tabernacle in the• centre. And this arrangement is clearly of spiritual import, because it is carefully preserved in the prophetic visions of Ezekiel and St. John. The heavenly city, which is the camp ·of the saints, lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth (Rev. xx. 9 ; xxi. 16). .And this seems to denote the absolute and unbroken equality, and the equal development in every direction, of the heavenly state, wherein it contrasts so strongly with the strange inequality and the one-sided character of all earthly good, The Church should lie fournquare because she should sho,, an equal front, and have attained a like extension in erery direction, in whatsoever way regarded. .And notice here that the superior per- fection of the gospel is shown herein, that the holy city not only lieth a.a a perfect square, but standeth as a perfect cube,-" the length and the breadth and the height of it are equal" (Rev. xxi. 16 ),-an impossibility bordering on the grotesque, in order to em- phasise the entire absence of anything one-sided, unequal, or imperfect. Again, the holy city, like the camp of Israel, is laid out with careful respect unto the number twelve, because this is the full and perfect number of the tribes, and intimates that the Church is of nil, and for all, who can in any wise be reckoned as the people of God. 2. That the foursquare arrangement of the camp was ideal, and could only be approximately realised in the wilderness through the evil necessity of things: the camps could not be pitched across rugged mountains or precipitous ravines, such as constantly lay in their way. Even so the ideal picture of the Church drawn in the New Testament has never been adequately realised, nor perhaps can be, amidst the confusions ond contradictions of time. Her harmony and symmetry are grievously marred for want of room, and through the impracticable nature of men and circumstances. Never- theles~, the Divine ideal lives before her eY.eS and within her heart, and it is the unchanging hope of every faithful soul to behold it realised, sooner or later, in the good providence of God. In the mean time, when outward regularity was impossible, tlie one thing for each tribe to do was to pitch v.s near to the tabernacle, on its own side, as possible. Even so the practical wisdom and duty of every Church is to a.bide as near to God as it can according to the truth and order it has received ; the nearer to God, the closer to one another, 3. 'l.'hat, among the tribes, Judah held the van and his standard led the way, on which was borne a.loft "the lion of the tribe ol Judah." Even so Christ-concerning whom "it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda." (Heb. vii. 14)-must always go before us in the way, and a.II the hosts of light must follow after him. 4. That Dan at this time was very large in numbers, and held an honourable place, and was a standard-bearer; yet afterwards he dwindledf ·and left tlie place given him by Providence, and sought another for himself, and fel into idolatry, and was struck out at last from the list of the Israel of God, Even so it happens that some pa.rtir.ula.r Church or some individual at one time shall stand high, and be a leader, and hold a place of command, yet afterwards shall swerve from the right way, and fall into some idolatry, and be cast out as evil at the last. llut it is not necessary to seek to discover wickedness in the first eatate because it is in the last: as in Dan it is not posaible to find any cctuse of wrath while he walked <lH, JI. 1-34.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 15
with the othere in the wilderness; and even Judas must hnve been sincere at first, and WBS not discerned from the other eleven. 5. That at this time the children of Leah were all together, and that this union was apparently made sure for ever by their dwelling side by side in Canann. Yet when the great division came, Ephraim and Manasseh went one way, Benjamin the other. Even so it often happens that those who have grown up together as brethren in the common enjoyment of spiritual blessings and practice of religious duties, are thereafter widely separated by some great sifting, and take opposite sides on some fundamental question.