conscience, and a repentance needing not to be repented of. Coneider the benefit David got (PM, Ii.). Confession, restitution, and atonement clennse the bosom of a great deal of" perilous stuff." Restitution, though a loss in possessions, is a gain in peace. Reparation of a wrong done to a fellow-man is to be valued for the injured person's sake ; but it is a great deal more that the wrong-doer for his own sake h11s been brought right with God. II. THE PERSON WRONGED. He is provided for as far as he can be provided for. To make reparation in all respects is indeed impossible. A wrong-doer, with all his efforts, cannot put things exactly as they were before. Still he must do what he can. Hence the provision to add a fifth o,·er the principal. Doubtless a truly repentant trespasser would not stop even at that to show his s1?:cerity in reparation. Zaccheus restored fourfold. Surely there are some injured persons to whom it would be a greater joy and a greater benefit to Hee their enemies altogether altered than if they had never been hurt by them nt all. One great good, as concerned the person wronged, was that confession and restitution would do much to allay, and perhaps obliterate, the sense of injustice. "It is not what a man outwardly has or want.9 that constitutee the happiness or misery of him. It is the feeling of injustice that is insupportable to all men. The brutulest black African cannot bear that he should be used unjustly" (Carlyle). Again, injured persons themselves may be injurers. A sense of wrong suffered is not always effectual in hindering the sufferer from wronging others. So the confession and repentance of one might lead to the confession and repentance of another. Who knows the total effect produced on the persons to whom Zaccheus mnde his fourfold restitution? III. JEHOVAH HrnsELF. Acknowledgment and restitution were not enough with- out atonement. To injure a fellow-man is to rebel against the government of God, robbing him of some possible service from the person injur1>d. The wrong-doer, from prickings of conscience, or mere uneasiness of mind, may mnke some reparation to his fellow-man, whom he can see ; but if he thinks he has then done all, he may find, from continued uneasiness, that something is yet unaccomplished. It is the greatest blot on sinful men, not that they are unjust to one another, but that they have come short of the glory of God. That glory must be restored, and God tnke the place of self, if human relations are to come right. There is no scheme of teaching or example that, acting on nnturnl lines, will ever make men perfectly just to one another. Things must be put right with God, for of Lim, and through him, and to him are all things. Let no one, therefore, make confession and restitution hem loo)[ large, and atonement be pushed into the corner as an unimportant detail. Just as the confession and restitution point forward to the pure and vigorous ethics of Jesus, eo the slain animals point forward to him who takes away the sin of the world.-Y.
EXPOSITION. THF: TRIAL OF JEALOUSY (vers. 11~1). earned, it was nlmost eqn11lly great whether Ver. 12. - If any man's wife . . . com- the woman was guilty or not. mit a trespaea against him. The ndultery Ver. 15.-He shall bring her ol'eri.ng for of the wife is here regarded only from a her. t:1]:i,.'7~, "her offering;" y1~P,, "on he1· socinl point of view ; the injury to the account." It was to be II ment offering-not husbnud, the destruction of his peace of connected on this occnsion with nny other ruind, even by the bare suspicion, and the sacrifice-of the fruits of the enrth, sym bolis- consequent troubling of Isrnel, is the thing ing the fruits of her guilty, or nt least cnrc- dwelt upon. Tho fiunishment of ndnltcry less and suspicious, conduct. As of barley as II sin had been n ready prescribed (Levit. meal, not of fine wheat flonr, it indicated :xx. 10). her present low and vile estate (deserved or Ver.13.-If it be hid. Or, "if ho bo hid." undeserved) ; as without incense or oil, it This verse is explanatory of the fonner. disclaimed for itself the sanctifying innucnccs Taken with the manner. The latter worcis of God's grace nnd of prayer. Thus every arc not in the Hebrew. It means no cloubt detail of the olfcring, while it did uot condemn '"tnken in the act " (cf. John viii. 4) the woman (for one found guilty could not Aiinl l'-'1 p 11uv11>..,,,,_,,_;.,q, Septu~gint. have made nny offering at nil), yet repre- Ver. 14.-And she be not doff.led. As sented her questionable rcputenml unquestion- far 11.11 the misc!iicf hero dealt with w.,s con- able dishonour, for even the unjust sus11icio1.1 40 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [cR. v. 11-St.