hie glory and sovereignty over creation. Also correct notions of mrselves as wor- 11hippers. Not with the humility of einleee angels who veil their faces, but as the polluted children of men, with their hands on their mouths, and their mouths in the dust. Our praise must be especially for hie love, wisdom, and power in our redemp- tion. Our e:cpedations from God must be according to the shekel of the sanctuary. We must not lust for the comforts of Egypt. We must have expectations that correspond with the greatneee of our redemption. Our Father in heaven trel\te us to an exhibition of the good and perfect gifts-be oure the desire for them. To look for temporal comforts ie to look for trifles, things not promised, things that come without prayer and seeking, if we would only look for such things as God would have ue seek. Ask for God's Spirit-you are then supplicating according to the shekel of the sanctuary. Seek for the kingdom of God and hie righteousness-you are then seeking according to the shekel of the sanctuary. The sanctuary measure of expectation ie in the Lord's prayer. The daily conduct of life must be according to the shekel of the sanctuary. Everything in which our voluntary powers are concerned should be done ae for God. The world ie hard to please, but even when it is pleased, it is with a low standard. We are careful when the eyes of men are upon us, for that means reputation; let us be careful also when no human eye can see, for that means character. Each daily presentation of the living sacrifice should make that sacrifice holier, more acceptable to God. II. IN DEALmo WITH MEN. The Israelites were to do no unrighteousness in meteyard, in weight, or in measure. They were not to have divers weights and measures, great and small. Solomon tells ue all the weights of the bag are the Lord's work. Amos spoke of the wickedness of the people who waited for the Sabbath to be gone tlrnt they might sell their corn, making the epbah small and the shekel great. The Almighty is just as particular about our work as our worship. Trade customs are no excuse in his sight. The eye that never misses anything or mistakes anything is on the weights and measures of all dishonest traffickers. God is just as angry when o. man defrauds bis neighbour as when he breaks the Sabbath. How many have been hindered in their religion, lost their peace of mind, and finally backslidden from the ways of God, because all was not right in their do.ily business. Remember also all the other relations. Commercial relations only a small part of human intercourse. Husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and eistem, friends and neighbours, rulers and eubjecte, debtor and creditor, rich and poor, well and sick, young and old, believer and unbeliever: the shekel of the sanctuary has its place in oil such inter- course. We need then to live in continual watchfulness and prayer, to have every- thing agreeable to this standard. One set of principles we should have, and one only, got from the teaching and example of our Divine Master. We must deal with one another ae God hae dealt with us, he who eo loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son to redeem it. The actions of the Almighty himself are weighed according to the shekel of the sanctuary.-Y.
EXPOSITION.
CHAPTER vm. Ver. 2.-When thou lightest the lamps. The command to light the lo.mps hnd been THBLiaHTING OF THE LAMl'B (vers. 1-4). given generally(" they shall light the lnmps Ver. 1.-The Lord spake unto Moses. It. thereof") in Exod. xxv. 37, and the care of does not appear when. The attempt of : them had been specially confided to Anron modem commentators to find a real connec- and his sons(" from evening to morning") in tion between this section and the offering Exod. xxvii. 21. The actulll lighting of tho of the :,;>rincea or the consecration of the lamps for the first time by Moses is recordeu Levites 1a simply futile. Such connection in Exod. xl. 25. In the face of these pas- may be imagined, but the same ingenuity sages it is incredible that the lnmps had not would obviously be equally successful if this been regulorly lighted by Al\ron for morn section had been inserted in any other place than e. month before the offering of tho from Exod. xxxvii to the end of this book. princes. The aeven lamps ahall give light The more probable explanation will be given over against the oandlestiok. 1t is some• below. what uncertain what this expn',si0n, hero NUMBEBB 'II' 66 rHE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [CH. VIII. 1-4.
repeated from Exod. xxv. 87, means. The repetition of the statement in this place seems 'l'argums gfre no explanation of it ; the to be conclusive that these verses nre out of Septuagint merely renders verbally, rard their historical position, and that their in- 'l!"po<rw'l!"ov rf1' Xvx.,ia, 1/'wnovaw; the Jewish sertion here is due to some fact connected expositors seem t-0 have thought that the with the original records with which we are light ·,ms to be thrown inward towards the not acquainted. It may be simply this, that central shaft; most modern commentators, these verses originally followed verse 89 of "ith more probability, understand it to mean the previous chapter, and followed it still that the lamps were to be so placed as to when it was inserted, for reasons already throw their light across the tabernacle to- suggested, after the narrative of the offerings 'l"fards the north side. of the princes. Why, or how, such an ad- Ver. 4.-And this work of the candle- mission should discredit the sacred narrative stick. For the meaning of the details here or imperil the truth of its inspiration it gfren see Exod. xxv. 31, sq. According would be hard to say. 'l'he only thing really unto the pattern which the Lord had shewed likely to imperil the sacred narrative is to 11:oses,-ru., in the mount (see Exod. xxv. persistently deny the obvious literary con- 40) - so he made the candlestick. This clusions which arise from an honest considera- has been recorded in Exod. :x:x:x:vii. 17. The tion of the text.