and halted very much as the circumstances die or have to be left behind. And as the of the day demanded. But that this was death or loss of one of God's people would not and could not be the case during the have vitiated the temporal promise to them short journey which slwu7d have landed so also it would have vitiated the eternai them in CanM!l is obvious from the whole promise to v.s. For they were ensamples of tone, n.s well as from the particular details, us, and confessedly what was done for them of the commandments considered above. It we.s done at least as much for our sakes as is further to be borne in mind that the Divine for theirs. Now the promise of God is mani- promise and nndertaking at the exodus was, fest unto every one that is included within imrliedly if not explicitly, to bring the whole his new covenant, viz., to bring him safely people, one and all, small and great, safely at last unto the heavenly Canaan, and that to their promised home. When the Psalmist in spite of every danger, if only he do not asserts (Ps. cv. 37) that "there was not one draw back. The whole e.na.logy, therefore, feeble person among their tribes," he does and the typical meaning of the exodus not go beyond what is plainly intimated in would be overthrown if any single Israelite the narrative. If of their cattle "not an who had crossed the Red Sea. failed to enter hoof" must be left behind, lest the absolute into rest, save as the consequence of his own character of the deliverance be marred, how sin. We conclude, therefore, with some con- much more necessary was it that not a soul fidencethat the ordinary incidents of mortality be abandoned to Egyptian vengeance ! And were providentially excluded from the fresent how could all depart unless all were pro- march, as from the previous interva. ; that videntially saved from sickness and infirmity! none fell sick, none became helpless, none But the same necessity (the necessity of his died a natural death. We know that the own goodness) held good when the exodus great difficulty of a sufficient supply of food was accomplished. God could not bring any· was miraculously met ; we know that in individual in Israel out of Egypt only to numberless respects the passage from Egypt perish in the wilderness, nnless it were to Cana.an was hedged a.bout with super- through his own default. He who had natural aids. Is there any difficulty in sup- brought them ma with so lavish a display of posing that he who gave them bread to eat miraculollil power was (we may say with and water to drink, who led them by a cloudy reverence) bound nlso to bring them in; and a. fiery pillar, could also give them health else they had been actual losers by obedience, and strength to "walk and not be weary" I and his word had not been kept to them. Is it unreasonable to imagine that ho who Under a covenant and a dispensation which spake in his tender pity of the flight from asSt11"edly did not look one hand's breadth J udiea to Pella., " Woe to them that a.re with beyond the present life, it must have seemed child, and to them that give suck in those to be of the essence of the promise which days," miraculously restrained for that season they believed that not one of them should the natural increase of his people I
HOMILETICS. Vere. 11-28.-T.he journey home. Spiritually, we have in this section. the Divinely-appointed order of the Church of God, the idea.I method of her journeying, towe.rds the eternal rest. All the time which the children of lere.el spent benee.th the holy mount we.a to prepare _them for a speedy and triumphant ~arch b,: th~ shortest way into Canaan. .All which we have learnt of the law of Christ, and Ill hie school, is to fit us to make our way right onwards through the difficulties of this trouble- some world to the home beyond ; and this is the practical test of a.II we have e.cquired. Consider, therefore- !. THAT THE IMMEDIATE MAROH OJI' ISRAEL WAS OUT 011' THE 11 WILDERNESS 011' SINAI" INTO THE "WILDERNESS 011' PABAN," FROM ONE DEBER'r TO ANOTHER. Even BO is the onward course of the Church, or of the faithful soul, in this world. The only chaJ?ge is from one set of difficulties nnd hardships to another, from e.n unrest of one kmd to an unrest of another kind. .After the green level of Egypt, Sinai was awful, but Pa.ran was worse. To the natural mind the difficulties which surround the beginning of a Christian life are terrible, but those which beset its middle course are mostly harder, because drearier, even if Jess striking. The young always think that when the special temptations of youth are past it will be an easy and simple matter to walk uprightly. In truth the whole of this life is a desert-journey, nnd we only remove from the awful precipices of Sinai to encounter the rugged and be.rren expe.~ee of Pa.ran. The hope which cheers and sustains lies beyond (Matt. x. 22; Jamee 1. 12). ll, TB.AT TliE CHILDREN OF lsBAEL1 AS BOON AB TJIE CLOUD BEMOVED1 COULD NO'r OB. X, 11-28.] THE BOOK OF NUMBER8. 91