The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 114

llTAY WHEnE THEY WERE, BUT MUST SET FORTI! TEIROUGil THE RUGGED WILDEnNESS Oll' PARAN, IF THEY WERE EVER TO REAOH CANAAN. Even so the Church cannot attain her rest by studying divinity or perfecting the definitions of morality or the appli- ances of worship; it must walk in faith and righteousness amidst the endless contra- dictions of time. Even Mary cannot always sit at the Master's feet; the hour will come when he will be taken away, and when she must follow in the hard way of practical goodness and self-denial, if she would see him again. III. THAT THE MARCHING ORDERS GIVEN JIY Goo TO ISRAEL BEEM ON THE FACE OF THEM TO JIB INCONBISTENT WITH THE ENORMOUS NUMBER OF THE PEOPLE ON TIIE ONE HAND, AND THE EXTREME DIFFICULTY OF THE COUNTRY ON THE OTHER; there seems no room left for any physical incapacity, or for the least human failure. And these orders were in fact more or less departed from before long. The Divine ideal of the Christian life, whether as lived by the Church at large or by the individual soul, as drawn out in the New Testament, seems to be too high and too perfect to be possible in the face of the contradictiof!S of_ the worl? a1:1d the perversitie_s of human nature. It is apparently true that the mfimte complications of modem life, and the infinite variety of human dispositions, have made the lofty purity and the unbroken unity of the gospel plan a thing practically unattainable in the Church. IV. That the appointed ORDER OF MARCH WAS NOT IN FACT OBSERVED IN ITS ENTIRETY EXCEPT AT THE VERY FIRST, because sin nnd rebellion altered the face of things and made it impossible. The holy picture of the Christian community, drawn in Scrip- ture, was only realised in the earliest days, and was soon made obsolete in many points by sin and unbelief. V. That in spite of all apparent difficulties THE MARCH TO CANAAN WOULD HAVE BEEN ACCOMPLISHED WITHOUT A CHECK, without a loss, IF ONLY THE PEOPLE HAD OBEYED THE DIVINE COMMANDS, and relied upon the supernatural aid extended to them. Had Christiane remained faithful, and responded to the heavenly graces promised to them, the Church would have gone on as it began, in spite of all difficul- ties; the whole earth had been evangelised, the number of the elect accomplished, anq the heavenly rest 11ttained long (it may be) ere this. VI. THAT THE GREAT SEORET1 HUMA...liLY SPEAKING, OF THE ONWARD PROGRESS O!l' THE HOST WAS ORDER, in that every single person had hie place and his work, nnd knew it. Without order carefully maintained that multitude had become an un- manageable mob, which could not have moved a mile or lived a day. Humanly speaking, order, discipline, due subordination, allotted division of labour, is the secret of the Church's success; and the absence-still more the contempt-of such ordor, is the obvious cause of the Church's failure. VII. THAT THE GREAT SECRET, DIVINELY SPEAKING, OF ISRAEL'S SAFETY AND PROGRESS WAS THE FACT THAT THE LORD HIMSELF WAS IN THEIR MIDST when they rested, at their head when they marched, by the ark and by the cloud. In the deepest and truest sense the secret of our safety and of our victory is the super- natural presence of God with the Church and in the soul, by his incarnate Word and by his Spirit. There is at once the real bond of union, and the real source of strength. It may also be noted-I. That, as soon as their time of preparation was fulfilled, tho cloud led Israel into the wilderness of Paran, to be tried by the manifold temptations of that way. Even so, when the preparation of Jesus for hi~ work was finished, he was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to bo tempted of the devil. Israel, called out of Egypt, was a type of Christ (Matt. ii, 15), and the clond was the symbol of the Divine Spirit. 2. That the fabric of the tabernacle was sent on in order to be set up in readiness to receivo the ark and sacred vessels whon they arrived. It is not always an idle nor a useless thing to set up the external formalities of religion iu advance of the true spirit of worship, in faithful expectation that this too will come, and with it the promised bleHsimr of God,  ttrE BOOK 01!' NUMBERS. tOH. X. 29~2.