The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 119

If even now sweet influences from the rest that remaineth for the people of God possess our souls, these should be used to win others from the illusions of this passing scene. What a blessed occupation to be drawing human spirits into that sphere of the unseen and eternal which alone gives them a fitting service here, and a true rest and reward hereafter I The invitation must be a loving and constraining one. To promise good to others, we must feel and show that we have got good ourselves. The invitation can only come when we ourselves feel that we are in the right way to the desired end. III. THE REASON BY WHICH THE INVITATION IS ENFORCED. "The Lord bath spoken good concerning Israel." Concerning Israel. Concerning other nations he had spoken ill for their. idolatries and abo1;1inatioi:is, Sodom was a witness t? his con- suming wrath and Ins hand had been laid heavily on Egypt. But concernmg Israel he had spok;n good in a large and loving way (Exod. iii. 6-8; vi. 6-8; xxiii. 20-33). The stranger then must cease to be a stranger, and enter by circumcision of the heart into the spiritual Israel. The force of the invit~tions does not depend on our sanguine anticipations. Others are as well able to consider what the Lord has spoken as we are. His word is the ~uarantee. If even the Je"!ish n~tion, the typical Israel, has still to have prophemes fulfilled, how much more its ant1type, the spiritual Israel, those who are Jews inwardly I Consider for yourselves then all the good that God has spoken concerning Israel.-Y Ver. 31.-A fresh appeal. Moses has failed in appealing to Hobab by a regard for his own best interests, but he has a second arrow in his quiver. He will touch Hobab's sense of fiiendship, his manliness, anything that was chivalrous in him; he will put him on his honour to render just the one service he was able to render, Note- I. THE SERVICES WHICH THE WORLD CAN RENDER TO THE CHURCH. We may fairly assume, considering Judges i 16, that Hobab went with Moses after all (Matt. xxi. 29). He will help Moses the man, when he cares nothing for Moses the prophet of God. There may be a certain sense of duty even when there is none of sin and spiritual need, a certain power to help, even though the highest power be utterly lacking. The peculiar strength of the Church is in God; when it does spiritual work with spiritual instruments; but the world may also be tributary in its own way. The wealth of the world is not a spiritual thing, but it bas been helpful to the Church. Men of the world have neither the Christ-like love nor the self-denial to initiate enter- prises, which, nevertheless, they will generously support. In person they will do nothing; in purse they will do much. The printer who cares nothing for Christ, who to-day prints the scoffs and quibbles of an atheist, or some frivolous fiction, may to-morrow print a Bible, or a precious biography of some departed saint. Places of worship have been built by men who had no religion in them. Fishers' boats ferried Jesus across the lake of Galilee; trading ships took Paul on his missionary Journey; and soldiers of Cresar conveyed him to Rome, where for so long a time he had panted to preach the gospel. II. THE UQ.LD WHICH THE CHURCH KEEPS ON THE WORLD, Hobab said very bluntly he would not go with Moses; but he had not thought of all the considerations that might be brought to bear upon him. The grasp of Moses was firmer than he thought. Let no worldly man despise what he deems the dreams and delusions of the Christian. They may have a greater power on him in the end than at present he has any conception of. Human friendships and old associations are part of the bait with which Chri~t furnishes his fishers of men, Those who will not read the Scrip- tures for salvation, and who laugh at the schemes of doctrine drawn from them, yet find in the same Scriptures too much of poetry and interest to be slightingly pas~ed by. What a strange thing, too, to hear men, even in all their vehement denials of the supernatural, extolling Jesus of Nazareth, admiring his spirit, and recommend- ing his ethics. However they try, they cannot get away from him. "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." We must not despair of unbelievers, even after many refusals \Luke xiii. 6-9). In connection with Moses and Hobab, a reference to Tennyson s 'In Memoriam,' !xiii., "Dost thou look back on what hath been?" &c., may be found_homiletically helpful.-Y. NUMDERS, H  THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ OB:, X. 33---86,