The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 140

ceased; but the spiritual endowment of which it was the token remaine<l. This prophesying, if yciu consider it well, will be seen to be more than a token. Besides notifying the Lord's approval of the elders, and assuring them of help, it suggested much instruction regarding the principles which should regulate their administration. The tongues of fire and the rapturous speaking with tongues on the day of Pentecost1 we know what tl:at miracle meant. It admonished the disciples that the warfare ot Christ's kir,gdom ie to be accomplished not with the sword, but with the tongue ; not with violence ar,d bloodshed, but by the earnest and living manifestation of th~ truth. It was a lessen of the same kind which the Lord suggested by the miracle wrought on the seventy elders in front of the tabernacle. They were admonished that in their administration of affairs they ought to make use rather of wise and persuasiv€. speech than of brute force. And is not this a lesson for us also? The time is not corue yet-perhaps will never come in the present state-for rulers to lay aside the sword altogether. Violent men, if they will not listen to reason, must he restrained with violence. Nevertheless, even for civil rulers, the employment of force is the less honourable function of their office. Better to restrain and guide and govern men with wise, firm, persuasive words than with the sword.-B. Vera. 26-30.-Eldad and Medad; or, irregular prophesying. This narrative brings up a subject which is at once of great practical importance and of great delicacy, on which men hnve been apt to run to extremes on the one side or the other. It will be our wisdom, therefore, to begin by weighing carefully the facts as they are ~et forth in· the sacred narrative. I. THE FACTS are, shortly, these :-Moses having complained that the leademhip of the nation was a burden greater than he could bear, the Lord gave direction that l Council of Seventy should be associated with him in it. This was done. From among the acting elders and officers of the congregation Moses called out seventy and they were solemnly set apart to the new office, before the Lord and the congre- gation. This consecration-service (as it may be called) did not pass without n palp- able token of the Divine approval, a palpable token that appropriate gifts would be forthcoming to the new rulem as they had been to Moses. When the Seventy were being set apart, the Spirit fell upon them, and they prophesied. While this was going on at the tent of meeting, a young man came running with the tidings that two men were prophesying in the camp. On inquiry it turned out that these were two of the seventy whom Moses had nominated for the council. For some reason or other they had not come forward with the rest to the tent of meeting. Notwithstanding of this, the Spirit had come on them in the camp exactly as he had come on their brethren, and they were prophesying. Clearly there was in this a breach of due order. Eldad and Medad ought to have presented themselves along with the rest. They were chargeable with an irregularity. Accordingly, Joshua, who is already the trusted "minister of Moses," suggests that they should be silenced. "My lord Moses, forbid them." But Moses is of another mind. Is it certain that Eld ad und Medad are prophesying? If so, the hand of the Lord, we may presume, is in the matter. Spiritual gifts are not such cheap and common things that we cnn afford to throw them away. Possibly enough these prophets in the camp have failed to make due acknowledgment of me as the Divinely-appointed leader of the congregation. But let no man look with an evil eye on them for my sake. Would that the Spirit were put on all the people I I should rejoice to see my light outshone in such a general brightness I II. _WH~T n_AVI!: THESE F_ACTS TO SAY TO us? What lesson dotheyteach? 1. At first sight it might seem as if they taught us to make light of office, solemn ordination to office, official service, and to attach importance only to the possession and exercise of gifts. But that certainly is not intended. The new council was not to consist of men simply obeying an internal call. No one was admissible without prior experience in office, and without election by Moses. .And it was by Divine command that the sixty-eight were solemnly set apart before the Lord and the congregation. I need not prove that in the State it is the will of God that there should be magistrntes laws and striot enforcement of the laws. In the Church there is, no doubt, a diffe;ence '. for the Church has no coercive power. Its weapons are the truth and the tongue of HIO 'tliE Boot OF :NUMBERS.