free-will offerings, but here is one connected with such a. frequent a.nd necessary act as the eating of bread. There are occasions for free-will offerings when evident mercies and peculiar gains prompt to something special in the way of acknowledg- ment; but men are only too prone to forget the common and dally mercies which in reality are greatest of all. Where we abound in forgetting, God most abounds in reminding. The time of ea.ting bread was an appointed opportunity for acknowledg- ing his daily g?odness, The manna was so evidently miraculoua, that very little was needed to remind Israel how entirely it was produced without their intervent.ion. I_t wa~ not tl:e sort of food they_ would have cultivated. Tl!ey took it, not that they hked 1t, but it was the only thing to be got. But bread 18 a thing on which man spends much ea.re. It goes through so many processes before it reaches his mouth that he easily exaggerates his share in the production of it. Sowing and reaping grinding a.nd baking, help to hide the good hand of God behind thern. Hence th~ giving of the first from every piece of dough was a deliberate and frequent reco,r- nition of dependence on God for the bread in Canaan, as much ae for the manna m the wilderness. II. A DOMESTIC OFFERING. Thus religion was brought into the house to sanctify a common homely duty. There was somethi11g to excite the curiosity of children. It was an opportunity of explaining to them, from whose loving-kindness came their daily bread ; teaching them lessons of dependence and gratitude in the seed-time and the harvest, by the mill and the oven. Contrast with this the melancholy picture by Jeremiah of the children gathering the wood, the fathers kindling the fire, and the women kneading dough to make cakes to the queen of heaven (Deut. xxvili. 5; Neh. x. 37; Ps. civ. 14, 15; Jer. vii. 18; Ezek. xliv. 30; Haggai i. 9).-Y. Vera. 22--29.-G'od slwws himself stria and yet considerate. I. Tai!: BJCRIOO'SNJCSEI OF Gon's Ex:PECTA.TIONS. God gave to Israel many and elaborate comruandmente, in the mode of obeying which he left nothing to personal discretion. Hence the work of obedience was often a difficult and always a careful one, a.nd sometimes the people might be tempted to say, "Surely this minute and unvarying compliance in outward things cannot be seriously intended." But everything God commands ha.a a reason, even though we see it not. God hides reasons in order that the obedience of faith may be complete. An Israelite quite conceivably might say, "Surely I am not expected to remember all these commandments in all their details." The a.newer is, that though the commandments might not all be remembered, yet every one of them was import.ant.. And so we find that God made it a dangerous, even a deadly thing, knowingly a.nd wilfully to disobey them. He has high aims with respect to his people, far higher than they can at present appreciate, and this ie the surest way of getting great results. He may seem to be imposing intolerable burdens, but he is really leading us onward in strength and capacity until we shall be able to bear the burdens. Hence the large demands which Christ also makes on his disciples. He came to/?djiJ, the law. His people are not only to do more than others but much more, and in many ways. Whatever be pr~vided for in the way of par:fod and expi- ation, the standard must not be lowered in the least. God has constituted man to reach great attainments, and he will enable him to reach them, if only the proper means be taken. II. HIS Jl<l.EMBBANCE OF Btl?tlAN INFIRMITY. It is no real contradiction, to them who will consider, that God meant his commandments to be kept, yet knew they would be oftentimes broken. AB he was serious in giving the commandmenta, he wished the people to be serious in trying to keep them, and serious aleo in asking why they were not able to keep them. He provided for the commandments being broken. While serious in expectations, he was also considerate and encouraging. He who knows what his p_eople will one day be able to do, knows full well how little they can do a.t present. He is really more considerate of feeble men than they are of each other. The parable of the servant forgiven of his master, yet refusing to for• give his fe'Jow-servant, finds its application only too often in the difference between God's tender treatment of man, and man's hareh treatment of his fellow-man. God makes allowance for the difficulty of tuming away from inveterate habits. He ..._akes allowance for what we know by daily experience ill a great infirmity of men. OH. XV. 32-86.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
ehcer forgetfulness. He considers how many suffer from defective instruction, bnd example, nnd early orphanhood. He can say far more for us than with our utmost skill we can plead for ourselves. He knows all the difficulties we have in getting at the knowledge and practice of hie truth. What comfort could we possibly have in the midst of all our differin~ sects, confessions, and ceremonies, did we not think of God looking kindly and patiently on the sins of ignorance, and remembering that we know only in part ? It was Paul's great comfort to feel that the cruelties of his persecuting days had been committed ignorantly and in unbelief. III. HIB STRICT REQUIREMENT OB' EXPIATION. They were not allowed to say, 11 We knew it not; therefore it will not be required from us." Evil done in ignorance