11in. The holier they became in outward compliances, the more would they feel their pollution and their s~paration of heart from God. If any one ever knew the value of the fringes, we should judg·e it to have been David, yet read Ps. cxix. I and notice how he there gathers up his earnest longings for conformity with God's law and not unfrequently seems to tread the verge of deep,iir. We must have more tha~ mere admonitions, however frequent and earnest, if we are to do God's will and be in tr:uth h?lY. before him: Hence we come b~k t~ that work of the Spirit of Christ, puttmg WJthm us new life, and that love which 1s the best of all monitors. The fringe above all fringes, the riband made of heaven's own blue, is to have love in the ~teart. Love_ never forg~~- It has its object ever in its thoughts-first in the mom- mg, last at mght, and flitting even through dreams. Fringes may recall words and outward cer4:monies, but Jove discovers fresh applications and larger meanings. Love does with the mere words of commandment as the chemist does with material things, ever discovering in them new combinations, properties, and powers (John. :xiv. 23-26).-Y. Ver. 41.-God recalls a great deed and the purpose of it. I. GoD RECALLS A GREAT DEED. "I brought you out of the land of Egypt." 1. It was deliverance· from a bitter bondage. The Israelites had been making light of it of late, but in Egypt it was grievous indeed (Exod. i. 13, 14; ii. 23; iii. 7; vi. 9). So God, by the work of his incarnate Son, delivered the world from a bitter bondage. " Behold the L11.mb of God which taketh away the sin of the whole world." The act of Divine power by which Jesus rose from the grave did not sweep away all difficulties and make life henceforth a path of roses. But it is a great deal to stand on this· side, historically, of the sepulchre from which the stone was rolled away. The generations before the resurrection of Jesus were, as we may say, in Egypt, waiting- deliverance. The world since that event stands, as it were, delivered. He who brought life and immortality to light destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and delivered them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage (Heh. ii. 14, 15). 2. It was a deli'l!erance worud out entirely by God. "I brought you out, &c." There was no struggle against Pharaoh on the· part of the people. We do not see the prisoner within conspiring with the deliverer- outside. The bondage was so bitter, the subjection so complete, that the people- were not moved to conspiracy and insurrection. We read constantly in history of ,iervile and subject races winning their way to freedom through the bloody struggles. of many generations, but these Israelites before Pharaoh were like oxen broken to d,e plough. They groaned, but they submitted. And in this Egyptian sort of bond- age the world was fast before Christ came to deliver. Men groaned under the burdens of life; they were filled with the fruits of sin ; they yielded at last to the gTasp of death. All was accepted as a mysterious necessity ; men did not protest and struggle against calamity and death. The deliverance is from Jesus, and in it we have no hand. "When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ dieri for the ungodly" (Rom. v. 6). A delivered world was even incredulous as to its deliverance. It could not believe that as by one man came sin and death, so by one also had come conquest over sin, death, aud the devil. Thomas, the very disciple, doubts, and before Jong Paul has to write 1 Cor. xv. Jesus may say to the world for which he died and rose again, ''/brought you out of spiritual Egypt." 3. While tlte· deliverance was bdng worlw:l 01tt, the Israelites were scarcely conscious o.[ what w~ be:i,ng Jone. They saw the plagues, but only as won?ers, s!upendous ph11:ncal cal~m1- ties. They felt the grasp of Pharaoh alternately t1ghtemng and rela.xmg, but bttle- did they comprehend of that great, significant struggle going on between Jehovah and Pharaoh. They waited, as the prize of victory waits on the athletes while tbe;r contend ; it knows nothing of the energy and endurance it has evoked. And so 1t was and is in Ch~st's redeeming work. It is wonderful to notice how unconscious- the world was of that great work which was transacted between Bethlehem and Jeru• Halem, between the cradle of Jesus and his opened grave. The world looked upon l,im, and to a large extent it still looks, in any light but the right one. Let us know l1im first then, and fully m all that the work means, as Deliverer from epiritu11J ..Eg1pt. CB, XVI, 1-40.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 199
II. Tm: PUnPOBE OF THIB GREAT DEED. "I brought you out o.f the land of Egypt to be your God." It is one thing for Israel to be brought out of Egypt; quite another for it to understand why it has been brought out, And so we find the people complaining of the wilderness quite as much as they had done of Egypt. Their expectations pointed i.ii a direction opposite to God's purpose, and never could the wilderness become e. better Jllace than Egypt until they did appreciate God's purpose e.nd make it their own. God did not bring them out as one might bring a man out of prison, and then say, "Go where you like." They were brought out of a bitter bondage to enter upon II reasonable service, otherwise the wilderness would prove only an exchange of suffering, not a release from it. In like manner we need to ask how the world may be made better by the redeeming work of Christ. The difference between the state of the world before the death of Christ and since does not look as great from certain points of view as one might expect. A count- less host of those for whom he died and rose again nevertheless goes about in a. bewilderment and unbelief equal to that of the Israelites in the wilderness. Christ died for us and rose again, that we, rising with him, might live not to ourselves, but to him (Rom. vi. 4, 10-13, indeed thti whole chapter; xii. 1 ; xiv. 7-9; 1 Cor. iii. 22, 23; x. 31; 2 Cor. v. 15-18; x. 5; Eph. ii. 10; Philip. i. 20, 21; Col. iii. 1-3). Deliverance from Egypt is not equivalent to entrance into the promised land. The wilderness is a critical place for us, and all depends on what heed we take to this purpose of God. We must receive the gospel in its integrity. If the full purpose of God becomes our full purpose, then all will be right. Christ died for us,not that we might just escape the. penalty and power of sin, as something painful to ourselves, and know the luxury of a washed conscience; not that we might just pass into a perfect blessedness beyond the tomb; but that, becoming pure and blessed, we might engage in the service of God and set forth hie glory. We must be pleased with what pleases him. The work of Christ brings us that highest of all joy, to serve God with a perfect heart and a willing mind.-Y.