The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 266

godliness " itself there are "secret things which belong unto the Lord our God." But we mny be eo.tiefied because the way of salvation is "the gospel o./ God," the Lamb elu.in is "the Lamb of God," the atonement is God) s atonement. In the purifi.. co.tion of our consciences "from dead works•• we have the beet proof of '' the mystery of the gospel" (Eph. i. 8, 9; vi. 19) being "the power of God," &c. (Rom. i. 16). 3. Our entire dependence on this purification. The thoughtless touching of a dead man's bone defiled, and the man who neglected the water of purifying was "cut off." So with sinners, who should not dare to plead forgetfulness (Pa. xix. 12), but who may be cleansed from every sin. But without this cleansing they too wi11 be "cut off" (1 John i. 7-10).-P. Vere. 1-22.-Deji,lementfrom the dead. In the laws given to the Israelites there is much said concerning uncleanness. 'fhe ceremonial difference between the unclean and the clean sets forth the real difference between the sinful and the sinless. This difference was therefore as important in its way, and as much requiring attention, ail that between the holy and the profane. In the Book of Leviticus a large section ( chs. xi.-xv.) is exclusively occupied with regulatious on the subject, pointing out liow uncleanness was caused, and how to be removed-oftentimes very easily caused, but never easy, and often very tedious, to remove. It was a charge brought against the priests long after (Ezek. xxil. 26) that they showed no difference between the unclean and the clean. Already in this Book of Numbers one kind of defilement, that contracted by contact with the dead, has been referred to thrice (eh. v. 2; vi. 6-12; ix. 6-8). In the second of these instances the defilement came as a hindrance to the Nazarite in fulfilling his vow, and the manner of his cleansing was carefully indicated. Here in eh. xix. we come to a very elaborate provision for defilement by the dead in general. The immediate occasion of this provision may have been the sudden and simultaneous death of nearly 15,000 of the people, by which many were of necessity defiled, and placed in great difficulties as to their extrication from defilement. But whatever the occasion, the contents of this chapter show very impressively and suggestively the way in which God looks on death. I. We gather from this chapter HOW UTTERLY OBNOXIOUS DEATH IS TO GOD. The person who has come in contact with it, however lightly or casually,-it may have been unconsciously,-is thereby unclean. Unlike the leper, be may feel no difference in himself, but he is unclean. Notice further why death is so obnoxious to God. It is the great and crowning consequence of sin in this world. Sin not only spoils life while it lasts, but brings it tc. a melancholy, painful, and in most cases premature end. Consider how much of human life, that might be so glorifying to God, so useful to manJ and so happy in the experience of it, is nipped in the eo.rliest bud. Doubtless Gou sees in death abominations of which we have hardly any sense at iul. It is obnoxious to us as interfering with our plans, robbing us of our joys, o.nd taking away the only thing tho.t nature gives us, temporal life. We look o.t death too much as a cause. God would have us well to understand that its great power as a cause comes from what it is as an effect. In one sense we may say the uncleanness of leprosy was Iese offensive than tbe.t of death, for the power of sin was less evident in a disense of the living person than when life was altogether gone. Every instance of death is e. fresh defiance, and apparently a successful one, of the ever-living Gori. Death seems to wait on every new-born child, saying, "Thou art mine." II. WE SHOULD SO CORRECT OUR THOUGHTS THAT DEATH MAY DECOlllE ODNOXlOUS TO us IN THE SAME WAY AS IT 18 TO Goo. Do not be contented to talk of death as corning through disease, accident, or old age. Behind all instruments look for the wielding hand of sin. Ask yourself if egress from this world would not be o. very different sort of thing if man had continued unfallen. To a sinless nature, how gentle, painless, glorious, and exultant might be the process of exchanging the service of earth for the service of 11. still higher ate.te I Death in its pain and gloom and disturbing consequences to survivors is something quite foreign to the original con- stitution of human nature. Only by learning to look on death as God by his own exa1nfle would have us look, shall we find the true remedy against it, both in its u.ctun po,ver and in the terrors which the anticipation of it so often inspires.  250 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [cII. li:lli:. 1-22.