II. THI!: DEVOTED ANIMAL WAS IN A TYPICAL SEN8E VERY PECULIAR. TheTe is the selection of one kind of nnimal, one sex in that kind, one colour, all absence of blemish, and complete freedom from the yoke. May we not say that to find all these marks in one animal wns indication of some special provision from on high? "It must be a red heifer, becnuse of the rarity of the colour, that it might be the more remarkable. The Jews say, if but two hairs were black or white, it was unlawful" Whether this were so or not, we have in this remarkable typical animal a suggestion of him who in his person, works, claims, and influence is totally unlike any one else who has ever taken part in human affairs. As the heifer was without spot or blemish, so far as human eye could discern, so Jesus was faultless in the presence of God's glory. And just as the combination in the heifer of all that God reqnired was a great help to the people in believing in the cleansing efficacy of the ashes, so we, regarding Jesus in all the peculiarities which centre and unite in him, may well apply ourselves witl1 fresh confidence and gratitude to the blood that cleanseth from all sin. III. THE ASHES WERE RESERVED FOR PERMANENT USE (ver. 9). It is of course an exaggeration to say that the ashes of this first heifer served for the cleansings of a thousand years, b1.Jt doubtless they served a long time, thus sufficiently indicating the cleansing power that flows from him who died once for all. \Ve stand in the succession to many generations who have applied themselves to the one fount;\in opened for sin and uncleanness. Where the earliest believers stood, submitting the impurity of their hearts to Jesus, we also stand, and the evident result to them, as seen in the record of their experience, may well give joy and assurance to us. IV. Only, WE MUST MAKE LIKE CLOSENESS AND FIDELITY OF APPLICATION. Con- sider what was required from these death-defiled ones. For seven days they were unclean, and on the third day as well as the seventh they were to be sprinkled. To prepare the sprinkling agent was no light or easy matter, so that its virtue might be sure. But even when prepared it required repeated applications. Thus to be cleansed from sin requires a searching process, indicated in the New Testament by the baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire. There must be a discerning of the thoughts and intents o{ the heart, and a rigorous, uncompromising dealing with them. Let none apply himself to the cleansing which Christ provides unless he is ready for a thorough examination of his nature, a disclosure of many deep-seated abominations, and a tearing away from his life of much that he has cherished and for a time may sadly miss. V. THERE IS NO CLEANSING EXCEPT IN STRICT OBEDIENCE TO GoD's APPOINTMENT. The defiled one could not invent a purification of his own, nor could he go on as if defilement were a harmless, evanescent trifle. He might indeed say, "What the worse am I for touching the dead?" judging by his own present feelings and ignor- ance of consequences. Nor might any immediate obvious difference appear between the defiled and the cleansed; nevertheless, there was a difference which God himself would make very plain and bitter in the event of persevering disobedience. So between the conscious and confessing sinner who, humbly believing, is being washed in the blood of Christ, and the careless, defiant sinner who neglects it as a mere imagination, there may seE'm little or nothing of difference. But the difference is that between heaven and hell, and God will make it clear in due time. Note the connection of the following passage with the whole chapter:-" If the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh : how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve tlie living God?" (Heh. ix. 13, 14).-Y.
EXPOSITION. and in ver. 22, and seem intended to mark CH.APTER XX. the period of reassembly after the dispersion THE LAST l\lAROll : FROM KADESH TO of nearly thirty eight years. Probably a HoR (vers. 1-29). Ver. 1.-Then oame the portion of the tribes had visited KaJesh ohildren of Iarael, even the whole oon~e- many times during those years, and perhaps satiou. The latter words are emphatic .D.ere it had never been wholly abandoned. Int~ 252 TIIE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [cu. xx. 1-29.