the dead). The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart" (Rom. x. 6-8). Go into thy closet; retreat into the seclusion antl security of thine own heart, and meet the mighty Guide and Helper there. The God of Israel went about with his people. Jesus did not say, "Wheresoever I am, there my people are to gather together," but, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." "God attributes to place No sanctity, if none be thither brought By men who there frequent, or therein dwell." IV. A MAN MAY BE IGNORANT OF THINGS LTING NEAREST HIM AND UNSPEAKABLY IMPORTANT, while he abounds in useless knowledge of things far away. Balak knew not the needs of his own heart, the renl power of Israel, the disposition of Israel's God to him the possibilities of friendship which lay within those tents on which he looked with so much apprehension. But somehow he had got to know concerning Balaam in far-away Pethor. How much useless, deceiving, pretentious knowledge we may accumulate with infinite labour, and at the time feeling great certainty of its value. "Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers." It is of great moment in a world where so much is to be known, and yet so little can be acquired, not to miss acquiring the right things. Said Dr. Arnold, "If one might wish for impossibilities, I might then wish that my children might be well versed in physical science, but in due subordination to the fulness e.nd freshness of their knowledge on moral subjects. This, however, I believe cannot be ; e.nd physical science, if studied at all, seems too great to be studied iv 1rapEPY'I'· Wherefore, rather than have it the principal thing in my son's mind, I would gladly have him think that the sun went round the earth, and that the stars were so many spangles set in the bright blue firmament." Thus also the great discoverer Faraday in his old age-" My worldly faculties are slipping a.way, day by day. Happy is it for e.ll of us that the true good lies not in them. As they ebb, may they leave us a.a little children, trusting in the Father of mercies and accepting hi.a unspeakable gift I " V. THE MESSAGE WAS VEilY FLATTEilING TO BALAAJ.I. Kings have much to do with courtiers, and all the delicate preparations of flattery must be well known to them. Balak made Balaam to understand that it was not for a trifle he had sum- moned him, for a service that could be rendered by a second-rnte soothsayer. The people he so dreaded had come out from Egypt, that home of strength in those days, that populous and wealthy land, and by no means le.eking in reputed wise men, sorcerers e.nd magicians. They had come in great numbers: "behold, they cover the £nee of the earth;" e.nd they were in close proximity and apparently settled con- dition : "they abide over against me." There is the willing confession by Balak of his own inability, and hie evident faith in Balaam's power to cast a fate.I paralysis over all the energy of Israel. Now e.ll this must have been very pleasant for Balaam to hear, sweeter maybe than the jingle of the rowards of divination. Thus did the temptation to Balaam, already only too open to tem{>te.tion, begin. His came.I mind was appealed to in many we.ye. The rewards of divination were only a pa.rt of the expected wages of unrighteousness. 11 Pride goeth before destruction, e.nd an haughty spirit before a fe.11" (Prov. xvi. 18). VJ. BALAK HAD M0ilE FAITH IN FALSEHOOD THAN ISRAEL FOR A LONG TIME HAD SHOWN TOWARDS TRUTH. The conduct of Balak in sending so far, in casting the fortunes of his kingdom with such simplicity on what was utterly false, should put us to shame who have the opportunity of resorting at all times to well ascertained and established truth. Balak had only a Balaam to seek, such an ignoble and double- minded man as appears in the sequel; not a Moses, who could have told him truly, not only how the blessing and the curse really come, but how to secure the one and escape the other.-Y.
Vera. 7-14.-Thefirst visit to Balaam. I. BALAK's NOTION OF WHAT WOULD BE MOST ACCEPTABLE TO DALAAM. It is all a matter of money, Balak thinks. "Every man has hie price," and the poor ruan who cannot pay it lllUBt go to the wall. Not that wo are to suppose Balaam a specially greedy man, but it has been the mark of 804 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [on. xxn. 2---40.