The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 324

the men who will have no miracles, no admission of the supernatural; and ludicrom as well as ridiculous, seeing that it is an ass, of all animals, which is chosen to speak. But that is only because we associate Balaam with the despised and buffeted animal which the word " ass " recalls to us. We may be eure that a man of Balaam's dignitJ: would hav4? a beast t<;> carry him such as _be;ame his dignity. And as to the absurdity of an anunal uttenng human speech, 1t 18 no harder to believe that God should here have opened the mouth of the ass, than that he should afterwards have opened the mouth of Balaam, 6emg sud,, a 1/'Um a, he t.oa.1, to utter glorious predic- tions. concerni~g the pe(!ple ":hom it was in ,his heart to curse. :µ we were allowed to think of things as bemg either easy or difficult to God, we might say that it was more difficult for him to control the mouth of a carnal-minded man like Balaam than the mouth of a brute beast. It is not pretended that he changed the intellect and gave the ass human thought.s along with hllIIlan speech. The words were the worde Clf a man, bat the thoughts were the thoughts of an ass. Balaam hi111,8elf Wa8 not ~ to hear it speak. He was too much exasperated with the strange stub- bornness of an animal bitherto so docile and serviceable, to notice the still stranger power with which it had been so suddenly endowed. Observe, again, how naturally all leads up to the spealcing_ of the ass. The us is not brought specially on the scene, a.s the angel was. Balaam saddles the ass, and takea the road on it in his customary way. At first there is nothing mire.culoua. The a.ss sees the angel, md turns aside into the field; there is nothing strange in that. Coming to the path of the vineyards, and still seeing the angel, it crushes Balsam's foot against the wall; there is nothing strange in tho.t. Still advancing into the no.rrow plo.ce, and still seeing the angel, it sinks to the ground; there is nothing strange in that. The ass was in a strait before and behind, on the right side and on the left. Thus its speaking is prepared for as a climu:::. Accept the statement that the ass spoke, and all the previous narrative leads beautifully up to it. Deny the statement, and the chief virtue of the narrative is lost. 8. Ld tu not fail, to notice this instance <>/ the lower creatwn rec-0g1tking God's 11U!S8enger. The question of course suggests itself, Who was this an~el? one of the unnamed host, or the Son of God himself in his old covenant gmse? If the latter, then he who while in human flesh signified his will to the stormy sea might well signify his warning presence to the ass. Not that the ass knew the angel as a human being could ; but even as the lower creation is sensible in its own way of the presence of man, so the ass might be sensible in its own way of the presence of the angel. We argue concerning the lower animals far more from ignorance and carelessly-accepted tradition than from real and discerning knowledge. We know positively nothing a.a to what sort of consciousness underlies the phenomena of their existence. We know wherein they are not like us, but what they are in themselves we cannot know. 4. Every Balaam ha& his ass, i. e. every man who has the spirit and conduct of Balaam in him may expect to be pulled up at last in like manner, What God made the a11s to his master, that God makes their consciences to many. For a long time the ass had only been of ordinary and com• monly-accepted use. Balaam had ridden on it ever since it was his, a long time we may conclude, and doubtless rejoiced in having so convenient and trustworthy a servant. And thns many find their consciences as little troublesome, as constantly agreeable, as the ass was to Balaam. Some sort of conscience they must have, but it amounts to nothing more than taking care to keep a reputation for honesty and respectability. They find such a conscience useful in its way, just as Balaam found his aea when out on soothsaying business. But even as the a.as sees the angel, so Co/11' science begi,JUI to waken, to Mbler ?J,le,. One gets out of the little world of mere give and take, business customs and local habits. Something sug~sts that we are i.n the wrong road, pulls us up for a moment, tries to turn us aside. In reality God is beginning to close with us for our own good. At first there is latitude, opportunity of evasion. We go a little further, and God comes closer. Onward still I and at last the soul cannot escape. Blessed is that man, blessed in his opportunity a.t all eventsl whose conscience, once the hlllilble instrument of hie baser self, is thoroughly roused 110 that it will not allow him further with its consent in his chosen and accustomed way. 'l'he crisis comes, and the question is, u Will you from the heart obey the Divine comma,11d, come in subjection to the angel of God, or go OD greedily in the OD X:XII, 2-40,] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 809