:you do not stop it in time. Those who have passed through untold agonies because of conviction of sin, once hmghed at sin as a little thing. They did not dream it would g·ive them such trouble, and drive them about inreseantly till they got th& question answered, ",vhat must l do to be saved? " Sin sleeps i11 most, as far as the peculiar consciousness of it is concerned, but when it wakes it will prove itself a giant. Look at the analogy in physical life. A man says that he is full of health and vigour, and he looks it; he even gets complimented upon it. Suddenly, in the- midst of these compliments, he is stricken down with a fierce disease, and a few days number him among the dead. Why? The real disease was in him already, even with all his consciousness of health. There must have been something in his body to give the outward cause a hold. Our present consciousness is no criterion of our spiritual state. The word of God in the Scriptures, humbly apprehended and obeyed, is the only safe guide to follow. lV. THOUGH A MAN MUST NEEDS DIE IN HIS OWN SIN, HE MAY ALSO DIE IN THK FULNESS OF CHRIST'S SALVATION FROM SIN, The end of life, with all its gloom, with all its manifestations of despair, callousness, and self-righteousness in some, is in others an occasion to manifest in great beauty the power of God in the spirits of men. One must die in his own sin, yet he may also experience the cleansing of that blood which takes away all sin. One must die in his own sin, yet this very necessity may also lead to dying in the faith of Jesus, in the hope of glory, and in the arms of infinite love. • V. WE SHOULD AIM THAT NOTHING WORSE THAN DYING IN OUR OWN SIN MAY Bl!I SAID OF us. It is bad enough that sin should be dominant, even without compelling ns to leave the ordinary paths of life; those reckoned, among men, useful and harm- less. It is bad enough to feel that in us there are the possibilities of the most abandoned and reckless, of the worst of tyrants, sensualists, and desperadoes ; only lacking such temptations, associations, and opportunities, as may make the possible actual. Be it ours, if we cannot show a spotless record, if we cannot claim a person- ality that started from innocence, at all events to show as little of harm to the world as possible. We cannot keep out of Zelophehad's company ; let us keep out of Korah's. There is a medium between being a Pharisee and a profligate.-Y.
EX.POSITION. Mo!IEI! AND JosRUA (vers. 12-23). Ver. point Nebo (Deut. xxxii. f9; :ia::riv. 1), after 12.-Ana the Lora 1aid unto llosea. It is the name of a neighbouring town (eh. xxxiii. impossible to determine the exact place of f7). Ana see the lana. Moses had already this aunou.ncement in the order of events nar- been told that he should not enter the pro- rated. It would appear from eh. :ia::ri. l mised land (eh. :xx.12), yet he is allowed the that the war with the Midianites occurred consolation of seeing it with his eyes before later, and certainly the address to the people his death. It would seem from Deut. iii. and to Joshua in Deut. :a:xi. 1-8 presup- 25-27 that this favour was accorded him in poses the formal appointment here recorded; answer to hie prayer. but the chronology of the concluding chap- Ver. 14. - For ye rebelled against mr, ten; of Numbers is evidently very uncertain; commandment. Rather, "as ye rebelled. ' they may, or may not, be arranged in order of time. We may with good reason suppose The same word, ,~!$~, guomodo, is need here that the summons to die was only separated as in the previous clause. That ia the water from its fulfilment by the brief interval of Meribah in xa.aeah in the wilaerneH of necessary to complete what work was yet Zin. These words have all the appearance unfinished (such as the punishment of the of an explanatory gloss intended to make Mid.ianites and the provisional settlement of the reference more plain to the reader or the trans-J ordanic country) before the river hearer. It is impossible to suppose that was crossed. Into thil llou.nt Abarim. See they formed part of the Divine message; nol'· on eh. :nxiii f7; Dent. :xxxii f9 sq., where does it seem probable that Moses would have this command is recited more in detail added them to the narrative as it stands, .Abari.m was apparently the range behind the because in view of eh. xx. 13, no necessity Arbot~ Moab, the northern portion of which for expb.nation existed. It is quite possible <>ppos1te to Jericho was called Pisgah (eh. that both eh. xL 13 ond the present clause x.u. 20 ; Deut, iii 27), and the highest are subsequent additions to the text intended- CB. XXVII. 12-23.J THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 869