known then to God, and is known now to us. The commandments of God took into consideration not only what was known at the time of their announcement but what would be further discovered in the progress of human inquiry. We ~an see n propriety in this ordinance of the monthly offering, as we think of the peculiar relation which the moon alone of all the heavenly bodies sustains to our earth. ll. THE MOON IS AN EMBLEM OF APPARENT CHANGE AND YET BEAL STEADFASTNESS, Thus it is an emblem of the way in which God's dealings af pear often to us. The Unchanging One looks like a changing one, and it takes al our faith to be sure of his faithfulness. We talk of the waxing and the waning moon, but we know that the m~o_n itself remains the sam~, that the chan_ge of appearance arises from change of position, and dependij on how 1t catches the hght of the sun, When we do see it, we see the same face always turned towards us, and mysterious as its movements are to the ignorant and the savage, they are nevertheless so regular that all can be pre- dicted beforehand. The moon therefore is a peculiar and suggestive emblem of constancy, if we look on it aright, Juliet, indeed, in her love-sick prattle says, 0, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon, That monthly che.nges in her circled orb. But appearance is one thing and reality is another, and we are reminded of one who found a very different emblematic value in the moon when he said, "They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations." The faith- fulness of God is the same, even when his face is hidden, and when his mercy, like the waning moon, seems to diminish before our very eyes. The mysterious hind- rances, sorrows, and gloomy peculiarities of our present life would be largely cleared up, if we only knew as much of the wheels within wheels of God's moral government, as we do of the wheels within wheels in the motions and relations of the heavenly bodies. Ill. THE CONNECTION OF THE MOON WITH THE MONTH IS ALSO TO BE BORNE IN MIND. Spring, summer, aatumn, winter, are, after all, vague terms. We mnrk the changing phenomena of the year far more accurately by the months than by the longer seasons. We speak of blustering March, showery April, chill October, drear December, and may we not suppose that the Israelites had somewhat of the same way of thinking with regard to their months ?-each month with its own character and making its own contribution to the fulness of the year (Deut. xvii. 3 ; xxxiii. 14 ; 1 Sam. xx. 5 ; 2 Kings iv. 23 ; Ps. lxxxi. 1-4; lxxxix. 37; Isa. xxx. 26; Ix. 20; Gal. iv. 10; Rev. xxii. 2).-Y.
Vers. 1~25.-The femrt at the pa,sover time. I. IT WAS A REMINDER OF HOW SEBIOUSLY Goo's GIFTS TO THE IBB.AELITEB HAD BEEN INTERFERED WITH. There was the gift of the day with its morning and evening, the gift of the new moon, and probably we shall not do wrong in concluding that the patriarchs understood and appreciated much of the blessing of the Sabbath. But what were these to the Israelites amid the bitterness of their bondage in Egypt? Pharaoh had taken the choice gifts of God and distorted them into agents of the most exquisite pain. Instead of having a heart for the morning and evening sacrifice, they were in a state such as Moses indicated might occur to them again in the event of disobedience (Deut. xxviii. 67). Their morning cry might justly have been, "Would God it were even I" and their evening cry, "Would God it were morning I" In Egypt they had not materials enough for daily work, let alone holy service. Thus we have a forcible illustration of the way in which spiritual evil has embittered all God's natural gifts. In the use of them, they get turned away from his intentions so as to serve the selfish purposes of some, and cause perhaps the life-long privations and miseries of others. We must indeed be thankful for what God gives, even when it is interfered with, for the g·ift snows the disi,osition of the giver, and it is a good thing for us to be at all times ase~red of this. But then we must also carefully mark how much there is in human s<;>c1ety to intercept, distort, and even as it were transmute these loving and suitable gifts of God. The very abundance of the blessings which God is disposed to bestow, should lead us to view with much alarm, with deep and abiding concern, ells. xxvnt., xx1x.J THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 389