humiliating to humanity. Favoured again and again with light which came to him in different ways, he remained in gross darkness with respect to the character of God as a whole. He saw not the folly, the absurdity, of the path in which he waa treading. Phe conduct of Balaam in the ea,ential principles of it has often been repeated, and is being repeated &till. We are all spiritually blind unless God be pleased to open our eyes. Seeing the things of God by the light of nature, and judging of them by natural reason, we come to some strange and impotent con- clusions. Balaam's indifference to the interferences of God is not one whit more marvellous than the unmoved, matter-of-fact way in which we can bear to have truths presented to our minds which, if they concern us to any extent, concern us more than all outward circumstances taken together. It is easy to say 118 one reads of Balaam, "What a fool I what an enigma I what a bundle of contradictions I what a mixture in his life of unwilling obedience to God and most obstinate persistence in his own path I" Take care lest it be said to one thus speaking, "Thou art the man." There is not a man of the world living in a land of open Bibles bat whose conduct might he so described as to appear quite as perplexing as that of Balaam here. III. A MAN MAY ENJOY GREAT PnIVILEGEB, AND YET BE RUINED AT LAST. A seeing man may be quite safe in a dangerous path, and on the darkest night, with a little lamp, if it is enough to show him where his feet are to be placed. Bat a blind man will fall into the pit by noonday. A firmament radiant with a score of suns would avail nothing to such a one. A man may live in a land of Bibles, churches, and every conceivable variety of gospel ministrations, and yet die, after a long contact with all these, knowing nothing of his own state as a sinner, or of the power of Christ as a Saviour. Another man, in the midst of Africa, with no more than a torn leaf of the New Testament, might come to know the one thing needful, and be effectually led to repentance, faith, salvation, and eternal life. Privileges, as we call them, are nothing in themselves ; all depends on how they are received. It was the same seed that was sown in the four different kinds of ground. One seed sown in the good ground will bring forth more than a cartload scattered by the wayside. IV. BALAAM KNEW JUST ENOUGH 01!' THE TRUTH TO MISLEAD HIM, NOT ENOUGH TO LEAD HIM RIGIIT. He apprehended the real power of Jehovah without apprehending his character as a whole. He had made the discovery that if Israel fell away into the worship of any other god, it would be very severely dealt with. Doubtless he had found his way into some intercourse with the Israelites, and been made acquainted with their past history, particuiarly with the commundment of God ot Sinai against idolotry, and the sufferings which came upon the people because of the golden calf. But he did not know that in the midst of the most faithless and apostate of generu- tions there would still be preserved a faithful seed ; he did not reckon on the energetic and efficacious zeal of a Phinehas. And thus the great mischief to many arises not so much from total indifference to God as from misleading conceptions 0£ him, It is only too easy for us to miss the full view which a sinner ought to havo of God, and remain all our lifetime with erroneous and most limited conceptions. Some make too much of God's anger with sin, forgetting his love, his mercy, his patience, his revelation of himself as a Father; others make too much of his mercy, forgetting his unyielding righteousness, and the need of a radical change in man-a change in his motives, purposes, sympathies, and delights. Nothing is more perilous than to see so much of one side of the Divine character as not to see the rest. Wo must see it as it is revealed in Scripture. There the living God moves before us in his actions. We see his actions, and they cannot be understood unless as the harmonious outflow of all his character.-Y.
Vera. 25-47.-The distribution of the spoils. I. GoD TAKES TIIE DISTI\IDUTION INTO HIS OWN· HANDS. The ,ictory was his, and it was for him to arrange the spoils ns might best serve his own purposes. It w11s tho only effectual way of blighting in the bud all discord and jealousy. It was 11lso the means of teaching important lessons to all in the comm mity who were willing to learn. It helped to manifest afresh the unity of Israel. Those who had gone to the war had gone as repre- aentotives of the whole of Israel, hence it was for the whole of Israel to share in the Bpoil. While parl wae away, avenging the Lord of Midian, another part stayed at '12 TlIE BOOlt OF NUMBERS. Ceil. xxxt. 1-54.