the world's view that the place which is good for one's property must be good for oneself, seeing that a man's abundance is in the things he possesses. The thought of the cattle Bo filled the minds of the two tribes that they could give no weight whatever to any other consideration. How hardly shall they that have riches enter the kingdom of heaven I That faith which is the substance of things hoped/or and the evidence of things not seen finds no room to grow in e. nee.rt choked up with the co.re of this world and the deceitfulness of riches. At this time, indeed, Reuben and Gad had many cattle, but it by no means followed that they would o.lwe.ys have cattle. Job had many cattle, but in a few hours Se.beans and Che.ldeans swept them o.11 a.way. Consider well the thoughts that filled the mind of Lot (Gen. xiii. 10), e.B illustrating the foolish, partial, and short.Bighted views of the children of Reuben and Gad. The Dead Sea was no great distance from these very lands qf Jazer and Gilead. 2. They acted on the presumption that a man is himself the best judge of hi,s own interests. They did not stop to consider that if God had meant this territory for them, he would have indicated his meaning in unmistakable fashion. He had me.de no sign, and this was in itself e. proof that he judged their true home to be on the Cane.an side of Jordan. It is the highest wisdom of man to wait, in simplicity and humility, on the indi,spensable directions of the All-Wise; even o.s the mariner finds his position by looking heavenward, and by the aid of the compass confidently finds his path across pathless waters. In an unfamiliar place you can gain no know- ledge of the points of the compass by the minutest consideration of terrestrial circumstances, but get e. glimp_se of the sun and know the time of day, and the information is yours at once. The heavens declare the glory of God in this, that they never mislead us; and the God who me.de them iB like them in ministering to the needs of our spirits. We cannot do without him. Instinct, so kind, so all-helpful to the brute, does little or nothing for us. God made us so that he might guide us with his eye. The great bulk of men act as these children of Reuben and Gad acted. The way of God, with a.II its real advantages, is yet so unpromising to the carnal eye that few there be who find it. 3. Er:ecially they had forgotten that the pm-poses of God were to be the eat rule of li e to them. The great multitude of cattle was not theirs, but his. :rfthey had ma e this proposition with e. sense of stewardship in their minds, the proposition might have been not only excusable, but laudable. But the sense of stewardship was the very furthest of all feelings from their hearts, It is a late, a hard, and perhaps always an imperfect discovery, that e. man only go.ins his right position when he manifests the glory of God. The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof. These people had not risen to the thought of Canaun as being the very best land simply because it was God's clioice. Their minds were not full of Canaan, but of their own cattle. A great deal depends on our conception of heaven. If we think of it as the place and state where God is all in nil, where law and life exactly correspond, and Christ is glorified in the perfection of all his people, then heaven is begun already. Caleb and Joshua had been waiting forty years for the promised land, yet in a certain sense it had been theirs o.11 the time. It was not simple habitation that me.de Canaan e. promised land, else the Canannites would have been as blessed as the true Israel. Rightful possession, honest spiritual inheritance, these constituted the full and abiding enjoyment of Ce.ne.an.-Y.
Vers. 6-15.-.A. thorough ezposure of a adjish proposition. I. MosEs APPEALS TO THE BENSE OD' SHAME. They had been one nation until now. The suffering of one tribe had been the suffering of all. They had marched in company and fought in company; but now, when Reuben and Gad see what seems the main chance, they say, "We have found what we want, we need go no further." Often the only way of tree.ting selfishness is to make it thoroughly ashamed of itself. If there is no loving sympathy in the heart to be appealed to, we must do our best by appealing to e. sense of decency ; we must ask the selfish, if they have nothing else to think of, to think a little of their o,vn reputation. It was e. very humiliating thing, if only Reuben and Gad had been able to see it, that Moses here me.de no appeal to high motives. He did not say, "Consider well, for your own sakes, what you propose to do ; con- sider whether you are not seeking e. mere present, external, paltry g11in, and paving the way for a tremendous loea hereafter." He might so have spoken, but what woul,l 422 THFr BOOK OF NUMBERS. [OH. xnn. 1-42.