me.ny there a.re in the world whom we feel sure to be wrong I We cannot, try as we may, feel anything else; we cannot but believe them to be villa.ins at bee.rt, veneered and varnished up with a show of religion and goodness to impose on the simple- minded. But to give free utterance to our thoughts would be counted uncharitable and censorious, e.nd assuming to be better than other men. What a comfort then to feel that what we cannot do God will do at last I The wolf will be utterly stripped of all his sheep's clothing, after all his gormandising and the warm, snug life he has lived so long; he will stand revealed in his true character, and become a. gaunt, starving creature with all his opportunities of rapacity gone. " Found out at last" will be written on all those vain pretenders to a good and honourable life who at present fume and bluster and look unspeakably grieved when any of their actions are questioned in the slightest degree. And this, recollect, will be the crown of all other discoveries, that the sin of sinners will be made clear and unquestwnable in their own eyes. B. The practical lesson for you, 0 sinner, is, that instead of waiting for sin to ti,nd you out, you should try with all energy and expedition to find sin out. Y ot2 know that though the Scriptures are full of references to it, there are, nevertheless, the greatest misapprehensions with respect to it. What a terrible thing it is to mock God by an outward and conventional confession of sin, and then go away to sin as much as before I It is one thing to join the customary crowd in saying," We have sinned ; " quite another to have an individual, searching, agonising experience such as we find in Ps. Ii. Find out what sin is, its reality, its magnitude, and how it stands behind all secondary causes of misery, almost as a. great first cause. Find it out as dwelling deep-seated in your own heart, baneful beyond all imagination, spoiling the present life, and threatening the life to come. Before passing from the consideration of this request from these two tribes, it is very noticeable that they kept their promise. When the time came for them to return to Jazer and Gilead, Joshua spoke to them in a. very complimentary way (Josh. xxii.). Did this fulfilment show that the word of Moses had been constantly in their minds? Possibly his word had weight with some, but in all probability the miraculous discovery of .Achan's guilt, and his terrible doom, had much more con- nection with the persistence of Reuben and Gad in keeping their promise. They doubtless saw very clearly that steady and patient obedience was the only way of escaping something like Achan'e fate.-Y. Ver. 42.-Nobah-the man and the place. This proceeding on the pa.rt of Nobah suggests a good deal of speculation as to the character, purposes, and actual achieve- ments of the man. Concerning the children of Reuben, we are simply told in general terms that they gave names to the cities they builded (ver. 38). Jair, the son of Manasseh, gnve to the small towns of Gilead the name of Havoth-Jnir, which seems to be a general indication of them ns being the property of Jair. Then in the last verse of the chapter we come to a kind of climax as we read that Nobah boldly called by his own name the district he had gained. What did he mean by this? Perhaps it was for the sake of a fancied secu,-ity. The rigorous, inexorable demands of Moses were going to take him away, he knew not how long, and he may have reckoned that giving his name to his property before he went would be an excellent plan to guard himself against covetous and unscrupulous neighbours. How suspicious of one another selfish people are I When we busy ourselves laying up treasures on earth instead of in heaven, we have to use all sorts of schemes nnd devices in order to g·ain a security which in the end proves to be no secnrity at all. Or Nobah may have been a man full of personal ambition. De.vid tells us, in strains half-pitying, he.If-despising, of those infatuated, purse-proud grandees who call their lands after their own names (Ps. xlix. 11). From this we may infer that Nobah was not a.lone in his folly. Very possibly the name took root and lasted for generations ; but even supposing it did, who in after days would trouble himself concerning the man Noba.h? Calling e. town or e. street after a man will do nothing to preserve his memory if the man himself has been nothing more than a plutocrnt. But if the man himself, by deeds and character, becomes memorable and glorious, then his birth-place and dwelling-place, however mean they otherwise may be, shaTe in the t(lory of the man. How many obscure he.mleta have thus become dignified in history, THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ou:, xxxnr.1-49.
and chief among them stand Bethlehem, the little one among the thousands of Judah and Nazareth, the mean, secluded village in the highlands of Galilee. "This place' dearest to the Christian heart of all on earth except Jerusalem, is not mentioned i~ the Old Testament, nor even by Josephus, wl10 was himself on every side of it and names the villages all about it, but seems yet totally ignorant of its existence."..'....Y.