The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 462

have had them located where they would have been within easy reach of the sanctuary? In the ideal arrangement sketched in Ezekiel's vision, the Levitical families are seen locatoo in the vicinity of Jerusalem. The circumstance that the law ordained an arrangement so different was meant, I cannot doubt, to suggest to the Levites the.t they had other duties to discharge in Israel besides doing the service of the s&nctue.ry; It w&s the will of God that they should, in their several districts, be the stated teachers of the people in the Divine law (Dent. xxxiii. 10; Mai. ii. 4-8). Thie office and calling of the Levit;ee being so honourable, it h&s oft.en been thought strange that their dispersion throughout Israel ~hould have been predicted by Jacob as a curse- upon the tribe for their father's sin (Gen. xlix. 7). In itself it was honourable • nevertheless the words of the patriarch were fulfilled in the end. When the te; tribes revolt_ed from t~e h~us~ of Davi~, they fell away also from the sa!lctuary ;. a~~ the Le~tes dwellmg within those tnbes had ~o choose between forfeiting their cities or bemg cut off from the sanctuary. In either case they found how bitter it was to be divided in Jacob and scattered in Israel. II. WHAT MAY WE LEABN P'B0M THIS LAW? 1. It has been nsual to see in the- distribution of the Levites over the whole land a type and prelude of tl,,e arrangemenJ whi.ck, in Christendom, assi,gns to every pa,-i.sh and every congregatum its own pastor. The apostles" ordained elders in every city." Ministers of the gospel are not to be massed together in the great cities, but to be scattered everywhere, so that no family in God's Israel may be beyond reach of one" at whose mouth they may seek the law." Of the institutions which have co-operated to make society what it is in the- Christian nations, it would not be easy to name one which has been more influential for good than this. 2. The arrangement may be regarded as representing the principle aaording to whi.ck the lot of Chnst', people in this world is ordered. The faithful .io not live apart from other men in towns and provinces of their own. Separation from the world, in this literal sense, has been often the dream of Christian reformers, and not seldom have societies been organised for tbe purpose of realising it. But the well-meant schemes have in every case failed. They were bound to fail, for they ran counter to onr Lord's great prayer and rule: "I pray not that thou ehouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil" (John xvi.i. 15). Nor is the reason of the rule doubtful. Christ's people are the salt of the earth ; and salt, to do its work, must be mingled with that which it is to preserve. The godly must be content to have ungodly persons, more or fewer, for neighbours so long as they abide in this world. An unmixed "congregation of the righteous" belongs to the felicities of the world to come. But if Christ's people are like the- Levites in regard to dispersion, they are like them also in respect to the provision made for their brotherly communion. As the Levites dwelt in their cities with other Levites, so Christians are to be gathered into Churches for mutual comfort and for common work. " We believe in the communion of saints. "-B. Vere. 9-29.-The manalayer and the citie, of refuge. The law of eanctue.ry, as it is here laid down, never fails to remind the devout reader of the refuge which God's mercy has provided in Christ for those who, by their sin, have exposed them- selves to the vengeance of the law. Thie way of regarding the matter can be thoroughly jnstified. At the same time it ie well to bear in mind that the law was framed, in the first instance, for a humbler purpose. I. THE ORDINANCE 011' THE CITY OP' BEll'UClE OONBIDEBED AS A PA.BT 011' TBE Mos.uo CRIMINAL LAW. In primitive and barbarous states of society the execution of venge- 11.nce for murder was devolved by ancient custom on the next kinsman of the murdered man. The goel, the redeemer and kinsman, was also the avenger of blood. The custom is sufficiently harsh and barbarous, and gives rise to blood-feuds and untold miseries. Yet for the states of society in which it originated, it cannot be diepeneed- with. There ~re at this day tribes without number, especially in the East, in which the sanctity of human life is guarded only by fear of the avenger of blood. Accord• ingly, the law of Moses does not abolish the cl18tom; the next kinsman was still held b1>und to take vengeance for blood. The aim of the Moeaio jurisprudence was to conserve what was good in the ancient oustom, and at the same time to impose 11uch a check upon it as 'Nonld prevent its abuse. Thie twofold design was accom- <Ill. XXXV. 1-34.] TIIE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 4.53