HOMILETICS. Vers. 10-12.-The passover and the cessation of manna. I. THE RENEWAL OF THE COVENANT MUST BE ATTENDED WITH THE OBSERVANCE OF ITS LAWS. When the Christian desires to return and to serve God after a period of disobedience and rebellion, he must prepare himself, by repentance antl morti- fication, to feed on the flesh of the slain Lamb of God in the sacrament which He has ordained. Thus he makes a memorial of the death of Christ, through which alone he has obtained pard9n ; he feeds on the flesh and Llood of the Son of Gou ; he applies to himself a.II the blessings which come from the Sacrifice of the Cross. And be moreover calls men to witness, by thus joining his brethren in the solemn celebration, of his intention to be henceforth an obedient servant of Christ. Thus he sets bis seal to the vow of obedience which he has just made, he invokes the sympathy and assistance of his brethren in bis recovery from the snare of Satan ; he binds himself to them anew in his renewed participation with them in the new life of the Spirit. II. WHEN THE PROMISE.D LAND IS ENTERED, ALL EXTRAORDINARY DISPE~SATIOXS OF Goo's PROVIDENCE CEASE. This is the case (1) in the history of the Christian Church, (2) in that of the individual I. ln the history of the Church; Nothing is more remarkable than the way in which all the miraculous gifts of Goci, healing, prophecy, the workicg of miracles, ceased when Jesus Christ had ascended into heaven. Up to His coming the world had been under tutors and governors, and the Father needed continually to inter- vene with revelations and portents, and interference~ with the ordinary course of nature. After His coming these were gradually withdrawn. The Church passed from the region of the extraordinary dispensations of God's pro,·idence to the ordinary working of His laws. Before those laws were fully matured, there nee,led perpetual interferences to compensate for their imperfection. His whole counsel once made known in Christ, the laws of the spiritue.l, like those of the natural world move on in their regular course. 2. In the history of the individiual. When man is wandering in the wilderness, an alien from the covenant of God, and out of His favour, lie is not untler t\10 ordinary dispensations of God's grace. He is kept alive, so fe.r as he lives at all, by unexpected manifestations of His mercy. Smitings of conscience, restr!l.ints of circumstances, checks imposed in unexpected ways to the unrestrained iutlulgence of his passions, prevent him from dying a miserable death in a land where no bread or water is. But when he returns to the fold of God these extraordinary manifestations are vouchsafed no longer. There are the or<licary supplies of grace to be obtained in God's Church-the treasures of God's Holy \Yord, the answers to daily public and private prayer, the uplifting of the hen.rt which follows on the exercise of prayer and praise, the outpouring of Dil·ine life which follows on the devout reception of Holy Communion. And all these have their blessed results in a steitdy growth in gmce. The miraculous manna ceases. In :is stead we eat of the old corn of the heavenly Canaan, in which we ficd ourselves placed Ly the loving-kindness of the Lord. III. THE PASSOVER MUST NOT DE EATEN BY THE UNCIRCUMCISED. Hence we learn that no one can spiritually feed on Christ who is harbouring unrepented sin. Such an one is not fit to come to the Christian Passover, the Sacrament of Holy Communion. He me.y "carnally and visibly press the se.cre.ment with his teeth, AA THE BOOR OF .lDSHUA. [en. v. 10-12,
yet is he iu nowise partaker of Christ." He who would feed on "Christ our Pe.sgover," who "has been sacrificed for us," must do so with the unleavened bread ofpm-ity (eiX«piv,ia) and truth. And fine.Uy, none can sit down at the mo.rrie.ge Bllpper of the Lamb save he that he.th on the wedding go.rment. Compo.re the rules for the passover in Exod. xii. 43-49; and Num. ix. 10-14.