corresponding and connected responsibility. See how both are indissolubly bound up together in the following weighty words: "For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy; that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee."

Precious privilege! Blessed responsibility! Who would dare to dissolve the hallowed connection? Had Jehovah deigned to come down into their midst, and walk with them, and tabernacle amongst them? Had He, in infinite grace, condescended to be their travelling companion? Was He there for exigence of every hour? Yes; blessed be His holy Name. If so, then what did His presence demand? We have seen something of what His presence secured; but what did it demand? Holiness! Israel's whole conduct was to be regulated by the great fact of the Divine Presence in their midst. Not only their great public national institutions, but their most private habits, were to be brought under the controlling influence of Jehovah's presence with them.

He regulated what they were to eat, what they were to wear, how they were to carry themselves, in all the scenes, circumstances, and relationships of daily life. By night and by day, sleeping and waking, sitting in the house or walking by the way, alone or in company, He looked after them. Nothing was to be allowed in any wise inconsistent with the holiness and purity which became the presence of the Holy One of Israel.

Was all this irksome? Were the privileges irksome? Was it irksome to be fed, clothed, guided, guarded, and

cared for, in every possible way? Was it irksome to repose beneath the overshadowing wings of the God of Israel? Surely not. Why, then, should it be irksome to keep their persons, their habits, and their dwellings clean? Must not every true heart, every upright mind, every tender conscience delight as thoroughly in the responsibility which the Divine Presence necessarily involves, as in the privileges which it infallibly secures? Yea, rather, must we not rank the very responsibility itself amongst our richest and rarest privileges? Unquestionably. Every true lover of holiness will esteem it a signal mercy-a very high order of blessing to walk in company with One whose presence detects and condemns every form of evil. Thy testimonies are very sure; holiness becometh thy house, O Lord, for ever."

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The foregoing train of thought will enable us in some measure to understand the history of Achan, in Joshua vii.-a history solemn and impressive in the very highest degree-a history which utters in our hearing, with deepest emphasis, words which our careless hearts are only too ready to forget, "God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of his saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him." Had Achan remembered this, it would have taught him the holy necessity of nipping in the very bud the covetousness of his heart, and thus have spared the whole assembly the humiliating defeat at Ai, and all the consequent sorrow and discipline. How terrible to think of one man, for the sake of a little personal gain, which, at best, could last but for a moment, plunging a whole congregation into the deepest trouble! And, what was

worse than all, dishonouring and grieving that blessed One who had deigned, in His infinite goodness, to take up His abode in their midst. How well it would be if each one of us, when tempted to commit any secret sin, would just pause, and ask ourselves the question, How can I do this thing, and grieve the Holy Spirit of God who dwells in me, and bring leaven into the assembly of God's people ?" We ought to remember that our private walk has a direct bearing upon all the members of the body. We are either helping or hindering the blessing of all. We are none of us independent atoms, we are members of a body incorporated by the presence of the Holy Ghost; and if we are walking in a loose, carnal, worldly, self-indulgent spirit, we are grieving the Spirit, and injuring all the members. "But God hath tempered the body together

that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it." 1 Corinthians xii. 24-26.

It may seem hard to grasp this great practical truth -hard to see how our private condition and conduct can affect our fellow-members; but the simple and obvious fact is, we must either admit this, or maintain the monstrous notion that each Christian is an independent person, having no connection with the whole body of believers. If he be a member of a body, all the members of which are bound together, and linked with the Head by the personal indwelling of the Holy Ghost, then, verily, it follows that his walk and ways affect

all his fellow-members, just as really as if any member of the human body suffers, all the other members feel it. If there is anything wrong with the hand, the foot feels it. How is this? Because the head feels it. The communication, in every instance, is with the head first, and from the head to the members.

Now, though Achan was not a member of a body, but merely of a congregation, yet we see how his private conduct affected the whole assembly. This is all the more striking, inasmuch as the great truth of the one body was not unfolded, and could not be, until -redemption being a grand accomplished fact-the Head took His seat on the throne of God, and sent down the Holy Ghost to form the body, and link it by His personal presence and indwelling to the Head in heaven. If the secret sin of Achan affected the most remote member of the congregation of Israel, how much more (may we not say?) doth the secret sin of any member of the body of Christ affect all the members thereof.

Let us never forget this weighty truth. May we keep it ever in the remembrance of the thoughts of our hearts, that so we may see the urgent need of a careful, tender, holy walk; that we may not dishonour our glorious Head, grieve the blessed indwelling Spirit, or injure the very feeblest member of that body of which, by the sovereign grace of God and the precious blood of Christ, we form a part.

But we must proceed with our subject, and, in so doing, call the special attention of the reader to the way in which the sin of Achan was traced home to him. It is all most solemn. He had little idea whose

eye was resting upon him, when he was carrying on his secret wickedness. He would, no doubt, think himself all right, and very successful, when he had the money and the garment safely hidden in his tent-fatal, guilty, wretched treasure! Unhappy man! How dreadful is the love of money! How terrible is the blinding power of sin! It hardens the heart, deadens the conscience, darkens the understanding, ruins the soul; and, in the case before us, brought defeat and disaster upon some six hundred thousand people.

"And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face ?"-there is a time for lying on the face, and there is a time for standing on our feet; a time for devout prostration, and a time for decided action. The instructed soul will know the time for each "Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them; for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed; neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you. Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to-morrow; for thus saith the Lord God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies until ye take away the accursed thing from among you."

How peculiarly solemn is all this! How very arrestting! How soul-subduing! God's people-those who bear His Name, and profess to hold His truth, who