the people at Massah, and strove with them at Meribah. Now, that is precisely what is attributed to Israel historically. They tried, or tempted God at Massah, and strove with Him at Meribah. But where the flesh manifested itself in Israel, there did God put His priest to the test; and at the waters of Meribah, where Moses did not sanctify Him, He was in controversy with Moses. Painful circumstances, the being deprived of the stream of manifest and sensible blessings, in the midst of the people of God, a state which makes room for the manifestation of rebellious flesh, and for murmurs against God in the wilderness, tempting God and saying, "Is He amongst us?"—are trials to which God subjects His priests. The church, in her priestly position, and especially those who have the good of the church at heart, are also put to the test, to see whether they know how to reckon upon the blessing of God, however things may be. But, although Levi was put to the test in his priesthood, he had been put to the test in order to obtain it; and Levi had not hesitated one moment in choosing between man and God-even man in the nearest relationship according to the flesh. That is the sole basis of all priesthood. One can only stand before God on the behalf of another, in proportion as one has oneself stood truly for God before man. For with what God would one be a mediator? It would not be with the Holy God, who has a right to our whole being. There could only be the sympathy of the flesh, which connects itself with sins for sinners. One must be accepted in the pre-sence of God, according to His holiness, in order to be able to intercede for man in his weakness. This is absolutely true of Jesus, and of us all in a practical sense. But to be so, there must be the testimony where the question is raised, and this must needs cost us something before men. One must be for God, not sparing one's self, hating father and mother. This instruction is im

e No doubt the fall of this man of God was the effect of his previous state, for he was a man. Trial, when we are not going on well, is chastening, but needful chastening, and a blessing in result. Therefore, at the same time that it is a blessing, it is said, "Lead us not into temptation."

portant. There must also be the distinguishing between the trial of our priesthood and the trial of ourselves before entering upon it. Here it is the practical trial, for we are priests by grace.

It would seem that the place of Benjamin, in relation with the Lord, was in his favour; being kept near him, as has been the case with that tribe. Joseph had his earthly blessing by the title of first-born; as to the inheritance, his land is blessed, the double portion is assigned to him. I have no remarks to make on the other blessings, except that those of Zabulon and Issachar seem to be yet future, and those of Gad to establish the relations which existed already.

But, moreover, if the ways of God towards His people were connected with their faithfulness and the manifestation of Him; if God suited His ways to their conduct, to manifest His government and Himself, He also exalted Himself above all, to bless and to keep. He would go back upon the title of His own glory in order to be to them an infallible source of blessing and security; He would make known his glory in the behalf of Israel; He rode upon the heavens to their help. Where His majesty was, there was the help of the people. He would uphold them also, would destroy their enemies, and then should Israel dwell in safety alone. The nation should dwell in a fruitful land, on which the heavens would drop down blessings as dew. Happy people! objects of the deliverance of God, who was unto them as a shield and a sword! Their enemies would be subdued under them. Thus, whatever might be the detail of the relations of the people with God in His government of them, He would bless them in the end, as a people, according to His sovereign glory and majesty.

We have now to consider a little the prohibition made to Moses, that he should not enter the land of promise. Moses, the man of God, might pronounce the blessings on Israel as in the land; but he himself, the servant of God, belonged to the wilderness. There are more things than one to be weighed here. As to the position of Moses, it was that of the government of a people, placed under the principles of Sinai; that is, while under the

government of God, it was in the flesh that His people were subjected to that government (comp. Rom. vii. 5, where the subject is fully discussed).

Now, man in the flesh, under the government of God, cannot come into the enjoyment of the promise; this is true, even of a Christian Dead and risen in Christ, he is seated in the heavenly places, he enjoys the promise in the presence of God; but, as a man upon earth, he is under the government of God, who acts towards him according to the manifestation of the spiritual life here below; and Christ is between him and God, exercising a priesthood which does not establish righteousness (that is done once for all), but which maintains the relations of weak men -whom, at the same time, it renews upon earth—with God in the light, to the fellowship of which they are called in Christ, who is in it.

Crossing Jordan, was death and resurrection, in a figure. Joshua always represents Christ, Head of His people according to the power of the Spirit. But the wilderness is this world. Moses directs and governs the people there according to God; consequently he does not enter into Canaan. The difference (we shall dwell on that more at length when we study the book of Joshua) between the Red Sea and Jordan is, that the Red Sea was the efficacy of redemption through death and resurrection in Christ Himself. Jordan was the application of it to the soul, in order to the enjoyment of the promises. The passage of the Red Sea was followed by songs of joy; that of Jordan, by conflict and the realization of the promises. Now, as to Moses himself, the fault which precluded his individual entrance into the land, is well known: provoked by the rebellion of Israel, and wearied with caring for the people, instead of exalting God in the eyes of Israel, he exalted himself. He made use of the gift of God for that purpose; he did not sanctify the Lord in the eyes of the people; he did not give Him His place. God is not wearied; and thus acting in discipline, for the good of His people, according to His majesty, He can always fall back upon those ways of direct blessing which flow from His unfailing grace. Man, wearied with the evil that vexes him, tries to exalt

himself, to put himself above the evil, and to shelter himself from it, because he is not above it.

He no longer glorifies God, by exalting himself he is abased. If Moses, instead of acting according to the flesh, had remembered that the question was not about himself (and how often had He told them so!), but about God, he would have felt that the people could not touch the glory of God; and this unfailing glory would have sustained him, looking only at that glory which ever maintains itself; so that if we only seek to maintain it, we may rest upon it.

But he lacked faith, and was forbidden to enter into that which only the perfection of glory could open to men; and indeed, what could lead Israel safely through the desert and into the land of Canaan? Pure grace alone. Moses was not able to apprehend the height of that grace, that conquers everything. It was according to that grace, as we have seen, that God acted at Meribah. Now, the law could not lead into life; and therefore the flesh, the world and the law, ever correlative in the ways of God, were found in the journey through the wilderness; and Moses remains there. He might, as a man of God, and a prophet, tell of grace, as making sure the blessing of Israel (chap. xxxiii. 26-29). Faithful in all his house, as a servant, he remains on this side Jordan, a proof, in these touching circumstances, that an absolutely new creation is needed, to enjoy the promises of God, according to that grace, which can alone, after all, bring one in safety even through the wilderness-the unfailing grace of our God.

Moses dies, and, buried by the Lord, no longer serves, as an object of carnal veneration, to a people at all times ready to fall into this sin, when his name gave them honor according to the flesh; just as they continually opposed him, when his presence according to God thwarted the flesh. He was a man honored of God, who scarcely had his equal (Him of course excepted who had none); but nevertheless he was man, and man is but vanity.

DEUTERONOMY, i.e. Second Law, as in LXX., called (words) in the hebrew bible, see chap. i. 1, “These are the Δευτερονόμιον is Words," etc.

No. XXXIII.

“THE EARTH IS THE LORD'S AND THE FULNESS THEREOF."

1 Cor. x. 26, 28.

It seems an important point of spiritual wisdom, rightly to understand the principle of quotation made by the Spirit from the Old Testament in the New. The Spirit of God can never be less than perfect and infinite (and this, perhaps, is one reason why no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation), but it is no dishonour to the Holy Ghost to say, as scripture says of Him, that He can be grieved, resisted, and, in one sense, quenched.

Now, just as the sin of man may have power to limit the Holy One, so the abounding grace of God may bring out into fuller significance, and more extensive application, the inspired words of the prophets, when they are repeated by the apostles under the new dispensation. I would take, as an instance, the quotation from Psalm xxiv. 1, "The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof." These words, in an Old Testament context, may have an Old Testament meaning; there is a glorious truth legible upon the very surface of the passage; but in Paul's day Jesus was glorified, the Holy Ghost was sent down, and He was now ready to take out of the Old Testament treasury things new as well as old, but all of them things of Christ, and to minister largely and freely to the necessities of the children of God. We seem to have some confirmation of this view in 1 Pet.i.11, 12. It is not that an unholy person sees nothing and a holy person everything in the word, but holy men of old (the very channels and instruments of inspiration) had one measure of intelligence, and another and a fuller measure was now revealed to another class under another dispensation, even to the holy apostles and prophets, by the Spirit (Eph. iii.). Accordingly,