our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all beside this manna, before our eyes.' They too remembered Egypt. Once, indeed, the hard bondage they suffered there made them think little of the fish and cucumbers and melons. Their chains pressed so heavily that they could only groan for deliverance. Their groanings were heard and God brought them forth with high hand and with out-stretched arm. Then the joy of their deliverance filled their hearts, and they sang the praises of their Deliverer. But now they have forgotten the chains which made their food bitter to them in Egypt, and they have forgotten too, alas, that which at first so filled their hearts with gladness, the grace of their Redeemer and the wonders of their redemption, and they only remember the fish and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions and the garlick which they ate in Egypt freely! Such, alas! is man. Such was Israel; and can we not, beloved brethren, say from our hearts, such have we proved ourselves to be as well? How common is such a process as this. First of all, the world's pleasures fill and madden the heart and make it insensible to the chains wherewith Satan binds and leads us captive at his will. Light from God breaks in; we become on the one hand conscious of impending judgment; on the other, sensible of the slavery in which Satan holds us. Of ourselves, from ourselves, there is no escape either from the one or from the other. The world's pleasures cease to entice us. The terrible realities of our condition engross our thoughts and all we can do is to groan for deliverance. That deliverance is vouchsafed. The blood of the slain Lamb becomes our refuge from the judgment which hung over us; and the resurrection of Jesus assures us that the power of the Enemy is set aside for ever; that he who had the power of death has no further claim on us. It proclaims, moreover, that God is for us, and enables us triumphantly to ask, Who can be against us. The joy of this takes the place in our hearts which the world once held, and we gladly leave all to follow the pillar of cloud and fire across the desert to the promised land. And there are those who follow to the

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end without ever so much as looking back. Caleb and Joshua were such in their day. Paul too, in his day was borne onward by an energy of faith which not only counted all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, when that knowledge first broke in upon his soul, but which enabled him twenty or thirty years after to say, I "do count them but dung that I may win Christ." And in this energy of faith he went forward to the end. But how rare is this. common the sin and experience of the Israelites in the case under consideration. It may be that in the first place" false brethren" fall a lusting like the mixed multitude who accompanied Israel out of Egypt. But how ready is the flesh in believers to follow the example of those, who, while professing godliness, are strangers to its power. Egypt's chains no longer embitter Egypt's food. The joy of the first apprehensions of Christ and of the redemption He has accomplished no longer satisfy the soul. Some who bear the name of Christ return to this or that worldly compliance or fleshly indulgence; and how ready we all are to follow. We too remember the pleasures from which we had been weaned; and while the heart craves for these the manna is sure to be despised. "There is nothing at all besides this manna, before our eyes." Time was, when to feed on Christ was all we wished. The first to be thought of in the morning, the last at night, and the only one of our hearts the day through. And all that we then felt needful to complete our joy was to be with Him where He is not merely enjoying Him through faith by the Spirit, but beholding Him face to face, and dwelling with Him in the embraces of His love for ever. But when the world's joys begin. to be remembered, how different the estimate of Christ Nothing at all but this manna before our eyes." But God has His remedy for failure like this in His saints. He has the answer of His grace, too, to the weakness of those who sigh to witness such failure, but lack the faith which would count on His unfailing resources to meet it. Moses sinks under the burden. "Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? for they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh that we may eat.

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not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me." In the people we may see the evil of the flesh, hankering after the indulgences of Egypt, and in Moses, the weakness of the flesh, its incompetency to bear the burdens which it has not faith to cast upon God. How differently does the Lord deal with these two forms of failure. The murmurings of the people are punished by the bestowment of that for which they lusted. "Say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against to-morrow, and ye shall eat flesh: for ye have wept in the ears of the Lord, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? for it was well with us in Egypt: therefore the Lord will give you flesh, and ye shall eat. Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days; but even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you: because that have despised the Lord which is among you, and have wept before Him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt?" Moses staggered at this word, and spoke of the six hundred thousand footmen," and asked if the "flocks and herds should be slain," or "the fish of the sea gathered together to suffice them." Even Moses has to be rebuked: Is the Lord's hand waxed short? thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not." And so it was. The lusting of the people was punished, and the unbelief of Moses reproved by the outstretched arm of God. "A wind from the Lord" brought "quails" which lay upon the ground "two cubits high," and "a day's journey" on either side of the camp. The people gather" all that day, and all that night, and all the next day;" but "while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague." Solemn, indeed, is it when God chastens us by giving us the very things we lust after. Yea, and serious it is when our unbelief needs the reproof addressed to Moses-" Is the Lord's hand waxed short?" But with what condescending kindness was that reproof blended and administered! Moses had said, "I am not

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able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me." It is true that he added, “And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness." But the Lord passes by this petulance and vexation, and simply relieves His servant of the burden which so oppressed him. He leaves him to learn what his spirit and temper had been in the light of the grace which takes no notice of it, but compassionately provides for his comfort and relief. Seventy men of the elders of the people are to be gathered, and to stand with Moses before the Lord; and "I will take," says the Lord, “ of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone." Blessed God! how marvellous and gracious are thy ways! May we all learn to trust and to adore Thee.

We now turn to chap. xxi. An interval of eight-andthirty years has passed since the circumstances we have just reviewed. Eight-and-thirty years has Israel been wandering in the desert, until the generation which came out of Egypt have well nigh all fallen in the wilderness. It was their unbelief, as we know, which occasioned this; and numberless had been the proofs afforded in their conduct throughout this whole period that they were indeed a stiff-necked and disobedient generation. But how precious the display of the unfailing goodness and faithfulness of God. During all these eight-and-thirty years, the manna never ceased. They despised it-they murmured-they rebelled-they believed the false report of the eight-and-thirty spies, rather than the sure testimony of God; they refused to go up into the promised land; they would fain have made them a captain, and have returned to Egypt; they followed in the wake of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, and murmured against the Lord, because of their destruction. In these, and alas! in how many ways besides, had they provoked the Lord to anger; but for all these years, every morning when they arose (save on the Sabbath days) their tents were surrounded by the manna from heaven, and they had but

to gather and eat, and be strengthened and refreshed. But now, after the lapse of eight-and-thirty years, we again find the manna despised. It is not now, however, the recollection of Egypt. Most of those who now com. pose the assembly were children when they came forth out of Egypt; they have been brought up in the wilderness, and have known no other mode of life than that of subsistence on the manna, while they have moved from one station to another in the desert. The forty years during which they were to wander are nearly expired, and they are almost at the borders of the promised land. There is only the land of Edom between it and them (see chap. xx.), and if they may but pass direct through Edom, they at once reach the land of their hopes, and the toils and sorrows of the wilderness are at an end. But the king of Edom will not suffer them to pass. Nor are they allowed of God to force a passage. There is no way but to "journey from Mount Hor, by the way of the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom." They have to turn again into the wilderness. After wandering for nine-and-thirty years, they find themselves, as it were, beginning their wanderings afresh. They are where they were at starting. "And the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way." They could have done with the manna, as they thought, for the little time required to go direct through Edom but to turn again to where they began to begin the wilderness over again-to have all this dreary journey right round the land of Edom; this is more than they can bear: their hearts faint, and they speak against God and against Moses, "for there is no bread," they say, "neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread." What a picture, beloved brethren, of our hearts. We thought the wilderness had been almost passed; there seemed to intervene but one little remaining obstacle; and might we have had our own way with that, as we thought, it might easily have been overcome. But God's ways are not as ours. We are not to force a passage through the land of Edom. Patience and subjection to God are to be exercised by passing all

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