should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.' In like manner it will be perceived by reference to Mat. 9. 2. 6. that Christ's healing and forgiving sins, in the case of the paralytic, are spoken of as nearly identical acts.

At what station did they next arrive, and for what was the place distinguished? v. 27. Burckhardt says of the valley called Wady Gharendel, in which he supposes Elim to have been situated, that 'about half an hour from the place where we halted, in a southern direction, is a copious spring, with a small rivulet which renders the valley the principal station in this route. The water is disagreeable, and if kept for a night in the water-skins, it turns bitter, and spoils. If we admit Bir Howara to be the Marah of Exodus, then Wady Gharendel is probably Elim, with its wells and its date-trees; an opinion entertained by Niebuhr. The non-existence at present of twelve wells at Gharendel, must not be considered as evidence against this conjecture; for Niebuhr says that his companions obtained water here by digging to a very small depth; and there was a great plenty of it when I passed. Water, in fact, is readily found by digging, in every fertile valley in Arabia, and wells are thus easily formed, which are quickly filled up by the sands.''Palm-trees;' or 'date-trees,' as the fruit of the palm is called date. It is a tree which rises to a great height; the stalk is very strait, but knotty, and the centre, instead of being solid like the trunk of other trees, is filled with pith. The leaves are six or eight feet long, and when spread out, broad in proportion. It is crowned at the top with a large tuft of leaves which never fall off, but always continue in the same flourishing verdure. This tree attains its greatest vigor about thirty years after being planted, and continues in full vigor seventy years longer, bearing all this while every year about three or four hundred pounds weight of dates. This fruit grows below the leaves in clusters, and is of a sweet and agreeable taste. The palm is put to an immense variety of uses in the East, and is to the inhabitants of that region incomparably the most important and valuable production of all the vegetable world. It forms therefore a suitable emblem of the righ teous in their flourishing condition, Ps. 92. 12-14. and

1

the bearing of its branches is a badge of victory; Rev. 7. 9. After this I beheld, and lo! a great number which no man could number... stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms (palmbranches) in their hands,' &c.

HEADS OF PRACTICAL REFLECTION.

V. 1. Seasons of remarkable deliverance from impending peril demand suitable returns of thanksgiving and praise.

V. 4. The chosen strength of armies, whether of weapons,
horses, or men, yields at the first onset of the Lord's
instruments of destruction.

V. 7. The same enemies which rise against the Israel of
God, are regarded as rising against God himself.

V. 9. Pursuit, spoil, captivity, death, are the breathings of
God's enemies against his people, but the resolute 'I
will' of the wicked is often the precursor of their own
defeat and shame.

V. 13. God's future providence, as well as his past interpositions, constitutes matter of the praise of faith.

V. 13 Tender, kind, and gentle, is God's guidance of his people through all the way of their pilgrimage to his holy habitation, the place of their rest. The safety of their conduct thither is secured by the 'strength' of him who leads them.

V. 14. The princes and powers of the earth shall be seized with astonishment when the Lord arises for the complete vindication of his people.

V. 18. The everlastingness of Jehovah's reign in Christ forms, in all ages, the proper burden of the church's song.

V. 20. Women have their peculiar place and work in the public worship of God, and if they do not 'prophesy' in the pulpit, they may in the orchestra.

V. 22. The people of God, after pausing to commemorate the mercies which mark their progress, must again resume their pilgrimage; and they are not to be sur

prised to find their Red Sea deliverances quickly succeeded by wilderness tribulations.

V. 24. How soon, alas! does the feeling of a little present distress convert the peans and hallelujahs of weak believers into sighs of murmuring and grief!

V. 25. The ingratitude of a people should never prevail to overcome the fervent intercession of ministers in their behalf; as their prayers may sometimes result in being taught the means of turning bitter into sweet.

V. 26. Uniform obedience to God is the best safeguard against bodily diseases.

V. 27. Transitions from heaviness to joy-from Marah to Elim-mark the sojournings of the saints in this wilderness world.

CHAPTER XVI.

What was the next stage in the journeying of the Israelites after leaving Elim, and at what time did they arrive there? v. 1.

How does this agree with Numbers, 33. 10-12? Moses in this part of his history does not specify every place where they encamped, as he does Num. 33, but those only in which some remarkable event occurred.

What is said of the conduct of the people at this station, and how does the Psalmist allude to it? v. 2. Ps. 106. 7.

"The whole congregation.' Doubtless there were individual exceptions, but the assertion may be considered as having been justly predicated of the great body of the nation. They had now subsisted thirty days upon the provisions brought out of Egypt, and it may well be supposed that their stock was nearly, if not altogether, exhausted.

How did they vent their complaints, and what

did the Lord, in consequence, say to Moses? v. 3-5.

When we sat by the flesh-pots.' It is probable that they paint the felicities of their former lot in altogether too vivid colors in order to aggravate the hardships of their present condition. Men in their circumstances view every thing through a distorted medium.-' A certain rate every day; Heb. the matter or portion of a day in his day. That I may prove them,' &c. Heb. 'that I may prove him whether he will walk in my law or no;' the whole people spoken of as one man. Shall prepare that which they bring in.' From this it appears that the manna was not eaten in the form in which it was gathered. It was first bruised in a mortar, or ground in a mill, and then baked into bread. This process, whatever it was, by which the manna was made fit for eating, was to be performed on the day before the sabbath, that both their hands and their minds might be unencumbered with domestic cares during the season of worship.

What allusion is made to this miraculous kind of food in the discourses of our Lord? John, 6. 30, 35.

What did Moses and Aaron then announce to the children of Israel? v. 6-8.

Then ye shall know,' &c. The Israelites had charged Moses and Aaron with bringing them out of Egypt as if from their own motion; Moses, therefore, here assures them, on the other hand, that they should soon have evidence that it was Jehovah, and not his servants, who had brought them out of the land of bondage.-Shall see the glory of the Lord;' i. e. shall behold the cloudy pillar, the Shechinah, resplendent with a peculiar brightness and glory, as a signal of the Lord's special presence, both to hear their murmurings and to supply their wants. It appears that on several occasions the tumults of the people were assuaged by some visible change in the ordinary appearance of the pillar of cloud, betokening, perhaps, by a fierce and vehement glow the kindling of the divine displeasure. See Num. 12. 5.-14. 10.-16. 42. Or the

phrase 'glory of the Lord' may be but another expression for the miraculous work, the sending of the manna, which so strikingly manifested his glory. Thus, in like manner, in reference to the miraculous work of Christ in raising Lazarus from the dead it is said, John, 11. 40. Said I not unto thee that if thou wouldst believe thou shouldst see the glory of God?' i. e. the glorious work of God. So also Num 14. 21, 22. 'glory' is used in a sense equivalent to striking achievements of divine power; 'But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles (or, even my miracles,) &c. shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers.'-'Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord;' i. e. not so much against us as against the Lord. So, 1 Sam. 8. 7. 'For they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me;' i. e. not so much thee as me. John, 12. 44. 'He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me;' i. e. not so much on me.

What order did Moses give through Aaron to the congregation, and what ensued? v. 9, 10. 'Come near before the Lord;' i. e. before the cloud in which the Lord's glorious presence was manifested, and which for the present constituted the Shechinah or habitation of the Divine majesty. The symbols of God's presence are repeatedly in the Scriptures called by his name. Thus Uzzah is said, 1 Chron. 13. 10. to have died 'before God;' whereas in 2 Sam. 6. 7. it is said, 'he died by the ark of God.' So the commandment, Ex. 23. 17. Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord God,' is to be understood of appearing before the tabernacle or temple, the place which the Lord did choose to put his name there.' Deut. 12. 5, 6.

What is the Lord represented, v. 11, 12, as saying to Moses?

These two verses are undoubtedly designed to acquaint us with the source and authority of the annunciation which Moses gave, v. 6, 7. and therefore the verb 'spake' should be rendered in the pluperfect tense, ‘had spoken.' This makes the narrative clear, and supersedes the necessity for