us remember these words of our God, when tempted, (as who has never been?) to doubt his mercy, or his power. There are moments when even the renewed and established Christian is se cast down by the perils or difficulties that surround him, that he is tempted to exclaim, Surely there is no hope, no deliverance: many are the dangers which by God's grace I have surmounted, but this I cannot escape. At such times, ask yourself the question before you, "Is the Lord's hand waxed short?" How blessed is the reply," Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear." No change has taken place in Him, who is "the unchangeable;" no alteration in Him, " with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." that is coming upon you is as well known to him as all that is past, and he is at this moment as able, as willing, nay, will assuredly as certainly deliver you from the worst and latest of your enemies, as he ever did from the first and feeblest that crossed your path. Only, be not "of little faith," but remembering what has been already done for you, trust with the most implicit confidence for all that remains, and you shall yet have cause to praise him, who is the light of your countenance and your God.

All

24. And Moses went out, and told the people the words of the Lord, and gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them round about the tabernacle.

25. And the Lord came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease.

26. But there remained two of the men in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad; and the spirit rested upon them; and they were of them that were written, but went not out unto the tabernacle: and they prophesied in the camp.

27. And there ran a young man, and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp.

28. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, My lord Moses, forbid them.

29. And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon

them.

30. And Moses gat him into the camp, he and the elders of Israel.

How delightful is it to behold Moses, that true follower of Jehovah, thus, as it were, "come to himself!" He had for a few moments been led to repine; he had even been permitted to doubt the love or the power of his divine Master; but still his heart was right with God, and however, for the moment, tempted to speak unadvisedly with

his lips, however" his feet had well nigh slipped," he instantly, by God's grace, recovered his footing, and was once more on the Rock of ages, realizing David's experience in after years, "He restoreth soul." my "'* For no sooner did Moses perceive that jealousy for his honour was taking the place, in the hearts of those around him, of the desire for God's glory, than he indignantly repels the feeling; "enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the Lord's people were prophets." Here the true character of Moses stands revealed, his very heart is opened to us, and we find it like the heart of every true child of God, full to overflowing of a grateful love to that Being who first loved him. He was willing to be as nothing, that God might be everything, amidst the thousands of Israel. Whenever there is a true, a heartfelt love to God in Christ Jesus, this also will be our feeling; "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake." +

* Ps. xxiii. 3.

+ Ps. cxv. 1.

EXPOSITION X.

NUMBERS Xi. 31-35.

31. And there went forth a wind from the Lord, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day's journey on this side, and as it were a day's journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth.

32. And the people stood up all that day and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails; he that gathered least gathered ten homers : and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp.

66

*

This was a most stupendous miracle, wrought to satisfy a murmuring and complaining people. They tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust," says the psalmist, and yet they were not denied; "He rained flesh upon them as dust, and feathered fowl like the sand of the sea." For a whole day's journey, probably ten miles, therefore making a circuit of thirty miles in circumference around the camp, the sands of the desert were covered, two cubits deep, with the food the Israelites had longed

* Ps. lxxviii. 18.

for; so that he that gathered least had ten homers, or as commentators explain it, ten "ass-loads," and the congregation of Israel were engaged two whole days and one night in gathering them. Surely they who had seen the many thousands of Israel thus employed, would have imagined, that they were, at that moment, high in the favour of him who had so bountifully provided for them. As he who saw the wicked "coming in no misfortune like other folk," but "flourishing like a green bay tree," fell into a similar error. How careful should we be, to "judge nothing before the time," neither the love of God by the prosperity of the wicked, nor his hatred of the good by their punishment.

Remember "the tower of Siloam," and be very slow in establishing the guilt of the sufferer by his sufferings, or his piety by his success. The wise man, speaking by a wiser Spirit than his own, has said, "No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them. All things come alike to all, there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked."* Let this reflection teach us charity in judging of others, always bearing in mind that God's love is not shown by worldly success, nor his dislike by worldly adversity.

* Eccles. ix. 1, 2.