26. And the Lord spake unto Moses, and unto Aaron, saying,

27. How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.

28. Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you:

29. Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me,

30. Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

31. But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.

32. But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness.

33. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.

34. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days (each day for a year) shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.

35. I the Lord have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.

Such was the close of the Almighty's sentence upon Israel. Forty days had they wasted in searching the land, and now forty years shall their "carcases be wasted in the wilderness ;" until not one who was turned of twenty years of age, at the time of the disobedience, should survive. How fearful is the error of those, who have asserted, that the Lord beholds no sin in any of his chosen people! Were any people ever so much the obvious objects of God's choice, as the church in the wilderness? And yet were any people ever visited more rigorously, punished more severely? Let us not deceive ourselves, God will not, cannot away with sin. He who hopes to dwell with the Holy One that inhabiteth eternity, must walk holily with Him upon earth; he who will be saved by Jesus, must remember that He was "so called, because He came to save his people from their sins." "Three righteousnesses," says the judicious Hooker," are the portion of every true believer; that, whereby we are justified, which is perfect, but not inare sanctified, which

herent. That, whereby we

is inherent, but not perfect. And that wherewith we shall be clothed in the world to come, which is both perfect and inherent.” *

*See Hooker's Discourse of Justification. Sect. iii. pp. 16, 17.

EXPOSITION XVII.

NUMBERS xiv. 36-45.

36. And the men which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land,

37. Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord.

38. But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still.

39. And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel and the people mourned greatly.

:

40. And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the Lord hath promised: for we have sinned.

Perhaps, to convince the people of Israel that all which the Lord had threatened should assuredly come to pass, was the Lord's judgment upon the ten faithless spies, carried instantly into execution. The Israelites could no longer say, This is but a distant threatening; before the forty years will elapse, the Lord will doubtless have relented. No, beholding, as they did, the instantaneous death of the spies, they must have

been most fully convinced that their own, though a little longer delayed, would assuredly happen within the period which the Almighty had announced. Still they resolved to make one effort for their preservation, but alas! as ill-considered and as little likely to succeed, as anything that the self-willed heart of man could have devised. They now resolve to go up in their own strength and achieve that, from which, when commanded to attempt in the strength of Omnipotence, they had faithlessly shrunk.

41. And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of the Lord? but it shall not prosper. 42. Go not up, for the Lord is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies.

43. For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there

before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned away from the Lord; therefore the Lord will not be with you.

44. But they presumed to go up unto the hill-top; nevertheless, the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, departed not out of the camp.

45. Then the Amalekites came down and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah.

What a wonderful instance of folly and disobedience! Although warned so distinctly by Moses, and unaccompanied by God, for the ark, and therefore the pillar of cloud remained in the

camp, this infatuated people determined to go up alone, and meet their enemies. Who can be surprised at the result? Nay, who would not have been surprised had it been any other than it was, that their enemies smote them with a great slaughter.

Such must ever be the consequence of warring in our own strength and relying upon our own powers. From the very moment that we attempt this, our defeat is certain, our ruin inevitable. Let the young Christian especially lay this to heart. Full of confidence and spirits, he has, perhaps, already been successful over many an opposing temptation, let him, indeed, thank God and take courage. But let it not produce in him a single feeling of self-confidence; let him shrink from the very thought of entering into any conflict without the presence and grace of his divine Leader. So accompanied, he is indeed invincible, but this unsought for, he is weaker than he who is "crushed before the moth."

While this consideration most powerfully urges caution, let it not engender even a momentary feeling of distrust. Observe what Moses says to the Israelites, " Because ye are turned away from the Lord, therefore the Lord will not be with you." The Almighty did not forsake them, it was they who forsook God. Never was there