their sins; and he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stayed." But so shocking an offence against God had caused the death of no fewer than fourteen thousand seven hundred, besides those that died the day before.

The Wonderful Budding of Aaron's Rod.

NUMB. XVII. 8.

You may, perhaps, have seen some persons of different sorts of authority, walking with long staves, peeled white, or painted, or gilt; something of the kind was in use among the princes or chiefs of the tribes of Israel; you know there were twelve tribes, and so among them there were twelve rods belonging to their twelve princes.

Well, God told Moses that he would now work a miracle; that is to say, he would do something so out of the usual order of things, that he would so strongly convince Israel that he had chosen Aaron for his priest, that they should rebel no more on that account.

So he ordered Moses to get the twelve rods of the tribes, which were merely twelve dry sticks, and "to lay them up in the tabernacle of the congregation before the testimony," meaning the ark, in which the testimony or tables of the law were kept, and that man whose rod should blossom should be his priest.

Now, the rod of the tribe of Levi was marked with Aaron's name; and, after the rods had been laid up for a night, on the morrow Moses went into the Tabernacle, and "behold the rod of Aaron, for the house of Levi, was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds." This was wonderful-wonderful that a dry stick should bud, and still more wonderful that the same rod should bear buds, and blossoms, and fruit, at the same time!

Then Moses brought out all the rods which all the princes took, as they could easily know their own by having their names on them, and Aaron's wonderful rod was shown to the people. When they saw this rod, they were sadly frightened, and feared that they were all going to be punished with death, for having rebelled so against God, who now more plainly than ever gave honour to Aaron. God, however, did not punish them any further; but the rod was preserved in the ark for ages, still with its buds and blossoms, and fruit, and there it remained in remembrance of the rebellion of Israel, and of God's choosing Aaron.

Provisions for the Priests and Levites.

NUMB. XVIII.

God having fixed Aaron in his office, and now showed to all the people that he would have him for his high priest, to atone for the people, he gave him very solemn orders to do his work, and for the Levites to do theirs. And he told Aaron that he and his sons should "bear the iniquity of the sanctuary," that is, the blame of neglect should fall upon them, if anything was done to defile it, and offend God there; so that they were obliged to look carefully after everything that was done by the Levites, as well as what they did themselves.

And then he provided comfortably for the priests from the different sacrifices; the parts not burnt with fire, and offered to the Lord, were to be theirs; and the best of the wine, and the oil, and the wheat; and the first ripe fruits of the land, such as figs, and apples, and plums, and pears, and pomegranates, and olives, and grapes. So were also the first-born of every animal, and even the first-born child was redeemed, or a sum of money given to the priest for him. Besides which, they had thirteen cities to live in, with houses and lands, and gardens and fields. (See the twenty-first chapter of Joshua.) The priests had also many other like means of support. But Aaron had no inheritance in the land of Canaan when it was afterwards divided among the tribes; he was to have only the portion just described.

The Levites also were provided for. They were to have one part out of ten of all that the ground brought forth—that is, if there were ten bushels on a man's ground, he was to give one bushel to the Levites, whether barley, wheat, or any other grain. While employed in the Temple, they had provisions from its stores, and they were further allowed thirty-five cities to live in.

Thus God showed that he would have his ministers to keep to their work, and be faithful to their duty, and that he would have them comfortably taken care of while they served him.

The Red Heifer.

NUMB. XIX.

There were a great many customs, under the law, to explain which would take up too much room in this work. But not a few of them were meant to

show us, as in a glass, that we are sinners in the sight of God, and that, as sin is a defiling thing, we must not only be pardoned, but also purified. The law of the red heifer was of this kind. You may read the whole of it from the second to the tenth verse.

The heifer, you know, is a young cow. This animal was to be red, which, being a scarce colour, was the most precious. It was to have no spot, a sign of purity. It was to be slain without the camp, as though it were impure; for impure things were carried without the camp. The blood was to be sprinkled before the door of the Tabernacle, to have the virtue of a sacrifice, and, by being sprinkled seven times, it meant a perfect sacrifice; for seven times was the number of the days in which God made all things, and was always considered, on that account, as a sign of perfection. This heifer was, also, wholly burnt, and the ashes were to be laid up for the use of the congregation, as they might be needed, to mix with the water of purification, when any one who was defiled needed cleansing.

I must here repeat a passage I named to you before, which is in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and which, at once, shows you the meaning of all this ceremony: "For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself, without spot, to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God!"

Here, then, you see, that the "heifer" was meant to signify Jesus Christ; the burning of the heifer showed the cruel death of Jesus Christ; the unclean was meant to signify the sinner; and the sprinkling of the unclean with the water, mixed with the ashes of the heifer, the applying of the benefits of Christ's precious blood, to take away the defilement of the soul by siu.

Moses Smites a Second Rock for Water.
NUMB. XX. 1-13.

The waters out of the rock of Rephidim, of which you read in the seventeenth chapter of Exodus, had hitherto followed Israel in a stream through the wilderness. They were now stopped, perhaps to try if the new race of Israelites would show a better spirit than their fathers did under the like difficulty; for their fathers were nearly all dead, as God had threatened, and this was now the fortieth year of their travels about the wilderness.

However, just as their fathers murmured, so did these children of Israel;