269

312 Protestant Beacon :-Romanism and Crime 172

375 Preach the Word

414 Prayer Heard and Answered®

.463 Pilgrim-Gleanings

. 481 Poetry

536

548 Unpublished Letters of the late Dr.
Hawker

"AND THE PEOPLE SHALL GO OUT AND GATHER A CERTAIN RATE EVERY DAY."-EXODUS XVI. 4.

A PRECIOUS promise for the New Year, beloved! May the Lord the Spirit enable us to take it to His footstool, and to plead before Him its daily fulfilment. It is an encouraging thought, that it is as applicable to Israel now as then. Moreover, if it were then fulfilled, so verily now it shall be fulfilled. It is no more difficult for Jehovah "to do as He had said" in A. D. 1855, than it was in B. C. 1491. He is (blessed be His name!)" the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." True it is that a thousand doubtful thoughts may dance before our vivid imagination, all tending to the Goddishonouring insinuation, "If the Lord were to make windows in heaven might such and such things be;" but that ancient and glorious truth stands as firm and as unimpeachable as ever, "Is there anything too hard for the Lord ?" The Lord help us, then, beloved, to step over the threshold of 1855 singing,

Though dark be my way, since He is my Guide,
"Tis mine to obey, 'tis His to provide ;

Though cisterns be broken, and creatures all fail,
The word He has spoken shall surely prevail."

The circumstances, beloved, under which this dear promise was made to Israel, were very striking, and well worthy of our consideration. If you observe the preceding chapter, they had just sang their song of thanksgiving and praise for that mighty deliverance which had been wrought for them at the Red Sea. So strange, and at the same time so effectual, was that deliverance, that, like all the Lord's deliverances, his people then and his people now must of necessity ascribe it to Himself, and say, "Give unto the Lord glory and strength; give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name." Their song was very emphatic, and, for the time being, equally triumphant. "Thou in thy mercy," say they, "hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation." Thus either realizing in prospect and assurance their entrance upon the promised land, or else "abiding under the shadow of the Almighty," in one of his celestial dwelling-places, even in a wilderness. Their fearlessness and their confidence was, moreover, expressed when they sang, "Fear and dread shall fall upon them: by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O Lord, till the people pass over which thou hast purchased.'"

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How shortlived, however, their confidence. Truly, travail is more descriptive of a wilderness condition than triumph. Their song dies away; they wander "three days in the wilderness," they "find no water ;" and thus impatient-conferring with flesh and blood and its necessities-unable even now, when the Red Sea miracle was fresh in their remembrance, to "stand still and see the salvation of the Lord," they commence their murmurings. But alike ignorant and indifferent are they to the fact, that Jehovah is about in that early stage of their wanderings, to preach to them a precious Gospel sermon, the savour of which should last down to the very end of time. They came to Marah, but they could not drink of its waters, for they were bitter. The people murmur, and impatiently ask, "What shall we drink? Moses cries unto the Lord, and the Lord [no seeing it before] shews him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet." In this tree we are furnished with a sweet type of a precious Christ. The bitter waters are emblematic of the sorrows, trials, temptations of life, but beside the stream of trouble-upon the banks of Marah, ever stands the Tree of Life, the leaves of which are for the healing of the nations. "Our eyes, however, are holden," so that we cannot see the same, until "the Lord shews us," and then the outstretched hand of faith casts in this tree, and even Marah's bitter waters become sweet indeed. "We drink and forget our poverty, and remember our misery no more."

Dear afflicted, tried, and tempted reader, the Lord help us to remember this during the year; so that the moment we come to a streamlet in our wilderness wanderings, and tasting thereof, find its waters bitter, we may at once be assured that a tree grows hard by, and that the province of faith is to bring its sweetening properties to bear upon the same.

He

In passing on to the chapter whence our text is taken, we find that the children of Israel took their journey from Elim, and came unto the wilderness of Sin. Emblematic again of every true spiritual Israelite's course. is delivered from Egyptian bondage; he passes by faith through that ocean of love, blood, and salvation, of which the Red Sea was a striking type; he sees his enemies sink beneath the mighty waters; but yet scarcely has he sang, "The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation," ere he finds himself in a wilderness, and that, too, the wilderness of Sin, where he is to endure a contention and a warfare of which previously he was in comparative ignorance. So to speak, the dear child of God never knows what sin is, until by faith he has seen it laid upon the Sin-bearer, and received his discharge from all its tremendous consequences. Even after being indulged with a glimpse of Christ, and knowing that "He hath put away his sins by the sacrifice of Himself," a sight and sense of sin are ever and anon all but overwhelming; how utterly unable, then, would such be to bear the sight before Christ were revealed. Nay, beloved, it is in the wilderness, and not in Egypt, that we see and feel somewhat of the real nature of sin. We were "preserved" in Egypt truly, but it is in the wilderness that He "humbles us and proves us, to shew us what is in our hearts." Therefore, however deeply humbling, we have no real cause for dismay, or reason to suppose that " some strange thing hath happened unto us," when day after day some new feature of sin-more of the desperate wickedness of the human heart-is disclosed. Old Adam will never improve in the wilderness of Sin, but he will live and move a very mass of putrefaction down to the Jordan.

Do not, therefore, enter upon this year, beloved, expecting the shadow of a shade of improvement in your own accursed self. If so, you will only be disappointed. If spared till the 31st of December, you will only have in this. respect more.cause to " groan being burdened" under the discovery of " greater

abominations" than those under which you mourn upon this the first of January. Hence may the Lord make it your mercy to realize and rejoice in the fountain whence all your perfection and comeliness flow-even in Christ, in whom— and in whom alone-you are 66 complete." The Lord lead you and ourselves more and more into that great truth every day and hour of this year, that "HE is made of God unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption; that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in THE LORD."

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But how comforting under these otherwise discouraging circumstances is the promise," And the people shall go out to gather a certain rate every day,' or, as it reads so sweetly in the margin, "the portion of a day in his day." Neither more nor less than the daily allotment.

Day by day the manna fell,
Oh to learn that lesson well.
Still by covenaut mercy led,

Give us, Lord, our daily bread."

"Ye

We pause not to comment upon the third verse, except to say what a deeply-humiliating portraiture it draws of poor fallen nature, and how ready to ascribe to second causes that which may be specially of the Lord. (Moses and Aaron) have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger."

"Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you." Mark, the Lord first brought his people into circumstances of need, and then covenanted to adapt a supply to that need. Oh, to be able to recognize both as from the Lord. His leading us to want, as well as his supply of want. If, beloved, we could but read our lessons differently-if our poor fleshly and contracted minds less interfered with Jehovah's prerogativeeach newly-discovered need would but prompt us to be expecting some fresh proof of fatherly watchfulness and care. "I want so and so; and I am sure He will not overlook it. I do not know how He will send, nor when, but I am persuaded it will be in a wise and gracious way, and though perhaps it will not come to my time, it assuredly will to His. He says-and I believe His word-Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion upon the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Thou art graven upon the palms of my hands, thy walls are continually before me. My precious Christ says, Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things; and again the dear Apostle declares, 'My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.' Then what have I to fear? May I not trust, and not be afraid ?' 'Is there anything too hard for the Lord ? Can He not appear, and will He not do so, when and where I least expect, but all in sweet accordance with his own covenant mercy, wisdom, and faithfulness? Shall I cast away my confidence, which hath great recompence of reward?' Shall I limit the Holy One of Israel? In His covenant settlements, has He overlooked 1855-with all its multitudinous wants? Did He forget this year? Is it to be a blank? Is the chain that connects grace with glory to be severed now? and that after having run off the windlass of time, link after link, without a flaw, or the vestige of one? Shall my little bark-frail as it is-slip her cable, or draw her anchor, and run against the rocks, or upon a lee shore, now, after weathering the storm so long? That be far from Him, who holds the winds in his fists, and measureth the waters in the hollow of his hand.”

"His love in times past forbids me to think
He'll leave me at last in trouble to sink;
Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review

Confirms his good pleasure to help me quite through."