urges him to rid himself, if possible, of the arduous undertaking, by any arguments, or at any cost; "Send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send;" in other words, "Send by any one but me." We see at once the weakness of the man overcoming the faith of the child of God, when Moses not only thus endeavours to evade the duty, but urges as a reason that he should not be selected for this dangerous office, "I am not eloquent, but slow of speech, and of a slow tongue;" as if his success were in any, the most remote degree, dependent upon his own personal qualifications. Yet this is continually the error into which, in all ages, men have fallen. They feel themselves unequal to the high and important duties to which God calls them, and they do not steadily and faithfully bear in mind, not only that he who sends them can qualify them, and that God has himself distinctly declared, in every case, "My grace is sufficient for thee," but that he has undertaken for them; that the event is not theirs, but his; and that while they are employed in God's work, it is not their eloquence, but God's power, not their talents, but God's will, not their capacity, but God's all-sufficiency, that is to achieve success.

How admirably had the great apostle to the

Gentiles learnt this lesson, when, instead of complaining of his own incompetency, he rather made it his boast; "And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech, or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God;" "and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." This is the genuine feeling of the renewed and devoted heart. Eloquence is nothing, wisdom is nothing, power is nothing, self is nothing, God is everything; and complete in him, the true Christian goes forth, whether as a minister or a messenger, as a hero or a martyr, conquering and to conquer, striving for the crown, only that he may cast it at the feet of Him who has alone achieved the victory. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts." (Zech. iv. 6.)

How much would the difficulties of life be diminished, and the duties of life rendered more easy, if we would always live and act in this spirit! Luther was once obliged to remind Melancthon that God governed the universe; and many a private Christian needs continually to be put in remembrance of the same great truth,

and to be told, not needlessly to harass himself, about those things which the Almighty keeps in his own hands, and cannot but regulate with perfect wisdom, perfect love, and perfect power. It is necessary to feel this, that you may know, in every undertaking, where your great strength lies, and that success does not depend upon anything out of God. We have seen the best of men shrink from some of the most important duties to which the Almighty obviously called them, because they were unable to realize this great and influential practical truth; refusing the services in which God would employ them, from want of faith to believe that he could enable them to fulfil what he had distinctly called them

to execute.

Endeavour, then, to have it firmly established in your minds, that the Almighty never, by his providence, appoints his servants to any occupation for which he will not by his grace, if faithfully sought, fully qualify them; that he never places them in any situations for which he will not duly prepare them; that whether it be on the throne, or in the dungeon, or in any of the ten thousand steps between them, there is no single resting-place upon which the Christian can plant the sole of his foot, that is beyond the range of the promise, "My grace is sufficient for thee."

EXPOSITION XI.

EXODUS iv. 18-24.

18. And Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said unto him, Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive. And Jethro said to

Moses, Go in peace.

19. And the Lord said unto Moses in Midian, Go, return into Egypt: for all the men are dead which sought thy life.

20. And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand.

21. And the Lord said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.

22. And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:

23. And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.

24. And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the Lord met him, and sought to kill him.

AND now Moses, having obtained full consent of his father-in-law, no longer hesitates to under

take the arduous mission wherewith he was charged, but, taking his wife and children, returns into the land of Egypt. The remarkable incident, so briefly and mysteriously alluded to in the verses we have read, as befalling Moses on his journey, when the Lord sought to kill him, seems to infer that even Moses had been forgetful of the only ceremonial duty, viz., that of circumcision, which the Almighty had hitherto laid upon his people; and that had it not been, as we find from the following verses, for the promptitude of the wife of Moses, who was therefore evidently a worshipper of the God of Israel, he would have fallen a victim to the awakened anger of the Almighty. The whole story conveys a most important lesson to the Christian ; for nothing can mark more distinctly, that God will not overlook the slightest neglects of his people, or even of the most honoured and most useful of his instruments, than the fact here revealed to us, that he was about to slay, and for what might seem to us a very trivial dereliction of duty, that person who, of all the world, appeared to be most essential to the great scheme which the Almighty had in hand. So plainly does the word of God proclaim that he will not overlook the smallest sin, even in the greatest saint; and so certain is it that the