Christ; and that the circumstance of the rock yielding no water, until smitten by the rod of Moses, represented the important truth, that the Mediator must receive the blows of the law before he could be the source of salvation to a parched and perishing world. It is to this that St. Paul refers, when he says of the Jews, "They did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ." It appears that the waters, which gushed from the rock in Horeb, attended the Israelites during the chief part of their wanderings in the wilderness; and this it is which we are to understand, when the apostle affirms that the rock followed them-the rock it self did not follow them, but the stream which had issued from that rock-a beautiful representation of the fact, that, if Christ were once smitten, or once sacrificed, a life-giving current would accompany continually the church in the wilderness. We do not read again of any scarcity of water until nearly thirty-seven years after, when the generation which had come out of Egypt had been destroyed for their unbelief, and their children were about to enter into Canaan. It is probable that God then allowed the supply of water to fail, in order that the Israelites might be reminded that they were miraculously sustained, and taught, what they were always apt to forget, their dependence on the guardianship of the Almighty. Assuredly they needed the lesson; for no sooner did they find themselves in want of water, than they showed the same unbelief which their fathers had manifested, and, in place of meekly trusting in the God who had so long provided for their wants, "they gathered themselves together against Moses and Aaron," and bitterly reviled them for having brought them out of Egypt.

Moses is bidden, as on the former occasion, to take his rod, that he may bring forth water out of the rock. But you are to observe carefully the difference between the command now given him, and that which had been delivered in Horeb. In the latter instance, God had distinctly said to him, "Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb, and thou shalt smite

the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink." But in the present instance the direction is, "Speak ye unto the rock before their eyes, and it shall give forth his water." In the one case, Moses was expressly commanded to smite the rock; in the other, he was as expressly commanded only to speak unto the rock. And we cannot but consider that there was something very significant in this. The rock, as we have supposed, typified Christ, who was to be once smitten by the rod of the law, but only once; seeing that "by one offering he hath pertected for ever them that are sanctified." Having been once smitten, there is nothing needed, in any after dearth, but that this rock should be spoken to; prayer, if we may use the expression, will open the pierced side of the Lamb of God, and cause fresh flowings of that stream which is for the cleansing of the nations. Hence it would have been to violate the integrity and beauty of the type, that the rock should have been smitten again; it would have been to represent a necessity that Christ should be twice sacrificed, and thus to darken the whole Gospel scheme. Yet this it was which Moses did; and, in doing this, he greatly displeased God. We have shown you that the command to Moses and Aaron was most distinct, "Speak ye unto the rock before their eyes." But when we come to see how the command was obeyed, we read as follows: "And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock; and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock! And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice."

Can you fail, my brethren, to see that herein Moses sinned grievously? It is evident that he was chafed and irritated in spirit; his language shows this, "hear now, ye rebels:" rebels indeed the Israelites were; but it was manifestly in a burst of human passion, rather than of holy indignation, that Moses here used the term. And, then, observe how he proceeds-"Must we fetch you water out of this rock?" What are ye, O Moses and Aaron, that ye should speak as though the virtue were in you, when ye are verily

But this was not the whole, and perhaps not the chief of his offence. In place of doing only as he had been bid den, and speaking to the rock, he lifted up his hand and smote the rock, yea, smote it twice. Was this merely in the irritation of the moment, or in actual unbelief? Did he only forget the command; or did he fear that a simple word would not suffice, seeing that, on the former occasion, the rock yielded no water until smitten by the rod? Probably there was a measure of distrust; he would hardly else have struck twice; and faith was not likely to be in vigorous exercise when an unholy wrath had possession of his mind. And thus the lawgiver displayed passion, and arrogance, and unbelief: passion, in that he addressed the multitude in the language of an irritated man; arrogance, in that he spake as though his own power were to bring forth the water; unbelief, in that he smote where he had been commanded only to speak. It seems probable that it was the unbelief which specially provoked God: for when he proceeded to the rebuking the sin, it was in these terms, "Because ye believed me not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel."

To us, accustomed, as we unhappily are, to offend more grievously than Moses, even when the utmost had been said in aggravation of his sin, it may seem that God dealt harshly with his servant, in immediately pronouncing as his sentence, that he should not bring the congregation into the land which he would give them. It was a sentence of which Moses himself felt the severity; for he describes himself as pleading earnestly for a remission. But he pleaded in vain; nay, he seems to have been repulsed with indignation; for it is thus that he describes

the Lord was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me; and the Lord said unto me, Let it suffice thee, speak no more unto me of this matter." Let it however be remembered, that the eyes of all Israel were now upon Moses and Aaron; and that, the more exalted their station, and the more eminent their piety, the more requisite was it that God should mark their offence; thus proving that he will (not tolerate sin even in those whom he most loves and approves. It is not because a man stands high in the favor of his Maker, that he may expect to escape the temporal retributions of a fault; on the contrary, since he is not to sustain its eternal retributions, there is the greater reason why the temporal should not be remitted; for if they were, his sin would be wholly unvisited, and therefore apparently overlooked by God. And though indeed Moses had been singularly faithful and obedient, who can fail to perceive that the uncommonness of his fault would only have made his being unpunished more observable; whereas it gave, on the other hand, opportunity for a most impressive lesson, as to God's hatred of sin, and his resolve that it shall never go unrecompensed? The whole congregation had seen the sin committed; had they seen it also unnoticed by God, they might have argued that impatience and unbelief were excusable in certain persons, or under certain provocations. But when they found that Aaron was to die on Mount Hor, and Moses on Mount Nebo, because they had not believed God to sanctify him in their eyes, they were taught, even more impressively than by any thing which had happened to themselves or their fathers, that sin necessarily moves, under all circumstances, the wrath of the Almighty; that no amount, whether of previous or after righteousness, can compensate for the smallest transgression; and that eminence as a saint, rather insures than averts some penal visitation, if there be the least swerving from the strict line of duty.

And the lesson should lose none of its impressiveness because delivered ages back, and under a dispensation which had more of temporal sanctions than

valleys and mountains which Israel shall possess.

Yet it is neither the severity, nor the gentleness, which is most observable in the passage: it is the simple, easy manner in which the command is given. "Go up and die." Had God been bidding Moses to a banquet, or directing him to perform the most ordinary duty, he could not have spoken more familiarly, or with less indication of requiring what was painful or difficult.* And in truth it was no hardship to Moses to die. He had deliberately "esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures in Egypt," and had long "had respect unto the recompense of the reward." And though he would fain have lived a while longer, to complete the work at which he had labored for years, he knew that to die would be to enter a land, of which Canaan, with all its brightness, was but a dim type. Therefore could God speak to him of dying, just as he would have spoken of taking rest in sleep: as though there could be nothing formidable in the act of dissolution, nothing from which human nature might shrink. Yet we could not have wondered, had Moses manifested reluctance; for it was in a mysterious, and almost fearful manner, that he was to depart out of life. It is, in all cases, a solemn thing to die; and our nature, when gathering itself up for the act of dissolution, seems to need all the prayers and kindnesses of friends, that it may be enabled to meet the last enemy with composure. The chamber in which a good man dies, is ordinarily occupied by affectionate relatives; they stand round his bed, to watch his every look, and catch his every word: they whisper him encouraging truths, and they speak cheeringly of the better land to which he is hastening, though they may often be obliged to turn away the face, lest he should be grieved by the tears which their own loss extorts. And all this detracts somewhat from the terror of dying. It is not, that, if the dying man were alone, God could not equally sustain him by the consolations of his grace. But it is, that there is something in the visible instrumentality, which is specially adapt

Bishop Hall.

ed to our nature: we are disposed to the leaning upon sensible aids, so that, whilst yet in the flesh, we can scarce commit ourselves to spiritual agency. Take away all the relatives and friends from the sick room, and is there not a scene of extraordinary desolateness, a scene from which every one of us recoils, and which presents to the mind such a picture of desertion, that the thought of its being our own lot would suffice to embitter the rest of our days?

Yet it was alone that Moses was to die: no friend was to accompany him to Pisgah; no relative was to be near when he breathed out his soul. "Get thee up into this mountain, and die there." Strange death-bed, which I am thus ordered to ascend! Mine eye is not dimmed, my strength is not broken

what fierce and sudden sickness will seize me on that mount? Am I to linger there in unalleviated pain? and then, when my soul at length struggles free, must my body be left, a dishonored thing, to be preyed on by the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air? Would you not have expected that thoughts such as these would have crowded and distressed the mind of the great lawgiver, on receiving the direction of our text? I cannot find words to express to you what I think of the mysteriousness and awfulness of the scene through which Moses had to pass. To separate himself from the people to whom he was tenderly attached; to ascend, without a single companion, the mountain from which he was never to return; to climb the lofty summit for the express purpose of there grappling with death, though he knew not with what terrors, nor under what shape; to go, in his unabated vigor, that, on a wild spot, alone with his Creator, he might be consumed by slow disease, or rapt away in a whirlwind, or stricken down by lightning— I feel as though it had been less trying, had he been summoned to a martyr's death, to ascend the scaffold in place of the mountain, and to brave the cries of bloodthirsty persecutors instead of the loneliness, the breathlessness, of the summit of Pisgah. And never does Moses wear to me such an air of moral sublimity, as when I contemplate him leaving the camp, for the express purpose of resigning his soul into the

hands of his Maker. Never does his faith seem to me so signal, so sorely tried, nor so finely triumphant. I gaze on him with awe, as, with the rod of God in his hand, he stands before Pharaoh, and appals the proud monarch by the prodigies which he works. And there is a fearful magnificence in his aspect, as, with outstretched arm, he plants himself on the Red Sea's shore, and bids its waters divide, that the thousands of Israel may march through on dry land. Yea, and who can look on him without emotions of wonder, and almost of dread, as he ascends Mount Sinai, whilst the fire and thunder of the Lord strike terror into the hearts of the congregation, that he may commune in secret with God, and receive from his lips enactments and statutes? But, on these and the like occasions, the very circumstances in which he was placed were calculated to animate the leader; and when we think on the mighty powers with which he was endowed, we can scarce feel surprise that he should have borne himself so heroically. The great trial of faith was not in the waving or striking with a rod which had often shown its mastery over nature: neither was it in the ascending a mountain, from which he expected to return with fit laws for the government of a turbulent multitude. It was the laying down of the miraculous rod which required vast faith; and the splendid courage was shown in the climbing a summit, where, with the rock for his couch, and the broad heaven for his roof, and far from all human companionship, he was to submit himself to the sentence, "Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return."

And therefore, we again say, that, if we would survey Moses in his grandeur, when his moral majesty is most conspicuous, and the faith and boldness of a true servant of God commend themselves most to our imitation, then it is not when he breaks the chains of a long-enslaved people, and not when he conducts a swarming multitude through the wilderness, and not when he is admitted into intimate communings with the Almighty, that he should fix our attention-it is rather when he departs from the camp without a solitary attendant, and we know that, as

he climbs the steep ascent, perhaps pausing at times that he may look yet again on the people whom, notwithstanding their ingratitude, he tenderly loved, he is obeying the strange and thrilling command, Get thee up into this mountain, and there die, and be gathered to thy people."

९९

We cannot follow Moses in this his mysterious journey. We know not the particulars of what occurred on the summit of Pisgah; and where revelation is silent, it does not become us to offer conjectures. We are only informed that the Lord showed him great part of the land of Canaan, and then said unto him, "I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither." And here, just where curiosity is most strongly excited-for who does not long to know the exact mode in which Moses departed out of life, to be present at his last scene, and observe his dismissal?-the narrative is closed with the simple announcement, "SoMoses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord." But we know, at least, that God was with his servant in this hour of strangeness and loneliness, and that, when Moses lay down to die, he had been abundantly cheered by visions vouchsafed him of the longpromised Canaan. And shall we think that Moses died contented and happy, just because his eye had rested on the waters of Jordan, and caught the wavings of the cedars of Lebanon? Was it merely by gazing on the natural landscape that the man of God was cheered; and was nothing done for him but the causing valleys that laughed with abundance, and heights that were crested with beauty, to gather themselves into one glorious panorama, as the inheritance which had been promised to the children of Abraham? We can scarcely think this. We may believe that the desire of Moses to enter into Canaan was a spiritual desire: with Canaan he associated a fuller revelation of the Christ: and he may have thought, that, admitted into the land, which in the fulness of time would be trodden by Messiah, he should learn more of that Redeemer of the world than he had been able to gather from existing prophecies and types.

In his own prayer to God, depreca