against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, we are led by the Spirit, and crucify the flesh.

Paul said "Christ loved me, and gave Himself for me;" but he also says in the same verse-"I am crucified with Christ; and no man has any scriptural warrant for saying "Christ was crucified for me," who does not know-however much the flesh may harass, and tempt, and even on an occasion overcome that he is habitually crucifying himself for Jesus.

Oh, I would beseech you, watch against, and however painful it may be, deny the first felt cravings after the old flesh-pots. "They will eat as doth a canker, and will increase unto more ungodliness." The thing desired may be lawful, or unlawful in itself, I believe that makes little difference; for if it is something that God has seen fit to deny us, it is unlawful to lust and crave after it. There was no sin in these Israelites eating flesh-" Every gift of God is good, and to be received with

thankfulness; their sin was to desire a thing with murmuring and repining, which God had not seen fit to give them.

It is a solemn word that the Holy Ghost speaks by the mouth of St. Paul, when rightly interpreted "Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have." "They that WILL BE RICH❞—and I take this to allude not to the love of money only, but to the coveting and unlawful striving after anything that God has not seen fit to grant us-"They that will be rich fall into temptation, and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition." Oh, how many have proved in their own experience the truth of these Scriptures! How many are there who once professed to be Christians, but who now know in their hearts that they have gone far away from God, who can remember the time when a first longing entered into them for something He had not been pleased to give them. It was not wicked

perhaps; still their concience was not quite at ease about it: for all that, however, they did all they could to get it. The pursuit of it occupied their minds, employed their time, and took possession of that place in their hearts that once seemed securely to belong to Christ; at last, after much effort and energy-at last they got it; but they have never been the same Christians since. What happened to these Israelites happened to them. "God gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul." (Ps. cvi. 15.)

XVII.

Unbelief.

HE last words of the last chapter were very fearful:-"GOD GAVE THEM

THEIR REQUEST, BUT SENT LEANNESS INTO THEIR SOUL." Yet even such should not despair, for to be lean is not to be dead; and blessed be God, let him but diligently seek it, and the lean soul may be made fat again. (Prov. xiii. 4.)

The souls of these Israelites were in an unhealthy state; but for all that, God had not given them up. He still led them, and they still followed; and while this is the case, let the past have been what it may, we have the great Scriptural evidence that God has not cast us off; for, "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." (Rom. viii. 14.) Still their state was a state

most favourable for the assaults of Satan, and one which too often ends in hardness and unbelief. Beware of it, and remain not in it.

It was in this state of heart and mind, that the Israelites arrived at the borders of the promised land; from whence Moses by the command of God sent twelve men to examine the country, and bring back a report of what sort it was. Let us, before we make any comment, take the history in the words of Scrip

ture.

In the thirteenth of Numbers we read"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Send thou men that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them. And Moses by the commandment of the Lord sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all these men were heads of the children of Israel.

"And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up