FEBRUARY, 1878.

THE CESSATION OF THE MANNA.

A LESSON FROM JEWISH HISTORY.

BY THE REV. E. MEDLEY.

"And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year."-Joshua v. 12.

Ir is clear that in dealing with the facts of Old Testament history we ought to have some plain guiding lines to go upon, if we are to venture fairly to apply the past to the present; otherwise these ancient records divinely preserved to us may be made to say anything which the interpreters please. What right have we, then, to try to find in them that which applies to ourselves? The answer is simple this human nature of ours is what it ever has been; its deepest necessities abide unchanged; there is a common ground between us and the most remote of the people of God; and, further, the principles of the Divine government of men abide too; these may produce different methods of action, and yet, if we patiently trace matters back far enough, we shall find that behind the successive dispensations from Adam to this hour God has acted upon the same first principles, has had the same sacred aims in view. And so, if from some incident in the history of Israel we can disentangle a law which that very incident itself serves aptly to illustrate, then we have firm ground to stand upon; we may discover that which, by the blessing of God, shall be of vitali mportance to ourselves.

The words of the text are descriptive of a very instructive moment in the history of the Jewish people. For some forty years, during the prolonged wanderings in the desert, they had been miraculously fed with the manna which day by day lay about their camps; but at length they had crossed the Jordan into the land of promise, and, though many a hard battle lay before them, yet they were to give up their wanderings for a settled manner of life; they were to sow and to reap; the ordinary means of sustenance, the corn of the land, was to be theirs; and so, on the very day upon which they tasted of it, the manna disappeared. The special supply ceased with the special demand. They were not to look for extraordinary relief when, with due diligence upon their part, the ordinary would suffice. This fact suggests some important points with regard to the government of God.

There is no wastefulness in the Divine economy. God does not use extraordinary means where the ordinary will avail to accomplish His purposes. The text supplies a case in point. We can easily conceive how, out of a prodigality of power, the manna might have been con

VOL. XXI. N.S. II.

tinued long after the land of Canaan had been reached; it might have been argued that such a continuance would be very helpful to the Israelites, supplying them with a perpetual and visible reminder of God's care for them. The answer is, that at any rate such a continuance was not granted; and further, that it is not our Father's way to permit the repetition of an aid the absolute necessity for which has departed. He is glorious in giving, but there is with Him no expenditure which would only tend to produce in the long run a contempt for His daily, His common, His highest, gifts. This principle is of widest application. Thus, there are recorded in Scripture no miracles wrought just for the mere sake of working them; for all of them there are moral and spiritual purposes which can be understood, there is an obvious fitness, a doing of something which could not otherwise be done. When Israel-a small, despised nation-had to be rescued from the grasp of a great empire, the way was opened for them by a succession of signs and wonders; but when at length the people reached the promised land, these for the most part disappeared. When the Lord Jesus came to establish His kingdom, He wrought miracles in abundance; but when in the course of time the Church became firmly established, and the truth of the Gospel was made evident by its renewing power over men, then the miracles gradually ceased, and that not because the Church had gone backward, but because she had advanced, and her claims could rest upon proofs of a more spiritual order. Put side by side the gracious miracles recorded in God's Word, with the spurious miracles of the Spiritualist or of the Roman Catholic Church. How vain, purposeless, and puerile these latter are! Admit even that they are true, and they reflect no glory upon the power that wrought them. To feel the touch of a ghostly hand, to spell out through the monotonous beatings of a table-leg sentences that are redolent of the wisdom that is of this world, to produce a picture which on set occasions can wink in its frame, what a parody is all this of the signs and wonders wrought of that God who is glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders, and who, having a purpose in His action, withdraws His hand when that purpose is accomplished!

This principle receives a yet further illustration in the fact that, whilst the Lord displays His power, He yet takes up the work directly only when man is compelled to lay it down. The manna of the desert did not supplant the sowing and reaping of Canaan. Christ will raise the little child to life, but her parents must find her something to.eat. Christ will speak the word of power, only possible to Him, "Lazarus, come forth," but human hands must roll away the stone, and unbind the grave-clothes from the man risen from the dead. An angel struck the fetters from the limbs of Peter, and brought him out of the prison, but after that the apostle must put forth his own efforts in order to escape the rage of his persecutors. In all these cases a Divine power might have accomplished the whole transaction; but it did not, and it does not now. God is pleased in His mercy to give to us certain

powers, all His and yet ours, ours and yet His, and it is for us diligently to use them. In no impious sense we may say that God helps those who help themselves. We have seen that there is with God no useless expenditure. He does what is sufficient, but not more than sufficient, for the occasion. Now, if that be true, how vast in His eyes must be the needs of sinners, how heavy the task of saving them, that in order to its accomplishment it was needful that the Lord Jesus should come to suffer and die-that nothing less than the Incarnation, Gethsemane, and Calvary would avail to redeem the guilty! When we think little of sin, or imagine that our case can easily be met, let us bow ashamed and humbled at the feet of Jesus Christ. It required One able to save, even to the uttermost, to bring us out of darkness into marvellous light. The greatness of the Redeemer argues the magnitude of the work of redemption.

But further, whilst there is no waste in the Divine economy, yet there are special provisions for special occasions. There is here, if we can lay hold of it, a truth for us, full of real comfort, instinct with hope. What was the case of the Israelites ? It was this. By no ingenuity, by no conceivable diligence upon their part, could the necessities of the vast host of men, women, and children have been supplied in the wilderness, and yet these very necessities arose because at the command of the Most High the journey from Egypt to Canaan had been undertaken. That is, it was the path of duty which was thus beset with difficulty. That being so, the Israelites could rightly look up to God to have their wants supplied. They were not disappointed; not one good thing failed of all that He had promised. When unsent they went against their enemies, they suffered shameful defeat; but when the Divine command bid them do what upon the face of it they could not, then they were gloriously helped and delivered. Take that wonderful chapter in the Epistle to the Hebrews in which we are told of the triumphs of faith, and what is it but an account of the way in which God came to the support of his servants when at His command they attempted the impossible? If the Lord Jesus bids a dozen men supply five thousand with bread, He Himself multiplies the tiny store until there is enough and to spare. If He commands a paralytic to take up his bed and walk, He gives the strength by which the command can be accomplished. The manna given to the Israelites in the sandy desert is a symbol of the most helpful truth, that God will not fail us in any difficulty that may come to us in doing His will. Our principal business is not to perplex ourselves with a thousand questions as to how we may accomplish this or that; our anxiety should gather about an earlier point and a simpler-namely, what is the path of duty-have we a right to enter upon such and such manifest difficulties and burdens? If the command is plain, let us obey. Undoubtedly we may give very different answers to the question, What is the path of duty? We may, on the one side, act without reason and common sense; we may so listen to what we conceive

to be a Divine impulse as to presume upon God, and run unsent into thorny paths. But on the other hand, both churches and individuals may so listen to what they conceive to be the voice of prudence as to attempt nothing for which they do not see then and there all the means lying to their hands. They may stifle every larger aspiration, and refuse to give any room for the exercise of a joyous faith in God, who certainly would have us err, if err we must, upon the side of large-heartedness rather than of narrowness. Let us not forget that sometimes warm feeling may be as safe a guide in our conduct as is the cooler judgment. We must conceive largely, we must carry out our conceptions with watchful carefulness. After all, there is an arithmetic of faith and love which sometimes solves problems far more accurately than do the rules of the school primer. If God point the way, then, even if it visibly lead into perplexing responsibilities, expectant faith is the highest reason, and the soundest wisdom is hope in Him. Yes, without doubt, we have a right to look for special supplies for special needs.

There remains one more truth necessary for the completion of the subject before us, namely, that, on the whole, the ordinary conditions are the highest, the best, the most abiding. Again the Israelites supply us with an illustration. Which for them was really the best state, the wandering or the settlement, the desert or Canaan ? And yet the first condition was that of manifold miracles, the water from the rock, the pillar of cloud and of fire, the daily manna; the latter, that in which the people were handed over to the ordinary conditions of life, they had to sow and till and reap, to buy and sell, even as we. The Christian Church started amidst a halo of miracles; but when she became firmly established, these ceased. There is something analogous to all this now. The new convert has experiences which by-and-by yield to firmer principles; his love may deepen and become infinitely stronger in its influence upon him, and yet some of the peculiar brightness of the early days may have departed. There are times of great exaltation, of movement, of excitement, in the history of churches, but it has yet to be proved that these are indeed, all things considered, the best. Often there is a craving for the special, the peculiar, which springs from the want of a faithful use of the common every-day graces and opportunities, from a secret contempt for them which is blindly unjust. There are natures that prefer the lightning to the daylight, manna to the corn of the land, the Mount of Transfiguration to the valley and the quiet work to be done there. God forbid that special reasons and special mercies should be decried, but the very way both to get and to improve them is to appreciate the common occasions of the day, knowing that these also, if we but steadily look at them, are signal manifestations of the mercy and power of our God. I have much faith in quiet, plodding work in our churches, in the continuous use of such means of grace as God gives us, the common corn of the land. I have much faith too in the power of a quiet, steady

Christian life, which is regularly fed with the Word of God and with prayer. The exaltation of the special above the ordinary has even served to keep men from accepting Jesus Christ, by obscuring the simplicity of that faith by which we are saved. It is supposed that faith in the Saviour is not as other faith is; if it be genuine there must accompany it a strange experience. Do not let us thus confound a possible circumstance, an accident, with a duty; it is for us to accept the proffered offer, and, waiting for no sign from heaven, to cast ourselves upon the Redeemer to be saved and blessed by Him.

Nottingham.

PROVIDENCE CHAPEL DORCAS SOCIETY.
II.

"Well, my boy, I'm glad you've got one on; take care of them and be a good boy."

"Those two flannel shirts," thought Mrs. Jones, "have been well bestowed."

ACCORDING to arrangement, Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Jones met to visit some of the houses, and inquire as to what sort of cases had received articles of clothing and other help from the Dorcas Society. We shall not be able to record all their Arriving at the house of their labours, for, becoming more and intended visit, they did not stop to more interested in the work as note its outward appearance, or they proceeded, what was com- after knocking to wait the opening menced for a special purpose was of the door; but entering, they continued for the love of it. One found themselves in one of those cold, wintry day the two ladies, houses which are so numerous, so muffled up as warmly as possible, much alike, and yet can scarcely were passing through one of those be described. There was an air back streets which seem so crowded, of wretchedness over everything in and in which children are to be it and about it, while the foul found loitering, despite either cold smell of dirt, and drink, and or rain, when a rough-looking boy, tobacco-smoke made the place about ten or twelve years old, to sickening in the extreme. attract Mrs. Brown's attention, Of furniture there was little, and came running across the street that little was scarcely usable. shouting, "Heigh, heigh, missus!" There were the remains of two or On her turning round, the lad be- three chairs, and a ricketty table came somewhat abashed at his stood near the fireplace. Unown success, but, recovering him- washed and partly broken pots self, he began to make frantic were on the table. A dull fire efforts to tear open his waistcoat, smouldered in the grate, which succeeding in which he looked up was nearly filled with ashes. into Mrs. Brown's face with an Stains and dirt decorated ceilindescribable smile, which shone ing and floor, and the walls were through all the dirt and treacle- festooned with dusty cobwebs. It daub, and said, in so glad a voice was a drunkard's home, and there that he chuckled again, "See you, he sat. He had but just returned I've gotten one on, and it is warm-from his work, and, making his aye, it is warm this cold weather; t'other's a' whoam, and I shall put it on when this is weshed; aye, it is warm."

usual calls by the way, as was his wont, had arrived at home drunk. And there, unwashed, unkempt, with clothing tattered and torn, he