to quench their thirst, and manna from heaven to satisfy their hunger, and strengthen them for the difficulties of their journeyings. These precious and priceless mercies, which the Lord in his abounding goodness vouchsafed to them, were figures of more needed and more endearing favours to his people in gospel times. Christ is the rock from whence the streams of life and salvation-of spiritual influence and everlasting consolation floweth ; and he is, in his mediatorial victories, as rivers of water in dry places. He is the living bread which cometh down from heaven. He is the bread with which God eternally satisfies his poor. In making a few observations on the words of the text, notice

I. The provision which he gave to his ancient people: "This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat."

II. The sovereignty and order of its bestowment.

III. The continuance of its descent for them while their pilgrimage lasted.

I. The provision-it was manna from heaven. The chapter out of which the words of the text are taken, furnishes us with much information in relation to the nature, colour, form, taste, and descent of the manna. Whether we think it right or not to spiritualize every part of this wonderful account, it is certain that it was intended to represent the higher and richer blessings of the everlasting gospel. Concerning the manna, observe

1. It was greatly needed. It was the bread of life to them; without it they must have perished. In the wilderness they were made painfully to feel their absolute dependance on God. When sinners are brought out of the Egypt of sinof worldliness of false religion, and of blinding prosperity, they feel convictions of guilt and deserved condemnation, which make them tremble. They feel the cruel despotism of sin, and all its wretched influences. They are fettered, and smart under consciousness of their bondage. Sin is now a burden to them, and they are filled with awful alarm as they read, "The wages of sin is death." They see the emptiness of the mere formalities of religion, and of the corrupting pleasures of an ungodly world. They are brought to know their perishing condition without Christ, as Israel of old knew they must perish in the wilderness without a Divine interposition. God gave them bread that they perished not; so the Lord gives law-condemned and sin-burdened souls the bread of life-which bread of life is Christ, as presented in the everlasting gospel. If we eat of this living bread, we shall never die; we may fall asleep in Jesus, but we shall never know what the second death is. This eating of the gospel bread is believing in Christ with the heart; it is a spiritual partaking of the gospel and its blessings; it is a realizing through faith Christ crucified, as the children's bread. Christ is the bread greatly needed by hearts sickened of sin, of self, of ritualism, and of the world. He is the bread of life: "I am the bread of life, saith Christ; your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread (the gospel bread), which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die." Bread means the support of life-bread comprehends or stands for all kinds of food. The body requires sustenance, to strengthen life, and meet the necessities of its wear and tear. The body could not exist without nutriment; is it not exactly so with the soul made alive to its necessities and dangers. The soul cannot feed on husks-on dust, which is the serpent's meat, or on every wind of doctrine; the quickened and anxious sinner wants Christ, the bread of life. He is the bread of God, as the sacrifices of the Levitical law were. There is no life in our souls but through Christ's mediation and gift-and he who gave the life has made all necessary provision for its sustenance and growth, in his own sacrifice and grace: "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." What Divine food for the hungry soul, the whole sacrificial work of Jesus! What a blessed eating or receiving by faith!" What a mysterious possession--eternal life-the root, principle, or earnest of eternal life, and all this in and through Christ Jesus, the bread of life! Christ is the root of life-the food of life—the giver of lifethe security of life- the exampler of life, and the glory of life. Sin brings deathChrist brings life; sin brings under condemnation- Christ brings into salvation; sins brings the soul into a famine-Christ brings the soul into eternal plenty;

Christ is the bread of life to every one that believeth. When the man of God can enter into what Christ is--into what Christ hath done-into what Christ possesses for the church, and into what Christ hath spoken,-what life is in the soul!--faith is lively-hope is lively, and the soul is full of the delights of God's well-ordered covenant. There is no bread for living souls in ritualism, in false doctrine, or in anything which ignores or perverts the gospel. Wouldest thou have this bread of life? There must be a cleaving to the precious truth of God. The saving truth of God is the bread of life. The falsehoods of men are dust, on which the serpent feeds, and by which men's minds are deluded. False doctrine is dangerous to men's souls, and antagonistic to the glory of God-it feeds a wrong spirit, and engenders wrong feelings and thoughts which induce actions and words opposed to the genius and spirit of Christianity.

2. The manna was the bread of heaven to the people. The provision was made for them by the God of heaven. It was no creation of man. It was not supplied by man, but by the gift of God. The people asked a question when they saw it, saying, What is this? Moses answered, "This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat." The manna was as sweet as honey, or as wafers made of honey. What the manna was to the Israelites, the word of the eternal God is to his believing people. There is a peculiar sweetness to the soul in the words of life, which have come down from heaven; and especially when the man of God receives them, after he has experienced much bitterness of soul: "More to be desired are they than gold-yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey, and the honeycomb." The manna came down in the form of seeds. It was the corn of heaven to them. What a wonderful interposition of God for a starving people. Are not the words of God like seeds, often full of life and hidden energies? Are they not sweeter than honey? Are they not more satisfying to the soul than the words of human philosophy? The words which reveal the personal glories of Christ--which exhibit the mediatorial victories of the Son of God, and which make known the deep spiritual relations of grace-are words under the accompanying power of the Holy Ghost, which afford great comfort, great strength in strengthening the soul, great spiritual nutriment to pilgrims on the road to the heavenly Mount Zion? What sweetness there is in these living and precious words! With what savour and power they rest sometimes on the heart of the servants of God! How they bring before the children of God the names and doings of Jesus, and cause them to sing, "How sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer's ear!" &c. The gospel of salvation is the bread of heaven. It was prepared in heaven-comes down from heaven-saves men to heaven-tends to endear heavenly realities and glories to the people who receive the gospel in the love and power thereof. What chaff false doctrine is! What chaff are all human inventions in comparison with the truths of the everlasting gospel! "This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die." Christ said, "I am the living bread, which cometh down from heaven." "He that eateth of this bread shall live for ever." Christ brings his believing people into possession of undying life. They have life in Christ-life by Christ-life for Christ-life like Christ, and life with Christ for ever. What a mercy it is to have an appetite for this spiritual and heavenly bread! What ashes satisfy carnal minds-what empty things please the unrenewed heart! But let a man know what it is to be brought out of the Egypt of sin-of worldliness, and of false religion, and he will receive the truths of the pure gospel as the bread of heaven. What joy he will find in them!—what nu

triment for his inner life!-what satisfaction in the Lord. When the Lord takes the bread of life, and breaks it for his followers,—what an abundant supply they find where there seemed but little just before ! Is it not sometimes so in a chapter of the Lord's word? nay, in a verse? what food for meditation, and what a heavenly feast for faith!

3. The manna was loathed by the murmuring and ignorant.-What a number of murmurers there are in the world-but how few spiritual mourners? It was a painful proof of their ignorance that they found fault with God's provision. They "loathed it, and called it light food," and expressed themselves strongly in favour

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of the supplies of the land, out of which they had been so gloriously delivered. There are men so ignorant of the deep necessities of their souls, and so ignorant of the everlasting suitability of the truths of the gospel, to the wants of the soul, that they loathe the plain truths of Christ's gospel; the doctrines of the religion of the Saviour are offensive to them, and they will be offensive to them till they see their absolute need of them, and that without a saving interest in them they must perish for ever. If we did not know something of the awful depravity of human nature, and something of the enmity of the carnal mind to God, and something of the terrible delusions with which sinners are deceived, it would be surpassingly strange that men should loathe the gospel, and esteem it "light food." That men made wise unto salvation should sometimes loathe the wretched misrepresentations of God's truth is no marvel. The wonder is, in such cases, that there is not a more intense loathing: but that awakened souls,-hearts lacerated by convictions of guilt, should, under Satan's deceivings, esteem the doctrines of grace as light food-and in some cases not food at all-is painful. For a time they care more about the delusions of a false religion than the vital verities of the gospel. They would rather have gilded poison than wholesome bread made of the finest of the wheat. They would rather drink of the stagnant pools of human superstition than the fertilizing streams of the river of life flowing from the smitten rock. They like the flesh-pots of Egypt rather than the living bread, and the living water of the kingdom of Christ. When their delusions are destroyed by the spirit of burning," when such are the necessities of their soul that nothing but Christ can either please or satisfy them,-when the enmity of the heart against truth shall be for ever slain-then they will welcome God's eternal provision. They will not call God's gospel light food then. They will loathe the lies of Satan, by which they have been beguiled, and unfeignedly and intensely love the precious truths of God's word. They will, in the deep longings of their souls, renounce all trust in ritualism-in philosophy- in the lying wonders of the man of sin—and in all false doctrines, and will cry out, "Give me Christ, or else I die." The everlasting covenant will be all their salvation, and all their desire. If you know the doctrines of the gospel vitally, sanctifyingly, and in power, you will not despise them, you will not call them dangerous doctrines; but they will be the joy of your heart, and the themes of your meditation. They are not considered sufficiently intellectual, although the off-shoots of the mind of infinite intelligence, and the principles of the only religion by which men can reach heaven. The advocates of these mighty principles, which are of Divine origin, and which have shaken the foundation of every hoary system of superstitution with which they have come in contact are regarded as ignorant men. Well, suppose they are esteemed foolish and base, "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty." God's methods are always foolish, and unlikely to produce good results, to the proud and sufficient; and God's men are always ignorant in the eyes of proud fools, and self-sufficient pharisees. God's gospel to them is light food, and they loathed it. Poor things!-Pity them !—They do it in ignorance! Poor moths, how they fight against God, not knowing that "The foolishness of God is wiser than men ; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

4. The manna was given to Israel covered with the dew.-The dew may be regarded as an emblem of Divine influences. The manna was not seen till the dew began to rise: "And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost, on the ground, and when the children of Israel saw it they said one to another, "Is it manna, or, What is this?" for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, "This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat." "The hidden manna" of the gospel was represented by this manna which fell in the wilderness. When Christ came down into the world, by his incarnation, to enter upon his official life, he came anointed with the Spirit without measure. He came covered with dew. There was a blessing wherever he went. There were quiet, but mighty influences in all the walks of his Divine life. He is now, by his Spirit, unto the

church as the dew unto Israel. When the gospel comes with saving power to the hearts of men, it comes covered with dew: “ For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance." Plants drink the dew, and cannot live without it; and is this no ttrue in a higher sense, respecting "the plants of God's right-hand planting." They drink down the dew, and they cannot live without it. What a difference there is between the gospel— when it comes to you in the Holy Ghost! yet the difference is, not in the gospel itself, but in the power that accompanies it-in the dew by which it is attended. To make the gospel precious and vitalizing to men's souls, there must be the dew. To make the church fruitful and beautiful, as the garden of the Lord, there must be the dew. And the Lord, in the riches of sovereign grace, has declared, “I will be as the dew unto Israel. He shall blossom as the lily," &c.

(To be continued.)

it

THE ANGELS' SONG.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men."

ANGELS may always rejoice. They always stand before God. They are elect, and have kept their first estate. In some mysterious way they are acquainted with the church of God, and desire to look into those things which concern the church: may therefore be supposed that with great joy they came down to earth to sing the grand psalm of heaven-the gladdening news of the advent of God's salvation. The angels sang of the Saviour, and we may sing of the salvation which he has wrought, and which the gospel so explicitly declares, "that he may run who reads," for it is the gospel of our salvation, the glorious gospel of the blessed God. gospel about which we propose to speak in this paper is called in the New Testament, the "face of Jesus Christ," since as by the face one individual is distinguished from another person, so Christ in the gospel is distinguished from all beside; even as "the chief amongst ten thousand, the altogether lovely,"-" the express image of the invisible God." Let me, my reader, bespeak your attention by declaring that the gospel came from heaven.

The

The gospel is a revelation of the heart of God, a relation of the purpose of God, and a representation of the power of God.

First The gospel is " a revelation of the heart of God." All depths are measureable, yet is this deep immeasurable; here, indeed, are heights and depths, length and breadth, weight and worth, that only Deity can know. God so loved the world that he gave what none beside himself possessed, what none beside himself could give. He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth might not perish, but have everlasting life.

That life was in his Son, and that life became the light of men, and thus the people of the Lord are a living and an enlightened people. This gospel, in its grand design and great disclosures, proves itself to be of heavenly origin. To gather together in one, even in Jesus to gather together into one, even heaven, is the grand design of the gospel. Hence the triumphs of the gospel are signalised by these two great facts, then are brought into union with Christ, and into harmony with Christ. The wondrous disclosures which the gospel makes are to the effect, that to accomplish the great design of Jehovah, he loved a people, gave them to his Son to be his for ever, and gave his own Spirit to bring Christ to the people and the people to Christ. In giving Christ, the Father gave grace, pardon, and peace and by the gift of the Spirit he gives fitness for Christ, and fitness for eternal, glory.

The great love of God has stamped its own image upon the gospel, and he who

would see the love of God must behold the displays thereof with which the gospel abounds. The gospel is indeed godlike in love. Love is so pitiful, so kind, so tender, so patient, and so forbearing. Love, too, has eyes and ears, where hate is blind and deaf. So, the gospel is for the poor, the diseased, and the destitute, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. The wondrous love of God has FORM given unto it in the gospel. Our God has shown in his glorious gospel the objects of his love, the riches of his love, the amazing variety of his love. Here also that love is seen in its unfailing continuity, and in the person of Christ that love is embodied in all its eternity. We said also that the gospel is a relation of the purpose of God. Who but God knoweth the mind of God? Yet here, in the gospel, is the mind of God revealed. The gospel must be, therefore, from heaven. Take as an epitome of the mind, will, or purpose of the Lord, some few verses of the 6th of John. In the 37th verse it is written, "All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. And then to show how exactly the works of Jesus were in accordance with the will of God, the Saviour adds, "For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." What an unspeakably blessed part of the will of God do these words unfold, viz., that to accomplish the will of God, Jesus came down from heaven—that in so coming down from heaven he became a Saviour to whom sinners might come-that his coming from heaven, and their coming to him, were in exact accordance with the will of God. Why, who does not see that when a poor sinner comes unto Jesus Christ for salvation, that act is in as strict accordance with the will of God, as is the act of Jesus Christ coming down from heaven? Again at the 39th verse, "And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given to me I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day." Here the gospel instructs us that sinners are given into the hands of Jesus for preservation, and that although TIME may intervene, and death intervene, yet these given ones shall be raised again-NOTHING LOST BUT SIN, SUFFERING, AND DEATH. At the 40th verse also, the will of God is sweetly spoken of "And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which SEETH THE SON, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day." Salvation is a family matter, and it is the will of God, that every one who sees Jesus as the Son-the Son of God in truth and love-that is, SEES JESUS IN THE ORDER OF THE GOSPEL, may have everlasting life, and shall be raised at the last day. Thus does the Saviour also establish a very blessed connection between the acceptable day of the Lord, or the gospel day, and the great day of glorious resurrection. The grand subject of gospel testimony was, that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs of life and glory." This wondrous matter is unfolded in the 4th of Luke, as foreshadowed by the favour shown to the widow of Sarepta, and to Naaman the Syrian.

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The gospel is also a representation of the power of God. This power of the Lord is very emphatically set forth in the 29th Psalm. The power of the Lord is there represented as upon many waters, or as among many people, as breaking, dividing, and shaking all nations. This power was displayed in the times of the Saviour, and of the apostles: it still continues in all its majesty; sins are forgiven, Satan is cast out, divine purposes are developed in hearts pricked, in thoughts taken captive for Christ, in rebels made friends, in alienated ones brought into the family, strangers brought from afar, brought into the household of faith, just as the lost sheep was recovered, the lost silver was found, and the lost son was brought back to his father's home, to stray no more. This marvellous gospel declares, that by the power of God, all things shall be gathered together in one, even in Jesus.

Again we ask attention to our subject, by saying, that the gospel is fitted for earth. Man has altogether gone away from God. "All we like sheep have gone astray,...but the Lord has laid on him the iniquities of us all." Jesus tasted death above and beyond any man, he also tasted death for every one,—that is, laid down his life for every one of the sheep, and therefore they shall never perish.

The gospel is for sinners, and as such has always been welcomed by those who have been taught by the Spirit of God. Not more fitted are riches for the poor, or