EXPOSITION XXVIII.

NUMBERS Xxi. 7-9.

7. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee: pray unto the Lord that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.

8. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.

9. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

No sooner did the people, while smarting under the deserved punishment of their murmurings, confess their sin before the Almighty, than mercy prevailed over judgment, and a remedy, a most remarkable remedy, was immediately provided. This was no other, as we have just seen, than the brazen serpent, erected, at the command of God, by Moses, and offering an infallible cure to every wounded and serpent-bitten Israelite, who looked upon it. The peculiarities of this remedy were very extraordinary; it did not remove at once

and for ever, the fiery serpents who stung the people, but it healed the suffering people themselves. But there was yet again another peculiarity; it did not heal the whole congregation, or necessarily even the whole number of those who were bitten. It is expressly stated, " that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived." It was, therefore, not sufficient, that the brazen serpent was erected; it was not sufficient that it had the power to heal; it was not even sufficient that the man who had been bitten had need of healing, or was desirous of healing; it was essential to the cure, that the wounded man should behold the serpent of brass, and in looking upon it he lived.

We have thus dwelt upon this most singular and miraculous remedy, because our Lord Jesus Christ, in the pages of the New Testament, refers to it so plainly and so pointedly, as a type of himself. These are his own words, as recorded by St. John: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” * It is impossible to imagine anything more beautifully simple and yet more satisfactorily complete. In this type was contained, as it were,

* John iii. 14, 15.

a miniature of the whole Gospel of Christ. Does the sinner inquire the way of salvation? here is an answer which the most uneducated cannot misunderstand, or the most learned improve upon. Here is the plain and simple Gospel divested of all the jargon of the schools, and all the additions of a blind and superstitious church. There is no substitution of works for faith, there is no addition of works to faith, as the instrumental cause of our salvation. It is the "looking to Jesus," it is the fixing the eye of a trusting faith upon Him, upon all that He has done, and all that He has suffered, like the gaze of the wounded Israelite, which alone affects the cure.

It matters not, how much human systems may, from time to time, have added to this wonderful, this miraculous method of healing, which our Lord has himself proclaimed. If we are really in earnest in the salvation of our souls, we shall never be satisfied without going back to first principles; and where should we seek those principles, but from the lips of the Divine Founder of our religion himself? He has proclaimed that, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up." No one can suppose that the parallel began and ended in both objects being

raised upon a pole, or a cross of wood! This is too absurd even for the most prejudiced. Surely the verse that follows, sufficiently proves, that the words, "As Moses," implied, for a similar purpose, and as far as the antitype could agree with the type, to be effected in a similar manner, or our Lord never could have said, "That whosoever believeth'in him should not perish, but have eternal life." We learn, then, this great, this blessed, this saving truth, that as the wounded Israelites found health and life only, by looking upon the brazen serpent," so,” in all ages, and under all circumstances, shall the sinner who, directed by the sweetly prevailing influences of the Spirit of God, fixes the eye of a true and living faith upon a crucified Redeemer, find pardon, and life, and peace.

Blessed be God, for a simple Gospel! Blessed be God, that the king's highway is so plain that "the wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein." We want not the glosses of antiquity, we need not the accumulated labours of bygone ages to teach us the way of salvation: we desire not to slack our thirst at the polluted streams, when we can thus stand at the bright and sparkling fountain, and " with joy draw water out of the wells of salvation." May we as individuals, as a

family, as a nation, never forget that "the Bible, and the Bible only, is the religion of Protestantism."

[Here may be read from verse 10, to the end of the chapter.]

EXPOSITION XXIX.

NUMBERS Xxii. 1—14.

1. And the children of Israel set forward, and pitched in the plains of Moab, on this side Jordan by Jericho. 2. And Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites.

3. And Moab was sore afraid of the people, because they were many and Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel.

4. And Moab said unto the elders of Midian, Now shall this company lick up all that are round about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field. And Balak the son of Zippor was king of the Moabites at that time.

5. He sent messengers therefore unto Balaam the son of Beor, to Pethor, which is by the river of the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying, Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt: behold, they cover the face of the earth, and they abide over against

me.

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