as in purity. The gods of the
heathen, like Jehovah, claimed an appropriate "holiness," sometimes
unspeakably degraded. They too were separated, and it was through long
lines of sphinxes, and many successive chambers, that the Egyptian
worshipper attained the shrine of some contemptible or hateful deity.
The religion which does not elevate depresses. But the holiness of
Jehovah is noble as that of light, incapable of defilement. "Who among
the gods is like Thee ... glorious in holiness?" And Israel soon learned
that the worshipper must become assimilated to his Ideal: "Ye shall be
holy men unto Me" (xxii. 31). It is so with us. Jesus is separated from
sinners. And we are to go forth unto Him out of the camp, bearing His
reproach (Heb. vii. 26, xiii. 13).

The remainder of the song is remarkable chiefly for the confidence with
which the future is inferred from the past. And the same argument runs
through all Scripture. As Moses sang, "Thou shalt bring them in and
plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance," because "Thou
stretchedst out Thy right hand, the earth[29] swallowed" their enemies,
so David was sure that goodness and mercy should follow him all the days
of his life, because God was already leading him in green pastures and
beside still waters. And so St. Paul, knowing in Whom he had believed,
was persuaded that He was able to keep his deposit until that day (2
Tim. i. 12).

So should pardon and Scripture and the means of grace reassure every
doubting heart; for "if the Lord were pleased to kill us, He would not
have ... showed us all these things" (Judg. xiii. 23). And in theory,
and in good hours, we confess that this is so. But after our song of
triumph, if we come upon bitter waters we murmur; and if our bread fail,
we expect only to die in the wilderness.

_SHUR._

xv. 22-7.

From the Red Sea the Israelites marched into the wilderness of Shur--a
general name, of Egyptian origin, for the district between Egypt and
Palestine, of which Etham, given as their route in Numbers (xxxiii. 8),
is a subdivision. The rugged way led over stone and sand, with little
vegetation and no water. And the "three days' journey" to Marah, a
distance of thirty-three miles, was their first experience of absolute
hardship, for not even the curtain of miraculous cloud could prevent
them from suffering keenly by heat and thirst.

It was a period of disillusion. Fond dreams of ease and triumphant
progress, with every tro