f? what but
the judgment of God upon those who despise His provision, and must needs
gratify themselves? Be it our happiness, as it is our duty, to trust Him
to prepare our table before us, while He leads us to His Holy Land.

The Lord of the Sabbath already taught His people to respect His day.
Upon it no manna fell; and we shall hereafter see the bearing of this
incident upon the question whether the Sabbath is only an ordinance of
Judaism. Meanwhile they who went out to gather had a sharp lesson in the
difference between faith, which expects what God has promised, and
presumption, which hopes not to lose much by disobeying Him.

Lastly, an omer of manna was to be kept throughout all generations,
before the Testimony. Grateful remembrance of past mercies, temporal as
well as spiritual, was to connect itself with the deepest and most awful
mysteries of religion. So let it be with us. The bitter proverb that
eaten bread is soon forgotten must never be true of the Christian. He is
to remember all the way that the Lord his God hath led him. He is bidden
to "forget not all His benefits, Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, Who
healeth all thy diseases ... Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things."
So foolish is the slander that religion is too transcendental for the
common life of man.

FOOTNOTES:

[31] The "omer" of this passage is not mentioned elsewhere in Scripture:
it is known to have been the one-hundredth part of the homer with which
careless readers sometimes confuse it, and its capacity is variously
estimated, from somewhat under half a gallon to somewhat above
three-quarters.

CHAPTER XVII.

_MERIBAH._

xvii. 1-7.

The people, miraculously fed, are therefore called to exhibit more
confidence in God than hitherto, because much is required of him to whom
much is given. They have now to plunge deeper into the wilderness; and
after two stages which Exodus omits (Num. xxxiii. 12, 13), and just as
they approach the mount of God, they find themselves without water. Even
the Son of Man Himself was led into the wilderness next after the
descent of the Spirit, and the avowal by the voice of God; nor is any
true Christian to marvel if his seasons of special privilege are
succeeded by special demands upon his firmness.

One finds himself conjecturing, very often, what nobler history, what
grander analogies between type and antitype, what more gracious and
lavish interpositions might have instructed us,