gift, as well as a
true wisdom from its fulness.

And yet, alas! in spite of all this bounty, men called Christians, and
how many! live heartlessly, not caring for the gracious benefit. Look at
the world. Men begin life with sinning; they quench the early promise of
grace, and defile their souls; they block up the entrances of the
spiritual senses by acts of sin, lying and deceit, intemperance,
profaneness, or uncleanness,--by a foolish and trifling turn of mind,--by
neglect of prayer when there is no actual vice,--or by an obstinate
selfishness. How many are the ways in which men begin to lose sight of
God!--how many are the fallings away of those who once began well! And
then they soon forget that they have really left God; they still think
they see His face, though their sins have begun to blind them. Like men
who fall asleep, the real prospect still flits before them in their
dreams, but out of shape and proportion, discoloured, crowded with all
manner of fancies and untruths; and so they proceed in that dream of sin,
more or less profound,--sometimes rousing, then turning back again for a
little more slumber, till death awakens them. Death alone gives lively
perceptions to the generality of men, who then see the very truth, such
as they saw it before they began to sin, but more clear and more fearful:
but they who are the pure in heart, like Joseph; or the meek among men,
like Moses; or faithful found among the faithless, as Daniel; these men
see God all through life in the face of His Eternal Son; and, while the
world mocks them, or tries to reason them out of their own real
knowledge, they are like Moses on the mount, blessed and hidden,--"hid
with Christ in God," beyond the tumult and idols of the world, and
interceding for it.

3. This leads me to mention a third point of resemblance between Moses
and Christ. Moses was the great intercessor when the Israelites sinned:
while he was in the mount, his people corrupted themselves; they set up
an idol, and honoured it with feasting and dancing. Then God would have
cut them off from the land of promise, had not Moses interposed. He
said, "Lord, why doth Thy wrath wax hot against Thy people? Turn from
Thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against Thy people[12]." In
this way he gained a respite, and then he renewed his supplications. He
said to the people, "Ye have sinned a great sin; but now I will go up
unto the Lord: peradventure I shall make an a