cret thought, that thou canst escape, save by the imputed merits of Christ, and Christ alone - the wall of waters on the right hand and on the left! Evil then shall not come nigh thee. The inhabitants of Egypt shall then melt away.-Triumphant in Christ, thou wilt stand, like Israel in the sea, Redeemed; Sanctified, and Delivered. "Fear and great dread shall fall upon your enemies;--by the greatness of thine arm, shall they be as still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O Lord;-till the people pass over which thou hast purchased. Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance; in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in; in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established." * Israel then has passed safely through the waters; but life, typified by the wilderness is still before them; it lies interposed between their deliverance from Egypt-the fallen nature, -and Canaan-the inheritance of heaven; and emerging from baptism into life,―rendered holy and acceptable in the sight of their Creator, they prepared to advance under the protecting shadow of Jesus. The land of promise is far distant from them; and they must endure great severity of probation; because it must now be demonstrated in their outward conduct, that they have a due sense, and are not unworthy of the favor which has been extended to them. They have now every advantage, which can in reason be expected. The visible arm of God, which has so lately been stretched over them, is still their protection. The emblems of the Deity, in the sight of all the camp, are at once * Exod. xv. 16. their surety and their guidance. Christ's promises are unbounded; and with songs of united thanksgiving and triumph, they enter their mystic course through the wilderness of Sinai. We have hitherto viewed them in the single relation of men fallen, like Adam, into sin;-called from their state of thraldom by the Deity; and obeying (-like every soul under the pressing conviction and reality of sin)-obeying the divine voice with cheerfulness and alacrity. But a new and more brilliant light now breaks in upon us. Figures now of human nature in its redeemed state, their minutest actions become important; and take, in a more especial manner, that form and semblance, which distinguish them from the actions of any other nation which has existed on the earth. Their wanderings;-their deeds;—their ceremonies; their depressions;-their triumphs, become alike invested with a grave and sacred character;-the true and spiritual meaning of which may be said to belong, less to themselves, than to the future ages of Christianity. As records of the future, taken in the prophetic sense and cypher, in which we affirm that they have been written, nothing can be more brilliant. The typical, like the real progress of the Christian increases, in the language of St. Paul, more and more unto a perfect day. As records of the past-as a nation's history;-nothing in many of the lesser transactions can be more meaningless or uninstructive. The man loses both the spirit and the sense of Scripture who neglects the adaptation. What great profit or instruction, for instance, taken simply in the outward sense, can we glean from the first recorded fact after their entrance into the wilderness? Israel, we read, went three days' journey into the wilderness, and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters, for they were bitter. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, what shall we drink? And he cried unto the Lord; and the Lord shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet.' Now taken in the outward sense, it will amount to this; that the people murmured at the bitterness of the water, and God wrought a miracle to satisfy their murmurings. It resolves itself into the mere fact, 'and an additional evidence, that miracles were wrought in their favor in the wilderness. The profit and the instruction in this case seem to consist chiefly in the general proof of God's power and beneficence. But read it in what we believe its esoteric sense. Israel had just entered by baptism into the wilderness of life. That symbol completed, God designed, on their first entrance, to shadow forth by another figure, that though saved from bondage through the waters, they could yet neither proceed nor even exist, without an entire faith and reliance on Himself. And this truth he displayed by a most significant emblem ;-(significant to themselves, as well as to us, who behold their deeds in their full tendencies) ----even by the same emblem which had just ministered to their preservation. Water had just saved them from Pharaoh; and by water he demonstrated the required faith in his future power. It will again be recollected, that in Scripture, water is the recognized * Exod. xv. 23. symbol of truth. Israel then journeys three days in the wilderness without water. They at length reach a spring; but they cannot drink, for it is bitter. It is the figure of religion without Christ;-religion which has the form and ceremony, but not the sweetness and salubrity of Truth. Moses prays to God, and God shews him a certain tree-of which, if a branch be cast in the waters will become sweet. The branch!-the tree of life;-the budding rod which confirmed Aaron in the priesthood;-" the righteous branch."*-The easily recognized Scriptural emblem of Christ;-which cast in and mingled with the waters of religion, will render them sweet and refreshing to the multitudes. This truth is very clearly indicated in the subsequent verse; for after the tree was cast in, we read; -that, "there"-at Marah-" he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them, and said, "If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord that healeth thee.” It will be observed, that the whole of the exhortation is strictly dependent on the miracle which has just been performed; and that without it, the covenant would lose half its force and application;-" there he proved them." The expression also by which the sentence is closed, "for I am the Lord that healeth thee," is most manifestly an allusion to their spiritual state, and the emblematic character of the miracle; *Jer. xxiii. 5. -demonstrating by it, that, if obedient and faithful to his Law, and the hope of Redemption by the Messiah," the promised seed"-He would heal the evil of their souls as powerfully and as surely as he had just healed the bitterness of the waters. I would fain, in this place, add one word of caution on the mode in which many transactions are related in Scripture; as it may frequently happen that events, involving the most weighty and important principles may be narrated, to all appearance, so incidentally, that we may pass them by with a transient glance, when in point of fact, they merit our most patient investigation. We should take it with us as a rule, that where all is transmitted by inspiration, nothing can be unimportant; and that truth will rise upon us with increased force, that in seemingly the most trivial things inferences of the deepest moment are capable of being deduced. Thus in the case which we have more immediately in our mind, the waters are bitter;-a branch is thrown in, and they become sweet. An exhortation founded upon this event follows, comprized in a single sentence; and the history proceeds to other subjects. But this was probably done in reality with much ceremony. The thousands of Israel were probably collected in a dense mass around the waters. Thousands perhaps had in succession tasted them;— distrustful, in the excess of their thirst of the evil report of those who had preceded them, and had proved their bitterness. Their murmurs gradually rose to a head, and spread through the vast multitudes. Much time also had probably been consumed in these things. Moses at length, it is reasonable C C |