people mourned greatly. They mourned, because the Lord had said that they should never enter the promised land, but should turn from it, and wander in the wilderness, and die there.

But on the morrow, the people rose up early in the morning, and said, "We will go up unto the place which the Lord hath promised, for we have sinned." But Moses said, "Wherefore do ye transgress the commandment of the Lord? Go not up, for the Lord is not among you. Because ye are turned away from the Lord, therefore the Lord will not be with you."

The children of Israel had sinned many times, and had been forgiven. But now by another and still more grievous sin, they had forfeited their inheritance, and they could not get it back. If they had gone up to take the land of Canaan when God commanded them, the people of that land would have fled before them, and they would have entered in, and dwelt there. But now they could not enter in and take the land, for God had said that they should never see it. They had now to bear the punishment of their sin.

They were now to turn away from the promised land, to wander in the wilderness until they died.

Yet this evil people did not regard God's word. Though they had said that they had sinned, they thought that they could be as if they had not sinned. They forgot that God was angry with them. They thought that they could get back their inheritance, if they chose to seek it. They had lightly despised God's promised blessings : they thought that they could lightly get them back. They said that they would now go up into the promised land, though the Lord had said, that now they should not enter it. And they would not hearken to Moses when he warned them not to go.

So the children of Israel put on their weapons of war, and went up to take the land of Canaan. Then the Canaanites came out against them, and chased them, and destroyed them.

The children of Israel could not stand against their enemies, for the Lord was not with them.

Then they returned, and wept before the Lord; but the Lord would not hearken to them. They

repented now when it was too late; the time for repentance was past now.

Thus God's people lost by sin their hope of the promised land.

Then Moses and the children of Israel turned away from that pleasant land, the land of Canaan, and went back into the wilderness to wander there.

Numbers xiv. & Deut. i. 41-45.

To mourn, is to weep and be sorry.

To transgress, is to neglect or disobey a command. Transgressions are sins.

To regard, is to mind or give heed to. To disregard, is not to mind or give heed to.

Weapons are swords, or bows and arrows, or other things with which men fight.

To chase, is to pursue or follow after.

Chapter LXVI.

THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL THE TYPE OF THE CHRISTIAN.

THE history of the children of Israel should teach Christians many solemn lessons. God has caused it to be written for our instruction.

The great things which God did for His people of old, the good things He promised to them, should make us think of the greater things that He has done for us, the better things which He has promised to us. And the things which happened to them, should be examples for our warning, that we should not sin as they sinned. For if we sin as they sinned, God will punish us as He punished them. Sin will bring God's wrath upon us, and keep us from our promised blessings.

The children of Israel were God's people then ; Christians are God's people now1.

God sent

1 2 Cor. vi. 16. 18. 1 Pet. ii. 9, 10. Gal. iii. 29. Eph. ii. 19, 20.

His own Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to make us His people; to bring us forth out of the state of sin in which we were born, and to deliver us from the power of the devil?.

The bondage of sin is far worse than the hard bondage of Egypt; and the devil is a more cruel master to those who serve him, than Pharaoh was to the children of Israel. For though the devil makes his service seem pleasant for a little while to those who serve him, yet in the end, unless they escape from him, he will surely bring them to sorrow and to suffering, which will last for

ever.

The kingdom of heaven is the Christian's promised land. Our life in this world is the wilderness through which we must pass to reach it. Heaven is our inheritance. There Christ has prepared a place for all who love Him, and obey His voice.

And as God was with the children of Israel to lead them the way in a pillar of cloud by day,

2 Luke i. 69. 74. Acts xxvi. 18. Coloss. i. 13. Rom. vi. 14. 17, 18. Heb. ii. 14, 15.