days will begin, and your triumphs will begin. What hinders you? What hindered in the case of the Israelites?

Was it that the Captain of the Hosts of God forsook them? Was it that Jordan was too difficult for them to pass? Was it that the cities were too great and mighty? Were the inhabitants so strong, that the tribes were unable to cope with them? Alas, it was unbelief.

Brethren, there were Canaanites in the land. The possession that God had promised to the people of Israel was occupied by what the Spirit of God would call "the world, and the flesh, and the devil." They had not courage to take possession. One man, in the strength of God we read, went up and made himself master of Hebron, the stronghold of the Jebusites. There are not many Calebs amongst us nowadays, and Caleb said he was able, for God was with him. And yet the whole nation was unable to conquer the least of all the cities, because they went up in their own strength.

We are in the world, brethren, and God would have us enjoy ourselves and pass into possession of everything that His love has provided for us; but the difficulties of the way, the enemies we meet, the old habits we have contracted, a thousand things of what we call "selfinterest," stand in the way as the Canaanites did to the children of Israel; and we go not in to possess the land. Let me make one more remark. Did not God give Israel deliverance from Egypt? And when they did leave Egypt, did He not carry them through? He did. Did He not make them enter the Wilderness? Did He not lead them, did He not feed them, did He not protect them there? Yes, He did; and their long delay in the

journey was their own fault. Did He not command them to go into Canaan? He did. And didn't He promise to every one that followed and obeyed that command that he should have the land on which he put his foot? And wherever the promise was acted upon was not the triumph complete, and the possession of the land complete? It was!

Brethren, these things are written for our instruction. They are written for our benefit. Just as truly as the blood of Christ has delivered the soul from death, just so truly has the blood of Christ given you and me a title to perfect peace, perfect joy and peace in believing that we may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. But many who have faith to leave Egypt, many who have faith to bear the privations and the intricacies of the Wilderness, somehow or other have not the faith to trust God to enter Canaan. May God bless the truth of these typical lessons to your souls!

IV.

Lessons from Israel's Exodus.

HE remarkable history of the Exodus of the

THE remara Israel was intended, as the Spirit of

Children of

God distinctly told us, as symbolical. While it was, of course, true history, nevertheless underlying it is the experience of every true child of God. And if there be amongst us a true child of God, he can read the story of his own salvation in the records of the Exodus of the people of Israel.

You remember they were bondslaves; and so have we been, grinding under the iron tyranny of the god of this world, endeavouring to make bricks without straw, and forgetting God. Oh, brethren, there is not a child of God amongst us who has not to deplore that a long period of his earthly life has been thus miserably spent. The Lord provided a deliverer; it was such as could never have entered into the heart of man to conceive. The Israelites were commanded to take a lamb. Observe, the order was universal. It was irrespective of the character of the man to whom the direction was given. Whatever might have been his class amongst the class of slaves of which he was one, it signified not.

Whether he was young or old, whether he was rich or

poor, whether he was a noble or a peasant, the command was universal-to take a lamb, slay it, sprinkle the doorposts with the blood of the lamb; and when God passes through the land, visiting sin and bringing judgment upon the sinners in the land of Egypt, "when He sees the blood, He will pass over you." Ah, brethren, is there a child of God amongst us who knows not this blessed experience? In the land of darkness and of judgment we have heard God's message in the "glad tidings of great joy" which this Gospel gives under the shelter of the blood of the Lamb; and, by God's grace, we have gone behind the shelter.

Now that blood did more than protect the Israelites from the destroying angel in Egypt; it secured them an entrance into the Promised Land; and we have the memorial of that Passover night in Egypt, when, coming to Gilgal, and Jordan passed, the people were gathered round Joshua to praise God for the great salvation bestowed.

I wonder if we have got so far as that? I fear there are a great number amongst us who cannot say this. Oh, brethren, it is too true! We only see the blood as delivering us from the condemnation (if we have got even so far as that); but we do not see the blood as sealing our possession of Canaan. How far have we got in the Christian life, dear brethren? Let us, just before we enter upon this very blessed and important subject— a subject of deep Christian experience-let us just pause a little, and see how far we have got. I am afraid there are some of us in Egypt still! Of course, I address you as a Christian congregation; I would to God I could realise that we were all on the other side of the Red Sea,

spiritual Egypt behind us, and Canaan before us. But I am afraid there are some of us who are still experiencing what is written in the sixth chapter of the Book of Exodus ;-the message of God is given to us as to the Israelites before they were brought out of Egypt. What a wonderful message it was!

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Say to the Children of Israel, I am Jehovah, and I will bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments."

Are there not many of us, dear friends, in whose ears the love of God has been sounding ever since we were little children, calling us to the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ; calling us from sin and bondage; and we have not yet hearkened to the voice of the Lord? And what excuse have we got?

Well, there are others, perhaps, who have got a stage farther than that. They have heard the word of the Lord, and are sick of the bondage. The fleshpots they have given up; they have gone out; they have commenced their journey; they have heard of Him who is ready to carry them safe through the Wilderness; and it has been a very pleasant sound to them, as the harmony of him who can "play well upon stringed instruments. Oh, happy beginning! And they get as far as Pihahiroth; but when they see the waters before them, and the dangers, and the difficulties, they are afraid. They do not like the Slough of Despond, and they have got no farther. They have no faith to go into the water. The moment difficulty arises, or trial, or persecution on account of the Word, like those whom our Saviour