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thus contrast their present with their former lot. They lusted after flesh. They cried out, who shall give us flesh to eat? Here were two sins, one in their dissatisfaction with the food which was provided for them, and another in their distrust of God's power and goodness.. While the Lord thus gave them day by day their daily bread, they might well have eaten it with gladness and singleness of heart; and while they saw that that food was sent to them from the hand of God, they might be sure that he could as easily change the kind of it, if it so pleased him. But this is a picture of human nature. Fallen man is a discontented being. Having forsaken his proper rest, he is uneasy and dissatisfied. Having rejected his all-sufficient portion, he frets under any other. Having forsaken the fountain of living waters, he finds that the cisterns which he has hewn out for himself, can hold no water. He is therefore continually coveting something which he has never possessed, or murmuring about something which he has lost. And these repinings are scarcely ever for the want of necessary

or beneficial things, but for such as are dangerous and hurtful, provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof. My friends, let us look into our own hearts. Then we shall have less astonishment at the Israelites. We may be conscious that we have often complained of the allotments of the wise and gracious providence of God, with as much folly as the Israelites are doing here. We have lusted after evil things, as they also lusted. We have desired what, if God had given it to us, would have been for our hurt, as perhaps in some cases we have actually found it to be. Let us learn then to watch over our own hearts. Let us repress the emotions of desire for what we have not. Let us be content with such things as we have. Let us learn to be satisfied in whatever state we are, both in the station in which God has placed us, and with the provision that he makes for us.

II. I proceed now, in the second place, to consider the consequences of this murmuring. We read in the tenth verse, "Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their

families, every man in the door of his tent : and the anger of the Lord was.kindled greatly; Moses also was displeased." Nothing could be more just than that the anger of the Lord should be kindled greatly, for nothing could be more ungrateful, perverse, and rebellious. great deliverance which he had wrought for them, and thought more of their fish aud their leeks and onions, than of that redemption from their house of bondage which he had effected by a series of most stupendous miracles. They quarrelled with the food which he was daily bestowing upon them, eagerly desired that which was more agreeable to their carnal appetite, and tempted him to a further miraculous display of his power, by providing flesh for them in a place where none was to be had. Thus as the Psalmist says, "They lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert." Well might God be provoked with all this wickedness. Brethren, it is very sinful and very displeasing to God to be dissatisfied with the appointments of his

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providence. All that he gives us he might withhold, and we should have no reason to complain, for we are not worthy of the least of his mercies. We forget our place, our dependance, our character, we forget ourselves altogether when we entertain a thought of prescribing to him what he ought to give us, and murmur if we have it not. We wholly forget who and what we are, and who and what he is, when we thus repine and complain of any of his dispensations and dealings. By this we provoke him exceedingly, making a kind of dictation to him how we should be dealt with, and presuming that we have claims upon his bounty, and may reasonably expect more than he is pleased to give us. This is moreover an impeachment of his wisdom and goodness: as if he did not know what is fit for us, or was unwilling to bestow it. It is a depreciation of his character, whether we regard him as the God, or the Father, of his creatures. Let us beware then of thus provoking the Lord to anger. Let us not tempt God by requiring meat for our lusts. Let us look for richer blessings.