صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

Lord is prospering more in their hands than it does in our own. It is uncatholic and unchristian when any cannot bear with patience to see good done except in their own way, and within the walls of their own place of worship, or the sphere of their own communion. In the vast multitude of souls that are every where perishing for lack of knowledge, and living without God in the world, in the myriads who need to be turned from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God, we see cause enough to desire that greater far may be the number of those who preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, but nothing to make us wish to diminish their number, or circumscribe their labours. ther may we say, in the admirable spirit here exhibited by Moses, "Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them :" the Lord add unto their number, how many soever they be, an hundred fold, and that our eyes may see it.

Ra

Yet surely we may also desire and pray for the prosperity and increase of true and faithful

men within the pale of our own church; and if some among ourselves have been found who would willingly tolerate none but those who belong to us, there are also not a few of those who differ who have evil will at our Zion, and would rejoice in her downfall. May the Spirit of the Lord descend upon all; a spirit of knowledge and piety, a spirit of forbearance and candour, a spirit of peace and love, a spirit that shall teach us in honour to prefer one another, a spirit that shall make us all more zealous for the glory of our common Lord, and less envious and hostile to each other.

SERMON XXII.

THE SIN OF AARON AND MIRIAM.

NUMBERS XII. 1, 2.

And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman. And they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it?

WHOEVER is placed in any office of public authority will often feel himself exposed to many trials and mortifications. In our last sermon but one we saw Moses most injuriously treated by the people at large, and now we have to consider other provocations from a nearer quarter. One might have expected that the affectionate attentions, love, and

support, which he found among his own

relations, would have been some relief to him in the trials by which his spirit was so much harassed in his public capacity. But here also he was disappointed: and if he had trouble from the mixed multitude, from whom perhaps he could look for little else, he had trouble also from those who were nearest to him, and might be called bone of his own bone, and flesh of his own flesh; for Miriam was the sister, and Aaron the brother, of Moses.

The clamour which these two raised against Moses is said to have been on account of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married. This we conclude to have been Zipporah, the daughter of the priest of Midian. It would be unavailing to enquire why they spake against him on her account. Some think that it was because he had married a stranger, and that they conceived that she had too great influence over him; others on the contrary suppose that they took part with her, because Moses had put her away. But whatever the cause of their opposition might be, we see what their spirit was, by the course which it

took, and the complaints which they made. "Hath the Lord spoken only by Moses ?" say they, "Hath he not also spoken by us ?" They were jealous of his authority, and claimed for themselves a similar exercise of power. We may naturally conclude that they were displeased that the seventy elders had been selected by Moses alone, and especially as Aaron himself was not one of the number.

Now the lust of power is a desire strongly prevalent in our fallen nature. We see that striving to be the greatest was a sin which beset the followers of even the meek and lowly Jesus. Let us however learn, from his example and precepts, to let nothing be done through strife and vain glory, but in lowliness of mind to esteem others better than ourselves. Pride and contention, my Christian brethren, are great sins in our fallen nature, to be much prayed against, and by all means to be kept down; on the other hand humility and peace are graces of the Spirit of God, to be earnestly supplicated and diligently cultivated.

The only observation respecting the manner

« السابقةمتابعة »