Wayside Notes.

BITTER WATERS SWEETENED.

"And Moses cried unto the Lord; and the Lord shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet."-EXOD. xv. 25. GOOD old Jacob died after having been seventeen years in Egypt, and his beloved Joseph-who he thought had long before been lost to him-in the wonderful providence of God was the one who carried his father's body to Hebron, and had it laid in the family sepulchre. Joseph also died, at the age of one hundred and ten. And at length his brethren died likewise. Each of the twelve sons of Jacob became the progenitor of a family, or tribe, and the twelve tribes were personified by the name of Israel. And now another king arose who knew not Joseph; and, the rapid increase of the children of Israel exciting his jealousy and fear, he resorted to various means to stamp them out, but all to no purpose, for the Lord was on their side, and at last avenged their sufferings, and in the year 1490 before Christ He brought them out of Egyptian bondage in a marvellous and wonderful way. And yet, though so marvellous, how simple were the means to be employed. Moses was to lift up his rod over the sea. Well, what of that? it might have been said. Why, the waters at my so doing will divide. Surely, Moses, you cannot believe they will, it is such an improbable thing? Yes, I believe they will, because God has said so; therefore I act. Just as on another occasion when the people wanted water. Moses began to strike the rock with his staff. What an absurdity! Who ever heard of water coming out of a rock by simply striking it? Moses, thou must be beside thyself; how can you expect it? I expect it because God has said it. Oh, for more of this child-like faith, that just takes God at His word and acts accordingly! Nor did God disappoint his faith. He never does. While Moses struck the rock, the Lord bade the waters flow, and while Moses lifted up his rod over the Red Sea, the Lord caused the sea to go back, and, dividing the waters, the people passed over on dry land. What a miracle! What a proof of God's sovereign power! Not at all, say some who have tried, by their puny ideas, to weaken divine sovereignty. It was in the most shallow part of the Red Sea that the Israelites crossed, say they; it was no miracle. Not so. Others, with much more consistency, have shown that, if not the broadest and deepest part, it was at a part exceedingly deep and broad, which accords with the testimony of Scripture, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.' "But how was it that they passed over to the other side so readily? Indeed, who made the children of Israel willing to leave Egypt at all? Some among them, at all events, might have argued, it is true, "It is bad enough with us here, but it may be worse cn the other side. We get hard fare here, we may get none there." Some might have refused to go, but not a word of opposition appears. God's word is sufficient. And is it not so when the Lord brings His spiritual people out of the bondage of sin and Satan? Does He invite them to come, and, if they are not willing, leave them? Or does He outstretch His own mighty arm and bring them out? The latter was the way He dealt with us; and therefore we must to our dying breath testify of His goodness and mercy, and give

that

Him all the glory. And in what a wonderful way He did bring them out! There was the Red Sea, deep and wide, how can they get over it? Beloved, the Lord's ways are not as man's. He does not take them over, but through, it. Have you not felt this to be the case in connection with trials and depths you have had to encounter? There is no floating over them in a light boat and with a fair wind; but a going through them. Ah! and that, too, by a pathway not seen before-a pathway of the Lord's own making. The waters stood up as a wall on each side, at the divine bidding, for the redeemed of the Lord to pass through. The aspect of things looked threatening. Will not this wall of congealed. sea on each side close? Yes, it will; but not while the children of God are there. They will close upon their enemies, and that which constituted Israel's preservation shall become Egypt's destruction. But the children

of God are as safe with billows towering over them as when sitting under the shade of Elim's palm-trees. Oh, to feel this to be true! Oh, to be able to look up and believe the Lord will make a way to escape! He will direct all, and my Saviour will be with me in the midst of it, and see me safe through it. I must be safe in His keeping, whether it be in the depths or on the mount. And now Moses and the children of Israel having received deliverance and sung their memorable song, "Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the Lord." Mark, "Sing ye to THE LORD." Yes, those who have felt their helplessness, and have been brought into a condition of nothingness in connection with the work of salvation, will ascribe all blessing to the Lord. They cannot find it in their heart to raise a song that will laud man and finish with some flowing notes in praise to God; but their song must be, from first to last, "To THE LORD." And has He not done marvellously in our experience? Does not Pharaoh's discomfiture and overthrow, and the triumphant notes of the song of Moses, setting forth the accomplishment of the purpose of Jehovah in the deliverance of His ancient people, fit into, or rather foreshadow, the work of salvation He has accomplished for us? And, though the song is thousands of years old, it sets forth our case; not, it is true, temporally, but certainly spiritually.

But it is not meant that we should spend all our time in singing in the wilderness; it is only occasionally that we shall take our harps from the willows and strike some joy notes. Hence the singing of the children of Israel was soon to be turned into sighing: "And they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water." "And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?" Not at all an unnatural inquiry, It was a severe ordeal for them. Are we not apt to be surprised at their murmuring and want of faith? Ah! let us be brought into a desert state, and all visible means of sustenance fail, where would be our faith? Are we one whit better than they? Oh, no; it behoves all of us to rememberthe words, "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." But now they come in sight of water. What joy! And, if travellers are right, they tell us they trace this stream to a most delightful valley. In the bottom of the vale is a rivulet that comes from a mountain, and is about forty miles from the landing of the children of Israel. If this be so, and that, after forty miles of sterile and sandy desert, they came upon a fertile valley, how it must have added to their joy and inspired them with hope. Methinks I see them pressing on to the brink of the sparkling

stream, and becoming eager "lappers of water;" alas! to find that the water was bitter and undrinkable. Here were disappointed hopes-trial upon trial seemed their lot. And what a special trial for Moses, their leader-he who had told them such gracious things about a covenant God, and extolled Him in a rapturous song of joy. What a blow to him. How he must have staggered as, probably placing his hand upon his brow and looking with anxiety upon the gathered multitude, he heard the cry, "The water is bitter, we cannot drink it." What is to be done now? Three whole days without water. Well, the servant of the Lord did the best possible thing he could under the emergency: "And Moses cried unto the Lord." Feeling his entire helplessness, he looked up, and, with something more than a prayer, "cried unto the Lord." Moses knew the power of God, and rested upon His promise, that He would bring them unto the land. Ah, sweet faith, when all is dark, to hang upon the promise of a covenant God. Has He not said it, and will He not do it?"I will trust, and not be afraid." "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." And that this tree was a foreshadowing of the Lord Jesus Christ is evidenced from the fact that He is often compared to a tree in the sacred Scriptures. For instance, Joseph (type of Jesus) is a fruitful vine whose branches run over the wall. Again, Jesus was said to be "a Rod out of the stem of Jesse ;" and His own declaration was, "I am the Vine, ye are the branches;" while in the revelation which John received concerning Him He is called "the Tree of Life." "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the paradise of God;" and in the same vision elsewhere He is described as "the Tree of Life, whose branches were for the healing of the nations." It is, therefore, no straining of the Scriptures to see in this tree cast into the bitter waters, and causing them to become sweet, a very precious emblem of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some have troubled their heads to discover what sort of a tree it was that would make bitter waters sweet; but, to our mind, it was evidently a miraculous transaction, not in any way dependent for its success upon the nature or quality of the medium employed. It appears to us that any tree would do for the Lord's purpose if He willed it; and He always works as a Sovereign, let men do what they will to lower His power. may be said, But did He not, in the time of Elisha, bid the prophet take a cruse of salt and cast it into the unwholesome water, which became thereby sweet? Was not here the means adapted to the end? We should reply, certainly salt will purify unwholesome water, but for a cruse of it to cure a river, it must have a divine power at work beyond the mere natural cause and result.

It

Oh! we love the doctrine of God's sovereignty in all; and, if we look at ourselves as poor lost sinners, saved by sovereign grace, upheld, kept on day by day, and brought to glory, we must own the days of miracles are not at an end with our God, although men-made miracles are as ever a dishonour to His holy name.

But to return to the narrative: "The Lord shewed Moses a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet." Ah, beloved, that spot Marah is well-known in the experience of the children of God, and in some way or another they will have to drink into much bitterness of soul ere they reach the spiritual Canaan. For instance, they will have to drink of

The bitter cup of sin.-How many of the Lord's people are deeply tried on account of sin. They have received in measure a knowledge of divine things, and sometimes gain precious and peaceful moments; but, on the whole, the Holy Spirit has not produced an abiding sense of pardon within, and they are therefore kept daily wrestling and crying to know that they are forgiven, and tremble lest their faith is not from God. They have thrown themselves at the feet of Jesus with deep sorrow of heart for sin, the world has lost its attraction, and they can enjoy nothing without Jesus; but the devil scares them, and harasses them with doubts and fears relative to their pardon and salvation. Oh, how safe, really, are such exercised ones! Their very experience of soul proving that they are the Lord's own. And the opposition and persecution of Satan strengthen the fact; for Satan troubles not his own easily-led captives-they are ripe and ready for his chambers of agony at any timebut he tries hard to get a child of God; and, as he never can, he does all he can to keep them doubting. And what is the solace for this state of things? Oh, that precious tree, cast into the bitter waters, that will sweeten all.

"Bitter indeed the waters are

Which in this desert flow; Though to the eye they promise fair, They taste of sin and woe.

"But there's a wonder-working tree,
I've heard believers say,
Can make the bitter waters free,
And take the curse away."

Again, there is the bitter cup of earthly privation.-The struggle with many to obtain food to eat, and raiment to put on, often becomes cause for deep bitterness of heart and suffering. The Lord only knows what heads of families pass through on this score. There is a natural reserve about the English character that bids him shut up his position to himself, while in reality a mighty fight is going on to make ends meet. And yet with it all how true are these words, "Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust." Who among the family of God could not recount wonderful helps by the way, coming from quarters least expected, and convincing one that it has been the Lord at work for Him in answer to His child's cry of distress? We cannot look back upon the pathway without pointing with feelings of the deepest gratitude to many such times. A great poet has written :

"Would'st shape a noble life? then cast

No backward glances towards the past."

But such a sentiment will not do for the children of God, who are found casting many a glance at the past; nor will it do for the Apostle Paul, who bade us remember that "we who are quickened by the Spirit of God were once dead in trespasses and sins."

But, concerning the struggle for "the bread that perisheth." Think, dear reader, often, of those words, and may you realize the comfort of them: "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, neither for the body, what ye shall put on. Your Father knoweth ye have need of these; and He who clothes the grass of the field, how much more will He clothe you, O ye of little faith."

Again, there is the well-known bitter cup of affliction.-Yes, it must be So. We are never told that the passage to the haven of glory is an easy one; on the contrary, expressions like the following show us it is far otherwise: "In the world ye shall have tribulation." We are to carry our cross and follow Christ; yea, we are to follow "hard after Him."

We are to be crucified with Him, and to be partakers with Him of His sufferings. But, oh, the tenderness of Christ over His afflicted ones! We have in Him a sympathizing Saviour. And why? Because He knows it all, and has felt it all before us; and the best antidote to the bitter cup of suffering and affliction is to look off our sufferings to His. Ah!

"How bitter that cup no heart can conceive,

The Saviour drank up that sinners might live;
His way was much rougher and darker than mine;
Did Christ, my Lord, suffer, and shall I repine?
"Since all that I meet shall work for my good,
The bitter is sweet, the med'cine is food;

Though painful at present, 'twill cease before long,
And then, oh, how pleasant the conqueror's song."

Oh, Thou precious Redeemer, let my little sufferings be lost in Thy great ones, and let love intense flow forth in consideration that Thou nast first loved me, and therefore endured and suffered so much for me. And let me ever consider, "that the Head having been crowned with thorns, it is unsuitable that the feet should tread on roses.

But further, many of the Lord's loving ones have to drink of the bitter cup of the deprivation of the means of grace.-Not that places of worship do not abound, but the ministry is of such a namby-pamby character that the children of God loathe the skim-milk sop presented to them. And there is neither meat for the strong man, nor the wine of the Gospel for those that are in years; and it becomes with many a consideration whether it is not more profitable to stay at home and read the writings of such men as Toplady, Romaine, Irons, and such like. This is a trial of no slight description. We cannot find it in our heart to advise recommending absenting oneself from the so-called house of God, and it is difficult to know what to do under the circumstances. But in this we are assured, that, when Jesus does break in upon the soul, and become Himself " a little sanctury" to His child, it makes amends for all losses. Moments with Him sets all right. It is no starving ministry when He becomes the Guest; no empty dishes when He is present at the board; no barrenness when He manifests Himself as the Messenger of the Covenant. Oh, how precious are those moments with Jesus! Would that they were oftener experienced! Religion, with even the Lord's people, runs far too much in a groove, and settles down to a dull formality. But those love-growing, soul-encouraging glimpses of Jesus, there is a reality and vitality about them above all this, and which not merely sweetens the experienced bitter, but produces "a joy unspeakable, and full of glory." But we pass on to mention another form of trial, namely:The bitter cup of bereavement." Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away. All these things are against me," said the anguished Jacob; and, as we pen these words, the eye wanders to a dear brother in the Lord, long a widower, who has been bereft of all his children but one, and she now has removed to a distance, and he stands, as far as immediate relationship goes, alone. Yet not alone. Jesus is the sweet Tree that sweetens his bitter cup. But it is a trial, and one of the deepest dye, to have to part with dear ones. It rends the very caul of one's heart. Even if the bereavement be of only a temporary character, it is painful. "My boy," says a loving mother or anxious father, "is across the sea-in