the other, than is presented by Aaron's running into the midst of the devoted congregation, and standing with the consecrated censer in his hands," between the living and the dead,” arresting, in its mid career of destruction, the pestilence which had already sealed the doom of "fourteen thousand" souls!

If any thing could have been wanting to confirm, in the eyes of the Israelites, the proof of God's choice of Aaron afforded by the acceptance of his atoning incense,-the miracle of his rod alone budding while those of the other tribes remained dry and sapless, would afford to the mind of a gross and carnal people, a continual testimony of his selection for the priesthood. Accordingly, long after the rod itself, with the other contents of the ark, were lost, the Jews preserved the memory of the miraculous rod by striking it on some of their coins.

"

The murmurings" of the rebels seem, by this decisive testimony, to have been, for a time at least, silenced and suppressed; and not long after we shall find the much-tried object of them, the venerable Aaron, resigning at once his life and office for a better world, and " more enduring priesthood."

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In the mean time, let us draw from this day's lesson deep and humbling reflections of the dan

ger of spiritual pride, and the temptations peculiar to the professing servants of God. That very descent from Levi and nearness to the altar and its offices, which formed the boast of "Korah and his company," caused their memorable fall; and many are there among us to whom this fall may read a solemn lesson.

"We are all holy," said the ambitious usurping sons of Kohath, because, thanks to their birth and God's favour to their tribe, their honoured hands had often borne aloft, in the sight of the people, the ark of Jehovah's immediate presence. Better had it been for them never to have enjoyed the envied distinction, than by abusing it as they did, to question God's appointments, outrage his authority, and profane, with mad ambition, his violated sanctuary! But yet tolerable in the day of judgment" will it be for them than for us, if with clearer light and gospel advantages we presume on any degree of supposed sanctity, or ground of acceptance with God, that shall supersede His sole Mediator, and set at nought that" great High Priest" of whom Aaron was but the humble and fallible earthly representative!

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MORNING FOURTEENTH.

LESSON.-Numbers, Chapters xx. and xxi.

MAMA. We have, in the beginning of this day's reading, the melancholy yet instructive spectacle of the chosen nation, whom in the strength of their God we had triumphantly accompanied to the threshold of the promised land, once more wanderers on the confines of Egypt, and sojourners in Kadesh; one of the names of which latter station, viz. that of " Barnea," signifies, we are told, the "son of wandering." I hope you remember what it was that thus overclouded their bright prospects, and cast them forth once more into the desert, where the miraculous support they had so ill deserved, alone enabled them to exist as monuments alike of the Divine justice and mercy. How did they, (like Esau, of whose descendants we have read today), forfeit their birth-right, and bring on themselves these calamities?

MARY. Oh! we read about it the other day. They believed the wicked spies rather than God, and "would not go up to possess the good land he had given them."

MAMA. Very well remembered, if you have made the important application, that want of faith is equally the bar to the enjoyment of spiritual privileges. God has given us a "better country, even an heavenly," and raised up faithful witnesses, like Caleb and Joshua, to testify its infinite value, and the " access we all may have to it by the one true and living way;" and shall the close of life find us, like the Israelites, unprofitable wanderers in the wilderness of sin, which, like them, we had but to " call on our God," and bid adieu to for ever?

What eminent person first paid the penalty which disobedience had entailed on all that generation, save Caleb and Joshua?

MARY. Miriam, Mama. She must have been of a great age, for she was old enough to watch by the river when Moses was a little baby. I remember how cleverly she managed getting him nursed by his own mother.

MAMA. Yes, it is supposed she was then twelve years old, and by her prudent conduct at that period, she certainly contributed, under Providence, to the religious nurture of her brother's

infant years. She died "full of days," at the age of one hundred and thirty, four months before Aaron and eleven before Moses; and was buried, Josephus tells us, with great solemnity, while later writers say, her sepulchre at Kadesh was to be seen in their time.

What trial soon after proved the people to have profited little by their thirty-seven years' experience of God's bounty in their daily sustenance?

MARY. There was no water; but they need not have minded that I am sure. They knew that Moses could get it from God for a word.

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MAMA. Yes, Mary, but they forgot it. Do you never, never forget that there is a living water" more essential still to your nourishment and growth in which a grace, 66 greater than Moses can and will provide for you, would you yourself but say the "word" which alone can make the gracious fountain flow? What says its heavenly and compassionate guardian Christ himself on this humbling backwardness?" Ye will not come to me that ye might have life."

Did the Israelites, in pious remembrance of God's former miracle, now confidently apply to Moses for relief?

MARY. No; they "chode with him," and said, "Would God we had died when our brethren died before the Lord." How wicked, Mama!