water for the people to drink.

Wherefore the people did

chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink ” (Ex. xvii. 1, 2). But when the rock was smitten by the rod of Moses, water came out of it in sufficient abundance for all the people to drink. And this supply continued during the whole period of their wanderings in the wilderness. The Apostle Paul says in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, "They did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink of the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ " (1 Cor. x. 4). Even without this plain declaration of the meaning of the symbol, we might infer it, in great part at least, from the Mosaic narrative, especially when viewed in connection with passages of the Old Testament, in which thirst is made the figure of spiritual destitution and misery, and the drinking of pure or living water the figure of spiritual refreshment, as in the beginning of the sixty-third Psalm : "O God, Thou art my God; early will I seek Thee: my flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is: to see Thy power and Thy glory, so as I have seen Thee in the sanctuary" (Ps. lxiii. 1, 2); or that gracious invitation of the Lord by the prophet Isaiah: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters" (Isa. lv. 1), which we read, in the Gospel according to St John, that the Lord Jesus Christ repeated when He was upon the earth, as an invitation proceeding from Himself, and having reference to Himself. At Jerusalem, at the Feast of Tabernacles, "in the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink" (John vii. 37).

CHAPTER V.

JEWISH SYMBOLS. THE HOLDING UP OF THE HANDS OF MOSES.

BOTH the manna with which the Israelites were miraculously fed in the wilderness, and the water from the smitten rock which followed them, of which they drank, were temporary symbols, intended however to be kept in continual remembrance, and so still to serve the same purpose as when actually present to the view. The whole Jewish system was indeed temporary. Although subsisting for many centuries, it was destined to pass away, for the law had only "a shadow of good things to come," and was intended merely for a temporary purpose until the coming of that which is perfect. It belonged to a dispensation preparatory to the better dispensation of "the latter days." In like manner there were symbols presented to the view of the Israelites during the years of their wanderings in the wilderness, especially the pillars of cloud and of fire, the manna, and the water from the rock, which in their nature were specially adapted to the circumstances of that period, and unsuited to those of the people after their entrance into the land of promise. Still more temporary were other symbols connected with special occasions, and never more repeated, but known only by the record of them which makes their spiritual teaching impressive still wherever the Bible is received and read. Such is that of the holding up of Moses' hands, whilst he sat upon the top of the hill, and the host of Israel, under the command of Joshua, fought with Amalek. "And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy; and they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his

hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword" (Ex. xvii. 11-13). It has long been usual to interpret all this as symbolical of the efficacy of prayer; and doubtless it is justly so interpreted. Moses, holding up his hands was a mute appeal to God, accompanied doubtless with the uplifting of the heart to Him; it was an acknowledgment of dependence on Him as the Lord of Hosts, and of confidence in Him as the God of Israel. When human weakness manifested itself in the inability of Moses to hold up his hands any longer, then Aaron and Hur came to his aid; and this has been commonly understood as symbolical of the efficacy of united prayer, and of intercessory prayer, as showing that the people of God may be helpful to one another by their prayers, in whatsoever duty they are engaged, or whatever may be their difficulties and trials. That which took place on the top of the hill from which Moses looked upon the battle with Amalek, was not, however, merely symbolical. Some symbols are nothing else than symbols; whilst some are important otherwise. Of the latter class were the manna and the water from the rock in the wilderness, and also the holding up of the hands of Moses on the hill-top. What there took place was a great and important reality; and only when it is so considered can the value of the teaching of the symbol be properly appreciated.

CHAPTER VI.

JEWISH SYMBOLS.-THE TERRORS OF MOUNT SINAI.

Of all that took place during the time that the Israelites spent in the wilderness, the giving of the law from Mount Sinai was the thing of the greatest importance. It was accompanied with circumstances of peculiar solemnity and awfulness. "And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake" (Heb. xii. 21). Bounds were set around the mount, which the people might not pass over under pain of death. "Take heed to yourselves," the Lord said, "that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death. There shall not one hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live" (Ex. xix. 12, 13). Thus were the people taught the awfulness of the presence of God, and the necessity of strict obedience to His commands. The command not even to touch the mount was enforced by a terrible personal sensation, not only, we must surely suppose, on its own account, but also to teach the danger of transgressing any command of the Divine Law. Three days were given to the people for preparation, and Moses "sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes," an outward symbol of the holiness requisite in appearing before God. Conjugal intercourse was also forbidden, in token of the necessity of not only abstaining from fleshy lusts, but of temperance and selfdenial in the service of God.

"And it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.

And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly" (Ex. xix. 16-18).

And then it was that God spake, in the hearing of the people, all the words of the Ten Commandments, that brief sum of the moral law, which He was pleased also Himself to inscribe upon two tables of stone (Ex. xx. 1-17; Ex. xxxi. 18). "And all the people saw the thunderings and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off" (Ex. xx. 18). But why was the giving of the law accompanied with all these circumstances of terror? And why was it, that, when the people had entreated that God should not speak any more with them, lest they should die (Ex. xx. 19), and Moses, according to their request, acted as mediator between God and them, receiving the commands of God in the mount, "The sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount, in the eyes of the children of Israel?" (Ex. xxiv. 17). There can be no doubt about the answer to these questions. God appeared at Mount, Sinai to give that law of which the requirement is perfect obedience, and of which the penalty is death, not merely natural death, or the separation of the soul from the body, but spiritual and eternal death, the exclusion of the sinner from God's fellowship, and from all the joys of that place where His saints are to dwell for ever in the light of His countenance, a law of perfect holiness, not tolerating the slightest departure from strict morality, and extending to the thoughts and affections, as much as to words and actions. Therefore, the giving of the law was attended with "blackness, and darkness, and tempest," and with every circumstance calculated to fill the hearts of men with fear, that they might be impressed with the thought how fearful a thing it must be to fall into the hands of the