In each of the books which have to do with Israel as a nation we have that which is appropriate to and consistent with its main theme. Thus in Exodus, which treats of redemption, by the blood of the lamb and by power, all the contents of the book are in harmony with that thought. In the first part, before the passover, we have the house of bondage, with the judgments that fall upon it:in the part after redemption has been effected, we have the house of God, which He sets up in the midst of a re-redeemed, subject people. Coming to Leviticus, we pass into a different atmosphere. It is, we might say, the internal character of redemption rather than the external; access to God, rather than shelter from judgment; holiness as contrasted with, though not exclusive of, righteousness; priestly fitness, privilege, and worship. Therefore it is in that book we find sacrifice so prominently and variedly put before us. The character of God and the grounds upon which we have access to Him are emphasized in this. In the book of Numbers, on the contrary, the world is again faced; no longer, however, a place of bondage in which we need redemption, but as a place where the Lord's free people exhibit both the power of that grace which has set them free, and the practical separation from defilement which it is now their responsibility to maintain. Thus we might say that the characteristic theme of these three books respectively is redemption, sanctification, and a pilgrim walk. It is of this last that our chapter speaks.

But if these books are of distinct and separate character, none the less are they connected together most closely, and in the order in which they stand. They represent not merely for Israel literally, but for ourselves typically, the order in which grace meets our needs, and the experience of the soul in the apprehension of that grace. For us as for them, before there can be any true knowledge of God, before there can be any true testimony or walk for Him in this world, redemption with its accompanying deliverance must be known as an accomplished fact. Where this is not the case, there will always be an uncertainty and a wavering that makes the superstructure as fragile as the foundation is unstable. Thank God, His foundation is sure. He knows them that are His, even if they do not know themselves. Alas for the weak and faulty teaching that makes such a state of things possible; but practically, if redemption is not known and enjoyed, it is as if it did not exist. Thus redemption comes first; then the truth as to access to God – the sacred privileges and joys of His holy presence-can be truly appreciated, and this in turn opens the way for the narrow path of separation that marks our pilgrim journey in this world. But we cannot thus rapidly glance over these precious and familiar truths without pausing to admire the wonders of that love that has made such full provision for us, His unworthy people. What gentleness, thoughtfulness, provision for the weakness and helplessness of His people is here represented. He calls to no hard service; He calls, from hard service. The first object that meets their eyes as they turn from the brick-kilns and the taskmasters' lash, is the unblemished lamb and its sheltering blood. What peace comes from that blessed assurance, "When I see the blood I will pass over you." Again, before they set foot upon the testing part of the wilderness (for all before Sinai had been pure grace – eagles' wings), they are introduced into a Presence which, if holy is holy with the perfection of peace and love. How our God would ever remind us that we are dealing with perfect love. Well would it be for His beloved people if they were well grounded in these blessed facts before entering upon the testing experiences of a journey which will bring out every weak spot in us. Stumble we doubtless will, and learn humiliating lessons as to ourselves, but oh the joy of being able to turn to a love that is well known, to a grace which has already perfectly proven itself. We repeat, let not the familiarity of these truths deter us from making constant use of them, and let nothing be harbored that will mar the simplicity of our joy in the wonders of redeeming love. But we must not anticipate our chapter.

All has been arranged:sacrifices prescribed, the daily routine of holy services and provision for special cases; the tribes have been gathered in goodly order round the tabernacle, linked together by that center and by the Levitical ministry; the camp has been cleansed, and the dedicatory gifts of the princes have been offered. They are now facing the desert in reality, and have entered upon a new year. The chapter before us marks this new beginning in a very clear way. It lays down for their guidance certain simple but most important principles which are to mark the whole of their subsequent journey through the wilderness. For ourselves, then, this chapter is of the greatest value, for it tells us how we can truly be pilgrims in this world.

There are three clearly defined subjects in the chapter:the passover, provision for the defiled, and the pillar of cloud as their guide. These three give us in brief outline the guide for our pilgrim way. Let us look at them briefly in their order.

First, we have the passover. How different were the circumstances under which this second paschal feast was observed from those of the first. Then they were still, to outward appearance, bondmen; and that, too, in a scene where judgment reigned and where the final act of that judgment was impending. Between them and the Egyptians there was nothing to mark a difference, save what to sight seemed a small distinction. But that was everything. The blood of the lamb shielded them, while" it declared the certainty of judgment for all who were not beneath its protection. What searchings of heart there must have been among the Israelites on that eventful night, – "a night much to be remembered." The memory of their own sins and unworthiness might well make them serious; and if there were not the simplest faith in the bare word of God, – God whom they knew not very well – there might well be trembling and uncertainty until the dreaded hour was past. Even where faith was in simple exercise, the stir, the forsaking Egypt, with all the attending circumstances, would stamp as unique that one night in all their history.

And as we remember the time when we first came under the shelter of the blood of the true Lamb of God, as we think of the conviction of sin that preceded it, of the soul anxiety, the upheaval of all that seemed most solid in our life, – when we remember the fear and trembling with which we took our place beneath the shelter of the cross,- did it not mark an event which stands out in all our lives, even in our own experience; how much more when we remember that apart from all the feebleness of our apprehension of it, then we passed from death into life, from the doom of judgment into redemption.

We say under what different circumstances Israel celebrated the passover in the second year. They were now a redeemed and pilgrim people under the gracious government of God, and had learned many lessons since that eventful night. So for ourselves, we have become established, perhaps, have learned much of the word of God, and something of His ways. Will not this change in our condition be correspondingly marked by a different place, or a different order in the observance of the memorial of redemption ? God had said it was to be "the beginning of months" to them, the new year. But that was when they were a nation born in a day. Did not something else eclipse that now? Let us mark well what the answer must be for them and for us.

Nothing could displace the passover. It was to be first ever, in their thoughts and in their observances. It was to be kept "at his appointed season." Redemption was first. It was to be observed without modification, "according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof." There was to be no mutilation of it; the unleavened bread, the bitter herbs, the roast lamb, – all were to have their place ; forever after in their history was this to be the case. Nor is it different with us. No matter what may have intervened ; how deep and many the experiences we may have passed through, the blessed precious fact of redemption stands out in unchanged character. Time has not altered it, neither its value, blessed be God, nor the stamp of death and condemnation it has put upon the natural man. As at the first, it maintains its pre-eminent place, – nothing can supersede it. It is ever to us as to God, the "beginning of months."

This is the keynote of the wilderness walk. The believer's whole life is marked by this – the preeminence of redemption through the cross of Christ. It has the first place; no subsequent truth can displace this foundation fact. It is emphasized in the Christian feast of the Lord's Supper. We show the Lord's death till He come; and the frequency intimated in the New Testament (see Acts 20:7) is none too often for those who remember that in heaven itself the song will still be "unto Him who loveth us, and hath washed us from our sins in His own blood."

"As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him." (Col. 2:6.) How did we receive Him ? What place did He occupy in our thoughts then ? So is it to be throughout the whole walk. We are to walk in Him. And so far from this checking growth, it is the one essential to all true progress. Where is there a Christian to whom the redemption of Christ is the first thing, who is not "rooted and built up in " Christ ? But this brings us to the second part of our chapter.

The world is a place of defilement. It is preeminently that, because it is away from God. Nothing alienated from Him can be truly clean. It is the cleanness of death that is in the world, the whited sepulchers of which our Lord spoke to the Pharisees. So we need not be surprised to learn that such defilement had come into the camp of Israel. We need not dwell much upon what this typifies for us. If death is everywhere present in this scene, if alienation from God is stamped upon it all, we need not be surprised if the believer is in danger of coming in contact with it. Wherever we turn, whatever we take up, there is this danger of coming in contact with death. If one goes into business, he finds it there; none the less in the proper and necessary re-relaxation from business; in the home circle, it is there; and should we retire into the inmost chambers of our hearts, there we still find this defiling influence.

But is not this overdrawn ? Does it not cast a chill over one, and check altogether the aspirations after holiness, which mark any true Christian growth? We answer no; quite the reverse, in fact, when we remember that if defiling influences are everywhere present, we are not thereby defiled. That there is danger we need to remember; that there is necessity for defilement is most untrue. Look at our blessed Lord as He passed through this death-scene. Did His holy footsteps shrink from any scene of sin and death? Were not His hands laid upon the leper,- the very bier of death, too? But what spot remained upon Him? He scattered blessing and cleansing in the very place of defilement, instead of gathering as we, alas, too often do, spots and blemishes as we pass along.

But He has "left us an example that we should follow His steps," and the power as well to keep ourselves in the midst of all that presses upon us. It was the uncovered vessel that gathered defilement from the chamber of death (Num. 19:15). Let the heart be kept covered; let Christ Himself be that covering, and there will be no possibility of defilement ; we can pass through this scene with garments unspotted.

To return now. Certain Israelites were defiled by the dead body of a man, and were therefore outside the camp (Num. 5:2), unable therefore; to unite with their brethren in the holy feast. This they feel most keenly, both as a reflection upon themselves as Israelites perhaps, and as a deprivation of their proper privileges. They demand their rights and Moses waits upon God for His answer. That answer meets both their difficulties at once, and at the same time establishes the great truth of God's holiness and His government.

They were to eat the passover. That settled the question of their being Israelites, and thus entitled to all their redemption privileges. But when were they to eat it? In the second month; and that maintained the holiness and government of God. During that interval their cleansing by means of the water of separation could and must be effected (Num. 19:), and thus neither their privileges cease nor God's holiness be violated. All this is most interesting and instructive, too, for us in these times. We are living in times when anything like order, or the maintenance of scriptural government, is considered either legal or arbitrary. Is not every believer a child of God, and therefore entitled to all privileges as such? How dare we draw a line between the people of God, and make a difference? With this portion of God's holy word before us, we need not be moved by such objections. Let it be marked well that the question of defilement does not raise the question of sonship. Thank God, that was settled once and forever for us when we came under the shelter of the blood of the Lamb. Nor is the right of the believer to all the privileges of the Christian questioned; but the holiness of God's government is emphasized, and until he is restored according to that holiness he is unfit, nay it is impossible for him to enjoy what is as truly his as the privilege of any child of God.

How significantly does this passover in the second month suggest not merely the effect but the cause of the defilement. Does not God say, as it were, You have put redemption in a secondary place? Something else has been allowed to come in and usurp the unique place which the cross should occupy in all our hearts. It may not be open sin into which the believer has fallen:it usually is not, though it might easily lead to that, did not God in mercy intervene. The complaint against Ephesus (Rev. 2:) was that she had lost her first love, – first in pre-eminence as well as in time. Oh, beloved brethren, if the love of Christ has found but a second place in our hearts, need we be surprised if our joy, our worship, our liberty, are of a secondary character as well ? Need we be surprised if defilement by death-contact has come in, and it is not possible for us to "keep the feast?"

How touching, then, does this passover in the second month remind us both of our own failure-the fruits of it-and of the patient grace of our Lord, who has stood still and waited till, restored by the "water of separation," we have returned to Himself again. The only reminder of our folly being the second month, as in Peter's recovery the only reminder of his folly was in the fire of coals and the thrice-repeated question, " Lovest thou Me?" Ah ! as we gather about our Lord in remembrance of His death ; with so much that speaks of the second month, so much feebleness of worship, so much necessity for the cleansing by the water of the Word, may tears of real shame and sorrow be ours that such is the witness, the proof of heart-departure from Himself ! Poor indeed is the excuse that pleads we were necessarily defiled,-business and cares pressed so, or we were on a journey. Rather let honest confession put us into our true place before Him, and He will then have His true place in our hearts.
" And yet to find Thee still the same,
'Tis this that humbles us with shame."

In leaving this part of our subject, we will simply notice that this passover in the second month seems to signify the restoration of the ten tribes to the Lord in the future day of Ephraim's blessing; and in harmony with this, as well as for other reasons, Hezekiah's passover was held in the second month. (2 Chron. 30:1-3.) The ten tribes have taken a long journey away from God, and have become not only defiled by the dead, but have themselves become as dead and buried among the nations. (Ezek. 37:11-14.) When they are raised up and restored back to Him, they will again enjoy all their privileges which they have forfeited through their unbelief :"Then shall ye remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight, for your iniquities and your abominations." (Ezek. 36:31.)

But we pass on to the last portion of our chapter. The wilderness is a journeying place; and if there is the danger of journeying away from God, there is the blessed and happy privilege of journeying with Him. The first step of their journey, even in Egypt, was taken under the guidance of the pillar of cloud and fire. And here, when the tabernacle was set up, the cloud hovered over it, moving only when the people were to journey, and returning to its station at each stage of their progress. They were to follow implicitly that unerring guide. When, it rested, whether a day, a month, or a year, they were to abide quietly in the camp; and when it lifted, whether by day or night, they were to follow unquestioningly.

How beautifully was this cloud in contrast with their surroundings. Was it in the day-time, there was a cloud, darker than the garish brightness around them, but shielding them from the heat as it came between them and the sun:was it night, the darkness did but manifest the brightness of a presence whose reality and beauty were but enhanced by the surrounding gloom. We have this blessed presence always with us in the person of the Holy Spirit, who abides with us forever. All through our journey, until we take the last step of our pilgrimage, He is pledged to be with us; "we are sealed unto the day of redemption." When all shines bright in the world about us, His holy witness may seem a cloud by contrast, yet a cloud that affords most grateful shade from the false glare about us. Ah ! did we note the cloud, did we listen to the warnings and checks of the blessed Spirit of God ! But when the gloom of this world settles about us, when all else is dark, how brightly does the presence of God shine, through the ministry of the Holy Ghost. Oh ! sorrow, pain, grief, loss, are but the foil upon which the consolations of Him " who giveth songs in the night " do but shine out all the more brightly.

This holy presence was to be Israel's guide all through the wilderness, and it is to be ours also. How simple it made their journey ! No need for anxious thought for the morrow; no restless peering into the unknown future, still less any entreaty of a child of the desert "to be to us instead of eyes" (Num. 10:31); we have the guidance of One who "neither slumbers nor sleeps," to whom the darkness and the light are both alike, and who has pledged His word "My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest" (Ex. 33:14),- a word given, as the connection well shows, at a time of fearful unbelief and departure from Him. Well may we sing –

"O Lord, how blest our journey,
Though here on earth we roam,
Who find in Abba's favor
Our spirits' present home."

A blessed journey indeed, where not one step is taken ahead of our blessed Guide, where we need never leave the sweet secret of His holy presence. What a remedy for all anxiety, all restless Martha-service, all hasty Peter-warfare. It occupies us, not with the way, whether it be smooth or rough, whether it be easy or perilous. It fixes our eye upon Christ, as reflected by the Holy Spirit, and we follow as He leads. Our one, our only care is just to abide in His presence. Does that presence beckon us onward? let us move forward unfearing; does it stand still? let us learn our lesson of patience. If in the darkest hour of trial it lift and move forward it is for us simply to follow,- to follow not for the sake of mere progress, but simply to continue in communion with our blessed Lord; for if we fail to go on when He leads we lose our communion, just as we do if we press on in undue or self-confident haste. May our gracious God teach us His holy lesson, to abide in His holy, blessed presence.

We have, then, in these three portions that which is to mark our pilgrim way:-Christ and His redemption ever first in our hearts; restoration when there has been failure; and the simple abiding in the presence of God. Could anything be simpler? No intricate code of laws, no following of this or that one, simply abiding in His presence who will soon take us to be forever with Himself.

"And now little children, abide in Him."

" My Jesus! as Thou wilt!
Oh. may Thy will be mine;
Into Thy hand of love
I would my all resign;
Through sorrow or through joy
Conduct me as Thine own,
And help me still to say,
My Lord, Thy will be done.

" My Jesus! as Thou will!
All shall be well for me;
Each changing future scene,
I gladly trust with Thee :
Then to my home above
I travel calmly on,
And sing, in life or death,
My Lord, Thy will be done."