Twice in the first two chapters of Deuteronomy do we have similar expressions, moving the people to go forward; when they dwelt at Horeb and here again, when they had "compassed Mount Seir many days." At Horeb they had received the law (Sinai being a part of the great mountain) and had been instructed in the elements which were to characterize them as a nation. They were to leave the place of mere instruction and to go on to actual attainment. But eleven days journey lay between Horeb and the land, which they could not enter on the basis of Horeb and its law. Unbelief and presumption with all the apostasy and murmuring that darken the pages of the book of Numbers show how they failed to answer to the mercy and goodness of God. "They could not enter in because of unbelief."

They are put under the chastening hand of God and for the remainder of the forty years they wander in a desert land. "The rebellious dwell in dry land." But now again they hear the words of a faithful God, who, whatever their departure, would not forsake His beloved people. Again they are called to take a fresh step-one of progress, and not simply to walk in the paths which had not led them one step in advance. How cheering it must have been to those who while plodding on had grown weary and heartsick for something better than the desert rocks and sands, with nothing to make them think of what was beyond.

Now there is a new word, a new departure; how it must have thrilled their hearts and made dull eyes brighten with hope and brought fresh joy into faces out of which the light had faded. "Turn you northward! " Have done with Mount Seir, which hitherto had but acted as an impassable barrier; "forgetting the things that are behind and reaching forth unto those which are before," press on now toward the goal.

And yet the forty years wanderings were needed to show them both the unbelief of their own hearts and the goodness of God. He had humbled them, had suffered them to hunger, had made them learn to depend upon Himself. The lesson had been taught, and now they must enter upon a fresh stage of their journey.

Are there not also points when the people of God pass into a new stage of their wilderness experience, both individually and collectively? Here is one who, perhaps, has been plodding on with heart under the power of Horeb-faith glimmers, hope and fear alternate ; assurance, full peace, an ever springing well of joy-he has heard of these, has caught glimpses of them, but through faulty teaching and self-occupation, he has not grasped them as his own. But he hears the commanding word of truth-the glad news of a full, eternal redemption-and what had been vague and powerless shines forth bright and clear. He has compassed the mountain of unbelief and doubt long enough, and he turns his back upon it. Oh! beloved do we not well remember the joy of that time? A new departure for the soul, we left the dark sad past and turned our steps toward the clearer day.

Here again is one who, while his faith is clear as to his acceptance, is still struggling with sin in his flesh. He has been compassing that mount-a combination, we might say, of Seir and Horeb, of the flesh and the law which, while it forbids sin, gives no power against it-is but the strength of sin. He has grown weary with the struggle; he can but moan out his longings after God's will along with his confessions of inability to do that will; until in a burst almost of despair he cries out, "Oh! wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death! " Can we forget the bondage of that time? But now, clear and sweet comes again a commanding word of truth-"Sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under law, but under grace." "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." We hear that word and pass out from the shadow of "this mountain" into the light of a fresh power and an upward path.

Let it not be thought that the long wanderings of unbelief and fruitless struggle against sin are the proper path for God's people. They are not, save as our unwillingness to learn in any other way, makes it necessary for God to teach us in this way. If we will not go the appointed way in eleven days, we must learn in the forty years of wanderings.

Now these epochs in the Christian life – what makes the change? Has divine truth changed? Ah no! That is "forever settled in heaven." It always was and always will be true. We have simply learned that truth; it has come to heart and conscience in divine power and changed us. In one sense the Red Sea and the Jordan set before us the same truth-the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Red Sea shows us the deliverance from sin by that death, while Jordan in the same way shows us the entrance into the inheritance. The truth is unchanged-its application to the need of the people, and their apprehension of it by faith, make the only difference.

As is the case with the individual believer, so also is it with them corporately. God has led His saints, as they would suffer themselves to be led, into paths of testimony for Himself. Necessarily the calls into these paths have been for "him that hath an ear." Of the exercises, the struggles, the sundering of ties strong and tender, that accompany the hearing of the call to "turn northward," we would not think or speak lightly. True hearts feel keenly, but true hearts prefer Christ and His truth to all else. His voice and His call is heard, to enter a path which however narrow it may be is ever characterized by one feature-it is a path with Him. What can compensate for the loss of that ? What blessing unspeakable is it to have Himself with us in a path of testimony for Him! Blessed Savior, what honor dost thou put upon Thine unworthy people, to entrust them with such treasures! How have they answered thy confidence ?

Nor can we say that all at one bound God's people leap into the fullest light as to what this path means. Many failures will mark the stages of their journey. They will find they have swerved from the path, and be recalled to it at the cost of suffering-often of loss of the companionship of those dear. Still always one feature will mark their progress. They will ever approach nearer to divine truth, divine principles as revealed in the Word of God. Any true fresh departure will be marked by that, by increased light, never by less. Lessons of the past will ever remain, and not need to be set aside only to be learned afresh, by painful experience. Progress will ever be into the light. That increased love, tenderness, forbearance, will mark those who walk with God will ever be true, but never will true advance be marked by the sacrifice of truth. "Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them " (2 Tim. 3:14).

But in the path of truth, not only should we be learning more of its fulness, but we should be putting into fresh practice the truths we have learned. This is a matter of immense importance. A principle held as a doctrine and not acted upon, becomes a menace to that which, if obeyed, it would secure. Theory as such is not found in the Word of God. That is living and operative. And when we fail to carry out the truths we have learned, and hold them merely as so much theological belief, they become useless or, what is worse, positively hurtful by deadening the moral sense. A deadened conscience cannot be in the presence of God, hence lack of communion, of joy and power and the lapse into those things we had once forsaken.

Let us then take the precious truths which we have been taught at great cost, and seek to put them into practice as never before. Let debate and strife be exchanged for devoted and diligent obedience to the truth, and we will find most ample space for every activity, and a path, too, in which we can walk with all who by divine grace will accept the same truth.

Beloved brethren, is not God calling us to "turn godly order; or, northward "? Not to forsake His truths, but to put them unto fresh practice. Here will be relief at once from restlessness of spirit which seeks for change for change's sake, and from the temptation of the enemy to give up that which we have learned. May our God awaken us to our responsibilities, that in the power of His grace we may take a fresh start in His paths.