Israel illustrates the people of God now on the A earth. Their redemption from under the judgment of God by the blood of the lamb on their doors illustrates ours by the blood of Jesus. Their deliverance from bondage to Pharaoh by the passage of the Red Sea illustrates our deliverance from bondage to sin and our complete severance from all connection with the world. The wilderness to which this brought them illustrates what this world is to us. It is a place which can minister nothing to us in our character as children of God. It does minister to the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, but it has neither bread nor water for the new man. What feeds and refreshes him must come from outside this world altogether – from heaven, whence he was born when he was born of God.

The manna was given to Israel therefore for food during their wilderness journey, and the water out of the smitten rock for their drink. These to us are Christ the Bread of Life, and the Holy Spirit who, dwelling in us, not only satisfies our souls with Christ, but makes them bubble up with everlasting praise to His blessed name.

The manna was white. This tells the spotless purity of Christ. In Him was a holy, sinless humanity, delightful to God. It tasted like wafers made with honey.

" How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
In a believer's ear."

Thus if He is delightful to God, so is He to the believer also.

There is this which in the types ever comes short of the reality, that the manna could only sustain life. It could give no new life to dying men. But Christ, the true Manna, the true Bread of heaven, first gives a new life-eternal life-and then feeds and sustains that life unto all eternity. They who ate Israel's manna therefore remained dead in their sins, but the true manna is " the Bread of God . . . which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world " (Jno. 6:33). He who as one of the world comes to that blessed One, as a poor sinner dead in his sins, remains not dead:"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life."

But, says a believer, How am I so to lay hold on Christ as to find my daily bread in Him ? I realize my Christian life is weak, my testimony feeble, my fruitfulness very scant. I know there is not in my life that difference which ought to be between the life of a child of God and that of a man of the world. Often I feel as if my life was being wasted. How can I lay hold on the Lord Jesus so as to get out of this state ?

When you came to Christ as a lost sinner He gave you life. When you come to Him as a needy saint, confessing to Him your state as you have just described it, He will so minister to your soul as to lift it out of its low condition and fulfil in you the desire of your heart. But there is a lesson which nature itself teaches us here:We have to chew our food to help its digestion and secure the end for which it is intended. Chewing well, digesting well, produces a body vigorous in all its parts.

So too, feeding on Christ is giving some of our time to meditate on what we learn about Him in the Word.

"Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." This is for us, of course, but no principle connected with Christ ever failed to be practically and perfectly illustrated in His life:"Ye know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich " (2 Cor. 8:9). The word of God presents this to you for food. Consider for a time the marvels of such grace; think on it; turn it over in your mind as you go to your work or return from it. The result will be that you will feel like praising and worshiping the Lord, and praying for such a mind to be formed in you. It will make you & true servant of His people in whatever way the gift you possess may lead.

Again, in humility alone can you live a life of fruitfulness. Contemplate Christ washing His disciples' feet in John 13. This expresses His present, actual ministry, from the glory where He is, toward His people through their journey here on earth. This is not driving the sheep; is it ? This is not asserting authority; is it?-though His it is. This is not seeking supremacy; is it?-though supreme He is. It is the Lord of heaven and earth serving His people in their day of need. Contemplate this, think it over instead of picking up a newspaper or a questionable book, or letting your mind run on earthly schemes; and, instead of accusing them, you will be praying and caring for the lambs and sheep of Christ who stumble by the way.

Apart from love there is no Christian life. '' God is love." Christ has demonstrated this to the full. Follow Him a little in your thoughts in His wonderful course of love, till you see Him in the unfathomable sufferings of the cross on account of the sins which you have committed, and you will not be easily discouraged in any labor of love for Him, even though you may suffer for it.

Nothing preserves us from the evil that is in the world like letting our light shine before men. But the light rebukes men, and they like it not. Look for a moment or two at Christ shining upon men. It so angers them that they thirst for His blood, but it brings such as the woman of Sychar to worship at His feet. Oh feed on Christ thus, in the multitude of characters which He bears, and unbeknown to thee thy very face will shine from the bliss within thee.

Wouldst thou escape the unrighteous spirit which prevails everywhere and brings on wars and strifes of all kinds in the world and in the Church ? Consider in quiet meditation that blessed Saviour's course. It tells at every step that "the righteous Lord loveth righteousness." Our sins could not be righteously forgiven save by the righteous judgment of them on the cross. To the cross therefore He deliberately went. Everywhere, with everyone, in everything, righteousness marks His ways and guides His love. Are they going to make Him use it against a poor, sinful woman? He will uphold it by making them condemn themselves (Jno. 8:9).

Our thoughts engaged thus with the righteous character and ways of our Lord, we shall be preserved from the many devious ways in which the enemy ever seeks to lead the sheep of Christ's flock. Our souls "will be fed with the Bread of Life in such a way as to quicken every Christian virtue and produce in us a faithful testimony.

Does all this seem too much warfare with all our natural tendencies ? Beloved brethren, the results of our course here are eternal. F.