"Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord. . . And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole:and it shall come to pass, that everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live" (Num. 21:7,8).

The sting of fiery serpents in the wilderness foreshadows the effect of sin upon the conscience; and the brazen serpent raised up in the sight of the bitten Israelites typifies Christ upon the cross, made sin for us (Jno. 3:14, 15). As by looking to the upraised serpent on the pole the bitten Israelites were healed, so by looking in faith to Christ lifted up on the cross, the conscience finds peace and rest, the curse that was upon us being removed by Christ our substitute.

Those that did not look to the brazen serpent were doomed to death; so are all those who will not look to Christ by faith. The death of Christ is truly the meritorious cause for the remission of sins, but faith is the instrument that appropriates it-like the hand that stretches out to receive the gift tendered. Thus while Christ's shed blood is the ground of salvation, faith is the means by which it is appropriated. As Christ's sacrifice is of absolute necessity, so is faith in its place. The death of Christ saves the sinner only when received by faith.

But, alas, we see sinners either not at all touched by the sense of their sins (like those that need no physician),or if they be stung and wounded by a sense of guilt, endeavor to make themselves whole
with the performance of some little duties, or promises of reformation. Miserable comforters are they all; deceptive means which Satan employs to hide the soul's utter ruin and God's wondrous salvation.