states preclude communion with God. (a) II. The unwilling exclusion of men from religious ordinances.

Here are certain men who were excluded from keeping the Passover through no fault of their own. Their defilement was not moral, but ceremonial; and this was contracted not of their own free choice, but of inevitable necessity; not by association with the morally depraved, but by the needful work of the burial of the dead; yet they were prohibited from observing the Passover. There are many to-day who are unwillingly deprived from taking part in public religious ordinances, some by reason of severe bodily afflictions; others by the pressure of the infirmities of age; others by their ministry to the afflicted; and others by legitimate domestic duties, e.g., the care of infants and little children, &c. Every Lord's day there are very many persons who would esteem it a privilege and joy to unite in the engagements of public worship, but they cannot do so. Let us learn to prize the opportunities of doing so while we have them.

III. A commendable enquiry concerning the reason of such exclusion from religious ordinances.

The men who were so excluded "came before Moses and before Aaron on that

day; " &c. Their enquiry was com

mendable

1. As regards its spirit. It implied (1) Faith in the reasonableness of the Divine requirements. "Wherefore are we kept back" &c. It is as though they had said, "There must be a reason for this prohibition; may we know that reason can you explain it to us? or can you meet in some way what seems to us the hardship of our case?" All the Divine arrangements are in the highest degree reasonable; they are expressions of infinite wisdom. (2) Affection for Divine ordinances. The deprivation was painful to them. It is a grief to the godly soul to be deprived of the public means of grace. "Lord

I have loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thine honour dwelleth." "How amiable are

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Thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth," &c. There is good ground for this affection. In Divine ordinances God manifests Himself graciously to His people (Exod. xx. 24; Matt. xviii. 19, 20), and makes unto them rich communications of grace and truth.

2. As regards its direction. "They came before Moses and before Aaron," and enquired of them. The leader and lawgiver, and the high priest, both of whom were appointed by God, were the proper persons to consult on the difficulty which had arisen. Let those who are religiously perplexed seek help from those who by reason of their character and attainments are qualified to render the same.

The solicitude of these men for participation in this religious ordinance is a rebuke to many who, in our own day, disregard the public worship of God and the ministry and the sacraments of the Gospel.

IV. The exemplary conduct of religious teachers in answering the enquiries of their charge.

"And Moses said unto them, Stand still," &c. In the conduct of Moses we see,

1. Exemplary humility. He tacitly admits his inability to answer their enquiry of himself. It is only ignor ance and conceit that assumes the airs of infallibility, The minister of spiritual intelligence and power is ever humble. (b)

2. Exemplary enquiry. "I will hear what the Lord will command concerning you," said Moses. That he might answer these enquiries, he himself enquires of the Lord. So should the Christian minister in instructing others. We have, (1) The teaching of the sacred Scriptures: we should search them. We have (2) The promised guidance of the Holy Spirit: we should seek it by prayer. (c)

3. Exemplary efficiency. Guided by God, Moses was enabled to deal with the difficulty satisfactorily,―practically to do away with it. Christian ministers should be able efficiently to counsel the people of their charge. Those who

nances.

nances as they had access to (verses 11, 12, 14). The three leading points of the original institution are here repeated that they were to eat the lamb with unleavened bread and bitter

herbs, they were to leave none of it till the next day, and they were not to break a bone of it. The foreigner, also, who kept the feast was to do so tions concerning it. Compare verse 14 with minute accuracy as to the direc

with Exod. xii. 48, 49. And still when any one is involuntarily detained from religious ordinances, God will supply unto him precious and abundant compensations. To the patient sufferer on his bed, to the attentive nurse as she ministers to the afflicted, and to the loving mother at home with her babe, if only the spirit of true worship be self, and enrich them with the treasures theirs, God will graciously reveal Himof His grace. He will be with them; and the chamber of sickness, or the nursery of infancy, shall become a Bethel, "a little sanctuary," sacred with His presence and radiant with His glory. (d)

But

(a) Previous to your entering into the house of God, seek a prepared heart, and implore the blessing of God on the ministry of the Word. It may be presumed that no real Christian will neglect to preface his attendance on social worship with secret prayer. let the acquisition of a devout and serious frame, freed from the cares, vanities, and pollutions of the world, accompanied with earnest desires after God, and the communications of His grace, form a principal subject of your private devotions. Forget not to implore a blessing on the public ministry, that it may accomplish in yourselves, and to others, the great purposes it is de-igned to answer; and that those measures of assistance may be afforded to your ministers which shall replenish them with light, love, and liberty, that they may speak the mystery of the Gospel as it ought to be spoken. Pastors and people would both derive eminent advantages from such a practice; they, in their capacity of exhibiting, you, in your preparation for receiving, the mysteries of the Gospel. As the duties of the closet have the happiest tendency, by solemnizing and elevating the mind, to prepare for those of the sanctuary, so the conviction of your having borne your minister on your heart before the throne of grace would, apart

from every other consideration, dispose him to address you with augmented zeal and tenderness. We should consider it as such a token for good, as well as such an uneqivocal proof of your attachment, as would greatly animate and support us under all our discouragements.-Robert Hall, A.M.

(b) A more despicable character I know not than the poor mortal whe proclaims his opinions as if they were the very Gospel of God; who denounces all who adopt them not as heretics. I pity the mental serfs, who, instead of drinking at the crystal river of truth, that rolls majestically by, consent to sip at the puddled cisterns of the would-be theological dictator.. While around us have been flung, with God-like profusion, the fruits and beauties of a Paradise, shall we consent to confine ourselves to the scanty provisions of a petty kitchen garden? To all the dogmatists who would bind us to their own narrow cred we would say with Pope:"Go, wondrous creature! mount where science guides;

Go, measure earth, weigh air, and stem the tides;
Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,
Correct old time and regulate the sun.
Go, teach eternal Wisdom how to rule,
Then drop into thyself, and be a fool."

It is the duty of every man to get convictions of Divine truth for himself, to hold those convictions with firmness, and to promote them with earnestness; but at the same time with a due consciousness of his own fallibility, and with a becoming deference to the judgment of others. Sure am I that he who has penetrated farthest into the realms of truth, wrestled most earnestly with its questions, will be the most free from all bigotry and dogmatism in the proclamation of his views. The more knowledge the more humility. True wisdom is ever modest. Those who live most in the light are the most ready to veil their faces.David Thomas, D.D.

(c) Among all the formative influences which go to make up a man honoured of God in the ministry, I know of none more mighty than his own familiarity with the mercy-seat. All that a college course can do for a student is coarse and external compared with the spiritual and clear refinement obtained by communion with God. While the unformed minister is revolving upon the wheel of preparation, prayer is the tool of the Great Potter by which He moulds the vessel. All our libraries and studies are mere emptiness compared with our closets. We grow, we wax mighty, we prevail in private prayer. That we may be strong to labour, tender to sympathise, and wise to direct, let us pray. If study makes men of us, prayer will make saints of

us.

Our sacred furniture for our holy office can only be found in the arsenal of supplication; and after we have entered upon our consecrated warfare, prayer alone can keep o armour bright.-C. H. Spurgeon.

Moses was but the echo of God's voice; John Baptist "the voice of one crying in the wilderness; St. Paul "received of the Lord" what he delivered to the Church (1 Cor. xi. 23), and took care that the faith of his hearers "might not be in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God" (1 Cor. ii. 4, 5). Unwarranted doctrines come not cum gratia et privilegio.-John Trapp, M A.

(1) Do not think for a moment that by frequenting places that have an odour of peculiar sanctity you can alone acceptably worship God.

Have you got a contrite heart? That can consecrate the meanest place on earth. It does not matter where the congregation may gather, only let them be a congregation of faithful men, yearning for truth, ready to make any sicrifice to obtain it, and that God who is every where present will reveal Himself in blessings wherever they may choose to assemble. They may crowd into the solemn Monster, and while the organ peals out its alternate wail and psalm, to them it may be a spiritual service, and their hearts may glow in purer light than streams through painted windows. They may draw around the hearth of the farmer's homestead, and while the frost king reigns outside, their spirits may burn with a warmth that may defy the keen. ness of the sternest winter. For them there may be a spiritual harvest more plentiful than the garnered store in the barn that has been lent for worship; or a season of refreshing beneath the thatch through which the penitent soul can filter up its sighs for heaven. On the gallant vessel's deck, with no witnesses of the service but the sky and sea, there may be the sound of many waters as the Lord of hosts comes down. And in the Alpine solitudes, where the spirit, alone with God mid murmuring streams, and bowing pines, and summits of eternal snow, uplifta its adoration, tuere may be a whisper stiller, and sweeter, and more comforting than that of nature, saying,

Peace, peace be unto you." Oh! it is a beautiful thought, that in this, the last of the dispensations, the contrite heart can hallow its own temple! Wherever the emigrant wanders-wherever the exile pines-in the dreariest Sahara, rarely tracked save by the Bedouin on his camel- -on the banks of rivers yet unknown to song-in the dense woodlands where no axe has yet struck against the trees -in the dark ruin-in the foul cell-in the narrow street-on the swift rail-there where business tramps and rattles-there where sickness gasp and pines-anywhere-anywhere in this wide, wide world, if there is a soul that wants to worship, there can be a hallowed altar and a present God.— W. M. Punshon, LL.D.

yet he fails to do so-such is the case which is set before us in the text. In our day the wilful neglect of religious ordinances is painfully prevalent. Churches, chapels, mission halls, and religious services abound; yet in this nominally Christian country there are hundreds of thousands who are in a position to attend public worship, who live in the habitual neglect of it. (a)

It is said in the text that the man who wilfully forbeareth to keep the Passover "shall bear his sin." The worship of God is not optional, but obligatory upon man; it is our duty. He who wilfully neglects religious ordinances by such neglect sins, because he,

1. Withholds from God that which is His due. God has an indefeasible right to our homage. His greatness should excite our awe; His kindness should enkindle our gratitude; His skill should awaken our admiration ; His holiness should inspire our adoring love.

2. Despises the gifts which God bestows. Worship is a privilege as well as a duty. It is a great kindness on the part of God that He has instituted the ordinances of worship, and great condescension that He graciously accepts our worship. To neglect public worship is to despise the ordinance and reject the gift of God.

3. Neglects the culture and development of the highest faculties of his being. Worship is a necessity of our nature. We have religious tendencies and aspirations which seek expression

neglect worship without the deepest and most deplorable self-injury. (b) Wilfully to neglect religious ordinances, then, is to sin-to sin against our own nature and against God.

III. The wilful neglect of religious ordinances will be punished.

"The man that is clean and is not in a journey, and forbeareth to keep the Passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people," &c. The expression "cut off from among his people" denotes either capital punishment, or exclusion from the society and privileges of the chosen people. The latter seems to us the more probable. No one can neglect religious ordinances without incurring punishment-a punishment which grows directly out of the sin. By his wilful neglect he brings the punishment upon himself.

1. He foregoes the highest joys of life. 2. He dwarfs and degrades his soul. 3. He excludes himself from the highest fellowship on earth.

4. He renders himself unfit for the fellowship of heaven. The worship of God here is a natural and necessary preparation for uniting in His worship in the innumerable company of the glorified.

(a) The need of more effort to induce persons who never attend a place of worship to do so seems very great. Thus there are 2,500 people living in one block of buildings in the South of London, of whom not more than 130 frequent public worship. This is a sad fact, and needs the consideration of Christian people." The Christian World," May 10, 1878.

A

A very large proportion of the outside world is voluntarily irreligious or indifferent. very large proportion of those who are not church-goers, who connect themselves with no religious society, and make no profession of religion, reside in the midst of those who do. Intelligent, educated, surrounded by religious influences, it is not through ignorance they remain where they are. Had they the longing for that peace which Christianity gives, they know in general where to find it. Their indifference and irreligion are in a great measure their own choice. No special mission is needed to them, as it is to those who have not their knowledge or their oppor