can be placed on the tradition that Publius became bishop of Malta, and afterwards of Athens, we may well believe the accredited tradition that the beginnings of the Christian Church at Malta sprang out of this visit. Ver. 11. "A ship," no doubt driven in by the same storm. We may conceive that these large trading ships were compelled to convey soldiers and state travellers. Egypt was the granary of Italy.-Brown. LESSONS FOR SENIOR CLASSES. PAST MERCIES. Ps. ciii. 2; Deut. viii.. Ir is always right and dutiful to mark the mercies of God, and to magnify His goodness. Especially at the beginning of a new year should this be remembered The lessons of the past wisely learned will cherish confidence in divine providence, inspire energy in service, or patience in suffering, and furnish guidance in the discharge of future duty. Remembering this, let us take the eighth chapter of Deuteronomy for study to-day. Having previously cautioned the people against the danger of lapsing into idolatry, with which they would come into contact in the land whither they went, Moses proceeds to warn them against worldly pride, vain self-confidence, and forgetfulness of God when they shall enter into the rich inheritance that awaited them. In this review of the dealings of God an appeal is made to three powerful principles of our nature-gratitude, hope, and fear-in order to induce a loving, cheerful, constant obedience. I. To arouse gratitude. Look at the past. "Remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee" (ver. 1-6 and 14-16). In considering God's manifold mercy, notice (1) The deliverance from Egypt (ver. 14), the slave-home, with its sufferings and sorrows, its trials and task-masters, its brick kilns and bitterness. God made a way for the escape of His people by crushing their oppressors and opening a pathway through the sea; with a high hand and an outstretched arm He brought them forth and made them a free, independent nation, His own chosen people. (2) The guidance through the desert (ver. 2 and 15). Not only did He give them "Moses His servant, and Aaron whom He had chosen" (Ps. cv. 26), as leaders, teachers, and guides, but He vouchsafed to them supernatural guidance, by the visible symbols of His own presence: the cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night. "He spread," etc. (Ps. cv. 39.) (3) The supply of their wants (ver. 3, 4, and 16). (a) He fed them with manna, "and satisfied them with the bread of heaven" (Ps. cv. 40). He rained down manna upon them, and gave them of the corn of heaven. "Man did eat angels' food." "He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls as the sand of the sea (Ps. lxxviii. 24-27). (b) He brought forth water for them out of the rock of flint (ver. 15). "He smote the rock that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed." "They ran in dry places," etc. (Ps. lxxviii. 20; cv. 41.) [Refer to Marah, Elim, Rephidim, and Meribah.] (c) He provided them with raiment (ver. 4 and xxix. 5). God so wonderfully and amply provided for their comfort, that of that vast multitude none were clothed in rags, nor were their feet injured for the lack of shoes and sandals. It is not necessary to suppose that this was miraculously done, as if the clothes did not wear by use, or that they expanded with the growth of the children. Only, that either from natural sources such as their own manufacture and traffic with others, or from extraordinary and direct interpositions of Providence, the supply was always adequate to the demand. (4) The help in trouble (ver. 15). He divided the Red Sea, and saved them from the hand of him that hated them (Ps. cvi. 9), and He overthrew their enemies (the Amalekites, Exod. xvii. 13; the Canaanites, Num. xxi. 3; the Amorites, Num. xxi. 24; the Midianites, Num. xxxi. 8). He delivered them from the wasting plague and from the fiery serpent. Whenever in distress or danger they called on the Lord, He heard and sent them succour or relief. (5) The chastening of His hand (ver. 2, 3, 5, and 16). Afflictions and trials are a proof of God's love and grace, and should be a matter of thankfulness. "For whom," etc. (Prov. iii. 12; 2 Sam. vii. 14; Heb. xii. 5; Rev. iii. 19.) Many of these mercies the Israelites had enjoyed for forty years, and they had been so accustomed to them as to overlook the fact that they came from God; hence they are called on to "remember" them. Let us think often of our daily mercies, all the more precious because they are commonour food, our raiment, our homes, our health, our advantages, Bible, schools, and churches, as really the gift of God to us as were the manna, water, cloud, fire, and tabernacle to the children of Israel. II. To inspire hope. Look at the future (ver. 7-9 and 18). When in Egypt, toiling as slaves, the people often thought of the promise given to their fathers, and the charge Joseph had given concerning his bones (Gen. 1. 25). During all their wanderings they were often reminded of Canaan, and it was ever described as a goodly land, a pleasant heritage, contrasting strangely with the rainless valley of Egypt and the arid barren regions of the Wilderness. Palestine was distinguished among the lands of the East for its variety and fertility; its hills and valleys, where bubbling springs and running brooks abound; its green pastures, "flowing with milk," and its forests dripping with honey; its fields covered with varied grains, and its orchards and vineyards, laden with fruits of every kind, presented a most enchanting prospect to the homeless pilgrim tribe (Deut. xi. 10-12). Again and again does Moses dwell upon the attractions of their future home, alike to magnify the sovereign goodness of God, and to stimulate the courage, strengthen the confidence, and inflame the devotion of the people, that they might bravely go up to possess, and gratefully continue to enjoy what God had provided for them. Let us often think of the precious promise of the life and the land which lie before us-the place our Saviour has gone to prepare, that we may hopefully serve or patiently suffer according to the will of God. III. To awaken fear. Look at the present (ver. 19, 20, and 11). Consider the nations which the Lord destroyeth before your face. God had mercifully done much for Israel in the past, and had graciously vouchsafed to provide glorious things in the future. But "beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God." Rejoice in the gifts, but forget not the Giver. Let not your heart be lifted up, because of thy prosperity; nor think that thine own power and might have obtained it. All things come of God, even the power to get wealth. For forty years God has been teaching thee a lesson of self-distrust and confidence in His power and providence, showing that it is not by bread alone that is, not by the use of the usual and ordinary means of securing it— that man can live. God can provide in any way which seems good to Him for the wants of His children. We are not to trust to the laws of nature alone, but to the care and goodness of our personal Creator, who stretcheth forth His hand and supplieth the wants of all. Beware of pride of heart, of self-confidence, of neglect of God's commands, lest ye surely perish. Many in health and prosperity forget God, and only when trouble comes do they think of seeking Him. Not a few who seem to be pious when poor, when they acquire wealth become careless and godless. We need to remember God specially when the world goes well with us. When exalted we need Divine grace to keep us humble and steady, quite as much as, when afflicted or cast down, we require Divine aid to sustain and hold us up. to have been moved by the Spirit of God to utter things unknown to himself, in a language unknown. "Of angels"'-a climax-could one even communicate in their manner. "Sounding brass "-any brass instrument or a "tinkling (clanging) cymbal"-the "loud cymbal" of Ps. cl. 5-two large metallic plates held one in each hand and smitten together. Like these, Attend to the precept and the warn- because his words are to him unmeaning here given. Remember and blessing, and come not from his own conthe Lord thy God. Beware lest thine heart be lifted up and thou forget the Lord thy God (Eccles. xii. 1). (1) The journey of the Israelites is a type of our lives. Divine mercies and blessings and chastenings abound. We will remember them all, and bless God for them. (2) The good land whither they went is a type of heaven. Through faith in Christ we may have a living hope of that glorius inheritance, and having such a hope, let us live as the heirs of heaven, grateful, hopeful, joyous, useful. LOVE. 1 Cor. xiii. 1-13. It will help to bring out the sense of this noble chapter if we substitute the word "love" for "charity" in every place where it occurs. Our word "love" is a better word to express the orginal, for "charity" has come to mean commonly either gifts to the poor, or a lenient judgment. Ver. 1-3. Mixed up with the party strife in Corinth was great pride in the spiritual gifts bestowed in the apostolic age in order to attest the divine origin of the new religion, and gain for it more ready acknowledgment and establishment. See chap. xii. For these there was an intense and undue ambition an ambition which overlooked the bond of holy love, and was likely to break in pieces that bond. First, the gift of tongues. On this see Acts ii. 3, 4-11; 1 Cor. xiv. 1-14. The speaker, having this gift, seems scious life. He is a mere instrument played on by another, and pouring out no living music of his own. Next, gifts of intelligence. "Prophecy" -speaking in God's name, communicating by natural inspiration and divine authority his message. "Mysteries"--divine purposes or doctrines previously unrevealed. "All knowledge"-other divine truths with the mysteries. "Faith "--by which to "remove mountains." The latter is a proverbial expression denoting a manifest natural impossibility, a great miracle. (Matt. xvii. 20.) The faith is obviously that special persuasion attending the performance of miracles - quite distinct from saving faith, or the soul's reliance on Christ, and acceptance of Him as a personal Saviour. "All faith"-adequate for any miracle; "nothing ceptance with God. as to ac Finally, alms-giving and self-sacrifice. "Deal out morsels," is the first thought, as in a Catholic monastery; fortunes given in single meals to beg. gars. "Burned". as many an unchristian fanatic has done. So much show of life, but no life which is love. So much done, but no return; for God's favour is not bought. He never employs hirelings, though He rewards His son- servants, His servant-sons. And now how can Paul suppose unspiritual men to have and exercise spiritual gifts? First, because a separation between the spiritual life and the exercise of these gifts is conceivable; and second, because in some cases the separation has been actual. (Saul among the prophets, Balaam, and perhaps Matt. vii. 22.) There is to-day many a man whose name for Christian benevolence is spoken with honour, who perhaps will find in it all no spiritual profit to himself. Notice how Paul says "though I" do thus and thus. This is a vivid and impressive way of saying "though any one." Ver. 4-7. Here, and in the rest of the chapter, love is personified-i.e., is spoken of as though it were a person. This adds life and power to the description. Love, though not a person, is never found save in a person, cannot exist where there is not a person loving. "Hopeth"-what is good of another; even when it is compelled to believe present evil it hopes for reform. Puts the best construction on conduct, and then hopes for something better, by God's grace. The "all things "' in this verse will of course be taken as a strong general expression, used to set forth the perfect, the utmost possible reach of love in the several directions named. Ver. 8-13. It is here taught that the special gifts which attended the introduction of Christianity were to be, as we know they have been, temporary, while love, and with it "faith and hope," saving faith, and the Christian hope in general, were to be, as we know they are and must be, permanent. Our hope is distinctly the hope of eternal life, and our faith is distinctly a trust arising from the absence of the future "beatific vision.” "Glass," in verse 12, is mirror, of polished metal, not glass; and "through" because the image seemed to be beyond. "Darkly "-literally in a riddle, in the unclear word, especially of the Old Testament. PRIESTS AND LEVITES. Num. iii. 5-13. "Suffereth long -i.e., patiently endures unkindness, wrongs of various kinds, not however without feeling them keenly, painfully. Love is not thick-skinned, insensible. "And is kind "—the complement of endurance, the active of which that is the passive, the positive to that negative. "Envieth not." The word so translated includes both envy and jealousy. "Vaunteth not "--whether by boastful words, or vain display of dress, etc., for the sake of pre-eminence. "Puffed up "-with an inward pride, which appears in the vaunting. "Unseemly as does selfishness "in seeking its own," i.e., seeking to make its own all possible good at the expense of any and every one. 'Easily provoked"-i.e., quick to fly into a passion; yet it may, nay, sometimes must, be deeply moved with a holy indignation, all the deeper and more vehement where the love is deep and strong. "Thinketh no evil". -or rather does not impute the evil, does not care to reckon and keep charged against one the evil of which it knows him to be guilty. It rather inclines to forgiveness-waits and wants to Separation. The tribe of Levi, forgive remembers the " seventy Jacob's third son by Leah, was set times seven." It must do so because apart from all other tribes to do serit "rejoiceth not in iniquity," and vice in connection with the Tabernacle, hence does not wish to find it in its and subsequently with the Templeobject; no one willingly sees a thing religious service. The members of it to blame in one he loves. Whom we were ministers," that is servants; love we wish to have loveable. "In but, as we shall see, their duties the truth"-rather with the truth. were quite unlike those of Christ's THE fourth book of Moses is called Numbers because it records the numbering of Israel by Moses (chaps. i. and xxvi.). It is a history of the Israelites from their reception of the law to their arrival on "the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho”—thirtyeight years. It sets forth prominently the duties of the ministers of the sanctuary, and is peculiarly interesting because of the typical relation of the Jewish priesthood to Christ. "ministers." Moses, Aaron, and Miriam belonged to this tribe, which was the first to separate itself from the calf worshippers at Moses's call (Exod. xxxii. 26); and in Numbers iii. we see the whole tribe set apart, the curse turned into blessing (Gen. xlix. 5, 7). The Levites were specially the Lord's servants, and hence were taken instead of all the first-born sons of Hebrew women, who were regarded as specially the Lord's because He spared the first-born of the Israelites when he slew the first-born of the Egyptians (ver. 12, 13). The tribe was small, and its males "from a month old and upward" (ver. 15) numbered only two hundred and seventy-three more than those first-born, and these two hundred and seventy-three were redeemed by silver paid to Aaron and his sons (ver. 46-48). Division.—The phrase "the priests and the Levites" often recurs in Scripture, but sometimes we read "the priests the Levites." The word "Levites" is used with two meanings: (1) The descendants of Levi - that is, the members of the tribe of Levi (XXXV. 2)—and in this use it includes the priests, "Aaron and his sons" (ver. 9); (2) The part of the tribe not belonging to the priestly family of Aaron, and which is thus distinguished as in our lesson (ver. 9). In this narrow sense the word will be used throughout this exposition. We will consider (1) The Priests, because they were first set apart, and are first in rank; (2) The Levites, whose office was subordinate to that of the priests. I. The Priests. (1) The office. Our word "priest" is a shorter form of the word" presbyter," and this is from a Greek word meaning elder. A priest would thus be an elderly man. The Hebrew term, however, does not mean this. It is thought to be from a word meaning to draw near. The priest draws near to God in behalf of men. His office is that of a mediator transacting with God for men (xvi. 5; Heb. vi. 1). (2) The origin of the priesthood. the If sacrifices were at first divinely instituted doubtless the priestly office was also, for the two go together. In most ancient times sacrifice was a family affair, and the father, as head of the family, or, in the father's absence, the first-born son, acted for the family (Gen. xii. 8; Job i. 5). Naturally, as single families came to be joined closely together into a sort of tribal family, or into one community, sacrifices might be offered for the tribe, or community, and for this a priest would be required. Such perhaps were Jethro and Melchizedek (Exod. ii. 16; Gen. xiv. 18-20). What were arrangements among the Hebrews at the time of the Exodus is not known. Probably there was no well-organised system, though "the continuance of sacrifice implied a priesthood of some kind" (Exod. v. 1, 3; xix. 22). The prominence of the tribe of Reuben in the revolt against the established priesthood may indicate that previously the priests were from the elders of that tribe (xv. 1). We must regard the Aaronic priesthood as a purely divine institution, though it had some features in common with that of Egypt, with which Moses was intimately acquainted from his marriage with a priest's daughter. There were common to the two: "(1) The shaving of the whole body; (2) garments of linen; (3) unshod feet; (4) multiplied ablutions; (5) a large share in the offerings; (6) a supreme high priest; (7) a law of hereditary succession." (3) The persons.-The priesthood, as instituted through Moses, consisted of one high priest and subordinate priests, and comprised only the family of Aaron (ver 9; Exod. xxix. 1-4), al. though it is thought that there was afterwards a system of adoption into the family. Bodily defects disquali. fied persons of this family to act as priests (Lev. xxi. 17-23). The age at which they might enter upon the duties is not prescribed. There were special rules as to the marriage of the priests (Lev. xxi. 7-14; Ezek. xlvi. 22; Ezra |