Moses was directed to make an image of the Serpent, "and he made a serpent of brass and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived." This Serpent was the symbol of the sensuous part of the Humanity of our Lord, and looking at it represented faith in Him. Our Lord Himself taught this, for He said, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”—John iii. 14, 15. The Brazen Serpent being the means of deliverance and of safety, represented the Lord's taking our nature, coming down to the life of our senses. Moses made this serpent to represent that the Word became flesh: the Divine Wisdom clothed itself in outer nature, and lived down into the senses. But the serpent was lifted up. Literally, on the cross; spiritually, by glorification the Son of Man was lifted up. He is now lifted up, so that He is Divinely Human. In Him, God is Man and Man is God. The Divinity in the Humanity fills heaven, and rules earth and hell. All power is given unto Him in heaven and on earth. He has the keys of hell and of death. The saving Serpent was made of brass (strictly copper), because that metal signifies natural good, or good in the lowest degree of the mind.

The feet of brass, like the Serpent of brass, represent the Divine Goodness in the Lord's natural mind in His Glorified Humanity.

This Divine manifested itself in His condescending care for His peoples wants in the days of His sojourn on earth. How tender He was with the sorrowing. How kindly He gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, strength to the lame, forgiveness to the erring, lessons of mercy and love to all.

He stooped to become a man that He might reach us, and that we might reach Him. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." Thus the spiritually serpent-bitten could look upon Him and live.

Among men there was neither an example of true unselfishness, nor had they power to attain it. Then was the reign of the serpents, then mankind were bitten by them in all directions, many of Israel dying.

But the serpent bruiser was at hand. The love of God, manifested in a Divine Human Life, presented a life that all could see; and all, in whom heaven had yet any representative of admiration for goodness or reverence for truth, could be drawn to Him, who lived for them a life of constant self-sacrifice and

perfect truth; who died for them a death of self-sacrifice; and who rose again for them triumphant over death and hell.

He took our very nature, even our serpent nature, debased in the likeness of sinful flesh, for the Lord caused to meet in Him the iniquity of us all (Isa. liii. 6), that He might be tempted in all points, even as we are tempted, that He might be touched with a feeling of our infirmities.-Heb. iv. 15. But in Himself first He bruised the serpent's head, and then with the fan of omnipotence in His hand He thoroughly purged the world of mind; He broke open the prison-houses of men's souls, burst their bonds and set them free; then glorified the nature he had assumed, and made it perfect. He made the Serpent in Himself a brazen-serpent; that is, filled it with Divine Human Goodness, and raised it up for the passion-bitten, lust-tormented souls of the universe to look upon and live, or in other words, to trust in and love.

Its position implied that the sufferers must look up. The soul must turn from self to the Saviour, from earth to heaven. It was as the Redeemer said, "and I if I be lifted up will draw all men unto me."

The tossed and the torn in heart, the wearied and the humbled who feel that they are dying if no help come, must from their very hearts look up. A glorious sight is before them. One full of goodness is exalted to be their Prince and Saviour. "Look unto me," He says, "all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else." "Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." He is the allglorious object of faith. He has made it possible for souls to turn to Him, and now He will heal and bless the sufferers. They will not only behold, but live. And they who live and believe in Him shall never die.

With what exulting life, what bounding joy would the serpent-bitten, find the poison neutralized, health restored, and the terrible danger gone. The earth would glisten in a new light. Fear and dread would give place to gratitude and love. Everything would smile upon them, for they were now freed, saved, and happy. So is it with the sin delivered spirit wherever found. "If any man be in Christ he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

SERMON LI.

BALAAM AND HIS ASS.

"And the angel of the Lord said unto him, Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? behold, I went out to withstand thee, because thy way is perverse before me: And the ass saw me, and turned from me these three times: unless she had turned from me, surely now also I had slain thee, and saved her alive."Num, xxii. 32, 33.

It is hard to realize that famous saying of the apostle Paul, "Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing." Yet it is undoubtedly true.

To be a prophet is a great gift, but to be a loving, kindly, faithful servant of the Lord is by far a greater. This truth is exemplified in the history of the prophet Balaam, whose intellect was divinely bright, but whose heart was sordid, corrupt, mean, and low. The divine history which brings him before us is interesting and important in several respects, but particularly in two. It presents us with many remnants of an earlier Church, which had prevailed in Canaan and the surrounding countries; and whose lights though generally corrupted and debased, yet still existed with a few. And, secondly, it presents Israel, after the discipline of forty years, now ready to enter the promised land, trained to the beautiful order indicated by Balaam. "How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel. As the valleys they are spread forth, as gardens by the river's side."

There was a church, meant in the Scriptures by the allegory of Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, which had been spread far and wide over those eastern countries centuries before Moses was called to lead the Israelites from Egypt. The abominations of the Canaanites, and the idolatries of the surrounding lands were the truths of that church corrupted, prostituted, profaned, and turned to magical, and diabolical purposes.

LL

Baal was an emblem of the sun, and sun-worship in its origin was the worship of the Lord, the sun of heaven.

The names of many places in Canaan imply a reference to former celebrity connected with religion. We read of Debir as one of the cities; and as the name signifies the Word, it was probably the seat of heavenly teaching in days long gone by. In the chapter preceding the one from which our text is taken, we read of two books of a Bible before the present Bible, the Book of the Wars of the Lord, (ver. 14,) and the book of "them that speak in proverbs," or prophecies, (ver. 27), appellations that may perhaps remind us of our own twofold division of the law and the prophets; and in the extracts from these books, many names occur which are used with a spiritual significance. Balaam, and the king of Moab, both seem familiar with the names of the Lord, and with the capability of having the spiritual sight opened. The order also to have seven altars built for worship, and seven oxen and seven rams for sacrifice, can scarcely fail to strike us as implying some knowledge of the sacred symbolism of numbers.

These various considerations all seem to indicate the fact, that in remote times the Church had existed in Syria, as there is reason to believe it had in many other eastern countries, and that the superstitions, and gross worship of beastly sacrifices, which yet have a certain relation to the truth, were but the carnal perversion of what had been in ages then remote, the bright lessons of a purer, better faith.

Balaam was one in whom the knowledge and the better faith still continued, with the gifts of spiritual intercourse and prophecy added; but, alas, with a total neglect of that regeneration of the heart which is man's indispensable duty upon earth. He knew the right, but he loved the wrong.

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The description Balaam gives of himself is very majestic and strangely solemn and affecting. Balaam, the son of Beor, hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said: he hath said who heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the Most High, who saw the vision of the Almighty, bowing down, but having his eyes open."

Balaam was an inhabitant of Pethor, a small city of Mesopotamia, on the river Euphrates, and we may infer that the decay of true religion had not been so complete in that region of the east, as in Canaan and the surrounding countries. The intensity of the alarm felt by the Moabites and the Midianites may be concluded from their having sent so far, not less than

four hundred miles, for one whom they believed powerful to bless and to curse, and friendly to them.

But, let us consider the subject a little more deeply in its spiritual and universal character. The scene of the transaction was the land of Moab. Balak was the king of Moab. Balaam was the distant prophet called upon to save the Moabites from impending danger and defeat. The Moabites were a people that originated in a dark and lawless way from Lot, the cousin of Abraham, and generally they were in opposition to Israel. They inhabited the country outside of the Dead Sea, about fifty miles long and fifty miles broad. In their best states they were tributaries to the Israelites.

As the Israelites were the representatives by divine appointment of a true spiritual Church, so it would follow that the countries surrounding the land of Canaan, according to their relation to, and connexion with the Israelites, must have their representation also. The Moabites are obviously so regarded in the Word of God.

There are people in every land who separate worship from life. They are ready to worship, they are even pious in their habits, and punctilious in their attendance upon the services of religion, but have no concern about purity of heart, and very little about uprightness of life. Their piety has no relation to justice, and very little to charity. They have no religious principles, they have only practices. They will readily yield an outward observance to public prayer, and be indignant at those who neglect church, but they regard worship not as a means of making them true and pure, just and good, but as a tax due to the Almighty, dangerous and wrong to neglect. They will crowd to church, but lay no control upon their passions. They will mix solemnly in public worship, but the moment any one offends them they will indulge in words fearful to hear. They will continue in their orgies until Saturday night, but appear with devout face on Sunday morning. They know nothing and care nothing about justice to men being a duty to God. They are strange mixtures of sin and superstition, religion without, and lust within. They have an instinctive aversion to inward religion. They abhor downright sincerity in heart and thought. They shrink from thinking on religious subjects. They avoid the themes of death and eternity as painful spectres to be kept from sight as much as possible. They are not without some virtues, are often characters that deceive themselves as to their true nature, and win the admiration and esteem of the superficial,