BAMIDBAR

IN THE WILDERNESS

10 Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the 4th part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!

Various things to know to be wise in

Of such are the things that cluster round this Table of the Lord to break bread and drink wine in remembrance of him. Without a knowledge of them and sympathy with them, we are the mere natural creatures of the day, with which creation teems in countless thousands-sustaining a brief organic existence and disappearing for ever like the insects of a season.

Only he that doeth the will of God shall abide forever (1 John 2:17). Only he who learns that will can do it. Only he who reads or hears the revelation of that will can learn it. Hence the transcendent importance of the reading of the Word of God and the studying of it.

People scorn us as a people of one book. They say that a man of one book is a dangerous man. No doubt this is true of human books, though even then, it depends upon what book it is. But how can it be true of a book that God has given us? How can it be true of a book that makes us wise unto salvation? How can it be true of a book that makes the man of God thoroughly furnished unto all good works?

It is, no doubt, good (for present uses) to have some general acquaintance with the literature of the age; but as between a man of general literary culture, ignorant of the Bible, and a man enlightened in the Scriptures, and of poor acquaintance with human writings, there is no comparison.

Even now the mentality of the latter is preferable to the other for real purposes. It is more solid and tranquil and beautiful as the result of a daily familiarity with writings produced by the mind of God, containing the views of God on history, the thoughts of God on human ways, the principles of God prescribed for human conduct, the promises of God for human need and human futurity.

The mind of the mere literary man is a thoroughfare of the mere human crowd with their noise and dust and shallowness and futilities. His mind is soaked and deluged with human thoughts and sentiments which end in nothing.

Even now, the man of God has the advantage; but consider the upshot. Even Balaam could say,

"Let me die the death of the righteous, let my last end be like his."

The upshot will make it manifest that the man of God has achieved the objects of existence, and that the other has lost them. Christ, returned to consummate the purpose that God had in the formation of this planet, can have no pleasure in or use for the merely elegant gossip in human affairs. Such a creature can have no natural place in the final and lasting form of life upon the earth, an immortal life of holiness, glory to God, and fellowship with the spiritual intelligences of the universe. It is,

"the man that is (now) godly that the Lord hath chosen for Himself"

the man who knows, believes, fears, loves, and serves God in a time of ungodliness, when the doing of his commandments is difficult and disadvantageous.

Seasons 2.20.

24 Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion: he shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, and drink the blood of the slain.

The proclamation of good in midheaven by the Saints (and there is none else to do it) is not only to warn the nations of what is about to break forth upon them, but so to operate upon the scattered Israelites, as to make them willing to acknowledge Jesus as David's Son and Lord, and to place themselves at his disposal; so that whatever he, as the Prophet like unto Moses, may command to be done, they will readily and zealously obey under the direction, orders, and superintendence of those of his Brethren he may appoint.

The saints will have, not only to make proclamation, but to consummate such a military organization as will make Israelites and the "mixed multitude" who accept their proclamation, bodies of efficient soldiers in all the countries where such may be found. The means developing this result will be "a noise," and "a shaking," whereby the very dried bones of Israel shall come together, bone to bone, and flesh and sinew shall come upon them, and they shall live politically, and stand upon their feet an exceeding great army (Ezek. 37).

This standing up of Israel upon their feet is the political resurrection predicted by Balaam, and recorded by Moses..

à."Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion; he shall not lie down until he eat the prey, and drink the blood of the slain. His King shall be higher than Agag (or Gog), and his kingdom shall be exalted. AlL brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath, as it were, the strength of an unicorn; He shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows" (Num. 24:7,8).

Eureka 19.10.