The Intercession.

'But Moses besought the Lord his God.' — Ex. xxxii. 11.

Is there a single science to be found, in which, after whole ages of research, incessantly pursued, less progress has been made than in the knowledge of the human heart? Such a phenomenon is most remarkable, and yet one that may be explained: while every other science is incessantly enlarging its domain, our knowledge of humanity is less advanced than that of generations long since dead. It has been well and truly stated by the philosophical poet, 'The best study for mankind is man; 'but, alas! why should we have to add immediately upon the back of this, that there is no branch of study which is paid so poorly, and which furnishes less satisfactory results? Though we have had our earliest lessons in the school of self-knowledge, we remain but little else than strangers in the school where there is taught the deeper knowledge of mankind; and even though man, as such, may have been made the object of our study all through life, yet individual men present themselves to us at every turn as just so many enigmas. At one time, we may represent them to ourselves too favourably, at another time, quite the reverse; and while the thread which runs all through this maze is constantly escaping us, our lips take up the prophet's sad complaint, 'The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?'¹ And it is no wonder, verily, that we feel thus constrained anew to make complaint at every turn; our arm is far too short, our eye too dim for us to fathom the whole depths of that small world in even one mortal man. We see men round about us as they outwardly appear, not as they are in their hidden reality. What we behold are isolated acts; but all the wheels and springs by which the clock is made to move in this or that particular direction still remain concealed from sight. If we would form a judgment truly fair regarding any man we may observe, we would require to be in a position to lift up the veil of secrecy that hides his inner nature from our eyes. We would require to follow him whenever he forsakes the bustle of the world, and is alone with God and with himself We would require the power to cross the threshold of the inner chamber, the door of which is scrupulously closed, in which all that conceals what is disgraceful is quite cast aside, and where, in short, a man has not the smallest interest in making it appear that he is something different from what he really is. Each one of us is truly what he there appears to be; and 'the hidden man of the heart,' as an apostle² calls it, is the real man before the eye of God. 'But,' I hear some one ask, 'where can we get to know the man in this way, stripped of what is merely on, but not most truly in him, and not ornamented with the tinsel of an outside show that easily misleads? 'Not in our daily life, as you well know, not even in the sphere of common history, but rather in the field of sacred history. Truly, the Bible has well merited this name, — the book of the history of the human heart. This is the very feature in these old historical accounts which drew us to them, even in childhood's days; not merely do they let us linger in the outer fore-court, but they also let us penetrate into the inmost sanctuary; they picture man not merely as he stands related outwardly to other men, but specially in his relation personally towards God. But does this statement seem too strong? and does the difference we make between profane and sacred history require to be explained still further and confirmed? Let Moses' name suffice for proof Even writers whom we call profane know how to speak about his deeds, his laws, and his deserts; but where, outside of sacred Writ, do you find out the story of his hidden life before the eye of God?

Then do not be surprised that, when we now resume the golden thread of Moses' history,³ we cast a reverential glance into the sanctuary of his solitude. The deliverance, the probation-time, the call, the march of Moses at the head of the children of Israel, were certainly important pages in his wondrous history. But all these things had reference more to his outward than his inner life; they pointed more to what it was incumbent on him to become and do for Israel, — less to what he himself was, as before the face of God in all His holiness. And yet attention must be specially directed to that point, if we would have the picture given of him set in its proper frame of circumstances, and if he himself is to maintain his honourable place within the cloud of witnesses that now surround us on the Christian course. We must find out the key which shall unfold to us the secret of that greatness so peculiar to himself, of that placidity so imperturbable, and of that meekness which knew not a bound. The key lies hid behind a cloud upon the summit of the hill which we see him ascending more than once to seek the face of God. We thus invite you, then, to-day, to make a pilgrimage to the majestic Sinai — yet not there to be witnesses of the revelation of the law in its sublimity, but that you may behold the lawgiver himself, soon after that law was revealed, in secret intercourse with God. The words of the text present a stand-point from which we may carefully survey, in its entirety, the history this chapter contains; while we assume that you will not deny to us the right of briefly pointing out to you, in passing, other such like scenes occurring in the life of this great man of God.

Let us go on, then, to consider Moses' intercession pointed out in these few words, that we may come to know him as the mediator under the Old Covenant, the generous and noble friend of his people, but especially the confidant of God. 'Moses in prayer: 'does not this statement of our subject of discourse immediately entice you to give ear "^ May these our meditations serve to lead us all, either at the beginning, or as we proceed, to such a life of prayer, in faith and love, as only really deserves the name of 'life.' That we may fully see the nature, worth, and blessedness of such a life, we only need to look at Moses as he is presented in the context. We find him in succession, (1) highly privileged, (2) deeply grieved, (3) raised to a holy frame of mind, (4) visibly answered, (5) abundantly strengthened.

Lord! send down Thy light and Thy truth, that they may lead us, and bring us to Thy holy hill and to Thy dwelling-place. Amen.

1.

Many events have taken place since Moses, at the Lord's command, drove back the waters of the Red Sea, and the song of the deliverance voiced forth from heart and mouth of many myriads. The first shower of the manna has come down, and the first stream of water issued from the rocks of Meribah; the earliest victory has been obtained over the treacherous Amalekites, and the first foundations laid of the covenant between Jehovah and His people. Amidst the sound of thunder and of trumpets, Heaven has already spoken to the earth, and Israel's camp has now for weeks been gathered round Mount Sinai, waiting patiently till Moses shall return. 'Return! 'Where is he, then, you ask, and where can Amram's son remain with more advantage than amidst the people, who, as is already fully evident, cannot remain without his help and guidance for another single day? 'Where?' as if Moses could have been himself had he been always living in the abject sphere in which this Israel moved; as if a man to whom the Lord Almighty has vouchsafed a look into celestial mysteries should hasten back to earth again! 'Come up hither,' were Jehovah's words; and the voice drew forth from Moses' heart the answer, 'Here am I! 'Although the people have been strictly warned to keep outside the barrier placed round the holy mountain, yet the barrier that separates the child of dust from God, in His unspotted holiness, is now removed for Moses to come near. Higher, still higher — yea, so high that earth has disappeared from sight, and nothing is around him but the heavens — he ascends at God's command, and breathes the breath of life in a far higher realm of the creation than what now we see. 'The people,' as we elsewhere read, 'stood afar off; but Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.'⁴ For near six weeks on end, the days go swiftly by as if they had been hours; and while deep silence is imposed upon his bodily desires, he too can, in his way, declare that he has other meat than the manna with which, each morn, the wilderness is strewn. What mortal man shall venture to set forth, in earthly speech, all that then passed between him and his Lord, whose messenger he was? The story of those forty days is written in heaven's register; and if Moses were himself still here to give his witness as to what occurred, perhaps he would repeat the words of Paul regarding the most blessed hour of his experience, 'Whether it took place in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell, — God knoweth.'⁵ It is enough for us that he receives the law there through the medium of angels; that at this time he may have had withdrawn for him the cloud, which hitherto had quite concealed from human eyes God's counsel in its grand development, as now revealed in these last times; that there is now made known to him, not merely the grand principles of law to regulate the Jewish commonwealth, but God's express appointments as to everything relating to the life, both civil and religious, of the chosen nation, even to minute details; that he is now allowed (and this, the greatest privilege of all, I mention last) to pray in such a way that he most truly lives in close communion with the Infinite. Oh, happy Moses! who shall tell in what a stream of deep enjoyment you must then have bathed; how much refreshment your soul must have drawn from the full cup of God's delights; and how oblivious you must have now become of all the troubles which so often, like a leaden weight, oppressed your soul on earth? How high stands this great man of God above the carnal Israelites, who long for nothing so incessantly as for Egyptian flesh! Give to a Moses even the greatest dainty in all Pharaoh's court, and surely he will die with hunger, since it is but in communion with his God that he can find both rest and pleasure, life and blessedness. See how the world around him everywhere, except this little Israel, is still asleep in heathen night; even Israel as yet honours Jehovah only as the chief and the most mighty God; and only Moses knows Jehovah — that is, in so far as He could be made known to any human being under the Old Economy. But what is more, Moses may speak to God as man speaks to his friend. He looks upon the brightness of God's holiness, but his eye is nothing dazzled by the sight; he knows the power of God's wrath, yet his spirit is not perturbed thereby; and he receives the tables of God's testimony, yet is his hand not thereby withered up. Among those born of women, there has not been one, belonging to the days of the Old Covenant, that stood in such an intimate relation to Jehovah, except, it may be, Abraham alone: in this respect, again, we look on Moses as a happy man. But why should you be ready to regard him with an envious eye? I know, indeed, that his high rank, as the prime minister of Israel's King, has been bestowed on none of us; no voice from heaven has summoned us to make approach into the inmost sanctuary, wherein God shows His glory. But the greatest privilege which Moses had at Sinai — confidential intercourse with God — is granted to each one of us who know Him in His Son. Nay, Christians need no longer stand far off in fear, like Israel at the foot of Horeb, there entreating that He may no longer speak to them, and with the secret fear within their heart that he who has seen God shall die. We have already seen God in the face of His beloved Son, yet our life is preserved; and the voice of God, and not of man, is ever calling us, like Moses, to draw near to Him. No tables made of stone are put into our hands, but God is still establishing His covenant with us and with our seed for ever more; and His law is written by the Holy Ghost upon the mind when its regeneration is begun. No barrier prevents approach to His high throne; in Christ we may draw near with confidence, by faith in Him. No longer is there any palpable Mount Sinai marked out as the place where we must worship God; the hour is come, and now is, when men are neither at Gerizim nor on Horeb to kneel down in prayer; for God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. In every Christian sanctuary, in the days of the New Covenant, God's promise made to Israel is fulfilled: 'In all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.'⁶ Nay, more, the blessedness of fellowship with God is not attached solely to places such as these, however sacred, and however dear to us. Wherever there is any supplication made, the Father in Christ is there, as near His children as He was to Moses while he prayed: yea, more, wherever in your heart you seek the face of the Infinite, be it in midst of toil and weariness, or on the bed of rest, — in midst of nature's calm repose, or in the busy whirl of worldly things, — in every place, the Lord will open up a spring of living water for all those who thirst for fellowship with Him. You do not need to climb up Sinai's heights, nor to descend into deep clefts of rocks; for the Eternal One Himself is nearer you than your own shadow, ready to address kind words of comfort to your soul. All true believers, priests; and every priest called to draw near with as much confidence as Moses did: such is the joyful message which the gospel brings. As if our Maker thought the distance between Him and the posterity of Adam, in their helplessness, too great even for Himself, He has been the first to span it, and has come far nearer us in Christ. And when, in later ages, human wisdom had obscured this foolishness of God, and placed the universal priesthood of believers almost wholly in the shade, that human mediators might again be brought between God and the creatures He has made, then (as we have been thinking lately) He raised up the Reformation champion, who longed to have one of the trumpets used at Jericho, that he might raze the walls of the great Jericho of error, and once more proclaim, even to the weakest of believers, 'Ye are a royal priesthood! 'Raised to be priests in Christ, we stand to God in a relation even far more blessed than did Moses; and we may address Him, whose unutterable name he scarcely durst take up into his lips, with the sacred name of 'Father.' What blessed times are these, when, in our solitude, each separating wall that intervenes between the children's and the Father's hearts seems to fall down before our face! Our pleasures then are better far than what the world affords in the most choice of sense enjoyments; and even hours (alas! why are they still so few?) may hasten by like dreams, while we are thus allowed to breathe the vital air belonging to a higher world. Strangers on earth, although your portion were vexation and such toil as Moses had, even the least privileged among you has still one privilege; and happy are ye when ye value it above all else: ye can, ye may — nay, ye must pray!

2.

Yet do not think that such a privilege exempts you from a multitude of struggles on this earth; rather, when you but look at Moses' case, and find how deeply grieved he was, the contrary seems true. He is still standing in God's holy presence, raised above the dust of earth, when suddenly he hears the words addressed to him, 'Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.' 'Thy people: 'these are bitter, cutting words. Is it not just as if Jehovah meant to say, 'A people such as this can no more be accounted mine? 'What has occurred to rouse the Holy One to wrath? You know quite well already, though you willingly hear it repeated now, because you would not otherwise be fit to sound the depths of pain in Moses' soul. The absence of the lawgiver has proved a snare to Israel; and Horeb's thunders scarce have died away ere fear has vanished from their hearts. Their inclination soon is seen to be no longer now after Egyptian meats, but rather after the Egyptian calf-worship; Aaron, in weakness, shamefully sides with the people's wickedness; even self-interest and love of show keep silence now, to give full scope to the desire of sense-enjoyment, though prohibited. Loudly and blasphemously sounds the voice of their rejoicing through the stillness of the desert and of Sinai's rocks: 'These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.'⁷ O wretched nation, thus, when not much more than called to liberty, to stretch their hands out for the fetters of unrighteousness, and, as it were, before the eye of that Jehovah who touched yonder mountain-top and made it tremble, thus so quickly to transgress the first requirement of His holy laws! Oh, what a cruel insult cast on Him who bore that nation through the ocean's waves, like as the eagle carries all her young ones through the desert, now to see the cords of love, with which He had by this time almost bound them to His service, torn asunder, just like cobwebs, by the hands of the rebellious ones themselves! But we may also readily imagine what unutterable grief it was to Moses in particular, that even while in the immediate presence of his God, a dark cloud rises on His face. Is this, then, the reward for all the faithfulness with which he has devoted his whole energies to such an arduous work as Israel's deliverance? Is this the seal confirming what the people, scarcely forty days before, declared, 'All that the Lord hath spoken we will do'?⁸ Is this the highest pleasure of a people that but lately fled in terror from the presence of the only true God, but were unable to restrain their ecstasy when they beheld a lifeless lump of gold? Where are the songs of thanksgiving that echoed all along the shores of the Red Sea? They now are changed into the shouts of a rebellious mob. Where is the spoil that the dismayed Egyptians gave up? It has been spent on the adorning of an idol. Where is the prospect now of national prosperity to be enjoyed if men observed the ordinances of the Lord? It is as dark as that black cloud which caps the mountain where the law was given; for, hark! the ill-foreboding words sound loud in Moses' ears: 'I have seen this people, and behold it is a stiff-necked people; now, therefore, let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them.' 'Let me alone! 'how well we recognise, in these few words, the living God, who glories in omnipotence combined with faithfulness, and who will not even let His anger burn without forewarning this, His faithful servant, of the dreadful work He is about to do. But we may also easily perceive that words like these to Moses must have come upon him like a thunderbolt, more terrible by far than all the thunders of that morning when the law was given. It is but one condemning sentence that is passed, but it concerns the lives of many thousands who are truly guilty, and that, too, of deep offence against the majesty of God. Nor have they sinned far from the presence of the Lord, but under Sinai's shadow; nor is it merely through their own self-will and waywardness, but also through the weakness shown by Moses' own brother, that the people have transgressed. Then surely Moses must have felt as if the granite underneath his feet began to open up and to give way. On more than one occasion after this did he see Israel upon the verge of swift destruction; but now, more than at any other time, was he involved in danger with the rest. Now for the first time, almost three months since the Exodus, quite unexpectedly, and in a way incomprehensible, with one accord the people have rebelled against their lawful King; and the existence of the nation hangs by but a single thread, that trembles in the hands of a most righteous Judge. But ye should be in something like a proper state to understand the depth of this man's sorrow, — ye who had saved your dearest child from certain death, and who, just at the very moment when you fancied all was safe, beheld the one whom you had rescued rushing wilfully into the jaws of death. But wherefore should I speak of sorrowful experiences like these, as if they were the only ones through which God's faithful servant was to pass on earth? Well do we know that every man, but specially the Christian, must in this world engage in anxious strife; and every day bears witness to the truth, that there is not a single spot in any heart which may not unexpectedly be pierced with poignant grief But which of us, my fellow Christians, has not at some time had experience like Moses' in that memorable hour? We may have deemed ourselves blest in our fellowship with God, when suddenly the harsh, discordant sound of sin was heard, — the clash of weapons in the struggle of this life. For the disciple always finds even yet, as did his Lord of old, that the desert where he undergoes temptation immediately adjoins the Jordan of self-dedication; yea, just in proportion as, like Moses, we are placed in higher station, and more privileged than other men, we often find our trials too are heavier: the lightning spares the lowly bush, but scorches the proud oak in its broad and leafy crown. Like Moses, too, we often see our noblest efforts for the good of men in general rewarded with most base ingratitude; or, in a few brief hours, what we have raised by dint of sweat and toil, continued through successive years and months, is broken down through careless weakness on another's part. In utter disappointment, we pour out our grief before the ruins of the edifice we reared so carefully; and when we would continue to rejoice in hope that God will yet fulfil His promises, it seems as if God hid His face from us, and we are terrified. We stand, like Moses, all alone, with little understanding of our case, while it appears that all — yes, everything — is quite against us. The voice of conscience lets itself be heard more loudly than the voice of faith and felt experience; and tremblingly we see that there is only too much ground to fear the worst if He will enter into judgment with us men. Past joy seems irrecoverably lost; the present is a night through which there gleams not even a single ray of light; and the future — oh! must we not often strive to think as little of our own future as Moses did concerning Israel's? The wilderness has kept the secret of its own unutterable griefs; nevertheless, if all the inner chambers could but open, and if every heart that had experience of disappointed hopes, of hidden griefs, and of unutterable woe, could then pour everything into those inner chambers, do you not think that the whole book of Moses' law would be too small for the long list of those who had a like experience with him? Truly, although the trial of our faith is much more precious than of gold, the fiery trial sometimes lasts even longer than the trial of the gold; and just as surely as the Lord liveth and thy soul liveth, sooner or later you shall fail when you, like Moses, cease to pray!

3.

Would that we all were but of such a holy frame of mind as was the servant of the Lord, whose utter disappointment you have hitherto been witnessing. Does not the simple fact that Moses, at a moment such as this, betakes himself to prayer, say very much for him? But which of us, that suddenly perceives what deeply grieves us, is at once inclined to pray, and not, instead, disposed to cry out in despair, but most of all disposed to silence and to utter inactivity? Moses (it is his highest praise) at once betakes himself unto the Lord with his grief, and there must needs address Him out of the abundance of his sorrows and his thoughts. Now it is well for him that he still lingers at the top, not at the foot of Sinai, for he is near that God to whom he never called in vain. Moses pours out his supplications in the quiet solitude — for whom? Is it for himself, that God may give him strength to bear the burden of such oft rejection by the people? But wherefore should he think about himself, when his heart is quite filled with the thought of Israel's salvation? Why should he think of men in their rejection of himself, when they so shamefully provoked the Lord? Nay, here the lawgiver becomes a mediator, interceding for his people in their sins, with but his prayers for an offering; words fail me in attempting to describe his true nobility of soul, which comes out in his prayers and pleadings here. Read for yourselves, in this and other passages, the words by which he seeks to influence Jehovah to withdraw the dread death-sentence; and then tell me if there has at any time been offered, upon this vile earth, a prayer more beautiful and touching than this is.⁹ Does it not seem as if love were exhausting all its energies in trying to find out, not some slight palliations of the shameful conduct which must be pronounced quite inexcusable, but some good grounds for not requiring, in this case, full satisfaction for the vast amount of guilt incurred? Now he reminds Jehovah of the great deliverance He has already wrought for Israel, and asks Him if He really intends to bring destruction upon His own handiwork. Then he points out to Him what the Egyptians and the other nations well might say, when they would learn that the object of their hatred was destroyed. Again, he lays before Jehovah His own promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and he asks what must become of that, if He do not turn from His wrath in time. And finally, he earnestly entreats the Lord, if it must even be so, to take away his life, if Israel's life, now forfeited, cannot be bought at any other price; he far prefers to die with than to live without a nation, whose connection with himself has brought him, — shall we say, so much of joy and pleasure? — nay, scarce anything but constant pain and grief Have ever praying lips poured forth more touching words than these: 'Forgive their sin; and if not, then blot my name out of Thy book'?¹⁰ To be blotted out of God's book! — surely one would require to be a Moses thoroughly to know the dreadful meaning of that thought. In his own way, Paul gave expression to a sentiment of kindred import when he wrote that, for his brethren's sake, he could wish that he were accursed of Christ.¹¹ Nay, rather let him undergo the worst, if need be, than let him see Israel removed from the high rank among the nations of the world to which it had been destined: what is life to him if he live not with, and among, and for the stiff-necked Israel? 'But, Moses, think of this: the Lord must needs have a peculiar people; have you never heard that He desires to make of you a great nation, instead of them; yea, as is elsewhere said, a nation greater still and stronger than even this? But let the vial of vengeance, which you now restrain by these your prayers, pour forth its contents, and your fame shall rise out of the ruins of Israel's greatness; and the greatest benefit of which an Oriental dreams — a vast posterity — will then be yours, according to the promise God has made.' What a temptation lay for Moses here! But do you ask if it was not almost too strong? Mark, then, that in his prayer he speaks as if Jehovah had not used these words at all; he scarcely pays regard to them; he makes no use of them in his own interest; he is far more concerned about the honour of Jehovah than for a numerous posterity. By all means, then, destroy his trunk, stripped as it is already of its leaves, provided that the forest trees of Israel be not cut down; for he already sees the axe laid to their roots. In the full strength of interceding love he can be quite oblivious of everything except the sinful Israel; nor does he leave the mountain-top till he brings down with him the promise that the sentence, merited even though it is, shall be delayed at least, if not repealed. Does not a holy rapture seize you when you listen to a prayer like this? Here, we deliberately say, there is one greater even than Abraham, when pleading in behalf of guilty Sodom; for those wicked men had not rejected Abraham, at least in person, and the patriarch did not express his readiness to give his own life as an offering for sin. One prayer like this would be sufficient to secure a name and fame for Moses through all time; yet this one prayer is but the first of hundreds more; or rather, let us say, it is the key-note of a life of faith, and prayer, and love on Moses' part through forty years, — a life that dies not, even when he gives up the ghost. 'Now, therefore, forgive their sins; 'how frequently, and in how many ways, the man of God presented this same prayer! Now, when the spies sent out to search Canaan have returned, and the people stubbornly refuse to march still on, Moses — pardon the words — holds up before the face of God the shield of His long-suffering, that so the arrows of His righteous recompense may not bring injury to Israel. Then, when at the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, the voice of God sounds forth, 'Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment,'¹² Moses and Aaron fall upon their faces, pleading for the life of Israel. Soon after that, again, when fiery serpents glided round the tents of the rebellious ones, the prayer of Moses brought about what no snake-charmer could effect. But what need is there for adducing further instances? I would require to follow Israel with you step by step, in all their wanderings, to show you Moses in his constancy of prayer. 'They fell upon their faces:' these are words, applied to him and Aaron, which we meet at every turn; and who can tell how frequently this selfsame prayer for pardon was repeated in their friendly intercourse with Israel's God and King? It is this very perseverance in entreaty for the good of Israel — when, almost at every moment, they have turned anew to corrupt practices — that gives to Moses' intercession something of the unselfish, the pathetic, the sublime; and thus, just like the man himself, we find it standing in the books of the Old Testament almost alone, unparalleled. But it is also just this feature in the prayer of Moses that shows us professing Christians how we should conduct ourselves in secret intercourse with God. Come hither, ye who seek to understand what true prayer is, — what kind of prayer it is that pleases God; behold that man, who wrestles like another Jacob, not for his own life, but for Israel's, and who, like Israel, earned for himself the need of praise that as a prince he had power with God? Who does not feel that prayer like this truly deserves the name; while, on the other hand, so much of what bears that fair name is little more than a mere mumbling over of some forms, and that, too, in a way the most mechanical, — if it be not, indeed, but covert sin? Nay, it is not enough that you should cry to God for help whenever your own want and misery oppress your soul; Moses calls loudly, 'Pray for others too,' — and the more earnestly for them, as they are more unfortunate, more sinful than yourselves, and more unthankful and unkind to you! Neither is it enough that you present to Him your own and others' miseries; for Moses says again, 'God's honour must be made the one great object in your prayer;' woe to the man whose prayer is but self-seeking, who does not endeavour to extol God's majesty! Nor yet, again, is it enough that you should raise your heart at special times in prayer, but soon abate your zeal; Moses cries out to every one who strives on earth, 'Continue, persevere in prayer; the faithful friends of God are the best friends of men! 'Happy, thrice happy, is the nation, church, or family that counts among its members those who strive like Moses in their prayers. Eternity shall one day show how much earth owes to those who have thus learned to live in constant intercourse with Heaven!

4.

But does not this still further and more plainly show itself when you perceive how Moses Was heard in prayer? There is (may I express it so?) something beyond description, human or divine, in these words found in ver. 14: 'Then the Lord repented of the evil which He thought to do unto His people.' Nay, what man could expect by prayer to make God alter His decree? what godly man could wish to have such power? God has determined at all times to show His grace to sinful men, but He is gracious only to the humble prayer; and now, when Israel themselves neglect to pray that He may take away impending judgments, Moses puts himself in the position of the sinners; and no sooner does he venture on his intercession than he obtains God's pardon for them all. Say not that Moses' prayer was, nevertheless, not fully heard, because Jehovah will not promise any more than that He shall send forth His angel to become their guide (ver. 34), and further threatens them, with evident unwillingness, 'that He shall assuredly visit their sins at the appointed time.' For much had been already gained, and, in a certain sense, the whole has been obtained. Full pardon was what the most Holy One could not by any means bestow, so long as it did not appear that Israel repented in sincerity. Yea, so thoroughly does even Moses feel their punishment is just, that next day he will not go any farther in assuring Israel than this: 'Peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin.'¹³ Yet even here, too, it appears the Lord cannot cast off for ever, so as to become a gracious God no more. For an appointed time the people must sit down in sackcloth and in ashes, at a becoming distance from the mountain where God's glory is revealed, that they may be led back again, through deep humiliation, to the highest honour God can give. But oh, the unutterable riches of His grace! to that dread height it is impossible to rise, unless Jehovah be Himself the guide. Do not object, in answer to all this, that many thousands fall because of this same sin; that the most fearful judgments of the Lord continually make the wilderness a place of burial for all the dead, a place of torment for those left alive; that a whole generation must ere long become extinct before the land of promise shall be reached. Moses has prayed for grace, but grace does not in every case mean quite the same thing as impunity; and Moses himself is fully conscious that the nation must atone for its own sins, even when it is not visited according to its sins. 'Thou wast a God that forgavest them, though Thou tookest vengeance of their inventions.'¹⁴ These words, penned by the Psalmist, form the motto of God's dealings with Israel. When God exterminates some hundreds, He acts like the surgeon, sparing not the knife though it inflicts much pain, nor hesitating to remove most precious, yea, important members, that the body may itself be saved from otherwise inevitable death. Thousands must sometimes perish in the midst of their unrighteousness; but that whole myriads, as guilty, still are spared, must be attributed to nothing else than Moses' persevering prayer in their behalf That generation sinks into the grave, but Israel itself remains, an everlasting people, born as it were again upon the verge of ruin, by the breath of this same prayer, to an undying life; and though Moses also is himself soon gathered to his fathers, yet the fruits arising from his intercession still remain while he himself has gone from earth. That the desert did not swallow them all up, just as one man, is certainly the gift of grace, but it is quite as certainly the blessing that has come through Moses' intercession in behalf of Israel. Nay, more; if that same race, the most remarkable of all the nations of the world, has never yet irrevocably disappeared from off this earth, do you not think that Moses, looking down from heaven, would count this, too, among the fruits arising from his humble pleading, that was answered by the Lord in measure far beyond what he even asked or thought? But what a stream of blessing is it we behold arising from the fountain of a single intercessory prayer! and what inestimable gain has Moses brought his nation, when he seemed to have been doing nothing for these forty days! Yet what is it that prayer cannot do, — humble, believing, fervent, persevering prayer? It opens up the treasures hid in God's paternal heart, and shuts the flood-gates of His penal judgments; it brings blessings down upon the head already laden with the curse of sin; nor has it lost its power, although the mouth of him who offered it is long since silent in the dust of death! I know, indeed, that we must not in every case expect such palpable and such immediate answers to our prayers, if we are to avoid the risk of tempting Him who is the Lord our God. The same God who so constantly gave ear unto the prayers of Moses, offered up for others than himself, at least on one occasion most decidedly refused to answer his request when it concerned himself But I am also well aware that the fulfilment of the promise, 'He that seeketh findeth' is delayed and hindered by the weakness of our faith far more than anything besides; and that a quite distinctive blessing is attached unto the loving prayer of intercession made for others, — a blessing, too, whose full amount can only be conjectured, at the best. Does it not seem as if this selfsame Israel were borne upon the wings of prayer, by all the most illustrious men of God, over successive abysses? Thus, Samuel goes before the people in the breach, and the thunderstorm that threatens to destroy their fields passes away over their heads.¹⁵ Then Hezekiah and Isaiah hold out each his clasped hands against the whole army of Sennacherib, and the presence of the spirit of true prayer becomes the signal for the coming down of the destroying angel, whose it is to slay the multitudes of the Assyrians.¹⁶ So Daniel seeks the face of God for his people and the holy city, and immediately he is informed through Gabriel that, even in the beginning of his prayer, there has gone forth a message from the Lord announcing better times.¹⁷ We need not wonder, then, that God does not permit prayer to be made to Him when, for a time. He will no longer spare His people; and no stronger words of threatening are to be found than these: 'Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be towards this people.'¹⁸ And is the history of the Israel of the New Covenant less rich in illustrations of the truth, that God desires to have entreaty made to Him not merely by but also for His people, so that He may pity them.-^ Run over, then, yourselves, the annals of Christ's reign, and ponder specially the record made of your own history. What keeps the sword from Peter's head when that of James already is removed? The Church sends up in his behalf a constant prayer, that keeps the rock from falling down. What has the Christian Church to thank for her great teacher, Augustine ^ The prayer of Monica; because a child for whom so many tears were shed could not by any possibility be lost. What is it that brings back Melanchthon from the gates of death? Luther at once betakes himself to heaven's gate, and there pours forth a stream of prayers and tears, declaring, in the full assurance of his faith, that he shall keep him, and his hope shall not be put to shame. What saves the Reformation when its greatest crisis had been reached? Not the protection it received from any prince, not the support of wise and learned men, not any influence wielded by noblemen; but that same Luther, who, when he imagines there is no one listening, prays thus: 'I know of a surety that Thou art our God and Father, and that Thou shalt put our persecutors to shame. If Thou dost not, the danger is as great for Thee as for ourselves. The whole is most assuredly Thy work; we have but been constrained to enter into it; and truly Thou shalt care for it! 'Yes, after such wrestling in the dust, we feel that we can venture boldly on, quite confident that we shall win the day, when, in the fiercest fight, we make our motto that expression of heroic faith, 'I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.'¹⁹ What man can tell how many, who, in secret, cherish sin, are sitting here, and from whose guilty heads the sword is still averted through a father's or a mother's prayer, while they have never made return for all that love; who would, moreover, keep us from acknowledging that, deeply sensible of our own weakness, we pour out our soul in secret for the much prayer made in our behalf? Delightful thought, that even the poorest, by his prayers, may thus become a benefactor of his fellow-men, as Moses was of Israel; and that the clouds of prayer that rise from earth to heaven return again from heaven to earth in gentle showers of blessing for us men! Christians! if you most truly seek your brother's and your own salvation, persevere in prayer!

5.

'Your own salvation' — yes; it is just here that our own interest, which we so fully understand, combines most beautifully with our brother's too. Come, look at Moses, in the last place, fully strengthened after prayer. Let us once more look to the sequel of the history. When you behold the man of more than eighty years descending from the mountain of the Lord with all the fire of youth still full in him, do you not recognise in that the power of fellowship with God in heaven? What calmness in his eye, what firmness in his gait, what firm decision in his actions, and what strength combined with moderation, as this very page can testify! There may, be error on the part of Joshua, but not on his; Aaron may make excuse, — he knows exactly what the value is of the apology; the Levites may slay thousands with the sword, — hundreds of thousands have their fate decided by the sword of Moses' mouth. Surely you do not disapprove of what he did, when, in a boiling rage, he cast away the tables made of stone, so breaking them, and strewed the dust obtained by pounding down the golden calf upon the water used to quench the thirst of Israel? 'See my zeal for the Lord!' So Moses might have said with better right than Jehu did in later times;²⁰ for his was anger without sin. And we confess that we would scarce have looked on him as Moses — yea, would almost have despised him — had he not, on this occasion, cast a single glance of deepest anger upon the abomination now committed by the Israelites. What would have been the meaning of such intercession for a race of sinners, if the intercessor had esteemed the sin itself as trivial? Nay, verily, there must be no occasion given for any one to say that Moses is most powerful in prayer, but weak when courage, energy, and promptitude in punishment should be displayed; then let him who has been before the face of God show that he does not fear the face of man! Not merely is the order given to single out the guiltiest, he does not spare the strongest, nor the weakest, nor the dearest, when he has to wield the fierce chastising rod; and wading through a sea of blood, he can at once appear with confidence before Jehovah, and there show that he esteems sin not more lightly than the Holy One of Israel Himself, even though he has made intercession in behalf of those who sinned. Do you not recognise, in that one trait, Moses just as he was, — of tender sympathies, but never weak before the sinful Israelites, — pleading, indeed, with God to show His grace, but never asking that He should renounce His sacred right? Now he descends from Sinai's height. But what a life is this that, properly, takes its beginning here! He marches on, deeper and deeper still into the wilderness with those who are so frequently chastised, but never bettered by the chastisement! No less than forty years, from day to day, he has, as prophet, to explain the will of God; as God's lawgiver, to uphold His claims; as mediator, to stand up between a sinful creature and a holy Heaven, and to do this unweariedly, uninterruptedly, almost without support, — not reckoning the feeble Aaron and the seventy elders: — how was it possible? And had this man received some superhuman power to do what we can scarce conceive? Nay, it is not astonishing that even he could feel, at least sometimes, dispirited. Just hear how touchingly he speaks on one occasion, and see from this that he was really a man moved by like passions with ourselves: 'Wherefore have I not found favour in Thy sight, that Thou layest the burden of all this people on me? Have I conceived all this people? Have I begotten them, that Thou shouldest say unto me. Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing-father beareth the sucking child?'²¹ But who, that knows what a refreshing stream there ever flowed for Moses through the sultry desert's sands, can fail to understand that those hours of dejection gave immediate place to years of strength? The prayer of Moses was the power before which more than Amalek was forced to yield; for the inscription on the altar built by Moses, 'The Lord is my banner/ becomes the watchword of his inward and his outward life. Prayer proves his stay and strength when such as Miriam rise against him, and when such as Aaron leave his side; how little can he need who finds all in his God! Sometimes, indeed, the day is hot and sultry; but when, at the eventide, he turns again into his tent, and the cloudy pillar shuts him in, then is he all alone with God; and the people, as they stand far off in reverence, scarce can imagine what is uttered there. But Moses reappears, as if he had been born anew, and girded by an unseen arm for all his work, feeling quite equal to the task awaiting him. "Whatever storms may play around his head, they can at most destroy the branches of the tree — never its roots; and even his death scarce can deserve the name, for what was his last breath but pious prayer? How could we ever think of instituting even a remote comparison between life's struggle, fought by one who lives among ourselves, and Moses' life? Still, Israel's journey through the wilderness remains the emblem of our life on earth; and every Christian finds himself, while here below, like Moses, placed in a position where, each day, there is but strife without and often fear within. How wretched, then, must be the man who knows no other strength than that of mortal flesh and blood! And how should not the burden, that even Moses now and then felt almost far too much for him, appear to such a one wholly unbearable? But if, at every point in our career, we see our inner chamber open, as he saw the Tabernacle of Witness, and if it is a good thing for us to be near to God, then certainly, though much may happen, this shall be impossible, — that we should be compelled to ask, like Israel, 'Is the Lord among us or not?' At every turn we find new proofs in our experience that His strength is perfected in our weakness; and what human nature cannot do is taught us through His grace. Then, even though the world be all opposed to us, the Lord, in His eternal faithfulness, remains upon our side; though even our dearest friends may fall, the Friend who cannot die still watches us; although the head may bend through weariness, the heart that still can pray renews its youth. Behold in this the explanation of the mystery, why two men, both engaged in the selfsame life-struggle, may yet fight in ways so utterly dissimilar, that while the one sinks under wounds he has received, the other issues from the fight victorious; the one required to carry on the war at his own charges, while the other had Omnipotence itself upon his side. Have you never met with them, — those fortunate unfortunates, whom one could never look upon without remembering the well-known words: 'As chastened, but not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things'?²² Rise up again before our eyes, ye countless hosts in heaven and on the earth, who serve, like Moses, as examples of the power of prayer and faith! Grow on, even in our midst; bear witness in the face of the great world of unbelief unto the truth that the Lord's arm is not shortened yet! And Christians, if you wish for proof which no man can refute, that the prayer of faith gives strength for everything, — yes, even overcomes the world, — see specially that it be not awanting where it can least of all be missed, — in your heart, in your mouth, in your life!

We have been looking upon Moses while engaged in prayer. But how could we conclude without bestowing a sad look on all those we perceive so far beneath the place which Moses occupied? And how, again, could we depart from this without a look of hope and joy at Him who stands so far above?

Have we no reason to affirm that many, — that the most of us, — that (let me say) we all remain far in the rear of Moses with regard to faith and prayer? But what a painful feeling seizes us, whenever, from that mount of prayer, we cast our eyes down on that vast assembly, — nay, into our own heart especially! I am not even speaking now of those who carry with them, not a Moses', but a Pharaoh's hardened heart; I wish to believe that you know better, by experience, what prayer is than I have been describing it to-day. And yet do you not feel, just like myself, that when you look at Moses in the exercise of prayer, you are constrained to cast your eyes upon the ground in shame? Prayer is to him the sweetest pleasure of his solitude: say candidly and honestly — if an account were written of your solitary hours, would it not show some traits quite different from this? The prayer of Moses rises for all Israel, for sinners, even for those who have offended him; say candidly, how many of your dearest relatives there are whom you have seldom or never remembered in your prayers; and have you many enemies for whose forgiveness and conversion you have earnestly besought the Lord.-'This Moses, in the light shed by the Old Economy, prays of his own free will; why, in the light shed by the New Economy, do you so often stand far off in such timidity t Moses does not desist from prayer before he gets an answer from the Lord; why does the least delay in the fulfilment of your hopes make you abate your earnestness in prayer t But why should we continue the comparison, each point in which reveals new ground of blame for us? Who, in this whole assembly, will be bold enough unblushingly to place himself alongside Moses while engaged in prayer? Alas! although I seek for men who pray like Moses, I can find, at best, men weak as Aaron was, — with good intentions, certainly, so long as there is nothing hazardous to be attempted, but who speedily are borne away, like reeds, by every stream that brings temptation, when they rather should have remained as firm as rocks! What did I say? 'I seek;' nay, it is God that seeks for men who pray like Moses, 'for the Father seeketh such to worship Him;' and He finds thousands like apostate Israel, not on the top, but at the foot of Horeb. But is it not quite undeniable that the same dividing line seen in this case is also to be drawn among ourselves; and that, of those who will not let themselves be brought out from among the mass of the apostate Israelites, by fostering a prayerful spirit such as Moses showed, the number is from time to time on the increase? Only five verses back, before the words found in the text, I find a wholly different account: 'The people sat down to eat and drink, and then rose up to play;' say candidly, is that not rather your own history? Does not the spirit of the times drive hosts of thoughtless people into dissipation and a careless mode of life? Are you, too, not aware of any idols towards which the heart is drawn far rather than to Him whose promises are so attractive, — yes, but whose requirements, too, are strict to a degree elsewhere unknown? Have not you also precious offerings, — as Israel had its gold, — ready to give when there shall but be need of them to gratify your heart's desire? Do not you also feel an inclination to unite, like Aaron, what never possibly can be combined, — the worship of the one true God and that of idols? You who can tell of a deliverance greater than that of Israel from Egyptian bondage, who know of better manna, and who hear the messages of God as clearly as the Israelites, — can you, too, be at heart as faithless, unimpressible, ungrateful, and as fickle as were they? Then your prayer may possibly be like the prayer of Israel, of whom we read, 'when He slew them, then they sought Him,'²³ but certainly not like the prayer of Moses, who derived from it his chief delight; then, too, that sentence which God uttered to that praying one applies to you, 'Whosoever sinneth against me, him will I blot out of my book!'²⁴ Moses, if thou didst well in being wroth, and casting from thine hands the tables of the testimony, when thou sawest Israel in all their sin, how wouldst thou look upon so many now who boast they have a better covenant, but yet despise it through a like insensibility? Oh that the contemplation of this prayerful man of God had but inflamed a multitude of hearts with holy zeal, that they might seek in some degree to be like him! Why should we seek this any longer in a world which can as little satisfy the deepest wants of human hearts, as the golden idol could have heard the prayers of Israel? Why are we standing still before it, ever weak as Aaron was, whereas a prayerful Moses has been showing us how we may be always courageous, always strong, and always full of hope? Rather let us bewail in briny tears our grievous folly, in that we could possibly continue for so long a time seeking the living water, not at the only fountain, but at a troubled stream! Let it be with each one of us this day as if, like Moses, we perceived the Lord's voice calling us to the ascent, — to seek the face of God with all our troubles and our cares, but first with all our sins; nor let us rest till we are sure the Lord can also say to us, as unto Moses, 'I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight.'²⁵ Let us regard each disappointment, though most saddening, as being possibly prepared for us even as for Moses, that it may become a means in God's hands of improving us in prayer; and let us deem each loss a gain, as making us less bound to earth, and more prepared for fellowship with Him. Our life is valueless, our future dark, our death devoid of hope, so long as it cannot be said of us, as it was said of Moses, that the Lord is become our God!

And how does He, the Holy One, become the God of such unworthy sinners as ourselves? Here my eye rests upon a scene, in view of which all Sinai's glory pales, and the angels that gave out the law but veil their faces in deep reverence. Fifteen long centuries have passed since Moses bowed in prayer, and now^ the mountains of the Promised Land behold another One who prays during the quiet hours of night; the solitudes hear this Man speak with God, as if a child addressed the father whom he loved. Moses has been our theme till now; but how could we here end with him, when we know One who is the Mediator of another and far better covenant? On Sinai, Moses prays for a rebellious nation; on Golgotha, you hear Jesus pleading for His executioners when He was being crucified. Moses invokes God for His grace towards Israel only; Jesus, for that same grace to sinners of all tribes and tongues, peoples and nations, — yea, even towards you and me, in all our guilt. Moses but offers to make his own life a sacrifice for sin, while Jesus actually gives His life as a ransom for many. Moses obtains for Israel no more than mitigation of the penalty, not full forgiveness; Jesus can bestow a full salvation on all those who come to God by Him. Moses expires when he has watched and prayed for forty years, seeking the good of Israel; but Jesus ever lives, appearing in God's presence for our interest. Nay, Israel, we do not envy you of this your prayerful mediator; we thank God that we look unto a higher One. While other men rank Moses high among the saints, and earnestly desire that he may pray for sinners, this is our sole wish, — that we may have an intercessor with our God in Him whose way even Moses has prepared. And we have blessed comfort in the certainty that He shall intercede if we but come to Him as sinners. Nay, Jesus does not say, like Moses, 'Peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin.' Even though your sins were red as scarlet, only believe; then, through His intercession, they shall all be covered, blotted out. But if you have indeed found peace in Him, then see to it, ye Christians, that no praying Moses put you to shame henceforth as heretofore! Moses must lead you unto Christ, but Christ bestows on you the Holy Ghost, who gives you power to become, not merely such as Moses was, — though even that v/ere much, — but even more than he. Disciples of the Lord, go then to Him, and ask that He Himself may teach you by His word and Spirit how to pray aright! Ye soldiers of the cross, members of the Church militant on earth, kneel daily ere ye gird your weapons on; so shall ye surely be much more than conquerors! Ye who are faithful to your native land and to the Church, pray, even as Moses, the more earnestly the more you see decline around; were but the spirit of true prayer more fully asked for and bestowed, then there would be less reason, but less inclination also, to complain. Ye whom the world misunderstands and wrongs, learn, like the prayerful Moses, — nay, like Jesus in His sufferings, — to bless them that curse you, and to pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. Ye fellow-travellers to the same celestial Canaan! the path is steep, the time remaining may be short, your best strength may be spent; then let us promise to each other and the Lord, that we shall pray more earnestly for one another, and that we shall thus complete what is, alas! still wanting in our mutual love. Ye children of the dust! a few more moments, and our footmarks here on earth shall disappear, even as Israel's in yonder wilderness. But yet, what matters that, if so be that the story of our inner life, like that of Moses on this earth, can be comprised in words like these, recorded in Heaven's chronicle: 'He was a man of prayer and faith'? As Moses ascended to meet with God, so let us also quickly shake earth's dust from off our wings, and through eternity enjoy the blessedness of which he had refreshing foretaste in those forty days. To none of His own chosen ones shall God say on that holy mount, 'Go, get thee down!'

Amen.

1) Jer. xvii. 9.

2) I Pet. iii. 4.

3) This sermon was preached November 7, 1858.

4) Ex, xx. 21.

5) 2 Cor. xii. 2, 3.

6) Ex. xx. 24.

7) Ex. xxii. 4.

8) Deut. v. 27.

9) Ex. xxxii. 11-13, 31, 32, xxxiii. 13-16; Num. xiv. 13-19, xvi. 22.

10) Ex. xxxii. 32.

11) Rom. ix. 3.

12) Num. xvi. 21.

13) Ex. xxxii. 30.

14) Ps. xcix. 8.

15) I Sam. xii. 17 ff.

16) 2 Chron. xxxii. 20, 21.

17) Dan. ix. 22, 23.

18) Jer. xv. 1.

19) Ps. cxviii. 17.

20) 2 Kings x. 16.

21) Num. xi. 11-15.

22) 2 Cor. vi. 9, 10.

23) Ps. lxxviii. 34.

24) Ex. xxxii. 33.

25) Ex. xxxiii. 12.