and a pillar of fire by night, so now He is ever with His Church, to guide His people onward through this world in the path that they should go.

3

First, He leads us through the waters of holy baptism, as Moses led the children of Israel through the Red Sea. Then we are safe from the power of the devil. The devil cannot take, and make us serve him, unless we turn from following Christ to taste the pleasures the evil spirit tempts us with 1.

And God gives us also bread from heaven, and water from the rock. He gives us food for our souls, that we may live and not die, and may have strength to journey onward to our place of rest in heaven.

The bread which God gives to us is our Lord Jesus Christ, who came down from heaven to give life unto the world. He is the living bread which came down from heaven, that men may eat thereof and not die ".

31 Pet. iii. 21. Titus iii. 5. 5 John vi. 33. 50-54. 58.

4 James iv. 7. 1 Cor. x. 13.

That holy bread God gives to His true people in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper".

8

And the water from the rock which God gives to us, is His Holy Spirit. First, He gives it to us at our baptism'; and always in this life He gives it more and more to those who seek it from Him R. By the strength which that Holy Spirit gives to us, we can go on in the narrow way which leads to heaven; we can do what God bids us do, and become what God would have us be'.

And we, too, have enemies to conquer and subdue, before we can enter into our promised land, and dwell there.

The evil spirit, the devil, who is always tempting us to sin-the vanities and pleasures, and the cares of this evil world, which keep men from serving God and loving Him-and the sinful desires of our own hearts, our evil wishes and evil tempers, these are our enemies 10. These 61 Cor. x. 16; xi. 23—26.

7 John vii. 37-39. Acts ii. 38. 1 Cor. xii. 13.

8 Luke xi. 13.

10 1 Pet. v. 8.

9 Romans viii. 13, 14. Mark iv. 19. Rom. viii. 13. 1 Pet. ii. 11.

will keep us from entering into heaven, unless we fight against them, and subdue them. But Christ is always with His people to help and strengthen them. If we will trust in Him, and obey His voice, He will make us able to overcome our enemies. If we will follow where He leads us, He will surely bring us into our promised land.

Six hundred thousand men, besides women and children, did God bring forth from the bondage of Egypt, and lead through the waters of the Red Sea, that He might bring them into the promised land-the land of Canaan. Yet of that large number, two only of those who then were old enough to know good from evil did enter in : the rest perished in the wilderness. They sinned, and lost by sin the blessings which God promised them.

And so of the many thousand Christians whom God leads forth through baptism, that they may be His people here, and come to dwell with Him in heaven, very many will not follow Christ, will not serve Him and obey His voice, will not fight

against the enemies of their souls, and so they perish. In spite of all that God has done for them, they will never enter heaven ".

1 Cor. x. 1-12.

Instruction, is teaching. To instruct, is to teach.

THE SIN OF KORAH AND HIS COMPANY.

AFTER the children of Israel had turned away from the promised land, according to God's command, they wandered in the wilderness many years.

And the Lord was with them still. God still led them in a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. For He had not cast them off altogether. Though those people who had sinned

11 2 Pet. ii. 4-6. 9. Rom. xi. 22. Matt. vii. 14; xxii. 14.

against Him had lost their inheritance, yet their children were to enter in and possess the land which God had promised to their fathers. God still fed them day by day with manna from heaven, and He still dwelt among them. And Moses ruled the people in His name; and Aaron was His priest to offer sacrifice for them.

But a man of the tribe of Levi, named Korah, and Dathan and Abiram, of the tribe of Reuben, and many others with them, rebelled against Moses and Aaron.

Dathan and Abiram rebelled against Moses, and said that he had no right to rule over them. And Korah, and two hundred and fifty of the Levites who were with him, murmured because they were not allowed to offer up incense to God, as Aaron and his sons did. They said, that they were as holy as Aaron and his sons, and that they ought to be priests as Aaron and his sons.

were.

Now Aaron and his sons burnt incense before God, because God had chosen them to be His priests, not because they were better or more