The point here is, not which of the servants is acting most according to the Lord's plan, or how much loss many of the Lord's servants will have to suffer; but how it is, that with such a miserable set of tools, the great Master-worker produces such exquisite workmanship, in due time to be manifested as that city which has the glory of God.

But if all the Lord's workmen are under Him working for a definite end exactly in proportion as He works with them, it necessarily follows, that in that in which the Lord works with His servants, they are co-workers one with another, they are really working for one end; howbeit in their hearts they may repudiate the thought of being associated in common labour. That for which they are working in their own hearts is one object; that for which the Lord is using them, and working with them, is another. Humbling indeed it is that it should be so; and that regard for Him, whose servants we are, should have so little power in setting self aside. Great was the comfort to the apostle to have a true yoke-fellow in Timothy or Titus; but although he had few likeminded with him in his singleness of eye to the service of the Lord, he nevertheless acknowledges others as his fellowhelpers unto the kingdom of God. "These only," says he, "are my fellowworkers unto the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort to me." (Col. iv. 11.) Many of the servants of Christ might be wayward and selfseeking; some entangled in Jewish traditions, others in Gentile philosophy; they were no comfort to the apostle, and instead of strengthening were by their ways apparently weakening his hands; nevertheless, the apostle acknowledges them

as servants of Christ, and his fellow-workers unto the kingdom of God. They must stand or fall to their own Master; but in fidelity to that Master, he must acknowledge them in whatever way the Master working with them was accrediting their work. If they really were ministers of Christ, they must, under the Master-worker's hand, be helping on His work.

Had not the apostle been able to take, fellowship in labour on another and higher ground, than that of ostensible co-operation, he had so few "like-minded" that he might almost have been driven to express himself, as the prophet, in felt desolation-" And I only am left;" or to adopt the ready human way of party making which he so strongly repudiates, "Who is Paul, or who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?"

"And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in Thy name; and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us. And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not; for he that is not against us is for us." (Luke ix. 49, 50.)

PATIENCE. Our trials may sometimes appear both long and sharp. God tries our patience as well as faith. He exhorts us to "let patience have her perfect work," as well as to "cast not away our confidence which hath great recompence of reward." (James i. 4; Heb. x. 35.) We may well wait upon the Lord, and be of good courage, for He is faithful that promised.

'He will not always chide,

But when the hope seems least,
If now thy faith abide,

Then shalt thou be releas'd.'

THE FEAST IN THE WILDERNESS.

Exodus x. 24 to end.

WE see from the 9th verse that God's purpose for Israel was for them to keep a Feast, and in 1 Cor. v. the same is applied as the present condition of God's people. The mention of the leaven there couples it definitely with the Feast of the Passover-they were delivered from Egypt; we are a people delivered from the wrath to come: the object of it unceasing, unchanging joy. It was to be "a Feast unto the Lord." The scene in Egypt was laid in the deepest trial; but the purpose of God was for them to keep a Feast. Nothing is of more importance than to consider our exceeding short coming in outward manifestation, by the failure of this condition of soul. Our hearts well know that this fruit is not pressed, so as to yield its own juice in present support to the soul. Glory be to His grace, we have always to sing that our failure does not affect the security of our souls, because we are set in Christ. Though we may not be keeping the Feast to the Lord, there is One keeping it who ever rejoices the heart of God: we have Jesus, by whom God wrought out all His pleasure, and we are in Him. God knows no disappointment in Him. He is the Man of His right hand; but that does not militate against the failure of our ways.

And not only is this table the Feast, but it gives its colouring to the whole dispensation. "The table in the wilderness" is the character of this dispensation; spread by God, guarded by God, but presenting one unbroken scene, all of God's doing; we had no part in

it. We are brought into the house by the Father; it is for the children within the house to be merry, and God has provided for Himself joy in the sorrow; and where we fail is in not apprehending the character God affixed to this scene. We are to have joy in the sorrows; and if you fail to realize this, you fail in something that the joys of heaven will never be able to give you; for then the sorrows will be over. Get out of the place, and the occasion is lost for ever; get into the glory, and you cease to realize trial. It is unmixed joy.

We so shrink from trial now. Why? Because we know so little of the joy in the trial, and God alone knows the terrible trials of the wilderness.

There were two things specially marked here. The denial of letting the children go (verses 7-11); there is the denial of Pharaoh (the wicked one) to God's purpose, that they should keep a Feast in the wilderness. And how could they keep a Feast of joy while their little ones were in Egypt? A Feast implies circumstances of joy. We cannot keep it without a merry heart; and it is said that "a merry heart is a continual feast." Pharaoh knew it. The attempt was most crafty, to get the tenderest object of their affections absent. He says, "Leave the object of your affections behind, and you go. Do not hazard all you have, but reserve something. Evil is before you, wilderness fare; do not expose them!" Had they yielded, God's purpose would have been impeded.

In verse 24 (after Moses' denial of this), Pharaoh proposes to leave the flocks behind, and to take the little "The flocks behind!" still objects of affection, alas! though of a lesser kind: they were their pro

ones.

perty. Moses' reply does, to my mind, express most simply the true nature of a Feast, viz., real dependence on God for every thing. Moses, by the Holy Ghost, tells Pharaoh, “We know not wherewith to serve the Lord till we be come thither;" every thing they had was given by God to serve Him with.

Psalm lxiii. was a song of merriment "in the wilderness of Judah," as the heading tells us; in one sense, the desert, yet a wilderness of praise. Why of Judah? Because God was with them. He had undertaken all for them to the end. They were delivered to Himself; and this must place Israel in dependence on Him. The food of their table, their shoes, their garments, the manna; it was His place to provide all. They had nothing to do but to hold the Feast; but that that hindered would be the leaving any thing in Egypt. Pharaoh tried first to keep their persons, then the children, then the flocks; but not till they were clean delivered from Egypt, and apart from it could the Feast be kept. And surely this same thing is at the root of our individual failure. It is not our persons only that are to be devoted to God, but every thing we possess is to be His. Our property, our little ones, Are they in Egypt? Is it the tenderness of Pharaoh, or of God, I am exercising with regard to my little ones? Have we anything left in Egypt for the day of destruction? Oh! the tendency of all our hearts to lean to flesh and blood. It was Pharaoh's aim to bring them to independency.

Jesus carried out the separation fully, and left none of His little ones in Egypt. He was the true Nazarite. He knew the depth of sorrow in that broken