SPARKLETS AND PEARLS. WHEN we have done what we came for, it is time for us to be gone. This earth is made for action, not for fruition. The services of God's children should be ill-rewarded, if they must stay here always. He that lends them to the world, owes them a better turn than this earth can pay them. It were injurious to wish that goodness should hinder any man from glory.-Bp. Hall. CONSIDER not so much what thou hast, as what others want. What thou hast, take heed thou lose not; what thou hast not, take heed thou covet not. If thou hast many above thee, turn thine eye upon those that are under thee; if thou hast no inferiors, have patience awhile, and thou shalt have no superiors. The grave requires no marshal.-Quarles. If a convert come home, the angels welcome him with songs, the devils follow him with uproar and fury, his old partners with scorn and obloquy.Bp. Hall. IF thou wouldst have a good servant, let thy servant find a wise master. Let his food, rest, and wages be seasonable: let his labour, recreation, and attentions depend upon thy pleasure: be not angry with him too long, lest he think thee malicious; nor too soon, lest he conceive thee rash; nor too often, lest he count thee humorous: be not too fierce, lest he love thee not; nor too remiss, lest he fear thee not; nor too familiar, lest he prize thee not. In brief, whilst thou givest him the liberty of a servant, beware thou losest not the majesty of a master.-Quarles. It is a good sign when God chides us: reproof makes way for deliverance, humiliation for comfort. -Bp. Hall. BEFORE thou reprehend another, take heed thou art not culpable in what thou goest about to reprehend. He that cleanses a blot with blotted fingers makes a greater blur.-Quarles. WHAT thou givest to the poor, thou securest from the thief; but what thou withholdest from his necessities a thief possesses. God's exchequer is the poor man's box: when thou strikest a tally he becomes thy debtor.-Quarles. LOVE thy neighbour for God's sake; love God for his own sake, who created all things for thy sake, and redeemed thee for his mercy's sake. If thy love have any other object, it is false love; if thy object have any other end, it is self-love.-Quarles. WOULDST thou multiply thy riches,-diminish them wisely. Or wouldst thou make thy estate entire,-divide it charitably. Seeds that are scattered, increase; but hoarded up, they perish.Quarles. Ir is seldom seen but that which we do with fear prospereth; whereas confidence in undertaking lays even good endeavours in the dust.-Bp. Hall. THINGS temporal are sweeter in the expectation; things eternal are sweeter in the fruition: the first shares thy hope, the second crowns it. It is a vain journey whose end affords less pleasure than the way.-Quarles. Ir thou hast but little, make it not less by murmuring. If thou hast enough, make it not too much by unthankfulness. He that is not thankfully contented with the least favour he hath received, hath made himself incapable of the least favour he can receive. Quarles. IF poor souls be thankful to us for a handful or a sheaf, how should we be affected to our God for full fields, full barns, full garners!-Bp. Hall. DEMEAN thyself more warily in thy study than If thy public actions have a in the street. hundred witnesses, thy private have a thousand. The multitude looks but upon thy actions, thy conscience looks into them: the multitude may chance to excuse thee, if not acquit thee; thy conscience will accuse thee, if not condemn thee.-Quarles. GOD is the author of truth; the devil is the father of lies. If the telling of a truth shall endanger thy life, the Author of truth will protect thee from the danger, or reward thee for thy damage. If the telling of a lie will secure thy life, the father of lies will beguile thee of thy gains, or traduce the security. Better by losing of a life to save it, than by saving of a life to lose it. However, better thou perish than the truth.-Quarles. GOD will not let his people run away with the arrears of their sins, but when they least think of it calls them to an account. God may be angry enough with us while we cutwardly prosper. Bp. Hall. LET that table which God hath pleased to give thee, please thee. He that made the vessel knows her burden, and how to ballast her. He that made all things very good, cannot but do all things very well. If thou be content with a little, thou hast enough; if thou complainest, thou hast too much. -Quarles. WHERE God intends utter vengeance, he lets men harden themselves to a reprobate senselessness, and make up their own measure without contradiction, as purposing to reckon with them but once for ever!-Bp. Hall. PROPORTION thy charity to the strength of thy estate, lest God proportion thy estate to the weakness of thy charity. Let the lips of the poor be the trumpet of thy gift, lest in seeking applause thou lose thy reward. Nothing is more pleasing to God than an open hand and a closed mouth.-Quarles. CLOTHE not thy language either with obscurity or affectation: in the one thou discoverest too much darkness, in the other too much lightness. He that speaks from the understanding to the understanding, is the best interpreter.-Quarles. it whets thy expectation; to be afraid of it dulls thy FEAR death, but be not afraid of death. To fear preparation. If thou canst endure it, it is but a slight pain; if not, it is but a short pain. To fear death is the way to live long; to be afraid of death is to be long a dying.-Quarles. CLEANSE thy morning soul with private and due devotions: till then admit no business. The first-born of thy thoughts are God's, and not thine, but by sacrilege. Think thyself not ready till thou hast praised him, and he will be always ready to bless thee.-Quarles. USE the Holy Scriptures with all reverence. Let not thy wanton fancy carve it out in jests, nor thy sinful wit make it an advocate to thy sin. It is a subject for thy faith, not fancy; where wit and blasphemy is one trade, the understanding's bankrupt.-Quarles. LONDON: Printed by ROBERT NEEDHAM, 9, Ave Maria Lane, Paternoster-Row; and Published at the Office of "Sunday Reading for Christian Families," 8, Amen-Corner, Paternoster-Row. SUNDAY READING No. 4.] FOR CHRISTIAN FAMILIES. CONDUCTED BY JOHN KITTO, D.D., F.S.A. FOR SUNDAY, APRIL 3, 1853. KORAH'S CONSPIRACY. NUMBERS XVI. THE incidents recorded in the present chapter belong to the period in which the Israelites sojourned in the wilderness. The precise time seems to have been not long after they had been ordered to abandon the design of any immediate invasion of the land of Canaan; and after it had been pronounced that all, or nearly all, the then adult generation must die off, and leave their bones in the wilderness, before the good land promised to their fathers could be entered. Such a time was precisely that when we should expect to read of conspiracies, if, at any time, they were to occur. It is also needful to remember that the arrangement of the sacred and political administration was still recent; and it could not well have been organized without creating disappointment and dissatisfaction on the part of some who had supposed their claim as good as that of those who had been preferred before them; while there had not yet been opportunity for time and the habit of subordination to assuage their discontent, or for the partiality of their retainers and partizans to learn acquiescence in the established order of things. On the other hand, the people were depressed and uneasy, and in a state fit to be tampered with by factious leaders. Mortified as they must have been by the recollection of their late unworthy conduct, and goaded by the thought of having been condemned, in consequence, to renounce the hope of any speedy occupation of their promised home, the time must have been favourable for engaging them in a rebellious movement. They would then, if ever, be ready to lend an open ear to the assurance, that, under the auspices of other * They had attempted to invade the southern frontier of Canaan, contrary to the remonstrances of Moses, and had been disgracefully defeated with considerable slaughter. VOL. I. [PRICE 2d. leaders than those who had lately denounced against them the sentence of such a weary delay, they might be able at once to prosecute the enterprise on which their hearts had been so fondly set. Ver. 1, 2. If the circumstances of the time favoured the designs of the conspirators, the conspiracy of which we read was formed by precisely the persons whom we might suppose taking advantage of any prevailing discontent to propose extreme measures. The sacred writer, indeed, abstains from any exposition of the circumstances; but a little consideration of the facts recorded, brings them clearly to light. We perceive from the names given that there were two parties in the plot; and they are those whose jealousy would be most likely to be excited by the recent arrangements; and who could most easily persuade themselves and others, and who could with the best pretence maintain, that there had been a violation of their rights. Korah was a Kohathite, descended from a brother, perhaps an elder brother of the progenitor of Aaron; and if any ambitious aspirant was to look with an envious eye upon the possessor of the highest sacerdotal dignity, his position marked him out as the subject for that temptation. The other leaders of the conspiracy —Dathan, Abiram, and On—were descendants of Reuben, the eldest of Jacob's sons; and so belonging to the tribe whose pride must have been the most deeply wounded, (considering how much the right of primogeniture was among this people a point of honour,) by the precedence given to Judah in the encampments and on the march. It is, moreover, worthy of notice, that the situation of the two parties in relation to each other when in camp, was such as to afford them all facilities for exciting one another's passions for the tents of Reuben, was on the south and maturing the plot. The allotted place side of the area in which the tabernacle stood; and between them and the tabernacle D was the encampment of the Kohathites, the division of the Levitical tribe to which Korah belonged. The insurrection was certainly of a most formidable character; for besides the persons named, it appears that a large number of considerable men were engaged in it: "Two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown." Ver. 3, 4. The charge made by the conspirators is manifestly that Moses had made an ambitious usurpation of the civil, and Aaron of the sacerdotal power; and as it is accompanied with a full recognition of Jehovah, it must clearly have been meant that they had not been duly authorized by Him in taking these powers to themselves. How they could venture to make this charge in the presence of facts and wonders known to all, is difficult to apprehend. Perhaps they wished to drive Moses to some signal proof of his commission, in the calculation that if he failed in this, his authority with the people would be entirely subverted. That Moses understood the matter in the sense thus stated appears from his conduct; for after he had recovered from his first astonishment, he, without deigning to vindicate himself, proposed a direct appeal to the Lord, to which, as they had acknowledged the authority of the Divine King, the conspirators could not, with any show of reason, object. Ver. 5-15. The testing appeal, in response to which the Lord would unmistakably manifest whom he had indeed chosen for honour and for service was this :-It was the peculiar function of the priests to offer incense. Let them therefore come,—that is, Korah and his Levitical associates, and perform this priestly office; and then the Lord would show whether he accepted their offering, and thereby conceded their claims, or not. This was to be on the morrow: but Moses would not dismiss them without a word of remonstrance, which ought to have touched their hearts. Dathan and Abiram had withdrawn, after having sanctioned the complaint by their presence. On is not named now, or on any subsequent occasion, suggesting that he had ceased to take part in this perilous business. But Moses had also a word for them, and sent to call them, that they might hear it. But, instead of obeying this summons, they returned a very insolent answer, and refused to come. It will be noticed that the complaint of Korah referred chiefly to the assumption of the chief sacerdotal powers by Aaron and his family, Moses himself remaining a simple Levite, as were his sons after him. But the complaint of the Reubenites, returned by the messengers who had called them, refers more to the assumption of civil power by Moses himself. He had brought them out of a good land, and instead of the rich inheritance by the promise of which he had allured them to follow him, they were now, it appeared, to perish in the wilderness. All that he had done was to make himself an absolute and arbitrary ruler over them, making laws, and establishing offices and officers at his will; so that it was as well to be under the bondage of Egypt, with its plenty, as under his government, with the leanness of the wilderness. Even the meekness of Moses was turned to anger at this charge; and he declared, with warmth, that so far from governing in the arbitrary manner they alleged, he had not taken from them aught that was theirs, or laid any burdens upon them, for his own objects. Ver. 16-22. The next morning ushered gloomily in the day which was to decide this dangerous controversy. Korah and his Levitical adherents appeared at the tabernacle, with their censers ready to offer incense; and the Reubenite chiefs stood before their tents, watchful of the result, and ready to act as circumstances might determine,-both parties being surrounded by large numbers of the people, attracted by sympathy in their cause, or by curiosity to witness the end of their proceedings. Incense was usually offered upon the incense-altar within the tabernacle; but on this occasion it was offered in the court of the tabernacle, in view of the people who stood without. Fire from the altar was placed in the censers, and upon this the incense was laid. At the moment the incense was thus offered (both by the Aaronic priests, and by Korah and his party,) a sign appeared which must have filled every heart with awe. The radiant symbol of the Divine presence, which rested in the holy of holies, between the cherubim,-and which in the books of Moses is called "the glory of the Lord,”— appeared at the door of the tabernacle, making it visibly evident that the Lord was there. The deep silence which this appearance caused, was broken by a Voice, whose dread words were full of doom. That voice called upon Moses and Aaron to stand apart, that they shared not the destruction which awaited a rebellious people. On hearing these terrible words, the brothers, whose patriotism was deep and true, fell upon their knees, and implored that the large destruction which these words threatened, might be withheld. "Shall one man sin," they cried, "and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation ?" | complaints the following day against the recent judgments, which they supposed Moses Ver. 23-30. While Moses was still upon his and Aaron might have prevented by their interknees, the Lord spoke to him, and told him that cession, and from that omission took occasion his request was granted; but he was directed to accuse them with being the authors of the to call upon the people thus spared, to destruction. These murmurs, which evince separate themselves from the vicinity of the how widely-spread had been the discontent, tents of the immediate sinners. On this, rendered correctively necessary a further Moses went over to the tents of the mal-visitation of the Divine displeasure, which, content Levites and Reubenites,-which, as apparently in the form of a sudden disease, we have seen, were near to each other; and swept off the malcontents by hundreds, until, there addressed the crowds assembled, en- by Moses's direction, Aaron presented himself joining them to stand apart, that they might on their behalf, in the act of performing a not be involved in the impending doom. He function of his office; and then, as “he stood was obeyed; and then again he addressed between the dead and the living," "the plague them. A proof, a sign, that in all he had done, was stayed" where he stood;—a record of the and in all the powers he had taken upon him, Divine testimony to him being given by its he had acted not of himself, nor with the wish withdrawal, as the first had been by its of personal aggrandizement, had been prac-infliction. tically required. That proof should be given. If these men die the common deaths of men, then, indeed it was true that the Lord hath not spoken by him, and entrusted to him all the powers he held, and authorized all the measures he had taken. But if the Lord did a new thing that day,-if the earth opened and swallowed them up,-then they might perhaps understand how deeply they have provoked the Lord. This prediction by Moses of what was to follow, was important; as without this, it might have been alleged that the destruction that followed was fortuitous, and had not necessarily been connected with these proceedings. Ver. 49, 50. The number of the Israelites who perished in these judgments is stated at little less than fifteen thousand. The number is large. Larger numbers have, indeed, perished in battles, and by natural calamities; but these perished by the immediate act of God. Yet who is there that, in his partial acquaintance with the circumstances, will be prepared to say in what number of instances an extensive and increasing disaffection needed to be punished, so as to exert a permanent and powerful influence upon the minds of between two and three millions of people? If the object for which the nation had been set apart was one worthy the Divine Being to entertain, it was one which deserved to be protected from defeat at any sacrifice. If it was threatened by any seditious movement, such a movement needed not only to be repressed Will any Ver. 31-40. These words had scarce been uttered, when by the immediate act of God, the earth opened wide; and, having swallowed them up, and all that belonged to them, tents, goods, people, and all,—it closed "its | for the present, but its repetition guarded ponderous and marble jaws" over them, and a horrid blank appeared where their rich and populous tents had stood. The tents of Korah, and his adherents, shared this doom; but they were, themselves, at the tabernacle, with their censers. But they escaped not; for, at the same moment, “the fire of the Lord," being, probably, lightning, went forth and consumed them all. There they lay, blackened corpses along the sacred court, with the burning censers in their hands. These censers, having been consecrated by sacred fire, were carefully gathered up; and, as they were not needed, were made into broad plates as an additional outer covering for the altar, where they served for an abiding memorial of the transaction. Ver. 41-48. The discontent was not yet, however, wholly allayed. It broke out into against for the future. If this was to be supernatural character of the visitation, it seems unavoidable to own that, had this been forborne, the other tribes, on all common principles of action, would have taken the punishment of the rebels into their own hands. And then all motives of mutual hostility and partizanship having opportunity to make themselves felt, it is impossible to conjecture where the bloodshed would have stopped, except, indeed, through some form of that very supernatural interposition which the implied objection seeks to avoid. Thus we find that a supernatural visitation was merciful to the sufferers, as it stayed the less cautious hands of those whose rights had been invaded by the plot. The other form of punishment, moreover, would have been but partially effectual, inasmuch as it would have left any malcontents whom it did not cut off, free to say, that their claim was defeated, not by God's will, but by man's oppressive power; and it would have sowed the seeds of lasting dissensions, most inimical to the common weal; while, as things were ordered, God, by taking the punishment on himself, taught the more powerful tribes that it was not necessary for them to interfere to vindicate his law, thus repressing a jealous hostility which else would have not unnaturally broken out upon small occasions. And if it was fit that supernatural power should be applied at all, it was, of course, fit that it should be applied in the production of effects, of a moment proportioned to the exigency; which exigency was, in the present instance, the making of an impression sufficient to secure the people against similar movements in future,―movements which, unless guarded against, threatened nothing less than national ruin, and, what was much more, the defeat of the inestimable objects for mankind which the Jewish nation had been organized to promote. GLORY AND GRACE CONNECTED. BE not satisfied with yourselves till you find some evidence of this new, this supernatural life [the new birth]. There be delights and comforts in this new life, in its lowest condition, that would persuade us to look after it if we knew them; but as the judgment cannot be made sensible of these, consider therefore the end of it. Better never to have been than not to have been partaker of this new being: "Except a man be born again," says our Saviour, "he cannot enter the kingdom of God." (John iii. 3.) Surely they that are not born again, shall one day wish that they had never been born. What a poor wretched thing is the life that we have here! a very heap of follies and miseries. Now, if we would share in a happier being after it, in that life that ends not, it must begin here. Grace and glory is one and the same life, only with this difference, that the one is the beginning and the other the perfection of it; or if we do call them two several lives, yet the one is the undoubted pledge of the other. It was a strange word for the heathen to say, that the day of death we fear so,-æterni natalis est, "is the birth-day of eternity." Thus it is indeed to those who are here born again; this new birth of grace, is the sure earnest and pledge of that birth-day of glory. Why do we not then labour to make this certain by the former? Is it not a fearful thing to spend our days in vanity, and then lie down in darkness and sorrow for ever?-to disregard the life of our soul, while we may and should be provident for it?—and then when it is going out, cry, Quò nunc abibis? "Whither art thou going, O my soul?" But this new life puts us out of the danger and fear of that eternal death:-"We are passed from death unto life," says St. John, (1 John iii. 14,) speaking of those that are born again; and being passed, there is no repassing, no going back from this life to death again. This new birth is the same that St. John calls the "first resurrection," and he pronounces them blessed that partake of it. Blessed are they that have part in the first resurrection: the second death shall have no power over them. Revelation xx. 6. The weak beginnings of grace in comparison of the further strength attainable even in this life, are sometimes expressed as the infancy of it; and so believers ought not to continue infants, and if they do, it is reprovable in them, as we see Ephesians iv. 14; 1 Corinthians ii. 2, xiv 20; and Hebrews v. 12. Though the Apostle writes (1 Peter ii. 2) to new converts, and so may possibly imply the tenderness of their beginning of grace, yet I conceive that infancy is here to be taken in such a sense as agrees to a Christian in the whole course and best estate of his spiritual life here below; and so likewise the "milk' here recommended is answerable to this sense of infancy, and not to the former; as it is in some of those places cited, where it means the easiest and first principles of religion, and so is opposed to the higher mysteries of |