June 20

with the Father. In him all fulness dwells. Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is no other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved. He produces also the grace of faith: he maintains it: he perfects it: and therefore the Apostles addressed themselves to him, saying, Lord, increase our faith. And the same, by a parity of reason, may be said of all our religious principles and dispositions. He is the author and finisher of our hope; the author and finisher of our patience: the author and finisher of our humility, our peace, our joy. Therefore on him all believers alone depend, and to him alone they ascribe the praise and glory of all they possess. "Of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace."

JUNE 20.—"And the Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou amotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt emite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink."—Exodus 17:5, 6.

WE should learn two things from this interposition. The one regards the providence of God. The other, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It should teach us to rely on the providence of God in our difficulties and straits. The trial was great—They pitched in Rephidim, and the people had no water to drink. Consider how indispensable this supply was, in a dry place, under a burning sun, and with such an immense multitude of men, women, children, and cattle! What lowings of the herds! What piercing cries of the infants! What anguish is parching thirst!—God could have led them to a place where were wells of water, or have rained down showers upon them; but this would not have been so sensible and striking a display of omnipotence, as bringing water at once by a stroke out of a rock, which, as we learn from two other passages of Scripture, was a rock of flint; and in such abundant effusions. "He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers." What a foundation for their hope in God! Yet see their unbelief. We should have thought it impossible for them, after such a proof of his almightiness and all-sufficiency, to have questioned whether he could deliver or relieve them: "yet they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?" So it was with them. But how was it with Moses, when God had engaged to furnish the people with flesh for a month? Moses said, "The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand footmen; and thou hast said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month. Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them, to suffice them? or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to suffice them? And the Lord said unto Moses, Is the Lord's hand waxed short? thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not." How was it with our Lord's own disciples? They had seen him from a most scanty supply feed a vast multitude, so that as distribu-

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