SERMON XVIII.

THE MANNA.

ROGATION SUNDAY.

DEUT. viii. 3.

"The Lord thy God humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live."

In ancient times it was considered a duty to spend other holy days in the same manner as Sunday. Numerous festivals were appointed by the Church, and on all of them the great body of the people abstained from servile work, and attended the public worship of God. At the Reformation, when we separated from the Pope and the Roman Catholics, these holy days had been injudiciously multiplied; insomuch that their number was a serious hinderance to honest industry: idle habits were general, and under pretence of serving God, little other service

was performed. At that time a great improvement took place. Holy days were reduced to a small number; and as it was concluded, that when they seldom occurred, they would be observed with greater solemnity, those portions of Scripture were appointed for the occasions which it was deemed most important to make the people intimately acquainted with. But the tide had begun to set in an opposite direction; and now, in these later days, instead of bringing the whole population daily into the parish church, it is well if we can assemble a considerable portion of it on the Sabbath which God has appointed, and not man. On the other holy days, though labour is sometimes given up, very few Christians regard them as days of solemn religious duty; and in few instances is the congregation assembled to hear what the Church intended should be heard by all. Many most important portions of the Old Testament and of the moral books of the Apocrypha will, therefore, not be known to the people, except through the medium of their own private study. The wonderful story of the feeding of Israel with Manna during forty years is one of these portions. It is appointed for the morning lesson on Easter Monday; and had not customs changed for the worse, all my hearers would have been as familiar with it as with the appointment of the Passover and the great deliverance at the Red Sea, which go immediately before it in the Bible, and are read on the day before to the congregation. It is, however, a subject well fitted to Rogation

Week, when the Homilies and other Offices of the Church especially lead to the contemplation of God's marvellous bounty in feeding us and all mankind. Under these circumstances therefore I think it expedient previously to read to you the account of this long-continued miracle from the book of Exodus1.

In the brief observations which the time permits me to make on this extraordinary dispensation of Providence, I shall first explain some points in the narrative; secondly, view it as a type of the gift of a Saviour; and lastly, draw practical lessons from it for our own benefit.

There are several vegetables in those parched and sandy countries, from which the burning heat of the sun draws forth their juices. These harden on the stem and leaves, and the substance thus formed is not in appearance unlike the manna, as described by Moses. But none of them possess its qualities; they are not produced in abundance, nor do they descend from heaven during the night, and appear on the face of the wilderness; they will not nourish man without other diet; they do not melt with the heat of the sun, but on the contrary are drawn out and hardened by it. We must then in all reason conclude that this was a peculiar substance, formed by the almighty power of God for the express purpose of feeding the Israelites. Its

ter.

'Read ch. xvi. ver. 2-5, and ver. 13 to the end of the chapRead also Numb. xi. ver. 7, 8, 9.

qualities are highly curious; if left ungathered, the sun melted it; yet if gathered it was so hard as to bear grinding in hand-mills, or beating in a mortar on the same day: on six days it putrified if kept till the morning; on the seventh day it preserved its wholesome and nutritious power uncorrupted: and one omer full, which was laid up before the Lord, that is, in the ark before the mercy-seat, where God appeared to Moses, remained unchanged for many generations, as a standing, miraculous memorial of this divine food. The drug which we call "manna" must not be confounded either with this "corn of heaven1," or with the Arabian products which have been likened to it. It is gathered from the branches and leaves of a particular kind of ash tree in the southern parts of Italy, being extracted by the power of the sun, or by incisions through the bark. Its whitish appearance and sweet taste probably led ignorant people to give it this name.

This marvellous food, we are informed in my text, was given for the express purpose of disciplining and instructing the rude, untutored multitudes of Israel. God" humbled," or afflicted them; "he suffered them to hunger," and fed them with this hitherto unknown food, to teach them "that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord." The main object of the mighty works done in Egypt was to assert the superiority of Jehovah over the gods of the heathen. This indeed had been abundantly done.

1 Ps. lxxviii. 24.

God had shown that he was almighty to destroy. It remained that he should prove his equally almighty power to preserve. Israel had learned to dread him; they must also be taught to love him. Man overlooks the bounteous Giver of all good, because he gives regularly and daily. His sun arises daily; the seasons follow each other in unchanged order. The bread which had been carried out of Egypt grew from the earth and nourished the human body by an energy as mysterious as produced the manna, and conferred its nourishing qualities: but then it was common, and consequently disregarded. A new and strange method of feeding the many thousands of Israel was therefore devised. They were inclosed in a sandy wilderness, which had hitherto produced but scanty provision for a few wandering Arabs. Here hunger assailed them, and a terrible death from famine stared them in the face. It was necessary that they should be reduced to this extremity, in order that they might value aright the goodness which moved the Almighty to relieve it. It was necessary that they should first be satisfied from experience that the wilderness produced no manna, before the "word proceeded out of the mouth of God." Otherwise their stupid ignorance would have thought manna as usual a product of dew upon sand, as they knew the green herb to be of water upon fertile earth. I do not agree with some expositors of Scripture, who speak of the murmurs which hunger and thirst forced from the perishing Israelites, as if they were highly ungrateful and rebellious complaints.