3.  If your life is marred by the gift you have wrung by your importunity from a reluctant God, be wise and humble in your dealing with that gift.  If you have suddenly and painfully learned that in the ordinary-looking circumstances of your life God is touching you at every point, and if you clearly see that in giving you the fruit of your desires He is punishing you, there is one only way by which you can advance to a favourable settlement, and that is by a real submission to God.  Perhaps in no circumstances is a man more tempted to break with God.  At first he cannot reconcile himself to the idea that ruin should be the result of prayer, and he is inclined to say, If this be the result of waiting on God, the better course is to refuse His guidance.  In his heart he knows he is wrong, but there is an appearance of justice in what he says, and it is so painful to have the heart broken, to admit we have been foolish and wrong, and humbly to beseech God to repair the disasters our own self-will has wrought.

SHAME ON ACCOUNT OF GOD’S DISPLEASURE.

“And the Lord said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days?  Let her be shut out from the camp seven days, and after that let her be received in again.”—­Numbers xii. 14.

The incident recorded in this chapter is of a painful character.  Petty jealousies discovered themselves in the most distinguished family of Israel.  Through the robes of the anointed and sacred High Priest the throbbings of a heart stirred with evil passion were discernible.  Aaron and Miriam could not bear that even their own brother should occupy a Position of exceptional dignity, and with ignorant pretentiousness aspired to equality with him.  It is to the punishment of this sin that our attention is here called.  This punishment fell directly on Miriam, possibly because the person of the High Priest was sacred, and had he been incapacitated all Israel would have suffered in their representative; possibly because the sin, as it shows traces of a peculiarly feminine jealousy, was primarily the sin of Miriam; and partly because, in her punishment, Aaron suffered a sympathetic shame, as is apparent from his, impassioned appeal to Moses in her behalf.

The noteworthy feature of the incident and its most impressive lesson are found in the fact that, although the healing and forgiveness sought for Miriam were not refused, God is represented as resenting the speedy oblivion of the offence on account of which the leprosy had been sent and of the Divine displeasure incurred.  There was cause to apprehend that the whole matter might be too quickly wiped out and forgotten, and that the sinners, reinstated in their old positions, should think too lightly of their offence.  This detrimental suddenness God takes measures to prevent.  Had an earthly father manifested his displeasure as emphatically as God had now shown His, Miriam could not for a time have held up her head.  God desires that the shame which results from a sense of His displeasure should last at least as long.  He therefore enjoins something like a penance; He removes His stroke, but provides for the moral effects of it being sufficiently impressed on the spirit to be permanent.