(1) the regard which God paid (and still pays) to the sanctity of family life, and our duty to guard it;

(2) the fact, on the other hand, that mere blood relationship does not suffice to secure the favour of God; witness Nadab and Abihu. The son of the holiest minister of Christ may be a servant of the evil one, and an enemy of God. But the lesson of the text is -

I. THAT GOD WOULD HAVE US SEPARATE SOME THINGS FROM OTHERS WHICH WE MUST TREAT AS SACRED. "I the Lord do sanctify them" (verse 16). That which is closely connected with himself is particularly "holy," - his Name, his truth, his worship; also our own spiritual and immortal nature; the world which is to come, etc.

II. THAT WE ARE UNDER SOME TEMPTATION TO DISREGARD HIS HOLY WILL. Forgetfulness, the spirit of levity and untimely humour, the contagiousness of human example, that tendency towards the formal and mechanical which belongs to our frail humanity, - these things will account for it. The forms which this irreverence or profanation takes are manifold:

(1) taking in vain the holy Name of God, our Father, Saviour, Sanctifier;

(2) misuse of scriptural words - those especially which are of peculiar sacredness;

(3) irreverence in prayer or praise;

(4) the utterance of Divine truth by unhallowed, unappreciative lips;

(5) the partaking of the sacramental elements by those who are unreconciled to God;

(6) misappropriation of substance which has been dedicated to the service of Christ.

III. THAT MINISTERS OF CHRIST SHOULD BE SPECIALLY ON THEIR GUARD AGAINST THIS COMMON AND OFFENSIVE SIN. There are two reasons why those who minister in holy things should "watch and pray" against the commission of this wrong-doing.

1. They are under special temptation to commit it. Their very professional familiarity with the truth and service of God is likely to beget irreverence, utterance without feeling, action without inspiration.

2. Their example is more influential. Irreverence on the part of the minister is certain, in time if not immediately, to tell on the people. It will be communicated to them; or, at the very least, it will seriously lessen and lower the impression which would otherwise be made on their hearts and lives. - C.

I. IT IS PROVIDED BY GOD. AS in carrying out His purpose in the old creation, He provided every fruit-bearing tree for man, so, in accomplishing the new creation, He has supplied the "food convenient." He has made the provision for His house; and He has also blessed it. For the sustaining the life which He imparts, He provides the food required.

II. IT IS PREPARED BY GOD HIMSELF. Moses, as representing God, prepared the twelve loaves; and God Himself has prepared the better bread, the flesh of the Son of Man. "A body hast Thou prepared Me." In the history of the birth, the life, the sorrows, the hardships, the blood-shedding, the death of the incarnate Son of God, we have a description of the way it, which the "shewbread" or "presence-bread" of the Church was prepared, according to God's own method, for our everlasting food.

III. IT IS GIVEN TO US BY GOD. God causes it to be provided for us; nay, He prepares it Himself; and then having thus provided and prepared it, He gives it: "God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son" (John 3:16); "The bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give," &c.

IV. WHO THEY ARE WHO FEAST ON IT. Perhaps the answer to such a question will be — God's priesthood, His Church. Nor would this be incorrect; yet it would be defective. No doubt this heavenly bread is for them, just as the tree of life was for Adam, or the Temple shewbread was for the sons of Aaron. But it is so specially called "the bread of our God"; and the table on which it is set is so specially God's own table; and the place where it is to be eaten is so manifestly the royal banquet-hall of heaven, that we come to the conclusion that God Himself is partaker of this feast as well as we. The King, sitting at His own table, in His own festal chamber, not only feeds His guests, bat Himself partakes of that which is set before them. Israel's various sacrifices and offerings of all kinds were the various dishes set upon the great Temple table; each of them full of meaning; each of them containing that which would satisfy and comfort; every one of them setting forth some part of the glorious fulness of the God-man, as the true food of souls; and all of them together representing that complete and blessed feast of "fat things" partaken of by God and His redeemed, in some measure now, but hereafter to be more fully enjoyed at the great marriage-supper in the New Jerusalem, when that shall be fulfilled, so long realised but in parts and fragments, "I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me" (Revelation 3:20).

(H. Bonar, D. D.)