himself, profanely styling the land of Egypt, from which he had delivered them, "a land flowing with milk and honey;" the very words which he had used to describe, in contrast with it, the land of Canaan, to which he was bringing them.

Again, then, my brethren, I would submit to you that we shall do well to take warning from this transaction. The stubborn waywardness of Dathan and Abiram is no uncommon thing in our day. Some imaginary grievance under which we fancy ourselves to labour, some slight which we think to be put on our worth and consequence, some disappointment of our hopes of worldly prosperity, is but too apt to be cherished in the minds of vain and ambitious men; and the consequences which result from it are precisely those, in the same or various degree, which we witness in Dathan, Abiram, and On. But I will not instance particulars here, but leave them to your own reflections.

Again, Korah was the prime mover in the sedition; as with his own tribe, so also

with that of Dathan. This is evident from the thirty-second verse, where we read, "That the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods." Yet the men swallowed by the earth were not, strictly speaking, Korah's own peculiar party, the tribe of Levi, but that of Dathan, Abiram and On, the tribe of Reuben, for Moses was now talking to them, and had left Korah at the tabernacle of the congregation. Korah and his company were judged afterwards. Hence we see on what false grounds people will go when they are discontented. To strengthen their own hands, the Levites make common cause with the Reubenites, and insist that "all the congregation are holy;" as if they cared for the interests of the Reubenites. Reubenites, though they care not one jot for the offices of the priesthood, yet take advantage of the plea, keeping their own appropriate interests in view. Each of these parties is thus deceiving the other; and as

The

Korah seduced their leading men, so their leading men seduce the multitude. The first verse tells us, that "Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, TOOK MEN," that is, induced others to be their accomplices. It is so easy a matter to be led away by the false cry of grievances. Well, indeed, would it be both for Church and State in these days, if the misdirected multitude of our people would consider whether, in truth, the grievances put forth to them be really such, or whether the mere pleas of plotting demagogues, who have their sinister ends to gain, by what they pretend. Well, indeed, would it be for themselves, if they would remember the words of God to Moses (Numb. xvi. 21): Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment;" and the earnest exhortation of Moses to the congregation before that event took place (Numb. xvi. 26), " Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked

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men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed in all their sins." My brethren, God and his prophets now call on men to separate themselves; on a future day HE will separate them. If they now associate with the gainsayers, they may be involved with them in any worldly calamity which takes place. On a future day, whether they are so involved or not, and whether they have "separated themselves" or not, he will deliver "or consume them," according to their innocence or guilt. The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan and Abiram, and no doubt On, their families, their goods, their tents, and all that belonged to them. Numb. xvi. 32, 33: "They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them, and they perished from among the congregation."

Korah and his company conspiring as they did for the priest's office, were allowed by Moses, and probably by God's order, to make trial of it, and to burn incense before the tabernacle; and we read (Numb.xvi.35):

"There came out a fire from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred aud fifty men that offered incense." What this fire was we are not told. It might be lightning from heaven, or it might be fire breaking forth from the earth; but it was a fire certainly from the Lord, because when Moses had on the preceding day appointed this trial of their usurped office, he then predicted that the "Lord would show who were his." (Numb. xvi. 5.)

Thus terminated the conspiracy of these two days; a conspiracy directed against the civil government of Moses on the one hand, and the ordained priesthood of Aaron on the other. "The former," observed a living divine of eminence, with great force and truth, “was a conspiracy against the state, the latter a conspiracy against the established Church."

Now, the first general inference which I draw from this transaction and its consequences, is, that it is a dangerous thing rashly to interfere with established authority and privileges. My son," says So