The Triumphant Deliverance.
When the Israelites went forth out of the land of Egypt, they took with them the whole of their possessions, according to the word of the Lord—"Not a hoof shall be left behind." What does this teach us? Why, not only that all God's people shall be saved, but that all which God's people ever had shall be restored. All which Jacob ever took down to Egypt shall be brought out again. Have I lost a perfect righteousness in Adam? I shall have a perfect righteousness in Christ. Have I lost happiness on earth in Adam? God will give me much happiness here below in Christ. Have I lost heaven in Adam? I shall have heaven in Christ; for Christ came not only to seek and to save the people who were lost, but that which was lost; that is, all the inheritance, as well as the people; all their property. Not the sheep merely, but the good pasture which the sheep had lost; not only the prodigal son, but all the prodigal son's estates. Everything was brought out of Egypt; not even Joseph's bones were left behind. The Egyptians could not say that they had a scrap of the Israelites' property—not even one of their kneading troughs, nor one of their old garments. And when Christ shall have conquered all things to Himself, the Christian shall not have lost one atom by the toils of Egypt, but shall be able to say, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" O hell, where is thy triumph? Thou hast not a flag nor a pennon to show of thy victory; there is not a casque or a helmet left upon the battle-field; there is not a single trophy which thou mayst raise up in hell in scorn of Christ. He hath not only delivered His people, but they have gone out with flying colors. Stand and admire and love the Lord, who thus delivers all His people. "Great are Thy works, O Lord, and marvellous are Thy doings; and that my soul knoweth right well."
A Complete Saviour.
It would be inconsistent with the character of Him "by whom are all things," if He had sent an incomplete Saviour; that is, if He had left us to do part ourselves, and for Christ to do the rest. Look at the sun. God wills for the sun to light the earth: doth he ask the earth's darkness to contribute to the light? Doth He question the night, and ask whether it has not in its sombre shades something which it may contribute to the brightness of noon? No; up rises the sun in the morning, like a giant to run his race, and the earth is made bright. And shall God turn to the dark sinner, and ask him whether there is anything in him which may contribute to eternal light? No; Jesus rises as the Sun of Righteousness, with healing beneath His wings, and darkness is, at His coming, light. He alone is "the light of the world;" His own arm brought salvation; He asks no help from man, but giveth all and doeth all of His own rich grace, and is a complete and perfect Saviour.
Home-Mercies.
When we realize that all our daily mercies come to us as the gifts of our Father in heaven, it makes them doubly precious to us. There is nothing which tastes as sweet to the school-boy as that which comes from home. So with the Christian. All his mercies are sweeter because they are home-mercies—they come "from above;" the land in which he lives is not like the land of Egypt, fed by a river; but it "drinketh water of the rain or heaven." Happy the lot of that man who thus receives everything as coming from God, and thanks his Father for it all! It makes anything sweet, when he knows it comes from heaven. This thought, also, has a tendency to keep us from an overweening love of the world. The spies went to Eshcol, and fetched thence an immense cluster of the grapes which grew there; but you do not find that the people said, "The fruits we have received from the land of promise, make us contented to stay in the wilderness." No; they saw that the grapes came from Canaan, and thereupon they said, "Let us go on and possess the land." And so, when we get rich mercies, if we think they come from the natural soil of this earth alone, we might well feel a wish to stay here. But if we know that they come from a foreign clime, we are naturally anxious to go
"Where our dear Lord His vineyard keeps,