cy of Moses did really save Israel from
degradation and a lower covenant.

It was during the progress of this mediation that Moses distracted by a
double anxiety--afraid to absent himself from his wayward followers,
equally afraid to be so long withdrawn from the presence of God as the
descending of Sinai and returning thither would involve--made a noble
adventure of faith. Inspired by the conception of the tabernacle, he
took a tent, "his tent," and pitched it outside the camp, to express the
estrangement of the people, and this he called the Tent of the Meeting
(with God), but in the Hebrew it is never called the Tabernacle. And God
did condescend to meet him there. The mystic cloud guarded the door
against presumptuous intrusion, and all the people, who previously wist
not what had become of him, had now to confess the majesty of his
communion, and they worshipped every man at his tent door.

It would seem that the anxious vigilance of Moses caused him to pass to
and fro between the tent and the camp, "but his minister, Joshua the son
of Nun, departed not out of the tent."

The dread crisis in the history of the nation was now almost over. God
had said, "My Presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee
rest,"--a phrase which the lowly Jesus thought it no presumption to
appropriate, saying, "_I_ will give you rest," as He also appropriated
the office of the Shepherd, the benevolence of the Physician, the
tenderness of the Bridegroom, and the glory of the King and the Judge,
all of which belonged to God.

But Moses is not content merely to be secure, for it is natural that he
who best loves man should also best love God. Therefore he pleads
against the least withdrawal of the Presence: he cannot rest until
repeatedly assured that God will indeed go with him; he speaks as if
there were no "grace" but that. There are many people now who think it
a better proof of being religious to feel either anxious or comforted
about their own salvation, their election, and their going to heaven.
And these would do wisely to consider how it comes to pass that the
Bible first taught men to love and to follow God, and afterwards
revealed to them the mysteries of the inner life and of eternity.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

_THE VISION OF GOD._

xxxiv.

It was when God had most graciously assured Moses of His affection, that
he ventured, in so brief a cry that it is almost a gasp of longing, to
ask, "Show me, I pray Thee, Thy gl