confused notion that the natural deposit of the tamarisk tree had anything whatever to do,anything at all in common,-with the Angels' food, the bread which GOD sent them down from Heaven. Nay, the more thoughtful of them, every spirit that was finely touched, must have felt, have felt, that here indeed must lie some great and heavenly mystery. Corruptible yet incorruptible :—daily falling from the LORD, yet on the LORD's Day withheld:-ever filling the omer, yet never overflowing it

"like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it like wafers made with honey," yet accommodating itself to every man's liking and suiting every taste:-punctual for forty years, and then all at once, on one memorable day, disappearing for ever!... O the wiser and better of the nation must have many a time "said one to another, It is Manna!" (or, "What is it?")" for verily they wist not what it was.

Fifth Sunday after Easter.

MANNA.-PART II.

ST. JOHN vi. 58.

This is that Bread which came down from Heaven. Not as your fathers did eat Manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this Bread shall live for ever.

LAST Sunday, I invited your attention to one of the most stupendous of recorded miracles,that of the Manna. The subject belongs more or less to the present season of the Church's year; for the Manna was the food of the typical Israel during the forty years of their wanderings, after they had been brought "out of the Land of Egypt, and out of the House of Bondage."

1. What was offered on that former occasion was intended only to recall to your remembrance the many marvellous properties of the Manna, and its manifold teaching. Falling daily round about the people's tents for forty years with the punctuality of the morning dew, and then coming to an end abruptly on one definite day,-the day on which they reached the Land of their promised inheritance-a double portion falling on the

Sabbath eve, yet on the Sabbath day itself, no particle of Manna falling at all-when measured, filling the omer exactly, but on no occasion overflowing it:-becoming corrupt and offensive if hoarded till the morrow, on any day but the sixth, yet capable of being preserved for hundreds of years:-tasting like wafers of honey, yet adapting itself to every man's taste: -how many a divine office did the Manna fulfil! It proved the people every day of their lives: convinced them that their supply of daily bread was God's gift: enforced the observance of the Fourth Commandment. Then, it taught them dependence on Providence for the supply of all their wants; and illustrated the precept that for the morrow they need take no thought, -'enough for the day' being the evil thereof."' It taught the duty of liberality to the poor; and explained in what sense GOD would have that "there should be equality." Above all, it lifted the people's thoughts from Earth to Heaven teaching them "that Man doth not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of GOD."

2. Very Divine, therefore, was the office of the Manna even to God's ancient people. The express intent of that supernatural food, (as GoD

Himself declares), was to train them to confidence in Himself as their true and sufficient

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portion; to teach them to accept it as an actual word from Gop, a clear though tacit pledge of the security of His promises. More than that. Over and above the argument which the Manna supplied for God's faithfulness in His Word, by GOD's visible constancy in His Work, it was intended to suggest, while it set forth in emblem, that the Divine word and promises are a sufficient, are the only true and sufficient, support for the soul of Man. Its very name was a mystery. The Hebrew people called it by a name which proved that they understood it not. said one to another, It is Manna!' (or, is it for they wist not what it was." T 3. It was reserved for the days of MESSIAH, and for Him who is fitly revealed to us in S. John's Gospel as "the WORD of GOD,"to display the full height of this heavenly mystery. Behold our Divine LORD in the synagogue of Capernaum explaining that He was Himself the thing it signified Of ancient days Moses had said to the Hebrew fathers," Gop humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with Manna which thou knewest not; that He might make thee know that Man doth not live

by bread alone, but by every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of Gop doth Man live the Only-begotten Son Himself, the true Worb of God, which came first from the FATHER and declared Him,He being the chiefest thing of all the one thing, which was hereby intended.

Letne remind you (though you know it so well) of the wondrous discourse which the same WORD OF GOD held with the Jews when t they demanded at His Hands a sign like the Manna. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you note that bread from Heaven; but My FATHER giveth you the true Bread from Heaven. For the Bread of God is He which cometh down from Heaven, and giveth' life unto the World." Then said they unto Him, LORD, evermore give us this bread!" He answered," I am the Bread of Life. He that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst. I am that Bread of Life. Your fathers did eat Manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the Bread which came down from Heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living Bread which came down from Heaven If any man eat of this Bread, he shall live for ever. And the Bread which I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the

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