SERMON IV.--GOD'S TRAINING
DEUTERONOMY viii. 2-5.
And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee
these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove
thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his
commandments or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to
hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did
thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live
by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of
the Lord doth man live. Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither
did thy foot swell, these forty years. Thou shalt also consider in
thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God
chasteneth thee.
This is the lesson of our lives. This is training, not only for the
old Jews, but for us. What was true of them, is more or less true of
us. And we read these verses to teach us that God's ways with man do
not change; that his fatherly hand is over us, as well as over the
people of Israel; that we are in God's schoolhouse, as they were;
that their blessings are our blessings, their dangers are our
dangers; that, as St. Paul says, all these things are written for our
example.
'And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger.
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