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The grace of God at all times awaits, forecomes, accompanies, follows, encompasses us. It is everywhere, for it is the Holy Spirit, who is everywhere, since He is God. But although grace is ever around and in those who have not finally rejected it, there are special seasons at which it comes to individuals and to the Church — seasons in which grace does not only trickle down as the dew, but runs down like a river, sweeping away all the barriers of earthliness, and bearing us onward like a tide; seasons which if we miss we know not what we lose: the wave has passed by, and we who might have been borne upon its crest, and carried safe, are tossing to and fro on a perilous sea. Such seasons, to individuals, are the first drawings of the child's tender soul to God; its first stirrings at the thought that it is not a citizen of this earth, that it belongs to heaven, to eternity, to God; its first yearning to go forth out of itself to be for ever God's, Such again are its first strong upliftings in prayer, and following the drawings of God, and pantings after communion with Him, as it seeks to rise on, and on, and on, tremblingly, yet aspiringly, if by any means it might reach to God! or its quiet waiting within itself, if so be He would come down to it. But although He comes to all alike who look for Him, He doth not come alike to all. He filleth all; but all do not alike contain Him. Our capacity to receive Him, is our longing for Him. The greater the hunger of the soul after righteousness, the more He will feed and satisfy it who is our righteousness. And so, whenever God would draw near to man, He would have man prepare for that awful nearness. We cannot on the instant change our whole tone of mind. We cannot at one moment jest, the next be devout; at one moment care for earth, the next for heaven; at one, love the creature for itself, the next the Creator for Himself. Nature itself tells us that we cannot pass suddenly from one to another. If we have heavy news to convey, we try to prepare the mind, that they burst not at once upon it. If a solemn thought crosses the soul in laughter, it recovers itself, as it can, hastily and confusedly together, and the very disorder of the mind shows that the sudden change is against nature. The soul feels ashamed that it was so relaxed before, so little in the state wherein it would receive the Heavenly Visitant. And this teaching of God in our hearts He enforced in the outward nearness of His visible presence. When He willed to appear in awe on Mount Sinai, for three days was the congregation to prepare itself. Whether in chastisement or in mercy there is a season of preparation. Whether God would give them flesh to eat in the wilderness, or lead them over Jordan, or take out from among them him who had taken the accursed thing, it is still one word — "Sanctify yourselves against to-morrow." If such was the preparation for the type and shadow, what for the reality? If such for the miraculous sustenance of the body, what for the food of the soul? If such the entrance into the type of heaven, what when heaven and earth are united in one? And so an apostle's voice warns us, "Let a man examine himself," sift himself, "and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup." And God has taught the Church to place longer seasons of preparation before the greater mysteries of the faith. "Sanctify yourselves," saith God — that is, "separate yourselves from things unholy, that ye may be separated unto Me, and I may hallow you, and make you holy." We cannot hallow ourselves; but we can, by His grace, put off things unholy. We cannot give to ourselves Him, the True Bread from heaven, nor create in ourselves hunger after Him, our righteousness; but we can abstain, through His gracious aid, from filling our bellies with the swine-husk this world's goods, and vanities, and accursed pleasures, which make men loathe, as "light bread," "the manna which cometh down from heaven." Oh, then, if we "have been sometime darkness," seek we now to be "light in the Lord." Let us now "cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armour of light."

(E. B. Pusey, D. D.)

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KJV: And it came to pass after three days, that the officers went through the host;

WEB: It happened after three days, that the officers went through the midst of the camp;