But what are we to understand by "the bread of affliction"? Should we not rather look for joy, praise, and triumph in connection with a feast in memory of deliverance from Egyptian bondage and misery? No doubt there is very deep and real joy, thankfulness, and praise in realizing the blessed truth of our full deliverance from our former condition, with all its accompaniments and all its consequences; but it is very plain that these were not the prominent features of the paschal feast--indeed, they are not even named. We have "the bread of affliction," but not a word about joy, praise, or triumph. Now, why is this? what great moral lesson is conveyed to our hearts by the bread of affliction? We believe it sets before us those deep exercises of heart which the Holy Ghost produces by bringing powerfully before us what it cost our adorable Lord and Saviour to deliver us from our sins and from the judgment which those sins deserved. Those exercises are also typified by the "bitter herbs" of Exodus xii, and they are illustrated again and again in the history of God's people of old, who were led, under the powerful action of the Word and Spirit of God, to chasten themselves and "afflict their souls" in the divine presence. And be it remembered that there is not a tinge of the legal element or of unbelief in these holy exercises--far from it. When an Israelite partook of the bread of affliction, with the roasted flesh of the passover, did it express a doubt or a fear as to his full deliverance? Impossible! How could it? He was in the land; he was gathered to God's own centre--His own very presence. How could he, then, doubt his full and final deliverance from the land of Egypt? The thought is simply absurd. But although he had no doubts or fears as to his deliverance, yet had he to eat the bread of affliction; it was an essential element in his paschal feast, "For thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt _in haste_, that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt _all the days of thy life_." This was very deep and real work. They were never to forget their exodus out of Egypt, but to keep up the remembrance of it, in the promised land, throughout all generations. They were to commemorate their deliverance by a feast emblematical of those holy exercises which ever characterize true, practical, Christian piety.