What a striking picture is presented by Israel in the wilderness! Egypt was behind them, Canaan before them, and the sand of the desert around them; while they themselves were called to look up to heaven for their daily supply. The wilderness afforded not one blade of grass nor one drop of water for the Israel of God. In Jehovah alone was their portion. Most touching illustration of God's pilgrim people in this wilderness world! They have nothing here. Their life, being heavenly, can only be sustained by heavenly things. Though _in_ the world, they are not _of_ it, for Christ has chosen them out of it. As a heaven-born people, they are on their way to their birth-place, and sustained by food sent from thence. Theirs is an upward and onward course. The glory leads _only_ thus. It is utterly vain to cast the eye backward in the direction of Egypt; not a ray of the glory can there be discerned. "They looked _toward the wilderness_, and behold the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud." Jehovah's chariot was in the wilderness, and all who desired companionship with Him should be there likewise; and if there, the heavenly manna should be their food, and that alone. True, this manna was strange sustenance, such as an Egyptian could never understand, appreciate, or live upon; but those who had been "baptized in the cloud and in the sea" could, if walking in consistency with that significant baptism, enjoy and be nourished by it. Thus is it now in the case of the true believer. The worldling cannot understand how he lives. Both his life and that which sustains it lie entirely beyond the range of nature's keenest vision. Christ is his life, and on Christ he lives. He feeds, by faith, upon the powerful attractions of One who, though being "God over all, blessed forever," "took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men." (Phil. ii. 7.) He traces Him from the bosom of the Father to the cross, and from the cross to the throne, and finds Him, in every stage of His journey, and in every attitude of His life, to be most precious food for his new man. All around, though, in fact, Egypt, is morally a waste howling wilderness, affording nothing for the renewed mind; and just in proportion as the Christian finds any material to feed upon must his spiritual man be hindered in his progress. The only provision which God has made is the heavenly Manna, and on this the true believer should ever feed.