Thus, man spoils every thing. Place him in a position of highest dignity, and he will degrade himself; endow him with the most ample privileges, and he will abuse them; scatter blessings around him in richest profusion, and he will prove ungrateful, place him in the midst of the most impressive institutions, and he will corrupt them. Such is man! Such is nature in its fairest forms and under the most favorable circumstances! Hence, therefore, we are in a measure prepared for the words with which our chapter opens--"And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He commanded them not." What a contrast to the scene with which our last section closed! There, all was done "as the Lord commanded," and the result was, manifested glory; here, something is done "which the Lord commanded them not," and the result is, judgment. Hardly had the echo of the shout of victory died away ere the elements of a spurious worship were prepared,--hardly had the divine position been assumed ere it was deliberately abandoned, through neglect of the divine commandment. No sooner were those priests inaugurated than they grievously failed in the discharge of their priestly functions. And in what did their failure consist? Were they spurious priests? were they mere pretenders? By no means. They were genuine sons of Aaron--true members of the priestly family--duly appointed priests. Their vessels of ministry, and their priestly garments too, would seem to have been all right. What, then, was their sin? Did they stain the curtains of the tabernacle with human blood? or pollute the sacred precincts with some crime which shocks the moral sense? We have no proof of their having done so. Their sin was this: "They offered strange fire before the Lord, which He commanded them not." Here was their sin. They departed in their worship from the plain word of Jehovah, who had fully and plainly instructed them as to the mode of their worship. We have already alluded to the divine fullness and sufficiency of the word of the Lord, in reference to every branch of priestly service. There was no room left for man to introduce what he might deem desirable or expedient. "This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded" was quite sufficient. It made all very plain and very simple. Nothing was needed on man's part save a spirit of implicit obedience to the divine command. But herein they failed. Man has always proved himself ill-disposed to walk in the narrow path of strict adherence to the plain word of God. The bypath has ever seemed to present resistless charms to the poor human heart. "Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant." (Prov. ix. 17.) Such is the enemy's language; but the lowly, obedient heart knows full well that the path of subjection to the Word of God is the only one