“Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, ‘The Lord knoweth them that are His.’ And, ‘Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.’” (2 Tim. ii. 19.) Here is the resource of the faithful, in view of the ruins of christendom. God never fails, never changes, and we have simply to depart from iniquity and cling to Him. We are to do what is right, and follow it diligently, and leave results to Him. We would earnestly beg of the reader to give the foregoing line of thought his entire attention. We want him to pause, for a few moments, and prayerfully consider the whole subject. We are convinced that a due consideration of it, in its two sides, would greatly help us to pick our steps amid the surrounding ruins. The remembrance of the Church’s condition, and of our own personal unfaithfulness, would keep us humble; while, at the same time, the apprehension of God’s unchanging standard, and of His unswerving faithfulness, would detach us from the evil around, and keep us steady in the path of separation. Both together would effectually preserve us from empty pretension on the one hand, and from laxity and indifference on the other. We have ever to keep before our souls the humbling fact that we have failed, and yet to hold fast that grand truth that God is faithful. These are, pre-eminently, lessons for the wilderness—lessons for this very day—lessons for _us_. They are suggested, very forcibly, by the inspired record of the passover in the second month—a record peculiar to the book of Numbers—the great wilderness-book. It is in the wilderness that human failure comes so fully out, and in the wilderness the infinite resources of divine grace are displayed. But once more, let us reiterate the statement—and may it be engraved, in characters deep and broad, on our hearts—the richest provisions of divine grace and mercy afford no warrant whatever for lowering the standard of divine truth. If any had pleaded defilement or distance as an excuse for not keeping the passover, or for keeping it otherwise than as God had enjoined, he would, most assuredly, have been cut off from the congregation. And so with us; if we consent to surrender any truth of God because failure has come in—if we, in sheer unbelief of heart, give up God’s standard and abandon God’s ground—if we draw a plea from the condition of things around us to shake off the authority of God’s truth over the conscience, or its formative influence upon our conduct and character, it is very evident that our communion is suspended.[10] We would gladly pursue this great practical line of truth somewhat further, but we must forbear, and close this part of our subject by quoting for our reader the remainder of this wilderness record concerning the passover.