What, then, are we to learn from the remarkable outburst of feeling recorded in Numbers xi. 11-15? We learn this at least, that it is the wilderness that really brings out what is in the very best of us. It is there we prove what is in our hearts. And inasmuch as the book of Numbers is emphatically the book of the wilderness, it is just there we might expect to find all sorts of failure and infirmity fully unfolded. The Spirit of God faithfully chronicles every thing. He gives us men as they are; and even though it be a Moses that “speaks unadvisedly with his lips,” that very unadvised speaking is recorded for our admonition and instruction. Moses “was a man subject to like passions as we are;” and it is very evident that in the portion of his history now before us, his heart sinks under the tremendous weight of his responsibilities. It will perhaps be said, “No wonder his heart should sink.” No wonder, surely, for his burden was far too heavy for human shoulders. But the question is, Was it too heavy for divine shoulders? Was it really the case that Moses was called to bear the burden alone? Was not the living God with him? and was not He sufficient? What did it matter whether God were pleased to act by one man or by ten thousand? All the power, all the wisdom, all the grace, was in Him. He is the fountain of all blessedness, and, in the judgment of faith, it makes not one whit of difference as to the channel, or whether there is one channel or a thousand and one. This is a fine moral principle for all the servants of Christ. It is most needful for all such to remember that whenever the Lord places a man in a position of responsibility, He will both fit him for it and maintain him in it. It is, of course, another thing altogether if a man _will_ rush unsent into any field of work, or any post of difficulty or danger. In such a case, we may assuredly look for a thorough breakdown, sooner or later. But when God calls a man to a certain position, He will endow him with the needed grace to occupy it. He never sends any one a warfare at his own charges, and therefore all we have to do is to draw upon Him for all we need. This holds good in every case. We can never fail if we only cling to the living God: we can never run dry if we are drawing from the fountain. Our tiny springs will soon dry up; but our Lord Jesus Christ declares that “he that believeth in Me, as the Scripture hath said, ‘out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.’”