'So it was alway: the cloud covered [the tabernacle] by
day, and the appearance of fire by night.'--Num. ix. 16.
The children of Israel in the wilderness, surrounded by miracle, had
nothing which we do not possess. They had some things in an inferior
form; their sustenance came by manna, ours comes by God's blessing on
our daily work, which is better. Their guidance came by this
supernatural pillar; ours comes by the reality of which that pillar was
nothing but a picture. And so, instead of fancying that men thus led
were in advance of us, we should learn that these, the supernatural
manifestations, visible and palpable, of God's presence and guidance
were the beggarly elements: 'God having provided some better thing for
us that they without us should not be made perfect.'
With this explanation of the relation between the miracle and symbol of
the Old, and the reality and standing miracle of the New, Covenants,
let us look at the eternal truths, which are set before us in a
transitory form, in this cloud by day and fiery pillar by night.