2. _The consequent possibility of accepting the pardon of sin with
too light a heart._ To ask for pardon Without real shame is to treat
sin lightly; and to treat sin lightly is to treat God lightly.
Nothing more effectually deadens the moral sense than: the habit of
asking pardon without a due sense of the evil of sin. We ask God to
forgive us our debts, and we do so in so inconsiderate a spirit that
we go straightway and contract heavier debts. The friend who repays
the ten pounds we had lent him and asks for a new loan of twenty,
does not commend himself to our approval. He is no better who accepts
pardon as if it cost God nothing.

3. _The means of preventing a too light-hearted acceptance of
pardon._ Under the ceremonial prescriptions enjoined on Miriam lay
some moral efficacy. A person left for a full week without the camp
must, in separation from accustomed companionship, intercourse, and
occupations, have been thrown upon his or her own thoughts. No doubt
it is often while engaged in our ordinary occupations that the
strongest light is flashed upon our true spiritual condition. It is
while in the company of other people that we catch hints which seem
to interpret to us our past and reveal to us our present state. But
these glimpses and hints often pass without result, because we do not
find leisure to follow them up. There must be some kind of separation
from the camp if we are to know ourselves, some leisure gained for
quiet reflection. It is due to God that we be at some pains to
ascertain with precision our actual relation to His will.

The very feeling of being outcast, unworthy to mingle with former
associates and friends, must have been humbling and instructive.
Miriam had been the foremost woman in Israel; now she would gladly
have changed places with the least known and be lost among the throng