300 SCRIPTURE NATURAL HISTORY. 



MANNA. 



REFERRING our readers to Exod. xv. 1, for an account of the mi- 

 raculous supply of this substance, as an article of food, and the cir- 

 cumstances connected therewith, we shall at once proceed to state 

 what we hav collected on the article itself. 



To describe this substance, the sacred writer states, that it was 

 * a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground ' 

 (Exod. xvi. 14) ; that it was * like coriander seed, white, and the 

 taste like wafers made with honey' (ver. 31); and the color like that 

 of bdellium, Numb. xi. 7. 



Whatever this substance was, says Dr. A. Clarke, it was nothing 

 common to the wilderness. It is evident the Israelites never saw 

 it before ; for Moses says (Deut. viii. 3, 16), ' He fed thee with 

 manna which thou knewedst not, neither did thy fathers know ;' 

 and it is very likely that nothing of the kind had ever been seen 

 before ; and, by a pot of it being laid up in the ark, it is as likely 

 that nothing of the kind ever appeared more, after the miraculous 

 supply in the wilderness had ceased. It seems, he adds, to have 

 been created for the present occasion ; and like him, whom it typi- 

 fied, to have been the only thing of the kind, the only bread from 

 heaven, which God ever gave to preserve the life of man ; as Christ 

 is the bread which came down from heaven, and was given for the 

 life of the world. 



The Psalmist, referring to this supply of mannn and quails, adopts 

 a phraseology which clearly implies its miraculous character: 



He commanded the clouds from above, 



And opened tho doors of heaven ; 



He rained down manna upon them to eat, 



And gave them of the corn of heaven. 



Each one ate of food from above ; 



He sent them meat to the full. 



Ps. Ixxviii. 2325. 



We shall close this article with Mr. Bloomfield's very excellent 

 note on John vi. 31 33, which passage may appear, at first sight, 

 to contradict the text of the Psalmist: 'Our fathers did eat manna 

 in the desert : as it is written, * He gave them bread from heaven 

 to eat.' Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, 

 Moses gave you not that bread from heaven ; but my Father giveth 

 you the true bread from heaven : For the bread of God is he which 

 cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.' Some 

 maintain that Jesus, by his reply, only intended to refute the Jew- 

 ish opinion respecting the origin of manna ; and thus said that the 

 bread which their ancestors had received from Moses, did not come 

 from heaven, but was only naturally formed. But this would re- 

 quire a different phraseology. It rather seems that Jesus, whose 

 aim it was to remove far more serious errors, even such as respect- 



