God employs his people to encourage one another. He didn't say to an angel, "Gabriel, my servant Joshua is about to lead my people into Canaan—go, encourage him." God never works needless miracles; if his purposes can be accomplished by ordinary means, he will not use miraculous agency. And here's the truth: Gabriel would not have been half so fit for this work as Moses.

A brother's sympathy is more precious than an angel's embassy. The angel, swift of wing, might know the Master's bidding perfectly, but not the people's temper. An angel has never experienced the hardness of the road, nor seen the fiery serpents, nor led the stiff-necked multitude through forty years of wilderness wandering as Moses had done.

We should be glad that God usually works for man by man. It forms a bond of brotherhood, and being mutually dependent on one another, we are fused more completely into one family.

Brethren, take this text as God's message to you! Labor to help others, and especially strive to encourage them. Talk cheerfully to the young and anxious inquirer. Lovingly remove stumbling blocks from their path. When you find a spark of grace in the heart, kneel down and blow it into a flame!

Leave the young believer to discover the roughness of the road by degrees, but tell him of the strength which dwells in God, of the sureness of the promise, and of the charms of communion with Christ. Aim to comfort the sorrowful, and to animate the desponding. Speak a word in season to him that is weary, and encourage those who are fearful to go on their way with gladness.

God encourages you by his promises; Christ encourages you as he points to the heaven he has won for you; and the Spirit encourages you as he works in you to will and to do of his own good pleasure. Imitate divine wisdom, and encourage others, according to the word of this evening.