DEUTERONOMY, Section 1 of 6. (Deut. 1 - 3).

C H Mackintosh

INTRODUCTION.

The character of the book on which we now enter it quite as distinct as that of any of

the four preceding sections of the Pentateuch. Were we to judge from the title of the

book, we might suppose that it is a mere repetition of what we find in previous books.

This would be a very grave mistake, There is no such thing as mere repetition in the

word of God. Indeed God never repeats Himself, either in His word or in His works.

Wherever we trace our God, whether on the page of holy scripture, or in the vast

fields of creation, we see divine fullness, infinite variety, marked design; and, just in

proportion to our spirituality of mind, will be our ability to discern and appreciate

these things. Here, as in all beside, we need the eye anointed with heavenly eye-salve.

What a poor idea must the man entertain of inspiration who could imagine, for a

moment, that the fifth book of Moses is a barren repetition of what is to be found in

Exodus, Leviticus; and Numbers! Why, even in a human composition, we should not

expect to find such a flagrant imperfection, much less in the perfect revelation which

God has so graciously given us in His holy word. The fact is, there is not, from cover

to cover of the inspired volume, a single superfluous sentence, not one redundant

clause, not one statement without its own distinct meaning, its own direct application.

If we do not see this, we have yet to learn the depth, force and meaning of the words,

"All scripture is given by inspiration of God."

Precious words! Would they were more thoroughly understood in this our day! It is of

the utmost possible importance that the Lord's people should be rooted, grounded and

settled in the grand truth of the plenary inspiration of holy scripture. It is to be feared

that laxity as to this most weighty subject is spreading in the professing church to an

appalling extent. In many quarters it has become fashionable to pour contempt upon

the idea of plenary inspiration. It is looked upon as the veriest childishness and

ignorance. It is regarded by many as a great proof of profound scholarship, breadth of

mind, and original thinking to he able, by free criticism, to find out flaws in the

precious volume of God. Men presume to sit in judgment upon the Bible as though it

were a mere human composition. they undertake to pronounce upon what is, and what

is not, worthy of God. In fact they do, virtually, sit in judgement upon God Himself.

The present result is, as might be expected, utter darkness and confusion, both for

those learned doctors themselves, and for all who are so foolish as to listen to them.

And as for the future, who can conceive the eternal destiny of all those who shall have

to answer before the judgement seat of Christ for the sin of blaspheming the word of

God, and leading hundreds astray by their infidel teaching?

We shall not, however, occupy time in commenting upon the sinful folly of infidels

and sceptics—even though called Christians—or their puny efforts to cast dishonour

upon that peerless volume which our gracious God has caused to be written for our

learning. They will, some day or other, find out their fatal mistake. God grant it may

not be too late! And as for us, let it be our deep joy and consolation to meditate upon

the word of God, that so we may ever be discovering some fresh treasure in that

exhaustless mine, some new moral glories in that heavenly revelation!

The Book of Deuteronomy holds a very distinct place in the inspired canon. Its

opening lines are sufficient to prove this. "These be the words which Moses spake

unto all Israel on this side Jordan, in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red

Sea, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab."

Thus much as to the place in which the lawgiver delivered the contents of this

marvellous book. The people had come up to the eastern bank of the Jordan, and were

about to enter upon the land of promise. Their desert wanderings were nearly ended,

as we learn from the third verse in which the point of time is as distinctly marked, as

is the Geographical position in verse 1. "It came to pass in the fortieth year, in the

eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that: Moses spake unto the children of

Israel according unto all that the Lord had given him in commandment unto them."

Thus, not only have we both time and place set forth with divine precision and

minuteness, but we also learn, from the words just quoted, that the communications

made to the people, in the plains of Moab, were very far indeed from being a

repetition of what has come before us in our studies on the books of Exodus,

Leviticus and Numbers. Of this we have further and very distinct proof in a passage in

Deuteronomy 29. "These are the Words of the covenant which the Lord commanded

Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant

which he made with them at Horeb."

Let the reader note, particularly, these words. They speak of two covenants, one at

Horeb, and one in Moab; and the latter, so far from being a mere repetition of the

former, is as distinct from it as any two things can be. Of this we shall have the fullest

and clearest evidence in our study of the profound book which now lies open before

us.

True, the Greek title of the book, signifying the law a second time, might seem to give

rise to the idea of its being a mere recapitulation of what has gone before; but we may

rest assured it is not so. Indeed it would be a very gave error to think so. The book has

its own specific place. Its scope and object are as distinct as possible. The grand

lesson which it inculcates from first to last, is obedience, and that, too, not in the mere

letter, but in the spirit of love, and fear-an obedience grounded upon a known and

enjoyed relationship—an obedience quickened by the sense of moral obligations of

the weightiest and most influential character.

The aged lawgiver, the faithful, beloved and honoured servant of the Lord was about

to take leave of the congregate He was going to heaven and they were about to cross

the Jordan; and hence his closing discourses are solemn and affecting in the very

highest degree. He reviews the whole of their wilderness history, and that, too, in a

manner most touching and impressive. He recounts the scenes and circumstances of

their forty eventful years of desert life, in a style eminently calculated to touch the

deepest moral springs of the heart. We hang over these most precious discourses with

wonder and delight. They possess an incomparable charm arising from the

circumstances under which they were delivered, as well as from their own divinely

powerful contents. They speak to us no less effectively!- than to those for whom they

were specially intended. Many of the appeals and exhortations come home to us with

a power of application as if they had keen uttered but yesterday.

And is it not thus with all scripture? Are we not continually struck with its marvellous

power of adaptation to our own very state, and to the day in which our lot is cast? It

speaks to us with a point and freshness as if it were written expressly for us—written

this very day. There is nothing like scripture. Take any human writing: of the same

date as the Book of Deuteronomy; if you could lay your hand on some volume written

three thousand years ago, what would you find? A curious relic of antiquity,

something to be placed in the British Museum, side by side with an Egyptian mummy,

having no application whatever to us or to our time, a musty document, a piece of

obsolete writing, practically useless to us, referring only to a state of society and to a

condition of things long since passed away and buried in oblivion.

The Bible, on the contrary, is the Book for today. It is God's own Book, His perfect

revelation. It is His Own very voice speaking to each one of us. It is a Book for every

age, for every clime, for every class, for every condition, high and low, rich and poor,

learned and ignorant, old and young. It speaks in a language so simple that a child can

understand it; and yet so profound that the most gigantic intellect cannot exhaust it.

Moreover, it speaks right home to the heart; it touches the deepest springs of our

moral being; it goes down to the hidden roots of thought and feeling in the soul; it

judges as thoroughly. In a word, it is, as the inspired apostle tells us, "Quick and

powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing

asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the

thoughts and intents of the heart." (Heb. 4: 12.)

And then mark the marvellous comprehensiveness of its range. It deals as accurately

and as forcibly with the habits and customs, the manners and maxims of the

nineteenth century of the Christian era as with those of the very earliest ages of

human existence. It displays a perfect acquaintance with man, in every stage of his

history The London of today, and the Tyre of three thousand years ago are mirrored,

with like precision and faithfulness, on the sacred page. Human life, in every stage of

its development, is portrayed by a master hand, in that wonderful volume which our

God has graciously penned for our learning.

What a privilege to possess such a book!—to have in our hands a divine

Revelation!—to have access to a Book, every line of which is given by inspiration of

God!—to have a divinely given history of the past, the present, and the future! Who

can estimate aright such a privilege as this?

But then, this Book judges man—judges his ways—judges his heart. It tells him the

truth about himself. Hence man does not like God's Book. An unconverted man would

vastly prefer a newspaper or a sensational novel to the Bible. He would rather read the

report of a trial in one of our criminal courts, than a chapter in the New Testament.

Hence, too, the constant effort to pick holes in God's blessed Book. Infidels, in every

age and of every class, have laboured hard to find out flaws and contradictions in holy

scripture. The determined enemies of the word of God are to be found, not only in the

ranks of the vulgar, the coarse and the demoralised, but amongst the educated, the

refined and the cultivated. Just as it was in the days of the apostles, "Certain lewd

fellows of the baser sort," and "Devout and honourable women" Two classes so far

removed from each other, socially and morally—found one point in which they could

heartily agree, namely, the utter rejection of the word of God and of those who

faithfully preached it (compare Acts 13: 50, with 17: 5.) So we ever find that men

who differ in almost everything else agree in their determined opposition to the Bible.

Other books are let alone. Men care not to point out defects in Virgil, in Horace, in

Homer or Herodotus; but the Bible they cannot endure because it exposes them and

tells them the truth about themselves and the world to which they belong.

And was it not exactly the same with the living word—the Son of God, the Lord Jesus

Christ when He was here among men? Men hated Him because He told them the

truth. His ministry, His words, His way's, His whole life was a standing testimony

against the world; hence their hitter and persistent opposition: other men were

allowed to pass on; but He was watched and waylaid at every turn of His path. The

great leaders and guides of the people "sought to entangle him in His talk;" to find

occasion against Him in order that they might deliver Him to the power and authority

of the governor. Thus it was, during His marvellous life; and, at the close, when the

blessed One was nailed to the cross between two malefactors, these latter were let

alone; there were no insults hurled upon them; the chief priests and elders did not wag

their heads at them. No; all the insults, all the mockery, all the coarse and heartless

vulgarity—all was heaped upon the divine occupant Of the centre cross.

Now, it is well we should thoroughly understand the real source of all the opposition

to the word of God-whether it be the living Word or the written word. It will enable

us to estimate it at its real worth. The devil hates the word of God—hates it with a

perfect hatred; and hence he employs learned infidels to write books to prove that the

Bible is not the word of God, that it cannot be, inasmuch as there are mistakes and

discrepancies in it; and not only so, but, in the Old Testament, we find laws and

institutions, habits and practices unworthy of a gracious and benevolent Being!

To all this style of argument we have one brief and pointed reply; of all these learned

infidels we simply say, They know nothing whatever about the matter. They may be

very learned, very clever, very deep and original thinkers, well made up in general

literature, very competent to give an opinion on any subject within the domain of

natural and moral philosophy, very able to discuss any scientific question. Moreover,

they may be very amiable in private life, truly estimable characters, kind, benevolent,

philanthropic, beloved in private and respected in public. All this they may be, but,

being unconverted, and not having the Spirit of God, they are wholly unfit to form,

much less to give, a judgement on the subject of holy scripture. If any one wholly

ignorant of astronomy were to presume to sit in judgement on the principles of the

Copernican system, these very men of whom we speak would, at once, pronounce

him utterly incompetent to speak, and unworthy to be heard on such a subject, In

short, no one has any right whatever to offer an opinion on a matter with which he is

unacquainted. This is an admitted principle on all hands; and therefore its application

in the case now before as cannot justly he called in question.

Now, the inspired apostle tells us, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, that, "The

natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto

him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." This is

conclusive. He speaks of man in his natural state, be he ever so learned, ever so

cultivated. He is not speaking of any special class of men; but simply of man in his

unconverted state, man destitute of the Spirit of God. Some may imagine that the

apostle refers to man in a state of barbarism, or savage ignorance. By no means; it is

simply man in nature, be he a learned philosopher or an ignorant clown. " He cannot

know the things of the Spirit of God." How then can he form or give a judgement as

to the word of God? How can he take it upon him to say what is, or what is not worthy

of God to write? And if he is audacious enough to do so—as alas! he is—who will be

foolish enough to listen to him? His arguments are baseless; his theories worthless;

his books only fit for the waste paper basket. And all this, be it observed, on the

universally admitted principle above stated, that no one has any title to be heard on a

subject of which he is wholly ignorant.

In this way we dispose of the whole tribe of infidel writers. Who would think of

listening to a blind man on the subject of light and shades And yet such a man has

much more claim to be heard than an unconverted man on the subject of inspiration.

Human learning, however extensive and varied; human wisdom, however profound,

cannot qualify a man to form a judgement upon the word of God. No doubt, a scholar

may examine and collate MSS. simply as a matter of criticism; he may be able to

form a judgement as to the question of authority for any particular reading of a

passage; but this is a different matter altogether from an infidel writer undertaking to

pronounce judgement upon the Revelation which God has, in His infinite goodness,

given to us. We maintain that no man can do this. It is only by the Spirit who Himself

inspired the holy scriptures that those scriptures can be understood and appreciated.

The word of God must be received upon its own authority. If man can judge it or

reason upon it, it is not the word of God at all. Has God given us a Revelation or has

He not? If He has, it must he absolutely perfect, in every respect; and being such, it

must be entirely beyond the range of human judgement. Man is no more competent to

judge scripture than he is to judge God. The scriptures judge man, not man the

Scriptures.

This makes all the difference. Nothing can be more miserably contemptible than the

books which infidels write against the Bible. Every page, every paragraph, every

sentence only goes to illustrate the truth of the apostle's statement that, "The natural

man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; neither can he know them, because

they are spiritually discerned." Their gross ignorance of the subject with which they

undertake to deal is only equalled by their self-confidence. Of their irreverence we

say nothing; for who would think of looking for reverence in the writings of infidels?

We might perhaps look for a little modesty, were it not that we are fully aware of the

bitter animus which lies at the root of all such writings, and renders them utterly

unworthy of a moment's consideration. Other books may have a dispassionate

examination; but the precious Book of God is approached with the foregone

conclusion that it is not a divine Revelation because, forsooth, infidels tell us that God

could not give us a written revelation of His mind.

How strange! Men can give us a revelation of their thoughts; and infidels have done

so pretty plainly; but God cannot. What folly! What presumption! Why, we may

lawfully inquire, could not God reveal His mind to His creatures? Why should it be

thought a thing incredible? For no reason whatever, but because infidels would have it

so. The wish is, in this case assuredly, father to the thought. The question raised by

the old serpent, in the garden of Eden, nearly six thousand years ago, has been passed

on, from age to age, by all sorts of sceptics, rationalists and infidels, namely, "Hath

God said?" We reply, with intense delight, Yes; blessed be His Holy name, He has

spoken—spoken to us. He has revealed His mind; He has given us the holy scriptures.

"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for

reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be

perfect [artio"], thoroughly furnished unto all good works." And again, "Whatsoever

things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience

and comfort of the scriptures might have hope." (2 Tim. 3: 16, 17; Rom. 15: 4.)

The Lord be praised for such words! They assure as that all scripture is given of God;

and that all scripture is given to us. Precious link between the soul and God! What

tongue can tell the value of such a link? God has spoken—spoken to us. His word is a

rock against which all the waves of infidel thought dash themselves in contemptible

impotency, leaving it in its own divine strength and eternal stability. Nothing can

touch the word of God. Not all the powers of earth and hell, men and devils combined

can ever move the word of God. There it stands, in its own moral glory, spite of all

the assaults of the enemy, from age to age. "For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in

heaven." "Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name." What remains for us?

Just this, "Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee." Here

lies the deep secret of peace. The heart is linked to the throne, yea, to the very heart of

God by means of His most precious word, and is thus put in possession of a peace

which the world can neither give nor take away. What can all the theories, the

reasonings and the arguments of infidels effect? Just nothing. They are esteemed as

the dust of the summer threshing floor. To one who has really learnt, through grace, to

confide in the word of God—to rest on the authority of holy scripture, all the infidel

books that ever were written are utterly worthless, pointless, powerless; they display

the ignorance and terrible presumption of the writers; but as to scripture, they leave it

just where it ever has been and ever will be, "settled in heaven," as immovable as the

throne of God.* The assaults of infidels cannot touch the throne of God; neither can

they touch His word; and, blessed be His Name, neither can they touch the peace that

flows through the heart that rests on that imperishable foundation. "Great peace have

they that love thy law, and nothing shall offend them." "The word of our God shall

stand for ever." "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass.

The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away; but the word of the Lord

endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you" (1

Peter 1: 24, 25.)

{*In referring to infidel writers, we should bear in mind that by far the most

dangerous of such are those calling themselves Christian. In our young days,

whenever we heard the word "infidel" we at once thought of a Tom Paine or a

Voltaire; now, alas! we have to think of so-called bishops and doctors of the

professing church. Tremendous fact!}

Here we have the same precious golden link again. The word which has reached us, in

the form of glad tidings, is the word of the Lord which endureth for ever; and hence

our salvation and our peace are as stable as the word on which they are founded. If all

flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass, then what are the

arguments of infidels worth? They are as worthless as withered grass or a faded

flower; and the men who put them forth and those who are moved by them will find

them to be so, sooner or later. Oh! the sinful folly of arguing against the word of

God—arguing against the only thing in all this world that can give rest and

consolation to the poor weary human heart—arguing against that which brings the

glad tidings of salvation to poor lost sinners—brings them fresh from the heart of

God!

But we may perhaps, here, be met by the question so often raised, and which has

troubled many and led them to fly for refuge to what is called "The authority of the

church." The question is this, "How are we to know that the Book which we call the

Bible is the word of God?" Our answer to this question is a very simple one, it is this,

The One who has graciously given us the blessed Book can give us also the certainty

that the Book is from Him. The same Spirit who inspired the various writers of the

holy scriptures can make us know that those scriptures are the very voice of God

speaking to us. It is only by the Spirit that any one can discern this. As we have

already seen, "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; neither

can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." If the Holy Spirit does not

make us know, and give us the certainty that the Bible is the word of God, no man, or

body of men can possibly do it; and, on the other hand, if He does give us the blessed

certainty, we do not need the testimony of man.

We freely admit that, on this great question, a shadow of uncertainty would be

positive torture and misery. But who can give us certainty? God alone. If all the men

upon earth were to agree in their testimony to the authority of holy scripture; if all the

councils that ever sat, all the doctors that ever taught, all the fathers that ever wrote

were in favour of the dogma of plenary inspiration; if the universal church, if every

denomination in Christendom were to assert to the truth that, the Bible is, in very

deed, the word of God; in a word, if we had all the human authority that could

possibly be had, in reference to the integrity of the word of God, it would be utterly

insufficient, as a ground of certainty; and if our faith were founded on that authority,

it would be perfectly worthless. God alone can give us the certainty that He has

spoken, in His word; and blessed be His Name, when He gives it, all the arguments,

all the cavillings, all the quibblings, all the questionings of infidels ancient and

modern, are as the foam on the water, the smoke from the chimney top, or the dust on

the floor. The true believer rejects them as so much worthless rubbish, and rests in

holy tranquillity in that peerless Revelation which our God has graciously given us.

It is of the very last possible importance for the reader to be thoroughly clear and

settled as to this grave question, if he would be raised above the influence of infidelity

on the one hand, and superstition on the other Infidelity undertakes to tell us that God

has not given us a book-revelation of His mind—could not give it. Superstition

undertakes to tell us that even though God has given us a Revelation, yet we cannot

be assured of it without man's authority nor understand it without man's interpretation.

Now it is well to see that, by both alike, we are deprived of the precious boon of holy

scripture. And this is precisely what the devil aims at. He wants to rob us of the word

of God; and he can do this quite as effectually by the apparent self-distrust that

humbly and reverently looks to wise and learned men for, authority, as by an

audacious infidelity that boldly rejects all authority, human or divine.

Take a case. A father writes a letter to his son at Canton, a letter full of the affection

and tenderness of a father's heart. He tells him of his plans and arrangements; tells

him of everything that he thinks would interest the heart of a son—everything that the

love of a father's heart could suggest. The son calls at the post office in Canton to

inquire if there is a letter from his father. He is told by one official that there is no

letter, that his father has not written and could not write, could not communicate his

mind by such a medium at all; that it is only folly to think of such a thing. Another

official comes forward, and says, "Yes; there is a letter here for you, but you cannot

possibly understand it; it is quite useless to you, indeed it can only do you positive

mischief inasmuch as you are quite unable to read it aright. You must leave the letter

in our hands, and we will explain to you such portions of it as we consider suitable for

you." The former of these two officials represents infidelity; the latter superstition. By

both alike would the son be deprived of the longed for letter—the precious

communication from his father's heart. But what, we may inquire, would be his

answer to these unworthy officials? A very brief and pointed one we may rest assured.

He would say to the first, "I know my father can communicate his mind to me, by

letter; and that he has done so." He would say to the second, "I know my father can

make me understand his mind far better than you can." He would say to both, and

that, too, with bold and firm decision, "Give me up, at once, my father's letter; it is

addressed to me, and no man has any right to withhold it from me."

Thus, too, should the simple-hearted Christian meet the insolence of infidelity, and

the ignorance of superstition—the two special agencies of the devil, in this our day,

in setting aside the precious word of God. "My Father has communicated His mind,

and He can make me understand the communication." "All scripture is given by

inspiration of God," And "whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for

our learning." Magnificent answer to every enemy of God's precious and peerless

Revelation, be he rationalist or ritualist!

We do not attempt to offer any apology to the reader for this lengthened introduction

to the Book of Deuteronomy. Indeed we are only too thankful for an opportunity of

bearing our feeble testimony to the grand truth of the divine inspiration of the holy

scriptures. We feel it to be our sacred duty, as most surely it is our high privilege, to

press upon all to whom we have access, the immense importance, yea, the absolute

necessity of the most uncompromising decision on this point. We must faithfully

maintain, at all cost, the divine authority, and therefore the absolute supremacy and

all-sufficiency of the word of God, at all times, in all places, for all purposes. We

must hold to it that the scriptures, having been given of God, are complete, in the very

highest and fullest sense of the word; that they do not need any human authority to

accredit them, or any human voice to make them available; they speak for themselves,

and carry their own credentials with them. All we have to do is to believe and obey,

not to reason or discuss. God has spoken it: it is ours to hearken and yield an

unreserved and reverent obedience.

This is one grand leading point throughout the Book of Deuteronomy, as we shall see

in the progress of our meditations; and never was there a moment, in the history of the

church of God, in which it was more needful to urge home on the human conscience

the necessity of implicit obedience to the word of God. It is, alas! but little felt.

Professing Christians, for the most part, seem to consider that they have a right to

think for themselves, to follow their own reason, their own judgement, or their own

conscience. they do not believe that the Bible is a divine and universal guide book.

They think there are very many things in which we are left to choose for ourselves.

Hence the almost numberless sects, parties, creeds and schools of thought. If human

opinion be allowed at all, then, as a matter of course, one man has as good a right to

think as another; and thus it has come to pass that the professing church has become a

proverb and a byword for division.

And what is the sovereign remedy for this wide spread disease? Here it is, absolute

and complete subjection to the authority of holy scripture. It is not men going to

scripture to get their opinions and their views confirmed; but going to scripture to get

the mind of God as to everything, and bowing down their whole moral being to divine

authority: this is the one pressing need of the day in which our lot is cast—reverent

subjection, in all things, to the supreme authority of the word of God. No doubt, there

will be variety in our measure of intelligence, in our apprehension and appreciation of

scripture; but what we specially urge upon all Christians is that condition of soul, that

attitude of heart expressed in those precious words of the psalmist, " Thy word have I

hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee." This, we may rest assured, is

grateful to the heart of God. "To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a

contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word."

Here lies the true secret of moral security. Our knowledge of scripture may be very

limited; but if our reverence for it he profound, we shall be preserved from a thousand

errors, a thousand snares. and then there will be steady growth We shall grow in the

knowledge of God, of Christ, and of the written word. We shall delight to draw from

those living and exhaustless depths of holy scripture, and to range through those green

pastures which infinite grace has so freely thrown open to the flock of Christ. Thus

shall the divine life be nourished and strengthened; the word of God will become

more and more precious to our souls, and we shall be led by the powerful ministry of

the Holy Ghost into the depth, fullness, majesty and moral glory of holy scripture. We

shall be delivered completely from the withering influences of all mere systems of

theology, high, low or moderate-a most blessed deliverance! We shall be able to tell

the advocates of all the schools of divinity under the sun that, whatever elements of

truth they may have in their systems, we have in divine perfectness in the word of

God; not twisted and tortured to make them fit into a system, but in their right place

in the wide circle of divine revelation which has its eternal centre in the blessed

Person of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Deuteronomy 1

"These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan, in the

wilderness, in the plain over against the Red Sea, between Paran, and Tophel, and

Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahah. There are eleven days' journey from Horeb, by the

way of mount Seir, unto Kadesh-barnea."

The inspired writer is careful to give us, in the most precise manner, all the bearings

of the place in which the words of this book were spoken in the ears of the people.

Israel had not yet crossed the Jordan. They were just beside it; and over against the

Red Sea where the mighty power of God had been so gloriously displayed, nearly

forty years before. The whole position is described with a minuteness which shows

how thoroughly God entered into everything that concerned His People. He was

interested in all their movements and in all their way's. He kept a faithful record of all

their encampments. There was not a single circumstance connected with them,

however trifling, beneath His gracious notice. He attended to everything. His eye

rested continually on that assembly as a whole, and on each member in particular. By

day and by night, He watched over them. Every stage of their journey was under His

immediate and most gracious superintendence. There was nothing, however small,

beneath His notice; nothing, however great, beyond His power.

Thus it was with Israel, in the wilderness, of old; and thus it is with the church,

now—the church, as a whole, and each member, in particular. A Father's eye rests

upon us continually, His everlasting arms are around and underneath us, day and

night. "He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous." He counts the hairs of our

heads, and enters, with infinite goodness, into everything that concerns us. He has

charged Himself with all our wants and all our cares. He would have us to cast our

every care on Him, in the sweet assurance that He careth for us. He, most graciously,

invites us to roll our every burden over on Him, be it great or small.

All this is truly wonderful. It is full of deepest consolation. It is eminently calculated

to tranquilize the heart, come what may. The question is, do we believe it? Are our

hearts governed by the faith of it? Do we really believe that the Almighty Creator and

Upholder of all things, who bears up the pillars of the universe, has graciously

undertaken to do for us, all the journey through? Do we thoroughly believe that "The

possessor of heaven and earth" is our Father, and that He has charged Himself with all

our wants, from first to last? Is our whole moral being under the commanding power

of those words of the inspired apostle: " He that spared not his own Son, but delivered

him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely, give us all things?" Alas! it is

to be feared that we know but little of the power of these grand yet simple truths. We

talk about them; we discuss them; we profess them; we give a nominal assent to

them; but, with all this, we prove, in our daily life, in the actual details of our personal

history, how feebly we enter into them. If we truly believed that our God has charged

Himself with all our necessities—if we were finding all our springs in Him—if He

were a perfect covering for our eyes, and a resting place for our hearts, could we

possibly be looking to poor creature streams which so speedily dry up and disappoint

our hearts? We do not, and cannot believe it. It is one thing to hold the theory of the

life of faith, and another thing altogether to live that life. We constantly deceive

ourselves with the notion that we are living by faith, when in reality we are leaning on

some human prop which, sooner or later, is sure to give way.

Reader, is it not so? Are we not constantly prone to forsake the Fountain of living

waters, and hew out for ourselves broken cisterns which can hold no water? And yet

we speak of living by faith! We profess to be looking only to the living God for the

supply of our need, whatever that need may be, when, in point of fact, we are sitting

beside some creature stream, and looking for something there. Need we wonder if we

are disappointed? How could it possibly be otherwise? Our God will not have us

dependent upon ought or anyone but Himself. He has, in manifold places in His word,

given us His judgement as to the true character and sure result of all creature

confidence. Take the following most solemn assurance from the prophet Jeremiah,

"Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart

departeth from the Lord. For he shall he like the heath in the desert, and shall not see

when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt

land and not inhabited."

And then, mark the contrast. "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose

hope the Lord is: for he shall he as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out

her roots by the river and shall not see when drought cometh, but her leaf shall be

green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding

fruit." (Jer. 17: 5-8.)

Here we have, in language divinely forcible, clear and beautiful, both sides of this

most weighty subject put before us. Creature confidence brings a certain curse; it can

only issue in barrenness and desolation. God, in very fruitfulness, will cause every

human stream to dry up, every human prop to give way, in order that we may learn

the utter folly of turning away from Him. What figure could he more striking or

impressive than those used in the above passage? "A heath in the desert"—"Parched

places in the wilderness"—"A salt land not inhabited." Such are the figures used by

The Holy Ghost to illustrate all mere human dependence, all confidence in man.

But, on the other hand, what can be more lovely or more refreshing than the figures

used to set forth the deep blessedness of simple trust in the Lord? "A tree planted by

the waters"—"Spreading out her roots by the rivers"—the leaf ever green—The fruit

never ceasing. Perfectly beautiful! Thus it is with the man who trusteth in the Lord,

and whose hope the Lord is. He is nourished by those eternal springs that flow from

the heart of God. He drinks at the Fountain, life-giving and free. He finds all His

resources in the living God. There may be "heat," but he does not see it. "The year of

drought" may come, but he is not careful. Ten thousand creature streams may dry up,

but he does not perceive it, because he is not dependent upon them. He abides hard by

the ever gushing Fountain. He can never want any good thing. He lives by faith.

And here, while speaking of the life of faith—that most blessed life, let us deeply

understand what it is, and carefully see that we are living it. We some times hear this

life spoken of in a way by no means intelligent. It is, not infrequently, applied to the

mere matter of trusting God for food and raiment. Certain persons who happen to

have no visible source of temporal supplies, no settled income, no property of any

kind, are singled out and spoken of as "living by faith," as if that marvellous and

glorious life had no higher sphere or wider range than temporal things; the mere

supply of our bodily wants.

Now, we cannot too strongly protest against this most unworthy view of the life of

faith. It limits its sphere, and lowers its range, in a manner perfectly intolerable to any

one who understands ought of its most holy and precious mysteries. Can we, for a

moment, admit that a Christian who happens to have a settled income of any kind is

to be deprived of the privilege of living by faith? Or, further, can we permit that life

to be limited and lowered to the mere matter of trusting God for the supply of our

bodily wants? Does it soar no higher than food and raiment? Does it give no more

elevated thought of God than that He will not let us starve or go naked?

Far away, and away for ever be the unworthy thought! The life of faith must not be so

treated. We cannot allow such a gross dishonour to be offered to it, or such a grievous

wrong done to those who are called to live it. What, we would ask, is the meaning of

those few but weighty words," The just shall live by faith? They occur, first of all, in

Habakkuk 2. They are quoted by the apostle, in Romans 1, where he is, with a master

hand, laying the solid foundation of Christianity. He quotes them again, in Galatians

3. where he is, with intense anxiety, recalling those bewitched assemblies to those

solid foundations which they, in their folly, were abandoning. Finally, he quotes them

again in Hebrews 10, where he is warning his brethren against the danger of casting

away their confidence and giving up the race.

From all this, we may assuredly gather the immense importance and practical value of

the brief but far-reaching sentence, "The just shall live by faith." And to whom does it

apply? Is it only for a few of the Lord's servants, here and there, who happen to have

no settled income? We utterly reject the thought. It applies to every one of the Lord's

people. It is the high and happy privilege of all who come under the title—that

blessed title, "the just." We consider it a very grave error to limit it in any way. The

moral effect of such limitation is most injurious. It gives undue prominence to one

department of the life of faith which—if any distinction be allowable—we should

judge to be the very lowest. But, in reality, there should be no distinction. The life of

faith is one. Faith is the grand principle of the divine life from first to last. By faith we

are justified, and by faith we live; by faith we stand, and by faith we walk From the

starting-post to the goal of the Christian course, it is all by faith.

Hence, therefore, it is a serious mistake to single out certain persons who trust the

Lord for temporal supplies, and speak of them as living by faith, as if they alone did

so. and not only so, but such persons are held up to the gaze of the church of God as

some thing wonderful; and the great mass of Christians are led to think that the

privilege of living by faith lies entirely beyond their range. In short, they are led into a

complete mistake as to the real character and sphere of the life of faith, and thus they

suffer materially in the inner life.

Let the Christian reader, then, distinctly understand that it is his happy privilege,

whoever he be, or whatever be his position, to live a life of faith, in all the depth and

fullness of that word. He may, according to his measure, take up the language of the

blessed apostle and say, "The life that I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son

of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Let nothing rob him of this high and

holy privilege which belongs to every member of the household of faith. Alas! we

fail. Our faith is weak, when it ought to be strong, bold and vigorous. our God

delights in a bold faith. If we study the gospels, we shall see that nothing so refreshed

and delighted the heart of Christ as a fine bold faith—a faith that understood Him and

drew largely upon Him. Look, for example, at the Syrophenician, in Mark 7; and the

centurion, in Luke 7.

True, He could meet a weak faith—the very weakest. He could meet an "If thou wilt"

with a gracious "I will"—an "If thou canst," with "If thou canst believe, all things are

possible." The very faintest look, the feeblest touch was sure to meet with a gracious

response; but the Saviour's heart was gratified and His spirit refreshed when He could

say, "O woman, great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt;" and again, "I have

not found so great faith, no, not in Israel."

Let us remember this. We may rest assured it is the very same today, as when our

blessed Lord was here amongst men. He loves to he trusted, to be used, to be drawn

upon. We can never go too far in counting on the love of His heart or the strength of

His hand. There is nothing too small, nothing too great for Him. He has all power in

heaven and on earth. He is Head over all things to His church. He holds the universe

together. He upholds all things by the word of His power. Philosophers talk of the

forces and laws of nature. The Christian thinks with delight of Christ, His hand, His

word, His mighty power. By Him all things were created, and by Him all things

consist.

And then His love! What rest, what comfort, what joy to know and remember that the

Almighty Creator and Upholder of the universe is the everlasting Lover of our souls;

that He loves us perfectly; that His eye is ever upon us, His heart ever toward us; that

He has charged Himself with all our wants, whatever these wants may be, whether

physical, mental, or spiritual. There is not a single thing within the entire range of our

necessities that is not treasured up for us in Christ. He is heaven's treasury, God's

storehouse; and all this for us.

Why then should we ever turn to another? Why should we ever, directly or indirectly,

make known our wants to a poor fellow mortal Why not go straight to Jesus? Do we

want sympathy? Who can sympathise with us like our most merciful High Priest who

is touched with the feeling of our infirmities Do we want help of any kind? Who can

help us like our Almighty Friend, the Possessor of unsearchable riches! Do we want

counsel or guidance? who can give it like the blessed One who is the very wisdom of

God, and who is made of God unto us wisdom? Oh! let us not wound His loving heart,

and dishonour His glorious Name by turning away from Him. Let us jealously watch

against the tendency so natural to us to cherish human hopes, creature confidences,

and earthly expectations. Let us abide hard by the fountain, and we shall never have to

complain of the streams. In a word, let us seek to live by faith, and thus glorify God in

our day and generation.

We shall now proceed with our chapter and, in so doing we would call the reader's

attention to verse 2. It is certainly a very remarkable parenthesis. "There are eleven

days' journey from Horeb, by the way of mount Seir, unto Kadesh-barnea." Eleven

days! And yet it took them forty years! How was this? Alas! we need not travel far for

the answer. It is only too like ourselves. How slowly we get over the ground! What

windings and turnings! How often we have to go back and travel over the same

ground again and again. We are slow travellers, because we are slow learners. It may

be we feel disposed to marvel how Israel could have taken forty years to accomplish a

journey of eleven days; but we may, with much greater reason, marvel at ourselves.

We, like them, are kept back by our unbelief and slowness of heart; but there is far

less excuse for us than for them, inasmuch as our privileges are so very much higher.

Some of us have much reason to be ashamed of the time we spend over our lessons.

The words of the blessed apostle do but too forcibly apply to us, "For when for the

time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first

principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not

of strong meat." Our God is a faithful and wise, as well as a gracious and patient

Teacher. He will not permit us to pass cursorily over our lessons. Sometimes, perhaps,

we think we have mastered a lesson, and we attempt to move on to another; but our

wise Teacher knows better and He sees the need of deeper ploughing. He will not

have us mere theorists or smatterers. He will keep us, if need be, year after year at our

scales until we learn to sing.

Now while it is very humbling to us to be so slow in learning, it is very gracious of

Him to take such pains with us, in order to make us sure. We have to bless Him for

His mode of teaching, as for all beside; for the wonderful patience with which He sits

down with us, over the same lesson, again and again, in order that we may learn it

thoroughly.*

{*The journey of Israel, from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea. illustrates but too forcibly the

history of many souls in the matter of finding peace. Many of the Lord's beloved

people go on for years, doubting and fearing, never knowing the blessedness of the

liberty wherewith Christ makes His people free. It is most distressing to any one who

really cares for souls to see the sad condition in which some are kept all their days,

through legality, bad teaching false manuals of devotion, and such like. It is a rare

thing now-a-days, to find in Christendom a soul fully established in the peace of the

gospel. It is considered a good thing, a sign of humility, to be always doubting.

Confidence is looked upon as presumption. In short, things are turned completely

upside down. The gospel is not known; souls are under law, instead of under grace;

they are kept at a distance, instead of being taught to draw nigh. Much of the religion

of the day is a deplorable mixture of Christ and self, law and grace, faith and works.

Souls are kept in a perfect muddle, all their days.

Surely these things demand the grave consideration of all who occupy the responsible

place of teachers and preachers in the professing church. There is a solemn day

approaching when all such will be called to render an account of their ministry.}

"And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the

month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that the Lord

had given him in commandment unto them." (Ver. 3.) These few words contain a

volume of weighty instruction for every servant of God, for all who are called to

minister in the word and doctrine. Moses gave the people just what he himself had

received from God, nothing more, nothing less. He brought them into direct contact

with the living word of Jehovah. This is the grand principle of ministry at all times.

Nothing else is of any real value. The word of God is the only thing that will stand.

There is divine power and authority in it. All mere human teaching however

interesting, however attractive, at the time, will pass away and leave the soul without

any foundation to rest upon.

Hence it should be the earnest, jealous care of all who minister in the assembly of

God, to preach the word in all its purity, in all its simplicity; to give it to the people as

they get it from God; to bring them face to face with the veritable language of holy

scripture. Thus will their ministry tell, with living power, on the hearts and

consciences of their hearers. It will link the soul with God Himself, by means of the

word, and impart a depth and solidity which no human teaching can ever produce.

Look at the blessed apostle Paul. Hear him express himself on this weighty subject.

"And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of

wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know

anything among yon, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in

weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was

not with enticing words of man's wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of

power." What was the object of all this fear and trembling "That your faith should not

stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." (1 Cor 2: 1-5)

This true-hearted faithful servant of Christ sought only to bring the souls of his

hearers into direct personal contact with God Himself. He sought not to link them

with Paul. "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye

believed" All false ministry has for its object the attaching of souls to itself. Thus the

minister is exalted; God is shut out; and the soul is left without any divine foundation

to rest upon. True ministry, on the contrary, as seen in Paul and Moses, has for its

blessed object the attaching of the soul to God. Thus the minister gets his true place—

simply an instrument; God is exalted; and the soul established on a sure foundation

which can never be moved.

But let us hear a little more from our apostle on this most weighty subject. "Moreover,

brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have

received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory

what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you

first of all, that which I also received-nothing more, nothing less, nothing different"

how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried,

and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures."

This is uncommonly fine. It demands the serious consideration of all who would be

true and effective ministers of Christ. The apostle was careful to allow the pure

stream to flow down from its living source, the heart of God, into the souls of the

Corinthians. He felt that nothing else was of any value. If he had sought to link them

on to himself, he would have sadly dishonoured his Master; done them a grievous

wrong; and he himself would, most assuredly, suffer loss in the day of Christ.

But no; Paul knew better. He would not, for worlds, lead any to build upon himself.

Hear what he says to his much loved Thessalonians. "For this cause also thank we

God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of

us, ye received it not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which

effectually worketh also in you that believe." (1 Thess. 2: 13.)

We feel solemnly responsible to commend this grave and important point to the

serious consideration of the church of God. If all the professed ministers of Christ

were to follow the example of Moses and Paul, in reference to the matter now before

us, we should witness a very different condition of things in the Professing church;

but the plain and serious fact is that the church of God, like Israel of old, has wholly

departed from the authority of His word. Go where you will, and you find things done

and taught which have no foundation in scripture. Things are not only tolerated but

sanctioned and stoutly defended which are in direct opposition to the mind of Christ.

If you ask for the divine authority for this, that and the other institution or practice,

you will be told that Christ has not given us directions as to matters of church

government; that in all questions of ecclesiastical polity, clerical orders, and liturgical

services, He has left us free to act according to our consciences, judgement, or

religious feelings; that it is simply absurd to demand a "Thus saith the Lord" for all

the details connected with our religious institutions; there is a broad margin left to be

filled up according to our national customs, and our peculiar habits of thought. It is

considered that professing Christians are left perfectly free to form themselves into

so-called churches, to choose their own form of government, to make their own

arrangements, and to appoint their own office-bearers.

Now the question which the Christian reader has to consider is, "Are these things so?"

Can it be that our Lord Christ has left His church without guidance as to matters so

interesting and momentous? Can it be possible that the church of God is worse off, in

the matter of instruction and authority, than Israel? In our studies on the books of

Exodus, Leviticus; and Numbers, we have seen—for who could help seeing?—the

marvellous pains which Jehovah took to instruct His people as to the most minute

particulars connected with their public worship and private life. As to the tabernacle,

the temple; the priesthood, the ritual, the various feasts and sacrifices, the periodical

solemnities, the months, the days, the very hours, all was ordered and settled with

divine precision. Nothing was left to mere human arrangement. Man's wisdom, his

judgement, his reason, his conscience had nothing whatever to do in the matter. Had it

been left to man, how should we ever have had that admirable, profound and far-

reaching typical system which the inspired pen of Moses has set before us? If Israel

had been allowed to do what—as some would fain persuade us—the church is

allowed, what confusion, what strife, what division, what endless sects and parties

would have been the inevitable result.

But it was not so. The word of God settled everything "As the Lord commanded

Moses." This grand and influential sentence was appended to everything that Israel

had to do, and to everything they were not to do. Their national institutions and their

domestic habits, their public and their private life—all came under the commanding

authority of "Thus saith the Lord." There was no occasion for any member of the

congregation to say, "I Cannot see this," or "I cannot go with that," or "I cannot agree

with the other." Such language could only be regarded as the fruit of self-will. He

might just as well say, "I cannot agree with Jehovah." And why? simply because the

word of God had spoken as to everything, and that too with a clearness and simplicity

which left no room whatever for human discussion. Throughout the whole of the

Mosaic economy there was not the breadth of a hair of margin left in which to insert

the opinion or the judgement of man. It pertained not to man to add the weight of a

feather to that vast system of types and shadows which had been planned by the

divine mind, and set forth in language so plain and pointed, that all Israel had to do

was to obey—not to argue, not to reason, not to discuss, but to obey.

Alas! alas! they failed, as we know. They did their own will; they took their own way;

they did "every man that which was right in his own eyes." They departed from the

word of God, and followed the imaginations and devices of their own evil heart, and

brought upon themselves the wrath and indignation of offended Deity, under which

they suffer till this day, and shall yet suffer unexampled tribulation.

But all this leaves untouched the point on which we are just now dwelling. Israel had

the oracles of God; and these oracles were divinely sufficient for their guidance in

everything. There was no room left for the commandments and doctrines of men. The

word of the Lord provided for every possible exigency, and that word was so plain as

to render human comment needless.

Is the church of God worse off, as regards guidance and authority, than Israel of old.

Are Christians left to think and arrange for themselves in the worship and service of

God? Are there any questions left open for human discussion? Is the word of God

sufficient, or is it not? Has it left anything unprovided for? Let us hearken diligently to

the following powerful testimony: "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is

profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness;

that the man of God may be perfect (artio") throughly furnished unto all good works"

(2 Tim. 3.)

This is perfectly conclusive. Holy scripture contains all that the man of God can

possibly require to make him perfect, to equip him thoroughly for everything that can

be called a "good work." And if this be true as to the man of God individually, it is

equally true as to the church of God collectively. Scripture is all-sufficient, for each,

for all. Thank God that it is so. What a signal mercy to have a divine Guidebook!

Were it not so, what should we do? whither should we turn? what would become of

us? If we were left to human tradition and human arrangement, in the things of God,

what hopeless confusion! What clashing of opinions! What conflicting judgements!

And all this of necessity, inasmuch as one man would have quite as good a right as

another to put forth his opinion and to suggest his plan.

We shall perhaps be told that, notwithstanding our possession of the holy scripture,

we have, nevertheless, sects, parties, creeds, and schools of thought almost

innumerable. But Why is this" Simply because we refuse to submit our whole moral

being to the authority of holy scripture. This is the real secret of the matter—the true

source of all those sects and parties which are the shame and sorrow of the church of

God.

It is vain for men to tell us that these things are good in themselves; that they are the

legitimate fruit of that free exercise of thought and private judgement which form the

very boast and glory of Protestant Christianity. We do not and cannot believe, for a

moment, that such a plea will stand, before the judgement-seat of Christ. We believe,

on the contrary that this very boasted freedom of thought and independence of

judgement are in direct opposition to that spirit of profound and reverent obedience

which is due to our adorable Lord and Master. What right has a servant to exercise his

private judgement in the face of his master's plainly expressed will? None whatever.

The duty of a servant is simply to obey, not to reason or to question; but to do what he

is told. He fails as a servant, just in so far as he exercises his own private judgement.

The most lovely moral trait in a servant's character is implicit, unquestioning, and

unqualified obedience. The one grand business of a servant is to do his master's will.

All this will be fully admitted in human affairs; but, in the things of God, men think

themselves entitled to exercise their private judgement. It is a fatal mistake. God has

given us His word; and that word is so plain that wayfaring men, though fools, need

not err therein. Hence, therefore, if we were all guided by that word; if we were all to

bow down, in a spirit of unquestioning obedience, to its divine authority, there could

not be conflicting opinions and opposing sects. It is quite impossible that the voice of

holy scripture can teach opposing doctrines. It cannot possibly teach one man

Episcopacy; another, Presbyterianism; and another, Independency. It cannot possibly

furnish a foundation for opposing schools of thought. It would be a positive insult

offered to the divine volume to attempt to attribute to it all the sad confusion of the

professing church. Every pious mind must recoil, with just horror, from such an

impious thought. Scripture cannot contradict itself, and therefore if two men or ten

thousand men are exclusively taught by scripture, they will think alike.

Hear what the blessed apostle says to the church at Corinth—says to us. "Now I

beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ"—mark the mighty

moral force of this appeal—"that ye all speak the same thing, and that there he no

divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in

the same judgement.

Now, the question is, how was this most blessed result to be reached? Was it by each

one exercising the right of private judgement? Alas! it was this very thing that gave

birth to all the division and contention in the assembly at Corinth, and drew forth the

sharp rebuke of the Holy Ghost. Those poor Corinthians thought they had a right to

think, and judge and choose for themselves, and what was the result? "It hath been

declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that

there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of

Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided?"

Here we have private judgement and its sad fruit, its necessary fruit. One man has

quite as good a right to think for himself as another and no man has any right

whatsoever to force his opinion upon his fellow. Where then lies the remedy? In

flinging to the winds our private judgments, and reverently submitting ourselves to

the supreme and absolute authority of holy scripture. If it be not thus, how could the

apostle beseech the Corinthians to "speak the same thing, and to he perfectly joined

together in the same mind, and in the same judgement"? Who was to prescribe the

"thing" that all were to "speak"? In Whose "mind" or whose "judgment" were all to be

"perfectly joined together" Had any one member of the assembly, however gifted or

intelligent, the slightest shadow of a right to set forth what his brethren were to speak,

to think or to judge? Most certainly not. There was one absolute, because divine

authority to which all were bound, or rather privileged to submit themselves. Human

opinions, man's private judgement, his conscience, his reason, all these things must

just go for what they are worth; and, most assuredly, they are perfectly worthless as

authority. The word of God is the only authority; and if we are all governed by that we

shall "all speak the same thing," and "there will be no divisions among us;" but we

shall " be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgement."

Lovely condition! But alas! it is not the present condition of the church of God; and

therefore it is perfectly evident that we are not all governed by the one supreme,

absolute and all-sufficient authority—the voice of holy scripture—that most blessed

voice that can never utter one discordant note—a voice ever divinely harmonious to

the circumcised ear.

Here lies the root of the whole matter. The church has departed from the authority of

Christ, as set forth in His word. Until this is seen, it is only lost time to discuss the

claims of conflicting systems ecclesiastical or theological. If a man does not see that

it is his sacred duty to test every ecclesiastical system, every liturgical service, and

every theological creed, by the word of God, discussion is perfectly useless. If it be

allowable to settle things according to expediency, according to man's judgement, his

conscience, or his reason, then verily we may as well, at once, give up, the case as

hopeless. If we have no divinely settled authority, no perfect standard, no infallible

guide, we cannot see how it is possible for any one to possess the certainty that he is

treading in the true path. If indeed it be true that we are left to choose for ourselves,

amid the almost countless paths which lie around us, then farewell to all certainty;

farewell to peace of mind and rest of heart; farewell to all holy stability of purpose

and fixedness of aim. If we cannot say of the ground we occupy, of the path we

pursue, and of the work in which we are engaged, "This is the thing which the Lord

hath commanded" we may rest assured we are in a wrong position, and the sooner we

abandon it the better.

Thank God, there is no necessity whatever for His child or His servant to continue, for

one hour, in connection with what is wrong. "Let every one that nameth the name of

Christ depart from iniquity. But how are we to know what is iniquity? By the word of

God, Whatever is contrary to scripture, whether in morals or in doctrines, is iniquity,

and I must depart from it, cost what it may. It is an individual matter. "Let every one."

"He that hath ears." "He that overcometh." "If any man hear my voice."

Here is the point. Let us mark it well. It is Christ's voice. It is not the voice of this

good man or that good man; it is not the voice of the church, the voice of the fathers,

the voice of general councils, but the voice of our own beloved Lord and Master. It is

the individual conscience in direct, living contact with the voice of Christ, the living,

eternal word of God, the holy scriptures. Were it merely a question of human

conscience, or judgement, or authority, we are, at once, plunged in hopeless

uncertainty, inasmuch as what one man might judge to be iniquity, another might

consider to be perfectly right. There must be some fixed standard to go by, some

supreme authority from which there can be no appeal; and, blessed be God, there is.

God has spoken; He has given us His word; and it is at once our bounden duty, our

high privilege, our moral security, our true enjoyment, to obey that word.

Not man's interpretation of the word, but the word itself. This is all-important. We

must have nothing—absolutely nothing between the human conscience and divine

revelation. Men talk to us about the authority of the church. Where are we to find it?

Suppose a really anxious, earnest, honest soul, longing to know the true way. He is

told to listen to the voice of the church. He asks, which church? Is it the Greek, Latin,

Anglican or Scotch church? Not two of them agree. Nay more, there are conflicting

parties, contending sects, opposing schools of thought in one and the self-same body.

Councils have differed; fathers have disagreed; popes have anathematised one

another. In the Anglican Establishment, we have high church, low church, and broad

church, each differing from the rest. In the Scotch or Presbyterian church, we have the

Established church, the United Presbyterian, and the Free church. And then if the

anxious inquirer turns away, in hopeless perplexity, from those great bodies, in order

to seek guidance amid the ranks of Protestant dissenters, is he likely to fare any

better?

Ah! reader, it is perfectly hopeless. The whole professing church has revolted from

the authority of Christ, and cannot possibly be a guide or an authority for any one. In

the second and third chapters of the book of Revelation, the church is seen under

judgement, and the appeal, seven times repeated, is, "He that hath an ear, let him

hear"—what, The voice of the church? Impossible! the Lord could never direct us to

hear the voice of that which is itself under judgement. Hear what, then "Let him hear

what the Spirit saith unto the churches."

And where is this voice to be heard? Only in the holy scriptures, given of God, in His

infinite goodness, to guide our souls in the way of peace and truth, notwithstanding

the hopeless ruin of the church, and the thick darkness and wild confusion of baptised

Christendom. It lies not within the compass of human language to set forth the value

and importance of having a divine and therefore an infallible and all sufficient guide

and authority for our individual path.

But, be it remembered, we are solemnly responsible to bow to that authority, and

follow that guide. It is utterly vain, indeed morally dangerous, to profess to have a

divine guide and authority unless we are thoroughly subject thereto. This it was that

characterised the Jews, in the days of our Lord. They had the scriptures, but they did

not obey them. And one of the saddest features in the present condition of

Christendom is its boasted possession of the Bible, while the authority of that Bible is

boldly set aside.

We deeply feel the solemnity of this, and would earnestly press it upon the conscience

of the Christian reader. The word of God is virtually ignored amongst us. Things are

practised and sanctioned, on all hands, which not only have no foundation in

scripture, but are diametrically opposed to it. We are not exclusively taught and

absolutely governed by scripture.

All this is most serious, and demands the attention of all the Lord's people, in every

place. We feel compelled to raise a warning note, in the ears of all Christians, in

reference to this most weighty subject. Indeed, it is the sense of its gravity and vast

moral importance that has led us to enter upon the service of writing these "Notes on

the Book of Deuteronomy. It is our earnest prayer that the Holy Ghost may use these

pages to recall the hearts of the Lord's dear people to their true and proper place, even

the place of reverent allegiance to His blessed word. We feel persuaded that what will

characterise all those who will walk devotedly, in the closing hours of the church's

earthly history, will be profound reverence for the word of God, and genuine

attachment to the Person of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The two things are

inseparably bound together by a sacred and imperishable link.

"The Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this

mount; turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and

unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the

south, and by the sea-side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto, Lebanon, unto the

great river, the river Euphrates." (Vers. 6, 7.)

We shall find, throughout the whole of the book of Deuteronomy, the Lord dealing

much more directly and simply with the people, than in any of the three preceding

books; so far is it from being true that Deuteronomy is a mere repetition of what has

passed before us, in previous sections. For instance, in the Passage just quoted, there

is no mention of the movement of the cloud; no reference to the sound of the trumpet.

"The Lord our God spake unto us." We know, from the Book of Numbers, that the

movements of the camp were governed by the movements of the cloud, as

communicated by the sound of the trumpet. but neither the trumpet nor the cloud is

alluded to in this book. It is much more simple and familiar. "The Lord our God spake

unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount."

This is very beautiful. it reminds us somewhat of the lovely simplicity of patriarchal

times, when the Lord spake unto the fathers as a man speaketh to his friend. It was not

by the sound of a trumpet, or by the movement of a cloud that the Lord communicated

His mind to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He was so very near to them that there was no

need, no room for an agency characterised by ceremony and distance. He visited

them, sat with them, partook of their hospitality, in all the intimacy of personal

friendship.

Such is the lovely simplicity of the order of things in patriarchal times; and this it is

which imparts a peculiar charm to the narratives of the Book of Genesis.

But, in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, we have something quite different. There we

have set before us a vast system of types and shadows, rites, ordinances, and

ceremonies, imposed on the people for the time being, the import of which is

unfolded to us in the Epistle to the Hebrews. "The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the

way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was

yet standing; which was a, figure for the time then present, in which were offered

both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as

pertaining to the conscience; which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers

washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation."

(Heb. 9: 8-10.)

Under this system, the people were at a distance from God. It was not with them as it

had been with their fathers, in the Book of Genesis. God was shut in from them; and

they were shut out from Him. The leading features of the Levitical ceremonial, so far

as the people were concerned, were, bondage, darkness, distance. But, on the other

hand, its types and shadows pointed forward to that one great sacrifice which is the

foundation of all God's marvellous counsels and purposes, and by which He can, in

perfect righteousness, and according to all the love of His heart, have a people near

unto Himself, to the praise of the glory of His grace, throughout the golden ages of

eternity.

Now, it has been already remarked, we shall find, in Deuteronomy, comparatively

little of rites and ceremonies. The Lord is seen more in direct communication with the

people; and even the priests, in their official capacity, come rarely before us; and, if

they are referred to, it is very much more in a moral than in a ceremonial way. Of this

we shall have ample proof as we pass along; it is a marked feature of this beautiful

book.

"The Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this

mount: turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites." What a

rare privilege, for any people, to have the Lord so near to them, and so interested in

all their movements, and in all their concerns great and small: He knew how long they

ought to remain in any one place, and whither they should next bend their steps. They

had no need to harass themselves about their journeyings, or about anything else.

They were under the eye, and in the hands of One whose wisdom was unerring, whose

power was omnipotent, whose resources were inexhaustible, whose love was infinite,

who had charged Himself with the care of them, who knew all their need, and was

prepared to meet it, according to all the love of His heart, and the strength of His holy

arm.

What, then, we may ask, remained for them to do? What was their plain and simple

duty? Just to obey. It was their high and holy privilege to rest in the love and obey the

commandments of Jehovah their covenant God. Here lay the blessed secret of their

peace, their happiness, and their moral security. They had no need whatever to trouble

themselves about their movements, no need of planning or arranging. Their

journeyings were all ordered for them by One who knew every step of the way from

Horeb to Kadesh-barnea; and they had just to live by the day, in happy dependence

upon Him.

Happy position! Privileged path! Blessed portion! But it demanded a broken will—an

obedient mind—a subject heart. If, when Jehovah had said, "Ye have compassed this

mountain long enough," they, on the contrary, were to form the plan of compassing it

a little longer, they would have had to compass it without Him. His companionship,

His counsel and His aid, could only be counted upon in the path of obedience.

Thus it was with Israel, in their desert wanderings, and thus it is with us. It is our most

precious privilege to leave all our matters in the hands, not merely of a covenant God,

but of a loving Father. He arranges our movements for us; He fixes the bounds of our

habitation; He tells us how long to stay in a place, and where to go next. He has

charged Himself with all our concerns, all our movements, all our wants. His gracious

word to us is, "Be careful far nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication,

with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." And what then? "The

peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds

through Christ Jesus."

But it may be the reader feels disposed to ask, "How does God guide His people now?

We cannot expect to hear His voice telling us when to move or where to go." To this

we reply, at once, it cannot surely be that the members of the church of God, the body

of Christ, are worse off, in the matter of divine guidance, than Israel in the wilderness.

Cannot God guide His children—cannot Christ guide His servants, in all their

movements, and in all their service? Who could think, for a moment, of calling in

question a truth so plain and so precious? True, we do not expect to hear a voice, or

see the movement of a cloud; but we have what is very much better, very much

higher, very much more intimate. We may rest assured our God has made ample

provision for us in this, as in all beside, according to all the love of His heart.

Now, there are three ways in which we are guided; we are guided by the word; we are

guided by the Holy Ghost; and we are guided by the instincts of the divine nature.

And we have to bear in mind that the instincts of the divine nature, the leadings of the

Holy Ghost, and the teaching of holy scripture will always harmonise. This is of the

utmost importance to keep before us. A person might fancy himself to be led by the

instincts of the divine nature, or by the Holy Spirit, to pursue a certain line of action

involving consequences at issue with the word of God. Thus his mistake would be

made apparent. It is a very serious thing for any one to act on mere impulse or

impression. By so doing, he may fall into a snare of the devil, and do very serious

damage to the cause of Christ. We must calmly weigh our impressions in the balances

of the sanctuary, and faithfully test them by the standard of the divine word. In this

way, we shall be preserved from error and delusion. It is a most dangerous thing to

trust impressions or act on impulse. We have seen the most disastrous consequences

produced by so doing. Facts may be reliable. Divine authority is absolutely infallible.

Our own impressions may prove as delusive as a will-o'-the-wisp, or a mirage of the

desert. Human feelings are most untrustworthy. We must ever submit them to the

most severe scrutiny, lest they betray us into some fatally false line of action. We can

trust scripture, without a shadow of misgiving; and we shall find, without exception,

that the man who is led by the Holy Ghost, or guided by the instincts of the divine

nature, will never act in opposition to the word of God. This is what we may call an

axiom in the divine life—an established rule in practical Christianity. Would that it

had been more attended to in all ages of the church's history! Would that it were more

pondered in our own day!

But there is another point, in this question of divine guidance, which demands our

serious attention. We, not infrequently, hear people speak of "The finger of divine

Providence" as something to be relied upon for guidance. This may be only another

mode of expressing the idea of being guided by circumstances, which, we do not

hesitate to say, is very far indeed from being the proper kind of guidance for a

Christian.

No doubt, our Lord may and does, at times, intimate His mind, and indicate our path

by His providence; but we must be sufficiently near to Him to be able to interpret the

providence aright, else we may find that what is called "an opening of providence"

may actually prove an opening by which we slip off the holy path of obedience.

Surrounding circumstances, just like our inward impressions, must be weighed in the

presence of God, and judged by the light of His word, else they may lead us into the

most terrible mistakes. Jonah might have considered it a remarkable providence to

find a ship going to Tarshish; but had he been in communion with God, he would not

have needed a ship. In short, the word of God is the one grand test and perfect

touchstone for everything—for outward circumstances and inward impressions—for

feelings, imaginations and tendencies—all must be placed under the searching light of

holy scripture and there calmly and seriously judged. This is the true path of safety,

peace and blessedness for every child of God.

It may, however, be said, in reply to all this, that we cannot expect to find a text of

scripture to guide us in the matter of our movements, or in the thousand little details

of daily life. Perhaps not; but there are certain great principles laid down in scripture

which, if properly applied, will afford divine guidance even where we might not be

able to find a particular text. And not only so, but we have the fullest assurance that

our God can and does guide His children, in all things." "The steps of a good man are

ordered of the Lord." "The meek will he guide in judgement; and the meek will he

teach his way." "I will guide thee with mine eye." He can signify His mind to us as to

this or that particular act or movement. If not, where are we? How are we to get on?

How are we to regulate our movements? Are we to be drifted hither and thither by the

tide of circumstances? Are we left to blind chance, or to the mere impulse of our own

will?

Thank God, it is not so. He can, in His own perfect way, give us the certainty of His

mind, in any given case; and, without that certainty, we should never move. Our Lord

Christ—all homage to His peerless Name!—can intimate His mind to His servant as

to where He would have him to go and what He would have him to do; and no true

servant will ever think of moving or acting without such intimation. We should never

move or act in uncertainty. If we are not sure, let us be quiet and wait. Very often it

happens that we harass and fret ourselves about movements that God would not have

us to make at all. A person once said to a friend, "I am quite at a loss to know which

way to turn." Then, " Don't turn at all" was the friend's wise reply.

But here an all-important moral point comes in, and that is, our whole condition of

soul. This, we may rest assured, has very much to do with the matter of guidance. It is

"the meek he will guide in judgement and teach his way." We must never forget this.

If only we are humble and self-distrusting, if we wait on our God, in simplicity of

heart, uprightness of mind, and honesty of purpose, He will, most assuredly, guide us.

But it will never do to go and ask counsel of God in a matter about which our mind is

made up, or our will is at work.

This is a fatal delusion. Look at the case of Jehoshaphat, in I Kings 22. "It came to

pass, in the third year, that Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down to the king of

Israel"—a sad mistake, to begin with—"And the king of Israel said unto his servants,

Know ye that Ramoth in Gilead is ours, and we be still, and take it not out of the hand

of the king of Syria? And he said unto Jehoshaphat, Wilt thou go with me to battle to

Ramoth Gilead? And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as thou art, my

people as thy people, my horses as thy horses, and," as we have it in 2 Chronicles 18:

3, "we will be with thee in the war."

Here we see that his mind was made up before ever he thought of asking counsel of

God in the matter. He was in a false position and a wrong atmosphere altogether. He

had fallen into the snare of the enemy, through lack of singleness of eye, and hence he

was not in a fit state to receive or profit by divine guidance. He was bent on his own

will, and the Lord left him to reap, the fruits of it; and, but for infinite and sovereign

mercy, he would have fallen by the sword of the Syrians, and been borne a corpse

from the battle field.

True, he did say to the king of Israel, "Inquire, I pray thee, at the word of the Lord

today." But where was the use of this, when he had already pledged himself to a

certain line of action? What folly for any one to make up his mind, and then go and

ask for counsel! Had he been in a right state of soul, he never would have sought

counsel, in such a case at all. But his state of soul was bad, his position false, and his

purpose in direct opposition to the mind and will of God. Hence, although he heard,

from the lips of Jehovah's messenger, His solemn judgement on the entire expedition,

yet he took his own way, and well-nigh lost his life in consequence.

We see the same thing in the forty-second chapter of Jeremiah. The people applied to

the prophet to ask counsel as to their going down into Egypt. But they had already

made up their minds, as to their course. They were bent on their own will. Miserable

condition! Had they been meek and humble, they would not have needed to ask

counsel, in the matter. But they said unto Jeremiah the prophet, "Let, we beseech thee,

our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the Lord thy God"—

Why not say, The Lord our God?—"even for all this remnant: (for we are left but a

few of many, as thine eyes do behold us;) that the Lord thy God may show as the way

wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do. Then Jeremiah the prophet said

unto them, I have heard you; behold, I will pray unto the Lord your God, according to

your words; and it shall come to pass, that whatsoever thing the Lord shall answer

you, I will declare it unto you: I will keep nothing hack from you. Then they said to

Jeremiah, The Lord be a true and faithful witness between us; if we do not even

according to all things for the which the Lord thy God shall send thee to us. Whether

it be good, or whether it be evil,"—How could the will of God be anything but

good?—"we will obey the voice of the Lord our God, to whom we send thee; that it

may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the Lord our God."

Now, all this seemed very pious and very promising. But mark the sequel. When they

found that the judgement and counsel of God did not tally with their will, "Then

spake.... all the proud men, saying unto Jeremiah, Thou speakest falsely; the Lord our

God hath not sent thee to say, go not into Egypt to sojourn there."

Here, the real state of the case comes clearly out. Pride and self-will were at work.

Their vows and promises were false. "Ye dissembled in your hearts," says Jeremiah,

"when ye sent me unto the Lord your God, saying, Pray for us unto the Lord our God;

and according unto all that the Lord our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will

do it." It would have been all very well, had the divine response fallen in with their

will in the matter; but, inasmuch as it ran counter, they rejected it altogether.

How often is this the case! The word of God does not suit man's thoughts; it judges

them; it stands in direct opposition to his will; it interferes with his plans, and hence

he rejects it. The human will and human reason are ever in direct antagonism to the

word of God; and the Christian must refuse both the one and the other, if he really

desires to be divinely guided. An unbroken will and blind reason, if we listen to them,

can only lead us into darkness, misery and desolation. Jonah would go to Tarshish,

when he ought to have gone to Nineveh; and the consequence was that he found

himself "in the belly of hell," with "the weeds wrapped about his head." Jehoshaphat

would go to Ramoth Gilead, when he ought to have been at Jerusalem; and the

consequence was that he found himself surrounded by the swords of the Syrians. The

remnant, in the days of Jeremiah, would go into Egypt, when they ought to have

remained at Jerusalem; and the consequence was that they died by the sword, by the

famine, and by the pestilence in the land of Egypt "whither they desired to go and to

sojourn."

Thus it must ever be. The path of self-will is sure to be a path of darkness and misery.

It cannot be otherwise. The path of obedience, on the contrary, is a path of peace, a

path of light, a path of blessing, a path on which the beams of divine favour are ever

poured in living lustre. It may, to the human eye, seem narrow, rough and lonely; but

the obedient soul finds it to be the path of life, peace, and moral security. "The path of

the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day."

Blessed path! May the writer and the reader ever be found treading it, with a steady

step and earnest purpose!

Before turning from this great practical subject of divine guidance and human

obedience, we must ask the reader to refer, for a few moments, to a very beautiful

passage in the eleventh chapter of Luke. He will find it full of the most valuable

instruction.

"The light of the body is the eye; therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body

also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. Take

heed, therefore, that the light which is in thee be not darkness. If thy whole body

therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when

the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light." (Vers. 34-36.)

Nothing can exceed the moral force and beauty of this passage. First of all, we have

the "single eye." This is essential to the enjoyment of divine guidance. It indicates a

broken will—a heart honestly fixed upon doing the will of God. There is no under

current, no mixed motive, no personal end in view. There is the one simple desire and

earnest purpose to do the will of God, whatever that will may be.

Now, when the soul is in this attitude, divine light comes streaming in and fills the

whole body. Hence it follows that if the body is not full of light, the eye is not single;

there is some mixed motive; self-will or self-interest is at work; we are not right

before God. In this case, any light which we profess to have is darkness; and there is

no darkness so gross or so terrible as that judicial darkness which settles down upon

the heart governed by self-will while professing to have light from God. This will be

seen in all its horrors, by-and-by, in Christendom, when "that Wicked shall be

revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy

with the brightness of his coming; even him, whose coming is after the working of

Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of

unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love Of the truth,

that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that

they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned who believed not the truth,

but had pleasure in unrighteousness," (2 Thess. 2: 8-12.)

How awful is this! How solemnly it speaks to the whole professing church! How

solemnly it addresses the conscience of both the writer and the reader of these lines!

Light not acted upon becomes darkness. "If the light which is in thee be darkness,

how great is that darkness!" But on the other hand, a little light honestly acted upon, is

sure to increase; for "to him that hath shall more be given and " the path of the just is

as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

This moral progress is beautifully and forcibly set forth in Luke 11: 36. "If thy whole

body therefore be full of light, having no part dark"—no chamber kept closed against

the heavenly rays—no dishonest reserve—the whole moral being laid open, in

genuine simplicity, to the action of divine light; then—"the whole shall be full of

light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light." In a word, the

obedient soul has not only light for his own path, but the light shines out, so that

others see it, like the bright shining of a candle. "Let your light so shine before men,

that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven"

We have a very vivid contrast to all this in the thirteenth chapter of Jeremiah. "Give

glory to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble

upon the dark mountains, and while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of

death, and make it gross darkness." The way to give glory to the Lord our God is to

obey His word. The path of duty is a bright and blessed path; and the one who through

grace, treads that path will never stumble on the dark mountains. The truly humble,

the lowly, the self-distrusting will keep far away from those dark mountains, and walk

in that blessed path which is ever illuminated by the bright and cheering beams of

God's approving countenance.

This is the path of the just, the path of heavenly wisdom, the path of perfect peace.

May we ever be found treading it, beloved reader; and let us never, for one moment,

forget that it is our high privilege to be divinely guided in the most minute! details of

our daily life. Alas! for the one who is not so guided. He will have many a stumble,

many a fall, many a sorrowful experience. If we are not guided by our Father's eye, we

shall be like the horse or the mule which have no understanding, whose mouth must

be held in with bit and bridle—like the horse, impetuously rushing where he ought

not, or the mule obstinately refusing to go where he ought. How sad for a Christian to

be like these! How blessed to move, from day to day, in the path marked out for us by

our Father's eye; a path which the vulture's eye hath not seen, or the lion's whelp

trodden; the path of holy obedience, the path in which the meek and lowly will ever

be found, to their deep joy, and the praise and glory of Him who has opened it for

them and given them grace to tread it.

In the remainder of our chapter, Moses rehearses in the ears of the people, in language

of touching simplicity, the facts connected with the appointment of the judges, and

the mission of the spies. The appointment of the judges, Moses, here, attributes to his

own suggestion. The mission of the spies was the suggestion of the people. That dear

and most honoured servant of God felt the burden of the congregation too heavy for

him; and assuredly, it was very heavy; though we know well that the grace of God

was amply sufficient for the demand; and, moreover, that that grace could act as well

by one man as by seventy.

Still, we can well understand the difficulty felt by "the meekest man in all the earth"

in reference to the responsibility of so grave and important a charge; and truly the

language in which he states his difficulty is affecting in the highest degree. We feel as

though we must quote it for the reader.

"And I spake unto you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone"—

surely not; what mere mortal could? But God was there to be counted upon for

exigency of every hour—"The Lord your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are

this day as the stars of heaven for multitude. (The Lord God of your fathers make you

a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you as he hath promised you!")

Lovely parenthesis! Exquisite breathing of a large and lowly heart!—"How can I

myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?"

Alas! here lay the secret of much of the "cumbrance" and the "burden." They could

not agree among themselves; there were controversies, contentions and questions; and

who was sufficient for these things What human shoulder could sustain such a

burden. How different it might have been with them! Had they walked lovingly

together, there would have been no cases to decide, and therefore no need of judges to

decide them. If each member of the congregation had sought the prosperity, the

interest and the happiness of his brethren, there would have been no "strife," no

"cumbrance," no " burden." If each had done all that in him lay to promote the

common good, how lovely would have been the result!

But, ah! it was not so with Israel, in the desert; and, what is still more humbling, it is

not so in the church of God, although our privileges are so much higher. Hardly had

the assembly been formed by the presence of the Holy Ghost, ere the accents of

murmuring and discontent were heard. And about what? About "neglect," whether

fancied or real. Whatever way it was, self was at work. If the neglect was merely

imaginary, the Grecians were to blame; and if it was real, the Hebrews were to blame.

It generally happens, in such cases, that there are faults on both sides; but the true way

to avoid all strife, contention and murmuring is to put self in the dust and earnestly

seek the good of others. Had this excellent way been understood and adopted, from

the outset, what a different task the ecclesiastical historian would have had to

perform! But alas! it has not been adopted, and hence the history of the professing

church, from the very beginning, has been a deplorable and humiliating record of

controversy, division and strife. In the very presence of the Lord Himself, whose

whole life was one of complete self-surrender, the apostles disputed about who should

be greatest. Such a dispute could never have arisen, had each known the exquisite

secret of putting self in the dust, and seeking the good of others. No one who knows

ought of the true moral elevation of self-emptiness could possibly seek a good or a

great place for himself. Nearness to Christ so satisfies the lowly heart, that honour,

distinctions and rewards are little accounted of. But where self is at work, there you

will have envy and jealousy, strife and contention, confusion and every evil work.

Witness the scene between the two sons of Zebedee and their ten brethren, in the

tenth chapter of Mark What was at the bottom of it? Self. The two were thinking of a

good place for themselves in the kingdom; and the ten were angry with the two for

thinking of any such thing. Had each set self aside, and sought the good of others,

such a scene would never have been enacted. The two would not have been thinking

about themselves, and hence there would have been no ground for the "indignation"

of the ten.

But it is needless to multiply examples. Every age of the church's history illustrates

and proves the truth of our statement that self and its odious workings are the

producing cause of strife, contention and division, always. Turn where you will, from

the days of the apostles down to the days in which our lot is cast, and you will find

unmortified self to be the fruitful source of strife and schism. And, on the other hand,

you will find that to sink self and its interests is the true secret of peace, harmony and

brotherly love. If only we learn to set self aside, and seek earnestly the glory of Christ,

and the prosperity of His beloved people, we shall not have many "cases" to settle.

We must now return to our chapter.

"How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden and your strife Take

you wise men, and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make

them rulers over you. And ye answered me, and said, The thing which thou hast

spoken is good for us to do. So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and

known"—men fitted of God, and possessing, because entitled to, the confidence of the

congregation—"and made them heads over you, captains over thousands, and captains

over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among

your tribes."

Admirable arrangement! If indeed it had to he made, nothing could be better adapted

to the maintenance of order, than the graduated scale of authority, varying from the

captain of ten to the captain of a thousand; the lawgiver himself at the head of all, and

he in immediate communication with the Lord God of Israel.

We have no allusion, here, to the fact recorded in Exodus 18, namely, that the

appointment of those rulers was at the suggestion of Jethro, Moses' father-in-law

Neither have we any reference to the scene in Numbers 11. We call the reader's

attention to this as one of the many proofs which lie scattered along the pages of

Deuteronomy, that it is very far indeed from being a mere repetition of the preceding

sections of the Pentateuch. In short, this delightful book has a marked character of its

own, and the mode in which facts are presented is in perfect keeping with that

character. It is very evident that the object of the venerable lawgiver, or rather of the

Holy Ghost in him, was to bring everything to bear, in a moral way, upon the hearts of

the people, in order to produce that one grand result which is the special object of the

book, from beginning to end, namely, a loving obedience to all the statutes and

judgments of the Lord their God.

We must bear this in mind, if we would study aright the book which lies open before

us. Infidels, sceptics and rationalists may impiously suggest to us the thought of

discrepancies in the various records given in the different books; but the pious reader

will reject, with a holy indignation, every such suggestion, knowing that it emanates

directly from the father of lies, the determined and persistent enemy of the precious

Revelation of God. This, we feel persuaded, is the true way in which to deal with all

infidel assaults upon the Bible. Argument is useless, inasmuch as infidels are not in a

position to understand or appreciate its force. They are profoundly ignorant of the

matter; nor is it merely a question of profound ignorance, but of determined hostility,

so that, in every way, the judgement of all infidel writers on the subject of divine

inspiration, is utterly worthless, and perfectly contemptible. We would pity and pray

for the men, while we thoroughly despise and indignantly reject their opinions. The

word of God is entirely above and beyond them. It is as perfect as its Author, and as

imperishable as His throne; but its moral glories, its living depths, and its infinite

perfections are only unfolded to faith and need. "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of

heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and

hast revealed them unto babes."

If we are only content to be as simple as a babe, we shall enjoy the precious revelation

of a Father's love as given by His Spirit, in the holy scriptures. But on the other hand,

those who fancy themselves wise and prudent, who build upon their learning, their

philosophy and their reason, who think themselves competent to sit in judgement on

the word of God, and hence, on God Himself, are given over to judicial darkness,

blindness and hardness of heart. Thus it comes to pass that the most egregious folly,

and the most contemptible ignorance, that man can display, will be found in the pages

of those learned writers who have dared to write against the Bible. "Where is the

wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made

foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by

wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them

that believe." (1 Cor. 1: 20, 21.)

"If any man will be wise, let him become a fool." Here lies the grand moral secret of

the matter. Man must get to the end of his own wisdom, as well as of his own

righteousness. He must be brought to confess himself a fool, ere he can taste the

sweetness of divine wisdom. It is not within the range of the most gigantic human

intellect, aided by all the appliances of human learning and philosophy, to grasp the

very simplest elements of divine revelation. And, therefore, when unconverted men,

whatever may be the force of their genius or the extent of their learning, undertake to

handle spiritual subjects, and more especially the subject of the divine inspiration of

holy scripture, they are sure to exhibit their profound ignorance, and utter

incompetence to deal with the question before them. Indeed, whenever we look into

an infidel book, we are struck with the feebleness of their most forcible arguments;

and not only so, but, in every instance in which they attempt to find a discrepancy in

the Bible, we see only divine wisdom, beauty and perfectness.

We have been led into the foregoing line of thought in connection with the subject of

the appointment of the elders which is given to us in each book, according to the

wisdom of the Holy Ghost, and in perfect keeping with the scope and object of the

book. We shall now proceed with our quotation.

"And I charged your judges at that time, saying, Hear the causes between your

brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger

that is with him. Ye shall not respect persons in judgement; but ye Shall hear the

small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgement

is God's; and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it."

What heavenly wisdom is here! What even handed justice! What holy impartiality! In

every case of difference, all the facts, on both sides, were to be fully heard and

patiently weighed. The mind was not to be warped by prejudice, predilection or

personal feeling of any kind. The judgement was to be formed not by impressions, but

by facts—clearly established, undeniable facts. Personal influence was to have no

weight whatever. The position and circumstances of either party in the cause were not

to be considered. The case must be decided entirely on its own merits. "Ye shall hear

the small as well as the great." The poor man was to have the same evenhanded

justice meted out to him as the rich; the stranger as one born in the land. No

difference was to be allowed.

How important is all this! How worthy of our attentive consideration! How full of

deep and valuable instruction for us all! True, we are not all called to be judges, or

elders or leaders; but the great moral principles laid down in the above quotation are

of the very utmost value to every one of us, inasmuch as cases are continually

occurring which call for their direct application. Wherever our lot may be cast,

whatever our line of life or sphere of action, we are liable alas! to meet with cases of

difficulty and misunderstanding between our brethren; cases of wrong whether real or

imaginary; and hence it is most needful to be divinely instructed as to how we ought

to carry ourselves in respect to such.

Now, in all such cases, we cannot be too strongly impressed with the necessity of

having our judgement based on facts—all the facts, on both sides. We must not allow

ourselves to be guided by our own impressions, for we all know that mere

impressions are most untrustworthy. They may be correct; and they may be utterly

false. Nothing is more easily received and conveyed than a false impression, and

therefore any judgement based on mere impressions is worthless. We must have solid,

clearly established facts—facts established by two or three witnesses, as scripture so

distinctly enforces. (Deut. 17: 6; Matt. 18: 16; 2 Cor. 13: 1; 1 Tim. 5: 19.)

But further, we must never be guided in judgement by an ex parte statement. Every

one is liable, even with the best intentions, to give a colour to his statement of a case.

It is not that he would intentionally make a false statement, or tell a deliberate lie;

but, through inaccuracy of memory, or one cause or another, he may not present the

case as it really is. Some fact may be omitted, and that one fact may so affect all the

other facts as to alter their bearing completely. "Audi alteram partem" (hear the other

side), is a wholesome motto. And not only hear the other side, but hear all the facts on

both sides, and thus you will be able to form a sound and righteous judgment. We

may set it down as a standing rule that any judgment formed without an accurate

knowledge of all the facts, is perfectly worthless. "Hear the causes between your

brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger

that is with him" Seasonable, needed words, most surely, at all times, in all places,

and under all circumstances. May we apply our hearts to them!

And how important the admonition in verse 17? "Ye shall not respect persons in

judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not afraid of the

face of man." How these words discover the poor human heart! How prone we are to

respect persons; to be swayed by personal influence; to attach importance to position

and wealth; to be afraid of the face of man!

What is the divine antidote against all these evils? Just this—the fear of God. If we set

the Lord before us, at all times, it will effectually deliver us from the pernicious

influence of partiality, prejudice and the fear of men. It will lead us to wait, humbly

on the Lord, for guidance and counsel in all that may come before us; and thus we

shall be preserved from forming hasty and one-sided judgments of men and things—

that fruitful source of mischief amongst the Lord's people, in all ages.

We shall now dwell, for a few moments, on the very affecting manner in which

Moses brings before the congregation all the circumstances connected with the

mission of the spies which, like the appointment of the judges, is in perfect keeping

with the scope and object of the book. This is only what we might expect. There is

not, there could not be, a single sentence of useless repetition in the divine volume.

Still less could there be a single flaw, a single discrepancy, a single contradictory

statement. The word of God is absolutely perfect-perfect as a whole, perfect in all its

parts. We must firmly hold and faithfully confess this in the face of this infidel age.

We speak not of human translations of the word of God, in which there must be more

or less of imperfection; though even here, we cannot but be "filled with wonder, love

and praise," when we mark the way in which our God so manifestly presided over our

excellent English Translation, so that the poor man at the back of a mountain may be

assured of possessing, in his common English Bible, the Revelation of God to his

soul. And most surely we are warranted in saying that this is just what we might look

for at the hands of our God. It is but reasonable to infer that the One who inspired the

writers of the Bible would also watch over the translation of it; for, inasmuch as He

gave it originally, in His grace, to those who could read Hebrew and Greek, so would

He not, in the same grace, give it in every language under heaven? Blessed for ever be

His holy Name, it is His gracious desire to speak to every man in the very tongue in

which he was born; to tell us the sweet tale of His grace, the glad tidings of salvation,

in the very accents in which our mothers whispered into our infant ears those words

of love that went right home to our very hearts. (See Acts 2: 5-8.)

Oh, that men were more impressed and affected with the truth and power of all this;

and then we should not be troubled with so many foolish and unlearned questions

about the Bible.

Let us now hearken to the account given by Moses of the mission of the spies—its

origin and its result. We shall find it full of most weighty instruction, if only the ear

be open to hear and the heart duly prepared to ponder.

"And I commanded you at that time all the things which ye should do." The path of

simple obedience was plainly set before them. They had but to tread it with an

obedient heart and firm step. They had not to reason about consequences, or weigh

the results. All these they had just to leave in the hands of God, and move on, with

steady purpose, in the blessed path of obedience.

"And when we departed from Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible

wilderness, which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Amorites, as the Lord our

God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea. And I said unto you, Ye are

come unto the mountain of the Amorites, which the Lord our God doth give unto us.

Behold, the Lord thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the

Lord God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged."

Here was their warrant for entering upon immediate possession. The Lord their God

had given them the land, and set it before them. It was theirs by His free gift, the gift

of His sovereign grace, in pursuance of the covenant made with their fathers. It was

His eternal purpose to possess the land of Canaan through the seed of Abraham His

friend. This ought to have been enough to set their hearts perfectly at rest, not only as

to the character of the land, but also as to their entrance upon it. There was no need of

spies. Faith never wants to spy what God has given. It argues that what He has given

must be worth having; and that He is able to put us in full possession of all that His

grace has bestowed. Israel might have concluded that the same hand that had

conducted them "through all that great and terrible wilderness" could bring them in

and plant them in their destined inheritance.

So faith would have reasoned; for it always reasons from God down to circumstances;

never from circumstances up to God. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" This

is faith's argument, grand in its simplicity, and simple in its moral grandeur. When

God fills the whole range of the soul's vision, difficulties are little accounted of. They

are either not seen, or, if seen, they are viewed as occasions for the display of divine

power. Faith exults in seeing God triumphing over difficulties.

But alas! the people were not governed by faith on the occasion now before us; and,

therefore they had recourse to spies. Of this Moses reminds them, and that, too, in

language at once most tender and faithful. "And ye came near unto me, every one of

you, and said, We will send men before us, and they shall search us out the land, and

bring us word again by what way we must go up, and into what cities we shall come."

Surely, they might well have trusted. God for all this. The One who had brought them

up out of Egypt; made a way for them through the sea; guided them through the

trackless desert, was fully able to bring them into the land. But no; they would send

spies, simply because their hearts had not simple confidence in the true, the living, the

Almighty God.

Here lay the moral root of the matter; and it is well that the reader should thoroughly

seize this point. True it is that, in the history given in Numbers, the Lord told Moses

to send the spies. But why? Because of the moral condition of the people. And here

we see the characteristic difference and yet the lovely harmony of the two books.

Numbers gives us the public history, Deuteronomy the secret source of the mission of

the spies; and as it is in perfect keeping with Numbers to give us the former, so it is in

perfect keeping with Deuteronomy to give us the latter. The one is the complement of

the other. We could not fully understand the subject, had we only the history given in

Numbers. It is the touching commentary; given in Deuteronomy, which completes the

picture. How Perfect is scripture! All we need is the eye anointed to see, and the heart

prepared to appreciate its moral glories.

It may be, however, that the reader still feels some difficulty in reference to the

question of the spies. He may feel disposed to ask, how it could be wrong to send

them, when the Lord told them to do so? The answer is, the wrong was not in the act

of sending them when they were told, but in the wish to send them at all. The wish

was the fruit of unbelief; and the command to send them was because of that unbelief.

We may see something of the same in the matter of divorce, in Matthew 19. "The

Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a

man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, Have

ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning, made them male and female,

and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his

wife; and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one

flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. They say

unto him, why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put

her away? He saith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts suffered

you to put away your wives; but from the beginning it was not so."

It was not in keeping with God's original institution, or according to His heart, that a

man should put away his wife; but, in consequence of the hardness of the human

heart, divorce was Permitted by the lawgiver. Is there any difficulty in this? Surely

not, unless the heart is bent on making one. Neither is there any difficulty in the

matter of the spies. Israel ought not to have needed them. Simple faith would never

have thought of them. But the Lord saw the real condition of things, and issued a

command accordingly; just as, in after ages, He saw the heart of the people bent on

having a king, and he commanded Samuel to give them one. "And the Lord said unto

Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee; for they

have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.

According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up

out of Egypt, even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other

gods, so do they also unto thee. Now, therefore, hearken unto their voice; howbeit yet

protest solemnly unto them, and show them the manner of the king that shall reign

over them." (1 Sam. 8: 7-9.)

Thus we see that the mere granting of a desire is no proof whatever that such desire is

according to the mind of God. Israel ought not to have asked for a king was not

Jehovah sufficient? Was not He their King? Could not He, as He had ever done, lead

them forth to battle, and fight for them? Why seek an arm of flesh a Why turn away

from the living, the true, the Almighty God, to lean on a poor fellow worm? What

power was there in a king but that which God might see fit to bestow upon him? None

whatever. All the power, all the wisdom, all real good was in the Lord their God; and

it was there for them—there at all times, to meet their every need. They had but to

lean upon His almighty arm, to draw upon His exhaustless resources, to find all their

springs in Him.

When they did get a king, according to their hearts" desire, what did he do for them?

"All the people followed him trembling." The more closely we study the melancholy

history of Saul's reign, the more we see that he was, almost from the very outset, a

positive hindrance rather than a help. We have but to read his history, from first to

last, in order to see the truth of this. His whole reign was a lamentable failure, aptly

and forcibly set forth in two glowing sentences of the prophet Hosea, "I gave thee a

king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath." In a word, he was the answer to

the unbelief and self-will of the people, and therefore, all their brilliant hopes and

expectations respecting him were, most lamentably, disappointed. He failed to answer

the mind of God; and, as a necessary consequence, he failed to meet the people's

need. He proved himself wholly unworthy of the crown and sceptre; and his

ignominious fall on mount Gilboa was in melancholy keeping with his whole career.

Now, when we come to consider the mission of the spies, we find it too, like the

appointment of a king, ending in complete failure and disappointment. It could not be

otherwise, inasmuch as it was the fruit of unbelief. True, God gave them spies; and

Moses, with touching grace, says, "The saying pleased me well; and I took twelve

men of you, one of a tribe." It was grace coming down to the condition of the people,

and consenting to a plan which was suited to that condition. But this, by no means,

proves that either the plan or the condition was according to the mind of God. Blessed

be His Name, He can meet us in our unbelief, though He is grieved and dishonoured

by it. He delights in bold, artless faith. It is the only thing, in all this world, that gives

Him His proper place. Hence, when Moses said to the people, "Behold, the Lord thy

God hath set the land before thee; go up and possess it, as the Lord God of thy fathers

hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged;" what would have been the

proper response from them? "Here we are; lead on, Almighty Lord; lead on to victory.

Thou art enough. With Thee as our leader, we move on with joyful confidence.

Difficulties are nothing to Thee, and therefore they are nothing to us. Thy word and

thy presence are all we want. In these we find, at once, our authority and power. It

matters not in the least to us who or what may be before us: mighty giants, towering

walls, frowning bulwarks; what are they all in the presence of the Lord God of Israel,

but as withered leaves before the whirlwind? Lead on, O Lord."

This would have been the language of faith; but alas! it was not the language of Israel,

on the occasion before us. God was not sufficient for them. They were not prepared to

go up, leaning on His arm alone. They were not satisfied with His report of the land.

They would send spies, anything for the poor human heart but simple dependence

upon the one living and true God. The natural man cannot trust God, simply because

he does not know Him. "They that know thy name will put their trust in thee."

God must be known, in order to be trusted; and the more fully He is trusted, the better

He becomes known. There is nothing, in all this world, so truly blessed as a life of

simple faith But it must be a reality and not a mere profession. It is utterly vain to talk

of living by faith, while the heart is secretly resting on some creature prop. The true

believer has to do, exclusively, with God. He finds in Him all his resources. It is not

that he undervalues the instruments or the channels which God is pleased to use; quite

the reverse. He values them exceedingly; and cannot but value them as the means

which God uses for his help and blessing. But he does not allow them to displace

God. The language of his heart is, "My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my

expectation is from him. He only is my rock."

There is peculiar force in the word "only." It searches the heart thoroughly. To look to

the creature, directly or indirectly, for the supply of any need, is in principle to depart

from the life of faith And oh! it is miserable work, this looking, in any way, to

creature streams. It is just as morally degrading as the life of faith is morally

elevating. And not only is it degrading, but disappointing. Creature props give way,

and creature streams run dry; but they that trust in the Lord shall never be

confounded, and never want any good thing. Had Israel trusted the Lord instead of

sending spies, they would have had a very different tale to tell. But spies they would

send, and the whole affair proved a most humiliating failure.

"And they turned, and went up into the mountain, and came unto the valley of Eshcol,

and searched it out. And they took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought

it down unto us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land which the Lord

our God doth give us." How could it possibly be otherwise, when God was giving it?

Did they want spies to tell them that the gift of God was good Assuredly, they ought

not. An artless faith would have argued thus, "whatever God gives, must be worthy of

Himself; we want no spies to assure us of this." But ah! this artless faith is an

uncommonly rare gem in this world; and even those who possess it know but little of

its value or how to use it. It is one thing to talk of the life of faith, and another thing

altogether to live it. The theory is one thing; the living reality, quite another. But let

us never forget that it is the privilege of every child of God to live by faith; and,

further, that the life of faith takes in everything that the believer can possibly need,

from the starting-post to the goal of his earthly career. We have already touched upon

this important point; it cannot be too earnestly or constantly insisted upon.

With regard to the mission of the spies, the reader will note, with interest, the way in

which Moses refers to it. He confines himself to that portion of their testimony which

was according to truth. He says nothing about the ten infidel spies. This is in perfect

keeping with the scope and object of the book. Everything is brought to bear, in a

moral way, on the conscience of the congregation. He reminds them that they

themselves had proposed to send the spies; and yet, although the spies had placed

before them the fruit of the land, and borne testimony to its goodness, they would not

go up. "Notwithstanding ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment

of the Lord your God." There was no excuse whatever. It was evident that their hearts

were in a state of positive unbelief and rebellion, and the mission of the spies, from

first to last, only made this fully manifest.

"And ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the Lord hated us"—a terrible lie,

on the very face of it!—"he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver

us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us." What a strange proof of hatred! How

utterly absurd are the arguments of unbelief! Surely, had He hated them, nothing was

easier than to leave them to die amid the brick kilns of Egypt, beneath the cruel lash

of Pharaoh's taskmasters. Why take so much trouble about them? why those ten

plagues sent upon the land of their oppressors? Why, if He hated them, did He not

allow the waters of the Red Sea to overwhelm them as they had overwhelmed their

enemies? Why had He delivered them from the sword of Amalek? In a word, why all

these marvellous triumphs of grace on their behalf, if He hated them? Ah! if they had

not been governed by a spirit of dark and senseless unbelief, such a brilliant array of

evidence would have led them to a conclusion the direct opposite of that to which

they gave utterance. There is nothing beneath the canopy of heaven so stupidly

irrational as unbelief. And, on the other hand, there is nothing so sound, clear and

logical as the simple argument of a child-like faith. May the reader ever be enabled to

prove the truth of this!

"And ye murmured in your tents." Unbelief is not only a blind and senseless reasoner,

but a dark and gloomy murmurer. It neither gets to the right side of things, nor the

bright side of things. It is always in the dark, always in the wrong, simply because it

shuts out God, and looks only at circumstances. They said, "Whither shall we go up?

Our brethren have discouraged our heart, saying, The people is greater and taller than

we." But they were not greater than Jehovah. "And the cities are great and walled up

to heaven"—the gross exaggeration of unbelief!—"and moreover, we have seen the

sons of the Anakims there."

Now, faith would say, Well, what though the cities be walled up to heaven, our God is

above them, for He is in heaven. What are great cities or lofty walls to Him who

formed the universe, and sustains it by the word of His power? What are Anakims in

the presence of the Almighty God? If the land were covered with walled cities from

Dan to Beersheba, and if the giants were as numerous as the leaves of the forest, they

would be as the chaff of the threshing-floor before the One who has promised to give

the land of Canaan to the seed of Abraham, His friend, for an everlasting possession"

But Israel had not faith, as the inspired apostle tells us in the third chapter of

Hebrews, "They could not enter in because of unbelief." Here lay the great difficulty.

The walled cities and the terrible Anakims would soon have been disposed of had

Israel only trusted God. He would have made very short work of all these. But ah! that

deplorable unbelief! it ever stands in the way of our blessing It hinders the outshining

of the glory of God; it casts a dark shadow over our souls, and robs us of the privilege

of proving the all-sufficiency of our God to meet our every need and remove our

every difficulty.

Blessed be His Name, He never fails a trusting heart. It is His delight to honour the

very largest drafts that faith hands in at His exhaustless treasury. His assuring word to

us ever is, "Be not afraid; only believe." And again, "According to your faith be it

unto you." Precious soul-stirring words! May we all realise, more fully, their living

power and sweetness! we may rest assured of this, we can never go too far in counting

on God; it would be a simple impossibility. Our grand mistake is that we do not draw

more largely upon His infinite resources. "Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest

believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?"

Thus we can see why it was that Israel failed to see the glory of God, on the occasion

before us. They did not believe. The mission of the spies proved a complete failure.

As it began so it ended, in the most deplorable unbelief. God was shut out.

Difficulties filled their vision.

"They could not enter in." They could not see the glory of God. Hearken to the deeply

affecting words of Moses. It does the heart good to read them. They touch the very

deepest springs of our renewed being. "Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be

afraid of them. The Lord your God, which goeth before you, he shall fight for you"—

only think of God fighting for people! Think of Jehovah as a Man of war?—"He shall

fight for you according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes; and in the

wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth

bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place. Yet in this

thing ye did not believe the Lord your God, who went in the way before you, to search

you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to show you by what way ye

should go, and by a cloud by day.

What moral force, what touching sweetness in this appeal! How clearly we can see

here, as indeed on every page of the book, that Deuteronomy is not a barren repetition

of facts, but a most powerful commentary on those facts. It is well that the reader

should be thoroughly clear as to this. If, in the book of Exodus or Numbers, the

inspired lawgiver records the actual facts of Israel's wilderness life, in the book of

Deuteronomy he comments on those facts with a pathos that quite melts the heart.

And here it is that the exquisite style of Jehovah's acts is pointed out and dwelt upon,

with such inimitable skill and delicacy. Who could consent to give up the lovely

figure set forth in the words, "As a man doth bear his son" Here we have the style of

the action. Could we do without this? Assuredly not. It is the style of an action that

touches the heart, because it is the style that so peculiarly expresses the heart. If the

power of the hand, or the wisdom of the mind is seen in the substance of an action,

the love of the heart comes out in the style. Even a little child can understand this,

though he might not be able to explain it.

But alas! Israel could not trust God to bring them into the land. Notwithstanding the

marvellous display of His power, His faithfulness, His goodness and loving kindness,

from the brick kilns of Egypt to the very borders of the land of Canaan, yet they did

not believe. With an array of evidence which ought to have satisfied any heart, they

still doubted. "And the Lord heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware,

saying, Surely, there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good

land, which I sware to give unto your fathers, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he

shall see it; and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his

children, because he hath wholly followed the Lord"

"Said I not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of

God?" Such is the divine order. Men will tell you that seeing is believing; but, in the

kingdom of God, believing is seeing. Why was it that not a man of that evil generation

was allowed to see the good land? Simply because they did not believe on the Lord

their God. On the other hand, why was Caleb allowed to see and take possession?

Simply because he believed. Unbelief is ever the great hindrance in the way of our

seeing the glory of God. "He did not many mighty works there because of their

unbelief." If Israel had only believed, only trusted the Lord their God, only confided in

the love of His heart and in the power of His arm, He would have brought them in and

planted them in the mountain of His inheritance.

And just so is it with the Lord's people, now. There is no limit to the blessing which

we might enjoy, could we only count more fully upon God. "All things are possible to

him that believeth." Our God will never say, " You have drawn too largely; you

expect too much." Impossible. It is the joy of His loving heart to answer the very

largest expectations of faith.

Let us then draw largely. "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." The exhaustless

treasury of heaven is thrown open to faith. "All things whatsoever ye shall ask in

prayer, believing, ye shall receive." "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God,

who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let

him ask in faith, nothing wavering." Faith is the divine secret of the whole matter, the

main spring of Christian life, from first to last. Faith wavers not, staggers not.

Unbelief is ever a waverer and a staggerer, and hence it never sees the glory of God,

never sees His power. It is deaf to His voice and blind to His actings; it depresses the

heart and weakens the hands; it darkens the path and hinders all progress. It kept

Israel out of the land of Canaan, for forty years; and we have no conception of the

amount of blessing, privilege, power and usefulness which we are constantly missing

through its terrible influence. If faith were in more lively exercise in our hearts, what

a different condition of things we should witness in our midst. What is the secret of

the deplorable deadness and barrenness throughout the wide field of Christian

profession? How are we to account for our impoverished condition, our low tone, our

stunted growth? why is it that we see such poor results in every department of

Christian work? why are there so few genuine conversions? why are our evangelists

so frequently cast down by reason of the paucity of their sheaves? How are we to

answer all these questions? What is the cause? Will any one attempt to say it is not

our unbelief?

No doubt, our divisions have much to do with it; our worldliness, our carnality, our

self-indulgence, our love of ease. But what is the remedy for all these evils How can

our hearts to be drawn out in genuine love to all our brethren by faith—that precious

principle "that worketh by love." Thus the blessed apostle says to the dear young

converts at Thessalonica, "Your faith groweth exceedingly. And what then? "The love

of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth." Thus it must ever be. Faith puts

us into direct contact with the eternal spring of love in God Himself; and the

necessary consequence is the our hearts are drawn out in love to all who belong to

Him—all in whom we can, in the very feeblest way, trace His blessed image. We

cannot possibly be near the Lord and not love all who, in every place, call upon His

Name out of a pure heart. The nearer we are to Christ, the more intensely we must be

knit, in true brotherly love, to every member of His body.

Then, as to worldliness, in all its varied forms; how is it to be overcome? Hear the

reply of another inspired apostle. "For, whatsoever is born of God overcometh the

world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. who is he that

overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God" The new

man, walking in the power of faith, lives above the world, above its motives, above its

objects, its principles, its habits, its fashions. He has nothing in common with it.

Though in it, he is not of it. He moves right athwart its current. He draws all his

springs from heaven. His life, his hope, his all is there; and he ardently longs to be

there himself, when his work on earth is done.

Thus we see what a mighty principle faith is. It purifies the heart, it works by love,

and it overcomes the world. In short it links the heart, in living power, with God

Himself; and this is the secret of true elevation, holy benevolence, and divine purity.

No marvel, therefore, that Peter calls it "precious faith," for truly it is precious beyond

all human thought.

See how this mighty principle acted in Caleb, and the blessed fruit it produced. He

was permitted to realise the truth of those words, uttered hundreds of years

afterwards, according to your faith be it unto you" He believed that God was able to

bring them into the land; and that all the difficulties and hindrances were simply

bread for faith. And God, as He ever does, answered his faith. "Then the children of

Judah came unto Joshua in Gilgal; and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite said

unto him, Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses the man of God

concerning me and thee in Kadesh-barnea. Forty years old was I when Moses the

servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh-barnea to espy out the land; and I brought

him word again as it was in my heart"—the simple testimony of a bright and lovely

faith!—"nevertheless my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people

melt; but I wholly followed the Lord my God. And Moses sware on that day, saying,

Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy

children's for ever, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God. And now,

behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since

the Lord spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the

wilderness; and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old. As yet I am as

strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me; as my strength was then, even

so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in. Now therefore give me

this mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how

the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great and fenced; if so be the Lord

will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said."

How refreshing are the utterances of an artless faith! How edifying! How truly

encouraging! How vividly they contrast with the gloomy, depressing, withering

accents of dark, God-dishonouring unbelief! "And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto

Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, Hebron for an inheritance. Hebron therefore became the

inheritance of Caleb, the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite, unto this day, because that

he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel." (Joshua 14.) Caleb, like his father

Abraham, was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and we may say, with all possible

confidence, that, inasmuch as faith ever honours God, He ever delights to honour

faith; and we feel persuaded that if only the Lord's people could more fully confide in

God, if they would but draw more largely upon His infinite resources, we should

witness a totally different condition of things from what we see around us. "Said I not

unto thee that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?" Oh! for

a more lively faith in God—a bolder grasp, of His faithfulness, His goodness and His

power! Then we might look for more glorious results in the gospel field; more zeal,

more energy, more intense devotedness in the church of God; and more of the fragrant

fruits of righteousness in the life of believers individually.

We shall now, for a moment, look at the closing verses of our chapter, in which we

shall find some very weighty instruction. And, first of all, we see the actings of divine

government displayed in a most solemn and impressive manner. Moses refers, in a

very touching way, to the fact of his exclusion from the promised land. "Also the Lord

was angry with me for your sakes, saying, Thou also shalt not go in thither.

Mark the words, "for your sakes." It was very needful to remind the congregation that

it was on their account that Moses, that beloved and honoured servant of the Lord,

was prevented from crossing the Jordan, and setting his foot upon the land of Canaan.

True, "he spake unadvisedly with his lips;" but "they provoked his spirit" to do so.

This ought to have touched them to the quick. They not only failed, through unbelief,

to enter in themselves, but they were the cause of his exclusion, much as he longed to

see "that goodly mountain and Lebanon." (see Ps. 106: 32.)

But the government of God is a grand and awful reality. Let us never, for one

moment, forget this. The human mind may marvel why a few ill-advised words, a few

hasty sentences should be the cause of keeping such a beloved and honoured servant

of God from that which he so ardently desired. But it is our place to bow the head, in

humble adoration and holy reverence, not to reason or judge. "Shall not the Judge of

all the earth do right?" Most surely. He can make no mistake. "Great and marvellous

are thy works, Lord God almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou king of nations."

"God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints; and to be had in reverence

of all them that are about him." "Our God is a consuming fire;" and "It is a fearful

thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

Does it, in any wise, interfere with the action and range of the divine government, that

we, as Christians, are under the reign of grace? By no means. It is as true, today, as

ever it was that "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Hence, therefore,

it would be a serious mistake for any one to draw a plea from the freedom of divine

grace to trifle with the enactments of divine government. The two things are perfectly

distinct, and should never be confounded. Grace can pardon—freely, fully,

eternally—but the wheels of Jehovah's governmental chariot roll on, in crushing

power, and appalling solemnity. Grace pardoned Adam's sin; but government drove

him out of Eden, to earn a living, by the sweat of his brow, amid the thorns and

thistles of a cursed earth. Grace pardoned David's sin; but the sword of government

hung over his house to the end. Bathsheba was the mother of Solomon; but Absalom

rose in rebellion.

So with Moses, grace brought him to the top of Pisgah and showed him the land; but

government sternly and absolutely forbad his entrance thither. Nor does it, in the

least, touch this mighty principle to be told that Moses, in his official capacity, as the

representative of the legal system, could not bring the people into the land. This is

quite true; but it leaves wholly untouched the solemn truth now before us. Neither in

Numbers 20, nor in Deuteronomy 1, have we anything about Moses in his official

capacity. It is himself personally, we have before us; and he is forbidden to enter the

land because of having spoken unadvisedly with his lips.

It will be well for us all to ponder deeply, as in the immediate presence of God, this

great practical truth. We may rest assured that the more truly we enter into the

knowledge of grace, the more we shall feel the solemnity of government, and entirely

justify its enactments. Of this we are most fully persuaded. But there is imminent

danger of taking up, in a light and careless manner, the doctrines of grace while the

heart and the life are not brought under the sanctifying influence of those doctrines.

This has to be watched against with holy jealousy. There is nothing in all this world

more awful than mere fleshly familiarity with the theory of salvation by grace. It

opens the door for every form of licentiousness. Hence it is that we feel the necessity

of pressing upon the conscience of the reader the practical truth of the government of

God. It is most salutary at all times, but particularly so in this our day when there is

such a, fearful tendency to turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness. we shall

invariably find that those who most fully enter into the deep blessedness of being

under the reign of grace do also, most thoroughly, justify the actings of divine

government.

But we learn, from the closing lines of our chapter, that the people were by no means

prepared to submit themselves under the governmental hand of God. In short, they

would neither have grace nor government. When invited to go up, at once, and take

possession of the land, with the fullest assurances of the divine presence and power

with them, they hesitated and refused to go. They gave themselves up, completely, to

a spirit of dark unbelief. In vain did Joshua and Caleb sound in their ears the most

encouraging words; in vain did they see before their eyes the rich fruit of the goodly

land; in vain did Moses seek to move them by the most soul-stirring words; they

would not go up, when they were told to go. And What then? They were taken at their

word. According to their unbelief, so was it unto them. "Moreover, your little ones,

which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no

knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give

it, and they shall possess it. But as for you, turn you, and take your journey into the

wilderness, by the may of the Red Sea"

How sad! And yet, how else could it be? If they would not, in simple faith, go up into

the land, there remained nothing for them but turning back into the wilderness. But to

this they would not submit. They would neither avail themselves of the provisions of

grace nor bow to the sentence of judgement. "Then ye answered and said unto me,

We have sinned against the Lord; we will go up and fight, according to all that the

Lord our God commanded us. And when ye had girded on every man his weapon of

war, ye were ready to go up into the hill."

This looked like contrition and self judgement; but it is a very easy thing to say, "We

have sinned. Saul said it in his day; but it was hollow and false. "he said it without

heart, without any genuine sense of what he was saying. We may easily gather the

force and value of the words "I have sinned" from the fact that they were immediately

followed by—"Honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people." What a

strange contradiction! "I have sinned," yet "Honour me." If he had really felt his sin,

how different his language would have been! How different his spirit, style and

deportment! But it was all a solemn mockery. Only conceive a man full of himself,

making use of a form of words, without one atom of true heart feeling; and then, in

order to get honour for himself, going through the empty formality of worshipping

God. What a picture! Can anything be more sorrowful? How terribly offensive to Him

who desires truth in the inward parts, and who seeks those to worship Him who

worship Him in spirit and in truth! The feeblest breathings of a broken and contrite

heart are precious to God; but oh, how offensive to Him are the hollow formalities of

a mere religiousness, the object of which is to exalt man in his own eyes and in the

eyes of his fellow! How perfectly worthless is the mere lip confession of sin where

the heart does not feel it! As a recent writer has well remarked, "It is an easy thing to

say, We have sinned; but how often we have to learn what it is not the quick abrupt

confession of sin which affords evidence that sin is felt! It is rather a proof of

hardness of heart. The conscience feels that a certain act of confessing the sin is

necessary, but perhaps there is hardly anything which more hardens the heart than the

habit of confessing sin without feeling it. This I believe, is one of the great snares of

Christendom from of old and now—that is the stereotyped acknowledgment of sin,

the mere habit of hurrying through a formula of confession to God. I dare say we have

almost all done so, without referring to any particular mode; for alas! there is

formality enough; and without having written forms, the heart may frame forms of its

own, as we may have observed, if not known it, in our own experience, without

finding fault with other people."*

{*Lectures Introductory to the Pentateuch," by W. Kelly. Broom, Paternoster Square.}

Thus it was with Israel, at Kadesh. Their confession of sin was utterly worthless.

There was no truth in it. Had they felt what they were saying, they would have bowed

to the judgement of God, and meekly accepted the consequence of their sin. There is

no finer proof of true contrition than quiet submission to the governmental dealings of

God. Look at the case of Moses. See how he bowed his head to the divine discipline.

"The Lord," he says, "was angry with me for your sakes, saying, Thou also shalt not

go in thither. But Joshua the son of Nun, which standeth before thee, he shall go in

thither: encourage him; for he shall cause Israel to inherit it."

Here, Moses shows them that they were the cause of his exclusion from the land; and

yet he utters not a single murmuring word, but meekly bows to the divine judgement,

not only content to be superseded by another, but ready to appoint and encourage his

successor. There is no trace of jealousy or envy here. It was enough for that beloved

and honoured servant if God was glorified and the need of the congregation met. He

was not occupied with himself or his own interests, but with the glory of God and the

blessing of His people.

But the people manifested a very different spirit. "We will go up and fight." How

vain! How foolish! When commanded by God and encouraged by His true-hearted

servants to go up and possess the land, they replied, "Whither shall we go up?" And

when commanded to turn back into the wilderness, they replied, "we will go up and

fight."

"And the Lord said unto me, Say unto them, Go not up, neither fight; for I am not

among you; lest ye be smitten before your enemies. So I spake unto you; and ye

would not hear, but rebelled against the commandment of the Lord, and went

presumptuously up into the hill. And the Amorites which dwelt in that mountain,

came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, even

unto Hormah."

It was quite impossible for Jehovah to accompany them along the path of self-will and

rebellion; and, most assuredly, Israel, without the divine presence, could be no match

for the Amorites. If God be for us and with us, all must be victory. But we cannot

count on God if we are not treading the path of obedience. It is simply the height of

folly to imagine that we can have God with us if our ways are not right. "The name of

the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous runneth into it and is safe." But if we are not

walking in practical righteousness, it is wicked presumption to talk of having the Lord

as our strong tower.

Blessed be His Name, He can meet us in the very depths of our weakness and failure,

provided there be the genuine and hearty confession of our true condition. But to

assume that we have the Lord with us, while we are doing our own will, and walking

in palpable unrighteousness, is nothing but wickedness and hardness of heart. "Trust

in the Lord, and do good." This is the divine order; but to talk of trusting in the Lord,

while doing evil, is to turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and place

ourselves completely in the hands of the devil who only seeks our moral ruin. "The

eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in

the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him." When we have a good

conscience, we can lift up the head and move on through all sorts of difficulties; but

to attempt to tread the path of faith with a bad conscience, is the most dangerous thing

in this world. We can only hold up the shield of faith when our loins are girt with

truth, and the breast covered with the breastplate of righteousness.

It is of the utmost importance that Christians should seek to maintain practical

righteousness, in all its branches. There is immense moral weight and value in these

words of the blessed apostle Paul, "Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a

conscience void of offence toward God and men." He ever sought to wear the

breastplate, and to be clothed in that white linen which is the righteousness of saints.

And so should we. It is our holy privilege to tread, day by day, with firm step, the path

of duty, the path of obedience, the path on which the light of God's approving

countenance ever shines. Then, assuredly, we can count on God, lean upon Him, draw

from Him, find all our springs in Him, wrap ourselves up in His faithfulness, and thus

move on, in peaceful communion and holy worship, toward our heavenly home.

It is not, we repeat, that we cannot look to God, in our weakness, our failure, and even

when we have erred and sinned. Blessed be His Name, we can; and His ear is ever

open to our cry. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,

and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness," (1 John 1.) "Out of the depths have I

cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice; let thine ears be attentive to the voice of

my supplications. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?

But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared." (Ps. 130) There is

absolutely no limit to divine forgiveness, inasmuch as there is no limit to the extent of

the atonement, no limit to the virtue and efficacy of the blood of Jesus Christ, God's

Son, which cleanseth from all sin; no limit to the prevalence of the intercession of our

adorable Advocate, our great High Priest, who is able to save to the uttermost—right

through and through to the end, them that come unto God by Him.

All this is most blessedly true; it is largely taught and variously illustrated throughout

the volume of inspiration. But the confession of sin, and the pardon thereof must not

be confounded with practical righteousness. There are two distinct conditions in

which we may call upon God; we may call upon Him in deep contrition, and be

heard; or we may call upon Him with a good conscience and an uncondemning heart,

and be heard. But the two things are very distinct; and not only are they distinct in

themselves, but they both stand in marked contrast with that indifference and

hardness of heart which would presume to count on God in the face of positive

disobedience and practical unrighteousness. It is this which is so dreadful in the sight

of the Lord, and which must bring down His heavy judgement. Practical righteousness

He owns and approves; confessed sin He can freely and fully Pardon; but to imagine

that we can put our trust in God, while our feet are treading the path of iniquity, is

nothing short of the most shocking impiety. "Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The

temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these. For if

ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgement

between a man and his neighbour; if ye oppress not the stranger the fatherless and the

widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to

your hurt; then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your

fathers, for ever and ever. Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. Will ye

steal, murder and commit adultery and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and

walk after other gods whom ye know not; and come and stand before me in this

house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these

abominations? (Jeremiah 7.)

God deals in moral realities. He desires truth in the inward parts; and if men will

presume to hold the truth in unrighteousness, they must look out for His righteous

judgement. It is the thought of all this that makes us feel the awful condition of the

professing church. The solemn passage which we have just culled from the prophet

Jeremiah, though bearing, primarily, upon the men of Judah and the inhabitants of

Jerusalem, has a very pointed application to Christendom. We find in 2 Timothy 3,

that all the abominations of heathenism, as detailed in the close of Romans 1, are

reproduced in the last days, under the garb of the Christian profession, and in

immediate connection with "a form of godliness." What must be the end of such a

condition of things? Unmitigated wrath. The very heaviest judgments of God are

reserved for that vast mass of baptised profession which we call Christendom. The

moment is rapidly approaching when all the beloved and blood-bought people of God

shall be called away out of this dark and sinful, though so-called Christian world," to

be for ever with the Lord, in that sweet home of love prepared in the Father's house.

Then the "strong delusion" shall be sent upon Christendom—upon those very

countries where the light of a full-orbed Christianity has shone; where a full and free

gospel has been preached; where the Bible has been circulated by millions, and where

all, in some way or another, profess the name of Christ, and call themselves

Christians.

And what then? What is to follow this "strong delusion" Any fresh testimony? Any

further overtures of mercy? Any further effort of long suffering grace? Not for

Christendom! Not for the rejecters of the gospel of God! Not for Christless, Godless

professors of the hollow and worthless forms of Christianity! The heathen shall hear

"The everlasting gospel," "The gospel of the kingdom;" but as for that terrible thing,

that most frightful anomaly called Christendom, the vine of the earth," nothing

remains but the wine press of the wrath of Almighty God, the blackness of darkness

for ever, the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone.

Reader, these are the true sayings of God. Nothing would be easier than to place

before your eyes an array of scripture proof perfectly unanswerable; this would be

foreign to our present object. The New Testament, from cover to cover, sets forth the

solemn truth above enunciated; and every system theology under the sun that teaches

differently will be found, on this point at least, to be totally false.

Deuteronomy 2.

The closing lines of chapter 1 show us the people weeping before the Lord. "And ye

returned and wept before the Lord; but the Lord would not hearken to your voice, nor

give ear unto you. So ye abode in Kadesh many days, according unto the days that ye

abode there."

There was no more reality in their tears than in their words. Their weeping was no

more to be trusted than their confession. It is possible for People to confess and shed

tears without any true sense of sin, in the presence of God. This is very solemn. It is

really mocking God. We know, blessed for ever be His Name, that a truly contrite

heart is His delight. He makes His abode with such. " The sacrifices of God are a

broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." The tears

that flow from a penitent heart are more precious, by far, to God, than the cattle upon

a thousand hills, because they prove that there is room in that heart for Him; and this

is what He seeks, in His infinite grace. He wants to dwell in our hearts, and fill us

with the deep, unspeakable joy of His own most blessed presence.

But Israel's confession and tears at Kadesh were not real; and, hence, the Lord could

not accept them. The feeblest cry of a broken heart ascends directly to the throne of

God, and is immediately answered by the soothing healing balm of His pardoning

love; but when tears and confession stand connected with self-will and rebellion, they

are not only utterly worthless, but a positive insult to the Divine Majesty.

Thus, then, the people had to turn back into the wilderness, and wander there for forty

years. There was nothing else for it. They would not go up into the land, in simple

faith, with God; and He would not go up with them in their self-will and self-

confidence; they had therefore simply to accept the consequence of their

disobedience. If they would not enter the land, they must fall in the wilderness.

How solemn is all this! and how solemn is the Spirit's commentary upon it, in the

third chapter of Hebrews! And how pointed and forcible the application to us! We

must quote the passage for the benefit of the reader "Wherefore—as the Holy Ghost

saith, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in

the day Of temptation in the wilderness; when your fathers tempted me, proved me,

and saw My works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and

said, They do always err in heart, and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my

wrath, they shall not enter into my rest.—Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of

you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another

daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness

of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our

confidence steadfast unto the end. While it is said, Today, if ye will hear his voice,

harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did

provoke; howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he

grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the

wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to

them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Let

us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you

should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto

them; but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them

that heard."

Here, as in every page of the inspired volume, we learn that unbelief is the thing that

grieves the heart and dishonours the Name of God. And not only so, but it robs us of

the blessings, the dignities and the privileges which infinite grace bestows. We have

very little idea of how much we lose, in every way, through the unbelief of our hearts.

Just as in Israel's case, the land was before them, in all its fruitfulness and beauty; and

they were commanded to go and take possession, but, "They could not enter in

because of unbelief;" so with us, we fail to possess ourselves of the fullness of

blessing which sovereign grace has put within our reach. The very treasure of heaven

is thrown open to us, but we fail to appropriate. We are poor, feeble, empty and

barren, when we might be rich, rigorous, full and fruitful. We are blessed with all

spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ; but how shallow is our apprehension!

how feeble our grasp! how poor our thoughts!

Then again, who can calculate how much we lose, through our unbelief, in the matter

of the Lord's work in our midst? We read, in the gospel, of a certain place in which

our blessed Lord could not do many mighty works because of their unbelief. Has this

no voice for us? Do me too hinder Him by unbelief? We shall perhaps be told by

some, that the Lord will carry on His work irrespective of us or our faith; He will

gather out His own, and accomplish the number of His elect, spite of our unbelief; not

all the power of earth and hell, men and devils; combined, can hinder the carrying out

of His counsels and purposes; and as to His work, It is not by might nor by power, but

by His Spirit, Human efforts are in vain? and the Lord's cause can never he furthered

by nature's excitement.

Now, all this is perfectly true; but it leaves wholly untouched the inspired statement

noted above. "He could there do not many mighty works because of their unbelief."

Did not those people lose blessing through their unbelief? Did they not hinder much

good being done? We must beware how we surrender our minds to the withering

influence of a pernicious fatalism which, with a certain semblance of truth, is utterly

false, inasmuch as it denies all human responsibility and paralyses all godly energy in

the cause of Christ. We have to bear in mind that the same One who, in His eternal

counsels, has decreed the end, has also designed the means; and if we, in the sinful

unbelief of our hearts, and under the influence of one-sided truth, fold our arms and

neglect the means, He will set us aside, and carry on His work by other hands. He will

work, blessed be His Holy Name, but we shall lose the dignity, the privilege, and the

blessing of being His instruments.

Look at that striking scene in the second of Mark. It most forcibly illustrates the great

principle which we desire to press upon all who may read these lines. It proves the

power of faith, in connection with the carrying on of the Lord's work. If the four men,

whose conduct is here set forth, had suffered themselves to be influenced by a

mischievous fatalism, they would have argued that it was no use doing anything—if

the palsied man was to he cured he would be cured, without human effort. Why

should they busy themselves in climbing up on the house, uncovering the roof, and

letting down the sick man into the midst before Jesus? Ah! it was well for the palsied

man, and well for themselves that they did not act on such miserable reasoning as

this. See how their lovely faith wrought! It refreshed the heart of the Lord Jesus; it

brought the sick man into the place of healing, pardon and blessing; and it gave

occasion for the display of divine power which arrested the attention of all present,

and gave testimony to the great truth that God was on earth, in the Person of Jesus of

Nazareth, healing diseases and forgiving sins.

Many other examples might be adduced, but there is no need. All scripture establishes

the fact that unbelief hinders our blessing, hinders our usefulness, robs as of the rare

privilege of being God's honoured instruments in the carrying on of His glorious

work, and of seeing the operations of His hand and His Spirit, in our midst. And, on

the other hand, that faith draws down power and blessing, not only for ourselves but

for others; that it both glorifies and gratifies God, by clearing the platform of the

creature and making room for the display of divine power. In short, there is no limit to

the blessing which we might enjoy at the hand of our God, if our hearts were more

governed by that simple faith which ever counts on Him, and which He ever delights

to honour. "According to your faith, he it unto you." Precious soul-stirring words!

May they encourage us to draw more largely upon those exhaustless resources which

we have in God. He delights to be used, blessed for ever be His holy Name! His word

to us is, "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." We can never expect too much from

the God of all grace who has given us His only begotten Son, and will, with Him,

freely give us all things.

But Israel could not trust God to bring them into the land; they presumed to go in their

own strength, and, as a consequence, were put to flight before their enemies. Thus it

must ever be. Presumption and faith are two totally different things: the former can

only issue in defeat and disaster; the latter in sure and certain victory.

"Then we turned and took our journey into the wilderness, by the way of the Red Sea,

as the Lord spake unto me; and we compassed Mount Seir, many days." There is great

moral beauty in the little word "we" Moses links himself thoroughly with the people.

He and Joshua and Caleb had all to turn back into the wilderness, in company with

the unbelieving congregation. This might, in the judgement of nature, seem hard; but

we may rest assured, it was good and profitable. There is always deep blessing in

bowing to the will of God, even though we may not always be able to see the why and

the wherefore of things. We do not read of a single murmuring word from these

honoured servants of God, at having to turn back into the wilderness for forty years,

although they were quite ready to go up into the land. No; they simply turned back.

And well they might, when Jehovah turned back also. How could they think of

complaining, when they beheld the travelling chariot of the God of Israel facing round

to the wilderness? Surely the patient grace and long-suffering mercy of God might

well teach them to accept, with a willing mind, a protracted sojourn in the wilderness,

and to wait for the blessed moment of entrance upon the promised land.

It is a great thing always to submit ourselves meekly under the hand of God. We are

sure to reap a rich harvest of blessing from the exercise. It is really taking the yoke of

Christ upon us, which, as He Himself assures us, is the true secret of rest. "Come unto

me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke

upon you, and Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest

unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

What was this yoke? It was absolute and complete subjection to the Father's will. This

we see, in perfection, in our adorable Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He could say,

"Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight." Here was the point with Him.

"Good in thy sight." This settled everything. Was His testimony rejected? Did He

seem to labour in vain, and spend His strength for nought and in vain? What then? "I

thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth." It was all right. Whatever pleased the

Father, pleased Him. He never had a thought or wish that was not in perfect

consonance with the will of God. Hence He, as a man, ever enjoyed perfect rest. He

rested in the divine counsels and purposes. The current of His peace was unruffled,

from first to last.

This was the yoke of Christ; and this is what He, in His infinite grace, invites us to

take upon us, in order that we, too, may find rest unto our souls. Let us mark, and seek

to understand the words. "Ye shall find rest." We must not confound the "rest" which

He gives with the "rest" which we find. When the weary, burdened, heavy laden soul

comes to Jesus in simple faith, He gives rest, settled rest, the rest which flows from

the full assurance that all is done; sins for ever put away; perfect righteousness

accomplished, revealed and possessed, every question divinely and eternally settled;

God glorified; Satan silenced conscience tranquilized.

Such is the rest which Jesus gives, when we come to Him. But then we have to move

through the scenes and circumstances of our daily life. There are trials, difficulties,

exercises, buffetings, disappointments, and reverses of all sorts. None of these can, in

the smallest degree, touch the rest which Jesus gives; but they may very seriously

interfere with the rest which we are to find. They do not trouble the conscience; but

they may greatly trouble the heart; they may make us very restless, very fretful, very

impatient. For instance, I want to preach at Glasgow; I am announced to do so; but lo!

I am shut up in a sickroom in London. This does not trouble my conscience; but it

may greatly trouble my heart; I may be in a perfect fever of restlessness, ready to

exclaim, "How tiresome! How terribly disappointing! Whatever am I to do? It is most

untoward!"

And, how is this state of things to be met? How is the troubled heart to be

tranquilized, and the restless mind to be calmed down? What do I want? I want to find

rest. How am I to find it? By stooping down and taking Christ's precious yoke upon

me; the very yoke which He Himself ever wore, in the days of His flesh; the yoke of

complete subjection to the will of God. I want to be able to say, without one atom of

reserve, to say from the very depths of my heart, "Thy will, O Lord, be done." I want

such a profound sense of His perfect love to me, and of His infinite wisdom in all His

dealings with me, that I would not have it otherwise, if I could; yea, that I would not

move a finger to alter my position or circumstances, feeling assured that it is very

much better for me to be suffering on a sickbed in London, than speaking on a

platform in Glasgow.

Here lies the deep and precious secret of rest of heart, as opposed to restlessness. It is

the simple ability to thank God for everything, be it ever so contrary to our own will

and utterly subversive of our own Plans. It is not a mere assent to the truth that " All

things work together for good to them that love God; to them that are the called

according to his purpose." It is the positive sense, the actual realisation of the divine

fact that the thing which God appoints is the very best thing for us. It is perfect repose

in the love, wisdom, power and faithfulness of the One who has graciously

undertaken for us, in everything, and charged Himself with all that concerns us for

time and eternity. We know that love will always do its very best for its object. what

must it be to have God doing His very best for us? Where is the heart that would not

be satisfied with God's best, if only it knows ought of Him?

But He must be known ere the heart can be satisfied with His will. Eve, in the garden

of Eden, beguiled by the serpent, became dissatisfied with the will of God. She

wished for something which He had forbidden; and this something the devil

undertook to supply. She thought the devil could do better for her than God. She

thought to better her circumstances by taking herself out of the hands of God and

placing herself in the hands of Satan. Hence it is, that no unrenewed heart can ever,

by any possibility, rest in the will of God. If we search the human heart to the bottom,

if we submit it to a faithful analysis, we shall not find so much as a single thought in

unison with the will of God no, not one. And even in the case of the true Christian,

the child of God, it is only as he is enabled, by the grace of God, to mortify his own

will, to reckon himself dead, and to walk in the Spirit, that he can delight in the will

of God, and give thanks in everything. It is one of the very finest evidences of the new

birth to be able, without a single shade of reserve, to say, in respect to every dealing

of the hand of God, "Thy will be done." "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy

sight." When the heart is in this attitude, Satan can make nothing of it. It is a grand

point to be able to tell the devil, and to tell the world—tell them, not in word and in

tongue, but in deed and in truth; not merely with the lips, but in the heart and the

life—-"I am perfectly satisfied with the will of God."

This is the way to find rest. Let us see that we understand it. It is the divine remedy

for that unrest, that spirit of discontent, that dissatisfaction with our appointed lot and

sphere, so sadly prevalent on all hands. It is a perfect cure for that restless ambition so

utterly opposed to the mind and Spirit of Christ, but so entirely characteristic of the

men of this world.

May we, beloved reader, cultivate, with holy diligence, that meek and lowly spirit

which is, in the sight of God, of great price, which bows to His blessed will in all

things, and vindicates His dealings, come what may. Thus shall our peace flow as a

river, and the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ shall be magnified, in our course,

character and conduct.

Ere turning from the deeply interesting and practical subject which has been engaging

our attention, we would observe that there are three distinct attitudes in which the

soul may be found in reference to the dealings of God, namely, subjection,

acquiescence, and rejoicing. When the will is broken, there is subjection; when the

understanding is enlightened as to the divine object, there is acquiescence; and when

the affections are engaged with God Himself, there is positive rejoicing. Hence we

read, in the tenth chapter of Luke, "In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I

thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from

the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father, for so it

seemed good in thy sight." That blessed One found His perfect delight in all the will

of God. It was His meat and drink to carry out that will, at all cost. In service or in

suffering, in life or in death, He never had any motive but the Father's will. He could

say, "I do always the things that please him." Eternal and universal homage to His

peerless Name!

We shall now proceed with our chapter.

"And the Lord spake unto me, saying, Ye have compassed this mountain long enough;

turn you northward."

The word of the Lord determined everything. It fixed how long the people were to

remain in any given place, and it indicated, with equal distinctness, whither they were

next to bend their steps. There was no need whatever for them to plan or arrange their

movements. It was the province and prerogative of Jehovah to settle all for them; it

was theirs to obey. There is no mention here of the cloud and the trumpet. It is simply

God's word and Israel's obedience..

Nothing can be more precious to a child of God, if only the heart be in a right

condition, than to be guided, in all his movements by the divine command It saves a

world of anxiety and perplexity. In Israel's case, called as they were to journey

through a great and terrible wilderness, where there was no way, it was an

unspeakable mercy to have their every movement, their every step, their every

halting-place ordered by an infallible guide. There was no need whatever for them to

trouble themselves about their movements, no need to inquire how long they were to

stay in any given place, or where they were to go next. Jehovah settled all for them. It

was for them simply to wait on Him for guidance, and to do what they were told.

Yes, reader, here was the grand point—a waiting and an obedient spirit. If this were

lacking, they were liable to all sorts of questionings, reasonings and rebellious

activities. When God said, "Ye have compassed this mountain long enough," had

Israel replied, "No; we want to compass it a little longer; we are very comfortable

here, and we do not wish to make any change" or, again, if, when God said, "Turn you

northward, they had replied, "No; we vastly prefer going eastward;" what would have

been the result? Why, they would have forfeited the divine presence with them; and

who could guide, or help, or feed them then? They could only count on the divine

Presence with them while they trod the path indicated by the divine command. If they

chose to take their own way, there was nothing for them but famine, desolation and

darkness. The stream from the smitten rock, and the heavenly manna, were only to be

found in the path of obedience.

Now, we Christians have to learn our lesson in all this—a wholesome, needed,

valuable lesson. It is our sweet privilege to have our path marked out for us, day by

day, by divine authority. Of this we are to be most deeply and thoroughly persuaded.

We are not to allow ourselves to be robbed of this rich blessing by the plausible

reasonings of unbelief. God has promised to guide us, and His promise is yea and

Amen. It is for us to make our own of the promise, in the artless simplicity of faith. It

is as real and as solid and as true as God can make it. We cannot admit, for a moment,

that Israel in the desert were better off, in the matter of guidance, than God's heavenly

people, in their passage through this world. How did Israel know the length of the

haltings or the line of their march By the word of God. Are we worse off? Far be the

thought. Yea, we are better off by far than they. We have the word and Spirit of God

to guide us. To us pertains the high and holy privilege of walking in the footsteps of

the Son of God.

Is not this perfect guidance Yes, thank God, it is. Hear what our adorable Lord Jesus

Christ saith to us: " I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in

darkness, but shall have the light of life." Let us mark these words, "He that followeth

Me." He has left us an example that we should follow his steps." This is living

guidance. How did Jesus walk? Always and only by the commandment of His Father.

By that He acted; by that He moved; without it He never acted, moved or spoke.

Now, we are called to follow Him; and in so doing we have the assurance of His own

word that we shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life! Precious

words! "The light of life.'' Who can sound their living depths? Who can duly estimate

their worth? "The darkness is past, and the true light now shineth," and it is for us to

walk in the full blaze of the light that shines along the pathway of the Son of God, Is

there any uncertainty, any perplexity, any ground for hesitation here? Clearly not.

'How could there be, if we are following Him? It is utterly impossible to combine the

two ideas.

And be it remarked here, that it is not, by any means, a question of having; a literal

text of scripture for every movement or every act. For example, I cannot expect to get

a text of scripture, or a voice from heaven, to tell me to go to London or to Edinburgh;

or how long I am to stay when I go. How, then, it may be asked, am I to know where I

ought to go, or how long I am to stay? The answer is, wait on God, in singleness of

eye, and sincerity of heart, and He will make your path as plain as a sunbeam. This

was what Jesus did; and if we follow Him, we shall not walk in darkness. "I will guide

thee with mine eye," is a most precious promise; but, in order to profit by it, we must

be near enough to Him to catch the movement of His eye, and intimate enough with

Him to understand its meaning.

Thus it is, in all the details, of our daily life; It would answer a thousand questions,

and solve a thousand difficulties, if we did but wait for divine guidance, and never

attempt to move without it. If I have not gotten light to move, it is my plain duty to be

still. We should: never move in uncertainty. It often happens that we harass ourselves

about moving or acting, when God would have us to be still and do nothing. We go

and ask God about it, but get no answer; We betake ourselves to friends for advice

and counsel, but they cannot help us; for it is entirely a question between our own

souls and the Lord. Thus we are plunged in doubt and anxiety. And why? Simply

because the eye is not single; we are not following Jesus, "The light of the world." we

may set it down as a fixed principle, a precious axiom in the divine life, that if we are

following Jesus, we shall have the light of life. He has said it, and that is enough for

faith.

Hence, then, we deem ourselves perfectly warranted in concluding that the One who

guided His earthly people, in all their desert wanderings, can and will guide His

heavenly people, now, in all their movements and in all their ways. But, on the other

hand, let us see to it that we are not bent on doing our own will, having our own way

and carrying out our own plans. "Be ye not as the horse or as the mule, which have no

understanding, whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near

unto thee." Be it our one grand aim to walk in the footsteps of that blessed One who

pleased not Himself, but ever moved in the current of the divine will, never acted

without divine authority; who, though Himself God over all, blessed for ever, yet,

having taken His place as a man, on the earth, surrendered completely His own will,

and found His meat and His drink in doing the will of His Father. Thus shall our

hearts and minds be kept in perfect peace; and we shall be enabled to move on, from

day to day, with firm and decided step, along the path indicated for us by our divine

and ever-present Guide who not only knows, as God, every step of the way, but who,

as man, has trodden it before us, and left us an example that we should follow His

steps. May we follow Him, more faithfully, in all things, through the gracious

ministry of the Holy Ghost who dwelleth in us!

We have, now, to invite the reader's attention to a subject of very deep interest, and

one which occupies a large place in Old Testament scripture, and is forcibly

illustrated in the chapter which lies open before us, namely, God's government of the

world, and His wonderful ordering of the nations of the earth. It is a grand and all-

important fact to keep ever before the mind, that the One whom we know as "The

God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," and our God and Father, takes a real, lively,

personal interest in the affairs of nations; that he takes cognisance of their

movements, and of their dealings one with another.

True, all this is in immediate connection with Israel and the land of Palestine, as we

read in the thirty-second chapter of our book, and eighth verse—a passage of singular

interest, and of great suggestive power. "when the Most High divided to the nations

their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the

people according to the number of the children of Israel." Israel was, and shall yet be

God's earthly centre, and it is a fact of the deepest interest that, from the very outset,

as we see in Genesis 10. the Creator and Governor of the world formed the nations

and fixed their bounds, according to His own sovereign will, and with direct reference

to the seed of Abraham, and that narrow strip of land which they are to possess, in

virtue of the everlasting covenant made with their fathers.

But, in Deuteronomy 2, we find Jehovah, in His faithfulness and righteousness,

interfering to protect three distinct nations in the enjoyment of their national rights,

and that, too, against the encroachments of His own chosen people. He says to Moses,

"Command thou the people, saying, Ye are to pass through the coast of your brethren

the children of Esau, which dwell in Seir; and they shall be afraid of you: take ye

good heed unto yourselves therefore meddle not with them: for I will not give you of

their land, no, not so much as a foot-breadth, because I have given mount Seir unto

Esau for a possession. Ye shall buy meat of them for money, that ye may eat; and ye

shall also buy water of them for money, that ye may drink."

Israel might imagine that they had nothing to do but seize upon the lands of the

Edomite; but they had to learn something very different; they had to be taught that the

Most High is the governor amongst the nations; that the whole earth belongs to Him,

and He portions it out to one or another according to His good pleasure.

This is a very magnificent fact to keep before the mind. The great majority of men

think but little of it. Emperors, kings, princes, governors, statesmen, take little

account of it. They forget that God interests 'Himself in the affairs of nations; that He

bestows kingdoms, provinces and lands as He sees fit. They act, at times, as if it were

only a question of military conquest, and as if God had nothing to do with the

question of national boundaries and territorial possessions. This is their great mistake.

They do not understand the meaning and force of this simple sentence, "I have given

mount Seir unto Esau for a possession." God will never surrender His rights, in this

respect. He would not allow Israel to touch a single atom of Esau's property. They

were, to use a modern phrase, to pay ready cash for whatever they needed, and go

quietly on their way. Indiscriminate slaughter and plunder were not to be thought of

by the people of God.

And mark the lovely reason for all this. "For the Lord thy God hath blessed thee in all

the works of thy hand; he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness; these

forty years the Lord thy God hath been with thee, thou hast lacked nothing." They

could well afford, therefore, to let Esau alone, and leave his possessions untouched.

They were the favoured objects of Jehovah's tender care. He took knowledge of every

step of their weary journey through the desert. He had, in His infinite goodness,

charged Himself with all their necessities. He was going to give them the land of

Canaan, according to His promise to Abraham; but the self-same land which was

giving them Canaan, had given mount Seir to Esau.

We see the same thing exactly, in reference to Moab and Ammon. "The Lord said

unto me, distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle; for I will not

give thee of their land for a possession, because I have given Ar unto the children of

Lot for a possession" And, again, "And when thou comest nigh over against the

children of Ammon, distress them not, nor meddle with them; for I will not give thee

of the land of the children of Ammon any possession; because I have given it unto the

children of Lot for a possession"

The possessions here alluded to had been, of old time, in the hands of giants; but it

was God's purpose to give up their territories to the children of Esau and Lot, and

therefore He destroyed these giants; for who or what can stand in the way of the

divine counsels? "That also was accounted a land of giants; Giants dwelt therein in

old times ....a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; but the Lord

destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead; as he

did to the children of Esau which dwelt in Seir, when he destroyed the Horims from

before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead even unto this day."

(Vv. 20-23.)

Hence, then, Israel were not permitted to meddle with the possessions of any of these

three nations, the Edomites, Ammonites and Moabites. But, in the very next sentence,

we see another thing altogether in the case of the Amorites. "Rise ye up, take your

journey, and pass over the river Arnon: behold, I have given into thine hand Sihon the

Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land; begin to possess it, and contend with him in

battle."

The great principle, in all these varied instructions to Israel, is that God's word must

settle everything for His people. It was not for Israel to inquire why they were to leave

the possessions of Esau and Lot untouched, and to seize upon those of Sihon. They

were simply to do what they were told. God can do as He pleases. He has His eye

upon the whole scene. He sees it all. Men may think He has forsaken the earth; but He

has not, blessed be His Name. He is, as the apostle tells as in his discourse at Athens,

"Lord of heaven and earth;" and "He hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to

dwell on all the face of the earth; and hath determined the times before appointed,

and the bounds of their habitation," And, further, "He hath appointed a day, in the

which he will judge the habitable earth [oijkoumevnhn] in righteousness, by that man

whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance [Given proof] unto all, in

that he hath raised him from the dead."

Here we have a most solemn and weighty truth to which men of all ranks and

conditions would do well to take heed. God is the Sovereign Ruler of the world. He

giveth no account of any of His matters. He puts down one and sets up another.

Kingdoms, thrones, governments are all at His disposal. He acts according to His own

will, in the ordering and arrangement of human affairs. But, at the same time, He

holds men responsible for their actings, in the various positions in which His

providence has placed them. The ruler and the ruled, the king, the governor, the

magistrate, the judge, all classes and grades of men will have, sooner or later, to give

account to God. Each one, as if he were the only one, will have to stand before the

judgement-seat of Christ, and there review his whole course, from first to last. Every

act, every word, every secret thought will there come out with awful distinctness.

There will be no escaping in a crowd. The word declares that they shall be judged—

every man according to his works." It will be intensely individual, and unmistakably

discriminating. In a word, it will be a divine judgement, and therefore, absolutely

perfect. Nothing will be passed over. "Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall

give account thereof at the day of judgement." Kings, governors and magistrates will

have to account for the way in which they have used the power with which they were

entrusted, and the wealth which passed through their hands. The noble and the

wealthy who have spent their fortune and their time in folly, vanity, luxury and self-

indulgence will have to answer for it all, before the throne of the Son of man, whose

eyes are as a flame of fire, to read men through and through; and His feet as fine

brass, to crush, in unsparing judgement, all that is contrary to God.

Infidelity may sneeringly inquire, "How can these things be? How could the untold

millions of the human race find room before the judgement-seat of Christ? And how

could there be time to enter so minutely into the details of each personal history?"

Faith replies, "God says it shall be so; and this is conclusive; and as to the 'Hows' the

answer is, God! Infinity! Eternity!" Bring God in, and all questions are hushed, and all

difficulties disposed of in a moment. In fact, the one grand, triumphant answer to all

the objections of the infidel, the sceptic, the rationalist, and the materialist, is just that

one majestic word—"GOD!"

We press this upon the reader; not indeed to enable him to reply to infidels, but for

the rest and comfort of his own heart. As to infidels, we are increasingly persuaded

that our highest wisdom is to act on our Lord's words, in Matthew 15. "Let them

alone." It is perfectly useless to argue with men who despise the word of God, and

have no other foundation to build upon than their own carnal reasonings. But, on the

other hand, we deem it to be of the very last possible importance that the heart should

ever repose, in all the artless simplicity of a child, in the truth of God's word. "Hath he

said, and shall he not do it a or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?"

Here is the sweet and hallowed resting-place of faith, the calm haven where the soul

can find refuge from all the conflicting currents of human thought and feeling. "The

word of the Lord endureth for ever; and this is the word which by the gospel is

preached unto you. Nothing can touch the word of our God, It is settled for ever in

heaven; and all we want is to have it hidden in our hearts as our own very possession;

the treasure which we have received from God; the living fountain where we may

ever drink for the refreshment and comfort of our souls. Then shall our peace flow as

a river; and our path shall be as the shining light which shineth more and more unto

the perfect day.

Thus may it be, O Lord, with all Thy beloved people, in these days of growing

infidelity! May Thy holy word be increasingly precious to our hearts! May our

consciences feel its power! May its heavenly doctrines form our character, and govern

our conduct, in all the relationships of life, that Thy name may he glorified in all

things!

Deuteronomy 3.

"Then we turned, and went up the way to Bashan; and Og the king of Bashan came

out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. And the Lord said unto me,

Fear Him not: for I will deliver him, and all his people, and his land, into thy hand;

and thou shalt do unto Him as thou didst unto Sihon king of the Amorites, which

dwelt at Heshbon. So the Lord our God delivered into our hands Og also, the king of

Bashan and all his people; and we smote him until none was left to him remaining.

And we took all his cities at that time, there was not a city which we took not from

them, threescore cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. All

these cities were fenced with high walls, gates, and bars; beside unwalled towns a

great many. And we utterly destroyed them, as we did unto Sihon, king of Heshbon,

utterly destroying the men, women, and children of every city. But all the cattle, and

the spoil of the cities, we took for a prey to ourselves." (Vers. 1-7.)

The divine instructions as to Og king of Bashan were precisely similar to those given,

in the preceding chapter with respect to Sihon the Amorite; and in order to understand

both, we must look at them purely in the light of the government of God—a subject

but little understood, though one of very deep interest and practical importance. We

must accurately distinguish between grace and government. When we contemplate

God in government, we see Him displaying His power in the way of righteousness,

punishing evil doers; pouring out vengeance upon His enemies; overthrowing

empires; upturning thrones; destroying cities, sweeping away nations, tribes and

peoples. We find Him commanding His people to slay men, women and little

children, with the edge of the sword; to set fire to their houses, and turn their cities

into desolate heaps.

Again, we hear Him addressing the prophet Ezekiel in the following remarkable

words, "Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a

great service against Tyrus; every head was made bald, and every shoulder was

peeled; yet had he no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus, for the service that he had

served against it. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will give the land of

Egypt unto Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall take her multitude, and

take her spoil, and take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his army. I have given

him the land of Egypt for his labour wherewith he served against it, because they

wrought for me, saith the Lord God." (Ezek. 29: 18-20.)

This is a very wonderful passage of scripture; setting before us a subject which runs

through the entire volume of Old Testament scripture—a subject demanding our

profound and reverent attention. Whether we turn to the five books of Moses, to the

historical books, to the Psalms or to the prophets, we find the inspiring Spirit giving

us the most minute details of God's actings in government. We have the deluge in the

days of Noah, when the whole earth, with all its inhabitants, with the exception of

eight persons, was destroyed by an act of divine government. men, women, children,

cattle, fowl and creeping things were all swept away and buried beneath the billows

and waves of God's righteous judgement.

Then we have in the days of Lot, the cities of the plain, with all their inhabitants, men,

women and children, in a few short hours, consigned to utter destruction, overthrown

by the hand of Almighty God, and buried beneath the deep dark waters of the Dead

Sea—those guilty cities, "Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like

manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set

forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire."

Then, again, as we pass down along the page of inspired history, we see the seven

nations of Canaan, men, women, and children, given over into the hands of Israel, for

unsparing judgement; nothing that breathed was to be left alive.

But we may truly say, time would fail us, even to refer to all the passages of holy

scripture which set before our eyes the solemn actings of the divine government.

Suffice it to say that the line of evidence runs from Genesis to Revelation, beginning

"with the deluge and ending with the burning up of the present system of things.

Now, the question is, Are we competent to understand these ways of God in

government? Is it any part of our business to sit in judgement upon them? Are we

capable of unravelling the profound and awful mysteries of divine Providence? Can

we—are we called upon to—account for the tremendous fact of helpless babes

involved in the judgement of their guilty parents? Impious; infidelity may sneer at

these things; morbid sentimentality may stumble over them; but the true believer, the

pious Christian, the reverent student of holy scripture will meet them all with this one

simple but safe and solid question, "Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?"

This, we may rest assured, reader, is the only true way in which to meet such

questions. If man is to sit in judgement upon the actings of God in government; if he

can take upon himself to decide as to what is, and what is not worthy of God to do,

then, verily, we have lost the true sense of God altogether. And this is just what the

devil is aiming at. He wants to lead the heart away from God; and to this end, he leads

men to reason and question and speculate in a region which lies as far beyond their

ken as heaven is above the earth. Can we comprehend God? If we could, we should,

ourselves, be God.

"We comprehend Him not,

Yet earth and heaven tell,

God sits as Sovereign on the throne

And ruleth all things well."

It is, at once, absurd and impious, in the very highest degree, for puny mortals to dare

to question the counsels, enactments and ways of the Almighty Creator, and All-wise

Governor of the universe. Assuredly, all who do so must, sooner or later find out their

terrible mistake. Well would it be for all questioners and cavillers to give heed to the

pungent question of the inspired apostle in Romans 9. "Nay but, O man, who art thou

that repliest against God? shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast

thou made me thus? Hath not the Potter power over the clay of the same lump to

make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?"

How simple! How forcible! How unanswerable! This is the divine method of meeting

all the hows, and whys, of infidel reason. If the potter has power over the lump of clay

which he holds in his hand—a fact which none would think of disputing—how much

more has the Creator of all things power over the creatures which His hand has

formed! Men may reason and argue interminably as to why God permitted sin to

enter; why He did not, at once, annihilate Satan and his angels; why He allowed the

serpent to tempt Eve; why He did not keep her back from eating the forbidden fruit.

In short, the hows, and whys, are endless; but the answer is one, "Who art thou, O

man, that repliest against God?" How monstrous for a poor worm of the earth to

attempt to sit in judgement upon the unsearchable judgements and ways of the Eternal

God! What blind and presumptuous folly for a creature, whose understanding is

darkened by sin, and who is thus wholly incapable of forming a right judgement about

anything divine, heavenly or eternal, to attempt to decide how God should act, in any

given case! Alas! alas! it is to be feared that thousands who now argue with great

apparent cleverness, against the truth of God, will find out their fatal mistake when it

will he too late to correct it.

And as to all those who, though very far from taking common ground with the infidel,

are nevertheless troubled with doubts and misgivings as to some of God's ways in

government, and as to the awful question of eternal punishment, we would earnestly

recommend them to study and drink in the spirit of that lovely little Psalm, 131.

"Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in

great matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself

as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child."*

{*With regard to the solemn subject of eternal punishment, we here offer a few

remarks, seeing that so very many, both in England and America, are troubled with

difficulties respecting it. There are three considerations which, if duly weighed, will,

we think, settle every Christian on the doctrine.

1. The first is this. There are seventy passages, in the New Testament, where the word

"everlasting" or "eternal" (aijwnio") occur. It is applied to the "life" which believers

possess; to the "mansions" into which they are to be received; to the "glory" which

they are to enjoy; it is applied to God, Romans 16: 26; to the "salvation " of which our

Lord Jesus Christ is the Author; to the "redemption" which He has obtained for us;

and to the "Spirit." Then, out of the seventy passages referred to above, which the

reader can verify in a few moments, by a glance at a Greek Concordance, there are

seven in which the selfsame word is applied to the "punishment" of the wicked; to the

"judgement" which is to overtake them; to the "fire" which is to consume them. Now,

the question is, upon what principle, or by what authority can any one mark off these

seven passages and say that, in them, the word [aijwvnio"] does not mean

"everlasting," while in the other sixty-three it does? We consider the statement utterly

baseless and unworthy the attention of any sober mind. We fully admit that, had the

Holy Spirit thought proper, when speaking of the judgement of the wicked, to make

use of a different word from that used in the other passages, reason would that we

should weigh the fact. But no; He uses the same word invariably, so that if we deny

eternal punishment, we must deny eternal life, eternal glory, an eternal Spirit, an

eternal God, an eternal anything. In short, if punishment be not eternal, nothing is

eternal so far as this augment is concerned. To meddle with this stone, in the archway

of divine revelation, is to reduce the whole to a mass of ruin around us. And this is

just what the devil is aiming at. We are fully persuaded that to deny the truth of

eternal punishment is to take the first step on that inclined plane which leads down to

the dark abyss of universal scepticism.

2. Our second consideration is drawn from the great truth of the immortality of the

soul. We read in Genesis 2, that, "The Lord God formed man of the dust of the

ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living

soul." Upon this one passage, as upon an immovable rock, even if we had not another,

we build the great truth of the immortality of the human soul. The fall of man made

no difference as to this. Fallen or unfallen, innocent or guilty, converted or

unconverted, the soul must live for ever.

The tremendous question is, "Where is it to live?" God cannot allow sin into His

presence. "He is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look upon iniquity."

Hence, if a man dies in his sins, dies unrepentant, unwashed, unpardoned, then, most

assuredly, where God is he never can come; indeed it is the very last place to which

he would like to come. there is nothing for him but an endless eternity in the lake that

burneth with fire and brimstone.

3. And, lastly, we believe that the truth of eternal punishment stands intimately

connected with the infinite nature of the atonement of our Lord and Saviour Jesus

Christ. If nothing short of an infinite sacrifice could deliver us from the consequences

of sin, those consequences must be eternal. This consideration may not, perhaps, in

the judgement of some, carry much weight with it; but to us its force is absolutely

irresistible. We must measure sin and its consequences, as we measure divine love

and its results, not by the standard of human sentiment or reason, but only by the

standard of the cross of Christ.}

Then, when the heart has, in some measure, taken in this exquisite breathing, it may

turn, with real profit, to the words of the inspired apostle, 2 Corinthians 10 "For the

weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of

strong holds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself

against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the

obedience of Christ."

Doubtless, the philosopher, the scholar, the profound thinker would smile

contemptuously at such a childish mode of dealing with such great questions. But this

is a very small matter in the judgement of the devout disciple of Christ. The same

inspired apostle makes very short work of all this world's wisdom and learning. He

says, "Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this

world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is

foolishness with God; for it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And

again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain." (1 Cor. 3.) And

again, "It is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing

the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the

disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after

that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the

foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." (1 Cor 1:19-21.)

Here lies the grand moral secret of the whole matter. Man has to find out that he is

simply a fool; and that all the wisdom of the world is foolishness. Humbling, but

wholesome truth! Humbling, because it puts man in his right place. Wholesome, yea,

most precious, because it brings in the wisdom of God. We hear a great deal, now-a-

days, about science, philosophy and learning. “Hath not God made foolish the

wisdom of this world?”

Do we fully take in the meaning of these words? alas! it is to be feared they are but

little understood. There are not wanting men who would fain persuade us that science

has gone far beyond the Bible!* Alas! for the science, and for all those who give heed

to it. If it has gone beyond the Bible, whither has it gone? In the direction of God, of

Christ, of heaven, of holiness, of peace? Nay; but quite in the opposite direction. And

where must it all end? We tremble to think, and feel reluctant to pen the reply. Still

we must be faithful, and declare solemnly that the sure and certain end of that path

along which human science is conducting its votaries is the blackness of darkness for

ever.

{*We must distinguish between all true science and "science falsely so-called." And

further, we must distinguish between the facts of science, and the conclusions of

scientific men. The facts are what God has done and is doing; but when men set about

drawing their conclusions from these facts, they make the most serious mistakes.

However, it is a real relief to the heart to think that there are philosophers and men of

science who give God His right place, and who love our Lord Jesus Christ in

sincerity.}

"The world by wisdom knew not God." What did the philosophy of Greece do for its

disciples? It made them the ignorant worshippers of "AN UNKNOWN GOD." The

very inscription on their altar published to the universe their ignorance and their

shame. And may we not lawfully inquire if philosophy has done better for

Christendom than it did for Greece? Has it communicated the knowledge of the true

God? Who could dare to say Yes? There are millions of baptised professors

throughout the length and breadth of Christendom who know no more of the true God

than those philosophers who encountered Paul in the city of Athens.

The fact is this, every one who really knows God is the privileged possessor of eternal

life. So our Lord Jesus Christ declares, in the most distinct manner, in John 17. "This

is life eternal that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom

thou hast sent." This is most precious to every soul that, through grace, has gotten this

knowledge. To know God is to have life—life eternal.

But how can I know God? Where can I find Him? Can science and philosophy tell

me? Have they ever told any one? Have they ever guided any poor wanderer into this

way of life and peace? No; never, "The world by wisdom knew not God." The

conflicting schools of ancient philosophy could only plunge the human mind into

profound darkness and hopeless bewilderment; and the conflicting schools of modern

philosophy are not a whit better. They can give no certainty, no safe anchorage, no

solid ground of confidence to the poor benighted soul. Barren speculation, torturing

doubt, wild and baseless theory is all that human philosophy, in any age or of any

nation, has to offer to the earnest inquirer after truth.

How then are we to know God? If such a stupendous result hangs on this knowledge;

if to know God is life eternal—and Jesus says it is—then how is He to be known? "No

man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the

Father, he hath declared him." (John 1: 18.)

Here we have an answer divinely simple, divinely sure. Jesus reveals God to the

soul—reveals the Father to the heart. Precious fact! We are not. sent to creation, to

learn who God is—though we see His power, wisdom and goodness there. We are not

sent to the Law—though we see His justice there. We are not sent to providence—

though we see the profound mysteries of His government there. No; if we want to

know who and what God is, we are to look in the face of Jesus Christ, the only-

begotten Son of God, who dwelt in His bosom before the worlds, who was His eternal

delight, the object of His affections, the centre of His counsels. He it is who reveals

God to the soul. We cannot have the slightest idea of what God is apart from the Lord

Jesus Christ. "In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead [Qeovth"] bodily." "God

who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give

the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ."

Nothing can exceed the power and blessedness of all this. There is no darkness here;

no uncertainty. "The darkness is past, and the true light now shineth." Yes; it shineth

in the face of Jesus Christ. We can gaze, by faith, on that blessed One; we can trace

His marvellous path, on the earth; see Him going about doing good, and healing all

that were oppressed of the devil; mark His very looks, His words, His works, His

ways; see Him healing the sick, cleansing the leper, opening the eyes of the blind,

unstopping the ears of the deaf, causing the lame to walk, the maimed to be whole,

raising the dead, drying the widows tears, feeding the hungry, binding up broken

hearts, meeting every form of human need, soothing human sorrow, hushing human

fears; and doing all these things in such a style, with such touching grace and

sweetness, as to make each one feel, in his very inmost soul, that it was the deep

delight of that loving heart thus to minister to his need.

Now, in all this, He was revealing God to man; so that if we want to know what God

is, we have simply to look at Jesus. When Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father, and

it sufficeth us," the prompt reply was, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet

hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how

sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and

the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself; but the

Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father,

and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake."

Here is the rest for the heart. We know the true God and Jesus Christ whom He hath

sent; and this is life eternal. We know Him as our own very God and Father and

Christ as our own personal, loving Lord and Saviour; we can delight in Him, walk

with Him, lean on Him, trust in Him, cling to Him, draw from Him, find all our living

springs in Him; rejoice in Him, all the day long; find our meat and our drink in doing

His blessed will, furthering His cause and promoting His glory.

Reader, do you know all this for yourself? Say, is it a living, divinely real thing in

your own soul, this moment? This is true Christianity; and you should not be satisfied

with anything less. You will, perhaps, tell us we have wandered far from

Deuteronomy 3. But whither have we To the Son of God and to the soul of the reader.

If this be wandering, be it so; it, most assuredly, is not wandering from the object for

which we are penning these "Notes" which is to bring Christ and the soul together, or

to bind them together, as the case may be. We would never, for one moment, lose

sight of the fact that, both in writing and speaking, we have not merely to expound

scripture, but to seek the salvation and blessing of souls. Hence it is that we feel

constrained, from time to time, to appeal to the heart and conscience of the reader as

to his practical state, and as to how far he has made his very own of these

imperishable realities which pass in review before us. And we earnestly beseech the

reader, whoever he may be, to seek a deeper acquaintance with God in Christ; and, as

a sure consequence of this, a closer walk with Him and more thorough consecration

of heart to Him.

This, we are thoroughly persuaded, is what is needed, in this day of unrest and

unreality, in the world, and of lukewarmness and indifference, in the professing

church. We want a very much higher standard of personal devotedness, more real

purpose of heart to cleave to the Lord, and follow Him. There is much—very much to

discourage and hinder. in the condition of things around us. The language of the men

of Judah, in the days of Nehemiah, may with some measure of appropriateness and

force, be applied to our times, " The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and

there is much rubbish." But, thank God, the remedy now, as then, is to be found in

this soul-stirring sentence, "Remember the Lord.

We now return to our chapter, in the remainder of which the lawgiver rehearses in the

ears of the congregation the story of their dealings with the two kings of the Amorites,

together with the facts connected with the inheritance of the two tribes and a half, on

the wilderness side of Jordan. And, with regard to the latter subject, it is interesting to

notice that he raises no question as to the right or the wrong of their choosing their

possession short of the land of promise. Indeed, from the narrative given here, it could

not be known that the two tribes and a half had expressed any wish in the matter. so

far is our book from being a mere repetition of its predecessors.

Here are the words. "And this land, which we possessed at that time, from Aroer

which is by the river Arnon, and half mount Gilead, and the cities thereof, gave I unto

the Reubenites and to the Gadites, And the rest of Gilead and all Bashan, being the

kingdom of Og, gave I unto the half tribe of Manasseh, all the region of Argob, with

all Bashan, which was called the land of giants.... And I gave Gilead unto Machir.

And unto the Reubenites, and unto the Gadites, I gave from Gilead even unto the river

Arnon, half the valley, and the border, even unto the river Jabbok, which is the border

of the children of Ammon.... And I commanded you at that time, saying, the Lord

your God hath given you this land to possess it"—not a word about their having asked

it

Ye shall pass over armed before your brethren the children of Israel, all that are meet

for the war. But your wives and your little ones, and your cattle (for I know that ye

have much cattle), shall abide in your cities which I have given you; until the Lord

have given rest unto your brethren, as well as unto you, and until they also possess the

land which the Lord your God hath given them beyond. Jordan; and then shall ye

return every man unto his possession which I have given you."

In our studies on the Book of Numbers, we have dwelt upon certain facts connected

with the settlement of the two tribes and a half, proving that they were below the

mark of the Israel of God, in choosing their inheritance anywhere short of the other

side of Jordan. But in the passage which we have just quoted, there is no allusion at

all to this side of the question; because the object of Moses is to set before the whole

congregation the exceeding goodness, loving-kindness, and faithfulness of God, not

only in bringing them through all the difficulties and dangers of the wilderness, but

also in giving them, every already, such signal victories over the Amorites, and

putting them in possession of regions go attractive and so suited to them. In all this he

is laying down the solid basis of Jehovah's claim upon their hearty obedience to His

commandments; and we can at once see and appreciate the moral beauty of

overlooking entirely, in such a rehearsal, the question as to whether Reuben, Gad and

the half tribe of Manasseh were wrong in stopping short of the land of promise. It is,

to every devout Christian, a striking proof not only of the touching and exquisite

grace of God, but also of the divine perfectness of scripture.

No doubt, every true believer enters upon the study of scripture with the full and

deeply wrought conviction of its absolute perfectness in every part. He reverently

believes that there is not, from the opening of Genesis to the close of Revelation, a

single flaw, a single hitch, a single discrepancy—not one; all is as perfect as its divine

Author.

But then the cordial belief of the divine perfectness of scripture, as a whole, can never

lessen our appreciation of the evidences which come out in detail; nay, it enhances it

exceedingly. Thus, for example, in the passage now before us, is it not perfectly

beautiful to mark the absence of all reference to the failure of the two tribes and a half

in the matter of choosing their inheritance, seeing that any such reference would be

entirely foreign to the object of the lawgiver, and to the scope of the book! Is it not

the joy of our hearts to trace such infinite perfections, such exquisite and inimitable

touches? Assuredly it is; and not only so, but we are persuaded that the more the

moral glories of the volume dawn upon our souls, and its living and exhaustless

depths are unfolded to our hearts, the more we shall be convinced of the utter folly of

infidel assaults upon it; and of the feebleness and gratuitousness of many well-meant

efforts to prove that it does not contradict itself. Thank God, His word stands in no

need of human apologists. It speaks for itself, and carries with it its own powerful

evidences; so that we can say of it what the apostle says of his gospel, that, "If it be

hid, it is hid to them that are lost; in whom the god of this world hath blinded the

minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is

the image of God, should shine unto them." We are more and more convinced, each

day that the most effective method of answering all infidel attacks upon the Bible is

to cherish a more profound faith in its divine power and authority; and to use it as

those who are most thoroughly persuaded of its truth and preciousness. The Spirit of

God alone can enable any one to believe in the plenary inspiration of the holy

scriptures. Human arguments may go for what they are worth; they may, doubtless,

silence gainsayers; but they cannot read the heart; they cannot bring the genial rays of

divine revelation to hear down in living saving power upon the soul; this is a work

divine; and until it is done, all the evidences and arguments in the world must leave

the soul in the moral darkness of unbelief but when it is done, there is no need of

human testimony in defence of the Bible. External evidences, however interesting and

valuable—and they are both—cannot add a single jot or tittle to the glory of that

peerless Revelation which bears on every page, every paragraph, every sentence, the

clear impress of its divine Author. As with the sun in the heavens, its every ray tells of

the Hand that made it, so of the Bible, its every sentence tells of the Heart that

inspired it. But, inasmuch as a blind man cannot see the sunlight, so neither can the

unconverted soul see the force and beauty of holy scripture. The eye must be anointed

with heavenly eye-salve, ere the infinite perfections of the divine Volume can be

discerned or appreciated.

Now, we must own to the reader, that it is the deep, and ever deepening sense of all

this that has led us to the determination not to occupy his time or our own, by

reference to the attacks which have been made by rationalistic writers on that portion

of the word of God with which we are now engaged. We leave this to other and abler

hands. What we desire for ourselves and our readers is that we may feed at peace

upon the green pastures which the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls has graciously

thrown open to us; that we may help each other, as we pass along, to see more and

more of the moral glory of that which lies before us; and thus to build each other up

on our most holy faith. This will be far more grateful work to us, and we trust also to

our readers, than replying to men who, in all their puny efforts to find out flaws in the

holy volume, only prove to those capable of judging that they understand neither what

they say, nor whereof they affirm. If men will abide in the dark vaults and tunnels of a

dreary infidelity, and there find fault with the sun, or deny that it shines at all, let it be

ours to bask in the light, and help others to do the same.

We shall now dwell for a little on the remaining verses of our chapter, in which we

shall find much to interest, instruct and profit us.

And, first, Moses rehearses in the ears of the people, his charge to Joshua. And I

commanded Joshua at that time, saying, Thine eyes have seen all that the Lord our

God hath done unto these two kings: so shall the Lord do unto all the kingdoms

whither thou passest. Ye shall not fear them: for the Lord your God he shall fight for

you." (Vers. 21, 22.)

The remembrance of the Lord's dealings with us, in the past, should strengthen our

confidence in going on. The One who had given His people such a victory over the

Amorites, who had destroyed such a formidable foe as Og king of Bashan, and given

into their hands all the land of the giants, what could He not do for them? They could

hardly expect to encounter in all the land of Canaan any enemy more powerful than

Og whose bedstead was of such enormous dimensions as to call for the special notice

of Moses. But what was he in the presence of his Almighty Creator? Dwarfs and

giants are all alike to Him. The grand point is to keep God Himself ever before our

eyes. Then difficulties vanish. If He covers the eyes, we can see nothing else; and this

is the true secret of peace, and the real power of progress. "Thine eyes have seen all

that the Lord your God hath done." And, as He has done, so He will do. He hath

delivered; and He doth deliver; and He will deliver. Past, present, and future are all

marked by divine deliverance.

Reader, art thou in any difficulty? Is there any pressure upon thee? Art thou

anticipating, with nervous apprehension, some formidable evil? Is thine heart

trembling at the very thought of it? It may be thou art like one who has come to the

far end, like the apostle Paul in Asia, "Pressed out of measure, above strength,

insomuch that we despaired even of life." If so, beloved friend, accept a word of

encouragement. It is our deep desire to strengthen your hands in God, and to

encourage your heart to trust Him for all that is before you. "Fear not;" only believe.

He never fails a trusting heart no, never. Make use of the resources which are

treasured up for you in Him. Just put yourself, your surroundings, your fears, your

anxieties, all into His hands, and leave them there.

Yes; leave them there. It is of little use your putting your difficulties, your necessities

into His hands, and then, almost immediately, taking them into your own. We often

do this. When in pressure, in need, in deep trial of some kind or other, we go to God,

in prayer; we cast our burden upon Him, and seem to get relief. But alas; no sooner

have we risen from our knees, than we begin again to look at the difficulty, ponder the

trial, dwell upon all the sorrowful circumstances, until we are again at our very wits'

end.

Now, this will never do. It sadly dishonours God, and of course, leaves us unrelieved

and unhappy. He would have our minds as free from care, as the conscience is free

from guilt. His word to us is, "Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and

supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." And

what then? "The peace of God which passeth all understanding, shall keep [or

garrison, Frourhvsei] your hearts and minds, through Christ Jesus."

Thus it was that Moses, that beloved man of God and honoured servant of Christ,

sought to encourage his fellow labourer and successor, Joshua, in reference to all that

was before him. "Ye shall not fear them; for the Lord your God he shall fight for you."

Thus, too, did the blessed apostle Paul encourage his beloved son and fellow servant

Timothy to trust in the living God; to be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus;

to lean, with unshaken confidence, on God's sure foundation; to commit himself, with

unquestioning assurance, to the authority, teaching and guidance of the holy

scriptures; and thus armed and furnished, to give himself, with holy diligence and true

spiritual courage, to that work to which he was called. And thus, too, the writer and

the reader can encourage one another, in these days of increasing difficulty, to cling,

in simple faith, to that word which is settled for ever in heaven; to have it hidden in

the heart as a living power and authority in the soul, something which will sustain us,

though heart and flesh should fail, and though we had not the countenance or support

of a human being. "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of

grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away; but the word of the

Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto

you" (1 Peter 1: 24, 25.)

How precious is this! What comfort and consolation! What stability and rest! What

real strength, victory and moral elevation! It is not within the compass of human

language to set forth the preciousness of the word of God, or to define, in adequate

terms, the comfort of knowing that the selfsame word which is settled for ever in

heaven, and which shall endure throughout the countless ages of eternity, is that

which has reached our hearts in the glad tidings of the gospel, imparting to us eternal

life, and giving us peace and rest in the finished work of Christ, and a perfectly

satisfying object in His adorable Person. Truly, as we think of all this, we cannot but

own that every breath should be a hallelujah. Thus it shall be, by-and-by, and that for

ever, all homage to His peerless Name!

The closing verses of our chapter present a peculiarly touching passage between

Moses and his Lord, the record of which as given here is in lovely keeping, as we

might expect, with the character of the entire book of Deuteronomy. "And I besought

the Lord at that time, saying, O Lord God, thou hast begun to show thy servant thy

greatness, and thy mighty hand; for what God is there in heaven or in earth, that can

do according to thy works and according to thy might? I pray thee, let me go over, and

see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. But the

Lord was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me: and the Lord said

unto me, Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter. Get thee up into

the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and

eastward, and behold it with thine eyes: for thou shalt not go over this Jordan. But

charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him; for he shall go over before

this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see."(Vv. 23-

28)

It is very affecting to find this eminent servant of God urging a request which could

not be granted. He longed to see that good land beyond Jordan. The portion chosen by

the two tribes and a half could not satisfy his heart. He desired to plant his foot upon

the proper inheritance of the Israel of God. But it was not to be. He had spoken

unadvisedly with his lips at the waters of Meribah; and, by the solemn and irreversible

enactment of the divine government, he was prohibited from crossing the Jordan.

All this, the beloved servant of Christ most meekly rehearses in the ears of the people.

He does not hide from them the fact that the Lord had refused to grant his request.

True, he had to remind them that it was on their account. That was morally needful

for them to hear. Still he tells them, in the most unreserved manner, that Jehovah was

wroth with him; and that He refused to hear him—refused to allow him to cross the

Jordan, and called upon him to resign his office and appoint his successor.

Now, it is most edifying to hear all this from the lips of Moses himself. It teaches us a

fine lesson, if only we are willing to learn it. Some of us find it very hard indeed to

confess that we have done or said anything wrong—very hard to own before our

brethren that we have entirely missed the Lord's mind, in any particular case. We are

careful of our reputation; we are touchy and tenacious. And yet, with strange

inconsistency, we admit, or seem to admit, in general terms, that we are poor, feeble,

erring, creatures; and that, if left to ourselves, there is nothing too bad for us to say or

to do. But it is one thing to make a most humiliating general confession, and another

thing altogether to own that, in some given case, we have made a gross mistake. This

latter is a confession which very few have grace to make. Some can hardly ever admit

that they have done wrong.

Not so that honoured servant whose words we have just quoted. He, notwithstanding

his elevated position as the called, trusted and beloved servant of Jehovah—the leader

of the congregation, whose rod had made the land of Egypt to tremble, was not

ashamed to stand before the whole assembly of his brethren, and confess his mistake,

own that he had said what he ought not, and that he had earnestly urged a request

which Jehovah could not grant.

Does this lower Moses in our estimation? The very reverse; it raises him immensely.

It is morally lovely to hear his confession; to see how meekly he bows his head to the

governmental dealings of God; to mark the unselfishness of his acting toward the man

who was to succeed him in his high office. There was not a trace of jealousy or envy;

no exhibition of mortified pride. With beautiful self-emptiness, he steps down from

his elevated position, throws his mantle over the shoulders of his successor, and

encourages him to discharge with holy fidelity, the duties of that high office which he

himself had to resign.

"He that humbleth himself shall be exalted." How true was this in Moses' case! He

humbled himself under the mighty hand of God. He accepted the holy discipline

imposed upon him by the divine government. He uttered not a murmuring word at the

refusal of his request. He bows to it all, and hence he was exalted in due time. If

government kept him out of Canaan, grace conducted him to Pisgah’s top, from

whence, in company with his Lord, he was permitted to see that good land, in all its

fair proportions—see it, not as inherited by Israel, but as given of God.

The reader will do well to ponder deeply the subject of grace and government. It is

indeed a very weighty and practical theme, and one largely illustrated in scripture,

though but little understood amongst us. It may seem wonderful to us, hard to be

understood, that one so beloved as Moses should be refused an entrance into the

promised land. But in this we see the solemn action of the divine government, and we

have to bow our heads and worship. It was not merely that Moses, in his official

capacity, or as representing the legal system, could not bring Israel into the land. This

is true; but it is not all. Moses spake unadvisedly with his lips. He and Aaron his

brother failed to glorify God, in the presence of the congregation; and for this cause,

"The Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me

in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into

the land which I have given them." And, again, we read, "The Lord spake unto Moses

and Aaron in mount Hor, by the coast of the land of Edom, saying, Aaron shall be

gathered unto his people; for he shall not enter into the land which I have given unto

the children of Israel, because ye rebelled against my word at the water of Meribah.

Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up unto mount Hor; and strip Aaron

of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son; and Aaron shall be gathered unto

his people, and shall die there."

All this is most solemn. Here we have the two leading men in the congregation, the

very men whom God had used to bring His people out of the land of Egypt, with

mighty signs and wonders—"that Moses and Aaron"—men highly honoured of God;

and yet refused entrance into Canaan. And for what? Let us mark the reason.

"because ye rebelled against my word".

Let these words sink down into our hearts. It is a terrible thing to rebel against the

word of God; and the more elevated the position of those who so rebel, the more

serious it is, in every way, and the more solemn and speedy must be the divine

judgement. "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity

and idolatry."

These are weighty words, and we ought to ponder them deeply. They were uttered in

the ears of Saul, when he had failed to obey the word of the Lord; and thus we have

before us examples of a prophet, a priest and a king, all judged, under the government

of God, for an act of disobedience. The prophet and the priest were refused entrance

into the land of Canaan, and the king was deprived of his throne simply because they

disobeyed the word of the Lord.

Let us remember this. We, in our fancied wisdom, might deem all this very severe.

Are we competent judges? This is the grand question, in all such matters. Let us

beware how we presume to sit in judgement on the enactments of divine government.

Adam was driven out of paradise; Aaron was stripped of his priestly robes; Moses

was sternly refused entrance into Canaan; and Saul was deprived of his kingdom; and

for what? Was it for what men would call a grave moral offence—some scandalous

sin? No; it was, in each case, for neglecting the word of the Lord. This is the serious

thing for us to keep before us, in this day of human wilfulness in which men

undertake to set up their own opinions, to think for themselves, and judge for

themselves, and act for themselves. Men proudly put the question, " Has not every

man a right to think for himself?" We reply, Most certainly not. We have a right to

obey. To obey what? Not the commandments of men; not the authority of the so-

called church; not the decrees of general councils; in a word, not any merely human

authority, call it what you please; but simply the word of the living God—the

testimony of the Holy Ghost—the voice of holy scripture. This it is that justly claims

our implicit, unhesitating, unquestioning obedience. To this we are to bow down our

whole moral being. We are not to reason; we are not to speculate; we are not to weigh

consequences; we have nothing to do with results; we are not to say "Why?” or

“Wherefore?" It is ours to obey, and leave all the rest in the hands of our Master.

What has a servant to do with consequences? What business has he to reason as to

results? It is of the very essence of a servant to do what he is told, regardless of all

other considerations. Had Adam remembered this, he would not have been turned out

of Eden. Had Moses and Aaron remembered it, they might have crossed the Jordan;

had Saul remembered it, he would not have been deprived of his throne. And so, as

we pass down along the stream of human history, we see this weighty principle

illustrated, over and over again; and we may rest assured, it is a principle of abiding

and universal importance.

And, be it remembered, we are not to attempt to weaken this great principle by any

reasonings grounded upon God's foreknowledge of all that was to happen, and all that

man would do, in the course of time. Men do reason in this way, but it is a fatal

mistake. What has God's foreknowledge to do with man's responsibility? Is man

responsible or not? This is the question, If, as we most surely believe, he is, then,

nothing must be allowed to interfere with this responsibility. Man is called to obey the

plain word of God; he is, in no wise, responsible to know ought about God's secret

purposes and counsels. Man's responsibility rests upon what is revealed, not upon

what is secret. What, for example, did Adam know about God's eternal plans and

purposes, when he was set in the garden of Eden and forbidden to eat of the tree of

the knowledge of good and evil Was his transgression, in any wise, modified by the

stupendous fact that God took occasion, from that very transgression, to display, in

the view of all created intelligences, His glorious scheme of redemption through the

blood of the Lamb? Clearly not. He received a plain commandment; and by that

commandment his conduct should have been absolutely governed. He disobeyed, and

was driven out of paradise, into a world which has, for well-nigh six thousand years,

exhibited the terrible consequences of one single act of disobedience—the act of

taking the forbidden fruit.

True it is, blessed be God, that grace has come into this poor sin-stricken world and

there reaped a harvest which could never have been reaped in the fields of an unfallen

creation. But man was judged for his transgression. He was driven out by the hand of

God in government; and, by an enactment of that government, he has been compelled

to eat bread in the sweat of his brow. "Whatsoever a man" no matter who—"soweth,

that shall he also reap."

Here we have the condensed statement of the principle which runs all through the

word, and is illustrated on every page of the history of God's government. It demands

our very gravest consideration. It is, alas! but little understood. We allow our minds to

get under the influence of one-sided, and therefore false ideas of grace, the effect of

which is most pernicious. Grace is one thing, and government is another. They must

never be confounded. We would earnestly impress upon the heart of the reader the

weighty fact that the most magnificent display of God's sovereign grace can never

interfere with the solemn enactments of His government.

DEUTERONOMY, Section 2 of 6. (Deut. 4).

C H Mackintosh

Deuteronomy 4

Now therefore hearken O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgements which I

teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the

Lord God of your fathers giveth you."

Here we have, very prominently before us, the special characteristic of the entire book

of Deuteronomy. "Hearken," and "do;" that ye may "live" and "possess." This is a

universal and abiding principle. It was true for Israel, and it is true for us. The

pathway of life and the true secret of possession is simple obedience to the holy

commandments of God. We see this all through the inspired volume, from cover to

cover. God has given us His word, not to speculate upon it, or discuss it; but that we

may obey it. And it is as we, through grace, yield a hearty and happy obedience to our

Father's statutes and judgements, that we tread the bright pathway of life, and enter

into the reality of all that God has treasured up for us in Christ. "He that hath my

commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me shall

be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him."

How Precious is this! Indeed it is unspeakable. It is something quite peculiar. It would

be a very serious mistake to suppose that the privilege here spoken of is enjoyed by all

believers. It is not. It is only enjoyed by such as; yield a loving obedience to the

commandments of our Lord Jesus Christ. It lies within the reach of all, but all do not

enjoy it, because all are not obedient. It is one thing to be a child, and quite another to

be an obedient child. It is one thing to be saved, and quite another thing to love the

Saviour, and delight in all His most precious precepts.

We may see this continually illustrated in our family circles. There, for example, are

two sons, and one of them only thinks of pleasing himself, doing his will, gratifying

his own desires. He takes no pleasure in his father's society; does not take any pains to

carry out his father's wishes; knows hardly anything of his mind, and what he does

know he utterly neglects or despises. He is ready enough to avail himself of all the

benefits which accrue to him from the relationship in which he stands to his father;

ready enough to accept clothes, books, money—all, in short, that the father gives; but

he never seeks to gratify the father's heart by a loving attention to his will, even in the

smallest matters. The other son is the direct opposite to all this. He delights in being

with his father; he loves his society, loves his ways, loves his words; he is constantly

taking occasion to carry out his father's wishes, to get him something that he knows

will be agreeable to him. He loves his father, not for his gifts, but for himself; and he

finds his richest enjoyment in being in his father's company, and in doing his will.

Now, can we have any difficulty in seeing how very differently the father will feel

towards those two sons? True, they are both his sons, and he loves them both, with a

love grounded upon the relationship in which they stand to him. But, beside the love

of relationship common to both, there is the love of complacency peculiar to the

obedient child. It is impossible that a father can find pleasure in the society of a

wilful, self-indulgent, careless son: such a son may occupy much of his thoughts; he

may spend many a sleepless night thinking about him, and praying for him; he would

gladly spend and be spent for him: but he is not agreeable to him; does not possess his

confidence; cannot be the depository of his thoughts.

All this demands the serious consideration of those who really desire to be acceptable

or agreeable to the heart of our heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. We may

rest assured of this, that obedience is grateful to God; and " His commandments are

not grievous;" nay, they are the sweet and precious expression of His love, and the

fruit and evidence of the relationship, in which He stands to us. And not only so, but

He graciously rewards our obedience by a fuller manifestation of Himself to our

souls, and His dwelling with us. This comes out, with great fullness and beauty, in our

Lord's reply to Judas not Iscariot, for whose question we may be thankful, "Lord, how

is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered

and said unto him, If a man love me he will keep my words; and my Father will love

him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." (John 14.)

Here we are taught that it is not a question of the difference between "the world" and

"us," inasmuch as the world knows nothing either of relationship or obedience, and is

therefore, in no way, contemplated in our Lord's words. The world hates Christ,

because it does not know Him. Its language is, "Depart from us; for we desire not the

knowledge of thy ways." "We will not have this man to reign over us."

Such is the world, even when polished by civilization, and gilded with the profession

of Christianity. There is, underneath all the gilding, all the polish, a deep-seated

hatred of the Person and authority of Christ. His sacred, peerless Name is tacked on to

the world's religion, at least throughout baptised Christendom; but behind the drapery

of religious profession, there lurks a heart at enmity with God and His Christ.

But our Lord is not speaking of the world in John 14. He is shut in with "his own,"

and it is of them He is speaking Were He to manifest Himself to the world, it could

only be for judgement and eternal destruction. But, blessed be His Name, He does

manifest Himself to His own obedient children, to those who have His

commandments, and keep them, to those who love Him and keep His words.

And, let the reader thoroughly understand that when our Lord speaks of His

commandments, His words, and His sayings, He does not mean the ten

commandments, or law of Moses. No doubt, those ten commandments form a part of

the whole canon of scripture, the inspired word of God; but, to confound the law of

Moses with the commandments of Christ, would be simply turning things upside

down; it would be to confound Judaism with Christianity, law and grace. The two

things are as distinct as any two things can be; and must be so maintained by all who

would be found in the current of the mind of God.

We are sometimes led astray by the mere sound of words; and hence, when we meet

with the word "commandments," we instantly conclude that it must needs refer to the

law of Moses. But this is a very great and mischievous mistake. If the reader is not

clear and established as to this, let him close this volume, and turn to the first eight

chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, and the whole of the Epistle to the Galatians,

and read them calmly and prayerfully, as in the very presence of God, with a mind

freed from all theological bias and the influence of all previous religious training

There he will learn, in the fullest and clearest manner, that the Christian is not under

law in any way, or for any object whatsoever, either for life, for righteousness, for

holiness, for walk, or for anything else. In short, the teaching of the entire New

Testament goes to establish, beyond all question, that the Christian is not under law,

not of the world, not in the flesh, not in his sins. The solid ground of all this is the

accomplished redemption which we have in Christ Jesus, in virtue of which we are

sealed by the Holy Ghost, and thus indissolubly united to, and inseparably identified

with a risen and glorified Christ; so that the apostle John can say of all believers, all

God's dear children, "As he [Christ] is so are we in this world" This settles the whole

question, for all who are content to be governed by holy scripture. And as to all

beside, discussion is worse than useless.

We have digressed from our immediate subject, in order to meet any difficulty arising

from a misunderstanding of the word "commandments." The reader cannot too

carefully guard against the tendency to confound the commandments spoken of in

John 14 with the commandments of Moses, given in Exodus 20. And yet we

reverently believe that Exodus 20 is as truly inspired as John 14. And now, ere we

finally turn from the subject which has been engaging us, we would ask the reader to

refer, for a few moments, to a piece of inspired history which illustrates, in a very

striking way, the difference between an obedient and disobedient child of God. He

will find it in Genesis 18, 19. It is a profoundly interesting study, presenting a contrast

instructive, suggestive and practical, beyond expression. We are not going to dwell

upon it, having, in some measure, done so, in our "Notes on the Book of Genesis:" but

we would merely remind the reader that he has before him, in these two chapters, the

history of two saints of God. Lot was just as much a child of God as Abraham. We

have no more doubt that Lot is amongst "the spirits of just men made perfect," than

that Abraham is there. This, we think, cannot be called in question, inasmuch as the

inspired apostle Peter tells us that Lot's "righteous soul was vexed with the filthy

conversation of the wicked."

But mark the grave difference between the two men! The Lord Himself visited

Abraham, sat with him, and partook, readily, of his hospitality. This was a high

honour indeed, a rare privilege—a privilege which Lot never knew, an honour to

which he never attained. The Lord never visited him in Sodom. He merely sent His

angels, His ministers of power, the agents of His government. And even they, at first,

sternly refused to enter Lot's house or to partake of his proffered hospitality. Their

withering reply was, "Nay, but we will abide in the street all night." And, when they

did enter his house, it was only to protect him from the lawless violence with which

he was surrounded, and to drag him out of the wretched circumstances into which, for

worldly gain and position, he had plunged himself. Could contrast be more vivid?

But, further, The Lord delighted in Abraham, manifested Himself to him; opened His

mind to him; told him of his plans and purposes; what He was about to do with

Sodom. "Shall I," said He, "hide from Abraham that thing which I do; seeing that

Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the

earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and

his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and

judgement, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him."

We could hardly have a more telling illustration of John 14: 21, 23, although the

scene occurred two thousand years before the words were uttered. Have we ought like

this in the history of Lot? Alas! no. It could not be. He had no nearness to God, no

knowledge of His mind, no insight into His plans and Purposes. How could he? Sunk,

as he was in the low moral depths of Sodom, how could he know the mind of God?

Blinded by the murky atmosphere which enwrapped the guilty cities of the plain, how

could he see into the future? Utterly impossible. If a man is mixed up with the world,

he can only see things from the world's standpoint; he can only measure things by the

world's standard, and think of them with the world's thoughts. Hence it is that the

church, in its Sardis condition, is threatened with the coming of the Lord as a thief,

instead of being cheered with the hope of His coming as the bright and morning star.

If the professing church has sunk to the world's level—as alas! she has—she can only

contemplate the future from the world's point of view. This accounts for the feeling of

dread with which the great majority of professing Christians look at the subject of the

Lord's coming. They are looking for Him, as a thief, instead of the blessed

Bridegroom of their hearts. How few there are, comparatively, who love His

appearing. The great majority of professors—we grieve to have to pen the words—

find their type in Lot rather than in Abraham. The church has departed from her

proper ground; she has gone down from her true moral elevation, and mingled herself

with that world which hates and despises her absent Lord.

Still, thank God, there are "a few names, even in Sardis, which have not defiled their

garments"—a few living stones, amid the smouldering ashes of lifeless profession—a

few lights twinkling amid the moral gloom of cold, nominal, heartless, worldly

Christianity. And not only so, but in the Laodicean phase of the church's history,

which presents a still lower and more hopeless condition of things, when the whole

professing body is about to be spued out of the mouth of "the faithful and true

witness"—even at this advanced stage of failure and departure, those gracious words

fall, with soul-stirring power, on the attentive ear, "Behold, I stand at the door, and

knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will

sup with him and he with him."* Thus, in the days of professing Christianity, as in the

days of the Patriarchs, in the times of the New Testament, as in those of the Old, we

see the same value and importance attached to a hearing ear and an obedient heart.

Abraham, in the plains of Mamre, the pilgrim and the stranger, the faithful and

obedient child of God, tasted the rare privilege of entertaining the Lord of glory—a

privilege which could not be known by one who had chosen his place and his portion

in a sphere doomed to destruction. So also, in the days of Laodicean indifference and

boastful pretension, the truly obedient heart is cheered with the sweet promise of

sitting down to sup with Him who is "the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the

beginning of the creation of God." In a word, let the condition of things be what it

may, there is no limit to the blessing of the individual soul who will only hearken to

the voice of Christ, and keep His commandments.

{*To apply the solemn address of Christ to the church of Laodicea, as we sometimes

find it done in modern evangelical preaching, to the case of the sinner, is a great

mistake. No doubt, what the preacher means is right enough; but it is not presented

here. It is not Christ knocking at the door of a sinner's heart, but knocking at the door

of the professing church. What a fact is this! How full of deep and, awful solemnity,

as regards the church! What an end to come to! Christ outside! But what grace, as

regards Christ, for He is knocking! He wants to come in! He is still lingering, in

patient grace and changeless love, ready to come in to any faithful individual heart

that will only open to Him. "If any man"—even one! In Sardis He could speak

positively of "a few" in Laodicea He can only speak doubtfully as to finding one. But

Should there be even one, He will come into him, and sup with him. Precious

Saviour! Faithful Lover of our souls! "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and for

ever.

Reader, need we wonder that the enemy should seek to mutilate and misapply the

solemn and searching address to the church of Laodicea—the professing body in the

last dreary stage of its history? We have no hesitation in saying that to apply it

MERELY to the case of an unconverted soul is to deprive the professing church of

one of the most pertinent, pungent and powerful appeals within the covers of the New

Testament.}

Let us remember this. Let it sink down into the very deepest depths of our moral

being. Nothing can rob us of the blessings and privileges flowing from obedience.

The truth of this shines out before our eyes, in every section and on every page of the

volume of God. At all times, in all places, and under all circumstances, the obedient

soul was happy in God, and God was happy in him. It always holds good, whatever be

the character of the dispensation, that, "To this man will I look, even to him who is of

a contrite spirit, and trembles at my word." Nothing can ever alter or touch this. It

meets us in the fourth chapter of our blessed Book of Deuteronomy, in the words with

which this section opens, "Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto

the judgements which I teach you, for to do, that ye may live, and go in and possess

the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you" It meets us in those precious

words of our Lord, in John 14., on which we have been dwelling: "He that hath my

commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me," &c. And again, "If a man

love me, he will keep my sayings."* It shines with peculiar brightness, in the words of

the inspired apostle John, "Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we

confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep

his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his

commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love

one another, as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments

dwelleth in him, and he in him." (1 John 3: 21-24.)

{*There is an interesting difference between the Lord's "commandments" and

"sayings." The former set forth, distinctly and definitely, what we ought to do; the

latter are the expression of His mind. If I give my child a command, it is the statement

of his duty; and if he loves me, he will delight to do it. But if he has heard me say I

like to see such a, thing done, although I have not actually told him to do it, it will

touch my heart much more deeply to see him go and do that thing, in order to gratify

me, than if I had given him a positive command. Now, ought we not to try and please

the heart of Christ? Should we not "labour to be agreeable to him?" He has made us

accepted; surely we ought to seek, in every possible way, to be acceptable to Him. He

delights in a loving obedience; it was what He Himself rendered to the Father. "I

delight to do thy will; yes, thy law is within my heart." "If ye keep my

commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's

commandments, and abide in his love." Oh! that we may drink more deeply into the

spirit of Jesus, walk in His blessed footsteps, and render him a more loving, devoted

and whole-hearted obedience, in all things. Let us earnestly seek after these things,

beloved Christian reader, that His heart may be gratified, and His Name glorified in

us, and in our entire practical career from day to day.}

Passages might easily be multiplied, but there is no need. Those which we have

quoted set before us, in the clearest and fullest way possible, the very highest motive

for obedience, namely, its being agreeable to the heart of our Lord Jesus Christ—well

pleasing to God. True, we owe a hearty obedience on every ground. "We are not our

own; we are bought with a price." We owe our life, our peace, our righteousness, our

salvation, our everlasting felicity and glory, all to Him; so that nothing can exceed the

moral weight of His claims upon us for a life of whole-hearted obedience. But, above

and beyond His moral claims stands the marvellous fact that His heart is gratified, His

spirit refreshed by our keeping His commandments, and doing those things that are

pleasing in His sight.

Beloved Christian reader, can anything exceed the moral power of such a motive as

this? Only think of our being privileged to give pleasure to the heart of our beloved

Lord! What sweetness, what interest, what preciousness, what holy dignity it imparts

to every little act of obedience, to know that it is grateful to the heart of our Father!

How far beyond the legal system is this! It is a most perfect contrast, in its every

phase and every feature. The difference between the legal system and Christianity is

the difference between death and life, bondage and liberty, condemnation and

righteousness, distance and nearness, doubt and certainty. How monstrous the attempt

to amalgamate these two things—to work them up into one system, as though they

were but two branches from the one stem! What hopeless confusion must be the result

of any such effort! How terrible the effect of seeking to place souls under the

influence of the two things! As well might we attempt to combine the sun's meridian

beams with the profound darkness of midnight. Looked at from a divine and heavenly

standpoint, judged in the light of the New Testament, measured by the standard of the

heart of God, the mind of Christ, there could not be a more hideous anomaly than that

which presents itself to our view in Christendom's effort to combine law and grace.

And as to the dishonour done to God; the wound inflicted on the heart of Christ, the

grief and despite offered to the Holy Ghost, the damage done to the truth of God, the

grievous wrong perpetrated upon the beloved lambs and sheep of the flock of Christ,

the terrible stumbling-block thrown in the way of both Jew and Gentile, and, in short,

the serious injury done to the entire testimony of God, during the last eighteen

centuries, the judgement-seat of Christ can alone declare it; and oh! what an awful

declaration that will be! It is too tremendous to contemplate.

But there are many pious souls, throughout the length and breadth of the professing

church, who conscientiously believe that the only possible way to produce obedience,

to attain to practical holiness, to secure a godly walk, to keep our evil nature in order,

is to put people under the law. They seem to fear that if souls are taken from under

the schoolmaster, with his rod and rudiments, there is an end to all moral order. In the

absence of the authority of law, they look for nothing but hopeless confusion. To take

away the ten commandments, as a rule of life, is, in their judgement, to remove those

grand moral embankments which the hand of God has erected to stem the tide of

human lawlessness.

We can fully understand their difficulty. Most of us have had to encounter it, in one

shape or another. But we must seek to meet it in God's way. It is of no possible use to

cling, with fond tenacity, to our own notions, in the face of the plainest and most

direct teaching of holy scripture. We must, sooner or later, give up all such notions.

Nothing will-nothing can stand but the word of our God—the voice of the Holy Ghost

the authority of scripture—the imperishable teachings of that peerless Revelation

which our Father has, in His infinite grace, put into our hands. To that we must listen,

with profound and reverent attention; to it we must bow down, with unquestioning

and unqualified obedience. We must not presume to hold a single opinion of our own.

God's opinion must be ours. We must clear out all the rubbish which, by the influence

of mere human teaching, has accumulated in our minds, and have every chamber

thoroughly cleansed by the action of the word and Spirit of God, and thoroughly

ventilated by the pure and bracing air of the new creation.

Furthermore, we must learn to confide implicitly in every word that proceedeth out of

the mouth of God. We must not reason; we must not judge; we must not discuss; we

must simply believe. If man speaks, if it be a mere question of human authority, then

indeed we must judge, because man has no right to command. We must judge what he

says, not by our own opinions, or by any human standard, creed, or confession of

faith, but by the word of God. But when scripture speaks, all discussion is closed.

This is an unspeakable consolation. It is not within the compass of human language to

set forth, adequately, the value or the moral importance of this great fact. It delivers

the soul completely from the blinding power of self-will on the one hand, and of mere

subjection to human authority, on the other. It brings us into direct, personal, living

contact with the authority of God, and this is life, peace, liberty, moral power, true

elevation, divine certainty, and holy stability. It puts an end to doubts and fears, to all

the fluctuations of mere human opinion so perplexing to the mind, so torturing to the

heart. We are no longer tossed about with every wind of doctrine, every wave of

human thought. God has spoken. This is quite enough. Here the heart finds its deep

and settled repose. It has made its escape from the stormy ocean of theological

controversy, and cast anchor in the blessed haven of divine revelation.

Hence, therefore, we would say to the pious reader of these lines, if you would know

the mind of God on the subject before us—if you would know the ground, character

and object of Christian obedience, you must simply listen to the voice of holy

scripture.. And what does it say? Does it send as back to Moses to teach us how to

live? Does it send us back "to the palpable mount in order to secure holy living Does

it put us under the law to keep the flesh in order? Hear what it says. Yes; hearken and

ponder. Take the following words from Romans 6—words of emancipating, holy

power. "For sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under law, but under

grace."

Now, we most earnestly entreat the reader to let these words enter into the very depths

of his soul. The Holy Ghost declares, in the simplest and most emphatic manner, that

Christians are not under law. If we were under lam, sin would have dominion over us.

Indeed we invariably find, in scripture, that "sin," "law," and "flesh" are linked

together. A soul under law cannot possibly enjoy full deliverance from the dominion

of sin; and in this we can see, at a glance, the fallacy of the whole legal system; and

the utter delusion of seeking to produce holy living by putting souls under the law. It

is simply putting them into the very place where sin can lord it over them, and rule

them with absolute sway. How is it possible, then, to produce holiness by law? It is

absolutely hopeless.

But let us turn, for a moment to Romans 7 "wherefore, my brethren, ye also"—and all

true believers, all God's people—"are become dead to the law by the body of Christ;

that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we

should bring forth fruit unto God." Now it is Perfectly plain that we cannot be "dead

to the Law" and "under the law" at the same time. It may, perhaps, be argued that the

expression, "dead to the law is merely a figure. Well, supposing it be so, we ask, "A

figure of what?" Surely it cannot be a figure of persons under the law. Nay, it is a

figure of the very opposite.

And let us mark particularly, the apostle does not say, the law is dead. Nothing of the

kind. The law is not dead, but we are dead to it. We have passed, by the death of

Christ, out of the sphere to which the law belongs. Christ took our place; He was

made under the law; and, on the cross, He was made sin for us. But He died for us,

and we died in Him; and He has thus taken us clean out of the position in which we

were under the dominion of sin, and under law, and introduced us into an entirely new

position, in living association and union with Himself, so that it can be said, "As he is,

so are we, in this world." Is He under law? Assuredly not. Well, neither are we. Has

sin any claim upon Him? None whatever. Neither has it any upon us. We are, as to

our standing, as He is in the presence of God; and therefore to put us back under law

would be a complete overturning of the entire Christian position, and a most positive

and flagrant contradiction of the very plainest statements of holy scripture.

Now, we would, in all simplicity and godly sincerity ask, how could holy living be

promoted by removing the very foundation of Christianity How could indwelling sin

be subdued by putting us under the very system that gave sin power over us? How

could true Christian obedience ever be produced by flying in the face of holy

scripture? We confess we cannot conceive anything more thoroughly preposterous.

Surely a divine end can only be gained by pursuing a divine way. Now God's way of

giving us deliverance from the dominion of sin is by delivering us from under law;

and hence all those who teach that Christians are under law are plainly at issue with

God. Tremendous consideration for all who desire to be teachers of the law!

But let us hear further words from Romans 7. The apostle goes on to say, "For when

we were in the Flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our

members, to bring forth unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, being

dead [or having died] to that wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness

of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter."*

{*The rendering of Romans 7.6 in our Authorised Version is manifestly erroneous,

inasmuch as it teaches that the law is dead, which is not true. "The law is good, if a

man use it lawfully." (1 Tim. 1.) And again, "The law is holy." (Rom. 7) Scripture

never teaches that the law is dead, but it teaches that the believer is dead to the law—

a totally different thing. But, further, [ajpoqanovnte"] cannot possibly apply to the law,

as any well-taught school boy can see at a glance; it applies to us—believers. Were it

the law, the word would be [ajpoqanovnto"]}

Here, again, all is as clear as a sunbeam. What means the expression, "When we were

in the flesh?" Does it, can it mean that we are still in that condition? Clearly not. If I

were to say, "When I was in London," would any one understand that I am in London

still! The thought is absurd.

But what does the apostle mean by the expression, "When we were in the flesh?" He

simply refers to a thing of the past—to a condition that no longer obtains. Are

believers, then, not in the flesh? So scripture emphatically declares. But does this

mean that they are not in the body? Assuredly not. They are in the body, as to the fact

of their existence; but not in the flesh, as to the ground of their standing before God.

In Romans 8 we have the most distinct statement of this point. "So then they that are

in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be

that the Spirit of God dwell in you." Here we have the statement of a most solemn

fact; and the setting forth of a most precious, glorious privilege. "They that are in the

flesh cannot please God." They may be very moral, very admirable, very religious,

very benevolent; but they cannot please God. Their entire position is false. The source

whence all the streams flow is corrupt; the root and stem whence all the branches

emanate are rotten —hopelessly bad. They cannot produce a single atom of good

fruit—fruit that God can accept. "They cannot please God." They must get into an

entirely new position; they must have a new life, new motives, new objects; in a

word, they must be a new creation. How solemn is all this! Let us weigh it thoroughly,

and see if we understand the apostle's words.

But, on the other hand, mark the glorious privilege of all true believers. "Ye are not in

the flesh." Believers are no longer in a position in which they cannot please God.

They have a new nature, a new life, every movement, every outflow of which is

agreeable to God. The very feeblest breathing of the divine life is precious to God. Of

this life, the Holy Ghost is the power, Christ the object, glory the goal, heaven the

home. All is divine, and therefore perfect. True, the believer is liable to err, prone in

himself to wander, capable of sinning. In him, that is in his flesh, dwelleth no good

thing. But his standing is based on the eternal stability of the grace of God, and his

state is met by the divine provision which that grace has made for him, in the precious

atonement and all-prevailing advocacy of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus he is for ever

delivered from that terrible system in which the prominent figures are, "Flesh"—

"Law"—"Sin"—"Death"—melancholy group! most surely. And he is brought into that

glorious scene in which the prominent figures are, "Life"—"Liberty"—''Grace"—

"Peace"—"Righteousness"—"Holiness"—"Glory"—"Christ." "For ye are not come to

the mount that might be touched"—that is the palpable mount—"and that burned with

fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and

the voice of words; which voice they that heard, entreated that the word should not be

spoken to them any more. (For they could not endure that which was commanded.

And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through

with a dart. And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and

quake.) But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the

Heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, the general assembly,

the church of the firstborn [ones] which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge

of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the

new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than Abel."

(Heb. 12.)

Thus we have endeavoured to meet the difficulty of any conscientious reader who, up

to the moment in which he opened this volume, had cherished the conviction that it is

only by putting believers under the law that practical holiness and true obedience can

be attained. We trust he has followed us through the line of scripture evidence which

we have laid before him. If so, he will see that to place believers in such a position is

to do away with the very foundations of Christianity—to abandon grace—to give up

Christ—to go back to the flesh, in which we cannot please God, and to place

ourselves under the curse. In short, the legal system of men is diametrically opposed

to the teaching of the entire New Testament. It was against this system and its

upholders that the blessed apostle Paul, during his whole life, ever testified. He

absolutely abhorred it, and continually denounced it. The law teachers were ever

seeking to sap and undermine his blessed labours, and subvert the souls of his beloved

children in the faith. It is impossible to read his burning sentences in the epistle to the

Galatians, his withering references, in his epistle to the Philippians, or his solemn

warnings in the epistle to the Hebrews, and not see how intense was His abhorrence

of the whole legal system of the law-teachers, and how bitterly he wept over the ruins

of the testimony so dear to his large, loving, devoted heart.

But it is possible that, after all we have written, and notwithstanding the full tide of

scripture evidence to which we have called the readers attention, he may still feel

disposed to ask, "Is there not a danger of unholy laxity and levity if the restraining

power of the law be removed?" To this we reply, God is wiser than we are. He knows

best how to cure laxity and levity, and how to produce the right sort of obedience. He

tried the law, and what did it do? It worked wrath. It caused the offence to abound. It

developed "the motions of sins." It brought in death. It was the strength of sin. It

deprived the sinner of all power. It slew him. It was condemnation. It cursed all who

had to do with it. "As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse." And

all this, not because of any defect in the law, but because of man's total inability to

keep it.

Is it not plain to the reader that neither life, nor righteousness, nor holiness, nor true

Christian obedience could ever be attained under law? Is it possible, after all that has

passed in review before us, that he can have a single question, a single doubt, a single

difficulty We trust not. No one who is willing to bow down to the teaching and

authority of the New Testament can adhere to the legal system, for an hour.

However, ere we turn from this weighty and all important subject, we shall place

before the reader a passage or two of scripture in which the moral glories of

Christianity shine forth with peculiar lustre, in vivid contrast to the entire Mosaic

economy.

First of all, let us take that familiar passage at the opening of the eighth of Romans,

"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. For the

law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and

death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God

sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the

flesh, that the righteousness [dikaivwma] of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk

not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Vv. 1-4.)

Now, we must bear in mind that verse 1 sets forth the standing of every Christian—

his position before God. He is "in Christ Jesus." This settles everything. He is not in

the flesh; he is not under law; he is absolutely and eternally " in Christ Jesus." there

is—there can be, no condemnation. The apostle is not speaking of, or referring to, our

walk: or our state. If he were, he could not possibly speak of "no condemnation." The

most perfect Christian walk that ever was exhibited, the most perfect Christian state

that ever was attained, would afford some ground for judgement and condemnation.

There is not a Christian on the face of the earth who has not, daily, to judge his state

and his walk—-his moral condition and his practical ways. How then could "no

condemnation" ever stand connected with, or be based upon, Christian walk? Utterly

impossible. In order to be free from all condemnation, we must have what is divinely

perfect, and no Christian walk is, or ever was that. Even a Paul had to withdraw his

words. (Acts 23: 5.) He repented of having written a letter. (2 Cor. 7: 8.) A perfect

walk and a perfect state were only found in One. In all beside—even the holiest and

best, failure is found. Hence, therefore, the second clause of Romans 8. must be

rejected. It is not scripture. This, we think, would be seen by any one really taught of

God, apart from all question of mere criticism. Any spiritual mind would detect the

incongruity between the words " no condemnation" and "walk" The two things cannot

be made to harmonise. And here, we doubt not, is just where thousands of pious souls

have been plunged into difficulty as to this really magnificent and emancipating

passage. The joyful sound, "No condemnation" has been robbed of its deep full, and

blessed significance, by a clause introduced by some scribe or copyist whose feeble

vision was, doubtless, dazzled by the brightness of that free, absolute, sovereign grace

which shines in the opening statement of the chapter. How often have we heard such

words as these, "Oh! yes; I know there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ

Jesus. But that is if they walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Now I cannot say

that I walk thus. I long to do so; and I mourn over my failure. I would give worlds to

be able to walk more perfectly; but alas! alas! I have to judge myself—my state, my

walk, my ways, each day, each hour. This being so, I dare not apply to myself the

precious words, 'no condemnation.' I hope to be able to do so, some day, when I have

made more progress in personal holiness; but, in my present state, I should deem it

the very height of presumption to appropriate to myself the precious truth contained

in the first clause of Romans 8."

Such thoughts as these have passed through the minds of most of us, if they have not

been clothed in words. But the simple and conclusive answer to all such legal

reasonings is found in the fact that the second clause of Romans 8: 1 is not scripture

at all; but a very misleading interpolation, foreign to the spirit and genius of

Christianity; opposed to the whole line of argument in the context where it occurs;

and utterly subversive of the solid peace of the Christian. It is a fact well known to all

who are conversant with Biblical criticism, that all the leading authorities are agreed

in rejecting the second clause of Romans 8: 1.* And, in this it is simply a matter of

criticism confirming, as all sound criticism must do, the conclusion at which a really

spiritual mind would arrive, without any knowledge of criticism at all.

{*It may be that the reader feels a little jealous of any interference with our excellent

English Bible. He may, like many others, feel disposed to say, "How is an uneducated

man to know what is scripture and what is not? Must he depend upon scholars and

critics to give him certainty on so grave and important a question? If so, is it not the

same old story of looking to human authority to confirm the word of God?" By no

means. It is a totally different thing. We all know that all copies and translations must

be, in some points, imperfect, as being human; but we believe that the same grace

which gave the word in the original Hebrew and Greek languages, has, most

marvellously, watched over our English translation, so that a poor man, at the back of

a mountain, may rest assured that he possesses in his common English Bible, the

revelation of the mind of God. It is wonderful, after all the labours of scholars and

critics, how few passages, comparatively have had to be touched; and not one

affecting any foundation doctrine of Christianity. God who graciously gave us the

holy scriptures, at the first, has watched over them and preserved them to His church

in the most wonderful manner. Moreover, He has seen fit to make use of the labours

of scholars and critics, from age to age, to clear the sacred text of errors which,

through the infirmity attaching to all human agency, had crept into it. Should these

corrections shake our confidence in the integrity of scripture as a whole, or lead us to

doubt that we possess, in very deed, the word of God? Nay, rather should they lead us

to bless God for His goodness in watching over His word in order to preserve it in its

integrity for His church.}

But, in addition to all that has been advanced, in reference to this question, we cannot

but think that the occurrence of the clause, "who walk not after the flesh, but after the

Spirit, in verse 4, affords abundant evidence of its misplacement in verse 1. We

cannot, for a moment, admit the thought of redundancy in holy scripture. Now, in

verse 4, it is a question of walk—a question of our fulfilling "the righteousness [mark

the word—dikaivwma] of the law, and hence the clause is in its right, because divinely

fitted place. A person who walks in the Spirit—as every Christian ought—fulfils the

righteousness of the law. Love is the fulfilling of the law; and love will lead us to do

what the ten commandments could never effect, namely, to love our enemies. No

lover of holiness, no advocate of practical righteousness, need ever be the least afraid

of losing ought by abandoning the legal ground, and taking his place on the elevated

platform of true Christianity—by turning from mount Sinai to mount Zion—by

passing from Moses to Christ. No; he only reaches a higher source, a deeper spring, a

wider sphere of holiness, righteousness and practical obedience.

And then, if any one should feel disposed to ask, "Does not the line of argument

which we have been pursuing tend to rob the law of its characteristic glory?" We

reply, most assuredly not. So far from this, the law was never so magnified, never so

vindicated, never so established, never so glorified, as by that precious work which

forms the imperishable foundation of all the privileges, the blessings, the dignities

and the glories of Christianity. The blessed apostle anticipates, and answers this very

question, in the earlier part of his epistle to the Romans. "Do we then," he says, "make

void the law through faith. Far be the thought; yea, we establish the law. How could

the law be more gloriously vindicated, honoured and magnified than in the life and

death of the Lord Jesus Christ? Will any one seek, for a moment, to maintain the

extravagant notion that it is magnifying the law to put Christians under it? We fondly

trust the reader will not. Ah! no; all this line of things must be completely abandoned

by those whose privilege it is to walk in the light of the new creation; who know

Christ as their life, and Christ as their righteousness—Christ, their sanctification,

Christ, their great Exemplar, Christ, their model, Christ their all and in all; who find

their motive for obedience not in the fear of the curses of a broken law, but in the love

of Christ, according to those exquisitely beautiful words, "The love of Christ"—not

the law of Moses—"constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all,

then were all dead. And he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live

unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again." (2 Cor. 5.)

Could the law ever produce ought like this? Impossible. But, blessed for ever he the

God of all grace, "What the law could not do"—not because it was not holy, just and

good, but "in that it was weak through the flesh"—the workman was all right, but the

material was rotten and nothing could be made of it; but—"God sending his own Son,

in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the

righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who—as risen with Christ, linked

with Him by the Holy Ghost, in the power of a new and everlasting life—"walk not

after the flesh, but after the Spirit"

This, and only this, is true, practical Christianity; and if the reader will turn to the

second of Galatians, he will find another of those fine, glowing utterances of the

blessed apostle, setting forth, with divine force and fullness, the special glory of

Christian life and walk. It is in connection with his faithful rebuke of the apostle

Peter, at Antioch, when that beloved and honoured servant of Christ, through his

characteristic weakness, had been led to step down, for a moment, from the elevated

moral ground on which the gospel of the grace of God places the soul. We cannot do

better than quote the entire paragraph for the reader. Every sentence of it is pregnant

with spiritual power.

"But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face"—He did not go

behind his back to disparage and depreciate him in the view of others, even though—

"He was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the

Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them

which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him;

insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. But when I

saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto

Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not

as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? We who are

Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by

works of law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ,

that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by works of law; for by works

of law shall no flesh be justified. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we

ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid [or

far be the thought, [mh gevnoito] For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I

make myself a transgressor"—For, if the things were right, why destroy them? And, if

they were wrong, why build them again?—"For I, through law, am dead to law, that I

might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but

Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live" not by the law, as

a rule of life, but—"by the faith of the Son, of God, who loved me, and gave himself

for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by law, then

Christ is dead in vain"—or has died for nothing, [dwrea;n] (Gal. 2: 11-21)

Here, then, we have one of the very finest statements of the truth as to practical

Christianity, anywhere to be found. But, what specially claims our attention, just now,

is the very marked and beautiful way in which the gospel of God opens up the path of

the true believer between the two fatal errors of legality, on the one side, and carnal

laxity, on the other. Ver. 19 in the passage just quoted, contains the divine remedy for

both these deadly evils. To all—whoever, or wherever they be who would seek to put

the Christian under the law, in any shape, or for any object whatsoever, our apostle

exclaims in the ears of dissembling Jews with Peter at their head, and as an answer to

all the law-teachers of every age—"I am dead to law."

What can the law have to say to a dead man: Nothing. The law applies to a living

man, to curse him and kill him, because he has not kept it. It is a very grave mistake

indeed to teach that the law is dead or abolished. It is nothing of the sort. It is alive in

all its force, in all its stringency, in all its majesty, in all its; unbending dignity. It

would be a very serious mistake to say that the Law of England, against murder, is

dead. But if a man is dead, the law no longer applies to him, inasmuch as he has

passed entirely out of its range.

But how is the believer dead to law? the apostle replies, "I through law am dead to

law. The law had brought the sentence of death into his conscience; as we read in

Romans 7. "I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin

revived, and I died. And the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be

unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it

slew me."

But there is more than this. The apostle goes on to say, "I am Crucified with Christ:

nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." And, here is the triumphant

answer of the Christian to those who say that, inasmuch as the Mosaic law is

abrogated, there is no longer any demand for the legal restraint under which the Jews

were called to live. To all who would seek liberty for self-indulgence, the answer is,

"I am dead to law," not that I might give a loose rein to the flesh, but " that I might

live unto God."

Thus nothing can be more complete, nothing more morally beautiful than the answer

of true Christianity to legality on the one hand, and licentiousness on the other. Self

crucified; sin condemned; new life in Christ; a life to be lived to God; a life of faith in

the Son of God; the motive spring of that life, the constraining love of Christ. What

can exceed this? Will any one, in view of the moral glories of Christianity contend for

putting believers under the law, putting them back into the flesh—back into the old

creation—back to the sentence of death in the conscience—back to bondage,

darkness, distance, fear of death, condemnation?

Is it possible that any one who has ever tasted, even in the very feeblest measure, the

heavenly sweetness of God's most blessed gospel, can accept the wretched mongrel

system, composed of half law and half grace, which Christendom offers to the soul?

How terrible to find the children of God, members of the body of Christ, temples of

the Holy Ghost, robbed of their glorious privileges and burdened with a heavy yoke

which, as Peter says, "Neither our fathers nor we were able to bear." We earnestly

entreat the Christian reader to consider what has been placed before him. Search the

scriptures; and if you find these things to be so, then fling aside for ever the grave

clothes in which Christendom enwraps its deluded votaries, and walk in the liberty

wherewith Christ makes His people free; tear off the bandage with which it covers the

eyes of men, and gaze on the moral glories which shine with such heavenly brilliancy,

in the gospel of the grace of God.

And then let us prove, by a holy, happy, gracious walk and conversation, that grace

can do what law never could. Let our practical ways from day to day, in the midst of

the scenes, circumstances, relationships and associations in which we are called to

live, be the most convincing reply to all who contend for the law as a rule of life.

Finally, let it be our earnest, loving desire and aim to seek, in so far as in us lies, to

lead all the dear children of God into a clearer knowledge of their standing and

privileges in a risen and glorified Christ. May the Lord send out His light and His

truth, in the power of the Holy Ghost, and gather His beloved people round Himself to

walk in the joy of His salvation, in the purity and light of His presence, and to wait for

His coming!

We do not attempt to offer any apology for what may, perhaps, appear to some of our

readers to be a very lengthened digression from the fourth chapter of Deuteronomy.

The fact is we have been led into what we judge to be a very needed line of practical

truth by the very first verse of the chapter, as quoted at the opening of this section. We

felt it absolutely necessary, in speaking of the weighty question of obedience, to seek

to place it on its true basis. If Israel was called to "hearken and do," how much more

are we who are so richly blessed—yea "blessed with all spiritual blessings, in the

heavenlies in Christ Jesus." We are called to obedience, even to the obedience of

Jesus Christ, as we have it in? Peter 1 "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God

the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the

blood of Jesus Christ." We are called to the very same character of obedience as that

which marked the life of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Of course, in Him,

there was no hindering influence, as alas! there is in us. But as to the character of the

obedience it is the same.

This is an immense privilege. We are called to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. "He that

saith he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk even as he walked." Now, in

pondering the path of our Lord, in considering His marvellous life, there is one point

which demands our profound and reverent attention—a point which connects itself, in

a very special manner, with the book of Deuteronomy; and that is the way in which

He ever used the word of God—the place which He ever gave to the holy scriptures.

This we consider to be a subject of the last possible importance, at the present

moment. It holds a prominent place throughout the lovely book with which we are at

present engaged. Indeed, as we have already remarked, it characterises the book, and

marks it off from the three books which precede it in the divine canon. We shall find

proofs and illustrations of this, in abundance, as we pass along. Everywhere, the word

of God gets its own paramount Place, as the only rule, the only standard, the only

authority for man. It meets him in every position, in every relationship, in every

sphere of action, and in every stage of his moral and spiritual history. It tells him what

he ought to do, and what he ought not. It furnishes him with ample guidance in every

difficulty. It descends, as we shall see, to the most minute details—such details,

indeed, as fill as with amazement to think that the High and Mighty One that

inhabiteth eternity could occupy Himself with them—to think that the Omnipotent

Creator and Sustainer of the vast universe could stoop to legislate about a bird's nest.

(Deut. 22: 6.)

Such is the word of God, that peerless Revelation, that perfect and inimitable volume

which stands alone in the history of literature. And, we may say that one special

charm of the book of Deuteronomy, one peculiar feature of interest is the way in

which it exalts the word of God, and enforces upon us the holy and happy duty of

unqualified and unhesitating obedience.

Yes; we repeat, and would fervently emphasise the words—unqualified and

unhesitating obedience. We would have these wholesome words sounded in the ears

of Christian professors throughout the length and breadth of the earth. We live in a

day specially marked by the setting up of man's reason, man's judgement, man's will.

In short, we live in what the inspired apostle calls, "man's day." On all hands we are

encountered by lofty and boastful words about human reason, and the right of every

man to judge and reason and think for himself. The thought of being absolutely and

completely governed by the authority of holy scripture is treated with sovereign

contempt by thousands of men who are the religious guides and teachers of the

professing church. For any one to assert his reverent belief in the plenary inspiration,

the all-sufficiency, and the absolute authority of scripture, is quite sufficient to stamp

him as an ignorant, narrow-minded man, if not a semi-lunatic, in the judgement of

some who occupy the very highest position in the professing church. In our

universities, our colleges and our schools, the moral glory of the Divine Volume is

fast fading away, and instead thereof our young people are led and taught to walk in

the light of science, the light of human reason. The word of God itself is impiously

placed at the bar of man's judgement, and reduced to the level of the human

understanding. Everything is rejected which soars beyond man's feeble vision.

Thus the word of God is virtually set aside. For, clearly if scripture is to be submitted

to human judgement, it ceases to be the word of God. It is the very height of folly to

think of submitting a divine and therefore perfect revelation to any tribunal

whatsoever. Either God has given us a revelation, or He has not. If He has, that

revelation must be paramount, supreme, above and beyond all question, absolutely

unquestionable, unerring, divine. To its authority all must bow down, without a single

question. To suppose, for a moment, that man is competent to judge the word of God,

able to pronounce upon what is, or what is not worthy of God to say, or to write, is

simply to put man in God's place. And this is precisely what the devil is aiming at,

although many of his instruments are not aware that they are helping on his designs.

But the question is continually cropping up before us, "How can we be sure that we

have, in our English Bible, the bona fide revelation of God?" We reply, God can make

us sure of it. If He does not, no one can. If He does, no one need. This is our ground;

and we deem it unassailable. We should like to ask all those who start this infidel

question—for such we must honestly call it—supposing that God cannot give us the

absolute certainty that, in our common English Bible, we do actually possess His own

most precious, priceless revelation, then whither are we to turn? Of course in such a

weighty matter, on which momentous and eternal consequences hang, a single doubt

is torture and misery. If I am not sure of possessing a revelation from God, I am left

without a single ray of light for my path. I am plunged in darkness, gloom and mental

misery. What am I to do? Can man help me by his learning, his wisdom or his reason?

Can he satisfy my soul by his decision? Can he solve my difficulty, answer my

question, remove my doubt, dissipate my fear? Is man better able than God to Give

me the assurance that God has spoken?

The idea is absolutely monstrous—monstrous in the very highest degree. The plain

fact is this, reader, if God cannot give us the certainty that He has spoken, we are left

without His word altogether. If we must turn to human authority, call it what you

please, in order to guarantee the word of God to our souls, then that authority is

higher and greater, safer and more trustworthy than the word which it guarantees.

Blessed be God, it is not so. He has spoken to our hearts. He has given us His word,

and that word carries its own credentials with it. It stands in no need of letters of

commendation from a human hand. What! Turn to man to accredit the word of the

living God! apply to a worm to give us the assurance that our God has spoken to us in

His word! Away for ever with the blasphemous notion, and let our whole moral

being—all our ransomed powers adore the matchless grace, the sovereign mercy that

has not left us to grope in the darkness of our own minds, or to be bewildered by the

conflicting opinions of men; but has given us His own perfect and most precious

revelation, the divine light of His word to guide our feet into the path of certainty and

peace; to enlighten our understandings and comfort our hearts, to preserve us from

every form of doctrinal error and moral pravity, and finally, to conduct us into the

rest, blessedness and glory of His own heavenly kingdom. All praise to His Name,

throughout the everlasting ages!

But we must bear in mind that the marvellous privilege of which we have spoken—

and truly it is most marvellous—is the basis of a most solemn responsibility. If it be

true that God has, in His infinite goodness, given us a perfect revelation of His mind,

then what should be our attitude in reference to it? Are we to sit in judgement upon

it? Are we to discuss, argue or reason? Alas! for all who do so. They will find

themselves on terribly dangerous ground. The only true, the only proper, the only safe

attitude for man in the presence of God's revelation is obedience—simple,

unqualified, hearty obedience. This is the only right thing for us; and this is the thing

which is pleasing to God. The path of obedience is the path of sweetest privilege, rest

and blessing This path can be trodden by the merest babe in Christ, as well as by the "

young men and the "fathers." There is the one straight and blessed path for all.

Narrow it is, no doubt; but oh! it is safe, bright and elevated. The light of our Fathers

approving countenance ever shines upon it; and in this blessed light the obedient soul

finds the most triumphant answer to all the reproaches of those who talk, in high

sounding words, about breadth of mind, liberality of thought, freedom of opinion,

progress, development, and such-like. The obedient child of God can afford to put up

with all this, because he feels and knows, he believes and is sure that he is treading a

path indicated for him by the precious word of God. He is not careful to explain or

apologise, feeling assured that those who object, oppose, and reproach are utterly

incapable of understanding or appreciating his explanation. And, moreover, he feels

that it is no part of his duty to explain or defend. He has but to obey; and as for

objectors and opposers, he has but to refer them to his Master.

This makes it all so simple, so plain, so certain. It delivers the heart from a thousand

difficulties and perplexities. If we were to set about replying to all who undertake to

raise questions or start difficulties, our whole life would be spent in the profitless

task. We may rest assured the best possible answer to all infidel objectors, is the

steady, earnest, onward path of unqualified obedience. Let us leave infidels, sceptics

and rationalists to their own worthless theories, while we, with unswerving purpose,

and firm step, pursue that blessed path of childlike obedience which, like the shining

light, shineth more and more, unto the perfect day. Thus shall our minds be kept

tranquil, for the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall garrison our

hearts and minds, through Christ Jesus. When the word of God which is settled for

ever in heaven is hidden deep down in our hearts, there will be a calm certainty, a

holy stability, and a marked progress in our Christian career which will afford the best

possible answer to the gainsayer, the most effectual testimony to the truth of God; and

the most convincing evidence and solid confirmation to every wavering heart.

The chapter before us abounds in the most solemn exhortation to Israel, grounded

upon the fact of their having heard the word of God. Thus in the second verse, we

have a sentence or two which should be deeply engraved on the tablets of every

Christian's heart. "Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall

ye diminish ought from it."

These words involve two grand facts with regard to the word of God. It is not to be

added to, for the simplest of all reasons, because there is nothing lacking. It is not to

be diminished, because there is nothing superfluous. Everything we want is there; and

nothing that is there can be done without. "Add thou not unto his words, lest he

reprove thee, and thou be found a liar." To suppose that ought can be added to God's

word is, upon the very face of it, to deny that it is God's word; and, on the other hand,

if we admit that it is the word of God, then it follows of necessity—blessed necessity,

that we could not afford to do without a single sentence of it. There would be a blank

in the volume which no human hand could fill up, if a single clause were dropped

from its place in the canon. We have all we want; and hence, we must not add. We

want it all; and, must not diminish.

How deeply important is all this, in this day of human tampering with the word of

God! How blessed to know that we have in our possession a book so divinely perfect

that not a sentence, not a clause, not a word can be added to it. We speak not, of

course, of translations or versions, but of the scriptures as originally given of God—

His own perfect revelation. To this not a touch can be given As well might a human

finger have dared to touch the creation of God, on the morning when all the sons of

God sang together, as to add a jot or a tittle to the inspired word of God. And, on the

other hand, to take away a jot or a tittle from it, is to say that the Holy Ghost has

penned what was unnecessary. Thus the holy volume is divinely guarded at both ends.

It is securely fenced round about so that no rude hand should touch its sacred

contents.

"What!" It may be said in reply, "Do you mean to say that every sentence from the

opening lines of Genesis, to the close of Revelation, is divinely inspired" Yes; that is,

precisely, the ground we take. We claim, for every line between the covers of the

volume, a divine origin. To question this is to attack the very pillars of the Christian

faith. A single flaw in the canon would be sufficient to prove it not of God. To touch a

single stone in the arch is to bring down the whole fabric in ruins around us. "All

scripture is divinely inspired; and"—being so, must be—"profitable for doctrine, for

reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be

perfect [artio"], throughly furnished unto all good works." (2 Tim. 3.)

This stronghold must, on no account, be surrendered. Nay, it must be tenaciously

held, in the face of every infidel assault. If it be given up, all is hopelessly lost. We

have nothing to lean upon. Either the word of God is perfect, or we are left without

any divine foundation for our faith. If there be a word too much or a word too little in

the revelation which God has given us, then verily we are left like a ship without

compass, rudder or chart, to be drifted about on the wild, tumultuous ocean of infidel

thought. In short, if we have not an absolutely perfect revelation, we are of all men

most miserable.

But, we may still be challenged with such a question as this, "Do you believe that the

long string of names, in the opening Chapters of 1 Chronicles—those genealogical

tables are divinely inspired? were they written for our learning? and, if so, what are

we to learn from them?" We unhesitatingly declare our reverent belief in the divine

inspiration of all these; and we have no doubt whatever but that their value, interest

and importance will be fully proved, by-and by, in the history of that people to whom

they specially apply.

And, then, as to what we are to learn from those genealogical records, we believe they

teach us a most precious lesson as to Jehovah's faithful care of His people Israel, and

His loving interest in them and in all that concerns them. He watches over them, from

generation to generation, even though they are scattered and lost to human view. He

knows all about "the twelve tribes," and He will manifest them in due time, and plant

them in their destined inheritance, in the land of Canaan, according to His promise to

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Now, is not all this full of blessed instruction for us? Is it not full of comfort for our

souls? Is it not most confirmatory of our faith to mark the gracious pains-taking of our

God, His minute care and vigilance, in reference to His earthly people? Most

assuredly it is. And ought not our hearts to be interested in all that interests the heart

of our Father? Are we not to take an interest in anything save what directly concerns

ourselves? Where is there a loving child who would not take an interest in all his

father's concerns, and delight to read every line that drops from his father's pen?

Let us not be misunderstood. We do not, by any means, attempt to imply that all

portions of the word of God are of like interest and importance to us. We do not

presume to assert that we are to hang with equal interest over the first chapter of First

Chronicles and the seventeenth chapter of John or the eighth chapter of Romans. It

seems hardly necessary to make such a statement, inasmuch as no such question is

raised. But what we assert is that each of the above scriptures is divinely inspired, one

just as much as another. And not only so, but we further assert, that? 1 Chronicles 1

and such-like passages fill a niche which John 17 cannot fill; and do a work which

Romans 8 cannot do.

And, finally, above and beyond all, we must remember that we are not competent to

judge what is, and what is not worthy of a place in the inspired canon We are ignorant

and short-sighted; and the very portion which we might deem beneath the dignity of

inspiration may have some very important bearing upon the history of God's ways

with the world at large, or with His people in particular.

In short, it simply resolves itself into this, with every truly pious soul, every really

spiritual mind, we reverently believe in the divine inspiration of every line in our

precious Bible, from beginning to end. And we believe this not on the ground of any

human authority whatsoever. To believe in holy scripture because it comes to us

accredited by any authority upon earth, would be to set that authority above holy

scripture, inasmuch as that which guarantees has more weight, more value than the

thing guaranteed. Hence, we should no more think of looking to human authority to

confirm the word of God, than we should of bringing out a rush-light to prove that the

sun was shining.

No, reader, we must be clear and decided as to this. It must be, in the judgement of

our souls, s great cardinal truth which we hold dearer than life itself—the plenary

inspiration of holy scripture. Thus shall we have wherewithal to answer the cool

audacity of modern scepticism, rationalism and infidelity. We do not mean to say that

we shall be able to convince infidels. God will deal with them in His own way, and

convince them with His own unanswerable arguments, in His own time. It is labour

and time lost to argue with such men. But we feel persuaded that the most dignified

and effective answer to infidelity, in its every phase, will be found in the calm repose

of the heart that rests in the blessed assurance that "All scripture is given by

inspiration of God" And again, "Whatsoever things were written aforetime were

written for our learning; that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might

have hope." The former of these precious quotations proves that scripture has come

from God; the latter, that it has come to us. both together. So to prove that we must

neither add to nor take from the word of God. There is nothing lacking, and nothing

superfluous. The Lord be praised for this solid foundation truth, and for all the

comfort and consolation that flows from it to every true believer!

We shall now proceed to quote for the reader a few of the passages in this fourth

chapter of Deuteronomy which so emphatically set forth the value, importance and

authority of the word of God. In them, as in the whole of this book, we shall see that it

is not so much a question of any particular ordinance, rite or ceremony, but of the

weight, solemnity and dignity of the word of God itself, whatever that word may set

before us.

"Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgements, even as the Lord my God

commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it."—Their

conduct was to be ruled and formed, in all things, by the divine commandments.

Immense principle for them, for us, for all!—"Keep, therefore, and do them; for this

is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear

all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding

people."

Let us specially weigh these words. Their wisdom and their understanding were to

consist in their simply keeping and doing the divine statutes and judgements. It was

not by learned discussion or arguments that their wisdom was to be displayed; but by

child-like unquestioning obedience. All the wisdom was in the statutes and

judgements, not in their thoughts and reasonings respecting them. The profound and

marvellous wisdom of God was seen in His word, and this was what the nations were

to see and admire. The light of the divine judgements shining in the conduct and

character of the people of God was to draw forth the admiring testimony of the

nations around.

Alas! alas! how differently it turned out! How little did the nations of the earth learn,

from the actings of Israel, about God and His word! Yea, His Name was blasphemed

continually through their ways. Instead of occupying the high and holy and happy

ground of loving obedience to the divine commandments, they descended to the level

of the nations around them, adopted their habits, worshipped their gods, and walked

in their ways; so that those nations instead of seeing the lofty wisdom, purity, and

moral glory of the divine statutes, saw only the weakness, folly, and moral

degradation of a people who made their boast in being the depository of those oracles

which condemned themselves.(Rom. 2: 3)

Still, blessed be God, His word must stand for ever, however His people may fail to

carry it out. His standard is perfect, and therefore must never be lowered; and if the

power of His word be not seen in the ways of His people, it will shine in the

condemnation of those ways, and ever abide for the guidance, comfort, strength and

blessing of any who desire, however feebly or falteringly to tread the path of

obedience.

However, in the chapter with which we are at present occupied, the lawgiver seeks to

set the divine standard faithfully before the people, in all its dignity and moral glory.

He fails not to unfold to them the true effect of obedience; while he solemnly warns

them against the danger of turning away from the holy commandments of God. Hear

his powerful pleadings with their hearts. "What nation is there so great," he says,

"who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call

upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgements so

righteous, as all this law, which I set before you this day?"

Here is true moral greatness, at all times and in all places, for a nation, for a people,

for a household, or for an individual. To have the living God nigh unto us; to have the

sweet privilege of calling upon Him, in all things; to have His power and His mercy

ever exercised toward us; to have the light of His blessed countenance shining

approvingly upon us, in all our ways; to have the moral effect of His righteous statutes

and holy commandments seen in our practical career, from day to day; to have Him

manifesting Himself to us, and making His abode with us.

What human language can adequately set forth the deep blessedness of such

privileges as these? And yet they are placed by infinite grace, within the reach of

every child of God on the face of the earth. We do not mean to assert that every child

of God enjoys them. Far from it. They are reserved, as we have already seen, for those

who, through grace, are enabled to render a loving, hearty, reverent obedience to the

divine word. Here lies the precious secret of the whole matter. It was true for Israel of

old; and it is true for the church now; it was true for the individual soul then; and it is

true for the individual soul now that divine complacency is the priceless reward of

human obedience. And, we may further add that obedience is the bounden duty and

high privilege of all God's people, and of each in particular. Come what may, implicit

obedience is our privilege and our duty, divine complacency our present sweet

reward.

But the poor human heart is prone to wander; and manifold influences are at work

around us to draw us off from the narrow path of obedience. We need not marvel,

therefore, at the solemn and oft-repeated admonitions addressed by Moses, to the

hearts and consciences of his hearers. He pours his large loving heart out to the

congregation so dear to him, in glowing, earnest, soul-stirring accents. "Only take

heed to thyself," he says, "and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things

which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life;

but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons."

These are weighty words for all of us. They set before us two things of unspeakable

importance, namely, individual and domestic responsibility—personal and household

testimony. God's people of old were responsible to keep the heart with all diligence,

lest it should let slip the precious word of God. And not only so, but they were

solemnly responsible to instruct their children and their grandchildren in the same.

Are we, with all our light and privilege, less responsible than Israel of old? Surely not.

We are imperatively called upon to give ourselves to the careful study of the word of

God. To apply our hearts to it. It is not enough that we hurry over a few verses or a

chapter, as a piece of daily religious routine. This will not meet the case at all. We

want to make the Bible our supreme and absorbing study; that in which we delight, in

which we find our refreshment and recreation.

It is to be feared that some of us read the Bible as a matter of duty, while we find our

delight and refreshment in the newspaper and light literature. Need we wonder at our

shallow knowledge of scripture? How could we know ought of the living depths or

the moral glories of a volume which we merely take up as a cold matter of duty, and

read a few verses with a yawning indifference, while, at the same time, the newspaper

or the sensational novel is literally devoured?

It will, perhaps, be said in reply, "We cannot be always reading the Bible." Would

those who thus speak say, "We cannot be always reading the newspaper or the novel"?

And, we would further inquire, what must be the actual state of a person who can say,

"We cannot be always reading the Bible"? Can he be in a healthy condition of soul?

Can he really love the word of God? Can he have any just sense of its preciousness,

its excellence, its moral glories? Impossible.

What mean the following words to Israel, "Therefore shall ye lay up these my words

in your heart, and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they

may be as frontlets between your eyes!" The "heart"—the "soul"—the" hand"—the

"eyes"—all engaged about the precious word of God. This was real work. It was to be

no empty formality, no barren routine. The whole man was to be given up, in holy

devotion, to the statutes and judgements of God.

"And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine

house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest

up. And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates"

Do we, Christians, enter into such words as these? Has the word of God such a place,

in our hearts, in our homes, and in our habits? Do those who enter our houses, or

come in contact with us in daily life, see that the word of God is paramount with us?

Do those with; whom we do business see that we are governed by the precepts of holy

scripture? Do our servants and our children see that we live in the very atmosphere of

scripture, and that our whole character is formed and our conduct governed by it?

These are searching questions for our hearts, beloved Christian reader. Let us not put

them away from us. We may rest assured there is no more correct indicator of our

moral and spiritual condition than that afforded by our treatment of the word of God.

If we do not love it—love to study it—thirst after it—delight in—long for the quiet

hour in the which we can hang over its sacred page, and drink in its most precious

teaching—meditate upon it, in the closet, in the family, in the street; in short, if we do

not breathe its holy atmosphere—if we could ever give utterance to such a sentiment

as that Given above, that "We cannot be always reading the Bible," then, verily, we

have urgent need to look well to our spiritual state, for we are sadly out of health The

new nature loves the word of God—earnestly desires it; as we read in? Peter 2. "As

new born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby."

This is the true idea. If the sincere milk of the word be not sought after, diligently

used and eagerly fed upon, we must be in a low, unhealthy, dangerous condition of

soul. There may not be anything outwardly wrong in our conduct; we may not be

publicly dishonouring the Lord, in our ways; but we are grieving His loving heart by

our gross neglect of His word, which is but another term for the neglect of Himself. It

is the very height of folly to talk of loving Christ, if we do not love, and live upon His

word. It is a delusion to imagine that the new life can be in a healthy prosperous

condition where the word of God is habitually neglected in the closet and the family.

We do not, of course, mean that no other book but the Bible should be read—or we

should not pen these "Notes"—but nothing demands greater watchfulness than the

matter of reading. All things are to be done, in the Name of Jesus, and to the glory of

God; and this is amongst the "all things." We should read no book that we cannot read

to the glory of God, and on which we cannot ask God's blessing.

We feel that this entire subject demands the most serious consideration of all God's

people; and we trust that the Spirit of God may use our meditation on the chapter

before us to stir up our hearts and consciences in reference to what is due to the word

of God, both in our hearts and in our houses.

No doubt, if it has its right place in the heart, it will have its right place also in the

house. But if there be no acknowledgment of the word of God in the bosom of the

family, it is hard to believe that it has its right place in the heart. Heads of houses

should ponder this matter seriously. We are most fully persuaded that there ought to

be, in every Christian household, a daily acknowledgment of God and His word.

Some may, perhaps, look upon it as bondage, as legality, as religious routine to have

regular family worship. We would ask such objectors, is it bondage for the family to

assemble at meals? Are the family reunions round the social board ever regarded as a

wearisome duty—a piece of dull routine? Certainly not, if the family be a well

ordered and happy one. Why then should it be regarded as a burdensome thing for the

head of a Christian household to gather his children and his servants around him and

read a few verses of the precious word of God, and breathe a few words of prayer

before the throne of grace? We believe it to be a habit in perfect accordance with the

teaching of both the Old and the New Testaments—a habit grateful to the heart of

God—a holy, blessed, edifying habit.

What should we think of a professing Christian who never prayed, never read the

word of God, in private? Could we possibly regard him as a happy, healthy, true

Christian? Assuredly not. Indeed we should seriously question the existence of divine

life in such a soul. Prayer and the word of God are absolutely essential to healthy

vigorous Christian life: so that a man who habitually neglects these must be in an

utterly dead state.

Now, if it be thus, in reference to an individual, how can a family be regarded as in a

right state where there is no family reading, no family prayer, no family

acknowledgment of God or His word? Can we conceive a God-fearing household

going on from Lord's day morning to Saturday night, without any collective

recognition of the One to whom they owe everything? Day after day rolls on—

domestic duties are attended to—the family assemble regularly at meals, but there is

no thought of summoning the household round the word of God, or round the mercy-

seat. We ask where is the difference between such a family and any poor heathen

household? Is it not most sad, most deplorable to find those who make the very

highest profession, and who take their places at the Lord's Table, yet living in the

gross neglect of family reading, family worship?

Reader, are you the head of a household If so, what are your thoughts on this subject?

And what is your line of action? Have you family reading and family prayer, daily in

your house? If not bear with us when we ask you—why not? Search and see what is

the real root of this matter. Has your heart declined from God, from His word and His

ways? Do you read and pray in private? Do you love the word and prayer? Do you

find delight in them? If so, how is it you neglect them in your household? Perhaps you

seek to excuse yourself on the ground of nervousness and timidity. If so, look to the

Lord to enable you to overcome the weakness. Just cast yourself on His unfailing

grace, and gather your household around you, at a certain hour, each day, read a few

verses of scripture and breathe half-a-dozen words of prayer; or if you cannot do this

at first, just let the family kneel for a few moments, in silence, before the throne.

Anything, in short, like a family acknowledgment a family testimony—anything but a

godless, careless, prayerless life in your household. Do, dear friend, suffer the word of

exhortation in this matter. Let us entreat you to begin at once, looking to God to help

you, as He most assuredly will, for He never fails a really trusting, dependent heart.

Do not, any longer, go on neglecting God and His word in your family circle. It is

really terrible. Let no arguments about bondage, legality, or formalism weigh with

you, for a moment. We almost feel disposed to exclaim, "Blessed bondage!" If indeed

it be bondage to read the word, we cordially welcome it, and fearlessly glory in it.

But, no; we cannot for a moment, regard it in any such light. We believe it to be a

most delightful privilege for every one whom God has set at the head of a household

to gather all the members of that household around him and read a portion of the

blessed book, and pour out his heart in prayer to God. We believe it is specially the

duty of the head so to do. It is by no means necessary to make it a long wearisome

service. As a rule, both in our houses and in our public assemblies, short, fresh,

fervent exercises are by far the most edifying.

But this, of course, is an open question as to which we merely give our judgement

which must go for what it is worth. The length and character of the service must, in

every case, be left to the person who conducts it. But we do, most earnestly, trust that

if these lines should be scanned by any one who is the head of a household, and if he

has hitherto neglected the holy privilege of family worship-family reading, he will,

henceforth, do so no more. May he be enabled to say, with Joshua, "Let others do as

they will, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" It is not, surely, that we

would lead any to imagine that the mere act of family reading takes in all that is

comprehended in that weighty sentence, "We will serve the Lord." Far from it. That

blessed service takes in everything belonging to our private and domestic history. It

takes in the most minute details of practical daily life. All this is most true and

invaluable. But we are most thoroughly persuaded that nothing can go right in any

household in which family reading and family prayer are habitually neglected.

It may be said that there are many families who seem very particular about their

morning and evening reading and prayer, and yet their whole domestic history, from

morning till night, is a flagrant contradiction of their so-called religious service. It

may be that the head of the house, instead of shedding sunlight upon the family circle,

is morose in his temper, rude and coarse in his manners, rough and contradictory to

his wife, arbitrary and severe to his children, unreasonable and exacting to his

servants, finding fault with what is laid on the table, after having asked God's blessing

upon it; and, in short, in every way giving the lie to his reading and his prayer in the

family. So also as to the wife and the mother; and the children and the servants. The

whole domestic economy is out of order. There is disorder and confusion; meals are

unpunctual; there is a want of kindly consideration one of another; the children are

rude, selfish and wilful; the servants are thoughtless, wasteful and disobedient, if not

much worse. The tone, atmosphere, and style of the entire establishment are

unchristian, ungodly, utterly unbecoming.

And then when you travel outside the domestic circle, and mark the conduct of the

heads and members of the family toward those outside—mark their business, if they

be in business; hear the testimony of those who deal with them, as to the quality of

their goods, the style and character of their work; the spirit and temper in which they

carry on their business; such grasping and griping, such covetousness, such

commercial trickery; nothing of God, nothing of Christ, nothing to distinguish them

from the most thorough worldling around; yea, the conduct of those very worldlings,

of those who would never think of such a thing as family worship, would put them to

shame.

Under such painful and humiliating circumstances, what of the family worship-the

family reading—the family altar? Alas! it is an empty formality, a powerless,

worthless, unseemly proceeding—in place of being a morning and evening sacrifice,

it is a morning and evening lie—a solemn mockery —an insult to God.

All this is sadly true. There is a terrible lack of household testimony—of common

practical righteousness in our families and in the entire economy of our houses. There

is but little of the white raiment-the fine linen, which is the righteousness of saints.

We seem to forget those weighty words of the inspired apostle, in Romans 14. "The

kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the

Holy Ghost." Some of us seem to think that, whenever we meet with the word

"righteousness," it must needs mean the righteousness of God in which we stand, or

righteousness imputed to us. This is a very great mistake indeed. We must remember

there is a practical and human side of this question. There is the subjective as well as

the objective—the walk as well as the standing—the condition as well as the position.

These things must never be separated. It is of little use to set up, or seek to maintain a

family altar amid the ruins of family testimony. It is nothing short of a hideous

caricature to begin and end with so-called family worship a day characterised

throughout by ungodliness and unrighteousness, levity, folly and vanity. Can ought be

more unsightly or more miserably inconsistent than an evening spent in song singing,

charades and other light games, closed up with a contemptible bit of religion in the

shape of reading and prayer?

All this line of things is most deplorable. It ought not to be found in connection with

the Holy Name of Christ, with His assembly, or the holy exercises of His Table. We

must measure everything in our private life, in our domestic economy, in our daily

history, in all our intercourse, and in all our business transactions, with that one

standard, namely, the glory of Christ. Our one grand question, in reference to

everything that comes before us, or solicits our attention must be, "Is this worthy of

the Holy Name which is called upon me?" If not, let us not touch it; yea, let us turn

our back upon it with stern decision, and flee from it with holy energy Let us not

listen, for a moment, to the contemptible question, "What harm is there in it?"

Nothing but harm, if Christ be not in it. No truly devoted heart would ever entertain—

much less put such a question. Whenever you hear any one speaking thus, you may, at

once, conclude that Christ is not the governing object of the heart.

We trust the reader is not weary of all this homely, practical truth. We believe it is

loudly called for in this day of high profession. We have all of us much need to

consider our ways, to look well to the real state of our hearts as to Christ; for here lies

the true secret of the whole matter. If the heart be not true to Him, nothing can be

right—nothing in the private life, nothing in the family, nothing in the business,

nothing in the assembly, nothing anywhere. But if the heart be true to Him all will

be—must be right.

No marvel, therefore, if the blessed apostle, when he reaches the close of that

wonderful epistle to the Corinthians, sums all up with this solemn declaration, "If any

man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha" In the course of

his letter he deals with various forms of doctrinal error and moral pravity; but when

he comes to the close, instead of pronouncing his solemn sentence upon any

particular error or evil, he hurls it with holy indignation against any one, no matter

who or what, who does not love the Lord Jesus Christ. Love to Christ is the grand

safe-guard against every form of error and evil. A heart filled with Christ has no room

for ought beside; but if there be no love to Him, there is no security against the

wildest error, or the worst form of moral evil.

We must now return to our chapter.

The attention of the people is specially called to the solemn scenes at Mount Horeb—

scenes which should surely have deeply and abidingly impressed their hearts.

"Specially the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord

said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words"—

the grand and all important point for Israel of old, for the church now—for each, for

all, at all times and in all places, is to be brought into direct, living contact with the

eternal word of the living God, to the end—"that they may learn to fear me all the

days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children"

It is very beautiful to note the intimate connection between hearing God's word and

fearing His Name. It is one of those great root principles which never change, never

lose their power or their intrinsic value. The word and the Name go together; and the

heart that loves the one will reverence the other, and bow down to its holy authority,

in all things. "He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings." "He that saith, I know

him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But

whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected." (John 14; 1 John

2.) Every true lover of God will treasure up His word in the heart, and where the word

is thus lovingly treasured in the heart, its hallowed influence will be seen in the whole

life, character and conduct. God's object in giving His word is that it may govern our

conduct, form our character and shape our way; and if His word has not this practical

effect upon us it is utterly vain for us to speak of loving Him; yea, it is nothing short

of positive mockery which He must, sooner or later, resent.

And let us note particularly the solemn responsibility of Israel as to their children.

They were not only to "hear" and "learn" for themselves; but they were also to teach

their children. This is a universal and abiding duty which cannot be neglected with

impunity. God attaches very great importance to this matter. We hear Him saying as

to Abraham, "I know him, that he will command his children and his household after

him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgement; that the

Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him." (Gen. 18)

These words are most important, as setting before us the divine estimate of domestic

training, and family piety. In all ages, and under all dispensations, God has been

pleased to give expression to His approbation of the proper education of the children

of His people—their faithful training according to His holy word. We find no such

thing sanctioned in scripture, as children being allowed to grow up in ignorance, and

carelessness, and wilfulness. Some professing Christians, under the baneful influence

of a certain school of theology, seem to think that it is, in some way, an interference

with the sovereignty of God, with His purposes and counsels, to instruct their children

in the truth of the gospel and the letter of holy scripture. They Consider that the

children ought to be left to the action of the Holy Ghost which they are sure to

experience in God's own time, if indeed they are of God's elect; and, if not, all human

effort is perfectly useless.

Now, we must, in all faithfulness to the truth of God, and to the souls of our readers,

bear the clearest and strongest testimony against this one-sided view of the great

practical subject before us. There is nothing more mischievous, nothing more

pernicious in its effect upon the conscience, the heart, the life, the whole practical

career and moral character, than one-sided theology. It does not matter what side you

take, so long as you only take one. It is sure to produce what we must term a spiritual

malformation. We feel we cannot too strongly and earnestly warn the reader against

this sore evil. It can only lead to the most disastrous results; and, as to its effect in

reference to the training of our children, and the management of our households—the

subject now before us—it is mischievous in the extreme. Indeed we have seen the

most deplorable consequences follow the carrying out of this line of thought. We have

known the children of Christian parents to grow up in utter ignorance of divine things,

in carelessness, recklessness, and open infidelity. And if a word of admonition were

offered, it has been met by arguments based upon the dogmas of a one-sided

divinity—and the one side turned the wrong way. It has been said, "We cannot make

Christians of our children, and we must not make them formalists or hypocrites. It

must be a divine work or nothing. When God's time comes, He will effectually call

them, if indeed they are among the number of His elect. If not, all our efforts are

perfectly useless."

To all this we reply that this line of argument, if carried to its fullest extent, would

prevent the farmer from ploughing his ground or sowing his seed. It is very plain that

he cannot make the seed to germinate or fructify. He could no more cause a solitary

grain of wheat to grow, than he could create the universe. Does this prevent his

ploughing and sowing? Does it cause him to fold his arms and say, "I can do nothing.

I cannot, by any effort of mine, make corn grow. It is a divine operation; and therefore

I must wait God's time" Does any farmer reason and act like this? Surely not, unless

he be a lunatic. Every sound-minded person knows that ploughing and sowing must

go before the reaping; and if the former be neglected, it is the height of extravagant

folly to look for the latter.

Nor is it otherwise in the matter of training our children We know God is sovereign.

We believe in His eternal counsels and purposes. We fully recognise the grand

doctrines of election and predestination; yea, we are as thoroughly persuaded of them,

as of the truth that God is, or that Christ died and rose again. Moreover, we believe

that the new birth must take place, in every instance—in the case of our children as of

all beside; we are convinced that this new birth is entirely a divine operation, effected

by the Holy Ghost, through the word, as we are distinctly taught in our Lord's

discourse with Nicodemus, in John 3, and also in James 1: 18; and 1 Peter 1: 23.

But does all this touch, in the most remote way, the solemn responsibility of Christian

parents to teach and train their children, diligently and faithfully, from their earliest

moments? Most certainly not. Woe be to the parents who, on any plea or on any

ground whatsoever, be it one-sided theology, misapplied scripture, or anything else,

deny their responsibility, or neglect their plain, bounden duty, in this holy business.

True, we cannot make our children Christians; and we ought not to make them

formalists or hypocrites. But we are not called to make them anything We are simply

called to do our duty by them, and leave results to God. We are instructed and

commanded to bring up our children "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."

When is this "bringing up" to commence? When are we to begin the sacred work of

training our little ones? Surely at the beginning. The very moment we enter upon a

relationship, we enter also upon the responsibility which that relationship entails. We

cannot deny this. We cannot shake it off. We may neglect it, and have to reap the sad

consequences of our neglect, in various ways. It is a very serious thing to stand in the

sacred relationship of a parent—very interesting and very delightful, no doubt; but

most serious because of the responsibility involved. True it is, blessed be God, His

grace is sufficient for us, in this, as in all beside; and "If any man lack wisdom, let

him ask of God, who giveth to all liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given

him." "We are not sufficient of ourselves," in this weighty matter, to think or to do

anything, as ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; and He will meet our every

need. We have simply to draw upon Him, for exigency of every hour.

But we must do our duty. Some do not like the homely word "duty." They think it has

a legal ring about it. We trust the reader does not think so, for it is a very great

mistake indeed. We look upon the word as a very sound and morally wholesome one;

and we believe that every true Christian loves it. One thing is certain, it is only in the

path of duty we can count on God. To talk of trusting God, when out of the path of

duty, is a miserable conceit, and a delusion. And, in the matter of our relationship, as

parents, to neglect our duty is to bring down upon us the most disastrous

consequences.

We believe the whole business of Christian education is summed up in two brief

sentences, namely, count on God for your children; and train your children for God.

To take the first without the second, is antinomianism; to take the second without the

first is legality; to take both together is sound practical Christianity—true religion in

the sight of God and man.

It is the sweet privilege of every Christian parent to count, with all possible

confidence, upon God, for his children. But, then, we must remember that there is, in

the government of God, an inseparable link connecting this privilege with the most

solemn responsibility as to training For a Christian parent to speak of counting on

God for the salvation of his children, and for the moral integrity of their future career,

in this world, while the duty of training is neglected, is simply a miserable delusion.

We press this, most solemnly, upon all Christian parents, but especially upon those

who have just entered upon the relationship. There is great danger of shirking our

duty to our children, of shifting it over upon others, or neglecting it altogether. We do

not like the trouble of it; we shrink from the constant worry as it seems to us. But we

shall find that the trouble, and the worry, and the sorrow, and the heart-scalding

arising from the neglect of our duty will be a thousand times worse than all that can

be involved in the discharge of it. To every true lover of God there is deep delight in

treading the path of duty. Every step taken in that path strengthens our confidence to

go on. And then we can always count upon the infinite resources that we have in God,

when we are keeping His commandments. We have simply to betake ourselves,

morning by morning, yea, hour by hour, to our Father's exhaustless treasury, and there

get all we want, in the way of grace and wisdom, and moral power to enable us to

discharge aright the holy functions of our relationship. "He giveth more grace." This

always holds good. But if we, instead of seeking grace to discharge our duty, seek

ease in neglecting it, we are simply laying up a store of sorrow which will accumulate

rapidly and fall upon us heavily at a future day. "Be not deceived; God is not mocked;

for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh,

shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit

reap life everlasting." (Gal. 6.)

This is the condensed statement of a great principle of God's moral government—a

principle of universal application, and one which applies, with singular force to the

subject before us. As we sow, in the matter of the education of our children, so we

shall, most assuredly, reap: There is no getting out of this.

But let not any dear Christian parent whose eye may scan these lines, be at all

discouraged or fainthearted. There is no reason whatever for this; but, on the contrary,

every reason for the most joyful confidence in God. "The name of the Lord is a strong

tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe. Let us tread, with a firm step, the path

of duty; and then we can count, with unwavering confidence, upon our ever faithful

and gracious God, for the need of each day, as it rolls along. and, in due time, we

shall reap the precious fruit of our labour, according to the appointment of God, and

in pursuance of the enactments of His moral government.

We do not attempt to lay down any rules or regulations for the training. We do not

believe in such. Children cannot be trained by dry rules. Who could attempt to

embody in rules all that is wrapped up in that one sentence, "Bring them up in the

nurture and admonition of the Lord"!

Here we have, indeed, a golden rule which takes in everything from the cradle to

matured manhood. Yes, we repeat, "from the cradle;" for we are most fully persuaded

that all true Christian training begins at the very beginning. Some of us have little idea

of how soon and how sharply children begin to observe; and how much they take in as

they gaze at us through their dear expressive eyes.

And then how marvellously susceptible they are of the word atmosphere which

surrounds them! Yes; and it is this very moral atmosphere that constitutes the grand

secret of training our families. Our children should be permitted to breathe, from day

to day, the atmosphere of love and peace, purity, holiness and true practical

righteousness. This has an amazing effect in forming the character. It is a great thing

for our children to see their parents walking in love, in harmony, in tender care one

for the other; in kind consideration for the servants; in love and sympathy for the

poor. Who can measure the moral effect upon a child of the very first angry look, or

unkind word between father and mother And in cases where the daily history is one of

unsightly strife and contention, the father contradicting the mother, and the mother

disparaging the father; how are children to grow in such an atmosphere as this?

The fact is, it is not within the compass of human language to set forth all that is

involved in the moral tone of the entire family circle—the spirit, style, and

atmosphere of the whole household, the drawing room, the dining-room, the nursery,

the kitchen, where circumstances admit of such distinctions, or where the family have

to confine themselves to two rooms. It is not a question of rank, position or wealth,

but of the beauteous grace of God shining out in all. There may be the stalled ox, or

the dinner of herbs; these are not, at present, in question But what we press on all

fathers and mothers, all heads of households, high and low, rich and poor, learned and

ignorant, is the necessity of training their children in an atmosphere of love and

peace, truth and holiness, purity and kindness. Thus will their households be the

practical exhibition of the character of God; and all who come in contact with them

will, a least, have before their eyes a practical witness to the truth of Christianity.

But, ere we turn from the subject of domestic government, there is one special point

to which we desire to call the attention of Christian parents—a point of the utmost

possible moment, yet too much neglected amongst us, and that is the need of

inculcating upon our children the duty of implicit obedience. This cannot be too

strongly insisted upon, inasmuch as it not only affects the order and comfort of our

households; but, what is infinitely more important, it concerns the glory of God, and

the practical carrying out of His truth. "Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for

this is right." And again, "Children, obey your parents in all Things; for this is well

pleasing unto the Lord." (Eph. 6; Col. 3.)

This is absolutely essential, and must be firmly insisted upon, from the very outset.

The child must be taught to obey, from his earliest moments. He must be trained to

submit himself to divinely appointed authority, and that, as the apostle puts it, "in all

things." If this be not attended to from the very first, it will be found almost

impossible to attend to it afterwards. If the will be allowed to act, it grows, with

terrible rapidity, and each day's growth increases the difficulty of bringing it under

control. Hence, the parent should begin at once, to establish his authority, on a basis

of moral strength and firmness; and, when this is done, he may be as gentle and tender

as the most loving heart could desire. We do not believe in sternness, harshness or

severity. They are, by no means, necessary, and are generally the accompaniments of

bad training and the proofs of bad temper. God has put into the parent's hand the reins

of government, and the rod of authority; but it is not needful—if we may so express

it—to be continually chucking the reins and brandishing the rod, which are the sure

proofs of moral weakness. Whenever you hear a man continually talking about his

authority, you may be sure his authority is not properly established. There is a quiet

dignity about true moral power which is perfectly unmistakable.

Furthermore, we judge it to be a mistake for a parent to be perpetually crossing a

child's will, in matters of no moment. Such a line of action tends to break the child's

spirit, whereas the object of all sound training is to break the will. The child should

ever be impressed with the idea that the parent seeks only his real good; and that if he

has to refuse or prohibit anything, it is not for the purpose of curtailing the child's

enjoyment, but simply for the promotion of his true interests.

One grand object of domestic government is to protect each member of the household

in the enjoyment of his privileges, and in the proper discharge of his relative duties.

Now, inasmuch as it is the divinely appointed duty of a child to obey, the parent is

responsible to see this duty discharged, for if it be neglected, some other members of

the domestic circle must suffer.

There can be no greater nuisance in a house than a naughty wilful child; and, as a

general rule, wherever you find such, it is to be traced to bad training. We are aware,

of course, that children differ in temper and disposition; that some children have

peculiarly strong wills and sturdy tempers, and are therefore specially hard to manage.

All this we quite understand; but it leaves wholly untouched the question of the

parent's responsibility to insist upon implicit obedience. He can always count on God

for the needed grace and power to carry out this point. Even in the case of a widowed

mother, we believe, most assuredly, she can look to God to enable her to command

her children and her household. In no case, therefore, should parental authority be

surrendered, for a moment.

It sometimes happens that, through injudicious fondness, the parent is tempted to

pamper the will of the child; but it is sowing to the flesh, and must yield corruption. It

is not true love, at all, to indulge a child's will; neither can it possibly minister to his

true happiness or legitimate enjoyment. An overindulged, self-willed child is

miserable himself, and a grievous infliction on all who have to do with him. Children

should be taught to think of others; and to seek to promote their comfort and

happiness in every way. How very unseemly it is, for example, for a child to enter the

house and ascend the stairs whistling, singing and shouting, in total disregard of other

members of the household who may be seriously disturbed and annoyed by such

conduct! No properly trained child would think of acting in such a way; and where

such unsubdued, unruly, inconsiderate conduct is allowed, there is a serious defect in

the domestic government.

It is essential to family peace, harmony and comfort, that all the members should

"consider one another." We are responsible to seek the good and the happiness of

those around us, and not our own. If all would but remember this, what different

households we should have; and what a different tale would families have to tell!

Every Christian household should be the reflection of the divine character. The

atmosphere should just be the very atmosphere of heaven. How is this to be? Simply

by each one, parent, child, master and servant seeking to walk in the footsteps of

Jesus, and manifest His Spirit. He never pleased Himself; never sought His own

interest, in anything. He did always the thing that pleased the Father. He came to

serve and to give. He went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of

the devil. Thus it was ever with that most blessed One—the gracious, loving,

sympathising Friend of all the sons and daughters of want, weakness and sorrow; and

if only the various members of each Christian family were formed on this perfect

model, we should, at least, realise something of the power and efficacy of personal

and domestic Christianity, which, blessed be God, can ever be maintained and

exhibited, notwithstanding the hopeless ruin of the professing church. "Thou and thy

house" suggests a great golden principle which runs through the volume of God, from

beginning to end. In every age, under every dispensation, in the days of the Patriarchs,

in the days of the Law, and in the days of Christianity, we find, to our exceeding

comfort and encouragement, that personal and domestic godliness has its place as

something grateful to the heart of God and to the glory of His holy Name.

This we consider to be most consolatory, at all times, but more particularly at a time,

like the Present, when the professing church seems so rapidly sinking into gross

worldliness and open infidelity; and not this only, but when those who most earnestly

desire to walk in obedience to the word of God, and to act on the grand foundation

truth of the unity of the body, find it so difficult to maintain a corporate testimony. In

view of all this, we may well bless God, with overflowing hearts, that personal and

family piety can always be maintained, and that from the heart and the home of every

Christian a constant stream of praise may ascend to the throne of God, and a stream of

active benevolence flow out to a needy, sorrowful, sin-stricken world. May it be so,

more and more, through the mighty ministry of God the Holy Ghost, that God, in all

things, may be glorified, in the hearts and homes of His beloved people!

We have now to consider the very solemn warning addressed to the congregation of

Israel, against the terrible sin of idolatry—a sin to which alas! the poor human heart is

ever prone in one way or another. It is quite possible to be guilty of the sin of idolatry

without bowing down before a graven image; wherefore it behoves us to weigh well

the words of warning which fell from the lips of Israel's venerable lawgiver. They are,

most assuredly, written for our learning.

"And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire

unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness"—solemn and

suited accompaniments of the occasion!—"And the Lord spake unto you out of the

midst of the fire"—Oh, how differently He speaks in the gospel of His grace!—"Ye

heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude"—important fact for them to

ponder!—"only a voice"—And "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of

God."—"And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to

perform, ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone. And the

Lord commanded me, at that time, to teach you statutes and judgements"—not that

they might discuss them, sit in judgement upon them, or argue about them, but—"that

ye might do them"—the grand old story, the Deuteronomic theme of obedience, most

precious! whether out of or—"in the land whither ye go over to possess it."

Here lies the solid ground of the appeal against idolatry. They saw nothing. God did

not show Himself to them. He did not assume any bodily shape of which they might

form an image. He gave them His word, His holy commandments, so plain that a

child could understand them, and the wayfaring men though fools need not err

therein. There was no need for them therefore to set about imagining what God was

like; nay, this was the very sin against which they were so faithfully warned. They

were called to hear God's voice, not to see His shape—to obey His commandments,

not to make an image of Him. Superstition vainly seeks to do honour to God by

forming and worshipping an image. Faith, on the contrary, lovingly receives and

reverently obeys His holy commandments. "If a man love me," says our blessed Lord,

"he will"—what? make an image of me, and worship it? Nay, but "he will keep my

words." This makes it so simple, so safe, so certain. We are not called to work up our

minds to form any conception of God. We have simply to hear His word and keep His

commandments. We can have no idea whatever of God, but as He has been pleased to

reveal Himself. 'No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, which is

in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." "God, who commanded the light to

shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of

the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

Jesus is declared to be the brightness of God's Glory and the exact impression of His

substance. He could say, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." Thus the Son

reveals the Father; and it is by the word, through the power of the Holy Ghost, that we

know anything of the Son; and therefore for any one to attempt, by any efforts of his

mind or workings of his imagination to conceive an image of God, or of Christ, is

simply idolatry. To endeavour to arrive at any knowledge of God or of Christ, save by

scripture, is simply mysticism and confusion; nay more, it is to put ourselves directly

into the hands of the devil, to be led by him into the wildest, darkest, and deadliest

delusion.

Hence, therefore, as Israel, at mount Horeb, was shut up to the "voice" of God, and

warned against any similitude; so we are shut up to holy scripture, and warned against

everything which would draw us away, the breadth of a hair, from that holy and all-

sufficient standard. We must not listen to the suggestions of our own minds, nor to

those of any other human mind. We must absolutely and sternly refuse to listen to

anything but the voice of God—the voice of holy scripture. Here is true security, true

rest. Here we have absolute certainty, so that we can say, "I know whom"—not merely

what—"I have believed; and am persuaded that he," &c.

"Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves, (for ye saw no manner of similitude on

the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire,) lest ye

corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the

likeness of male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness

of any winged fowl that flieth in the air, the likeness of anything that creepeth on the

ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth; and lest thou

lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the

stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve

them, which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.

But the Lord hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out

of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day.

There is a very weighty truth set before us here. The people are expressly taught that

in making any image and bowing down thereto, they, in reality, lowered and

corrupted themselves. Hence, when they made the golden calf, the Lord said unto

Moses, "Go, get thee down; for thy people which thou broughtest out of the land of

Egypt, have corrupted themselves." It could not be otherwise. The worshipper must be

inferior to the object of his worship; and therefore, in worshipping a calf, they

actually put themselves below the level of the beasts that perish. Well, therefore,

might He say, They "have corrupted themselves; they have turned aside quickly out of

the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten calf, and have

worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel,

which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt."

What a spectacle! A whole congregation, led by Aaron the high priest, bowing in

worship before a thing formed by a graving tool out of the ear-rings which had just

been taken from the ears of their wives and daughters! Only conceive a number of

intelligent beings, people endowed with reason, understanding and conscience, saying

of a molten calf, "These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the

land of Egypt!" They actually displaced Jehovah by an image graven by art and man's

device! And these were the people who had seen the mighty works of Jehovah, in the

land of Egypt. They had seen plague after plague falling upon Egypt and its obdurate

king. They had seen the land, as it were, shaken to its very centre, by the successive

strokes of Jehovah's governmental rod. They had seen Egypt's first-born laid in death

by the sword of the-destroying angel. They had seen the Red Sea divided by one

stroke of Jehovah's rod, and they had passed through upon dry ground between those

crystal walls which afterwards fell, in crushing power, upon their enemies.

All these things had passed before their eyes; and yet they could, so soon, forget all,

and say, of a molten calf, "These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up

out of the land of Egypt." Did they really believe that a molten image had made the

land of Egypt to tremble, humbled its proud monarch, and brought them forth

victoriously? Had a calf divided the sea for them, and led them majestically through

its depths? So, at least, they said; for what will people not say when the eye and the

heart are turned away from God and His word?

But, we may, perhaps, be asked, "Has all this a voice for us? Are Christians to learn

anything from Israel's molten calf? And do the warnings addressed to Israel against

idolatry convey any voice to the ear of the church? Are we in danger of bowing down

to a graven image? Is it possible, that we, whose high privilege it is to walk in the full-

orbed light of New Testament Christianity, could ever worship a molten calf? "

To all this we reply, first of all, in the language of Romans 15: 4, "Whatsoever things

were written aforetime"—Exodus 32 and Deuteronomy 4 included—"were written for

our learning; that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have

hope." This brief passage contains our chartered right to range through the wide field

of Old Testament scripture and gather up and appropriate its golden lessons, to feed

upon its "exceeding great and precious promises;" to drink in its deep and varied

consolation; and to profit by its solemn warnings, and wholesome admonitions.

And then, as to our being capable of, or liable to, the gross sin of idolatry, we have a

striking answer in? 1 Corinthians 10 where the inspired apostle uses the very scene at

mount Horeb, as a warning to the church of God. We cannot do better than quote the

entire passage for the reader. There is nothing like the word of God May we love,

prize and reverence it more and more, each day!

"Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers

were under the cloud,"—those whose carcasses fell in the wilderness, as well as those

who reached the land of promise—"and all passed through the sea; and were all

baptised unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual

meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock

that followed them; and that Rock was Christ"—how strong, how solemn, and how

searching is this for all professors!—"But with many of them God was not well

pleased; for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our

ensamples"—let us carefully mark this —"to the intent we should not lust after evil

things"—things in any way contrary to the mind of Christ—"as they also lusted.

Neither be ye idolaters"—so that professing Christians may be idolaters—"as were

some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to

play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one

day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also

tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also

murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto

them for ensamples; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of

the ages are met. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."

Here we learn, in the plainest manner, that there is no depth of sin and folly, no form

of moral pravity into which we are not capable of plunging, at any moment, if not

kept by the mighty power of God. There is no security for us save in the moral shelter

of the divine presence. We know that the Spirit of God does not warn us against

things to which we are not liable. He would not say to us, "Neither be ye idolaters," if

we were not capable of being such. Idolatry takes various shapes. It is not therefore a

question of the shape of the thing, but of the thing itself; not the outward form, but the

root or principle of the thing. We read that, "covetousness is idolatry;" and that a

covetous man is an idolater. That is, a man desiring to possess himself of more than

God has given him is an idolater—is actually guilty of the sin of Israel when they

made the golden calf and worshipped it. Well might the blessed apostle say to the

Corinthians—say to us, "Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry." Why be

warned to flee from a thing to which we are not liable? Are there any idle words in

the volume of God ? What mean those closing words of the first epistle of John,

"Little children, keep yourselves from idols"? Do they not tell us that we are in danger

of worshipping idols? Assuredly they do. Our treacherous hearts are capable of

departing from the living God, and setting up, some other object beside Him; and

what is this but idolatry? whatever commands the heart is the heart's idol, be it what it

may, money, pleasure, power or ought else; so that we may well see the urgent need

for the many warnings given us by the Holy Ghost against the sin of idolatry.

But we have, in Galatians 4, a very remarkable passage, and one which speaks, in

most impressive accents, to the professing church. The Galatians had, like all other

Gentiles, worshipped idols; but, on the reception of the gospel, had turned from idols

to serve the living and true God. The Judaising teachers, however, had come among

them, and taught them that unless they were circumcised and kept the law, they could

not be saved.

Now this the blessed apostle unhesitatingly pronounces to be idolatry—a going back

to the grossness and moral degradation of their former days, and all this after having

professed to receive the glorious gospel of Christ. Hence the moral force of the

apostle's inquiry, "Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them

which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye have known God [or rather are

known of God], how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye

desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I

am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain."

This is peculiarly striking. The Galatians were not outwardly going back to the

worship of idols. Is it not improbable that they would have indignantly repudiated any

such idea. But, for all that, the inspired apostle asks them, "How turn ye again?" What

does this inquiry mean, if they were not going back to idolatry? And what are we,

now, to learn from the whole passage? Simply this, that circumcision, and getting

under the law, and observing days, and months, and times, and years—that all this,

though apparently so different, was nothing, more or less, than going back to their old

idolatry. The observance of days and the worship of false gods were both a turning

away from the living and true God; from His Son Jesus Christ; from the Holy Ghost;

from that brilliant cluster of dignities and glories which belong to Christianity.

All this is peculiarly solemn for professing Christians. We question if the full import

of Galatians 4: 8-10 is really apprehended by the great majority of those who profess

to believe the Bible. We solemnly press this whole subject upon the attention of all

whom it may concern. We pray God to use it for the purpose of stirring up the hearts

and consciences of His people everywhere to consider their position, their habits,

ways, and associations; and to inquire how far they are really following the example

of the assemblies of Galatia; in the observance of saints' days and such-like, which

can only lead away from Christ and His glorious salvation. There is a day coming

which will open the eyes of thousands to the reality of these things; and then they will

see what they now refuse to see, that the very darkest and grossest forms of paganism

may be reproduced under the name of Christianity, and in connection with the very

highest truths that ever shone on the human understanding.

But, however slow we may be to admit our tendency to fall into the sin of idolatry, it

is very plain, in Israel's case, that Moses, as taught and inspired of God, felt the deep

need of warning them against it, in the most solemn and affecting terms. He appeals

to them on every possible ground, and reiterates his counsels and admonitions in a

manner so impressive as to leave them, assuredly, without any excuse. They never

could say that they fell into idolatry from want of warning, or of the most gracious

and affectionate entreaty. Take such words as the following, "But the Lord hath taken

you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a

people of inheritance, as ye are this day." (Ver. 20.)

Could anything be more affecting than this? Jehovah, in His rich and sovereign grace,

and by His mighty hand brought them forth from the land of death and darkness, a

redeemed and delivered people. He had brought them to Himself, that they might be

to Him a peculiar treasure, above all the people upon earth. How then could they turn

away from Him, from His holy covenant, and from His precious commandments?

Alas! alas! they could and did. They made a calf; and said, These be thy gods, O

Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." Think of this! A calf,

made by their own hands—an image, graven by art and man's device, had brought

them up out of Egypt! A thing made out of the women's earrings, had redeemed and

delivered them! And this has been written for our admonition. But why should it be

written for us, if we are not capable of, and liable to, the very same sin! We must

either admit that God the Holy Ghost has penned an unnecessary sentence, or admit

our need of an admonition against the sin of idolatry; and, assuredly, our needing the

admonition proves our tendency to the sin

Are we Better than Israel? In no wise. We have brighter light and higher privileges;

but, so far as we are concerned, we are made of the same material, have the same

capabilities, and the same tendencies as they. Our idolatry may take a different shape

from theirs; but idolatry is idolatry, be the shape what it may; and the higher our

privileges, the greater our sin. We may, perhaps, feel disposed to wonder how a

rational people could be guilty of such egregious folly as to make a calf and bow

down to it, and this, too, after having had such a display of the majesty, power and

glory of God. Let us remember that their folly is recorded for our admonition; and that

we, with all our light, all our knowledge, all our privileges, are warned to "flee from

idolatry."

Let us deeply ponder all this and seek to profit by it. May every chamber of our hearts

be filled with Christ, and then we shall have no room for idols. This is our only

safeguard. If we slip away, the breadth of a hair, from our precious Saviour and

Shepherd, we are capable of plunging into the darkest forms of error and moral evil.

Light, knowledge, spiritual privileges, church position, sacramental benefits are no

security for the soul. They are very good, in their right place, and if rightly used; but,

in themselves, they only increase our moral danger.

Nothing can keep us safe, right and happy, but having Christ dwelling in our hearts by

faith. Abiding in Him and He in us, the wicked one toucheth us not. But if personal

communion he not diligently maintained, the higher our position, the greater our

danger and the more disastrous our fall. There was not a nation beneath the canopy of

heaven more favoured and exalted than Israel, when they gathered round mount

Horeb to hear the word of God. There was not a nation on the face of the earth more

degraded or more guilty than they when they bowed before the golden calf, an image

of their own formation.

We must now give our attention to a fact of very deep interest, presented at verse 21

of our chapter, and that is that Moses, for the third time, reminds the congregation of

God's judicial dealing with himself. He had spoken of it, as we have seen, in Deut. 1:

37; and again at Deut. 3: 26; and here, again, he says to them, "Furthermore the Lord

was angry with me for your sakes, and sware that I should not go over Jordan, and

that I should not go in unto that good land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an

inheritance; but I must die in this land, I must not go over Jordan; but ye shall go over

and possess that good land."

Now, we may ask, why this threefold reference to the same fact? And why the special

mention, in each instance, of the circumstance that Jehovah was angry with him on

their account? One thing is certain, it was not for the purpose of throwing the blame

over upon the people, or of exculpating himself. No one but an infidel could think

this. We believe the simple object was to give increased word force to his appeal,

more solemnity to his warning voice. If Jehovah was angry with such a one as Moses;

if he, for his unadvised speaking at the waters of Meribah, was forbidden to enter the

promised land—much as he desired it—how needful for them to take heed! It is a

serious thing to have to do with God—blessed, no doubt, beyond all human

expression or thought; but most serious, as the lawgiver himself was called to prove

in his own person.

That this is the correct view of this interesting question seems evident from the

following words, "Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord

your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of

anything which the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee. For the Lord thy God is a

consuming fire, even a jealous God."

This is peculiarly solemn. We must allow this statement to have its full moral weight

with our souls. We must not attempt to turn aside its sharp edge by any false notions

about grace. We sometimes hear it said that " God is a consuming fire to the world."

By-and-by He will be so, no doubt; but now He is dealing in grace, patience, and

long-suffering mercy with the world. He is not dealing in judgement with the world

now. But, as the apostle Peter tells us, "The time is come that judgement must begin

at the house of God; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey

not the gospel of God" So also, in Hebrews 12. we read, "For our God is a consuming

fire." He is not speaking of what God will be to the world, but of what He is to us.

Neither is it, as some put it, "God is a consuming fire out of Christ." We know

nothing of God out of Christ. He could not be "our God" out of Christ.

No, reader; scripture does not need such twistings and turnings. It must be taken as it

stands. It is clear and distinct; and all we have to do is to hearken and obey. "Our God

is a consuming fire," "a jealous God," not to consume us, blessed be His holy Name;

but to consume the evil in us and in our ways. He is intolerant of everything in us that

is contrary to Himself—contrary to His holiness; and, therefore contrary to our true

happiness, our real, solid blessing. As the "Holy Father" He keeps us, in a way worthy

of Himself; and He chastens us, in order to make us partakers of His holiness. He

allows the world to go on its way for the present, not interfering publicly with it. But

He judges His house, and He chastens His children in order that they may more fully

answer to His mind, and be the expression of His moral image.

And is not this an immense privilege? Yes, verily, it is a privilege of the very highest

order—a privilege flowing from the infinite grace of our God who condescends to

interest Himself in us, and occupy Himself even with Our infirmities, our failures and

our sins, in order to deliver us from them, and to make us partakers of His holiness.

There is a very fine passage bearing upon this subject, in the opening of Hebrews 12

which, because of its immense practical importance, we must quote for the reader.

"My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked

of him; for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth son whom he

receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is

he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are

partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our

flesh, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be

in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live? For they verily for a few days

chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be

partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but

grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto

them which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and

the feeble knees."

There are three ways of meeting divine chastening: we may "despise" it, as something

common-place, something that may happen to any one. We do not see the hand of

God in it; Again, we may "faint" under it, as something too heavy for us to bear,

something entirely beyond endurance. We do not see the Father's heart in it, or

recognise His gracious object in it, namely, to make us partakers of His holiness.

Lastly, we may be "exercised by it." This is the way to reap "the peaceable fruit of

righteousness, afterward;" We dare not "despise" a thing in which we trace the hand

of God. We need not "faint" under a trial in which we plainly discern the heart of a

loving Father who will not suffer us to be tried above what we are able; but will with

the trial make an issue, that we may be able to bear it; and who also graciously

explains to us His object in the discipline, and assures us that every stroke of His rod

is a proof of His love, and a direct response to the prayer of Christ, in John 17: 11,

wherein He commends us to the care of the "Holy Father," to be kept according to that

name and all that name involves.

Furthermore, there are three distinct attitudes of heart in reference to divine

chastening, namely, subjection, acquiescence and rejoicing. When the will is broken,

there is subjection when the understanding is enlightened as to the object of the

chastening, there is calm acquiescence. And when the affections are engaged with the

Father's heart, there is rejoicing, and we can go forth with glad hearts to reap a golden

harvest of the peaceable fruit of righteousness to the praise of Him who, in His

painstaking love, undertakes to care for us and to deal with us in holy government,

and concentrate His care upon each one as though there were but that one to attend to.

How wonderful is all this! Grand how the thought of it should help us in all our trials

and exercises! we are in the hands of One whose love is infinite, whose wisdom is

unerring, whose power is omnipotent, whose resources are inexhaustible. Why then

should we ever be cast down If He chastens us, it is because He loves us and seeks our

real good. We may think the chastening grievous. We may feel disposed to wonder, at

times, how love can inflict pain and sickness upon us; but we must remember that

divine love is wise and faithful, and only inflicts the pain, the sickness or the sorrow

for our profit and blessing. We must not always judge of love by the form in which it

clothes itself. Look at that fond and tender mother applying a blister to her child

whom she loves as her own soul. She knows full well that the blister will cause her

child real pain and suffering; and yet she unhesitatingly applies it, though her heart

feels keenly at having to do it. But she knows it is absolutely necessary; she believes

that, humanly and medically speaking, the child's life depends upon it. She feels that a

few moments' pain may, with the blessing of God, restore the health of her precious

child. Thus, while the child is only occupied with the transient suffering, the mother

is thinking of the permanent good; and if the child could but think with the mother,

the blister would not seem so hard to bear.

Now it is just thus in the matter of our Father's disciplinary dealings with us; and the

remembrance of this would greatly help us to endure whatever His chastening hand

may lay upon us. It may perhaps be said that there is a very wide difference between a

blister laid on for a few minutes, and years of intense bodily suffering. No doubt there

is; but there is also a very wide difference between the result reached in each case. It

is only with the principle of the thing we have to do. When we see a beloved child of

God, or servant of Christ, called to pass through years of intense suffering, we may

feel disposed to wonder why it is; and perhaps the beloved sufferer may also feel

disposed to wonder; and, as times, be ready to faint under the weight of his long

protracted affliction He may feel led to cry out "Why am I thus? Can this be love?

Can this be the expression of a Father's tender care?" "Yes, verily," is faith's bright

and decided reply. "It is all love—all divinely right. I would not have it otherwise for

worlds. I know this transient suffering is working out eternal blessing. I know my

loving Father has put me into this furnace to purge away my dross, and bring out in

me the expression of His own image. I know that divine love will always do the very

best for its object, and therefore this intense suffering is the very best thing for me. Of

course, I feel it, for I am not a stick or a stone. My Father means me to feel it, just as

the mother means the blister to rise, for it would do no good otherwise. But I bless

Him, with my whole heart, for the grace that shines in the wondrous fact of His

occupying Himself with me, in this way, to correct what He sees to be wrong in me. I

praise Him for putting me into the furnace; and how can I but praise Him, when I see

Himself, in infinite grace and patience, sitting over the furnace to watch the process,

and lift me out the moment the work is done!"

This, beloved Christian reader, is the true way, and this the right spirit in which to

pass through chastening of any kind, be it bodily affliction, sore bereavement, loss of

property, or pressure of circumstances. We have to trace the hand of God, to read a

Father's heart, to recognise the divine object in it all. This will enable us to vindicate,

justify and glorify God, in the furnace of affliction. It will correct every murmuring

thought, and hush every fretful utterance. It will fill our hearts with sweetest peace

and our mouths with praise.

We must now turn, for a few moments, to the remaining verses of our chapter, in

which we shall find some most touching and powerful appeals to the heart and

conscience of the congregation. The lawgiver, in the deep, true and fervent love of his

heart, makes use of the most solemn warnings, the most earnest admonition, and the

most tender entreaties, in order to move the people to the one grand and all-important

point of obedience. If he speaks to them of the iron furnace of Egypt, out of which

Jehovah, in His sovereign grace, had delivered them; if he dwells upon the mighty

signs and wonders wrought on their behalf; if he holds up to their view the glories of

that land on which they were about to plant their foot; or if he recounts the marvellous

dealings of God with them in the wilderness—it is all for the purpose of strengthening

the moral basis of Jehovah's claim upon their loving and reverent obedience. The past,

the present, and the future are all brought to bear upon them—all made to furnish

powerful arguments in favour of their whole-hearted consecration of themselves to

the service of their gracious and Almighty Deliverer. In short, there was every reason

why they should obey; and no possible excuse for disobedience. All the facts of their

history, from first to last, were eminently calculated to give moral force to the

exhortation and warning of the following passage.

"Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which

he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of anything, which

the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee. For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even

a jealous God. When thou shalt beget children, and children's children, and ye shall

have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven

image, or the likeness of anything, and shall do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God,

to provoke him to anger; I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that

ye shall soon utterly Perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess

it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed. And the Lord

shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the

heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you. And there ye shall serve gods, the work of

men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell."

How solemn is all this! What faithful warnings are here! Heaven and earth are

summoned to witness. Alas! how soon and how completely all this was forgotten!

And how literally all those heavy denunciations have been fulfilled in the history of

the nation!

But, thank God, there is a bright side of the picture. There is mercy as well as

judgement; and our God, blessed for ever be His holy Name, is something more than

"a consuming fire and a jealous God." True, He is a consuming fire, because He is

holy. He is intolerant of evil, and must consume our dross. Moreover, He is jealous

because He cannot suffer any rival to have a place in the hearts of those He loves. He

must have the whole heart, because He alone is worthy of it, as He alone can fill and

satisfy it for ever. And if His people turn away from Him, and go after idols of their

own making, they must be left to reap the bitter fruit of their own doings, and to

prove, by sad and terrible experience, the truth of these words, "their sorrows shall be

multiplied that hasten after another."

But mark how touchingly Moses presents to the people the bright side of things—a

brightness springing from the eternal stability of the grace of God, and the perfect

provision which that grace has made for all His people's need, from first to last. "But,"

he says—and oh! how lovely are some of the "buts" of holy scripture!—"if from

thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all

thy heart and with all thy soul"—exquisite grace!—"when thou art in tribulation"—

that is the time to find what our God is—"and all these things are come upon thee,

even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his

voice."—What then? "A consuming fire?" Nay; but "the Lord thy God is a merciful

God, he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy

fathers, which he sware unto them."

Here we have a remarkable onlook into Israel's future, their departure from God, and

consequent dispersion among the nations; the complete breaking up of their polity,

and the passing away of their national glory. But, blessed for ever be the God of all

grace, there is something beyond all this failure, and sin, and ruin and judgement.

When we get to the far end of Israel's melancholy history—a history which my truly

be summed up in that one brief but comprehensive sentence, "O Israel, thou hast

destroyed thyself," we are met by the magnificent display of the grace, mercy and

faithfulness of Jehovah, the God of their fathers whose heart of love tells itself out in

that added sentence, "In me is thy help." Yes; the whole matter is wrapped up in these

two vigorous sentences, "Thou hast destroyed thyself"—"But in me is thy help." In the

former, we have the sharp arrow for Israel's conscience; in the latter, the soothing

balm for Israel's broken heart.

In thinking of the nation of Israel, there are two pages which we have to study,

namely, the historic and the prophetic. The page of history records, with unerring

faithfulness, their utter ruin. The page of prophecy unfolds in accents of matchless

grace, God's remedy. Israel's past has been dark and gloomy. Israel's future will be

bright and glorious. In the former, we see the miserable actings of man; in the latter,

the blessed ways of God. That gives the forcible illustration of what man is; this, the

bright display of what God is. We must look at both, if we would understand aright

the history of this remarkable people—"a people terrible from their beginning

hitherto"—and we may truly add, a people wonderful to the end of time.

We do not, of course, attempt to adduce, in this place, proofs of our statement as to

Israel's past and Israel's future. To do so would, we may say, without any

exaggeration, demand a volume, inasmuch as it would simply be to quote a very large

portion of the historical books of the Bible, on the one hand; and of the prophetic

books, on the other. This, we need hardly say, is out of the question; but we feel

bound to press upon the reader's attention the precious teaching contained in the

quotation given above. It embodies, in its brief compass, the whole truth as to Israel's

past, present and future. Mark how their past is vividly portrayed in these few words,

"When thou shalt beget children, and children's children, and ye shall have remained

long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the

likeness of anything, and shall do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God, to provoke him

to anger.

Is not this precisely what they have done? Is it not here, as it were, in a nutshell? They

have done evil in the sight of Jehovah their God, to provoke Him to anger. That one

word, "evil" takes all in, from the calf at Horeb to the cross at Calvary. Such is Israel's

past.

And, now, what of their present. Are they not a standing monument of the

imperishable truth of God? Has a single jot or tittle failed of all that God has spoken

Hearken to these glowing words: "I call heaven and earth to witness against you this

day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to

possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed. And

the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number

among the heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you."

Has not all this been fulfilled to the letter? Who can question it! Israel's past and

Israel's present alike attest the truth of God's word. And, are we not justified in

declaring that, inasmuch as the past and present are a literal accomplishment of the

truth of God, so shall the future assuredly. The page of history and the page of

prophecy were both indited by the same Spirit; and therefore they are both alike true;

and as the history records Israel's sin and Israel's dispersion, so doth the prophecy

predict Israel's repentance and Israel's restoration. The one is as true to faith as the

other. As surely as Israel sinned in the past, and are scattered at the present, so surely

shall they repent and be restored in the future.

This, we conceive, is beyond all question; and we rejoice to think of it. There is not

one of the prophets, from Isaiah to Malachi, that does not, most distinctly, set forth, in

accents of sweetest grace and most tender mercy, the future blessing, pre-eminence

and glory of the seed of Abraham.* It would be simply delightful to quote some of the

sublime passages bearing upon this most interesting subject; but we must leave the

reader to search them out for himself, specially commending to his notice the

precious passages contained in the closing chapters of Isaiah, in which he will find a

perfect feast, as well as the fullest confirmation of the apostle's statement that "All

Israel shall be saved." All the prophets, "from Samuel and those that follow after"

agree as to this. The teachings of the New Testament harmonise with the voices of the

prophets; and hence to call in question the truth of Israel's restoration to their own

land, and final blessing there, under the rule of their own Messiah, is simply to ignore

or deny the testimony of Prophets and apostles, speaking and writing by the direct

inspiration of God the Holy Ghost; it is to set aside a body of scripture evidence

perfectly overwhelming.

{*Jonah, of course, is an exception, his mission was to Nineveh. He is the only

prophet whose commission had exclusive reference to the Gentiles.}

It seems passing strange that any true lover of Christ should seek to do this; yet so it

is, and so it has been, through religious prejudice, theological bias, and various other

causes. But, notwithstanding all this, the glorious truth of Israel's restoration and pre-

eminence in the earth shines with undimmed lustre on the prophetic page, and all who

seek to set it aside, or interfere with it, in any way, are not only flying in the face of

holy scripture-contradicting the unanimous voice of apostles and prophets, but also

seeking to tamper—ignorantly and unwittingly, no doubt-with the counsel, purpose

and promise of the Lord God of Israel, and to nullify His covenant with Abraham,

Isaac and Jacob.

This is serious work for any one to engage in; and we believe many are doing it

without being aware of it; for we must understand that any one who applies the

promises made to the Old Testament fathers to the New Testament church is, in

reality, doing the serious work of which we speak. We maintain that no one has the

slightest warrant to alienate the promises made to the fathers. We may learn from

those promises; delight in them; draw comfort and encouragement from their eternal

stability and direct literal application. All this is blessedly true; but it is another thing

altogether for men, under the influence of a system of interpretation falsely called

"spiritualism," to apply to the church or to believers of New Testament times,

prophecies which, as simply and plainly as words can indicate, apply to Israel—to the

literal seed of Abraham.

This is what we consider so very serious. We believe we have very little idea of how

thoroughly opposed all this is to the mind and heart of God. He loves Israel—loves

them for the fathers' sake; and we may rest assured He will not sanction our

interference with their place, their portion, or their prospect. We are all familiar with

the words of the inspired apostle, in Romans 11, however we may have missed or

forgotten their true import and moral force.

Speaking of Israel, in connection with the olive tree of promise, he says, " And they

also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in; for"—the most simple,

solid and blessed of all reasons—"God is able"—as He is most surely willing—"to

graff them in again. For if thou were cut out of the olive-tree which is wild by nature,

and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive-tree; how much more shall these,

which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive-tree For I would not,

brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your

own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the

Gentiles be come in.* And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall

come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this

is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel,

they are enemies for your sakes; but as touching the election, they are beloved for the

fathers' sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. For as ye in

times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their

unbelief; even so have these also now not believed in your mercy (or mercy to you.

See Greek] that they also may obtain mercy." That is, that instead of coming in on the

ground of law, or fleshly descent, they should come in simply on the ground of

sovereign mercy, just as the Gentiles-"For God hath concluded them all in unbelief,

that he might have mercy upon all."

{*The reader must seize the difference between "The fullness of the Gentiles" in

Romans 11, and "The times of the Gentiles" in Luke 21. The former refers to those

who are now being gathered into the church. The latter, on the contrary, refers to the

times of Gentile supremacy which began with Nebuchadnezzar, and runs on to the

time when "the stone cut out without hands" shall fall, in crushing power, upon the

great image of Daniel 2.}

Here ends the section bearing upon our immediate subject; but we cannot refrain from

quoting the splendid doxology which bursts forth from the overflowing heart of the

inspired apostle as he closes the grand dispensational division of his epistle: "O the

depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are

his judgements, and his ways past finding out! For who hath know the mind of the

Lord? or who hath been his counselor? or who hath first given to him, and it shall be

recompensed unto him again? For of him,—as the source—"and through him"—as the

channel—"and to him"—as the object—"are all things: to whom be glory for ever.

Amen."

The foregoing splendid passage, as indeed all scripture, is in perfect keeping with the

teaching of the fourth chapter of our book. Israel's present condition is the fruit of

their dark unbelief. Israel's future glory will be the fruit of God's rich sovereign mercy.

"The Lord thy God is a merciful God, he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee,

nor forget the covenant of thy fathers, which he sware unto them. For ask now of the

days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon

the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other"—The utmost bounds of

time and space were to be appealed to, to see—"whether there hath been any such

thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it? Did ever people hear the voice

of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and lived Or hath God

assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations,

by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out

arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt

before your eyes? Unto thee it was showed, that thou mightest know that the Lord he

is God; there is none else beside him. Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice,

that he might instruct thee, and upon earth he showed thee his great fire; and thou

heardest his words out of the midst of the fire."

Here we have set forth, with singular moral power, the grand object of all the divine

actings on Israel's behalf. It was that they might know that Jehovah was the one true

and living God; and that there was, and could be none beside Him. In a word, it was

the purpose of God that Israel should be a witness for Him on the earth; and so they,

most assuredly, shall; though hitherto they have signally failed, and caused His great

and holy Name to be blasphemed among the nations. Nothing can hinder the purpose

of God. His covenant shall stand for ever. Israel shall yet be a blessed and effective

witness for God on the earth, and a channel of rich and everlasting blessing to all

nations. Jehovah has pledged His word as to this; and not all the powers of earth and

hell, men and devils combined, can hinder the full accomplishment of all that He has

spoken. His glory is involved in Israel's future; and if a single jot or tittle of His word

were to fail, it would be a dishonour cast upon His great Name, and an occasion for

the enemy, which is utterly impossible. Israel's future blessing and Jehovah's glory are

bound together by a link which can never be snapped. If this be not clearly seen, we

can neither understand Israel's past nor Israel's future. Nay more, we may assert, with

all possible confidence, that unless this blessed fact be fully grasped, our system of

prophetic interpretation must be utterly false.

But there is another truth set forth in our chapter—a truth of peculiar interest and

preciousness. It is not merely that the glory of Jehovah is involved in Israel's future

restoration and blessedness; the love of His heart is also engaged. This comes out

with touching sweetness, in the following words: "And because he loved thy fathers,

therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight with his

mighty power out of Egypt; to drive out nations from before thee greater and mightier

than thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance, as it is this

day."

Thus the truth of God's word, the glory of His great Name, and the love of His heart

are all involved in His dealings with the seed of Abraham His friend; and albeit they

have broken the law, dishonoured His Name, despised His mercy, rejected His

prophets, crucified His Son, and resisted His Spirit—although they have done all this,

and, in consequence thereof, are scattered and peeled and broken, and shall yet pass

through unexampled tribulation—yet will the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob

glorify His Name, make good His word, and manifest the changeless love of His

heart, in the future history of His earthly people. "Nothing changeth God's affection."

Whom He loves, and as He loves, He loves unto the end.

If we deny this, in reference to Israel, we have not so much as a single inch of solid

standing ground for ourselves, If we touch the truth of God in one department, we

have no security as to anything. "Scripture cannot be broken." "All the promises of

God in him are yea and in him Amen, unto the glory of God." God has pledged

Himself to the seed of Abraham. He has promised to give them the land of Canaan,

for ever: "His gifts and calling are without repentance." He never repents of His gift

or His call; and therefore for any one to attempt to alienate His promises and His

gifts, or to interfere, in any way, with their application to their true and proper object,

must be a grievous offence to Him. It mars the integrity of divine truth, deprives us of

all certainty in the interpretation of holy scripture, and plunges the soul in darkness,

doubt and perplexity.

The teaching of scripture is clear, definite and distinct. The Holy Ghost who indited

the sacred Volume, means what He says, and says what He means. If He speaks of

Israel, He means Israel—of Zion, He means Zion—of Jerusalem, He means

Jerusalem. To apply any one of these names to the New Testament church, is to

confound things that differ, and introduce a method of interpreting scripture which,

from its vagueness and looseness, can only lead to the most disastrous consequences.

If we handle the word of God in such a loose and careless manner, it is utterly

impossible to realise its divine authority over our conscience, or exhibit its formative

power, in our course, conduct and character.

We must now look, for a moment, at the powerful appeal with which Moses sums up

his address in our chapter. It demands our profound and reverent attention. "Know

therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven

above, and upon the earth beneath; there is none else. Thou shalt keep therefore his

statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well

with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days

upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for ever." (Vers. 39, 40.)

Here we see that the moral claim upon their hearty obedience is grounded upon the

revealed character of God, and His marvellous actings on their behalf. In a word, they

were bound to obey-bound by every argument that could possibly act on the heart, the

conscience, and the understanding. The One who had brought them out of the land of

Egypt, with a mighty hand and outstretched arm; who had made that land to tremble

to its very centre, by stroke after stroke of His judicial rod; who had opened up a

pathway for them through the sea; who had sent them bread from heaven, and brought

forth water for them out of the flinty rock; and all this for the glory of His great

Name, and because He loved their fathers—surely He was entitled to their whole-

hearted obedience.

This is the grand argument, so eminently characteristic of this blessed book of

Deuteronomy. And, surely, this is full of instruction for Christians now. If Israel were

morally bound to obey, how much more are we! If their motives and objects were

powerful, how much more so are ours! Do we feel their power? Do we consider them

in our hearts? Do we ponder the claims of Christ upon us? Do we remember that we

are not our own, but bought with a price, even the infinitely precious price of the

blood of Christ? Do we realise this? Are we seeking: to live for Him. Is His glory our

ruling object, His love our constraining motive? Or, are we living for ourselves? Are

we seeking to get on in the world-that world that crucified our blessed Lord and

Saviour? Are we seeking to make money? Do we love it in our hearts, either for its

own sake or for the sake of what it can procure? Does money govern us? Are we

seeking a place in the world, either for ourselves or for our children? Let us honestly

challenge our hearts, as in the divine presence, in the light of God's truth, what is our

object—our real, governing, cherished, heart-sought object?

Reader, these are searching questions. Let us not put them aside. Let us really weigh

them in the very light of the judgement-seat of Christ. We believe they are

wholesome, much needed questions. We live in very solemn times. There is a fearful

amount of sham on every side; and in nothing is this sham so awfully apparent as in

so-called religion. The very days in which our lot is cast have been sketched by a pen

that never colours, never exaggerates, but always presents men and things precisely as

they are. "This know also, that in the last days"—quite distinct from "The latter

times" of 1 Timothy 4,—far in advance, more pronounced, more closely defined,

more strongly marked, these last days in which—"perilous [or difficult] times shall

come. For men shall be lovers of there own selves, covetous, boasters, proud,

blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection

truce-breakers, false accusers incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more [or rather] than lovers of God."

And, then, mark the crown which the inspired apostle puts upon this appalling

superstructure!—"Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof."(2 Tim.

3: 1-5)

What a terrible picture! We have here, in a few glowing, weighty sentences, infidel

Christendom; just as in 1 Timothy 4, we have superstitious Christendom. In the latter,

we see popery; in the former, infidelity. Both elements are at work around us; but the

latter will yet rise into prominence; indeed, even now, it is advancing with rapid

strides. The very leaders and teachers of Christendom are not ashamed or afraid to

attack the foundations of Christianity. A so-called Christian bishop is not ashamed or

afraid to call in question the integrity of the five books of Moses, and, with them, of

the whole Bible; for, most assuredly, if Moses was not the inspired writer of the

Pentateuch, the entire edifice of holy scripture is swept from beneath our feet. The

writings of Moses are so intimately bound up with all the other grand divisions of the

divine Volume, that, if they are touched, all is gone. We boldly affirm, that if the Holy

Ghost did not inspire Moses, the servant of God, to write the first five books of our

English Bible, we have not an inch of solid ground to stand upon. We are positively

left without a single atom of divine authority on which to rest our souls. The very

pillars of our glorious Christianity are swept away, and we are left to grope our way,

in hopeless perplexity, amid the conflicting opinions and theories of infidel doctors,

without so much as a single ray from inspiration's heavenly lamp.

Does this appear too strong for the reader? Does he believe that we can listen, for a

moment, to the infidel denier of Moses, and yet believe in the inspiration of the

Psalms, the Prophets, and the New Testament? If he does, let him be well assured he

is under the power of a fatal delusion. Let him take such passages as the following,

and ask himself, what do they mean, and what is wrapped up in them? Our Lord, in

speaking to the Jews—who, by the way, would not have agreed with a Christian

bishop in denying the authenticity of Moses—says, "Do not think that I will accuse

you to the Father; there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For

had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me. But if ye

believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?" (John 5: 45-47.)

Think of this. The man that does not believe in the writings of Moses—does not

receive every line of his, as divinely inspired, does not believe in Christ's words, and

therefore cannot have any divinely wrought faith in Christ Himself, cannot be a

Christian at all. This makes it a very serious matter for any one to deny the divine

inspiration of the Pentateuch; and equally serious for any one to listen to him, or

sympathise with him. It is all very well to talk of Christian charity and liberality of

spirit. But we have yet to learn that it is charity or liberality to sanction, in any way, a

man who has the audacity to sweep from beneath our feet the very foundations of our

faith. To speak of him as a Christian bishop or a Christian minister of any kind, is

only to make the matter a thousand times worse. We can understand a Voltaire or a

Paine attacking the Bible. We do not look for anything else from them; but when

those who assume to be the recognised and ordained ministers of religion, and the

guardians of the faith of God's elect, those who consider themselves alone entitled to

teach and preach Jesus Christ, and feed and tend the church of God—when they

actually call in question the inspiration of the five books of Moses, may we not well

ask, where are we? What has the professing church come to?

But let us take another passage. It is the powerful appeal of the risen Saviour to the

two bewildered disciples on their way to Emmaus: "O fools, and slow of heart to

believe all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ to have suffered these

things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, he

expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself." And, again,

to the eleven and others with them, He says, "These are the words which I spake unto

you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in

the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me." (Luke 24:

25-27, 44.)

Here we find that our Lord, in the most distinct and positive manner, recognises the

law of Moses as an integral part of the canon of inspiration, and binds it up with all

the other grand divisions of the divine Volume, in such a way that it is utterly

impossible to touch one without destroying the integrity of the whole. If Moses is not

to be trusted, neither are the prophets nor the Psalms. They stand or fall together. And

not only so; but we must either admit the divine authenticity of the Pentateuch or

draw the blasphemous inference that our adorable Lord and Saviour gave the sanction

of His authority to a set of spurious documents, by quoting as the writings of Moses

what Moses never wrote at all! There is, positively, not a single inch of consistent

standing ground between these two conclusions.

Again, take the following most weighty and important passage at the close of the

parable of the rich man and Lazarus: "Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and

the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham; but if one went

unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not

Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the

dead." (Luke 16: 29-31.)

Finally, if we add to all this the fact that our Lord, in His conflict with Satan in the

wilderness, quotes only from the writings of Moses, we have a body of evidence quite

sufficient, not only to establish, beyond all question, the divine inspiration of Moses,

but also to prove that the man who calls in question the authenticity of the first five

books of the Bible, can really have no Bible, no divine revelation, no authority, no

solid foundation for his faith. He may call himself, or be called by others, a Christian

bishop or a Christian minister; but in solemn fact, he is a sceptic, and should be

treated as such by all who believe and know the truth. We cannot understand how any

one with a spark of divine life in his soul could be guilty of the awful sin of denying

the inspiration of a large portion of the word of God, or asserting that our Lord Christ

could quote from spurious documents.

We may be deemed severe in thus writing. It seems the fashion, now-a-days, to own

as Christians those who deny the very foundations of Christianity. It is a very popular

notion that, provided people are moral, amiable, benevolent, charitable and

philanthropic, it is of very small consequence what they believe. Life is better than

creed or dogma, we are told. All this sounds very plausible; but the reader may rest

assured that the direct tendency of all this manner of speech and line of argument is to

get rid of the Bible—rid of the Holy Ghost rid of Christ—rid of God—rid of all that

the Bible reveals to our souls. Let him bear this in mind, and seek to keep close to the

precious word of God. Let him treasure that word in his heart; and give himself, more

and more, to the prayerful study of it. Thus he will be preserved from the withering

influence of scepticism and infidelity, in every shape and form; his soul will be fed

and nourished by the sincere milk of the word, and his whole moral being be kept in

the shelter of the divine presence continually. This is what is needed. Nothing else

will do.

We must now close our meditation on this marvellous chapter which has been

engaging our attention; but, ere doing so, we would glance, for a moment, at the

remarkable notice of the three cities of refuge. It might, to a cursory reader, seem

abrupt; but, so far from that, it is, as we might expect, in Perfect and beautiful moral

order. Scripture is always divinely perfect; and, if we do not see and appreciate its

beauties and moral glories, it is simply owing to our blindness and insensibility.

"Then Moses severed three cities on this side Jordan toward the sun rising; that the

slayer might flee thither, which should kill his neighbour unawares, and hated him not

in times past; and that fleeing unto one of those cities he might live. Namely, Bezer in

the wilderness, in the plain country, of the Reubenites; and Ramoth in Gilead, of the

Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, of the Manassites."

Here we have a lovely display of the grace of God rising, as it ever does, above human

weakness and failure. The two tribes and a half, in choosing their inheritance on this

side Jordan, were manifestly stopping short of the proper portion of the Israel of God

which lay on the other side of the river of death. But, notwithstanding this failure,

God, in His abounding grace, would not leave the poor slayer without a refuge, in the

day of his distress. If man cannot come up to the height of God's thoughts, God can

come down to the depths of man's need; and so blessedly does He do so, in this case,

that the two tribes and a half were to have as many cities of refuge, on this side

Jordan, as the nine tribes and a half had in the land of Canaan.

This truly was grace abounding. How unlike the manner of man! How far above mere

law or legal righteousness! It might, in a legal way, have been said to the two tribes

and a half, "If you are going to choose your inheritance short of the divine mark, if

you are content with less than Canaan, the land of promise, you must not expect to

enjoy the privileges and blessings of that land. The institutions of Canaan must be

confined to Canaan; and hence your manslayer must try and make his way across the

Jordan and find refuge there."

Law might speak thus, but grace spoke differently God's thoughts are not ours, nor His

ways as ours. We might deem it marvellous grace to provide even one city for the two

tribes and a half. But our God does exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or

think; and hence the comparatively small district on this side Jordan was furnished

with as full a provision of grace as the entire land of Canaan.

Does this prove that the two and a half tribes were right? Nay; but it proves that God

was good; and that He must ever act like Himself, spite of all our weakness and folly.

Could he leave a poor slayer without a place of refuge in the land of Gilead, though

Gilead was not Canaan? Surely not. This would not be worthy of the One who says, "I

bring near my righteousness." He took care to bring the city of refuge "near" to the

slayer. He would cause His rich and precious grace to flow over and meet the needy

one just where he was. Such is the way of our God, blessed be His holy Name, for

evermore!

"And this is the law which Moses see before the children of Israel. These are the

testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgements, which Moses spake unto the

children of Israel, after they came forth out of Egypt, on this side Jordan, in the valley

over against Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at

Heshbon, whom Moses and the children of Israel smote, after they were come forth

out of Egypt: and they possessed his land, and the land of Og king of Bashan, two

kings of the Amorites, which were on this side Jordan toward the sun rising; from

Aroer, which is by the bank of the river Arnon; even unto mount Sion, which is

Hermon, and all the plain on this side Jordan eastward, even unto the sea of the plain,

under the springs of Pisgah."

Here closes this marvellous discourse. The Spirit of God delights to trace the

boundaries of the people, and to dwell on the most minute details connected with

their history. He takes a lively and loving interest in all that concerns them—their

conflicts, their victories, their possessions, all their landmarks, everything about them

is dwelt upon with a minuteness which, by its touching grace and condescension, fills

the heart with wonder, love and praise. Man, in his contemptible self-importance,

thinks it beneath his dignity to enter upon minute details; but our God counts the hairs

of our heads; puts our tears into His bottle; takes knowledge of our every care, our

every sorrow, our every need. There is nothing too small for His love, as there is

nothing too great for His power. He concentrates His loving care upon each one of

His people as though He had only that one to attend to; and there is not a single

circumstance in our private history, from day to day, however trivial, in which He

does not take a loving interest.

Let us ever remember this, for our comfort; and may we learn to trust Him better, and

use, with a more artless faith, His fatherly love and care. He tells us to cast all our

care upon Him, in the assurance that He careth for us. He would have our hearts as

free from care as our conscience is free from guilt. "Be careful for nothing; but, in

everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made

known unto God; and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep

your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." (Phil. 4: 6, 7.)

It is to be feared that the great majority of us know but little of the real depth,

meaning and power of such words as these. We read them, and hear them; but we do

not take them in, and make our own of them. We do not digest them and reduce them

to practice. How little do we really enter into the blessed truth that our Father is

interested in all our little cares and sorrows; and that we may go to Him with all our

little wants and difficulties. We imagine that such things are beneath the notice of the

High and Mighty One who inhabiteth eternity, and sitteth upon the circle of the earth.

This is a, serious mistake, and one that robs us of incalculable blessing, in our daily

history. We should ever remember that there is nothing great or small with our God.

All things are alike to Him who sustains the vast universe by the word of His power,

and takes notice of a falling sparrow. It is quite as easy to Him to create a world as to

provide a breakfast for some poor widow. The greatness of His power, the moral

grandeur of His government, and the minuteness of His tender care do, all alike,

command the wonder and the worship of our hearts.

Christian reader, see that you make your own of all these things. Seek to live nearer to

God in your daily walk. Lean more upon Him. Use Him more. Go to Him in all your

need, and you will never have to tell your need to a poor fellow mortal. "My God shall

supply all your need, according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." What a

source!—"God." What a standard!—"His riches in glory." What a channel!—"Christ

Jesus." It is your sweet privilege to place all your need over against His riches, and

lose sight of the former in the presence of the latter. His exhaustless treasury is

thrown open to you, in all the love of His heart; go and draw upon it, in the artless

simplicity of faith, and you will never have occasion to look to a creature stream, or

lean on a creature prop.

Deuteronomy 5.

"AND Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and

judgements which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and

do them."

Let us carefully note these four words, so specially characteristic of the book of

Deuteronomy, and so seasonable for the Lord's people, at all times and in all places—

"Hear''—"Learn"—"Keep"—"Do." These are words of unspeakable preciousness to

every truly pious soul—to every one who honestly desires to walk in that narrow path

of practical righteousness so pleasing to God, and so safe and so happy for us.

The first of these word's places the soul in the most blessed attitude in which any one

can be found, namely, that of hearing. "Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the

word of God." "I will hear what God the Lord will speak." "Hear; and your soul shall

live." The hearing ear lies at the very foundation of all true, practical Christian life. It

places the soul in the only true and proper attitude for the creature. It is the real secret

of all peace and blessedness.

It can scarcely be needful to remind the reader that, when we speak of the soul in the

attitude of hearing, it is assumed that what is heard is simply the word of God. Israel

had to hearken to "the statutes and judgements" of Jehovah, and to nothing else. It

was not to the commandments, traditions, and doctrines of men they were to give ear;

but to the very words of the living God who had redeemed and delivered them from

the land of Egypt, the place of bondage, darkness and death.

It is well to bear this in mind. It will preserve the soul from many a snare, many a

difficulty. We hear a good deal, in certain quarters, about obedience; and about the

moral fitness of surrendering our own will, and submitting ourselves to authority. All

this sounds very well; and has great weight with a large class of very religious and

morally excellent people. But when men speak to us about obedience, we must ask

The question, "Obedience to what?" When they speak to us about surrendering our

own will, we must inquire of them, "To whom are we to surrender it?" When they

speak to us about submitting to authority, we must insist upon their telling us the

source or foundation of the authority.

This is of the deepest possible moment to every member of the household of faith.

There are many very sincere and very earnest, people who deem it very delightful to

be saved the trouble of thinking for themselves, and to have their sphere of action and

line of service laid out for them by wiser heads than their own. It seems a very restful

and very pleasing thing to have each day's work laid out for us by some master hand.

It relieves the heart of a great load of responsibility, and it looks like humility and

self-distrust to submit ourselves to some authority.

But we are bound, before God, to look well to the basis of the authority to which we

surrender ourselves, else we may find ourselves in an utterly false position. Take for

example, a monk, or a nun, or a member of a sisterhood. A monk obeys his abbot; a

nun obeys her mother abbess; "a sister" obeys her "lady superior." But the position

and relationship of each is utterly false. There is not a shadow of authority in the New

Testament for monasteries, convents, or sisterhoods; on the contrary, the teaching of

holy scripture, as well as the voice of nature, is utterly opposed to every one of them,

inasmuch as they take men and women out of the place and out of the relationship in

which God has set them, and in which they are designed and fitted to move, and form

them into societies which are utterly destructive of natural affection, and subversive

of all true Christian obedience.

We feel it right to call the attention of the Christian reader to this subject just now,

seeing that the enemy is making a vigorous effort to revive the monastic system, in

our midst, under various forms. Indeed some have had the temerity to tell us, that

monastic life is the only true form of Christianity. Surely, when such monstrous

statements are made and listened to, it becomes us to look at the whole subject in the

light of scripture, and to call upon the advocates and adherents of monasticism to

show us the foundations of the system in the word of God. Where, within the covers

of the New Testament, is there anything, in the most remote degree, like a monastery,

a convent, or a sisterhood? where can we find an authority for any such office as that

of an abbot, an abbess, or a lady superior? There is absolutely no such thing, nor a

shadow of it; and hence, we have no hesitation in pronouncing the whole system,

from foundation to topstone, a fabric of superstition, alike opposed to the voice of

nature and the voice of God; nor can we understand how any one, in his sober senses,

could presume to tell us that a monk or a nun is the only true exponent of Christian

life. Yet there are those who thus speak, and there are those who listen to them, and

that, too, in this day when the full, clear light of our glorious Christianity is shining

upon us from the pages of the New Testament.*

{*We must accurately distinguish between "nature" and "flesh." The former is

recognised in scripture; the latter is condemned and set aside. "Doth not even nature

itself teach you?" says the apostle. (1 Cor. 11: 14.) Jesus beholding the young ruler, in

Mark 10, "loved him" although there was nothing but nature. To be without natural

affection, is one of the marks of the apostasy. Scripture teaches that we are dead to

sin; not to nature, else what becomes of our natural relationships?}

But, blessed be God, we are called to obedience. We are called to "hear"—called to

bow down, in holy and reverent submission, to authority. And here we join issue with

infidelity and its lofty pretensions. The path of the devout and lowly Christian is alike

removed from superstition on the one hand, and from infidelity on the other. Peter's

noble reply to the council, in Acts 5, embodies, in its brief compass, a complete

answer to both. "We ought to obey God rather than men." We meet infidelity, in all its

phases, in all its stages, and in its very deepest roots, with this one weighty sentence,

"We ought to obey" And we meet superstition, in every garb in which it clothes itself,

with the all-important clause, "We ought to obey God."

Here we have set forth, in the most simple form, the duty of every true Christian. He

is to obey God. The infidel may smile, contemptuously, at a monk or a nun, and

marvel how any rational being can so completely surrender his reason and his

understanding to the authority of a fellow mortal, or submit himself to rules and

practices so absurd, so degrading and so contrary to nature. The infidel glories in his

fancied intellectual freedom, and imagines that his own reason is quite a sufficient

guide for him. He does not see that he is further from God than the poor monk or nun

whom he so despises. He does not know that, while priding himself in his self-will, he

is really led captive by Satan, the prince and God of this world. Man is formed to

obey—formed to look up to some one above him. The Christian is sanctified unto the

obedience of Jesus Christ that is, to the very same character of obedience as that

which was rendered by our adorable Lord and Saviour Himself.

This is of the deepest possible moment to every one who really desires to know what

true Christian obedience is. To understand this is the real secret of deliverance from

the self-will of the infidel, and the false obedience of superstition. It can never be

right to do our own will. It may be quite wrong to do the will of our fellow. It must

always be right to do the will of God. This was what Jesus came to do; and what He

always did. " Lo, I come to do thy will, O God." "I delight to do thy will, O my God;

yea, thy law is within my heart."

Now, we are called and set apart to this blessed character of obedience, as we learn

from the inspired apostle Peter, in the opening of his first epistle, where he speaks of

believers as "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through

sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus

Christ."

This is an immense privilege; and, at the same time, a most holy and solemn

responsibility. We must never forget, for a moment, that God has elected us, and the

Holy Spirit has set us apart, not only to the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, but

also to His obedience. Such is the obvious meaning and moral force of the words just

quoted—words of unspeakable preciousness to every lover of holiness—words which

effectually deliver us from self-will, from legality, and from superstition. Blessed

deliverance!

But it may be the pious reader feels disposed to call our attention to the exhortation in

Hebrews 13. "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves; for they

watch for your souls, as they that must give account; that they may do it with joy and

not with grief; for that is unprofitable for you."

A deeply important word, most surely, with which we should also connect a passage

in 1 Thessalonians, "And we beseech you, brethren, to know them that labour among

you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; and to esteem them very highly

in love for their work's sake." (1 Thess. 5: 12, 13) And again, in 1 Cor 16: 15, 16, "I

beseech you, Brethren—ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of

Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry [or service] of the

saints—that ye submit yourselves unto such, and to every one that helpeth with us and

laboureth." To all these we must add another very lovely passage from the first epistle

of Peter. "The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a

witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be

revealed. Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not

by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being

lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And when the chief

Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of Glory that fadeth not away." (1

Thess. 5: 1-4.)

We may be asked, "Do not the above passages set forth the principle of obedience to

certain men? And, if so, why object to human authority?" The answer is very simple.

Wherever Christ imparts a spiritual gift, whether it be the gift of teaching, the gift of

rule, or the gift of pastorship, it is the bounden duty and privilege of Christians to

recognise and appreciate such gifts. Not to do so, would be to forsake our own

mercies. But then we must bear in mind that, in all such cases, the gift must be a

reality —a Plain, palpable, bona fide, divinely given thing. It is not a man assuming a

certain place or position, or being appointed by his fellow to any so-called ministry.

All this is perfectly worthless and worse than worthless; it is a daring intrusion upon a

sacred domain which must, sooner or later, bring down the judgement of God.

All true ministry is of God, and is based upon the possession of a positive gift from

the Head of the church; so that we may truly say, No gift, no ministry. In all the

passages quoted above, we see positive gift possessed, and actual work done.

Moreover, we see a true heart for the lambs and sheep of the flock of Christ; we see

divine grace and power. The word in Hebrews 13 is "Obey them that guide you"

(hJgoumenoi"). Now, it is essential to a true guide that he should go before you in the

way. It would be the height of folly for any one to assume the title of guide, if he were

ignorant of the way, and neither able nor willing to go in it. Who would think of

obeying such?

So also when the apostle exhorts the Thessalonians to "know" and "esteem" certain

persons, on what does he found his exhortation? Is it upon the mere assumption of a

title, an office or a position Nothing of the kind. He grounds his appeal upon the

actual, well-known fact that these persons were "over them, in the Lord," and that

they admonished them. And why were they to "esteem them very highly in love"?

Was it for their office or their title? No; but "for their work's sake." And why were the

Corinthians exhorted to submit themselves to the household of Stephanas? Was it

because of an empty title or assumed office? By no means; but because "They

addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints." They were actually in the work.

They had received gift and grace from Christ, and they had a heart for His people.

They were not boasting of their office or insisting upon their title, but giving

themselves devotedly to the service of Christ, in the persons of His dear people.

Now this is the true principle of ministry. It is not human authority at all, but divine

gift and spiritual power communicated by Christ to His servants; exercised by them,

in responsibility to Him; and thankfully recognised by His saints. A man may set up to

be a teacher or a pastor, or he may be appointed by his fellows to the office or title of

a pastor; but unless he possessed a positive gift from the Head of the church, it is all

the merest sham, a hollow assumption, an empty conceit; and his voice will be the

voice of a stranger which the true sheep of Christ do not know and ought not to

recognise.*

{*The reader will do well to ponder the fact that there is no such thing in the New

Testament as human appointment to preach the gospel, teach in the assembly of God,

or feed the flock of Christ. Elders and deacons were ordained by the apostles or their

delegates Timothy and Titus; but evangelists, pastors and teachers were never so

ordained. We must distinguish between gift and local charge. Elders and deacons

might possess a special gift or not; it had nothing to do with their local charge. If the

reader would understand the subject of ministry, let him study 1 Corinthians 12-14.

and Ephesians 4: 8-13. In the former we have first, the base of all true ministry in the

church of God, namely, divine appointment: "God hath set the members," &c.

Secondly, the motive spring, "love." Thirdly, The object, "that the church may receive

edifying." In Ephesians 4 we have the source of all ministry, a risen and ascended

Lord. The design, "To perfect the saints for the work of the ministry." The duration

"Till we all come unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of

Christ." In a word, ministry, in all its departments, is entirely a divine institution. It is

not of man or by man, but of God. The Master must, in every case, fit, fill and appoint

the vessel. There is no authority in scripture for the notion that every man has a right

to minister in the church of God. Liberty for men is radicalism and not scripture.

Liberty for the Holy Ghost to minister by whom He will is what we are taught in the

New Testament. May we learn it!}

But, on the other hand, where there is the divinely gifted teacher, the true, loving,

wise, faithful, laborious pastor, watching for souls, weeping over them waiting upon

them, like a gentle, tender nurse, able to say to them, "Now we live, if ye stand fast in

the Lord"—where these things are found, there will not be much difficulty in

recognising and appreciating them. How do we know a good dentist? Is it by seeing

his name on a brass plate? No; but by his work. A man may call himself a dentist ten

thousand times over, but if he be only an unskilful operator who would think of

employing him?

Thus it is in all human affairs, and thus it is in the matter of ministry. If a man has a

gift, he is a minister; if he has not, all the appointment, authority and ordination in the

world could not make him a minister of Christ. It may make him a minister of

religion; but a minister of religion and a minister of Christ—a minister in

Christendom and a minister in the church of God, are two totally different things. All

true ministry has its source in God; it rests on divine authority, and its object is to

bring the soul into His presence, and link it on to Him. False ministry, on the contrary,

has its source in man; it rests on human authority, and its object is to link the soul on

to itself. This marks the immense difference between the two. The former leads to

God; the latter leads away from Him; that feeds, nourishes and strengthens the new

life; this hinders its progress, in every way, and plunges it in doubt and darkness. In a

word, we may say, true ministry is of God, through Him, and to Him. False ministry is

of man, through him and to him. The former we prize more than we can say; the latter

we reject with all the energy of our moral being. We trust sufficient has been said to

satisfy the mind of the reader in reference to the matter of obedience to those whom

the Lord may see fit to call to the work of the ministry. We are bound, in every case,

to judge by the word of God, and to be assured that it is a divine reality and not a

human sham—a positive gift from the Head of the church, and not an empty title

conferred by men. In all cases where there is real gift and grace, it is a sweet privilege

to obey and submit ourselves, inasmuch as we discern Christ in the person and

ministry of His beloved servants.

There is no difficulty, to a spiritual mind, in owning real grace and power. We can

easily tell whether a man is seeking, in true love, to feed our souls with the bread of

life, and lead us on in the ways of God; or whether he is seeking to exalt himself, and

promote his own interests. Those who are living near the Lord can readily discern

between true power and hollow assumption. Moreover, we never find Christ's true

ministers parading their authority, or vaunting themselves of their office; they do the

work and leave it to speak for itself. In the case of the blessed apostle Paul, we and

him referring, again and again, to the plain proofs of his ministry—the unquestionable

evidence afforded in the conversion and blessing of souls. He could say to the poor

misguided Corinthians when, under the influence of some self-exalting pretender,

they foolishly called in question his apostleship, "Since ye seek a proof of Christ

speaking in me....examine yourselves."

This was close, pointed dealing with them. They themselves were the living proofs of

his ministry. If his ministry was not of God, what and where were they? But it was of

God, and this was his joy, his comfort and his strength. He was "an apostle, not of

man, nor by men; but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father who raised him from the

dead." He gloried in the source of his ministry; and, as to its character, he had but to

appeal to a body of evidence quite sufficient to carry conviction to any right mind. In

his case, it could be truly said, it was not the speech, but the power.

Thus it must be, in measure, in every case. We must look for the power. We must

have reality. Mere titles are nothing. Men may undertake to confer titles and appoint

to offices; but they have no more authority to do so than they have to appoint;

admirals in her Majesty's fleet, or generals in her army. If we were to see a man

assuming the style and title of an admiral or a general, without her Majesty's

commission, we should pronounce him an idiot or a lunatic. This is but a feeble

illustration to set forth the folly of men taking upon them the title of ministers of

Christ without one atom of spiritual gift, or divine authority.

Shall we be told, we must not judge! We are bound to judge. "Beware of false

prophets." How can we beware if we are not to judge? But how are we to judge "By

their fruits ye shall know them." Can the Lord's people not tell the difference between

a man who comes to them, in the power of the Spirit, gifted by the Head of the

church, full of love to their souls, earnestly desiring their true blessing seeking not

theirs but them, a holy, gracious, humble, self emptied servant of Christ; and a man

who comes with a self-assumed or a humanly conferred title, without a single trace of

anything divine or heavenly, either in his ministry or in his life? Of course they can;

no one in his senses would think of calling in question a fact so obvious.

But, further, we may ask, what mean those words of the venerable apostle John?

"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God; because

many false prophets are gone out into the world." How are we to try the spirits, or

how are we to discern between the true and the false, if we are not to judge? Again,

the same apostle writing to "the elect lady," gives her the following most solemn

admonition, "If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not

into your house, neither bid him God speed; for he that biddeth him God speed is

partaker of his evil deeds." Was she not responsible to act on this admonition

Assuredly. But how could she, if we are not to judge And what had she to judge! Was

it as to whether those who came to her house were ordained, authorised, or licensed

by any man or body of men? Nothing of the kind. The one great and all-important

question for her was as to the doctrine. If they brought the true, the divine doctrine of

Christ the doctrine of Jesus Christ come in the flesh, she was to receive them; if not,

she was to shut her door, with a firm hand, against them, no matter who they were, or

where they came from. If they had all the credentials that man could bestow upon

them, yet if they brought not the truth, she was to reject them with stern decision. This

might seem very harsh, very narrow minded, very bigoted; but with this she had

nothing whatever to do. She had just to be as broad and as narrow as the truth. Her

door and her heart were to be wide enough to admit all who brought Christ, and no

wider. Was she to pay compliments at the expense of her Lord? Was she to seek a

name for largeness of heart or breadth of mind by receiving to her house and to her

table the teachers of a false Christ? The very thought is absolutely horrible.

But, finally, in the second chapter of Revelation, we find the church at Ephesus

commended for having tried those who said they were apostles and were not. How

could this be if we are not to judge? Is it not most evident to the reader that an utterly

false use is made of our Lord's words in Matthew 7: 1, "Judge not that ye be not

judged;" and also of the apostle's words in? Corinthians 4: 5, "Therefore judge nothing

before the time"! It is impossible that scripture can contradict itself; and, hence,

whatever be the true meaning of our Lord's "judge not," or the apostle's "judge

nothing," it is perfectly certain that they do not, in the most remote way, interfere with

the solemn responsibility of all Christians, to judge the gift, the doctrine, and the life

of all who take the place of preachers, teachers and pastors in the church of God.

And, then, if we be asked, as to the meaning of "judge not," and "judge nothing," we

believe the words simply forbid our judging motives, or hidden springs of action.

With these we have nothing whatever to do. We cannot penetrate below the surface;

and, thanks be to God, we are not asked to do so; yea, we are positively forbidden.

We cannot read the counsels of the heart; it is the province and prerogative of God

alone to do this. But to say that we are not to judge the doctrine, the gift or the manner

of life of those who take the place of preachers, teachers and pastors in the church of

God, is simply to fly in the face of holy scripture, and to ignore the very instincts of

the divine nature implanted in us by the Holy Ghost.

Hence, therefore, we can return, with increased clearness and decision, to our thesis

of Christian obedience. It seems perfectly plain that the fullest recognition of all true

ministry in the church, and the most gracious submission of ourselves to all those

whom our Lord Christ may see fit to raise up as pastors, teachers and guides, in our

midst, can never, in the smallest degree, interfere with the grand fundamental

principle set forth in Peter's magnificent reply to the council, "We ought to obey God,

rather than men."

It will ever be the aim and object of all true ministers of Christ to lead those, to whom

they minister, in the true path of obedience to the word of God. The chapter which

lies open before us, as indeed the entire book of Deuteronomy, shows us, very plainly,

how Moses, that eminent servant of God, ever sought and diligently laboured to press

upon the congregation of Israel, the urgent necessity of the most implicit obedience to

all the statutes and judgements of God. He did not seek any place of authority for

himself. He never lorded it over God's heritage. His one grand theme, from first to

last, was obedience. This was the burden of all his discourses—obedience, not to him,

but to his and their Lord. He rightly judged that this was the true secret of their

happiness, their moral security, their dignity and their strength. He knew that an

obedient people must also, of necessity, be an invincible and innumerable people. No

weapon formed against them could prosper, so long as they were governed by the

word of God. In a word, he knew and believed that Israel's province was to obey

Jehovah; as it was Jehovah's province to bless Israel. It was their one simple business

to "hear"—"learn" "keep"—and "do" the revealed will of God; and, so doing, they

might count on Him, with all possible confidence, to be their shield, their strength,

their safeguard, their refuge, their resource, their all in all. The only true and proper

path for the Israel of God, is that narrow path of obedience on which the light of

God's approving countenance ever shines; and all who, through grace, tread that path

will find Him "a guide, a glory, a defence, to save from every fear."

This, surely, is quite enough. We have nothing to do with consequences. These we

may, in simple confidence, leave to Him whose we are and whom we are responsible

to serve. "The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is

safe." If we are doing His will, we shall ever find His Name a strong tower. But, on

the other hand, if we are not walking in a path of practical righteousness; if we are

doing our own will; if we are living in the habitual neglect of the plain word of God,

then verily it is utterly vain for us to think that the Name of the Lord will be a strong

tower to us; rather would His Name be a reproof to us, leading us to judge our ways,

and to return to the path of righteousness from which we have wandered.

Blessed be His Name, His grace will ever meet us, in all its precious fullness and

freeness, in the place of self-judgement and confession, however we may have failed

and wandered; but this is a totally different thin. We may have to say, with the

psalmist, "Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice; let

thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark

iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou

mayest be feared." But then, a soul crying to God from the depths, and getting

forgiveness, is one thing; and a soul looking to Him in the path of practical

righteousness is quite another. We must carefully distinguish between these two

things. Confessing our sins and finding pardon must never be confounded with

walking uprightly and counting on God. Both are blessedly true; but they are not the

same thing.

We shall now proceed with our chapter.

At the second verse, Moses reminds the people of their covenant relationship with

Jehovah; He says, "The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The Lord

made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here

alive this day. The Lord talked with you face to face, in the mount, out of the midst of

the fire, (I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to show you the word of the

Lord; for ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the mount)

saying," &c.

The reader must distinguish, and thoroughly understand the difference between the

covenant made at Horeb, and the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

They are essentially different. The former was a covenant of works, in which the

people undertook to do all that the Lord had spoken. The latter was a covenant of pure

grace, in which God pledged Himself with an oath to do all which He promised.

Human language would utterly fail us to set forth the immense difference, in every

respect, between these two covenants. In their basis, in their character, in their

accompaniments, and in their practical result, they are as different as any two things

could possibly be. The Horeb covenant rested upon human competency for the

fulfilment of its terms; and this one fact is quite sufficient to account for the total

failure of the whole thing. The Abrahamic covenant rested upon divine competency

for the fulfilment of its terms, and hence the utter impossibility of its failure in a

single jot or tittle.

Having, in our "Notes on the Book of Exodus," gone, somewhat fully, into the subject

of the law, and endeavoured to set forth the divine object in giving it; and, further, the

utter impossibility of any one Setting life or righteousness by keeping it, we must

refer the reader to what we have there advanced on this profoundly interesting

subject.

It seems strange to one taught exclusively by scripture, that such confusion of thought

should prevail amongst professing Christians, in reference to a question so distinctly

and definitively settled by the Holy Ghost. Were it merely a question of the divine

authority of Exodus 20. or Deuteronomy 5 as inspired portions of the Bible, we

should not have a Word to say. We most fully believe that these chapters are as much

inspired as John 17 or Romans 8.

But this is not the point. All true Christians receive, with devout thankfulness, the

precious statement that, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God." And, further,

they rejoice in the assurance that "Whatsoever things were written aforetime were

written for our learning; that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might

have hope." And, finally, they believe that the morality of the law is of abiding and

universal application. Murder, adultery, theft, false witness, covetousness, are

wrong—always wrong—everywhere wrong. To honour our parents is right, always

and everywhere right. We read, in Ephesians 4, "Let him that stole, steal no more."

and, again, in Eph. 6, we read, "Honour thy father and mother, which is the first

commandment with promise; that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long

on the earth."

All this is so divinely plain and settled that discussion is definitively closed. But when

we come to look at the law as a ground of relationship with God, we get into an

entirely different region of thought. Scripture, in manifold places, and in the clearest

Possible manner, teaches as that, as Christians, as children of God, we are not on that

ground at all. The Jew was on that ground, but he could not stand there with God. It

was death and condemnation. They could not endure that which was commanded. and

if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with a

dart. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake." The

Jew found the law to be a bed on which he could not stretch himself, and a covering

in which he could not wrap himself.

As to the Gentile, he was never, by any one branch of the divine economy, placed

under law. His condition is expressly declared, in the opening of the epistle to the

Romans, to be "without law" (ajnovmw"). "For when the Gentiles, which have not the

law," &c. had, "As many as have sinned without law shall perish without law; and as

many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law."

Here the two classes are brought into sharp and vivid contrast, in the matter of their

dispensational position. The Jew, under law; the Gentile, without law. Nothing can be

more distinct. The Gentile was placed under government, in the person of Noah; but

never under law. Should any one feel disposed to call this in question, let him produce

a single line of scripture to prove that God ever placed the Gentiles under the law. Let

him search and see. It is of no possible use to argue and reason and object. It is utterly

vain to say, "We think" this or that. The question is, "What saith the scripture?" If it

says that the Gentiles were put under the law, let the passage be produced. We

solemnly declare it says nothing of the kind, but the very reverse. It describes the

condition and the position of the Gentile as "without law"—" having not the law"

In Acts 10, we see God opening the kingdom of heaven to the Gentile. In Acts 14: 27,

we see Him opening "the door of faith" to the Gentile. In Acts 28: 28, we see Him

sending His salvation to the Gentile. But we search in vain, from cover to cover of the

blessed Book, for a passage in which He places the Gentile under the law.

We would, very earnestly, entreat the Christian reader to give this deeply interesting

and important question his calm attention. Let him lay aside all his pre-conceived

thoughts, and examine the matter simply in the light of holy scripture. We are quite

aware that our statements on this subject will be regarded by thousands as novel, if

not actually heretical; but this does not move us, in the smallest degree. It is our one

grand desire to be taught absolutely and exclusively by scripture. The opinions,

commandments, and doctrines of men have no weight whatever with us. The dogmas

of the various schools of divinity must just go for what they are worth. We demand

scripture. A single line of inspiration is amply sufficient to settle this question, and

close all discussion, for ever. Let us be shown, from the word of God, that the

Gentiles were ever put under the law, and we shall, at once, bow; but, inasmuch as we

cannot find it there, we reject the notion altogether, and we would have the reader to

do the same. The invariable language of scripture, in describing the position of the

Jew, is, "under law;" and, in describing the position of the Gentile, is, "without law."

This is so obvious that we cannot but marvel how any reader of the Bible can fail to

see it.*

{*The reader may perhaps feel disposed to inquire, on what ground will the Gentile

be judged, if he is not under the law? Romans 1: 20 teaches us distinctly that the

testimony of creation leaves him without excuse. Then, in Rom. 2: 15, he is taken up

on the ground of conscience. "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by

nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto

themselves which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience

also bearing witness," &c. Finally, as regards those nations that have become

professedly Christian, they will be judged on the ground of their profession.}

If the reader will turn, for a few moments, to Acts 15, he will see how the first

attempt to put Gentile converts under the law was met by the apostles and the whole

church at Jerusalem. The question was raised at Antioch; and God, in His infinite

goodness and wisdom, so ordered that it should not be settled there, but that Paul and

Barnabas should go up to Jerusalem and have the matter fully and freely discussed,

and definitively settled by the unanimous voice of the twelve apostles, and the whole

church.

How we can bless our God for this! We can, at once, see that the decision of a local

assembly such as Antioch, even though approved by Paul and Barnabas, would not

carry the same weight as that of the twelve apostles assembled in council, at

Jerusalem. But the Lord, blessed be His Name, took care that the enemy should be

completely confounded; and that the law-teachers of that day, and of every other day,

should be distinctly and authoritatively taught that it was not according to His mind

that Christians should be put under law, for any object whatsoever.

The subject is so deeply important that we cannot forbear quoting a few passages for

the reader. We believe it will refresh both the reader and the writer to refer to the

soul-stirring addresses delivered at the most remarkable and interesting council that

ever sat.

"And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, Except ye be

circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved" How awful! How terribly

chilling! What a death knell to ring in the ears of those who had been converted under

Paul's splendid address in the synagogue at Antioch! "Be it known unto you therefore,

men and brethren, that through this man"—without circumcision or works of law of

any kind whatsoever—"is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him all

that believe"—irrespective altogether of circumcision—"are justified from all things,

from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses..... And when the Jews were

gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be Preached

to them the next Sabbath."

Such was the glorious message sent to the Gentiles, by the lips of the Apostle Paul—a

message of free, full, immediate and perfect salvation—full remission of sins and

perfect justification, through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. But, according to the

teaching of the "certain men which came down from Judea," all this was insufficient.

Christ was not enough, without circumcision and the law of Moses. Poor Gentiles

who had never heard of circumcision or the law of Moses, must add to Christ and His

glorious salvation the keeping of the whole law.

How must Paul's heart have burned within him to have the beloved Gentile converts

brought under such monstrous teaching as this! He saw in it nothing short of the

complete surrender of Christianity. If circumcision must be added to the cross of

Christ—if the law of Moses must supplement the grace of God, then verily all was

gone.

But, blessed for ever be the God of all grace, He caused a noble stand to be made

against such deadly teaching. When the enemy came in like a flood, the Spirit of the

Lord raised up a standard against him (When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no

small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas,

and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem, unto the apostles and elders,

about this question. And being brought on their way by the church, they passed

through Phenice and Samaria, declaring"—not the circumcision but—"the conversion

of the Gentiles; and they caused great joy unto all the brethren."

The brethren were in the current of the mind of Christ, and in sweet communion with

the heart of God; and hence they rejoiced to hear of the conversion and salvation of

the Gentiles. We may rest assured it would have afforded them no joy to hear of the

heavy yoke of circumcision and the law of Moses being put upon the necks of those

beloved disciples who had just been brought into the glorious liberty of the Gospel.

But to hear of their conversion to God, their salvation by Christ, their being sealed by

the Holy Ghost, filled their hearts with a joy which was in lovely harmony with the

mind of heaven.

"And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the

apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them. But

there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it; was

needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses."

Who made it "needful"? Not God, surely, inasmuch as He had, in His infinite grace,

opened the door of faith to them, without circumcision, or any command to keep the

law of Moses. No; it was "certain men" who presumed to speak of such things as

needful—men who have troubled the church of God, from that day to the present—

men "desiring to be teachers of the law; knowing neither what they say, nor whereof

they affirm." Law teachers never know what is involved in their dark and dismal

teaching. They have not the most distant idea of how thoroughly hateful their teaching

is to the God of all grace, the Father of mercies.

But thanks be to God, the chapter from which we are now quoting affords the very

clearest and most forcible evidence that could be given as to the divine mind on the

subject. It proved, beyond all question, that it was not of God to put Gentile believers

under the law.

"And the apostles and elders came together, for to consider of this matter. And when

there had been much disputing"—alas! how soon it began!—"Peter rose up, and said

unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice

among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear"—not the law of Moses or

circumcision, but "the word of the gospel, and believe. And God which knoweth the

hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as unto us. And put no

difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore why

tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers

nor we were able to bear?"

Mark this, reader. The law had proved an intolerable yoke to those who were under it,

that is the Jews; and, further, it was nothing short of tempting God to put that yoke

upon the neck of Gentile Christians. Would that all the law-teachers, throughout the

length and breadth of Christendom, would but open their eyes to this grand fact! And

not only so, but that all the Lord's beloved people everywhere were given to see that it

is in positive opposition to the will of God that they should be put under the law, for

any object whatsoever. "But," adds the blessed apostle of the circumcision, "we

believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ"—and not by law in any shape

or form—"we shall be saved, even as they."

This is uncommonly fine, coming from the lips of the apostle of the circumcision. He

does not say, " They shall be saved even as we;" but, "We shall be saved even as

they." The Jew is well content to come down from his lofty dispensational position,

and be saved after the pattern of the poor uncircumcised Gentile. Surely those noble

utterances must have fallen, in stunning force, upon the ears of the law party. They

left them, as we say, not a leg to stand upon.

"Then all the multitude kept silence, and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul,

declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them."

The inspiring Spirit has not thought good to tell us what Paul and Barnabas said, on

this memorable occasion; and we can see His wisdom in this. It is evidently His

object to give prominence to Peter and James as men whose words would, of

necessity, have more weight with the law teachers than those of the apostle to the

Gentiles and his companion.

"And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren,

hearken unto me. Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles"—

not to convert them all, but to take out of them a people for his name. And to this

agree the words of the prophets;"—here he brings an overwhelming tide of evidence

from the Old Testament to bear down upon the Judaisers—"as it is written, After this

I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I

will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up that the residue of men might

seek after the Lord. and all the Gentiles"—without the slightest reference to

circumcision, or the law of Moses, but—"upon whom my name is called, saith the

Lord, who doeth all these things. Known unto God are all his works, from the

beginning of the world. Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which

from among the Gentiles are turned to God."

Here, then, we have this great question definitively settled, by the Holy Ghost, the

twelve apostles, and the whole church; and we cannot but be struck with the fact that,

at this most important council, none spoke more emphatically, more distinctly, or

more decidedly, than Peter and James—the former, the apostle of the circumcision;

and the latter, the one who specially addressed the twelve tribes, and whose position

and ministry were calculated to give great weight to his words, in the judgement of all

who were still, in any measure, occupying Jewish or legal ground. Both these eminent

apostles were clear and decided in their judgement that the Gentile converts were not

to be "troubled" or burdened with the law. They proved, in their powerful addresses,

that, to place the Gentile Christians under the law, was directly contrary to the word,

the will, and the

ways of God.

Who can fail to see the marvellous wisdom of God in this? The words of Paul and

Barnabas are not recorded. We are simply told that they rehearsed what things God

had wrought among the Gentiles. That they should be utterly opposed to putting the

Gentiles under the law was only what might be expected. But, to find Peter and James

so decided, would carry great weight with all parties. But if the reader would have a

clear view of Paul's thoughts on the question of the law, he should study the epistle to

the Galatians. There this blessed apostle, under the direct inspiration of the Holy

Ghost, pours out his heart, to the Gentile converts, in words of glowing earnestness

and commanding power. It is perfectly amazing how any one can read this wonderful

epistle, and yet maintain that Christians are under the law, in any way, or for any

purpose. Hardly has the apostle got through his brief opening address, when he

plunges, with his characteristic energy, into the subject with which his large, loving,

though grieved and troubled heart is full to overflowing. "I marvel," he says—and

well he might—"that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into"—what

The law of Moses! Nay, but "the grace of Christ into a different gospel which is not

another;"—(e{teron eujaggevlion o} oujk e[stin a[llo)—"but there be some that

trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we or an angel from

heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you,

let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any

other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed."

Let all law-teachers ponder these burning words. Do they seem strong and severe? Let

us remember that they are the very words of God the Holy Ghost. Yes, reader, God

the Holy Ghost hurls His awful anathema at any one who presumes to add the law of

Moses to the Gospel of Christ—any one who attempts to place Christians under the

law. How is it that men are not afraid, in the face of such words, to contend for the

law ? Are they not afraid of coming under the solemn curse of God the Holy Ghost?

Some, however, seek to meet this question by telling us that they do not take the law

for justification, but as a rule of life. But this is neither reasonable nor intelligent,

inasmuch as we may very lawfully inquire who gave us authority to decide as to the

use we are to make of the law? We are either under the law or we are not. If we are

under it at all, it is not a question of how we take it, but how it takes us.

This makes all the difference. The law knows no such distinctions as those which

some theologians contend for. If we are under it, for any object whatsoever, we are

under the curse, for it is written, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things

which are written in the book of the law to do them." To say that I am born again, I

am a Christian, will not meet the case at all; for what has the law to do with the

question of New Birth, or of Christianity? Nothing whatever. The law is addressed to

man, as a responsible being. It demands perfect obedience, and pronounces its curse

upon every one who fails to render it.

Moreover, it will not do to say that, though we have failed to keep the law, yet Christ

has fulfilled it in our room and stead. The law knows nothing of obedience by proxy.

Its language is, "The man that doeth them shall live in them." Nor is it merely on the

man who fails to keep the law that the curse is pronounced; but, as if to put the

principle in the clearest possible light before us, we read that "as many as are of

works of law are under the curse." (See Gr.) That is, as many as take their stand on

legal ground—as many as are on that principle—in a word, as many as have to do

with works of law, are, of necessity, under the curse. Hence, we may see at a glance,

the terrible inconsistency of a Christian's maintaining the idea of being under the law

as a rule of life, and yet not being under the curse. It is simply flying in the face of the

very plainest statements of holy scripture. Blessed be the God of all grace, the

Christian is not under the curse. But why? Is it because the law has lost its power, its

majesty, its dignity, its holy stringency? By no means. To say so were to blaspheme

the law. To say that any "man"—call him what you please, Christian, Jew, or

Heathen—can be under the law, can stand on that ground, and yet not be under the

curse, is to say that he perfectly fulfils the law or that the law is abrogated—it is to

make it null and void. Who will dare to say this? Woe be to all who do so.

But how comes it to pass that the Christian is not under the curse? Because he is not

under the law. And how has he passed from under the law? Is it by another having

fulfilled it in his stead? Nay; we repeat the statement, there is no such idea,

throughout the entire legal economy, as obedience by proxy. How is it then? Here it

is, in all its moral force, fullness and beauty. "I through law, am dead to law, that I

might live to God."

{*The omission of the article adds immensely to the force, fullness and clearness of

the message. It is dia; novmou novmw/ ajpevqanon. A wonderful clause, surely. Would

that it were better understood! It demolishes a vast mass of human theology. It leaves

the law in its own proper sphere; but takes the believer completely from under its

power, and out of its range, by death. "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become

dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to

him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God"—which

we never could do, if under the law—"For when we were in the flesh,"—a correlative

term with being under the law—"the motions of sins, which were by the law, did

work in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death." Mark the melancholy

combination! "Under the law" "In the flesh"—"motions of sins" "Fruit unto death!"

Can anything be more strongly marked? But there is another side, thank God, to this

question; His own bright and blessed side. Here it is. "But now are we delivered from

the law." How? Is it by anothers having fulfilled it for us? Nay; but, "having died to

that [ajpoqanovnte" ejn w/|] wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of

spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." How perfect and how lovely is the

harmony of Romans 7 and Galatians 2. "I through law am dead to law, that I might

live unto God."}

Now, if it be true, and the apostle says it is, that we are dead to law, how can the law,

by any possibility, be a rule of life to us? It proved only a rule of death, curse and

condemnation to those who were under it those who had received it by the disposition

of angels. Can it prove to be ought else to us? Did the law ever produce a single

cluster of living fruit, or of the fruits of righteousness, in the history of any son or

daughter of Adam? Hear the apostle's reply. "when we were in the flesh"—that is,

when we were viewed as men in our fallen nature—"the motions of sins which were

by the law, did work in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death." It is very

important for the reader to understand the real force of the expression, "in the flesh."

It does not, in this passage, mean, "in the body." It simply sets forth the condition of

unconverted men and women responsible to keep the law. Now, in this condition, all

that was or ever could be produced was "fruit unto death"—"motions of sins." No life,

no righteousness, no holiness, nothing for God, nothing right at all.*

{*It is needful to bear in mind that, although the Gentile was never, by the

dispensational dealings of God, put under the law, yet, in point of fact, all baptised

professors take that ground. Hence there is a vast difference between Christendom

and the heathen, in reference to the question of the law. Thousands of unconverted

people, every week, ask God to incline their hearts to keep the law. Surely, such

persons stand on very different ground from the heathen who never heard of the law,

and never heard of the Bible.}

But, where are we now as Christians? Hear the reply, "I through law am dead to Law,

that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I,

but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh"—here it means in

the body—"I live"—How? By the law, as a rule of life? Not a hint at such a thing, but

"by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."

This, and nothing else, is Christianity. Do we understand it? Do we enter into it? Are

we in the power of it? There are two distinct evils from which we are completely

delivered by the precious death of Christ, namely, legality, on the one hand, and

licentiousness, on the other. Instead of those terrible evils, it introduces us into the

holy liberty of grace-liberty to serve God—liberty to "mortify our members which are

upon the earth"—liberty to deny (ungodliness and worldly lusts"—liberty to "live

soberly, righteously and godly"—liberty to "keep under the body and bring it into

subjection."

Yes, beloved Christian reader, let us remember this. Let us deeply ponder the words.

"I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." The

old "I" dead—crucified, buried. The new "I," alive in Christ. Let us not mistake this.

We know of nothing more awful, nothing more dangerous, than for the old "I" to

assume the new ground; or, in other words, the glorious doctrines of Christianity

taken up in the flesh, unconverted people talking of being free from the law, and

turning the grace of God into lasciviousness. We must confess we would rather, a

thousand times, have legality than licentiousness. It is this latter that many of us have

to watch against, with all possible earnestness. It is growing around us, with appalling

rapidity, and paving the way for that dark and desolating tide of infidelity which shall,

ere long roll over the length and breadth of Christendom.

To talk of being free from the law in any way save by being dead to it, and alive to

God, is not Christianity, at all, but licentiousness, from which every Pious soul must

shrink with holy horror If we are dead to the law, we are dead to sin also; and hence

we are not to do our Own Will, which is only another name for sin; but the will of

God, which is true practical holiness.

Further, let us ever bear in mind that if we are dead to the law, we are dead to this

present evil world also, and linked with a risen, ascended and glorified Christ, Hence,

we are not of the world, even as Christ is not of the world. To contend for position in

the world is to deny that we are dead to the law; for we cannot be alive to the one and

dead to the other. The death of Christ has delivered as from the law, from the power

of sin, from this present evil world, and from the fear of death. But then all these

things hang together, and we cannot go delivered from one without being delivered

from all. To assert our freedom from the law, while pursuing a course of carnality,

self-indulgence and worldliness, is one of the darkest and deadliest evils of the last

days.

The Christian is called to prove, in his daily life, that grace can produce results that

law could never reach. It is one of the moral glories of Christianity to enable a man to

surrender self and live for others. Law never could do this. It occupied a man with

himself. Under its rule, every man had to do the best he could for himself. If he tried

to love his neighbour, it was to work out a righteousness for himself. Under grace, all

is blessedly and gloriously reversed. Self is set aside as a thing crucified, dead and

buried. The old "I" is gone, and the new "I" is before God in all the acceptability and

preciousness of Christ. He is our life, our righteousness, our holiness, our object, our

model, our all. He is in us and me are in Him; and our daily practical life is to be

simply Christ reproduced in us, by the power of the Holy Ghost. Hence, we are not

only called to love our neighbour, but our enemy; and this, not to work out a

righteousness, for we have become the righteousness of God in Christ; it is simply the

outflow of the life which we possess, which is in us; and this life is Christ. A

Christian is a man who should live Christ. He is neither a Jew, "under law;" nor a

Gentile "without law;" but "a man in Christ," standing in grace, called to the same

character of obedience as that which was rendered by the Lord Jesus Himself.

We shall not pursue this subject further here; but we earnestly entreat the Christian

reader to study, attentively, the fifteenth chapter of Acts, and the epistle to the

Galatians. Let him drink in the blessed teaching of these scriptures; and we feel

assured he will arrive at a clear understanding of the great question of the law. He will

see that the Christian is not under the law, for any purpose whatsoever; that his life,

his righteousness, his holiness are on a different ground or principle altogether; that to

place the Christian under law, in any way, is to deny the very foundations of

Christianity, and contradict the plainest statements of the word. He will learn, from

the third chapter of Galatians, that to put ourselves under the law is to give up Christ;

to give up the Holy Ghost; to give up faith; to give up the promises.

Tremendous consequences! But there they are mainly set forth before our eyes; and

truly when we contemplate the state of the professing church, we cannot but see how

terribly those consequences are being realised.

May God the Holy Ghost open the eyes of all Christians to the truth of these things!

May He lead them to study the scriptures and to submit themselves to their holy

authority, in all things. This is the special need of this our day. We do not study

scripture sufficiently. We are not governed by it. We do not see the absolute necessity

of testing everything by the light of scripture, and rejecting all that will not stand the

test. We go on with a quantity of things that have no foundation whatever in the word;

yea, that are positively opposed to it.

What must be the end of all this? We tremble to think of it. We know, blessed be

God, that our Lord Jesus Christ will soon come, and take His own beloved and blood-

bought people home to the prepared place in the Father's house, to be for ever with

Himself, in the ineffable blessedness of that bright home. But what of those who shall

be left behind? What of that vast mass of baptised worldly profession? These are

solemn questions which must be weighed in the immediate presence of God, in order

to have the true—the divine answer. Let the reader ponder them there, in all

tenderness of heart and teachableness of spirit, and the Holy Ghost will lead him to

the true answer.

Having sought to set forth, from various parts of scripture, the glorious truth that

believers are not under law, but under grace, we may now pursue our study of this

fifth chapter of Deuteronomy. In it we have the ten commandments; but not exactly as

we have them in the twentieth chapter of Exodus. There are some characteristic

touches which demand the reader's attention.

In Exodus 20 we have history; in Deuteronomy 5 we have not only history but

commentary. In the latter, the lawgiver presents moral motives, and makes appeals

which would be wholly out of place in the former. In the one, we have naked facts; in

the other, facts and comments—facts and their practical application. In a word, there

is not the slightest ground for imagining that Deuteronomy 5 is intended to be a literal

repetition of Exodus 20; and hence the miserable arguments which infidels ground

upon their apparent divergence just crumble into dust beneath our feet. They are

simply baseless and utterly contemptible.

Let us, for instance, compare the two scriptures in reference to the subject of the

Sabbath. In Exodus 20 we read, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days

shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord

thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy

manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy

gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the Sea and all that in them is,

and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed

it."

DEUTERONOMY, Section 3 of 6. (Deut. 5 - 7).

C H Mackintosh

In Deuteronomy 5 we read, Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God

hath commanded thee. Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work; but the seventh

day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy

son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox nor thine

ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant

and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. And remember that thou wast a servant

in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence, through a

mighty hand and by a stretched out arm; therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee

to keep the Sabbath day. (Vers. 12-15.)

Now, the reader can see, at a glance, the difference between the two passages. In

Exodus 20 the command to keep the Sabbath is grounded on creation. In

Deuteronomy 5 it is grounded on redemption without any allusion to creation, at all.

In short, the points of difference arise out of the distinct character of each book, and

are perfectly plain to every spiritual mind.

With regard to the institution of the Sabbath we must remember that it rests wholly

upon the direct authority of the word of God. Other commandments set forth plain

moral duties. Every man knows it to be morally wrong to kill or steal; but, as to the

observance of the Sabbath, no one could possibly recognise it as a duty had it not

been distinctly appointed by divine authority. Hence its immense importance and

interest. Both in our chapter, and in Exodus 20, it stands side by side with all those

great moral duties which are universally recognised by the human conscience.

And not only so; but we find, in various other scriptures, that the Sabbath is singled

out and presented, with special prominence, as a precious link between Jehovah and

Israel; a seal of His covenant with them; and a powerful test of their devotedness to

Him. Every one could recognise the moral wrong of theft and murder; only those who

loved Jehovah and His word would love and honour His Sabbath.

Thus, in Exodus 16, in connection with the giving of the manna, we read, "And it

came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for

one man; and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said

unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy

Sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will

seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you, to be kept until the morning.....

And Moses said Eat that to day; for to day is a Sabbath unto the Lord; to day ye shall

not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the

Sabbath, in it there shall be none. And it came to pass,"—so little were they capable

of appreciating the high and holy privilege of keeping Jehovah's Sabbath—"that there

went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.

and the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and

my laws" Their neglect of the Sabbath proved their moral condition to be all wrong-

proved them to be astray as to all the commandments and laws of God. The Sabbath

was the great touchstone, the measure and gauge of the real state of their hearts

toward Jehovah—"See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he

giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place; let

no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh

day." they found rest and food on the holy Sabbath.

Again, at the close of chapter 31, we have a very remarkable passage in proof of the

importance and interest attaching to the Sabbath, in the mind of Jehovah. A full

description of the tabernacle and its furniture had been given to Moses, and he was

about to receive the two tables of testimony from the hand of Jehovah; but, as if to

prove the prominent place which the holy Sabbath held in the divine mind, we read,

"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, speak thou also unto the children of Israel,

saying, Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you

throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify

you. Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that

defileth it shall surely be put to death; for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul

shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the

seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord; whosoever doeth any work in the

Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall

keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual

covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever; for in six days

the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed."

(Ex. 31: 12-17.)

Now, this is a very important passage. It proves, very distinctly, the abiding character

of the Sabbath. The terms in which it is spoken of are quite sufficient to show that it

was no mere temporary institution, "A sign between me and you, throughout your

generations"—"A perpetual covenant"—"a sign for ever."

Let the reader carefully mark these words. They prove, beyond all question, first, that

the Sabbath was for Israel. Secondly, that the Sabbath is, in the mind of God, a

permanent institution. It is needful to bear these things in mind, in order to avoid all

vagueness of thought, and looseness of expression on this deeply interesting subject.

The Sabbath was distinctly and exclusively for the Jewish nation. It is spoken of,

emphatically, as a sign between Jehovah and His people Israel. There is not the most

remote hint of its being intended for the Gentiles. We shall see, further on, that it is a

lovely type of the times of the restitution of all thing of which God has spoken by the

mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began; but this, in no wise, touches the

fact of its being an exclusively Jewish institution. There is not so much as a single

sentence of scripture to show that the Sabbath had any reference whatever to the

Gentiles.

Some would teach us that, inasmuch as we read of the Sabbath day, in Genesis 2, it

must, of necessity, have a wider range than the Jewish But let us turn to the passage,

and see what it says. "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had

made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And

God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from

all his work which God created and made."

This is simple enough. There is no mention here of man, at all. We are not told that

man rested on the seventh day. Men may infer, conclude or imagine that he did so;

but the second of Genesis says nothing about it. And not only so, but we look in vain

for any allusion to the Sabbath throughout the entire book of Genesis. The very first

notice we have of the Sabbath, in connection with man, is in Exodus 16, a passage

already quoted; and there we see, most distinctly, that it was given to Israel, as a

people in recognised covenant relationship with Jehovah. That they did not

understand or appreciate it is perfectly plain; that they never entered into it is equally

plain, according to Psalm 95 and Hebrews 4. But we are now speaking of what it was

in the mind of God; and He tells us it was a sign between Him and His people Israel;

and a powerful test of their moral condition, and of the state of their heart as to Him.

It was not only an integral part of the law as given by Moses to the congregation of

Israel, but it is specially referred to and singled out, again and again, as an institution

holding a very peculiar place in the mind of God.

Thus, in the book of the prophet Isaiah, we read, "Blessed is the man that doeth this,

and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it,

and keepeth his hand from doing any evil. Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath

joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying, The Lord hath utterly separated me from his

people; neither let the eunuch say, Behold I am a dry tree. For thus saith the Lord unto

the eunuchs that keep my Sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take

hold of my covenant; even unto them will I give in mine house, and within my walls,

a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters; I will give them an

everlasting name that shall not be cut off. Also the sons of the stranger,"—here, of

course, viewed in connection with Israel, as in Numbers 15 and other scriptures—

"that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be

his servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of

my covenant; even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in

my house of prayer, their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon

mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people."

Again, "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my

holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt

honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking

thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to

ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy

father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." (Isaiah 58: 13, 14.)

The foregoing quotations are amply sufficient to show the place which the Sabbath

holds, in the mind of God. It is needless to multiply passages; but there is just one to

which we must refer the reader, in connection with our present subject, namely,

Leviticus 23. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of

Israel, and say unto them, concerning the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim

to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts. Six days shall work be done; but

the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work

therein; it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings." (Vers. 1-3.)

Here it stands at the head of all the feasts given in this marvellous chapter in which

we have foreshadowed the entire history of God's dealings with His people Israel. The

Sabbath is the expression of God's eternal rest into which it is His purpose yet to bring

His people, when all their toils and their trials and tribulations shall have passed

away—that blessed "Sabbath keeping," (sabbatismov") which "remaineth for the

people of God." In various ways, He sought to keep this glorious rest before the hearts

of His people; the seventh day, the seventh year, the year of jubilee—all these lovely

sabbatic seasons were designed to set forth that blessed time when Israel shall be

gathered back to their own beloved land, when the Sabbath shall be kept, in all its

deep, divine blessedness, as it never has been kept yet.

And this leads us, naturally, to the second point in connection with the Sabbath,

namely, its permanency. This is plainly proved by such expressions as, "perpetual" "a

Sign for ever"—"throughout your generations." Such words would never be applied to

any merely temporary institution. Thus it is, alas! that Israel never really kept the

Sabbath according to God; they never understood its meaning, never entered into its

blessedness, never drank into its spirit. They made it a badge of their own

righteousness; they boasted in it as a national institution, and used it for self-

exaltation; but they never celebrated it in communion with God.

We speak of the nation, as a whole. We doubt not there were precious souls who, in

secret, enjoyed the Sabbath, and entered into the thoughts of God about it. But, as a

nation, Israel never kept the Sabbath according to God. Hear what Isaiah says, "Bring

no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and

Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn

meeting." (Chap. 1: 13.)

Here we see that the precious and beautiful institution of the Sabbath which God had

given as a sign of His covenant with His people, had, in their hands, become a

positive abomination, perfectly intolerable to Him. And when we open the pages of

the New Testament, we find the leaders and heads of the Jewish people continually at

issue with our Lord Jesus Christ, in reference to the Sabbath. Look, for example, at

the opening verses of Luke 6. "And it came to pass on the second Sabbath after the

first, that he went through the corn fields; and his disciples plucked the ears of corn,

and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. And certain of the Pharisees said unto them,

Why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath days? And Jesus answering

them, said, Have ye not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was an

hungered, and they which were with him; how he went into the house of God, and did

take and eat the shewbread, and gave also to them that were with him; which it is not

lawful to eat, but for the priests alone? And he said unto them, That the Son of man is

Lord also of the Sabbath."

And, again, we read, "It came to pass also on another Sabbath, that he entered into the

synagogue, and taught; and there was a man whose right hand was withered. And the

scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the Sabbath day, that

they might find an accusation against him."—Only conceive an accusation for healing

a poor, afflicted fellow mortal!—"But he knew their thoughts,"—yes, He read their

hearts, through to their very centre—"and said to the man which had the withered

hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he arose, and stood forth. Then said

Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the Sabbath day to do good,

or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it? And looking round about upon them all, he

said unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he did so; and his hand was restored

whole as the other. And they were filled with madness; and communed one with

another what they might do to Jesus."

What an insight we have here into the hollowness and worthlessness of man's Sabbath

keeping! Those religious guides would rather let the disciples starve than have their

Sabbath interfered with. They would allow the man to carry his withered hand to the

grave, rather than have him healed on their Sabbath. Alas! alas! it was indeed their

Sabbath, and not God's. His rest could never comport with hunger and withered

hands. They had never read aright the record of David's act, in eating the shewbread.

They did not understand that legal institutions must give way in the presence of divine

grace meeting human need. Grace rises, in its magnificence, above all legal barriers,

and faith rejoices in its lustre; but mere religiousness is offended by the activities of

grace and the boldness of faith. The Pharisees did not see that the man with the

withered hand was a striking commentary upon the nation's moral condition, a living

proof of the fact that they were far away from God. If they were as they ought to be,

there would have been no withered hands to heal; but they were not; and hence their

Sabbath was an empty formality, a powerless, worthless ordinance, a hideous

anomaly, hateful to God, and utterly inconsistent with the condition of man.

Take another instance, in Luke 13. "And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on

the Sabbath"—Assuredly, the Sabbath was no day of rest to Him—"And, behold,

there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed

together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her

to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid

his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God."

Beautiful illustration of the work of grace in the soul, and the practical result, in every

case. All on whom Christ lays His blessed hands are "immediately made straight,'' and

enabled to glorify God.

But man's Sabbath was touched. "The ruler of the synagogue answered with

indignation because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day." He was indignant at

the gracious work of healing, though quite indifferent as to the humiliating case of

infirmity—and he "said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to

work; in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day." How little

this poor hollow religionist knew that he was in the very presence of the Lord of the

true Sabbath! How utterly insensible he was to the moral inconsistency of attempting

to keep a, Sabbath while man's condition called aloud for divine work! "The Lord

then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite! doth not each one of you on the

Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And

ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo,

these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?"

What a withering rebuke! What an opening up of the hollowness and utter

wretchedness of their whole system of Judaism! Only think of the glaring incongruity

of a Sabbath and a daughter of Abraham bound by the cruel hand of Satan, for

eighteen years! There is nothing in all this world so blinding to the mind, so

hardening to the heart, so deadening to the conscience, so demoralising to the whole

being, as religion without Christ. Its deceiving and degrading power can only be

thoroughly judged in the light of the divine presence. For ought that the ruler of the

synagogue cared, that poor woman might have gone on to the end of her days, bowed

together, and unable to lift up herself. He would have been well content to let her go

on as a sad witness of the power of Satan, provided he could keep his Sabbath. His

religious indignation was excited, not by the power of Satan as seen in the woman's

condition, but by the power of Christ, as seen in her complete deliverance.

But the Lord gave him his answer. "And when be had said these things, all his

adversaries were ashamed;"—as well they might—"and all the people rejoiced for all

the glorious things that were done by Him." What a striking contrast! The advocates

of a powerless, heartless, worthless religion, unmasked and covered with shame and

confusion, on the one band; and, on the other, all the people rejoicing in the glorious

actings of the Son of God who had come into their midst to deliver them from the

crushing power of Satan, and fill their hearts with the joy of God's salvation, and their

mouths with His praise!

We must now ask the reader to turn to the gospel of John for further illustration of our

subject. We earnestly desire that this vexed question of the Sabbath should be

thoroughly examined in the light of scripture. We are convinced that there is very

much more involved in it than many professing Christians are aware.

At the opening of John 5 we are introduced to a scene strikingly indicative of Israel's

condition. We do not here attempt to go fully into the passage; we merely refer to it in

connection with the subject before us.

The pool of Bethesda, or "house of mercy"—while it was, undoubtedly, the

expression of the mercy of God toward His people,—afforded abundant evidence of

the miserable condition of man, in general, and of Israel, in particular. Its five porches

were thronged with "a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered,

waiting for the moving of the water." What a sample of the whole human family, and

of the nation of Israel! What a striking illustration of their moral and spiritual

condition, as viewed from a divine standpoint. "Blind, halt, withered;" such is man's

real state, if he only knew it.

But there was one man, in the midst of this impotent throng, so far gone, so feeble

and helpless, that the pool of Bethesda could not meet his case. "A certain man was

there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and

knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be

made whole?"—What grace and power in this question! It went far beyond the utmost

stretch of the impotent man's thoughts. He thought only of human help, or of his own

ability to get into the pool. He knew not that the speaker was above and beyond the

pool, with its occasional movement; beyond angelic ministry, beyond all human help

and efforts the possessor of all power in heaven and on earth. "The impotent man

answered him, Sir, I have no man when the water is troubled, to put, me into the pool;

but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me." What a, true picture of all

those who are seeking salvation by ordinances! Each one doing the best he could for

himself. No care for others. No thought of helping them. "Jesus saith unto him, Rise,

take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up

his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the Sabbath."

Here we have man's Sabbath again. It certainly was not God's Sabbath. The miserable

multitude gathered round the pool proved that God's full rest had not yet come—that

His glorious antitype of the Sabbath had not yet dawned on this sin-stricken earth.

When that bright day comes, there will be no blind, halt, and withered folk thronging

the porches of the pool of Bethesda. God's Sabbath and human misery are wholly

incompatible.

But it was man's Sabbath. It was no longer the seal of Jehovah's covenant with the

seed of Abraham—as it was once, and will be again—but the badge of man's self-

righteousness, "The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the Sabbath

day; it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed." It was, no doubt, lawful enough for him

to lie on that bed, week after week, month after month, year after year, while they

were going on with their empty, worthless, hollow attempt at Sabbath keeping. If they

had had one ray of spiritual light, they would have seen the flagrant inconsistency of

attempting to maintain their traditional notions respecting the Sabbath in the presence

of human misery, disease and degradation. But they were utterly blind; and hence

when the glorious fruits of Christ's ministry were being displayed, they had the

temerity to pronounce them unlawful.

Nor this only; but "therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him,

because he had done these things on the Sabbath day." What a, spectacle! Religious

people, yea the leaders and teachers of religion—the guides of the professed people of

God, seeking to slay the Lord of the Sabbath because He had made a man every whit

whole on the Sabbath day!

But mark our Lord's reply. "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." This brief but

comprehensive statement gives us the root of the whole matter. It opens up to us the

real condition of mankind in general, and of Israel in particular; and, in the most

affecting manner, presents the grand secret of our Lord's life and ministry. Blessed be

His Name, He had not come into this world to rest. How could He rest—how could

He keep a Sabbath, in the midst of human need and misery? Ought not that impotent,

blind, halt, and withered multitude which thronged the porches of the pool of

Bethesda to have taught " the Jews" the folly of their notions about the Sabbath? For

what was that multitude but a sample of the condition of the nation of Israel, and of

the whole human family? And how could divine love rest in the midst of such a

condition of things? Utterly impossible. Love can only be a worker in a scene of sin

and sorrow. From the moment of man's fall, the Father had been working. Then the

Son appeared to carry on the work. And, now, the Holy Ghost is working. Work, and

not rest, is the divine order, in a world like this. "There remaineth therefore a rest to

the people of God."

The blessed Lord Jesus went about doing good, on the Sabbath day, as well as every

other day; and, finally, having accomplished the glorious work of redemption, He

spent the Sabbath in the grave, and rose on the first day of the week, as the First-

begotten from the dead, and Head of the new creation, in which all things are of God,

and to which, we may surely add, the question of "days and months, and times and

years" can have no possible application. No one who thoroughly understands the

meaning of death and resurrection could sanction, for a moment, the observance of

days. The death of Christ put an end to all that order of things; and His resurrection

introduces us into another sphere entirely where it is our high privilege to walk in the

light and power of those eternal realities which are ours in Christ, and which stand in

vivid contrast with the superstitious observances of a carnal and worldly

religiousness.

But here we approach a very interesting point in our subject, namely, the difference

between the Sabbath and the Lord's day, or first day of the week. These two are often

confounded. We frequently hear, from the lips of truly pious people, the phrase,

"Christian Sabbath," an expression nowhere to be found in the New Testament. It may

be that some who make use of it mean a right thing; but we should not only mean

right, but also seek to express ourselves according to the teaching of holy scripture.

We are persuaded that the enemy of God and of His Christ has had a great deal more

to do with the conventionalisms of Christendom than many of us are aware; and this it

is which makes the matter so very serious. The reader may perhaps feel disposed to

pronounce it mere! hair-splitting to find any fault with the term "Christian Sabbath."

But he may rest assured it is nothing of the sort; on the contrary, if he will only calmly

examine the matter in the light of the New Testament, he will find that it involves

questions not only interesting but also weighty and important. It is a common saying,

"There is nothing in a name;" but, in the matter now before us, there is much in a

name.

We have already remarked that our Lord spent the Sabbath in the grave. Is not this a

telling and deeply significant fact? We cannot doubt it. We read in it, at least, the

setting aside of the old condition of things, and the utter impossibility of keeping a

Sabbath in a world of sin and death. Love could not rest in a world like this; it could

only labour and die. This is the inscription which we read on the tomb where the Lord

of the Sabbath lay buried.

But what of the first day of the week? Is not it the Sabbath on a new footing—the

Christian Sabbath? It is never so called in the New Testament. There is not so much

as a hint of anything of the kind. If we look through the Acts of the Apostles, we shall

find the two days spoken of in the most distinct way. On the Sabbath, we find the

Jews assembled in their synagogues for the reading of the law and the prophets. On

the first day of the week, we find the Christians assembled to break bread. The two

days were as distinct as Judaism and Christianity; nor is there so much as a shadow of

scripture foundation for the idea that the Sabbath was merged in the first day of the

week. Where is there the slightest authority for the assertion that the Sabbath is

changed from the seventh day to the eighth, or first day of the week? Surely, if there

be any, nothing is easier than to produce it. But there is absolutely none.

And, be it remembered, that the Sabbath is not merely a seventh day, but the seventh

day. It is well to note this, inasmuch as some entertain the idea that provided a

seventh portion of time be given to rest, and the public ordinances of religion, it is

quite sufficient, and it does not matter what you call it; and thus different nations and

different religious systems have their Sabbath day. But this can never satisfy any one

who desires to be taught exclusively by scripture. The Sabbath of Eden was the

seventh day. The Sabbath for Israel was the seventh day. But the eighth day leads our

thoughts onward into eternity: and, in the New Testament, it is called 'the first day of

the week" as indicating the beginning of that new order of things of which the cross is

the imperishable foundation, and a risen Christ the glorious Head and Centre. To call

this day the "Christian Sabbath" is simply to confound things earthly and heavenly. It

is to bring the Christian down from his elevated position as associated with a risen

and glorified Head in the heavens, and occupy him with the superstitious observance

of days, the very thing which made the blessed apostle stand in doubt of the

assemblies in Galatia.

In short, the more deeply we ponder the phrase "Christian Sabbath," the more we are

convinced that its tendency is, like many other formularies of Christendom, to rob the

Christian of all those grand distinctive truths of the New Testament which mark off

the church of God from all that went before, and all that is to follow after. The

church, though on the earth, is not of this world, even as Christ is not of this world. It

is heavenly in its origin, heavenly in its character, heavenly in its principles, walk and

hope. It stands between the cross and the glory. The boundaries of its existence on

earth are the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost came down to form it, and the

coming of Christ to receive it to Himself.

Nothing can be more strongly marked than this; and, hence, for any one to attempt to

enjoin upon the church of God the legal or superstitious observance of "days and

months, and times and years," is to falsify the entire Christian position; mar the

integrity of divine revelation, and rob the Christian of the place and portion which

belong to him, through the infinite grace of God, and the accomplished atonement of

Christ.

Does the reader deem this statement unwarrantably strong? If so, let him ponder the

following splendid passage from Paul's Epistle to the Colossians—a passage which

ought to be written in letters of gold. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the

Lord, so walk ye in him; rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye

have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil [or

make a prey of] you through philosophy and vain deceit"—mark the combination! not

very flattering to philosophy—"after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the

world, and not after Christ, For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead

[Qeo;th", deity] bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all

principality and power."—What more can we possibly want? In whom also ye are

circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the

sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Buried with him in baptism, wherein

also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised

him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your

flesh, hath he quickened together with him having forgiven you all trespasses;

blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to

us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; and having spoiled principalities

and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it."

Magnificent victory! A victory gained single handed—gained for us! Universal and

eternal homage to His peerless Name! What remains? "Let no man therefore judge

you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the

Sabbath: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ" What can

one who is complete and accepted in a risen and glorified Christ have to do with

meats, drinks or holy days? What can philosophy, tradition or human religiousness do

for him? What can passing shadows add to one who has grasped, by faith, the eternal

substance? Surely nothing; and hence the blessed apostle proceeds, "Let no man

beguile you of your reward, in a voluntary humility, and worshipping of angels,

intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly

mind, and not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having

nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.

Wherefore, if we be dead with Christ, from the rudiments of the world, why, as

though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances"—such as "touch not;" this

"taste not,"—that—"handle not"—the other—which all are to perish with the using,

after the commandments and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a show of

wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour,

to the satisfying of the flesh."—That is, not giving the measure of honour to the body

which is due to it as God's vessel, but puffing up the flesh with religious pride, fed by

a hollow and worthless sanctimoniousness. (Col. 2: 6-23.)

We do not dare to offer any apology for this lengthened quotation. An apology for

quoting scripture! Far be the thought! It is not possible for any one to understand this

marvellous passage and not have a complete settlement, not only of the Sabbath

question, but also of that entire system of things with which this question stands

connected. The Christian, who understands his position, is done, for ever, with all

questions of meats and drinks, days and months and times and years. He knows

nothing of holy seasons and holy places. He is dead with Christ from the rudiments of

the world, and, as such, is delivered from all the ordinances of a traditional religion.

He belongs to heaven, where new moons, holy days and Sabbaths have no place. He is

in the new creation, where all things are of God; and hence he can see no moral force

in such words as " touch not; taste not; handle not." They have no possible application

to him. He lives in a region where the clouds, vapours and mists of monasticism and

asceticism are never seen. He has given up all the worthless forms of mere fleshly

pietism, and got, in exchange, the solid realities of Christian life. His ear has been

opened to hear, and his heart to understand the powerful exhortation of the inspired

apostle, "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where

Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on

things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When

Christ, our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify

therefore your members which are upon the earth."

Here we have unfolded before our eyes some of the glories of true, practical, vital

Christianity, in striking contrast with all the barren and dreary forms of carnal and

worldly religiousness. Christian life does not consist in the observance of certain

rules, commandments or traditions of men. It is a divine reality. It is Christ in the

heart, and Christ reproduced in the daily life, by the power of the Holy Ghost. It is the

new man, formed on the model of Christ Himself, and displaying itself in all the most

minute details of our daily history, in the family, in the business, in all our intercourse

with our fellow men, in our temper, spirit, style, deportment, all. It is not a matter of

mere profession, or of dogma, or of opinion, or of sentiment; it is an unmistakable,

living reality. It is the kingdom of God, set up in the heart, asserting its blessed sway

over the whole moral being, and shedding its genial influence upon the entire sphere

in which we are called to move, from day to day. It is the Christian walking in the

blessed footsteps of Him who went about doing good; meeting, so far as in him lies,

every form of human need; living not for himself but for others; finding his delight in

serving and giving; ready to soothe and sympathise wherever he finds a crushed spirit

or a bereaved and desolate heart.

This is Christianity. And oh! how it differs from all the forms in which legality and

superstition clothe themselves! How different from the unintelligent and unmeaning

observance of days, and months, and times and years, abstaining from meats,

forbidding to marry, and such-like! How different from the vapourings of the mystic,

the gloom of the ascetic, and the austerities of the monk! How totally different from

all these! Yes, reader; and we may add, how different from the unsightly union of

high profession and low practice; lofty truths held in the intellect, professed, taught

and discussed, and worldliness, self-indulgence, and unsubduedness! The Christianity

of the New Testament differs alike from all these things. It is the divine, the heavenly,

and the spiritual, displayed amid the human, the earthly and the natural. May it be the

holy purpose of the writer and the reader of these lines to be satisfied with nothing

short of that morally glorious Christianity revealed in the pages of the New

Testament!

It is needless, we trust, to add more on the question of the Sabbath. If the reader has,

at all, seized the import of those scriptures which have passed before us, he will have

little difficulty in seeing the place which the Sabbath holds, in the dispensational

ways of God. He will see that it has direct reference to Israel and the earth—that it

was a sign of the covenant between Jehovah and His earthly people, and a powerful

test of their moral condition.

Furthermore, he will see that Israel never really kept the Sabbath, never understood its

import, never appreciated its value. This was made manifest in the life, ministry and

death of our Lord Jesus Christ who performed many of His works of healing on the

Sabbath day, and, at the end, spent that day in the tomb.

Finally, he will clearly understand the difference between the Jewish Sabbath and the

first day of the week, or the Lord's day; that the latter is never once called the

Sabbath, in the New Testament; but, on the contrary, is constantly presented in its

own proper distinctness; it is not the Sabbath changed or transferred, but a new day

altogether, having its own special basis and its own peculiar range of thought, leaving

the Sabbath wholly untouched, as a suspended institution, to be resumed, by-and-by,

when the seed of Abraham shall be restored to their own land. (See Ezek 46: 1, 12.)

But we cannot, happily, turn from this interesting subject without a few words on the

place assigned, in the New Testament, to the Lord's day, or first day of the week.

Though it is not the Sabbath; and though it has nothing to do with holy days, or new

moons, or "days and months, and times and years;" yet it has its own unique place in

Christianity, as is evident from manifold passages in the scriptures of the New

Testament.

Our Lord rose from the dead, on that day. He met His disciples, again and again, on

that day. The apostle and the brethren at Troas came together to break bread on that

day. (Acts 20: 7.) The apostle instructs the Corinthians, and all that, in every place,

call on the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to lay by their offerings on that day; thus

teaching us, distinctly, that the first day of the week was the special day for the Lord's

people to assemble for the Lord's Supper, and the worship, communion and ministry

connected with that most precious institution. The blessed Apostle John expressly

tells us that he was in the Spirit, on that day, and received that marvellous revelation

which closes the Divine Volume.*

{*Some are of opinion that the expression, "On the Lord's day" ought to be rendered,

"Of the day of the Lord," meaning that the apostle was in the spirit of that day when

our Lord Christ shall take to Himself His great power and reign. But to this view there

are two grave objections. In the first place, the words th/' kuriakh/' hJmevra, rendered,

in Revelation 1: 10, "the Lord's day," are quite distinct from hj hJmevra kurivou, in 1

Thessalonians 5: 2; 2 Thessalonians 2: 2; 2 Peter 3: 10, properly rendered, "The day of

the Lord." This we consider a very weighty objection, and one quite sufficient to settle

the question. But, in addition to this, we have the argument based on the fact that by

far the greater portion of the book of Revelation is occupied, not with "the day of the

Lord" but with events prior thereto. Hence, therefore, we feel persuaded that "the

Lord's day" and "the first day of the week" are identical; and this we deem a very

important fact as proving that that day has a very special place in the word of God—a

place which every intelligent Christian will thankfully own.}

Thus then, we have a body of scripture evidence before us amply sufficient to prove

to every pious mind that the Lord's day must not be reduced to the level of ordinary

days. It is, to the true Christian, neither the Jewish Sabbath, on the one hand, nor the

Gentile Sunday, on the other; but the Lord's day, on which His people gladly and

thankfully assemble round His Table, to keep that precious feast by which they show

forth His death, until He come.

Now, it is needless to say that there is not a shade of legal bondage or of superstition

connected with the first day of the week. To say so, or to think so, would be to deny

the entire circle of truths with which that day stands connected. We have no direct

commandment respecting the observance of the day; but the passages already referred

to are amply sufficient, for every spiritual mind; and, further, we may say that the

instincts of the divine nature would lead every true Christian to honour and love the

Lord's day, and to set it apart, in the most reverent manner, for the worship and

service of God. The very thought of any one, professing to love Christ, engaging in

business, or unnecessary travelling, on the Lord's day, would, in our judgement, be

revolting to every pious feeling. We believe it to be a hallowed privilege to retire, as

much as possible, from all the distractions of natural things, and to devote the hours

of the Lord's day to Himself and to His service.

It will, perhaps be said that the Christian ought to devote every day to the Lord. Most

surely; we are the Lord's, in the very fullest and highest sense. All we have and all we

are belongs to Him. This we fully, gladly, own. We are called to do everything in His

Name, and to His glory. It is our high privilege to buy and sell, eat and drink, yea, to

carry on all our business, under His eye and in the fear and love of His holy Name.

We should not put our hand to anything, on any day in the week, on which we could

not, with the fullest confidence, ask the Lord's blessing.

All this is most fully admitted. Every true Christian joyfully owns it. But, at the same

time, we deem it Impossible to read the New Testament and not see that the Lord's

day gets a unique place; that it is marked off for us, in the most distinct way; that it

has a significance and an importance which cannot, with justice, be claimed for any

other day in the week. Indeed so fully are we convinced of the truth of all this, that,

even though it were not the law of England, that the Lord's day should be observed,

we should deem it to be both our sacred duty and holy privilege to abstain from all

business engagements, save such as were absolutely unavoidable.

Thanks be to God, it is the law of England that the Lord's day should be observed.

This is a signal mercy to all who love the day for the Lord's sake. We cannot but own

His great goodness in having wrested the day from the covetous grasp of the world,

and bestowed it upon His people and His servants to be devoted to His worship and to

His work.

What a boon is the Lord's day, with its profound retirement from worldly things! What

should we do without it? What a blessed break in upon the week's toil! How

refreshing its exercises to the spiritual mind! How precious the assembly round the

Lord's Table to remember Him, to show forth His death, and celebrate His praise!

How delightful the varied services of the Lord's day, whether those of the evangelist,

the pastor, the teacher, the Sunday-school worker, or the tract distributor! What

human language can adequately set forth the value and interest of all these things?

True it is that the Lord's day is anything but a day of bodily rest to His servants;

indeed they are often more fatigued on that day than on any other day of the week.

But oh! it is a blessed fatigue; a delightful fatigue; a fatigue which will meet its bright

reward in the rest that remains for the people of God.

Once more, then, beloved Christian reader, let us lift up our hearts in a note of praise

to our God for the blessed boon of the Lord's day. May He continue it to His church

until He come! May He countervail, by His Almighty power, every effort of the

infidel and the atheist to remove the barriers which English law has erected around

the Lord's day. Truly it will be a sad day for England when those barriers are

removed.

It may, perhaps, be said, by some that the Jewish Sabbath is done away, and is,

therefore, no longer binding. A large number of professing Christians have taken this

ground, and pleaded for the Opening of the parks and places of public recreation on

the Sunday. Alas! it is easily seen where such people are drifting to, and what they are

seeking. They would set aside the law, in order to procure a licence for fleshly

indulgence. They do not understand that the only way in which any one can be free

from the law is by being dead to it; and, if dead to the law, we are also of blessed

necessity, dead to sin, and dead to the world.

This makes it a different matter altogether. The Christian is, thank God, free from the

law; but, if he is, it is not that he may amuse and indulge himself, on the Lord's day,

or any other day; but that he may live to God. "I, through law, am dead to law; that I

might live unto God." This is Christian ground; and it can only be occupied by those

who are truly born of God. The world cannot understand it; neither can they

understand the holy privileges and spiritual exercises of the Lord's day.

All this is true; but, at the same time, we are thoroughly convinced that were England

to remove the barriers which surround the Lord's day, it would afford a melancholy

proof of her abandonment of that profession of religion which has, so long

characterised her, as a nation, and of her drifting away in the direction of infidelity

and atheism. We must not lose sight of the weighty fact that England has taken the

ground of being a Christian nation—a nation professing to be governed by the word

of God. She is therefore much more responsible than those nations wrapped in the

dark shades of heathenism. We believe that nations, like individuals, will be held

responsible for the profession they make; and, hence, those nations which profess and

call themselves Christian shall be judged not merely by the light of creation, nor by

the law of Moses, but by the full-orbed light of that Christianity which they profess—

by all the truth contained within the covers of that blessed book which they possess,

and in which they make their boast. The heathen' shall be judged on the ground Of

creation; the Jew, on the ground of the law; the nominal Christian, on the ground of

the truth of Christianity.

Now this grave fact renders the position of England and all other professing Christian

nations most serious. God will, most assuredly, deal with them on the ground of their

profession. It is of no use to say they do not understand what they profess; for why

profess what they do not understand and believe? The fact is they profess to

understand and believe; and by this fact they shall be judged. They make their boast

in this familiar sentence that " The Bible, and the Bible alone is the religion of

Protestants."

If this be so, how solemn is the thought of England judged by the standard of an open

Bible! 'What will be her judgement?—what her end? Let all whom it may concern

ponder the appalling answer.

We must, now, turn from the deeply interesting subject of the Sabbath and the Lord's

day, and draw this section to a close by quoting for the reader the remarkable

paragraph with which our chapter ends. It does not call for any lengthened comment,

but we deem it profitable, in these "Notes on Deuteronomy," to furnish the reader

with very full quotations from the book itself, in order that he may have before him

the very words of the Holy Ghost, without even the trouble of laying aside the volume

which he holds in his hand.

Having laid before the people the ten commandments, the law-giver proceeds to

remind them of the solemn circumstances which accompanied the giving of the law,

together with their own feelings and utterances, on the occasion.

"These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of

the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice; and he added no

more; and he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me. And it

came to pass, when ye heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness—for the

mountain did burn with fire—that ye came near unto me, even all the heads of your

tribes, and your elders; and ye said, Behold, the Lord our God hath showed us his

glory, and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire; we

have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and he liveth. Now therefore why

should we die? for this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the Lord our

God any more, then we shall die. For who is there of all flesh that hath heard the

voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have and lived? Go

thou near, and hear all that the Lord our God shall say; and speak thou unto us all that

the Lord our God shall speak unto thee; and we will hear it, and do it. And the Lord

heard the voice of your words, when ye spake unto me; and the Lord said unto me, I

have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken unto thee;

they have well said all that they have spoken. O that there were such an heart in them,

that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be

well with them, and with their children for ever! Go say to them, Get you into your

tents again; but as for thee, stand thou here by me, and I will speak unto thee all the

commandments, and the statutes, and the judgements, which thou shalt teach them,

that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess it. Ye shall observe to

do therefore as the Lord your God hath commanded you; ye shall not turn aside to the

right hand or to the left. Ye shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God hath

commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may

prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess."

Here the grand principle of the book of Deuteronomy shines out with uncommon

lustre. It is embodied in those touching and forcible words which form the very heart's

core of the splendid passage just quoted. "O that there were such an heart in them,

that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well

with them, and with their children for ever!"

Precious words! They set before us, most blessedly, the secret spring of that life

which we, as Christians are called to live, from day to day—the life of simple,

implicit and unqualified obedience, namely, a heart fearing the Lord—fearing Him,

not in a servile spirit, but with all that deep, true, adoring love which the Holy Ghost

sheds abroad in our hearts. It is this that delights the heart of our loving Father. His

word to us is, "My son, give me thine heart." Where the heart is given, all follows, in

lovely moral order. A loving heart finds its very deepest joy in obeying all God's

commandments; and nothing is of any value to God but what springs from a loving

heart. The heart is the source of all the issues of life; and, hence, when it is governed

by the love of God there is a loving response to all His commandments. We love His

commandments because we love Him. Every word of His is precious to the heart that

loves Him. Every precept, every statute, every judgement, in a word, His whole law is

loved, reverenced, and obeyed, because it has His Name, and His authority attached to

it.

The reader will find, in Psalm 119, an uncommonly fine illustration of the special

point now before us—a most striking example of one who blessedly answered to the

words quoted above;—"O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear

me, and keep all my commandments always." It is the lovely breathing of a soul who

found its deep, unfailing, constant delight in the law of God. There are no less than

one hundred and seventy allusions to that precious law, under some one title or

another. We find scattered along the surface of this marvellous psalm, in rich

profusion, such gems as the following.

"Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." "I have rejoiced

in the way of thy testimonies as much as in all riches." "I will meditate in thy

precepts, and have respect unto thy ways." "I will delight myself in thy statutes; I will

not forget thy word." "My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy

judgements at all times." "Thy testimonies also are my delight, and my counsellors." "I

have stuck unto Thy testimonies." "Behold, I have longed after thy precepts." "I trust

in thy word." "I have hoped in thy judgements." "I seek; thy precepts." "I will delight

myself in thy commandments which I have loved." "I remembered thy judgements."

Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage." "I turned my feet

unto thy testimonies." "I have believed thy commandments." "The law of thy mouth is

better unto me than thousands of gold and silver." "I have hoped in thy word." "Thy

law is my delight." "Mine! eyes fail for thy word." "All thy commandments are

faithful." "For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.'' "I will never forget thy

precepts." "I have sought thy precepts." "I will consider thy testimonies." "Thy

commandment is exceeding broad." "O how love I thy law; it is my meditation all the

day." "How sweet are thy words unto my taste? yea, sweeter than honey to my

mouth." "Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever; for they are The

rejoicing of my heart." "I Will have respect unto thy statutes continually" "I love thy

commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold." "I esteem all thy precepts

concerning all things to be right." "Thy testimonies are wonderful." "I opened my

mouth, and panted, for I longed for Thy commandments." "Upright are thy

judgements." "Thy testimonies..... are righteous, and very faithful." "Thy word is very

pure." "Thy law is the truth." "The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting."

"All thy commandments are truth." "Thy word is true from the beginning; and every

one of thy righteous judgements endureth for ever: "My heart standeth in awe of Thy

word." "I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil." "Great peace have they

that love thy law." "My soul hath kept thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly."

"I have chosen thy precepts." "Thy law is my delight."

Truly it does the heart good, and refreshes the spirit, to transcribe such utterances as

the foregoing, many of which are the suited utterances of our Lord Himself, in the

days of His flesh. He ever lived upon the word. It was the food of His soul; the

authority of His path, the material of His ministry. By it He vanquished Satan; by it

He silenced Sadducees, Pharisees and Herodians. By it He taught His disciples. To it

He commended His servants, as He was about to ascend into the heavens.

How important is all this for us! How intensely interesting! How deeply practical!

What a place it gives the holy scriptures! For we remember that it is, in very deed, the

blessed Volume of inspiration which is brought before us in all those golden

sentences culled from Psalm 119. How strengthening, refreshing and encouraging for

us to mark the way in which our Lord uses the holy scriptures, at all times, the place

He gives them, and the dignity He puts upon them! He appeals to them, on all

occasions, as a divine authority, from which there can be no appeal. He, though

Himself as God over all, the Author of the Volume, having taken His place as man, on

the earth, sets forth, with all possible plainness, what is man's bounden duty and high

privilege, namely, to live by the word of God—to bow down, in reverent subjection,

to its divine authority.

And have we not here a very complete answer to the oft-raised question of infidelity,

"How do we know that the Bible is the word of God?" If indeed we believe in Christ;

if we own Him to be the Son of God, God manifest in the flesh, very God and very

man, we cannot fail to see the moral force of the fact that this divine Person

constantly appeals to the scriptures—to Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms, as to a

divine standard. Did He not know them to be the word of God? Undoubtedly. As God,

He had given them; as Man, He received them, lived by them, and owned their

paramount authority, in all things.

What a weighty fact is here for the professing church! What a withering rebuke to all

those so called Christian doctors and writers who have presumed to tamper with the

grand fundamental truth of the plenary inspiration of the holy scriptures in general,

and of the five books of Moses in particular! How terrible to think of the professed

teachers of the church of God daring to designate as spurious, writings which our

Lord and Master received and owned as divine!

And yet we are told, and we are expected to believe that things are improving! Alas!

alas! it is a miserable delusion. The degrading absurdities of ritualism, and the

blasphemous reasonings of infidelity are rapidly increasing around us; and where

these influences are not actually dominant, we observe, for the most part, a cold

indifference, carnal ease, self indulgence, and worldliness—anything and everything,

in short, but the evidence of improvement. If people are not led away by infidelity, on

the one hand, or by ritualism, on the other, it is, for the most part, owing to the fact

that they are too much occupied with pleasure and gain to think of anything else. And

as to the religion of the day, if you subtract money and music, you will have a

lamentably trifling balance.

Hence, therefore, it is impossible to shake off the conviction that the combined

testimony of observation and experience is directly opposed to the notion that things

are improving. Indeed, for any one, in the face of such an array of evidence to the

contrary, to cling to such a theory can only be regarded as the fruit of a most

unaccountable credulity.

But, perhaps, some may feel disposed to say that we must not judge by the sight of

our eyes; we must be hopeful. True, provided only we have a divine warrant for our

hopefulness. If a single line of scripture can be produced to prove that the present

system of things is to be marked by gradual improvement, religiously, politically,

morally, or socially, then, by all means, be hopeful. Yes; hope against hope. A single

clause of inspiration is quite sufficient to form the basis of a hope which will lift the

heart above the very darkest and most depressing surroundings.

But where is such a clause to be found? Simply, nowhere. The testimony of the Bible,

from cover to cover; the distinct teaching of holy scripture, from beginning to end; the

voices of prophets and apostles, in unbroken harmony—all, without a single divergent

note, go to prove, with a force and clearness perfectly unanswerable, that the present

condition of things, so far from gradually improving, will grow rapidly worse; that ere

the bright beams of millennial glory can gladden this groaning earth, the sword of

judgement must do its appalling work. To quote the passages, in proof of our

assertion, would literally fill a volume; it would simply be to transcribe a large

portion of the prophetic scriptures of the Old and New Testament.

This, of course, we do not attempt. There is no need. The reader has his Bible before

him. Let him search it diligently. Let him lay aside all his preconceived ideas, all the

conventionalisms of Christendom, all the ordinary phraseology of the religious world,

all the dogmas of the schools of divinity, and come, with the simplicity of a little

child, to the pure fountain of holy scripture, and drink in its heavenly teaching. If he

will only do this, he will rise from the study with the clear and settled conviction that

the world will, most assuredly, not be converted by the means now in operation—that

it is not the gospel of peace but the besom of destruction that shall prepare the earth

for glory.

Is it, then, that we deny the good that is being done? Are we insensible to it? Far be

the thought! We heartily bless God for every atom of it. We rejoice in every effort put

forth to spread the precious gospel of the grace of God; we render thanks for every

soul gathered within the blessed circle of God's salvation. We delight to think of

eighty-five millions of Bibles scattered over the earth. What human mind can

calculate the results of all these, yea, the results of a single copy? We earnestly wish

God speed to every true-hearted missionary who goes forth with the glad tidings of

salvation, whether into the lanes and court-yards of London, or to the most distant

parts of the earth.

But, admitting all this, as we most heartily do, we nevertheless do not believe in the

conversion of the world by the means now in operation. Scripture tells us that it is

when the divine judgements are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world shall learn

righteousness. This one clause of inspiration ought to be sufficient to prove that it is

not by the gospel that the world is to be converted, and there are hundreds of clauses

which speak the same language and teach the same truth. It is not by grace, but by

judgement, that the inhabitants of the world shall learn righteousness.

What then is the object of the gospel If it be not to convert the world, for what

purpose is it preached? The Apostle James, in his address at the memorable council at

Jerusalem, gives an answer, direct and conclusive, to the question. He says, "Simeon

hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles." For what? To convert them

all? The very reverse: "To take out of them a people for his name." Nothing can be

more distinct than this It sets before us that which ought to be the grand object of all

missionary effort—that which every divinely sent and divinely taught missionary will

keep before his mind, in all his blessed labours. It is "to take out a people for his

name."

How important to remember this! How needful to have ever before us a true object, in

all our work! Of what possible use can it be to work for a false object? Is it not much

better to work with a direct view to what God is doing? Will it cripple the

missionary's energies or clip his wings to keep before his eyes the divine purpose in

his work? Surely not. Take the case of two missionaries going forth to some distant

mission-field; the one has for his object the conversion of the world; the other, the

gathering out of a people. Will the latter, by reason of his object, be less devoted, less

energetic, less enthusiastic than the former? We cannot believe it; on the contrary, the

very fact of his being in the current of the divine mind will impart stability and

consistency to his work; and, at the same time, encourage his heart in the face of the

difficulties and hindrances which surround him.

But, however this may be, it is perfectly plain that the apostles of our Lord and

Saviour Jesus Christ had no such object, in going forth to their work, as the

conversion of the world. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every

creature; he that believeth and is baptised shall be saved; but he that believeth not

shall be damned."

This was to the twelve. The world was to be their sphere. The aspect of their message

was unto every creature; the application, to him that believeth. It was, pre-eminently,

an individual thing. The conversion of the whole world was not to be their object; that

will be effected by a different agency altogether, when God's present action by the

gospel shall have resulted in the gathering out of a people for the heavens.* The Holy

Ghost came down, on the day of Pentecost, not to convert the world, but to "convict"

(ejlegvxei) it, or demonstrate its guilt, in having rejected the Son of God.** The effect

of His presence was to prove the world guilty; and as to the grand object of His

mission, it was to form a body composed of believers from amongst both Jews and

Gentiles. With this He has been occupied for the last eighteen hundred years. This is

"the mystery" of which the Apostle Paul was made a minister, and which he unfolds,

so fully and blessedly, in his epistle to the Ephesians. It is impossible for any one to

understand the truth set forth in this marvellous document, and not see that the

conversion of the world and the formation of the body of Christ are two totally

different things which could not possibly go on together.

{*We would commend to the reader's attention Psalm 47. It is one of a large class of

passages which prove that the blessing of the nations is consequent upon Israel's

restoration. "God be merciful unto us [Israel] and bless us, and cause his face to shine

upon us, that thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all

nations.... God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him." There

could not be a more lovely or forcible proof of the fact that it is Israel, and not the

church, that will be used for the blessing of the nations.}

{**The application of John 16: 8-11 to the Spirit's work in the individual is, in our

judgement, a serious mistake. It refers to the effect of His presence on earth, in

reference to the world as a whole. His work in the soul is a precious truth, we need

hardly say; but it is not the truth taught in this passage.}

Let the reader ponder the following beautiful passage: "For this cause I Paul, the

prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation of the

grace of God, which is given me to you-ward; how that by revelation he made known

unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, whereby, when ye read, ye may

understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) which in other ages was not made

known unto the sons of men"—not made known in the scriptures of the Old

Testament; nor revealed to the Old Testament saints or prophets—"as it is now

revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets"—that is, to the New Testament

prophets—"by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same

body, and partakers of his Promise in Christ by the gospel: whereof I was made a

minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual

working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace

given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and

to make all men see, what is the dispensation [oijkonomiva] of the mystery, which from

the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus

Christ: to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in the heavenlies

might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God." (Eph. 3: 1-10)

Take another passage from the epistle to the Colossians. "If ye continue in the faith

grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye

have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven;

whereof I Paul am made a minister; who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill

up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for his body's sake,

which is the church; whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of

God which is given to me for you, to complete the word of God; even the mystery

which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his

saints: to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this

mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: whom we

preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may

present every man perfect in Christ Jesus; whereunto I also labour, striving according

to his working, which worketh in me mightily." (Col. 1: 23-29.)

From these, and numerous other passages, the reader may see the special object of

Paul's ministry. Assuredly, he had no such thought in his mind as the conversion of

the world. True, he preached the gospel, in all its depth, fullness and power—

preached it "from Jerusalem and round about unto Illyricum"—"preached among the

Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;" but with no thought of converting the

world. He knew better. He knew and taught that the world was ripening for

judgement—yes, ripening rapidly; that "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and

worse;" that, "In the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to

seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their

conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain

from meats, which God had created to be received with thanksgiving of them which

believe and know the truth."

And, further still, this faithful and divinely inspired witness taught that "in the last

days"—far in advance of "the latter times"—"perilous [or difficult] times shall come.

For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers,

disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers,

false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady,

high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of

godliness, but denying the power thereof." (Compare 1 Tim. 4: 1-3 with 2 Tim. 3: 1-5)

What a picture! It brings us back to the close of the first of Romans, where the same

inspired pen portrays for us the dark forms of heathenism; but with this terrible

difference that in 2 Timothy it is not heathenism but nominal Christianity—"a form of

godliness." And is this to be the end of the present condition of things? Is this the

converted world of which we hear so much? Alas! alas! there are false prophets

abroad. There are those who cry Peace, peace, when there is no peace. There are

those who attempt to daub the crumbling walls of Christendom with untempered

mortar.

But it will not do. Judgement is at the door. The professing church has utterly,

shamefully failed; she has grievously departed from the word of God, and revolted

from the authority of her Lord. There is not a single ray of hope for Christendom. It is

the darkest moral blot in the wide universe of God, or on the page of history. The

same blessed apostle from whose writings we have already so largely quoted, tells us

that the mystery of iniquity doth already work;" hence it has been working now for

over eighteen centuries. "Only he that now hindereth will hinder until he be taken out

of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume

with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. Even

him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying

wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because

they received not the love of the troth, that they might he saved. And for this cause

God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might

be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." (2 Thess.

2: 7-12.)

How awful is the doom of Christendom! Strong delusion! Dark damnation! And all

this in the face of the dreams of those false prophets who talk to the people about "the

bright side of things." Thank God, there is a bright side for all those who belong to

Christ. To them the apostle can speak in bright and cheering accents. "We are bound

to give thanks alway to God for yon, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath

from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and

belief of the truth: whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the

glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." (2 Thess. 2: 13, 14.)

Here we have, most surely, the bright side of things—the bright and blessed hope of

the church of (God—the hope of seeing "the bright and morning Star." All rightly

instructed Christians are on the look out, not for an improved or a converted world,

but for their coming Lord and Saviour who has gone to prepare a place for them in the

Father's house; and is coming again to receive them to Himself, that where He is,

there they may be also. This is His own sweet promise, which may be fulfilled at any

moment. He only waits, as Peter tells us, in long suffering mercy, not willing that any

should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But when the last member shall

be incorporated, by the Holy Ghost, into the blessed body of Christ, then shall the

voice of the archangel and the trump of God summon all the redeemed, from the

beginning, to meet their descending Lord, in the air, to be for ever with Him.

This is the true and proper hope of the church of God—a hope which He would have

ever shining down; into the hearts of all His beloved people, in its purifying and

elevating power. Of this blessed hope the enemy has succeeded in robbing a large

number of the Lord's people. Indeed, for centuries it was well nigh blotted out from

the church's horizon; and it has only been partially recovered within the last fifty

years. And alas! how partially! Where do we hear of it, throughout the length and

breadth of the professing church? Do the pulpits of Christendom ring with the joyful

sound, "Behold the Bridegroom cometh"? Far from it. Even the few beloved servants

of Christ who are looking for His coming, hardly dare to preach it, because they fear

it would be utterly rejected. And so it would. We are thoroughly persuaded that, in the

vast majority of cases, men who should venture to preach the glorious truth that the

Lord is coming for His church, would speedily have to vacate their pulpits.

What a solemn and striking proof of Satan's blinding power! He has robbed the

church of divinely given hope; and, instead thereof, he has given her a delusion—a

lie. Instead of looking out for "The bright and morning Star," he has set her looking

for a converted world—a millennium without Christ. He has succeeded in casting

such a haze over the future, that the church has completely lost bearings. She does not

know where she is. She is like a vessel tossed on the stormy ocean, having neither

compass nor rudder, seeing neither sun nor stars. All is darkness and confusion.

And how is this? Simply because the church has lost sight of the pure and precious

word of her Lord and has accepted, instead, those bewildering creeds confessions of

men which so mar and mutilate the truth of God, that Christians seem utterly at sea as

to their proper standing and their proper hope.

And yet they have the Bible in their hands. True but so had the Jews, and yet they

rejected the blessed One who is the great theme of the Bible from beginning to end.

This was the moral inconsistency with which our Lord charged them, in John "Ye

search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they

which testify of me; ye will not come to me, that ye might have life."*

{*the word ejreuna'te may be either imperative or indicative but the context, we

judge, demands the latter. They had scriptures; they were read in their synagogues

every day; they professed to believe that in them they had life; they testified of Him;

and yet they would not come Him. Here was the flagrant inconsistency. Now if

ejreuna'te be taken as a command, the whole force of the passage is lost. Need we

remind the reader that there are plenty of arguments and inducements leading us to

search the scriptures, without appealing to what we believe to be an inaccurate

rendering of John 5: 39}

And why was this? Simply because their minds were blinded by religious prejudice.

They were under the influence of the doctrines and commandments of men. Hence,

although they had the scriptures, and boasted of having them, they were as ignorant of

them, and as little governed by them as the poor dark heathen around them. It is one

thing to have the Bible in our hands, in our homes, and in our assemblies, and quite

another thing to have the truths of the Bible acting on our hearts and consciences, and

shining in our lives.

Take, for instance, the great subject now before us, and which has led us into this very

lengthened digression. Can anything be more plainly taught in the New Testament

than this, namely, that the end of the present condition of things will be terrible

apostasy from the truth, and open rebellion against God and the Lamb? The Gospels,

the Epistles and the Revelation all agree in setting forth this most solemn truth, with

such distinctness and simplicity that a babe in Christ may see it.

And yet how few comparatively believe it! The vast majority believe the very reverse.

They believe that by means of the various agencies now in operation all nations shall

be converted. In vain we call attention to our Lord's parables in Matthew 13; the tares,

the leaven, and the mustard seed. How do these agree with the idea of a converted

world? If the whole world is to be converted by a preached gospel, how is it that tares

are found in the field at the end of the age? How is it that there are as many foolish

virgins as wise ones, when the Bridegroom comes? If the whole world is to be

converted by the gospel, then on whom will "the day of the Lord so come as a thief in

the night"? Or what mean those awful words, "For when they shall say, Peace and

safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with

child; and they shall not escape"? In view of a converted world, what would be the

just application, what the moral force of those most solemn words, in the first of

Revelation, "Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they

also which pierced him; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him"?

Where are all those wailing kindreds to be found, if the whole world is to be

converted?

Reader, is it not as clear as a sunbeam that the two things cannot stand, for a moment

together. Is it not perfectly plain that the theory of a world converted by the gospel is

diametrically opposed to the teaching of the entire New Testament? How is it then

that the vast majority of professing Christians persist in holding it? There can be but

the one reply, and that is, they do not bow to the authority of scripture. It is most

sorrowful and solemn to have to say it; but it is, alas! too true. The Bible is read in

Christendom; but the truths of the Bible are not believed—nay, they are persistently

rejected. And all this in view of the oft-repeated boast that "the Bible, and the Bible

alone is the religion of Protestants."

But we shall not pursue this subject further here, much as we feel its weight and

importance. We trust the reader may be led by the Spirit of God to feel its deep

solemnity. We believe the Lord's people everywhere need to be thoroughly roused to a

sense of how entirely the professing church has departed from the authority of

scripture. Here, we may rest assured, lies the real cause of all the confusion, all the

error, all the evil in our midst. We have departed from the word of the Lord, and from

Himself. Until this is seen, felt and owned, we cannot be right. The Lord looks for

true repentance, real brokenness of spirit, in His presence. "To this man will I look,

even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word."

This always holds good. There is no limit to the blessing, when the soul is in this truly

blessed attitude. But it must be a reality. being "poor and contrite; We must be in the

condition. It is an individual matter. "To this man will I look"

Oh! may the Lord, in His infinite mercy, lead us, every one, into true self judgement,

under the action of His word! May our ears he opened to hear His voice! May there be

a real turning of our hearts to Himself and to His word! May we turn our backs, in

holy decision, once and for ever, upon everything that will not stand the test of

scripture! This, we are persuaded, is what our Lord Christ looks for on the part Of all

who belong to Him, amid the terrible and hopeless debris of Christendom.

Deuteronomy 6

"Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgements, which the Lord

your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to

possess it: that thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes and his

commandments, which I command thee; thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the

days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged. Hear therefore, O Israel, and

observe to do it, that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as

the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and

honey. Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord."

We have here presented to us that great cardinal truth which the nation of Israel was

specially responsible to hold fast and confess, namely, the unity of the Godhead. This

truth lay at the very foundation of the Jewish economy. It was the grand centre round

which the people were to rally. So long as they maintained this, they were a happy,

prosperous, fruitful people; but when it was let go, all was gone. It was their great

national bulwark, and that which was to mark them off from all the nations of the

east. They were called to confess this glorious truth in the face of an idolatrous world,

with "its gods many, and lords many." It was Israel's high privilege and holy

responsibility to bear a steady witness to the truth contained in that one weighty

sentence, "The Lord our God is one Lord," in marked opposition to the false gods

innumerable of the heathen around. Their father Abraham had been called out from

the very midst of heathen idolatry, to be a witness to the one true and living God, to

trust Him; to walk with Him; to lean on Him; and to obey Him.

If the reader will turn to the last chapter of Joshua, he will find a very striking allusion

to this fact, and a very important use made of it, in his closing address to the people.

"And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and called for the elders of

Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and they

presented themselves before God. And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the

Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even

Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor; and they served other gods.

And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him

throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac."

Here, Joshua reminds the people of the fact that their fathers had served other gods—

a very solemn and weighty fact, most surely; and one which they ought never to have

forgotten, inasmuch as the remembrance of it would have taught them their deep need

of watchfulness over themselves, lest, by any means, they should be drawn back into

that gross and terrible evil out of which God, in His sovereign grace, and electing

love, had called their father Abraham. It would have been their wisdom to consider

that the self-same evil in which their fathers had lived, in the olden time, was just the

one into which they themselves were likely to fall.

Having presented this fact to the people, Joshua brings before them, with uncommon

force and vividness, all the leading events of their history, from the birth of their

father Isaac, down to the moment in which he was addressing them; and then sums up

with the following telling appeal, "Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in

sincerity and in truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other

side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord. And if it seem evil unto you to

serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which, your

fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites in

whose land ye dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Mark the repeated allusion to the fact that their fathers had worshipped false gods;

and, further, that the land into which Jehovah had brought them had been polluted,

from one end to the other, by the dark abominations of heathen idolatry.

Thus does this faithful servant of the Lord, evidently by the inspiration of the Holy

Ghost, seek to set before the people their danger of living up the grand central and

foundation truth of the One true and living God, and falling back into the worship of

idols. He urges upon them the absolute necessity of whole-hearted decision. "Choose

you this day whom ye will serve." There is nothing like plain, out and out decision for

God. It is due to Him always. He had proved Himself to be unmistakably for them, in

redeeming them from the bondage of Egypt, bringing them through the wilderness,

and planting them in the land of Canaan. Hence, therefore, that they should be wholly

for Him was nothing more than their reasonable service.

How deeply Joshua felt all this, for himself, is evident from those very memorable

words, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Lovely words! Precious

decision! National religion might, and alas! did go to ruin; but personal and family

religion could, by the grace of God, be maintained, everywhere, and at all times.

Thank God for this! May we never forget it! "Me and my house" is faith's clear and

delightful response to God's "Thou and thy house." Let the condition of the ostensible,

professed people of God, at any given time, be what it may, it is the privilege of every

true-hearted man of God to adopt and act upon this immortal decision, "As for me and

my house, we will serve the Lord."

True, it is only by the grace of God, continually supplied, that this holy resolution can

be carried out; but, we may rest assured that, where the bent of the heart is to follow

the Lord fully, all needed grace will be ministered, day by day; for those encouraging

words must ever hold good, "My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made

perfect in weakness."

Let us now look, for a moment, at the apparent effect of Joshua's soul-stirring appeal

to the congregation. It seemed very promising. (The people answered and said, God

forbid that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods; for the Lord our God, he it

is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of

bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way

wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed; and the Lord

drave out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land:

therefore will we also serve the Lord; for he is our God."

All this sounded very well, and looked very hopeful. They seemed to have a clear

sense of the moral basis of Jehovah's claim upon them for implicit obedience. They

could accurately recount all His mighty deeds on their behalf, and make very earnest

and, no doubt, sincere protestations against idolatry, and promises of obedience to

Jehovah, their God.

But it is very evident that Joshua was not particularly sanguine about all this

profession, for "He said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the Lord: for he is an holy

God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If ye

forsake the Lord, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and

consume you, after that he hath done you good. And the people said unto Joshua,

Nay; but we will serve the Lord. And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses

against yourselves that ye have chosen you the Lord, to serve him. And they said, We

are witnesses. Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among

you, and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel. And the people said unto

Joshua, The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey."

We do not now stop to contemplate the aspect in which Joshua presents God to the

congregation of Israel, inasmuch as our object in referring to the passage is to show

the prominent place assigned, in Joshua's address, to the truth of the unity of the

Godhead. This was the truth to which Israel was called to bear witness, in view of all

the nations of the earth, and in which they were to find their moral safe-guard against

the ensnaring influences of idolatry.

But alas! this very truth was the one as to which they most speedily and signally

failed. The promises, vows, and resolutions made under the powerful influence of

Joshua's appeal soon proved to be like the early dew and the morning cloud that

passeth away. "The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of

the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord, that he

did for Israel. And Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being an

hundred and ten years old.... And also all that generation were gathered unto their

fathers; and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor

yet the works which he had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in the

sight of the Lord, and served Baalim; and they forsook the Lord God of their fathers,

which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of

the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and

provoked the Lord to anger. And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and

Ashtaroth." (Judges 2: 7-13)

Reader, how admonitory is all this! How full of solemn warning to us all! The grand,

all-important, special and characteristic truth so soon abandoned! The one only true

and living God given up for Baal and Ashtaroth! So long as Joshua and the elders

lived, their presence and their influence kept Israel from open apostasy. But no sooner

were those moral embankments removed than the dark tide of idolatry rolled in and

swept away the very foundations of the national faith. Jehovah of Israel was displaced

by Baal and Ashtaroth. Human influence is a poor prop, a feeble barrier. We must be

sustained by the power of God, else we shall, sooner or later, give way. The faith that

stands merely in the wisdom of men, and not in the power of God, must prove a poor,

flimsy worthless faith. It will not stand the day of trial; it will not bear the furnace; it

will, most assuredly, break down.

It is well to remember this. Second-hand faith will never do. There must be a living

link connecting the soul with God. We must have to do with God for ourselves,

individually, else we shall give way when the testing time comes. Human example

and human influence may be all very good in their place. It was all very well to look

at Joshua and the elders, and see how they followed the Lord. It is quite true that, "As

iron sharpeneth iron, so doth the countenance of a man his friend." It is very

encouraging to be surrounded by a number of truly devoted hearts; very delightful to

be borne along upon the bosom of the tide of collective loyalty to Christ—to His

Person and to His cause. But if this be all; if there be not the deep spring of personal

faith and personal knowledge; if there be not the divinely formed, and the divinely

sustained link of individual relationship and communion, then when the human props

are removed; when the tide of human influence ebbs, when general declension sets in,

we shall be, in principle, like Israel following the Lord, all the days of Joshua and the

elders, and then giving up the confession of His name, and returning to the follies and

vanities of this present world-things no better, in reality, than Baal and Ashtaroth.

But, on the other hand, when the heart is thoroughly established in the truth and grace

of God; when we can say—as it is the privilege of each true believer to say—"I know

whom I have believed; and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have

committed unto him against that day; then, although all should turn aside from the

public confession of Christ; although we should find ourselves left without the help of

a human countenance, or the support of a human arm, we shall find "the foundation of

God" as sure as ever; and the path of obedience as plain before us as though

thousands were treading it with holy decision and energy.

We must never lose sight of the fact that it is the divine purpose that the professing

church of God should learn deep and holy lessons from the history of Israel.

"Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning; that we,

through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope." Nor is it, by any

means, necessary, in order to our thus learning from the Old Testament scriptures,

that we should occupy ourselves in searching out fanciful analogies, curious theories,

or far-fetched illustrations. Many alas! have tried these things, and, instead of finding

"comfort" in the scriptures, they have been led away into empty and foolish conceits,

if not into deadly errors.

But our business is with the living facts recorded on the page of inspired history.

These are to be our study; from these we are to draw our great practical lessons. Take,

for example, the weighty and admonitory fact now before us—a fact standing out, in

characters deep and broad, on the page of Israel's history from Joshua to Isaiah—-the

fact of Israel's lamentable departure from that very truth which they were specially

called to hold and confess—the truth of the unity of the Godhead. The very first thing

they did was to let go this grand and all-important truth, this keystone of the arch, the

foundation of the whole edifice, the very heart of their national existence, the living

centre of their national polity. They gave it up, and turned back to the idolatry of their

fathers on the other side of the flood, and of the heathen nations around them. They

abandoned that most glorious and distinctive truth on the maintenance of which their

very existence, as a nation, depended. Had they only held fast this truth, they would

have been invincible; but, in surrendering it, they surrendered all, and became much

worse than the nations around them, inasmuch as they sinned against light and

knowledge—sinned, with their eyes open—sinned in the face of the most solemn

warnings and earnest entreaties; and, we may add, in the face of the most vehement

and oft-repeated promises and protestations of obedience.

Yes, reader, Israel gave up the worship of the One true and living God, Jehovah

Elohim, their covenant God; not only their Creator, but their Redeemer; the One who

had brought them up out of the land of Egypt; conducted them through the Red Sea;

led them through the wilderness; brought them across the Jordan, and planted them,

in triumph, in the inheritance which He had promised to Abraham their father. A land

flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands." They turned their backs

upon Him, and gave themselves up to the worship of false gods. "They provoked him

to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images."

It seems perfectly wonderful that a people who had seen and known so much of the

goodness and loving kindness of God; His mighty acts, His faithfulness, His majesty,

His glory, could ever bring themselves to bow down to the stock: of a tree. But so it

was. Their whole history, from the days of the calf, at the foot of Mount Sinai, to the

day in which Nebuchadnezzar reduced Jerusalem to ruins, is marked by an

unconquerable spirit of idolatry. In vain did Jehovah, in His long-suffering mercy and

abounding goodness, raise up deliverers for them, to lift them from beneath the

terrible consequences of their sin and folly. Again and again, in His inexhaustible

mercy and patience, He saved them from the hand of their enemies. He raised up an

Othniel, an Ehud, a Barak, a, Gideon, a Jephthah, a Samson, those instruments of His

mercy and power, those witnesses of His deep and tender love and compassion

toward His poor infatuated people. No sooner had each judge passed off the scene,

than back the nation plunged into their besetting sin of idolatry.

So also, in the days of the kings. It is the same melancholy, heart-rending story. True,

there were bright spots, here and there, some brilliant stars shining out through the

deep gloom of the nation's history; we have a David, an Asa, a Jehoshaphat, a

Hezekiah, a Josiah—refreshing and blessed exceptions to the dark and dismal rule.

But even men like these failed to eradicate from the heart of the nation the pernicious

root of idolatry. Even amid the unexampled splendours of Solomon's reign, that root

sent forth its bitter shoots, in the monstrous form of high places to Ashtaroth, the

goddess of the Zidonians; Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites; and Chemosh,

the abomination of Moab.

Reader, only think of this. Pause for a moment, and contemplate the astounding fact

of the writer of the Canticles, Ecclesiastes, and Proverbs bowing at the shrine of

Molech! Only conceive the wisest, the wealthiest and the most glorious of Israel's

monarchs, burning incense, and offering sacrifices upon the altar of Chemosh!

Truly, there is something here for us to ponder. It was written for our learning. The

reign of Solomon affords one of the most striking and impressive evidences of the

fact which is just now engaging our attention, namely, Israel's complete and hopeless

apostasy from the grand truth of the unity of the Godhead—their unconquerable spirit

of idolatry. The truth which they were specially called out to hold and confess, was

the very truth which they, first of all and most persistently, abandoned.

We shall not pursue the dark line of evidence further; neither shall we dwell upon the

appalling picture of the nation's judgement, in consequence of their idolatry. They are

now in the condition of which the prophet Hosea speaks: "The children of Israel shall

abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and

without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim."—"The unclean spirit

of idolatry has gone out of them," during these "many days," to return, by-and-by,

with "seven other spirits more wicked than himself"—the very perfection of spiritual

wickedness. And then will come days of unparalleled tribulation upon that long

misguided and deeply revolted people —"The time of Jacob's trouble."

But deliverance will come, blessed be God! Bright days are in store for the restored

nation—"days of heaven upon earth"—as the same prophet Hosea tells us: "Afterward

shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their King;

and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days." All the promises of God to

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David shall be blessedly accomplished; all the brilliant

predictions of the prophets, from Isaiah to Malachi, shall be gloriously fulfilled. Yes,

both promises and prophecies shall be literally and gloriously made good to restored

Israel, in the land of Canaan; for "the scripture cannot be broken." The long, dark,

dreary night shall be followed by the brightest day that has ever shone upon this earth;

the daughter of Zion shall bask in the bright and blessed beams of "the Sun of

Righteousness;" and "the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the

waters cover the sea."

It would indeed be a most delightful exercise to reproduce upon the pages of this

volume those glowing passages from the prophets which speak of Israel's future; but

this we cannot attempt; it is not needful; and we have a duty to fulfil which, if not so

pleasing to us, or so refreshing to the reader, will, we earnestly hope, prove not less

profitable.

The duty is this, to press upon the attention of the reader—and upon the attention of

the whole church of God—the practical application of that solemn fact in Israel's

history on which we have dwelt at such length—the fact of their having so speedily,

and so completely given up the great truth set forth in Deuteronomy 6: 4, "Hear, O

Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord."

We may, perhaps, be asked, "What bearing can this fact have upon the church of

God?" We believe it has a most solemn bearing; and, further, we believe we should be

guilty of a very culpable shirking of our duty to Christ and to His church, if we failed

to point it out. We know that all the great facts of Israel's history are full of

instruction, full of admonition, full of warning, for us. It is our business, our bounden

duty to see that we profit by them—to take heed that we study them aright.

Now, in contemplating the history of the church of God, as a public witness for

Christ, on the earth, we find that, hardly had it been set up, in all the fullness of

blessing and privilege which marked the opening of its career, ere it began to slip

away from those very truths which it was specially responsible to maintain and

confess. Like Adam, in the garden of Eden; like Noah, in the restored earth; like

Israel, in Canaan; so the church, as the responsible steward of the mysteries of God,

was no sooner set in its place, than it began to totter and fall. It almost immediately

began to give up those grand truths which were characteristic of its very existence,

and which were to mark off Christianity from all that had gone before. Even under the

eyes of the apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, errors and evils had begun

to work which sapped the very foundations of the church's testimony.

Are we asked for proofs? Alas! we have them, in melancholy abundance. Hear the

words of that blessed apostle who shed more tears and heaved more sighs over the

ruins of the church than any man that ever lived. "I marvel," he says; and well he

might, "that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ,

unto another gospel: which is not another." "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched

you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been

evidently set forth, crucified among you" "Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye

did service to them which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye have known

God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly

elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months,

and times, and years;" Christian festivals, so called, very imposing and gratifying to

religious nature; but, in the judgement of the apostle, the judgement of the Holy

Ghost, it was simply giving up Christianity and going back to the worship of idols. "I

am afraid of you," and no wonder, when they could thus so speedily turn away from

the grand characteristic truths of a heavenly Christianity, and occupy themselves with

superstitious observances. "I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour

in vain." "Ye did run well; who did hinder you, that ye should not obey the truth? This

persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the whole

lump."

And all this in the apostle's own day. The departure was even more rapid than in

Israel's case; for they served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the

elders that outlived Joshua; but, in the church's sad and humiliating history, the enemy

succeeded, almost immediately, in introducing leaven into the meal, tares among the

wheat. Ere the apostles themselves had left the scene, seed was sown which has been

bearing its pernicious fruit ever since, and shall continue to bear, till angelic reapers

clear the field.

But we must give further proof from scripture. Let us hearken to the same inspired

witness, near the close of his ministry, pouring out his heart to his beloved son

Timothy, in accents, at once pathetic and solemn. "This thou knowest, that all they

which are in Asia be turned away from me." Again, "Preach the word; be instant in

season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own

lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn

away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."

Here is the testimony of the man who, as a wise master builder, had laid the

foundation of the church. And what was his own personal experience? He was, like

his blessed Master, left alone, deserted by those who had once gathered round him in

the freshness, bloom, and ardour of early days. His large, loving heart was broken by

Judaising teachers who sought to overturn the very foundations of Christianity, and to

overthrow the faith of God's elect. He wept over the ways of many who, while they

made a profession, were, nevertheless, "the enemies of the cross of Christ."

In a word, the Apostle Paul, as he looked forth from his prison at Rome, saw the

hopeless wreck and ruin of the professing body. He saw that it would happen to that

body, as it had happened to the ship in which he had made his last voyage—a voyage

strikingly significant and illustrative of the church's sad history in this world. But here

let us just remind the reader, that we are dealing now only with the question of the

church, as a responsible witness for Christ on the earth. This must be distinctly seen,

else we shall greatly err in our thoughts on the subject. We must accurately

distinguish between the church as the body of Christ, and as His light bearer or

witness in the world. In the former character, failure is impossible; in the latter, the

ruin is complete and hopeless.

The church, as the body of Christ, united to her living and glorified Head in the

heavens, by the presence and indwelling of the Holy Ghost, can never, by any

possibility, fail—never be smashed to pieces, like Paul's ship, by the storms and

billows of this hostile world. It is as safe as Christ Himself. The Head and the body

are one—indissolubly one. No power of earth or hell, men or devils can ever touch

the feeblest and most obscure member of that blessed body. All stand before God, all

are under His gracious eye, in the fullness, beauty and acceptability of Christ Himself.

As is the Head, so are the members—all the members together—each member in

particular. All stand in the full eternal results of Christ's finished work on the cross.

There is—there can be no question of responsibility here. The Head made Himself

responsible for the members. He perfectly met every claim, and discharged every

liability. Nothing remains but love—love, deep as the heart of Christ, perfect as His

work, unchanging as His throne. Every question that could possibly be raised against

any one, or all of the members of the church of God, was raised, gone into, and

definitively settled, between God and His Christ, on the cross. All the sins, all the

iniquities, all the transgressions, all the guilt of each member in particular, and all the

members together—yes all, in the fullest and most absolute way, was laid on Christ

and borne by Him God, in His inflexible justice, in His infinite holiness, in His eternal

righteousness, dealt with everything that could ever, in any possible manner, stand in

the way of the full salvation, perfect blessedness, and everlasting glory of every one of

the members of the body of Christ the assembly of God. Every member of the body is

permeated by the life of the Head; every stone in the building is animated by the life

of the chief corner-stone. All are bound together in the power of a bond which can

never, no never, be dissolved.

And, furthermore, let it be distinctly understood that the unity of the body of Christ is

absolutely indissoluble. This is a cardinal point which must be tenaciously held, and

faithfully confessed. But, obviously, it cannot be held and confessed, unless it is

understood and believed; and, judging from the expressions which one sometimes

hears, in speaking on the subject, it is very questionable indeed if people, so

expressing themselves, have ever grasped, in a divine way, the glorious truth of the

unity of the body of Christ—a unity maintained, on earth, by the indwelling of the

Holy Ghost.

Thus, for example, we sometimes hear people speak of "rending the body of Christ."

It is a complete mistake. Such a thing is utterly impossible. The Reformers were

accused of rending the body of Christ, when they turned their backs upon the Romish

system. What a gross misconception! It simply amounted to the monstrous

assumption that a vast mass of moral evil, doctrinal error, ecclesiastical corruption,

and debasing superstition was to be owned as the body of Christ! How could any one,

with the New Testament in his hand, regard the so-called church of Rome, with its

numberless and nameless abominations, as the body of Christ? How could any one,

possessing the very faintest idea of the true church of God, ever think of bestowing

that title upon the darkest mass of wickedness, the greatest masterpiece of Satan the

world has ever beheld?

No, reader; we must never confound the ecclesiastical systems of this world—ancient,

medieval, or modern, Greek, Latin, Anglican, National or Popular, Established or

Dissenting—with the true church of God, the body of Christ. There is not, beneath the

canopy of heaven, this day, nor ever was, a religious system, call it what you please,

possessing the very smallest claim to be called, "The church of God," or "The body of

Christ." And, as a consequence, it can never be, rightly or intelligently, called schism,

or rending the body of Christ, to separate from such systems; nay, on the contrary, it is

the bounden duty of every one who would faithfully maintain and confess the truth of

the unity of the body, to separate with the most unqualified decision, from everything

falsely calling itself a church. It can only be viewed as schism to separate from those

who are, unmistakably and unquestionably, gathered on the ground of the assembly of

God.

No body of Christians can now lay claim to the title of the body of Christ, or church

of God. The members of that body are scattered everywhere they are to be found in all

the various religious organisations of the day, save such as deny the deity of our Lord

Jesus Christ. We cannot admit the idea that any true Christian could continue to

frequent a place where his Lord is blasphemed. But, although no body of Christians

can lay claim to the title of the assembly of God, all Christians are responsible to be

gathered on the ground of that assembly, and on no other.

And if we be asked, "How are we to know—where are we to find this ground?" We

reply, "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." “If any man will

do his will, he shall know of the doctrine." "There is "a path"—thanks be to God for

it, though—"no fowl knoweth, and the vulture's eye hath not seen it. The lion's whelps

have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it." Nature’s keenest vision cannot

see this path, nor its greatest strength tread it. Where is it then? Here it is, "Unto

man—to the reader and to the writer, to each, to all 'he said, Behold, the fear of the

Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding." (Job 28.) But there is

another expression which we not infrequently hear from persons from whom we

might expect more intelligence, namely, cutting off the members of the body of

Christ."* This too, blessed be God, is impossible. Not a single member of the body of

Christ can ever be severed from the Head, or ever disturbed from the place into which

he has been incorporated by the Holy Ghost, in pursuance of the eternal purpose of

God, and in virtue of the accomplished atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ. The

divine Three in One are pledged for the eternal security of the very feeblest member

of the body; and for the maintenance of the indissoluble unity of the whole.

{*The expression, "cutting off the members of Christ's body" is generally applied in

cases of discipline. But it is quite a misapplication. The discipline of the assembly can

never touch the unity of the body. A member of the body may so fail in morals or err

in doctrine, as to call for the action of the assembly, in putting him away from the

Table; but that has nothing to do with his place in the body, The two things are

perfectly distinct.}

In a word, then, it is as true, today, as it was when the inspired apostle penned the

fourth chapter of his epistle to the Ephesians, that "There is one body," of which

Christ is Head, of which the Holy Ghost is the formative power; and of which all true

believers are members. This body has been on earth, since the day of Pentecost, is on

earth now, and shall continue on earth until that moment, so rapidly approaching,

when Christ shall come and take it to His Father's house. It is the same body, with a

continual succession of members, just as we speak of a certain regiment of her

Majesty's army having been at Waterloo, and now quartered at Aldershot, though not

a man in the regiment of today appeared at the memorable battle of 1815.

Does the reader feel any difficulty as to all this? It may be that he finds it hard, in the

present broken and scattered condition of the members, to believe and confess the

unbroken unity of the whole. He may feel disposed, perhaps, to limit the application

of Ephesians 4: 4, to the day in which the apostle penned the words, when Christians

were manifestly one; and when there was no such thing thought of as being a member

of this church or a member of that church; because all believers were members of the

one church.*

{*The unity of the church may be compared to a chain thrown across a river; we see it

at each side, but it dips in the middle. But though it dips, it is not broken; though we

do not see the union in the middle, we believe it is there all the same. The church was

seen in its unity on the day of Pentecost, and it will be seen in its unity in the glory;

and although we do not see it now, we nevertheless believe it most surely.

And, be it remembered, that the unity of the body is a great practical, formative truth;

and one very weighty practical deduction from it is that the state and walk of each

member affect the whole body. "If one member suffer, all the members suffer with it."

A member of what? Some local assembly? Nay; but a member of the body. We must

not make the body of Christ a matter of geography.

"But," we may be asked, "are we affected by what we do not see or know?" Assuredly.

Are we to limit the grand truth of the unity of the body with all its practical

consequences, to the measure of our personal knowledge and experience? Far be the

thought. it is the presence of the Holy Ghost that unites the members of the body to

the Head and to one another; and hence it is that the walk and ways of each affect all.

Even in Israel's case, where it was not a corporate but a national unity, when Achan

sinned, it was said, "Israel hath sinned;" and the whole congregation suffered a

humiliating defeat on account of a sin of which they were ignorant.

It is perfectly marvellous how little the Lord's people seem to understand the glorious

truth of the unity of the body, and the practical consequences flowing from it.}

In reply, we must protest against the very idea of limiting the word of God. What

possible right have we to single out one clause from Ephesians 4: 4-6 and say it only

applied to the days of the apostles? If one clause is to be so limited, why not all? Are

there not still, "one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of

all"? Will any question this? Surely not. Well then it follows that there is as surely one

body as there is one Spirit, one Lord, one God. All are intimately bound up together,

and you cannot touch one without touching all. We have no more right to deny the

existence of the one body than we have to deny the existence of God, inasmuch as the

self-same passage that declares to us the one, declares to us the other also.

But some will, doubtless, inquire, "Where is this one body to be seen? Is it not an

absurdity to speak of such a thing, in the face of the almost numberless denominations

of Christendom?" Our answer is this, We are not going to surrender the truth of God

because man has so signally failed to carry it out. Did not Israel utterly fail to

maintain, confess and carry out, the truth of the unity of the Godhead? And was that

glorious truth, in the smallest degree, touched by their failure? Was it not as true that

there was one God, though there were as many idolatrous altars as streets in

Jerusalem, and every housetop sent up a cloud of incense to the queen of heaven, as

when Moses sounded forth in the ears of the whole congregation, those sublime

words, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord"? Blessed be God, His truth does

not depend upon the faithless, foolish ways of men. It stands in its own divine

integrity; it shines in its own heavenly, undimmed lustre, spite of the grossest human

failure. Were it not so, what should we do? whither should we turn? or what would

become of us? In fact, it comes to this, if we were only to believe the measure of truth

which we see practically carried out in the ways of men, we might give up in despair,

and be of all men most miserable.

But how is the truth of the one body to be practically carried out? By refusing to own

any other principle of Christian fellowship—any other ground of meeting. All true

believers should meet on the simple ground of membership of the body of Christ; and

on no other. They should assemble, on the first day of the week, round the Lord's

Table, and break bread, as members of the one body, as we read in 1 Corinthians 10,

"For we, being many, are one loaf, one body; for we are all partakers of that one loaf."

This is as true, and as practical, today, as it was when the apostle addressed the

assembly at Corinth. True, there were divisions; at Corinth as there are divisions in

Christendom; but that did not, in any wise, touch the truth of God. The apostle

rebuked the divisions—pronounced them carnal. He had no sympathy with the poor

low idea which one sometimes hears advocated, that divisions are good things as

superinducing emulation. He believed they were very bad things—the fruit of the

flesh, the work of Satan.

Neither—we feel persuaded—would the apostle have accepted the popular

illustration that divisions in the church are like so many regiments, with different

facings, all fighting under the same commander-in-chief. It would not hold good for a

moment; indeed, it has no application whatever, but rather gives a flat contradiction

to that distinct and emphatic statement, "There is one body."

Reader, this is a most glorious truth. Let us ponder it deeply. Let us look at

Christendom in the light of it. Let us judge our own position and ways by it. Are we

acting on it? Do we give expression to it, at the Lord's Table, every Lord's day? Be

assured it is our sacred duty and high privilege so to do. Say not there are difficulties

of all sorts; many stumbling-blocks in the way; much to dishearten us in the conduct

of those who profess to meet on this very ground of which we speak.

All this is, alas! but too true. We must be quite prepared for it. The devil will leave no

stone unturned to cast dust in our eyes so that we may not see God's blessed way for

His people. But we must not give heed to his suggestions or be snared by his devices.

There always have been, and there always will be difficulties in the way of carrying

out the precious truth of God; and perhaps one of the greatest difficulties is found in

the inconsistent conduct of those who profess to act upon it.

But then we must ever distinguish between the truth and those who profess it;

between the ground and the conduct of those who occupy it. Of course, they ought to

harmonise; but they do not; and hence we are imperatively called to judge the conduct

by the ground, not the ground by the conduct. If we saw a man farming on a principle

which we knew to be thoroughly sound, but he was a bad farmer, what should we do?

Of course, we should reject his mode of working, but hold the principle all the same.

Not otherwise is it, in reference to the truth now before us. There were heresies at

Corinth, schisms, errors, evils, of all sorts. What then? Was the truth of God to be

surrendered as a myth, as something wholly impracticable? Was it all to be given up?

Were the Corinthians to meet on some other principle? Were they to organise

themselves on some new ground? Were they to gather round some fresh centre? No,

thank God! His truth was not to be surrendered, for a moment, although Corinth was

split up into ten thousand sects, and its horizon darkened by ten thousand heresies.

The body of Christ was one; and the apostle simply displays in their view the banner

with this blessed inscription, "Ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular."

Now these words were addressed, not merely "unto the church at Corinth," but also

"to all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and

ours." Hence, the truth of the one body is abiding and universal. Every true Christian

is bound to recognise it, and to act on it; and every assembly of Christians, wherever

convened, should be the local expression of this grand and all-important truth.

Some might, perhaps, feel disposed to ask how it could be said to any one assembly,

"Ye are the body of Christ"? Were there not saints at Ephesus, Colosse and Philippi?

No doubt? and had the apostle been addressing them on the same subject, he could

have said to them likewise, "Ye are the body of Christ," inasmuch as they were the

local expression of the body; and not only so, but, in addressing them, he had before

his mind all saints, to the end of the church's earthly career.

But we must bear in mind that the apostle could not possibly address such words to

any human organisation, ancient or modern. No; nor if all such organisations, call

them what you please, were amalgamated into one, could he speak of it as "the body

of Christ." That body, let it be distinctly understood, consists of all true believers on

the face of the earth. That they are not gathered on that only divine ground, is their

serious loss, and their Lord's dishonour. The precious truth holds good, all the same—

"There is one body;" and this is the divine standard by which to measure every

ecclesiastical association and every religious system under the sun.

We deem it needful to go somewhat fully into the divine side of the question of the

church, in order to guard the truth of God from the results of misapprehension; and

also that the reader may clearly understand that, in speaking of the utter failure and

ruin of the church, we are looking at the human side of the subject. To this latter, we

must return for a moment.

It is impossible to read the New Testament, with a calm and unprejudiced mind, and

not see that the church, as a responsible witness for Christ on the earth, has, most

signally and shamefully, failed, To quote all the passages in proof of this statement

would, literally, fill a small volume. But, let us glance at the second and third chapters

of the book of Revelation where the church is seen under judgement. We have, in

these solemn chapters, what we may call a divine church history. Seven assemblies

are taken up, as illustrative of the various phases of the church's history, from the day

in which it was set up, in responsibility, on the earth, until it shall be spued out of the

Lord's mouth, as something utterly intolerable. If we do not see that these two

chapters are prophetic, as well as historic, we shall deprive ourselves of a vast field of

most valuable instruction. For ourselves, we can only assure the reader that no human

language could adequately set forth what we have gathered from Revelation 2 and 3,

in their prophetic aspect.

However, we are only referring to them now as the last of a series of scripture proofs

of our present thesis. Take the address to Ephesus, the self-same church to which the

Apostle Paul wrote his marvellous epistle, opening up, so blessedly, the heavenly side

of things, God's eternal purpose respecting the church—the position and portion of

the church, as accepted in Christ, and blessed with all spiritual blessings, in the

heavenlies in Him. No failure here. No thought of such a thing. No possibility Of it.

All is in God's hands here. The counsel is His; the work His. It is His grace, His glory,

His mighty power, His good pleasure; and all founded upon the blood of Christ. There

is no question of responsibility here. The church was "dead in trespasses and sins" but

Christ died for her; He placed Himself judicially where she was morally; and God, in

His sovereign grace, entered the scene and raised up Christ from the dead, and the

church in Him glorious fact! Here all is sure and settled. It is the church in the

heavenlies, in Christ, not the church on earth for Christ. It is the body "accepted," not

the candlestick judged. If we do not see both sides of this great question, we have

much to learn.

But there is the earthly side, as well as the heavenly; the human as well as the divine;

the candlestick as well as the body. Hence it is that in the judicial address, in

Revelation 2, we read such solemn words as these, "I have against thee, that thou hast

left thy first love."

How very distinct! Nothing like this in Ephesians; nothing against the body, nothing

against the bride; but there is something against the candlestick. The light had, even

already, become dim. Hardly had it been lighted, ere the snuffers were needed.

Thus, at the very outset, symptoms of decline showed themselves, unmistakably, to

the penetrating eye of Him who walked amongst the seven golden candlesticks; and

when we reach the close, and contemplate the last phase of the church's condition—

the last stage of its earthly history, as illustrated by the assembly, at Laodicea, there is

not a single redeeming feature. The case is almost hopeless. The Lord is outside the

door. "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock." It is not, here, as at Ephesus, "I have

somewhat against thee." The whole condition is bad, The whole professing body is

about to be given up. "I will spue thee out of my mouth." He still lingers, blessed be

His Name, for He is ever slow to leave the place of mercy, or enter the place of

judgement. It reminds us of the departure of the glory, in the opening of Ezekiel. It

moved, with a slow and measured pace, loath to leave the house, the people and the

land. "Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub, and stood over the

threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full

of the brightness of the Lord's glory." "Then the glory of the Lord departed from off

the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubims." And, finally, “The glory of

the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on

the east side of the city. (Ezek 10: 4, 18; 11: 23.)

This is deeply affecting. How striking the contrast between this slow departure of the

glory and its speedy entrance, in the day of Solomon's dedication of the house, in 2

Chronicles 7: 1. Jehovah was quick to enter His abode, in the midst of His people;

slow to leave it. He was, to speak after the manner of men, forced away by the sins

and hopeless impenitence of His infatuated people.

So also, with the church. We see, in the second of Acts, His rapid entrance into His

spiritual house. He came, like a rushing mighty wind, to fill the house with His glory.

But, in the third of Revelation, see His attitude. He is outside. Yes; but He is

knocking. He lingers, not indeed with any hope of corporate restoration; but if haply

"any man would hear his voice and open the door." The fact of His being outside,

shows what the church is. The fact of His knocking, shows what He is.

Christian reader, see that you thoroughly understand this whole subject. It is of the

very last importance that you should. We are surrounded, on all sides, with false

notions as to the present condition and future destiny of the professing church. We

must fling these all behind our backs, with holy decision, and listen, with circumcised

ear, and reverent mind, to the teaching of holy scripture. That teaching is as clear as

noon-day. The professing church is a hopeless ruin, and judgement is at the door.

Read the epistle of Jude; read 2 Peter 2 and 3. read 2 Timothy. Just lay aside this

volume, and look closely into those solemn scriptures, and we feel persuaded you will

rise from the study with the deep and thorough conviction that there is nothing

whatever before Christendom but the unmitigated wrath of Almighty God. Its doom is

set forth in that brief but solemn sentence in Romans 11, "Thou also shalt be cut off."

Yes; such is the language of scripture. "Cut off"—"spued out." The professing church

has utterly failed as Christ's witness on the earth. As with Israel, so with the church,

the very truth which she was responsible to maintain and confess she has faithlessly

surrendered. Hardly had the canon of New Testament scripture closed, hardly had the

first set of labourers left the field, ere gross darkness set in, and settled down upon the

whole professing body. Turn where you will, range through the ponderous tomes of

"the fathers" as they are called, and you will not find a trace of those grand

characteristic truths of our glorious Christianity. All, all was shamefully abandoned.

As Israel, in Canaan, abandoned Jehovah for Baal and Ashtaroth, so the church

abandoned the pure and precious truth of God for puerile fables and deadly errors.

The rapid departure is perfectly astounding; but it was just as the Apostle Paul

forewarned the elders of Ephesus. "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the

flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of

God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my

departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from

among your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away

disciples after them." (Acts 20)

How truly deplorable! The holy apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, almost

immediately succeeded by "grievous wolves," and teachers of perverse things. The

whole church plunged into thick darkness. The lamp of divine revelation almost

hidden from view. Ecclesiastical corruption, in every form; priestly domination with

all its terrible accompaniments. In short, the history of the church—the history of

Christendom is the most appalling record ever penned.

True it is, thanks be to God, He left not Himself without a witness. Here and there,

from time to time, just as in Israel of old, He raised up one and another to speak for

Him. Even amid the deepest gloom of the middle ages, an occasional star appears

upon the horizon. The Waldenses and others were enabled, by the grace of God, to

hold fast His word and to confess the Name of Jesus in the face of Rome's dark and

terrible tyranny, and diabolical cruelty.

Then came that gracious season, in the sixteenth century, when God raised up Luther

and his beloved and honoured fellow-labourers, to preach the great truth of

justification by faith, and to give the precious volume of God to the people, in their

own tongue wherein they were born. It is not within the compass of human language

to set forth the blessing of that memorable time. Thousands heard the glad tidings of

salvation—heard, believed, and were saved. Thousands who had long groaned

beneath the intolerable weight of Romish superstition, hailed, with Profound

thankfulness, the heavenly message. Thousands flocked, with intense delight, to draw

water from those wells of inspiration which had been stopped for ages by papal

ignorance and intolerance. The blessed lamp of divine revelation, so long hidden by

the enemy's hand, was permitted to cast its rays athwart the gloom, and thousands

rejoiced in its heavenly light.

But while we heartily bless God for all the glorious results of what is commonly

called the Reformation, in the sixteenth century, we should make a very grave

mistake indeed were we to imagine that it was anything approaching to a restoration

of the church to its original condition. Far—very far from it. Luther and his

companions, if we are to judge from their writings—precious writings, many of

them—never grasped the divine idea of the church as the body of Christ. They did not

understand the unity of the body; the presence of the Holy Ghost in the assembly, as

well as His indwelling in the individual believer. They never reached the grand truth

of ministry in the church, "its nature, source, power and responsibility." They never

got beyond the idea of human authority as the basis of ministry. They were silent as to

the specific hope of the church, namely, the coming of Christ for His people—the

bright and morning Star They failed to seize the proper scope of prophecy, and proved

themselves incompetent rightly to divide the word of truth.

Let us not be misunderstood. We love the memory of the Reformers. Their names are

familiar household words amongst us. They were dear, devoted, earnest, blessed

servants of Christ. Would that we had their like amongst us, in this day of revived

popery, and rampant infidelity. We would yield to none in our love and esteem for

Luther, Melanchthon, Farel, Latimer and Knox. They were truly bright and shining

lights in their day; and thousands—yea millions will thank God, throughout eternity,

that they ever lived and preached and wrote. And not only so, but, looked at in their

private life and public ministry, they put to shame many of those who have been

favoured with a range of truth for which we look in vain in the voluminous writings

of the Reformers.

But, admitting all this, as we most freely and gratefully do, we are nevertheless

convinced that those beloved and honoured servants of Christ failed to seize and

therefore failed to preach and teach many of the special and characteristic truths of

Christianity; at least, we have failed to find these truths in their writings. They

preached the precious truth of justification by faith; they gave the holy scriptures to

the people; they trampled under foot much of the rubbish of Romish superstition.

All this they did, by the grace of God; and for all this we bow our heads in deep

thankfulness and Praise to the Father of mercies. But Protestantism is not Christianity;

nor are the so-called churches of the Reformation, whether National or Dissenting,

the church of God. Far from it. We look back over the course of eighteen centuries,

and, spite of the occasional revivals, spite of the brilliant lights which, at various

times, have shone upon the church's horizon—lights which appeared all the brighter

in contrast with the deep gloom that surrounded them—spite of the many gracious

visitations of God's Spirit, both in Europe and America, during the past and present

century—spite of all these things, for which we most heartily bless God, we return,

with decision to the statement already advanced, that the professing church is a

hopeless wreck; that Christendom is rapidly hastening down the inclined plane, to the

blackness of darkness for ever; that those highly favoured lands, where much

evangelical truth has been preached; where Bibles have been circulated in millions,

and gospel tracts in billions, shall yet be covered with thick darkness—given over to

strong delusion to believe a lie!

And then?—Ah! what then? A converted world? Nay, but a judged church. The true

saints of God, scattered throughout Christendom—all the true members of the body of

Christ, will be caught up to meet their coming Lord—the dead saints raised, the living

changed? in a moment, and all taken up together to be for ever with the Lord. Then

the mystery will rise to a head in the person of the man of sin—the lawless one, the

Antichrist. The Lord Jesus shall come, and all His saints with Him, to execute

judgement on the beast, or revived Roman empire, and the false prophet, or

Antichrist—the former in the West, the latter in the East.

This will be a summary act of direct warrior judgement, without any judicial process

whatever, inasmuch as both the beast and false prophet shall be found in open

rebellion and blasphemous opposition to God and the Lamb. Then comes the

sessional judgement of the living nations, as recorded in Matthew 25: 31-46.

Thus, all evil having been put down, Christ shall reign, in righteousness and peace,

for a thousand years—a bright and blessed time, the true Sabbath for Israel and the

whole earth—a period marked by the grand facts, Satan bound, and Christ reigning

Glorious facts! The very reference to them causes the heart to overflow in praise and

thanksgiving. What will the reality be?

But Satan shall be loosed from his thousand years' captivity, and allowed to make one

more effort against God and His Christ. "And when the thousand years are expired,

Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which

are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle,

the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.* And they went up on the breadth of

the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and fire

came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived

them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false

prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." (Rev. 20: 7, 10.)

{*The reader must distinguish between the Gog and Magog of Revelation 20 and

those of Ezekiel 38 & 39. The former are post-millennial; the latter, pre-millennial.}

This will be Satan's last effort, issuing in his eternal perdition. Then we have the

judgement of the dead, "small and great"—the sessional judgement of all those who

shall have died in their sins, from the days of Cain down to the last apostate from

millennial glory. Tremendous scene! No heart can conceive, no tongue, no pen, set

forth its awful solemnity.

Finally, we have unfolded to the vision of our souls the everlasting state, the new

heaven and the new earth wherein righteousness shall dwell, throughout the golden

ages of eternity.

Such is the order of events, as set forth, with all possible clearness, on the pages of

inspiration. We have given a brief summary of them in connection with the line of

truth on which we have been dwelling—a line, as we are fully aware, by no means

popular; but we dare not withhold it on that account. Our business is to declare the

whole counsel of God, not to seek popularity. We do not expect the truth of God to be

popular in Christendom; so far from this, we have been seeking to prove that just as

Israel abandoned the truth which they were responsible to maintain, so the professing

church has let slip all those great truths which characterise the Christianity of the New

Testament. And we may assure the reader that our one object in pursuing this line of

argument is to arouse the hearts of all true Christians to a sense of the value of those

truths, and of their responsibility not only to receive them, but to seek a fuller

realisation and a bolder confession of them. We long to see a band of men raised up,

in these closing hours of the church's earthly history, who shall go forth, in true

spiritual power, and proclaim, with unction and energy—the long-forgotten truths of

the gospel of God. May God, in His great mercy to His people, raise up such and send

them forth. May the Lord Jesus knock louder and louder, at the door, so that many

may hear and open to Him, according to the desire of His loving heart, and taste the

blessedness of deep personal communion with Himself, while waiting for His coming.

Blessed be God, there is no limit whatever to the blessing of the individual soul who

hears Christ's voice and opens the door; and what is true of one is true of hundreds or

thousands. Only let us be real, and simple, and true, feeling and owning our utter

feebleness, and nothingness; laying aside all assumption and empty pretension; not

seeking to be anything, or to set up anything; but holding fast Christ's word, and not

denying His Name; finding our happy place at His feet, our satisfying portion in

Himself, and our real delight in serving Him in any little way. Thus we shall get on

harmoniously, lovingly, and happily together, finding our common centre in Christ,

and our common object in seeking to further His cause and promote His glory. Oh!

that it were thus with all the Lord's beloved people, in this our day; we should then

have a very different tale to tell, and present a very different aspect to the world

around. May the Lord revive His work!

It may perhaps seem to the reader that we have wandered a long way from

Deuteronomy 6; but we must remind him, once for all, that it is not merely what each

chapter contains that demands our attention, but also what it suggests And further, we

may add that, in sitting down to write, from time to time, it is our one desire to be led

by God's Spirit into the very line of truth which may be suited to the need of all our

readers. If only the beloved flock of Christ be fed, instructed and comforted, we care

not whether it be by well connected notes or broken fragments.

We shall now proceed with our chapter.

Moses, having laid down the grand foundation truth contained in the fourth verse,

"Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord," proceeds to press upon the

congregation their sacred duty in respect to this blessed One. It was not merely that

there was a God, but He was their God. He had deigned to link Himself with them, in

covenant relationship. He had redeemed them, borne them on eagles' wings, and

brought them unto Himself, in order that they might be to Him a people, and that He

might be their God.

Blessed fact! Blessed relationship! But Israel had to be reminded of the conduct

suited to such a relationship—conduct which could only flow from a loving heart.

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with

all thy might." Here lies the secret of all true practical religion. Without this all is

valueless to God. "My son, give me thine heart." where the heart is given, all will be

right. The heart may be compared to the regulator of a watch which acts on the hair-

spring, and the hair-spring acts on the mainspring, and the main-spring acts on the

hands, as they move round the dial. If your watch goes wrong, it will not do merely to

alter the hands, you must touch the regulator. God looks for real heart-work, blessed

be His Name! His word to us is, "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in

tongue; but in deed and in truth."

How we ought to bless Him for such touching words! They do so reveal His own

loving heart to us. Assuredly, He loved us in deed and in truth; and He cannot be

satisfied with anything else, whether in our ways with Him or our ways one with

another All must flow straight from the heart.

"And these words which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart"—at the

very source of all the issues of life. This is peculiarly precious. Whatever is in the

heart comes out through the lips, and in the life, How important then, to have the

heart full of the word of God, so full that we shall have no room for the vanities and

follies of this present evil world. Thus shall our conversation be always with grace,

seasoned with salt. "Out of the abundance of the heart the month speaketh." Hence we

can judge of what is in the heart by what cometh out of the mouth. The tongue is the

organ of the heart the organ of the man. "A good man out of the good treasure of the

heart bringeth forth good things; and an evil man, out of the evil treasure bringeth

forth evil things." When the heart is really governed by the word of God, the whole

character reveals the blessed result. It must be so, inasmuch as the heart is the main-

spring of our entire moral condition; it lies at the centre of all those moral influences

which govern our personal history and shape our practical career.

In every part of the divine volume, we see how much importance God attaches to the

attitude and state of the heart, with respect to Him or to His word, which is one and

the same thing. when the heart is true to Him, all is sure to come right; but, on the

other hand, we shall find that, where the heart grows cold and careless as to God and

His truth, there will, sooner or later, be open departure from the path of truth and

righteousness. There is, therefore, much force and value in the exhortation addressed

by Barnabas to the converts at Antioch: "He exhorted them all, that with purpose of

heart they would cleave unto the Lord."

How needful, then, now, always! This "purpose of heart" is most precious to God. It is

what we may venture to call the grand moral regulator, It imparts a lovely earnestness

to the Christian character which is greatly to be coveted by all of us. It is a divine

antidote against coldness, deadness and formality, all of which are so hateful to God.

The outward life may be very correct, and the creed may be very orthodox; but if the

earnest purpose of heart be lacking—the affectionate cleaving of the whole moral

being to God and His Christ, all is utterly worthless.

It is through the heart that the Holy Ghost instructs us. Hence, the apostle prayed for

the saints at Ephesus that, "The eyes of their heart [kardiva", not dianoiva"] might be

enlightened" And again, "That Christ may dwell in your heart by faith."

Thus we see how all scripture is in perfect harmony with the exhortation recorded in

our chapter, "And these words which I command thee this day, shall be in thine

heart." How near this would have kept them to their covenant God! How safe, too,

from all evil, and specially from the abominable evil of idolatry—their national sin,

their terrible besetment! If Jehovah's precious words had only found their right place

in the heart, there would have been little fear of Baal, Chemosh or Ashtoreth. In a

word, all the idols of the heathen would have found their right place, and been

estimated as their true value, if only the word of Jehovah had been allowed to dwell

in Israel's heart.

And be it specially noted here how beautifully characteristic all this is of the book of

Deuteronomy. It is not so much a question of keeping up a certain order of religious

observances, the offering of sacrifices or attention to rites and ceremonies. All these

things, no doubt, had their place, but they are, by no means, the prominent or

paramount thing in Deuteronomy. No; THE WORD is the all-important matter here.

It is Jehovah's word in Israel's heart.

The reader must seize this fact, if he really desires to possess the key to the lovely

book of Deuteronomy. It is not a book of ceremonial; it is a book of moral and

affectionate obedience. It teaches, in almost every section, that invaluable lesson, that

the heart that loves, prizes and honours the word of God is ready for every act of

obedience, whether it be the offering of a sacrifice or the observance of a day. It

might so happen that an Israelite would find himself in a place, and under

circumstances in which a rigid adherence to rites and ceremonies would be

impossible; but he never could be in a place or in circumstances in which he could

not love, reverence and obey the word of God. Let him go where he would; let him be

carried, as a captive exile, to the ends of the earth, nothing could rob him of the high

privilege of uttering and acting on those blessed words,

"Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee."

Precious words! They contain in their brief compass, the great principle of the book

of Deuteronomy; and we may add, the great principle of the divine life, at all times,

and in all places. It can never lose its moral force and value. It always holds good. It

was true in the days of the patriarchs; true for Israel in the land; true for Israel

scattered to the ends of the earth; true for the church as a whole; true for each

individual believer, amid the church's hopeless ruins. In a word, obedience is always

the creature's holy duty and exalted privilege—simple, unhesitating, unqualified

obedience to the word of the Lord. This is an unspeakable mercy for which we may

well praise our God, day and night. He has given us His word, blessed be His Name,

and He exhorts us to let that word dwell in us richly—dwell in our hearts, and assert

its holy sway over our entire course and character.

"And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart. And thou

shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest

in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and

when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they

shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of

thy house, and on thy gates."

All this is perfectly beautiful. The word of God hidden in the heart; flowing out, in

loving instruction, to the children, and in holy conversation, in the bosom of the

family; shining out in all the activities of daily life, so that all who came inside the

gates or entered the house might see that the word of God was the standard for each,

for all, and in everything.

Thus it was to be with Israel of old; and surely thus it ought to be with Christians

now. But is it so? Are our children thus taught? Is it our constant aim to present the

word of God, in all its heavenly attractiveness, to their young hearts? Do they see it

shining out in our daily life? Do they see its influence upon our habits, our temper,

our family intercourse, our business transactions? This is what we understand by

binding the word as a sign upon the hands, having it as a frontlet between the eyes,

writing it upon the door posts, and upon the gates.

Reader, is it thus with us? It is of little use attempting to teach our children the word

of God, if our lives are not governed by that word. We do not believe in making the

blessed word of God a mere school book for our children; to do so is to turn a

delightful privilege into a wearisome drudgery. Our children should see that we live

in the very atmosphere of scripture; that it forms the material of our conversation

when we sit in the bosom of the family, in our moments of relaxation.

Alas! how little is this the case! Have we not to be deeply humbled, in the presence of

God, when we reflect upon the general character and tone of our conversation at

table, and in the family circle? How little there is of Deuteronomy 6: 7! How much of

"foolish talking and jesting which are not convenient!" How much evil speaking of

our brethren, our neighbours, our fellow-labourers! How much idle gossip! How

much worthless small talk!

And from what does all this proceed? Simply from the state of the heart. The word of

God, the commandments and sayings of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, are not

dwelling in our hearts; and hence they are not welling up and flowing out in living

streams of grace and edification.

Will any one say that Christians do not need to consider these things? If so, let him

ponder the following wholesome words, "Let no corrupt communication proceed out

of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace

unto the hearers." And again, "Be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in

psalms, and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to

the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of

our Lord Jesus Christ." (Eph. 4: 29; 5: 18-20.)

These words were addressed to the saints at Ephesus; and, most assuredly, we should

apply our hearts diligently to them. We are little aware, perhaps, of how deeply and

constantly we fail in maintaining the habit of spiritual conversation. It is specially in

the bosom of the family, and in our ordinary intercourse, that this failure is most

manifest. Hence our need of those words of exhortation which we have just penned. It

is evident the Holy Spirit foresaw the need, and graciously anticipated it. Hear what

He says "to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ at Colosse."—"Let the peace of

Christ rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye

thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and

admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace

in your hearts to the Lord." (Col. 3.)

Lovely picture of ordinary Christian life! It is but a fuller and higher development of

what we have in our chapter, where the Israelite is seen in the midst of his family,

with the word of God flowing forth from his heart, in loving instruction to his

children—seen, in his daily life, in all his intercourse at home and abroad, under the

hallowed influence of Jehovah's words.

Beloved Christian reader, do we not long to see more of all this in our midst? Is it not,

at times, very sorrowful and very humbling to mark the style of conversation that

obtains in the midst of our family circles? Should we not sometimes blush if we could

see our conversation reproduced in print? What is the remedy? Here it is—a heart

filled with the peace of Christ, the word of Christ, Christ Himself. Nothing else will

do. We must begin with the heart, and where that is thoroughly pre-occupied with

heavenly things we shall make very short work with all attempts at evil speaking,

foolish talking and jesting.

"And it shall be, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which

he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and

goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, and houses full of all good things which thou

filledst not, and wells digged which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees

which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten, and be full; then beware lest

thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house

of bondage." (Vers. 10-12.)

Amid all the blessing, the mercies and the privileges of the land of Canaan, they were

to remember that gracious and faithful One who had redeemed them out of the land of

bondage. They were to remember, too, that all these things were His free gift. The

land, with all that it contained, was bestowed upon them in virtue of His promises to

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Cities built and houses furnished, flowing wells, fruitful

vineyards and olive yards, all ready to their hand, the free gift of sovereign grace and

covenant mercy. All they had to do was to take possession, in simple faith; and to

keep ever in the remembrance of the thoughts of their hearts the bounteous Giver of it

all. They were to think of Him, and find in His redeeming love the true motive spring

of a life of loving obedience. Wherever they turned their eyes they beheld the tokens

of His great goodness, the rich fruit of His marvellous love. Every city, every house,

every well, every vine, olive and fig tree spoke to their hearts of Jehovah's abounding

grace, and furnished a substantial proof of His infallible faithfulness to His promise.

"Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. Ye

shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you.

(For the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you,) lest the anger of the Lord thy God

be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth."

There are two great motives set before the congregation, in our chapter, namely,

"love" in verse 5; and "fear," in verse 13. These are found all through scripture; and

their importance, in guiding the life and forming the character, cannot possibly be too

highly estimated. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." We are exhorted

to be in the fear of the Lord all the day." It is a grand moral safeguard against all evil.

Unto man He said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from

evil is understanding."

The blessed Book abounds in passages setting forth, in every possible form, the

immense importance of the fear of God. "How," says Joseph, "can I do this great

wickedness, and sin against God?" The man who walks habitually in the fear of God

is preserved from every form of moral pravity. The abiding realisation of the divine

presence must prove an effectual shelter from every temptation? How often do we

find the presence of some very holy and spiritual person a wholesome check upon

levity and folly; and if such be the moral influence of a fellow mortal, how much

more powerful would be the realised presence of God!

Christian reader, let us give our serious attention to this weighty matter. Let us seek to

live in the consciousness that we are in the immediate presence of God. Thus shall we

be preserved from a thousand forms of evil to which we are exposed from day to day,

and to which, alas! we are pre-disposed. The remembrance that the eye of God rests

upon us, would exert a far more powerful influence upon our life and conversation

than the presence of all the saints upon earth, and all the angels in heaven. We could

not speak falsely; we could not utter with our lips what we do not feel in the heart; we

could not talk folly; we could not speak evil of our brother or our neighbour; we could

not speak unkindly of any one, if only we felt ourselves in the presence of God. In a

word, the holy fear of the Lord, of which scripture speaks so much, would act as a

most blessed restraint upon evil thoughts, evil words, evil ways, evil in every shape

and form.

Moreover, it would tend to make us very real and genuine, in all our sayings and

doings. There is a sad amount of sham and nonsense about us. We frequently say a

great deal more than we feel. We are not honest. We do not speak, every man, truth

with our neighbour. We give expression to sentiments which are not the genuine

utterance of the heart. We act the hypocrite, one with another.

All these things afford melancholy proof of how little we live, move and have our

being in the presence of God. If we could only bear in mind that God hears us and

sees us—hears our every word, and sees our every thought, our every way, how

differently we should carry ourselves! What holy watchfulness we should maintain

over our thoughts, our tempers, and our tongues! What purity of heart and mind!

What truth and uprightness in all our intercourse with our fellows! What reality and

simplicity in our deportment? What happy freedom from all affectation, assumption,

and pretension! What deliverance from every form of self-occupation! Oh, to live

ever in the deep sense of the divine presence! To walk in the fear of the Lord, all the

day long?

And then to prove the "vast constraining influence" of His love! To be led out in all

the holy activities which that love would ever suggest! To find our delight in doing

good! To taste the spiritual luxury of making hearts glad? To be continually

meditating plans of usefulness! To live close by the fountain of divine love, so that we

must be streams of refreshing in the midst of this thirsty scene—rays of light amid the

moral gloom around us! "The love of Christ," says the blessed apostle, "constraineth

us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that he died

for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him

which died for them, and rose again."

How morally lovely is all this! Would that it were more fully realised and faithfully

exhibited amongst us! May the fear and love of God be continually in our hearts, in

all their blessed power, and formative influence, that thus our daily life may shine to

His praise, and the real profit, comfort and blessing of all who come in contact with

us whether in private or in public! God, in His infinite mercy, grant it, for Christ's

sake!

The sixteenth verse of our chapter demands our special attention. Ye shall not tempt

the Lord your God, as ye tempted him in Massah." These words were quoted by our

blessed Lord when tempted by Satan to cast Himself from the pinnacle of the temple.

"Then the devil taketh him up into the, holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the

temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down; for it is

written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee; and in their hands they shall

bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone."

This is a very remarkable passage. It proves how Satan can quote scripture when it

suits his purpose. But he omits a most important clause—"To keep thee in all thy

ways." Now, it formed no part of the ways of Christ to cast Himself from the pinnacle

of the temple. It was not the path of duty. He had no command from God to do any

such thing; and hence He refused to do it. He had no need to tempt God—to put Him

to the test. He had, as a man, the most perfect confidence in God—the fullest

assurance of His protection.

Moreover, He was not going to abandon the path of duty, in order to prove God's care

of Him; and herein He teaches us a most valuable lesson. We can always count on

God's protecting hand, when we are treading the path of duty. But, if we are walking

in a self-chosen path; if we are seeking our own pleasure, or our own interest, our

own ends or objects, then, to talk of counting on God would be simply wicked

presumption.

No doubt, our God is very merciful, very gracious, and His tender mercy is over us,

even when we wander off the path of duty; but this is another thing altogether, and it

leaves wholly untouched the statement that we can only count on divine protection

when our feet are in the pathway of duty. If a Christian goes out boating for his

amusement; or if he goes clambering over the Alps merely for sightseeing, has he any

right to believe that God will take care of him? Let conscience give the answer. If

God calls us to cross a stormy lake, to preach the gospel; if He summons us to cross

the Alps on some special service for Him, then, assuredly, we can commit ourselves

to His mighty hand to protect as from all evil. The grand point for all of us is to be

found in the holy path of duty. It may be narrow, rough and lonely; but it is a path

overshadowed by the wings of the Almighty and illumined by the light of His

approving countenance.

Ere turning from the subject suggested by verse 16, we would briefly notice the very

interesting and instructive fact, that our Lord, in His reply to Satan, takes no notice

whatever of his misquotation of Psalm 91: 11. Let us carefully note this fact, and seek

to bear it in mind. In place of saying to the enemy, "You have left out a most

important clause of the passage which you undertake to quote," He simply quotes

another passage, as authority for His own conduct. Thus He vanquished the tempter;

and thus He left us a blessed example.

It is worthy of our special notice that the Lord Jesus Christ did not overcome Satan, in

virtue of His divine power. Had He done so, it could not be an example for us. But

when we see Him, as a man, using the word as His only weapon, and thus gaining a

glorious victory, our hearts are encouraged and comforted; and not only so, but we

learn a most precious lesson as to how we, in our sphere and measure, are to stand in

the conflict. The man, Christ Jesus, overcame by simple dependence upon God, and

obedience to His word.

Blessed fact! A fact full of comfort and consolation for us. Satan could do nothing

with one who would only act by divine authority, and by the power of the Spirit. Jesus

never did His own will, though, as we know, blessed be His holy Name, His will was

absolutely perfect. He came down from heaven, as He Himself tells us, in John 6, not

to do His own will, but the will of the Father that sent Him. He was a perfect servant,

from first to last. His rule of action was the word of God; His power of action, the

Holy Ghost; His only motive for action, the will of God; hence the prince of this

world had nothing in Him. Satan could not, by all his subtle wiles, draw Him out of

the path of obedience, or out of the place of dependence.

Christian reader, let us consider these things. Let us deeply ponder them. Let us

remember that our blessed Lord and Master left us an example that we should follow

His steps. Oh! may we follow them diligently during the little while that yet remains!

May we, by the gracious ministry of the Holy Ghost, enter more fully into the great

fact that we are called to walk even as Jesus walked. He is our great Exemplar, in all

things. Let us study Him more profoundly, so that we may reproduce Him more

faithfully!

We shall now close this lengthened section by quoting for the reader the last

paragraph of the chapter on which we have been dwelling; it is a passage of singular

fullness, depth and power, and strikingly characteristic of the entire book of

Deuteronomy.

"Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his

testimonies, and His statutes, which he hath commanded thee. And thou shalt do that

which is right and good in the sight of the Lord; that it may be well with thee, and that

thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers; to

cast out all thine enemies from before thee, as the Lord hath spoken. And when thy

son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes,

and the judgements, which the Lord our God hath commanded you? Then thou shalt

say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt; and the Lord brought us out

of Egypt with a mighty hand; and the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and sore,

upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes; and he

brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he

sware unto our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear

the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve as alive, as it is at this

day. And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments

before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us."

How prominently is the word of God kept before the soul, in every page and every

paragraph of this book! It is the one great subject on the heart and in all the discourses

of the revered law-giver. It is His one aim to exalt the word of God, in all its aspects,

whether in the form of testimonies, commandments, statutes or judgements; and to set

forth the moral importance, yea, the urgent necessity of whole-hearted, earnest,

diligent obedience, on the part of the people. "Ye shall diligently keep the

commandments of the Lord your God" And again, "Thou shalt do that which is right

and good in the sight of the Lord."

All this is morally lovely. We have here unfolded before our eyes those eternal

principles which no change of dispensation, no change of scene, place or

circumstances can ever touch, "That which is right and good" must ever be of

universal and abiding application. It reminds us of the words of the Apostle John to

his beloved friend Gaius, "Beloved, follow not that which is evil; but that which is

good." The assembly might be in a very low condition; there might be very much to

try the heart and depress the spirit of Gaius; Diotrephes might be carrying himself

most unbecomingly and unwanrantably toward the beloved and venerable apostle and

others; all this might be true, and much more, yea, the whole professing body might

go wrong. What then? What remained for Gaius to do? Simply to follow that which

was right and good; to open his heart and his hand and his house to every one who

brought the truth; to seek to help on the cause of Christ, in every right way.

This was the business of Gaius in his day; and this is the business of every true lover

of Christ, at all times, in all places, and under all circumstances. We may not have

many to join us; we may perhaps find ourselves, at times, almost alone; but we are

still to follow what is good, cost what it may. We are to depart from iniquity—purge

ourselves from dishonourable vessels—flee youthful lusts—turn away from powerless

professors. And what then? "Follow righteousness, faith, love, peace"—How? In

isolation? Nay. I may find myself alone in any given place for a time; but there can be

no such thing as isolation, so long as the body of Christ is on earth, and that will be

till He comes for us. Hence we never expect to see the day in which we cannot find a

few that call on the Lord out of a pure heart; whoever they are, and wherever they are,

it is our bounden duty to find them; and, having found them, to walk with them in

holy fellowship, until the end"

{P.S.—We must reserve the remaining chapters of Deuteronomy for another volume.

May the Lord be graciously pleased to grant His rich blessing upon our meditation

thus far! May He clothe these pages with the power of the Holy Ghost, and make

them to be a direct message from Himself to the hearts of His people throughout the

whole world! May He also grant spiritual power to unfold the truth contained in the

remaining sections of this most profound, comprehensive and suggestive book!

We earnestly beseech the Christian reader to join us in prayer as to all this,

remembering those most precious words, "If two of you shall agree on earth as

touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them by my Father which is

in heaven" C. H. M.}

Deuteronomy 7

When the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it,

and hath cast out many nations before thee,... seven nations greater and mightier than

thou. And when the Lord thy God shall delivered them before thee; thou shalt smite

them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show

mercy unto them"

In reading the record of God's dealings with the nations, in connection with His

people Israel, we are reminded of the opening words of Psalm 101 "I will sing of

mercy and of judgement." We see the display of mercy to His people, in pursuance of

His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and we see also the execution of

judgement upon the nations, in consequence of their evil ways. In the former, we see

divine sovereignty; in the latter, divine justice; in both, divine glory shines out. All the

ways of God, whether in mercy or in judgement, speak His praise, and shall call forth

the homage of His people for ever. "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God

Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of nations.* Who shall not fear thee,

O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou art holy; for all nations shall come and

worship before thee; for Thy judgements are made manifest." (Rev. 15: 3, 4.)

{*"Nations" is read by most editors. Christ is not called the "king of saints."}

This is the true spirit in which to contemplate the ways of God in government. Some

persons, allowing themselves to be influenced by a morbid feeling and false

sentimentality, rather than by an enlightened judgement, find difficulty in the

directions given to Israel in reference to the Canaanites, in the opening of our chapter.

It seems to them inconsistent with a benevolent Being to command His People to

smite their fellow-creatures, and to show them no mercy. They cannot understand

how a merciful God could commission His people to slay women and children with

the edge of the sword.

It is very plain that such persons could not adopt the language of Revelation 15: 3, 4.

They are not prepared to say, "Just and true are thy ways, thou King of nations." They

cannot justify God in all His ways; nay, they are actually sitting in judgement upon

Him. They presume to measure the actings of divine government by the standard of

their own shallow thoughts—to scan the infinite by the finite. In short, they measure

God by themselves.

This is a fatal mistake. We are not competent to form a judgement upon the ways of

God, and hence it is the very height of presumption for poor, ignorant, short-sighted

mortals to attempt to do so. We read in the seventh chapter of Luke, that "Wisdom is

justified of all her children." Let us remember this, and hush all our sinful reasonings.

"Let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified

in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged."

Is the reader, at all, troubled with difficulties on this subject? If so, we should much

like to quote a very fine passage which may help him. "O give thanks unto the Lord;

for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.... To him that smote Egypt in their

first-born; for his mercy endureth for ever; and brought out Israel from among them;

for his mercy endureth for ever; with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm; for

his mercy endureth for ever. To him which divided the Red Sea into parts; for his

mercy endureth for ever. And made Israel to pass through the midst of it; for his

mercy endureth for; but overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea; for his mercy

endureth for ever. To him which smote great kings; for his mercy endureth for ever;

and slew famous kings; for his mercy endureth for ever; Sihon, king of the Amorites;

for his mercy endureth ever; and Og, the king of Bashan; for his mercy for ever. And

gave their land for an heritage; for his mercy endureth for ever; even an unto Israel his

servant; for his mercy for ever." (Ps. 136.)

Here we see that the smiting of Egypt's first-born, and the deliverance of Israel; the

passage through the Red Sea and the utter destruction of Pharaoh's host; the slaughter

of the Canaanites and giving their lands to Israel—all alike illustrated the everlasting

mercy of Jehovah.* Thus it was; thus it is; and thus it shall be. All must redound to

the glory of God. Let us remember this, and fling to the winds all our silly reasonings

and ignorant arguments. It is our privilege to justify God in all His ways, to bow our

heads, in holy worship, in view of His unsearchable judgements, and rest in the calm

assurance that all God's ways are right. We do not understand them all; this would be

impossible. The finite cannot grasp the infinite. This is where so many go wrong.

They reason upon the actings of God's government, not considering that those actings

lie as far beyond the range of human reason as the Creator is beyond the creature.

What human mind can unravel the profound mysteries of divine providence? Can we

account for the fact of a city full of human beings, men, women, and children, in one

hour, plunged beneath a tide of burning lava? Utterly impossible; and yet this is but

one fact of thousands that stand recorded on the page of human history, all lying far

beyond the grasp of the most gigantic intellect. Go through the lanes, alleys, wynds,

closes and courtyards of our cities and towns; see the thousands of human beings that

throng these places, living in squalid misery, poverty, wretchedness and moral

degradation. Can we account for all this? Can we tell why God permits it? Are we

called upon to do so? Is it not perfectly plain to the reader that it is no part of our

business to discuss such questions? And if we, in our ignorance and stupid folly, set

about reasoning and speculating upon the inscrutable mysteries of the divine

government, what can we expect but utter bewilderment, if not positive infidelity?

{*Very many Christians find considerable difficulty in interpreting and applying the

language of a large number of the Psalms which call for judgement upon the wicked.

Such language would, of course, be quite unsuitable for Christians now, inasmuch as

we are taught to love our enemies, to do good to them that hate us, and to pray for

them that despitefully use us and persecute us.

But we must remember that what would be wholly out of place for the church of God,

a heavenly people, under grace, was, and will yet be perfectly consistent for Israel, an

earthly people, under government. No intelligent Christian could think for a moment

of calling down vengeance upon his enemies or upon the wicked. It would be grossly

inconsistent. We are called to be the living exponents of the grace of God to the

world—to walk in the footsteps of the meek and lowly Jesus—to suffer for

righteousness—not to resist evil. God is now dealing in long-suffering mercy with the

world. "He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the

just and on the unjust." This is to be our model. We are in this, to be "perfect, even as

our Father which is in heaven is perfect." For a Christian to deal with the world on the

principle of righteous judgement, would be to misrepresent his heavenly Father and

falsify his profession.

But, by-and-by, when the church shall have left the scene, God will deal with the

world in righteousness; He will judge the nations for their treatment of His people

Israel.

We do not attempt to quote passages, but merely call the reader's attention to the

principle, in order to enable him to understand the just application of the prophetic

Psalms.}

The foregoing line of thought will enable the reader to understand the opening lines

of our chapter. The Canaanites were to receive no mercy at the hands of Israel. Their

iniquities had reached the culminating point, and nothing remained but the stern

execution of divine judgement. "Thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them;

thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them; neither shalt thou

make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his

daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following

me, that they may serve other gods, so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against

you, and destroy thee suddenly. But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their

altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven

images with fire."

Such were the instructions given by Jehovah to His people. They were clear and

explicit. No mercy for the Canaanites, no covenant with them, no union, no

fellowship of any kind; unsparing judgement, intense separation.

We know, alas! how soon, and how completely Israel failed to carry out these

instructions. Hardly had they planted their foot upon the land of Canaan ere they

made a covenant with the Gibeonites. Even Joshua himself fell into the snare. The

tattered garments and mouldy bread of those wily people beguiled the princes of the

congregation, and caused them to act in direct opposition to the plain commandment

of God. Had they been governed by the authority of the word, they would have been

preserved from the grave error of making a league with people who ought to have

been utterly destroyed. But they judged by the sight of their eyes, and had to reap the

consequences.*

{*It is, at once, instructive and admonitory to see that the garments, the mouldy

bread, and the plausible words of the Gibeonites did what the walls of Jericho could

not do. Satan's wiles are more to be dreaded than his power. "Put on the whole armour

of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." The more deeply

we ponder the various parts of the whole armour of God, the more clearly we shall

see that they are ranged under these two heads, obedience and dependence. The soul

that is really governed by the authority of the word, and wholly dependent upon the

power of the it, is fully equipped for the conflict. It was thus the Man Christ Jesus

vanquished the enemy. The devil could do nothing with a man who was perfectly

obedient and perfectly dependent. May we study, in this, as in all beside, our great

Exemplar!.}

Implicit obedience is the grand moral safeguard against the wiles of the enemy. No

doubt the story of the Gibeonites was very plausible, and their whole Appearance

gave a show of truth to their statements; but none of these things should have had the

slightest moral weight with Joshua and the princes; nor would they, if they had but

remembered the word of the Lord. But they failed in this. They reasoned on what they

saw, instead of obeying what they had heard. Reason is no guide for the people of

God; we must be, absolutely and completely, guided and governed by the word of

God.

This is a privilege of the very highest order, and it lies within the reach of the simplest

and most Unlettered child of God. The Father's word, the Father's voice, the Father's

eye, can guide the youngest, feeblest child in His family. All we need is the lowly and

obedient heart. It does not demand great intellectual power or cleverness; if it did,

what would become of the vast majority of Christians? If it were only the educated,

the deep-thinking and the far-seeing that were capable of meeting the wiles of the

adversary, then verily most of us might give up in despair.

But, thanks be to God, it is not so; indeed, on the contrary, we find, in looking through

the history of the people of God, in all ages, that human wisdom, human learning,

human cleverness, if not kept in their right place, have proved a positive snare, and

rendered their possessors only the more efficient tools in the enemy's hand. By whom

have most, if not all of the heresies been introduced which have disturbed the church

of God, from age to age? Not by the simple, and the unlearned, but by the educated

and the intellectual. And, in the passage to which we have just referred, in the book of

Joshua, who was it that made a covenant with the Gibeonites? The common people

Nay, but the princes of the congregation. No doubt, all were involved in the mischief;

but it was the Princes that led the way. the heads and leaders of the assembly fell into

the snare of the devil through neglect of the plain word of God.

"Thou shalt make no covenant with them." Could ought be plainer than this a Could

tattered garments, old shoes and mouldy bread alter the meaning of the divine

command, or do away with the urgent necessity for strict obedience on the part of the

congregation? Assuredly not. Nothing can ever afford a warrant for lowering, the

breadth of a hair, the standard of obedience to the word of God If there are difficulties

in the way, if perplexing circumstances come before us, if things crop up for which

we are not prepared, and as to which we are unable to form a judgement, what are we

to do? Reason? Jump to conclusions? Act on our own, or on any human judgement?

Most certainly not. What then? Wait on God; wait patiently, humbly, believingly; and

He will assuredly counsel and guide. "The meek will he guide in judgement; and the

meek will he teach his way. Had Joshua and the princes acted thus, they never would

have made a league with the Gibeonites; and if the reader acts thus, he will be

delivered from every evil work and preserved unto the everlasting kingdom of our

Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

In verse 6 of our chapter Moses sets before the people the moral ground of the line of

action which they were to adopt in reference to the Canaanites—the rigid separation

and the unsparing judgement. "For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God; the

Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people

that are upon the face of the earth."

The principle here laid down is of the very weightiest character. Why were the people

to maintain the most marked separation from the Canaanites? Why were they to

refuse, with firm decision, to make any covenant, or form any matrimonial alliance

with them? Why were they to demolish their altars, break their images, and cut down

their groves? Simply because they were a holy people. And who had constituted them

a holy people? Jehovah. He had chosen them and set His love upon them; He had

redeemed them, and separated them to Himself; and hence it was His province and

prerogative to prescribe what they were to be, and how they were to act. "Be ye holy,

for I am holy.

It was not, by any means, on the principle of "Stand by thyself, I am holier than thou."

This is manifest, from what follows. "The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor

choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest

of all people; but because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath

which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty

hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king

of Egypt." (Vs. 7, 8.)

Seasonable words these for Israel! Most healthful and needful! They were to

remember that they owed all their dignity, all their privileges, all their blessings, not

to ought in themselves, their own goodness or their own greatness, but simply to the

fact of Jehovah's having identified Himself with them, in His infinite goodness and

sovereign grace, and in virtue of His covenant with their fathers—"a covenant ordered

in all things and sure." This, while it furnished a divine antidote against self-

complacency and self-confidence, formed the solid basis of their happiness and their

moral security. All rested upon the eternal stability of the grace of God, and therefore

human boasting was excluded. "My soul shall make her boast in the Lord; the humble

shall hear thereof and be glad."

It is the settled purpose of God that "no flesh shall glory in his presence." All human

pretension must be set aside. He will hide pride from man. Israel had to be taught to

remember their origin, and their true condition—"bondmen in Egypt"—"fewest of all

people"—no room for pride or boasting. They were, in no wise, better than the

nations around them; and therefore, if called to account for their high elevation and

moral greatness, they had simply to trace it all up to the free love of God, and His

faithfulness to His oath. "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give

glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake." (Ps. 115: 1.)

"Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is the faithful God, which keepeth

covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments, to a

thousand generations; and repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them:

He will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face." (Vers. 9,

10.)

We have two weighty facts set before us here; one, full of rich consolation and

comfort to every true lover of God; the other fraught with deep solemnity every hater

of God. All who really love God and His commandments may count on His infallible

faithfulness and tender mercy, at all times and under circumstances. "All things work

together for good them that love God, to them who are the called according to his

purpose." If, through infinite grace, we have the love of God in our hearts, and His

fear before our eyes, we may move on with good courage and joyful confidence,

assured that all shall be well-must be well. "Beloved, if our heart condemn us not,

then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him,

because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his

sight."

This is a grand eternal truth—a truth for Israel, a truth for the church. Dispensations

make no difference as to this. Whether we study Deuteronomy 7, or 1 John 3, we

learn the same great practical truth, that God delights in those who fear Him and love

Him, and keep His commandments.

Is there ought of the legal element in this? Not a tinge. Love and legality have nothing

in common; they are as far removed as the poles. "This is the love of God, that we

keep his commandments; and his commandments are not grievous." The spirit and

genius, the ground and character of our obedience all go to prove it the very reverse of

legality. It is our deep and settled Conviction that those persons, who are ever ready to

cry out, "Legal! Legal!" whenever obedience is pressed upon them, are sadly and

grossly mistaken. If indeed it were taught that we must earn by our obedience the high

position and relationship of children of God, then verily the solemn charge of legality

might justly be urged. But to bestow such an epithet on Christian obedience, is, we

repeat, a serious moral mistake. Obedience could never precede sonship; but sonship

should ever be followed by obedience.

And while we are on this subject, we must call the attention of the reader to a passage

or two of New Testament scripture as to which there is a want of clearness in many

minds. In Matthew 5, we read, "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love

thy neighbour; and hate thine enemy; but I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless

them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which

despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the sons (uiJoiv) of your Father

which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and

sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.... Be ye therefore perfect, even as your

Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Vers. 43-48.)

This passage might, in the judgement of some, seem to teach that the relationship of

children can be attained by a certain line of action; but it is not so. It is a question of

moral conformity or suitability to the character and ways of our Father. We

sometimes hear, in every-day life, the saying, "You would not be your father's son if

you were to act in such a way." It is as though our Lord had said, "If you want to be

the sons of your heavenly Father, you must act in grace to all; for that is what He is

doing."

Again, in 2 Corinthians 6. we read, "Wherefore come out from among them, and be

ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean; and I will receive you; and will

be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

Here, it is not a question of the secret relationship of children, formed by a divine

operation, but the public acknowledgment of the position of sons (uiJou;") as the result

of our separation from evil.*

{*Speaking in a general way, the word tevknon, Child is a term of Endearment; uiJo",

Son Of moral dignity. pai'", is either a child or a servant; nhvpio", a babe.}

It will be well for the reader to seize this important distinction. It is of great practical

value. We do not become children by separation from the world, "For ye are all the

children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.:" "As many as received him, to them gave he

power [or authority, ejxousivan] to become children (tevkna) of God, to them that

believe on his name; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of

the will of man, but of God." (Gal. 3: 26; John 1: 12, 13.) "Of his own will begat he us

by the word of truth." (James 1: 18.) We become children by new birth which, thanks

be to God, is a divine operation, from first to last. What had we to do with our natural

birth? And what have we to do with our spiritual birth? Clearly nothing.

But then we must remember that God can only identify Himself with, and publicly

acknowledge those who, through grace, seek to walk in a way worthy Of Him—a way

befitting the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. If our ways are unlike Him, if

we are mixed up with all sorts of wrong things, if we are unequally yoked together

with unbelievers, how- can we expect God to own us as His sons? We read, in

Hebrews 11 of those who "confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the

earth," and who "declared plainly that they sought a country;" and of them we are told

that "God was not ashamed to be called their God." He could publicly identify

Himself with them, and acknowledge them. He could own them as His.

Reader, let us seriously apply our hearts to the consideration of this great practical

question. Let us look, seriously and honestly, to our ways. Let us, in truthfulness and

uprightness of heart, inquire whether we are "unequally yoked together with

unbelievers," on any ground, or for any object whatever. If so, let us give earnest heed

to the words, " Come out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the

unclean thing." It may be that the carrying out of this holy commandment will expose

us to the charge of bigotry, narrowness and intolerance; it may mean the aspect of

pharisaic pride and self-complacency. We may be told, we are not to judge, or set

ourselves up to be holier or better than other people.

To all this line of argument, we have the one simple, conclusive answer, namely,

God's plain command. He tells us to be separate, to come out, to touch not the

unclean; and all this in order to His receiving us, and acknowledging us as His sons

and daughters. This ought to be quite sufficient for us. Let people think or say what

they will of us, let them call us what they please; God will settle the matter with them,

sooner or later; our duty is to separate ourselves from unbelievers, if we would be

received and owned of God. If believers are mixed up with unbelievers, how are they

to be known or distinguished as the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty?

But we may perhaps be asked, "How are we to know who are unbelievers? All profess

to be Christians; all take the ground of belonging to Christ; we are not surrounded by

ignorant heathen or unbelieving Jews; how then are we to judge? It was plain enough

in the early days of Christianity, when the apostle wrote his epistle to the assembly at

Corinth; then the line of demarcation was as clear as a sunbeam; there were the three

distinct classes, 'The Jew, the Gentile, and the church of God; but now all is changed;

we live in a Christian land, under a Christian government, we are surrounded, on all

hands, by Christians, and therefore 2 Cor 6 cannot apply to us; it was all very well

when the church was in its infancy, having just emerged from Judaism, on the one

hand, and heathenism, on the other; but to think of applying such a principle, at this

advanced stage of the church's history, is wholly out of the question.

To all who take this ground, we would put a very plain question: Is it true that the

church has reached a stage of her history in which the New Testament is no longer her

guide and authority? Have we got beyond the range of holy scripture? If so, what are

we to do? Whither are we to turn for guidance? If we admit, for a moment, that 2

Corinthians 6 does not apply to Christians now, what warrant have we for

appropriating to ourselves any portion of the New Testament?

The fact is, scripture is designed for the church of God, as a whole, and for each

member of that church, in particular; and hence, as long as the church is on earth, so

long will the scripture apply. To question this is to offer a flat contradiction to the

words of the inspired apostle when he tells us that the holy scriptures are able to make

us "wise unto salvation," that is "wise" right onward to the day of glory, for such is the

blessed force of the word "salvation," in 2 Timothy 3: 15.

We want no new light, no fresh revelation; we have "all truth," within the covers of

our precious Bible. Thank God for it! We do not want science or philosophy to make

us wise. All true science and all sound philosophy will leave untouched the testimony

of holy scripture; they cannot add to it; but they will not contradict it. When infidels

talk to us about "progress," "development," "the light of science," we fall back, in holy

confidence and tranquillity, upon those precious words, "all truth," "wise unto

salvation." It is blessedly impossible to get beyond these. What can be added to "all

truth"? What more do we or can we want than to be made wise right onward to the

coming of our Lord Jesus Christ?

And further, let as remember that there is no change whatever in the relative position

of the church and the world. It is as true today, as it was eighteen hundred and fifty

years ago, when our Lord uttered the words, that His people are not of the world, even

as He Himself is not of the world. (John 17.) The world is the world still. It may, in

some places, have changed its dress, but not its true character, spirit and principles.

Hence therefore it is as wrong, today for Christians to be "unequally yoked together

with unbelievers" as it was when Paul penned his epistle to the church at Corinth. We

cannot get over this. We cannot set aside our responsibility in this matter. It will not,

by any means, meet the case to say, "We must not judge." We are bound to judge. If

we refuse to judge, we refuse to obey, and what is this but positive rebellion? God

says, "Come out from among them and be separate; If we reply, we cannot judge,"

where are we? The fact is we are absolutely commanded to judge. Do ye not judge

them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth." (1 Cor. 5: 12, 13.)

But we shall not pursue this line of argument any further. We trust the reader is one

who fully owns the direct application to himself of the passage which we have just

quoted. It is as plain as it is pointed; it calls upon all God's people to come out and be

separate, and touch not the unclean thing. This is what God requires of His people, in

order to His owning them as His; and surely it ought to be the deep and earnest desire

of our hearts to respond to His gracious will in this matter, utterly regardless of the

world's thoughts respecting us. Some of us are as much afraid of being thought

narrow and bigoted; but oh! how little it imports to a truly devoted heart what men

think of us! Human thoughts perish in an hour. When we are manifested before the

judgement-seat of Christ, when we stand in the full blaze of the Glory, what will it

matter to us whether men considered us narrow or broad, bigoted or liberal? and what

should it matter to us now? Not the weight of a feather. Our one grand object should

be so to act, so to carry ourselves as to be "acceptable" to Him who has made us

"accepted." May it be so with the writer and the reader, and with every member of the

body of Christ!

Let us now turn, for a moment, to the weighty and very solemn truth presented to us

in verse 10 of our chapter. "He will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay

him to his face." If the lovers of God are comforted, in verse 9 and most blessedly

encouraged to keep His commandments; the haters of God are called to hearken to a

warning note in verse 10.

There is a time coming when God will deal personally—face to face, with His

enemies. How awful the thought that any one should be a hater of God—a hater of

that One who is said to be and who is "Light" and "Love;" the very fountain of

goodness, the Author and Giver of every good and perfect gift, the Father of lights;

the One whose liberal hand supplies the need of every living thing, who hears the cry

of the young raven, and quenches the thirst of the wild ass; the infinitely good, the

only wise, the perfectly holy God, the Lord of all power and might the creator of the

ends of the earth, and the One who has power to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Only think, reader, of any one being a hater of such a One as God; and we know that

all who are not lovers must be haters. People may not see this; very few would be

disposed to own themselves to be absolute haters of God; but there is no neutral

ground in this great question; we must either be for or against; and, in point of fact,

people are not slow in showing their colours. It often happens that the heart's deep

seated enmity to God comes out in hatred to His people, to His word, His worship,

His service. How frequently do we hear such expressions as, "I hate religious

people"—"I hate all cant"—"I hate preachers." The truth is, it is God Himself that is

hated. "The carnal mind is enmity against God; it is not subject to the law of God,

neither indeed can be; and this enmity comes out in reference to every one and

everything connected with God, There lies deep down in every unconverted heart the

most positive enmity to God. Every man, in his natural state, hates God.

Now, God declares, in Deuteronomy 7: 10, that "He will not be slack to him that

hateth him; he will repay him to his face." This is a most solemn truth, and one which

ought to be more pressed upon the attention of all whom it may concern. Men do not

like to hear it; many affect and profess not to believe it. They would fain persuade

themselves and persuade others also that God is too good, too kind, too merciful, too

benevolent to deal in stern judgement with His creatures. They forget that God's ways

in government are as perfect as His ways in grace. They imagine that the government

of God will pass over or deal lightly with evil and evil doers.

This is a most miserable and fatal mistake, and men will find it to be so to their heavy

and eternal cost. True it is, blessed be God, He can, in His rich sovereign grace and

mercy, forgive us our sins, blot out our transgressions, cancel our guilt, justify us

perfectly, and fill our hearts with the spirit of adoption. But this is another thing

altogether. This is grace reigning, through righteousness, unto eternal life by Jesus

Christ our Lord. It is God, in His wondrous love, providing righteousness for the poor,

guilty, hell-deserving sinner who knows and feels and owns that he has no

righteousness of his own, and never could have it. God, in the marvellous love of His

heart, has provided a means whereby He can be just and the justifier of every poor

broken-hearted bankrupt sinner that simply believes in Jesus.

But how, we may ask, was all this done? was it by passing over sin, as though it were

nothing? Was it by relaxing the claims of the divine government, lowering the

standard of divine holiness, or touching in the most remote way, the dignity,

stringency and majesty of the Law? No; thanks and praise to redeeming love, it was

the very reverse. Never was there or could there be a more terrible expression of

God's eternal hatred of sin, or of His unflinching purpose to condemn it utterly and

punish it eternally; never was there or could there be a more glorious vindication of

the divine government, a more perfect maintenance of the standard of divine holiness,

truth and righteousness; never was the law more gloriously vindicated or more

thoroughly established, than by that most glorious scheme of redemption planned,

executed and revealed by the Eternal Three in One planned by the Father, executed by

the Son, and revealed by the Holy Ghost.

If we would have a just sense of the awful reality of the government of God, His

wrath against sin and the true character of His holiness, we must gaze at the cross; we

must hearken to that bitter cry that issued from the heart of the Son of God and broke

through the dark shadows of Calvary, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken

me?" Never had such a question been asked before; never has such a question been

asked since; and never shall—never can such a question be asked again. Whether we

consider the One who asked it, the One of whom it was asked, or the answer, we must

see that the question stands absolutely alone in the annals of eternity. The cross is the

measure of God's hatred of sin, as it is the measure of His love to the sinner. It is the

imperishable foundation of the throne of grace, the divinely righteous ground on

which God can pardon our sins, and constitute us perfectly righteous in a risen and

glorified Christ.

But then if men despise all this, and persist in their hatred of God, and yet talk of His

being too good and too kind to punish evil doers, how will it be with them? "He that

obeyeth not (ajpeiqw'n) the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth upon

him." (John 3: 36).* Can it be possible—can we believe, for a moment, that a just

God should execute judgement upon His only-begotten Son, His well-beloved, His

eternal delight, because He was bearing our sins in His own body on the tree, and yet

allow impenitent sinners to escape? Had Jesus, the spotless, holy, perfect Man—the

only perfect man that ever trod this earth—had He to suffer for sins, the just for the

unjust, and shall evil doers, unbelievers and haters of God be saved and blessed and

taken to heaven? And all this forsooth because God is too kind and too good to punish

sinners in hell for ever! Did it cost God the giving up, the forsaking and the bruising

of His beloved Son in order to save His people from their sins, and shall ungodly

sinners, despisers and rebels, be saved in their sins? Did the Lord Jesus Christ die for

nothing? Did Jehovah put Him to grief and hide His face from Him when there was

no necessity? Why the awful horrors of Calvary? why the three hours' darkness? why

that bitter cry, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Why all this, if

sinners can get to heaven without it? Why all this inconceivable sorrow and suffering

for our blessed Lord, if God is too kind, and too gracious, and too tender to send

sinners to hell?

{*John 3: 36 is a passage of immense weight and importance. It not only sets forth the

great truth that all who believe in the Son of God are the privileged possessors of

eternal life, but it also cuts up by the roots two leading heresies of the day, namely,

universalism and annihilationism. The universalist professes to believe that,

ultimately, all shall be restored and blessed. Not so, says our passage; for those who

obey not the Son, "shall not see life."

The annihilationist professes to believe that all who are out of Christ shall perish like

the beasts. Not so, for "the wrath of God abideth" upon the disobedient. Abiding

wrath and annihilation are wholly incompatible. It is utterly impossible to reconcile

them.

It is interesting and instructive to notice the difference between the Greek words oJ

pisteuvwn—"he that believeth"—and—oJ ajpeiqw'n—"he that obeyeth not." They give

us the two sides of the subject of faith.}

What egregious folly! What will not men believe, provided it be not the truth of God?

The poor dark human mind will affect to believe the most monstrous absurdity in

order to get a plea for rejecting the plain teaching of holy scripture. The very thing

which men would never think of attributing to a good human government they do not

hesitate to attribute to the government of the only wise, the only true, the only just

God. What should we think of a government that could not or would not punish evil

doers? Would we like to live under it? What should we think of the government of

England if, because her Majesty is so kind, so gracious, so tender hearted, she could

not allow criminals to be punished as the law directs? Who would care to live in

England?

Reader, do you not see how that one verse, which is now before us, demolishes

completely all the theories and arguments which men in their folly and ignorance

have advanced on the subject of the divine government? "The Lord thy God, he is

God, the faithful God which ....repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy

them; he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face."

Oh! that men would hearken to the word of God! That they would be warned by its

dear, emphatic and solemn statements as to coming wrath, judgement and eternal

punishment! That, instead of seeking to persuade themselves and others that there is

no hell, no deathless worm and unquenchable fire, no eternal torment, they would

listen to the warning voice and, ere it be too late, flee for refuge to the hope set before

them in the gospel. Truly this would be their wisdom. God declares that He will repay

those that hate Him. How awful the thought of this repayment! Who can meet it? The

government of God is perfect; and because it is so, it is utterly impossible that it can

allow evil to pass unjudged. Nothing can be plainer than this. All scripture, from

Genesis to Revelation, sets it forth in terms so clear and forcible as to render it the

very height of folly for men to argue against it. How much better and wiser and safer

to flee from the wrath to come than to deny that it is coming, and that when it does

come it will be eternal in its duration. It is utterly vain for any one to attempt to

reason in opposition to the truth of God. Every word of God shall stand for ever. We

see the actings of His government in reference to His people Israel, and in reference

to Christians now. Did He pass over evil in His people of old? Nay; on the contrary,

He visited them continually with His chastening rod, and this, too, just because they

were His people, as He said to them by His prophet Amos, "Hear this word that the

Lord hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I

brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, You only have I known of all the families

of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. (Amos 3: 1, 2.)

We have the same weighty principle set forth in the first Epistle of Peter, in its

application to Christians now. "For the time is come that judgement must begin, at the

house of God; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not

the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly

and the sinner appear?" (Chap. 4: 17, 18.)

God chastens His own, just because they are His own, and that they may not be

condemned with the world. (1 Cor. 11) The children of this world are allowed to go

on their way: but their day is coming—a dark and heavy day—a day of judgement and

unmitigated wrath. Men may question and argue and reason, but scripture is distinct

and emphatic. "God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in

righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained." The great day of reckoning is at

hand when God will repay every man to his face.

It is truly edifying to mark the way in which Moses, that beloved and honoured

servant of God, led assuredly by the Spirit of God, pressed the grand and solemn

realities of the divine government upon the conscience of the congregation. Hear how

he pleads and exhorts. "Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the

statutes, and the judgements, which I command thee this day, to do them. Wherefore

it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgements, and keep, and do them, that

the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware

unto thy fathers. And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee; he will also

bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine

oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware

unto thy fathers to give thee. Thou shalt be blessed above all people; there shall not be

male or female barren among you, or among your cattle. And the Lord will take away

from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou

knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee. And thou shalt

consume all the people which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have

no pity upon them; neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that will be a snare unto

thee." (Vers. 11-16.)

What a powerful appeal! How affecting! Mark the two groups of words. Israel was to

"hearken," "keep" and "do." Jehovah was to "love," "bless," and "multiply." Alas! alas!

Israel failed, sadly, shamefully failed, under law and under government; and hence,

instead of the love and the blessing and the multiplying, there has been judgement,

curse, barrenness, dispersion, desolation.

But, blessed be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord

Jesus Christ, if Israel has failed under law and government, He has not failed in His

rich and precious sovereign grace and mercy. He will keep the covenant and the

mercy He sware unto their fathers. Not one jot or tittle of His covenant promise shall

ever fail. He make all good by-and-by. He will fulfil to the very letter all His gracious

promises. Though He cannot do this on the ground of Israel's obedience, He can and

will do it through the blood of the ever-lasting covenant, the precious blood of Jesus,

His eternal Son—all homage to His peerless Name!

Yes reader, the God of Israel cannot suffer one of His precious Promises to fall to the

ground. What would become of us if He could? What security, what rest, what peace

could we have, if Jehovah's covenant with Abraham were to fail in any single point?

True it is that Israel has forfeited all claim. If it be a question of fleshly descent,

Ishmael and Esau have a prior claim. If it be a question of legal obedience, the golden

calf and the broken tables tell their melancholy tale. If it be a question of government

on the ground of the Moab covenant, they have not a single plea to urge.

But God will be God, spite of Israel's lamentable unfaithfulness. "The gifts and calling

of God are without repentance" and hence "All Israel shall be saved." God will most

assuredly make good His oath to Abraham, spite of all the wreck and ruin of

Abraham's seed. We must steadfastly hold to this, in the face of every opposing

thought, feeling or opinion. Israel shall be restored, and blessed, and multiplied in

their own beloved and holy land. They shall take down their harps from the willows

and, beneath the peaceful shade of their own vines and fig-trees, chant the high

praises of their loving Saviour and God throughout that bright millennial Sabbath

which lies before them. Such is the unvarying testimony of scripture, from beginning

to end, which must be maintained in its integrity, and made good in every particular,

to the glory of God, and on the ground of His everlasting covenant.

But we must return to our chapter, the closing verses of which demand our special

attention. It is very touching and beautiful to mark the way in which Moses seeks to

encourage the heart of the people in reference to the dreaded nations of Canaan. He

enters into, and anticipates their very inmost thoughts and feelings.

"If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess

them". Thou shalt not be afraid of them; but shalt well remember what the Lord thy

God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt; the great temptations which thine eyes

saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm,

whereby the Lord thy God brought thee out: so shall the Lord thy God do unto all the

people of whom thou art afraid. Moreover, the Lord thy God will send the hornet

among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed.

Thou shalt not be affrighted at them; for the Lord thy God is among you, a mighty

God and terrible. And the Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee by little

and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase

upon thee. But the Lord thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them

with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed. And he shall deliver their kings

into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven: there shall no

man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them. The graven images

of their gods shall ye burn with fire, thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on

them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein; for it is an abomination to the

Lord thy God. Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a

cursed thing like it; but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for

it is a cursed thing." (Vers. 17-26.)

The grand remedy for all unbelieving fears is simply to fix the eye upon the living

God: thus the heart is raised above the difficulties whatever they may be. It is of no

possible use to deny that there are difficulties and opposing influences of all sorts.

This will not minister comfort and encouragement to the sinking heart. Some people

affect a certain style of speaking of trials and difficulties which just goes to prove, not

their practical knowledge of God, but their profound ignorance of the stern realities of

life. They would fain persuade as that we ought not to feel the trials, sorrows and

difficulties of the way. They might as well tell us that we ought not to have a head on

our shoulders or a heart in our bosom. Such persons know not how to comfort those

that are cast down. They are mere visionary theorists, wholly unfit to deal with souls

passing through conflict or grappling with the actual facts of our daily history.

How did Moses seek to encourage the hearts of his brethren?" "Be not affrighted," he

says; but why? Was it that there were no enemies, no difficulties, no dangers? No, but

"the Lord thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible. Here is the true comfort

and encouragement; the enemies were there but God is the sure resource. Thus it was

that Jehoshaphat, in his time of trial and pressure, sought to encourage himself and his

brethren. "O our God, wilt thou not judge them? For we have no might against this

great company that cometh against us, neither know we what to do; but our eyes are

upon Thee."

Here lies the precious secret. The eyes are upon God. His power is brought in, and

this settles everything;. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" Moses meets, by

his precious ministry, the rising fears in the heart of Israel, "These nations are more

than I." Yes, but they are not more than the "mighty and terrible God." What nations

could stand before Him? He had a solemn controversy with those nations because of

their terrible sins; their iniquity was full; the reckoning time had come, and the God

of Israel was going to drive them out before His people.

Hence, therefore, Israel had no need to fear the power of the enemy. Jehovah would

see to that. But there was something far more to be dreaded than the enemy's power,

and that was the ensnaring influence of their idolatry. "The graven images of their

gods shall ye burn with fire." "What!" the heart might say, "are we to destroy the gold

and silver that adorn these images? Might not that be turned to some good account? Is

it not a pity to destroy what is so very valuable in itself? It is all right to burn the

images, but why not spare the gold and silver?"

Ah! it is just thus the poor heart is prone to reason. Thus, oft-times we deceive

ourselves when called to judge and abandon what is evil. We persuade ourselves of

the rightness of making some reserve; we imagine we can pick and choose and make

some distinction. We are prepared to give up some of the evil, but not all. We are

ready to burn the wood of the idol, but spare the gold and silver.

Fatal delusion! "Thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it

unto thee, lest thou be snared therein; for it is an abomination to the Lord thy God"

All must be given up, all destroyed. To retain an atom of the accursed thing is to fall

into the snare of the devil, and link ourselves with that which, however highly

esteemed among men, is an abomination in the sight of God.

And let us mark and ponder the closing verses of our chapter. To bring an

abomination into the house is to become like it! How very solemn! Do we fully

understand it? The man who brought an abomination into his house became a cursed

thing like it!

Reader, may the Lord keep our hearts separated from all evil, and true and loyal to

Himself!

DEUTERONOMY, Section 4 of 6. (Deut. 8 - 13).

C H Mackintosh

Deuteronomy 8

"All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that

ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord aware unto

your fathers. And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee

these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what

was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no." (Vers. 1,

2.)

It is, at once, refreshing, edifying and encouraging to look back over the whole course

along which the faithful hand of our God has conducted us; to trace His wise and

gracious dealings with us; to call to mind His many marvellous interpositions on our

behalf, how He delivered us out of this strait and that difficulty; how, oft-times, when

we were at our wits' end, He appeared for our help, and opened the way before us,

rebuking our fears and filling our hearts with songs of praise and thanksgiving.

We must not, by any means, confound this delightful exercise with the miserable

habit of looking back at our ways, Our attainments, our progress, our service, what we

have been able to do, even though we are ready to admit, in a general way, that it was

only by the grace of God that we were enabled to do any little work for Him. All this

only ministers to self complacency, which is destructive of all true spirituality of

mind. Self-retrospection, if we may be allowed to use such a term, is quite as

injurious in its moral effect as self-introspection, In short self occupation, in any of its

multiplied phases, is most pernicious; it is, in so far as it is allowed to operate, the

death-blow to fellowship. Anything that tends to bring self before the mind must be

judged and refused, with stern decision; it brings in barrenness, darkness and

feebleness. For a person to sit down to look back at his attainments or his doings, is

about as wretched an occupation as any one could engage in. We may be sure it was

not to any such thing as this that Moses exhorted the people when he charged them to

"Remember all the way by which the Lord their God had led them"

We may here recur, for a moment, to the memorable words of the apostle in

Philippians 3. "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I

do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things

which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in

Christ Jesus."

Now, the question is, what were the "things" of which the blessed apostle speaks? Did

he forget the precious dealings of God with his soul, throughout the whole of his

wilderness journey? Impossible; indeed we have the very fullest and clearest evidence

to the contrary. Hear his touching words before Agrippa: "Having therefore obtained

help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great." So also, in

writing to his beloved son and fellow-labourer, Timothy, he reviews the past, and

speaks of the persecutions and afflictions which he had endured: "But," he adds, "Out

of them all the Lord delivered me." And again, “At my first answer no man stood with

me, but all forsook me; I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.

Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the

preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was

delivered out of the mouth of the lion."

To what then does the apostle refer when he speaks of "forgetting the things which

are behind"? We believe he refers to all those things which had no connection with

Christ things in which the heart might rest, and nature might glory—things which

might act as weights and hindrances; all these were to be forgotten in the ardent

pursuit of those grand and glorious realities which lay before him. We do not believe

that Paul, or any other child of God or servant of Christ, could ever desire to forget a

single scene or circumstance, in his whole earthly career, in any way illustrative of the

goodness, the loving kindness, the tender mercy, the faithfulness of God. On the

contrary, we believe it will ever be one of our very sweetest exercises to dwell upon

the blessed memory of all our Father's ways with us while passing across the desert,

home to our everlasting rest. " There with what joy reviewing

Past conflicts, dangers, fears,

Thy hand our foes subduing,

And drying all our tears;

Our hearts with rapture burning,

The path we shall retrace.

Where now our souls are learning

The riches of thy grace."

But let us not be misunderstood. We do not, by any means, wish to give countenance

to the habit of dwelling merely upon our own experience. This is often very poor

work, and resolves itself into self occupation. We have to guard against this as one of

the many things which tend to lower our spiritual tone and draw our hearts away from

Christ. But we need never be afraid of the result of dwelling upon the record of the

Lord's dealings and ways with us. This is a blessed habit, tending ever to lift us out of

ourselves, and fill us with praise and thanksgiving.

Why, we may ask, were Israel charged to "remember all the way" by which the Lord

their God had led them? Assuredly, to draw out their hearts in praise for the past, and

to strengthen their confidence in God for the future. Thus it must ever be. "We'll

praise Kim for all that is past, and trust Him for all that's to come." May we do so

more and more! May we just move on, day by day, praising and trusting, trusting and

praising. These are the two things which redound to the glory of God, and to our

peace and joy in Him. When the eye rests on the "Eben-ezers" which lie all along the

way, the heart must give forth its sweet "Hallelujahs" to Him who has helped us

hitherto, and will help us right on to the end. He hath delivered, and He doth, deliver,

and He will deliver. Blessed chain! Its every link is divine deliverance.

Nor is it merely upon the signal mercies and gracious deliverances of our Father's

hand that we are to dwell, with devout thankfulness, but also upon the "humblings"

and the "provings" of His wise, faithful and holy love. All these things are full of

richest blessing to our souls. They are not, as people sometimes call them, "mercies in

disguise," but plain, palpable, unmistakable mercies for which we shall have to praise

our God throughout the golden ages of that bright eternity which lies before us.

"Thou shalt remember all the way"—every stage of the journey, every scene of

wilderness life, all the dealings of God, from first to last, with the special object

thereof, "to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart."

How wonderful to think of God's patient grace and painstaking love with His people

in the wilderness! What precious instruction for us! With what intense interest and

spiritual delight we can hang over the record of the divine dealings with Israel in all

their desert wanderings! How much we can learn from the marvellous history! We,

too, have to be humbled and proved, and made to know what is in our hearts. It is

very profitable and morally wholesome. On our first setting out to follow the Lord, we

know but little of the depths of evil and folly in our hearts. Indeed, we are superficial

in everything. It is as we get on in our practical career that we begin to prove the

reality of things; we find out the depths of evil in ourselves, the utter hollowness and

worthlessness of all that is in the world, and the urgent need of the most complete

dependence upon the grace of God, every moment. All this is very good; it makes us

humble and self-distrusting; it delivers us from pride and self-sufficiency, and leads

us to cling, in child-like simplicity, to the One who alone is able to keep us from

falling. Thus as we grow in self-knowledge we get a deeper sense of grace, a more

profound acquaintance with the wondrous love of the heart of God, His tenderness

toward us, His marvellous patience in bearing with all our infirmities and failings, His

rich mercy in having taken us up at all, His loving ministry to all our varied need, His

numberless interpositions on our behalf, the exercises through which He has seen fit

to lead us for our souls' deep and permanent profit.

The practical effect of all this is invaluable; it imparts depth, solidity and mellowness

to the character; it cures us of all our crude notions, and vain theories; it delivers us

from one-sidedness and wild extremes; it makes us tender, thoughtful, patient and

considerate toward others; it corrects our harsh judgements and gives a gracious

desire to put the best possible construction upon the actions of others, and a readiness

to attribute the best motives in cases which may seem to us equivocal. These are

precious fruits of wilderness experience which we may all earnestly covet.

"And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which

thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know, that he might make thee know that

man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth

of the Lord doth man live." (Ver. 3.)

This passage derives special interest and importance from the fact that it is the first of

our Lord's quotations from the book of Deuteronomy, in His conflict with the

adversary in the wilderness. Let us ponder this deeply. It demands our earnest

attention. Why did our Lord quote from Deuteronomy? Because that was the book

which, above all others, specially applied to the condition of Israel, at the moment.

Israel had utterly failed, and this weighty fact is assumed in the book of Deuteronomy,

from beginning to end. But not withstanding the failure of the nation, the path of

obedience lay open to every faithful Israelite. It was the privilege and duty of every

one who loved God, to abide by His word, under all circumstances; and in all places.

Now, our blessed Lord was divinely true to the position of the Israel of God; Israel

after the flesh had failed and forfeited everything; He was there, in the wilderness, as

the true Israel of God, to meet the enemy by the simple authority of the word of God.

"And Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan, and was led by the

Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he

did eat nothing; and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. And the devil said

unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. And

Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but

by every word of God." (Luke 4.)

Here then is something for us to ponder. The perfect Man, the true Israel, in the

wilderness, surrounded by the wild beasts, fasting for forty days, in the presence of

the great adversary of God, of man, of Israel. There was not a single feature in the

scene to speak for God. It was not with the second Adam as it was with the first; He

was not surrounded with all the delights of Eden, but with all the dreariness and

desolation of a desert, there in loneliness and hunger—but there for God!

Yes; blessed be His Name, and there for man; there to show man how to meet the

enemy in all his varied temptations; there to show man how to live. We must not

suppose, for a moment, that our adorable Lord met the adversary as God over all; true,

He was God, but if it were only as such that He stood in the conflict, it could not

afford any example for us. Besides, it would be needless to tell us that God was able

to vanquish and put to flight a creature which His own hand had formed. But to see

One who was, in every respect, a man, and in all the circumstances of humanity, sin

excepted; to see Him there in weakness, in hunger, standing amid the consequences of

man's fall, and to find Him triumphing completely over the terrible foe; it is this

which is so full of comfort, consolation, strength and encouragement for us.

And how did He triumph? This is the grand and all-important question for us, a

question demanding the most profound attention of every member of the church of

God, a question the magnitude and importance of which it would be utterly

impossible to overstate. How then did the Man Christ Jesus vanquish Satan in the

wilderness? Simply by the word of God. He overcame not as the Almighty God, but as

the humble, dependent, self-emptied, and obedient Man. We have before us the

magnificent spectacle of a man, standing in the presence of the devil, and utterly

confounding him with no other weapon whatsoever save the word of God. It was not

by the display of divine power, for that could be no model for us; it was simply with

the word of God in His heart and in His mouth, that the second Man confounded the

terrible enemy of God and man.

And let us carefully note that our blessed Lord does not reason with Satan He does not

appeal to any facts connected with Himself—facts with which the enemy was well

acquainted. He does not say, “I know I am the Son of God; the opened heavens, the

descending Spirit, the Father's voice have all borne witness to the fact of my being the

Son of God." No; this would not do; it would not and could not be an example for us.

The one special point for us to seize and learn from is that our Great Exemplar, when

meeting all the temptations of the enemy, used only the weapon which we have in our

possession, namely, the simple, precious, written, word of God.

We say, "all the temptations," because in all the three instances our Lord's unvarying

reply is, "It is written." He does not say, "I know"—"I think"—I feel"—"I believe"

this, that or the other; He simply appeals to the written word of God—the book of

Deuteronomy in particular, that very book which infidels have dared to insult, but

which is pre-eminently the book for every obedient man, in the face of total,

universal, hopeless wreck and ruin.

This is of unspeakable moment for us, beloved reader. It is as though our Lord Christ

had said to the adversary, "Whether I am the Son of God or not, is not now the

question, but how man is to live, and the answer to this question is only to be found in

holy scripture; and it is to be found there as clear as a sunbeam, quite irrespective of

all questions respecting me. Whoever I am, the scripture is the same, “Man doth not

live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord."

Here we have the only true, the only safe, the only happy attitude for man, namely,

hanging in earnest dependence upon "every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of

the Lord." Blessed attitude! we may well say; there is nothing like it in all this world.

It brings the soul into direct, living, personal contact with the Lord Himself, by means

of His word. It makes the word so absolutely essential to us, in everything; we cannot

do without it. As the natural life is sustained by bread, so the spiritual life is sustained

by the word of God. It is not merely going to the Bible to find doctrines there, or to

have our opinions or views confirmed; it is very much more than this; it is going to

the Bible for the staple commodity of life—the life of the new man; it is going there

for food, for light, for guidance, for comfort, for authority, for strength, for all, in

short, that the soul can possibly need, from first to last.

And let us specially note the force and value of the expression, every word." How

fully it shows that we cannot afford to dispense with a single word that has proceeded

out of the mouth of the Lord. We want it all We cannot tell the moment in which

some exigency may present itself for which scripture has already provided. We may

not; perhaps, have specially noticed the scripture before, but when the difficulty

arises, if we are in a right condition of soul, the true posture of heart, the Spirit of God

will furnish us with the needed scripture; and we shall see a force, beauty, depth and

moral adaptation in the passage which we had never seen before. Scripture is a divine,

and therefore exhaustless treasury in which God has made ample provision for all the

need of His people, and for each believer in particular, right on to the end. Hence we

should study it all, ponder it, dig deeply into it, and have it treasured up in our hearts,

ready for use when the demand arises.

There is not a single crisis occurring in the entire history of the church of God, not a

single difficulty in the entire path of any individual believer, from beginning to end,

which has not been perfectly provided for in the Bible. We have all we want in that

blessed volume; and hence we should be ever seeking to make ourselves more and

more acquainted with what that volume contains so as to be "thoroughly furnished"

for whatever may arise, whether it be a temptation of the devil, an allurement of the

world, or a lust of the flesh; or, on the other hand, for equipment for that path of good

works which God has afore prepared that we should walk in it.

And we should further give special attention to the expression, "Out of the mouth of

the Lord." This is unspeakably precious. It brings the Lord so very near to us, and

gives us such a sense of the reality of feeding upon His every word, yea, of hanging

upon it as something absolutely essential and indispensable. It sets forth the blessed

fact that our souls can no more exist without the word than our bodies could without

food. In a word, we are taught by this passage that man's true position, his proper

attitude, his only place of strength, safety, rest and blessing is to be found in habitual

dependence upon the word of God.

This is the life of faith which we are called to live, life of dependence—the life of

obedience—the life that Jesus lived perfectly. That blessed One would not move a

step, utter a word, or do a single thing save by the authority of the word of God. No

doubt He could have turned the stone into bread, but He had no command from God

to do that; and inasmuch as He had no command, He had no motive for action. Hence

Satan's temptations were perfectly Powerless. He could do nothing with a Man who

would only act on the authority of the word of God.

And we may also note, with very much interest and profit, that our blessed Lord does

not quote scripture for the purpose of silencing the adversary; but simply as authority

for His position and conduct. Here is where we are so apt to fail; we do not

sufficiently use the precious word of God in this way; we quote it, at times, more for

victory over the enemy than for power and authority for our own souls. Thus it loses

its power in our hearts. We want to use the word as a hungry man uses bread, or as a

mariner uses his chart and his compass; it is that on which we live and by which we

move and act, and think and speak. Such it really is, and the more fully we prove it to

be all this to us, the more we shall know of its infinite preciousness. Who is it that

knows most of the real value of bread? Is it a chemist? No; but a hungry man. A

chemist may analyse it and discuss its component parts, but a hungry man proves its

worth. Who knows most of the real value of a chart; is it the teacher of navigation?

No; but the mariner as he sails along an unknown and dangerous coast.

These are but feeble figures to illustrate what the word of God is to the true Christian.

He cannot do without it. It is absolutely indispensable, in every relationship of life,

and in every sphere of action. His hidden life is fed and sustained by it; his practical

life is guided by it; in all the scenes and circumstances of his personal and domestic

history, in the privacy of his closet, in the bosom of his family, in the management of

his affairs, he is cast upon the word of God for guidance and counsel.

And it never fails those who simply cleave to it, and confide in it. We may trust

scripture without a single shade of misgiving. Go to it when we will, we shall always

find what we want. Are we in sorrow? Is the poor heart bereaved, crushed and

desolate? What can soothe and comfort us like the balmy words which the Holy Spirit

has penned for us? One sentence of holy scripture can do more, in the way of comfort

and consolation, than all the letters of condolence that ever were penned by human

hand. Are we discouraged, faint-hearted and cast down? The word of God meets us

with its bright and soul-stirring assurances. Are we pressed by pinching poverty? The

Holy Ghost brings home to our hearts some golden promise from the page of

inspiration, recalling us to Him who is "The Possessor of heaven and earth," and who,

in His infinite grace, has pledged Himself to "supply all our need according to his

riches in glory, by Christ Jesus." Are we perplexed and harassed by the conflicting

opinions of men, by the dogmas of conflicting schools of divinity, by religious and

theological difficulties? A few sentences of holy scripture will pour in a flood of

divine light upon the heart and conscience, and set us at perfect rest, answering every

question, solving every difficulty, removing every doubt, chasing away every cloud,

giving us to know the mind of God, putting an end to conflicting opinions by the one

divinely competent authority.

What a boon, therefore, is holy scripture! What a precious treasure we possess in the

word of God! How we should bless His holy Name for having given it to us! Yes; and

bless Him, too, for everything that tends to make us more fully acquainted with the

depth, fullness and power of those words of our chapter, "Man shall not live by bread

only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live."

Truly precious are these words to the heart of the believer! And hardly less so are

those that follow, in which the beloved and revered lawgiver refers with touching

sweetness to Jehovah's tender care throughout the whole of Israel's desert wanderings.

"Thy raiment," he says, "waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these

forty years."

What marvellous grace shines out in these words! Only think, reader, of Jehovah

looking after His people, in such a manner, to see that their garments should not wax

old or their foot swell! He not only fed them, but clothed them and cared for them in

every way. He even stooped to look after their feet, that the sand of the desert might

not injure them! Thus, for forty years, did He watch over them, with all the exquisite

tenderness of a father's heart. What will not love undertake to do for its object?

Jehovah had set His love upon His people, and this one blessed fact secured

everything for them, had they only understood it. There was not a single thing within

the range of Israel's necessities, from Egypt to Canaan, which was not secured to them

and included in the fact that Jehovah had undertaken to do for them. With infinite

love and almighty power on their side, what could be lacking?

But then, as we know, love clothes itself in various forms. It has something more to

do than to provide food and raiment for its objects. It has not only to take account of

their physical but also of their moral and spiritual wants. Of this the lawgiver does not

fail to remind the people. "Thou shalt also consider," he says, "in thine heart"—the

only true and effective way to consider—"that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the

Lord thy God chasteneth thee."

Now, we do not like chastening; it is not joyous, but grievous. It is all very well for a

son to receive food and raiment from a father's hand, and to have all his comforts

provided by a father's thoughtful love; but he does not like to see him taking down the

rod. And yet that dreaded rod may be the very best thing for the son; it may do for him

what no material benefits or earthly blessings could effect; it may correct some bad

habit, or deliver him from some wrong tendency, or save him from some evil

influence, and thus prove a great moral and spiritual blessing for which he shall have

to be for ever thankful. The grand point for the son is to see a father's love and care in

the discipline and chastening, just as distinctly as in the various material benefits

which strew his path from day to day.

Here is precisely where we so signally fail, in reference to the disciplinary dealings of

our Father. We rejoice in His benefits and blessings; we are filled with praise and

thankfulness as we receive, day by day, from His liberal hand, the rich supply of all

our need; we delight to dwell upon His marvellous interposition on our behalf, in

times of pressure and difficulty; it is a most precious exercise to look back over the

path by which His good hand has led us, and mark those "Eben-ezers" which tell of

gracious help supplied all along the road.

All this is very good, and very right, and very precious; but then there is great danger

of our resting in the mercies, the blessings and the benefits which flow, in such rich

profusion, from our Father's loving heart and liberal hand. We are apt to rest in these

things, and say with the psalmist, "In my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.

Lord, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong." True it is, "by thy

favour," but yet we are prone to be occupied with our mountain, and our prosperity;

we allow these things to come in between our hearts and the Lord, and thus they

become a snare to us. Hence the need of chastening Our Father, in His faithful love

and care is watching over us; He sees the danger and He sends trial, in one shape or

another. Perhaps a telegram comes announcing the death of a beloved child, or the

crash of a bank involving the loss of our earthly all. Or, it may be, we are laid on a

bed of pain and sickness, or called to watch by the sick bed of a beloved relative.

In a word, we are called to wade through deep waters which- seem to our poor feeble

coward hearts absolutely overwhelming. The enemy suggests the question, "Is this

love?" Faith replies, without hesitation and without reserve, "Yes!" it is all love,

perfect love; the death of the child, the loss of the property, the long, heavy, painful

illness, all the sorrow, all the pressure, all the exercise, the deep waters and dark

shadows—all, all is love—perfect love and unerring wisdom. I feel assured of it, even

now; I do not wait to know it by-and-by, when I shall look back on the path from

amid the full light of the glory; I know it now, and delight to own it to the praise of

the infinite grace which has taken me up from the depth of my ruin, and charged itself

with all that concerns me, and which deigns to occupy itself with my very failures,

follies and sins, in order to deliver me from them, to make me a partaker of divine

holiness, and conform me to the image of that blessed One who "loved me and gave

himself for me."

Christian reader, this is the way to answer Satan, and to hush the dark reasonings

which may spring up in our hearts. We must always justify God. We must look at all

His disciplinary dealings in the light of His love. "Thou, shalt also consider in thine

heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee." Most

surely we should not like to be without the blessed pledge and proof of sonship. "My

son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of

him; for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he

receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is

he whom the father chasteneth not?" But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all

are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore, we have had fathers of

our flesh, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather

be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days

chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be Partakers

of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous;

nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them

which are exercised thereby. Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the

feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned

out of the way; but let it rather be healed." Heb. 12: 5-13.

It is, at once, interesting and profitable to mark the way in which Moses presses upon

the congregation the varied motives of obedience arising from the past, the present

and the future. Everything is brought to bear upon them to quicken and deepen their

sense of Jehovah's claims upon them. They were to "remember" the past; they were to

"consider" the present; and they were to anticipate the future; and all this was to act

on their hearts, and lead them forth in holy obedience to that blessed and gracious

One who had done, who was doing, and who would do such great things for them.

The thoughtful reader can hardly fail to observe in this constant presentation of moral

motives a marked feature of this lovely book of Deuteronomy, and a striking proof

that it is no mere attempt at a repetition of what we have in Exodus; but, on the

contrary, that our book has a province, a range, a scope and design entirely its own.

To speak of mere repetition is absurd; to speak of contradiction is impious.

"Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, to walk in his

ways, and to fear him." The word "therefore" had a retrospective and prospective

force. It was designed to lead the heart back over the past dealings of Jehovah, and

forward into the future. They were to think of the marvellous history of those forty

years in the desert, the teaching, the humbling, the proving, the watchful care, the

gracious ministry, the full supply of all their need, the manna from heaven, the stream

from the smitten rock, the care of their garments and of their very feet, the

wholesome discipline for their moral good. What powerful moral motives were here

for Israel's obedience!

But this was not all, they were to look forward into the future; they were to anticipate

the bright prospect which lay before them; they were to find in the future, as well as

in the past and the present, the solid basis of Jehovah's claims upon their reverent and

whole-hearted obedience.

"For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of

fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley,

and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates, a, land of oil olive, and honey; a land

wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it; a

land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass."

How fair was the prospect! How bright the vision! How marked the contrast to the

Egypt behind them and the wilderness through which they had passed! The Lord's

land lay before them in all its beauty and verdure, its vine-clad hills and honeyed

plains, its gushing fountains and flowing streams. How refreshing the thought of the

vine, the fig-tree, the pomegranate and the olive! How different from the leeks, onions

and garlic of Egypt! Yes, all so different, It was the Lord's own land: this was enough.

It produced and contained all they could possibly want. Above its surface, rich

profusion; below, untold wealth, exhaustless treasure.

What a prospect! How the faithful Israelite would long to enter upon it!—long to

exchange the sand of the desert for that bright inheritance! True, the desert had its

deep and blessed experiences, its holy lessons, its precious memories. There they had

known Jehovah in a way they could not know Him even in Canaan; all this was quite

true, and we can fully understand it; but still the wilderness was not Canaan, and

every true Israelite would long to set his foot on the land of promise, and truly we

may say that Moses presents the land, in the passage just quoted, in a way eminently

calculated to attract the heart. "A land," he says, "wherein thou shalt eat bread without

scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it." What more could be said? Here was

the grand fact, in reference to that good land into which the hand of covenant love

was about to introduce them. All their wants would be divinely met. Hunger and thirst

should never be known there. Health and plenty, joy and gladness, peace and blessing

were to be the assured portion of the Israel of God, in that fair inheritance upon which

they were about to enter. Every enemy was to be subdued; every obstacle swept away;

"the pleasant land," was to pour forth its treasures for their use; watered continually

by heaven's rain, and warmed by its sunlight, it was to bring forth, in rich abundance,

all that the heart could desire.

What a land! what an inheritance! What a home! Of course, we are looking at it now

from a divine standpoint; looking at it according to what it was in the mind of God,

and what it shall, most assuredly, be to Israel, during that bright millennial age which

lies before them. We should have but a very poor idea indeed of the Lord's land, were

we to think of it merely as possessed by Israel in the past, even in the very brightest

days of its history, as it appeared amid the splendours of Solomon's reign We must

look onward to "the times of the restitution of all things," in order to have anything

like a true idea of what the land of Canaan will yet be to the Israel of God.

Now Moses speaks of the land according to the divine idea of it. He presents it as

given by God, and not as possessed by Israel. This makes all the difference.

According to his charming description, there was neither enemy nor evil occurrent:

nothing but fruitfulness and blessing from end to end. That is what it would have

been, that is what it should have been, and that is what it shall be, by-and-by, to the

seed of Abraham, in pursuance of the covenant made with their fathers—the new, the

everlasting covenant, founded on the sovereign grace of God, and ratified by the

blood of the cross. No power of earth or hell can hinder the purpose or the promise of

God. "Hath he said, and shall he not do it?" God will make good to the letter every

word, spite of all the enemy's opposition, and the lamentable failure of His people.

Though Abraham's seed have utterly failed under law and under government, yet

Abraham's God will give grace and glory, for His gifts and calling are without

repentance.

Moses fully understood all this. He knew how it would turn out with those who stood

before him, and with their children after them, for many generations; and he looked

forward into that bright future in which a covenant God would display, in the view of

all created intelligences, the triumphs of His grace in His dealings with the seed of

Abraham His friend.

Meanwhile, however, the faithful servant of Jehovah, true to the object before his

mind, in all those marvellous discourses in the opening of our book, proceeds to

unfold to the congregation the truth as to their mode of acting in the good land on

which they were about to plant their foot. As he had spoken of the past and of the

present, so would he make use of the future; he would turn all to account in his holy

effort to urge upon the people their obvious, bounden duty to that blessed One who

had so graciously and tenderly cared for them all their journey through, and who was

about to bring them in and plant them in the mountain of His inheritance. Let us

hearken to His touching and powerful exhortations.

When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good

land which he has given thee." How simple! How lovely! How morally suitable!

Filled with the fruit of Jehovah's goodness, they were to bless and praise His holy

Name. He delights to surround Himself with hearts filled to overflowing with the

sweet sense of His goodness, and pouring forth songs of praise and thanksgiving. He

inhabits the praises of His people. He says, "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me." The

feeblest note of praise from a grateful heart ascends as fragrant incense to the throne

and to the heart of God.

Let us remember this, beloved reader. It is as true for us, most surely, as it was for

Israel, that praise is comely. Our grand primary business is to praise the Lord. Our

every breath should be a hallelujah. It is to this blessed and most sacred. exercise the

Holy Ghost exhorts us, in manifold places. "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice

of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name."

We should ever remember that nothing so gratifies the heart and glorifies the Name of

our God as a thankful worshipping spirit on the part of His people. It is well to do

good and communicate. God is well pleased with such sacrifices. It is our high

privilege, while we have opportunity, to do good unto all men, and especially unto

them who are of the household of faith. We are called to be channels of blessing

between the loving heart of our Father and every form of human need that comes

before us in our daily path. All this is most blessedly true; but we must never forget

that the very highest place is assigned to praise. It is this which shall employ our

ransomed powers, throughout the golden ages of eternity, when the sacrifices of

active benevolence shall no longer be needed.

But the faithful lawgiver knew but too well the sad proneness of the human heart to

forget all this, to lose sight of the gracious Giver, and rest in His gifts. Hence he

addresses the following admonitory words to the congregation-wholesome words,

truly, for them and for us. May we bend our ears and our hearts to them, in holy

reverence and teachableness of spirit!

"Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments,

and his judgements, and his statutes, which I command thee this day. Lest when thou

hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; and when thy

herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that

thou hast is multiplied; then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God,

which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, who

led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and

scorpions, and drought; where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out

of the rock of flint, who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers

knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at

thy latter end: and thou say in thine heart, My power, and the might of mine hand

hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God; for it is he that

giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant, which he sware

unto thy fathers, as it is this day. And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy

God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against

you this day, that ye shall utterly perish. As the nations which the Lord destroyeth

before your face, so shall ye perish, because ye would not be obedient unto the voice

of the Lord your God." (Vers. 11-20.)

Here is something for us to ponder deeply. It has, most assuredly, a voice for us, as it

had for Israel. We may perhaps feel disposed to marvel at the frequent reiteration of

the note of warning and admonition, the constant appeals to the heart and conscience

of the people as to their bounden duty to obey, in all things, the word of God; the

recurrence again and again to those grand soul-stirring facts connected with their

deliverance out of Egypt, and their journey through the wilderness.

But wherefore should we marvel? In the first place, do we not deeply feel and fully

admit our own urgent need of warning, admonition and exhortation? Do we not need

line upon line, precept upon precept, and that continually? Are we not prone to forget

the Lord our God, to rest in His gifts instead of Himself? Alas! alas! we cannot deny

it. We rest in the stream, instead of getting up to the Fountain. We turn the very

mercies, blessings and benefits which strew our path, in rich profusion, into an

occasion of self-complacency and gratulation, instead of finding in them the blessed

ground of continual praise and thanksgiving.

And then, as to those great facts of which Moses so continually reminds the people,

could they ever lose their moral weight, power or preciousness? Surely not. Israel

might forget and fail to appreciate those facts, but the facts remained the same. The

terrible plagues of Egypt, the night of the passover, their deliverance from the land of

darkness, bondage and degradation, their marvellous passage through the Red Sea, the

descent of that mysterious food from heaven, morning by morning, the refreshing

stream gushing forth from the flinty rock: how could such facts as these ever lose

their power over a heart possessing a spark of genuine love to God? And why should

we wonder to find Moses, again and again, appealing to them and using them as a

most powerful lever wherewith to move the hearts of the people? Moses felt the

mighty moral influence of these things himself, and he would fain lead others to feel

it also. To him they were precious beyond expression, and he longed to make his

brethren feel their preciousness as well as himself. It was his one object to set before

them, in every possible way the powerful claims of Jehovah upon their hearty and

unreserved obedience.

This, reader, will account for what might, to an unspiritual, unintelligent, cursory

reader, seem the too frequent recurrence to the scenes of the past, in those wonderful

discourses of Moses. We are reminded, as we read them, of the lovely words of Peter,

in his second epistle: "Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in

remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present

truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting

you in remembrance; knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as

our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me. Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able

after my decease to have these things always in remembrance." (2 Peter 1: 12-15.)

How striking the unity of spirit and purpose in these two beloved and venerable

servants of God! Both the one and the other felt the tendency of the poor human heart

to forget the things of God, of heaven and of eternity; and they felt the supreme

importance and infinite value of the things of which they spoke. Hence their earnest

desire to keep them continually before the hearts and abidingly in the remembrance of

the Lord's beloved people. Unbelieving, restless nature might say to Moses or to Peter,

"Have you nothing new to tell us? Why are you perpetually dwelling on the same old

themes? We know all you have got to say; we have heard it again and again. 'Why not

strike out into some new field of thought? Would it not be well to try and keep abreast

of the science of the day? If we keep perpetually moping over those antiquated

themes, we shall be left stranded on the bank while the stream of civilization rushes

on. Pray give us something new."

Thus might the poor unbelieving mind, the worldly heart reason; but faith knows the

answer to all such miserable suggestions. We can well believe that both Moses and

Peter would have made short work with all such reasonings. And so should we. We

know whence they emanate, whither they tend, and what they are worth; and we

should have, if not on our lips, at least deep down in our hearts a ready answer—an

answer perfectly satisfactory to us, however contemptible it may seem to the men of

this world. Could a true Israelite ever tire of hearing of what the Lord had done for

him, in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness? Never! Such themes would be

ever fresh, ever welcome to his heart. And just so with the Christian; can he ever tire

of the cross and all the grand and glorious realities that cluster round it? Can he ever

tire of Christ, His peerless glories and unsearchable riches—His Person, His work,

His offices? Never! No, never, throughout the bright ages of eternity. Does he crave

anything new? Can science improve upon Christ? Can human learning add ought to

the great mystery of godliness which has for its foundation God manifest in the flesh,

and for its topstone a Man glorified in heaven? Can we ever get beyond this? No,

reader, we could not if we would, and we would not if we could.

And even were we, for a moment, to take a lower range, and look at the works of God

in creation; do we ever tire of the sun? He is not new; he has been pouring his beams

upon this world for well-nigh six thousand years, and yet those beams are as fresh and

as welcome today as they were when first created. Do we ever tire of the sea? It is not

new; its tide has been ebbing and flowing for nearly six thousand years, but its waves

are as fresh and as welcome on our shores as ever. True, the sun is often too dazzling

to man's feeble vision, and the sea often swallows up, in a moment, man's boasted

works; but yet the sun and the sea never lose their power, their freshness, their charm.

Do we ever tire of the dew-drops that fall in refreshing virtue upon our gardens and

fields? Do we ever tire of the perfume that emanates from our hedgerows? Do we

ever tire of the notes of the nightingale and the thrush?

And what are all these when compared with the glories which cluster round the

Person and the cross of Christ? What are they when put in contrast with the grand

realities of that eternity which is before us?

Reader, let us beware how we listen to such suggestions, whether they come from

without or spring from the depths of our own evil hearts, lest we be found, like Israel

after the flesh, loathing the heavenly manna and despising the pleasant land; or like

Demas who forsook the blessed apostle, having loved this present age; or like those of

whom we read in the sixth of John, who, offended by our Lord's close and pointed

teaching, "went back, and walked no more with him." May the Lord keep our hearts

true to Himself, and fresh and fervent in His blessed cause, till He come!

Deuteronomy 9.

"Hear, O Israel; thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations

greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven; a people great

and tall, the children of the Anakims, whom thou knowest, and of whom thou hast

heard say, Who can stand before the children of Anak!" (Vers. 1, 2.)

This chapter opens with the same grand Deuteronomic sentence, "Hear, O Israel."

This, we may say, is the key note of this most blessed book, and especially of those

opening discourses which have been engaging our attention. But the chapter which

now lies open before us presents subjects of immense weight and importance. In the

first place, the lawgiver sets before the congregation, in terms of deep solemnity, that

which lay before them, in their entrance upon the land. He does not hide from them

the fact that there were serious difficulties and formidable enemies to be encountered.

This he does, we need hardly say, not to discourage their hearts, but that they might

be forewarned, forearmed, and prepared. What that preparation was we shall see

presently; but the faithful servant of God felt the rightness, yea, the urgent need of

putting the true state of the case before his brethren.

There are two ways of looking at difficulties; we may look at them from a human

stand-point, or from a divine one; we may look at them in a spirit of unbelief, or we

may look at them in the calmness and quietness of confidence in the living God. We

have an instance of the former, in the report of the unbelieving spies, in Numbers 13;

We have an instance of the latter, in the opening of our present chapter.

It is not the province nor the path of faith to deny that there are difficulties to be

encountered by the people of God; it would be the height of folly to do so, inasmuch

as there are difficulties, and it would be but fool-hardiness, fanaticism, or fleshly

enthusiasm to deny it. It is always well for people to know what they are about, and

not to rush blindly into a path for which they are not prepared. An unbelieving

sluggard may say, "There is a lion in the way;" a blind enthusiast may say, "There is

no such thing;" the true man of faith will say, "Though there were a thousand lions in

the way, God can soon dispose of them”.

But, as a great practical principle of general application, it is very important for all the

Lord's people to consider deeply and calmly what they are about, ere they enter upon

any particular path of service or line of action. If this were more attended to, we

should not witness so many moral and spiritual wrecks around us. What mean those

most solemn, searching and testing words addressed by our blessed Lord to the

multitudes that thronged around Him, in Luke 14? "He turned and said to them, If any

man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother his wife, and children, and

brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And

whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For

which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost,

whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation,

and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man

began to build, and was not able to finish" (Vers. 26-30.)

These are solemn and seasonable words for the heart. How many unfinished buildings

meet our view, as we look forth over the wide field of Christian profession, giving sad

occasion to the beholders for mockery! How many set out upon a path of discipleship,

under some sudden impulse, or under the pressure of mere human influence, without

a proper understanding or a due consideration of all that is involved; and then when

difficulties arise, when trials come, when the path is found to be narrow, rough,

lonely, unpopular, they give it up, thus proving that they had never really counted the

cost, never taken the path in communion with God, never understood what they were

doing.

Now, such cases are very sorrowful; they bring great reproach on the cause of Christ,

give occasion to the adversary to blaspheme, and greatly dishearten those who care

for the glory of God and the good of souls. Better far not to take the ground at all

than, having taken it, to abandon it in dark unbelief and worldly-mindedness.

Hence, therefore, we can perceive the wisdom and faithfulness of the opening words

of our chapter. Moses tells the people plainly what was before them; not, surely, to

discourage them, but to preserve them from self-confidence which is sure to give way

in the moment of trial; and to cast them upon the living God who never fails a trusting

heart.

“Understand therefore this day, that the Lord thy God is he which goeth over before

thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before

thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the Lord hath said

unto thee."

Here, then, is the divine answer to all difficulties, be they ever so formidable. What

were mighty nations, great cities, fenced walls, in the presence of Jehovah? Simply as

chaff before the whirlwind. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" The very things

which scare and stumble the coward heart afford an occasion for the display of God's

power, and the magnificent triumphs of faith. Faith says, "Grant me but this, that God

is before me and with me, and I can go anywhere." Thus the only thing in all this

world that really glorifies God is the faith that can trust Him and use Him and praise

Him; and inasmuch as faith is the only thing that glorifies God, so is it the only thing

that gives man his proper place, even the place of complete dependence upon God,

and this ensures victory and inspires praise-unceasing praise.

But we must never forget that there is moral danger in the very moment of victory—

danger arising out of what we are in ourselves. There is the danger of self-

gratulation—a terrible snare to us poor mortals. In the hour of conflict, we feel our

weakness, our nothingness, our need. This is good and morally safe. It is well to be

brought down to the very bottom of self and all that pertains to it, for there we find

God, in all the fullness and blessedness of what He is, and this is sure and certain

victory and consequent praise.

But our treacherous and deceitful hearts are prone to forget whence the strength and

victory come. Hence the moral force, value and seasonableness of the following

admonitory words addressed by the faithful minister of God to the hearts and

consciences of his brethren, "Speak not thou in thine heart—here is where the

mischief always begins—"after that the Lord hath cast them out from before thee,

saying, For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land; but for

the wickedness of those nations the Lord doth drive them out from before thee."

Alas! what materials there are in us! What ignorance of our own hearts! What a

shallow sense of the real character of our ways! How terrible to think that we are

capable of saying in our hearts such words as, "For my righteousness!" Yes, reader we

are verily capable of such egregious folly; for as Israel was capable of it so are we,

inasmuch as we are made of the very same material; and that they were capable of it

is evident from the fact of their being warned against it; for, most assuredly, the Spirit

of God does not warn against phantom dangers or imaginary temptations. We are

verily capable of turning the actings of God on our behalf into an occasion of self-

complacency; instead of seeing in those gracious actings a ground for heartfelt praise

to God, we use them as a ground for self exaltation.

Hence, therefore, we would do well to ponder the words of faithful admonition

addressed by Moses to the hearts and consciences of the people; they furnish a very

wholesome antidote for the self-righteousness so natural to us as well as to Israel. "

Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess

their land; but for the wickedness of those nations the Lord thy God doth drive them

out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the Lord sware unto

thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Understand therefore, that the Lord giveth

thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiff-necked

people. Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the Lord thy God to wrath in

the wilderness; from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye

came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the Lord." (Vers. 5-7.)

This paragraph sets forth two great principles which, if fully laid hold of, must put the

heart into a right moral attitude. In the first place, the people were reminded that their

possession of the land of Canaan was simply in pursuance of God's promise to their

fathers. This was placing the matter on the most solid basis—a basis which nothing

could ever disturb.

As to the seven nations who were to be dispossessed, it was on the ground of their

wickedness that God, in the exercise of His righteous government, was about to drive

them out. Every landlord has a perfect right to eject bad tenants; and the nations of

Canaan had not only failed to pay their rent, as we say, but they had injured and

defiled the property to such an extent that God could no longer endure them; and

therefore He was going to drive them out, irrespective altogether of the incoming

tenants. Whoever was going to get possession of the property, these dreadful tenants

must be evicted. The iniquity of the Amorites had reached its highest point, and

nothing remained but that judgement should take its course. Men might argue and

reason as to the moral fitness and consistency of a benevolent Being unroofing the

houses of thousands of families and putting the occupants to the sword; but we may

depend upon it the government of God will make very short work with all such

arguments. God, blessed for ever be His holy Name, knows how to manage His own

affairs, and that too without asking man's opinion. He had borne with the wickedness

of the seven nations to such a degree that it had become absolutely insufferable; the

very land itself could not bear it. Any further exercise of forbearance would have been

a sanction of the most terrible abominations; and this of course was a moral

impossibility. The glory of God absolutely demanded the expulsion of the Canaanites.

Yes; and we may add, the glory of God demanded the introduction of the seed of

Abraham into possession of the property to hold, as tenants for ever under the Lord

God Almighty, the most High God, Possessor of heaven and earth. Thus the matter

stood for Israel, had they but seen it. Their possession of the land of promise and the

maintenance of the divine glory were so bound up together that one could not be

touched without touching the other. God had promised to give the land of Canaan to

the seed of Abraham, as an everlasting possession. Had He not a right to do so? Will

infidels question God's right to do as He will with His own? Will they refuse to the

Creator and Governor of the universe a right which they claim for themselves? The

land was Jehovah's, and He gave it to Abraham His friend for ever; and although this

was true, yet were not the Canaanites disturbed in their tenure of the property until

their wickedness had become positively unbearable.

Thus we see that in the matter both of the outgoing and incoming tenants, the glory of

God was involved. That glory demanded that the Canaanites should be expelled

because of their ways; and that glory demanded that Israel should be put in possession

because of the promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

But, in the second place, Israel had no ground for self-complacency, as Moses most

plainly and faithfully instructs them. He rehearses in their ears, in the most touching

and impressive manner, all the leading scenes of their history from Horeb to Kadesh-

barnea; he refers to the golden calf, to the broken tables of the covenant, to Taberah

and Massah, and Kibroth-hattaavah; and sums all up, at verse 24, with these pungent

humbling words, "Ye have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew

you."

This was plain dealing with heart and conscience. The solemn review of their whole

career was eminently calculated to correct all false notions about themselves; every

scene and circumstance in their entire history, if viewed from a proper standpoint,

only brought to light the humbling fact of what they were, and how near they had

been, again and again, to utter destruction. With what stunning force must the

following words have fallen upon their ears! "And the Lord said unto me, Arise, get

thee down quickly from hence, for thy people which thou hast brought forth out of

Egypt have corrupted themselves; they are quickly turned aside out of the way which I

commanded them; they have made them a molten image. Furthermore, the Lord spake

unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people; let me

alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will

make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they." (Vers. 12-14.)

How withering was all this to their natural vanity, pride and self-righteousness! How

should their hearts have been moved to their very deepest depths by those tremendous

words, "Let me alone, that I may destroy them!" How solemn to reflect upon the fact

which these words revealed—their appalling nearness to national ruin and

destruction! How ignorant they had been of all that passed between Jehovah and

Moses, on the top of mount Horeb! They had been on the very brink of an awful

precipice. Another moment might have dashed them over. The intercession of Moses

had saved them, the very man whom they had accused of taking too much upon him.

Alas! how they had mistaken and misjudged him! How utterly astray they had been in

all their thoughts! Why the very man whom they had accused of self-seeking and

desiring to make himself altogether a prince over them, had actually refused a

divinely given opportunity of becoming the head of a greater and mightier nation than

they! Yes, and this same man had earnestly requested that if they were not to be

forgiven and brought into the land, his name might be blotted out of the book.

How wonderful was all this! What a turning of the tables upon them! How

exceedingly small they must have felt, in view of all these wonderful facts! Surely as

they reviewed all these things, they might well see the utter folly of the words, "For

my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land." How could the

makers of a molten image use such language! Ought they not rather to see and feel

and own themselves to be no better than the nations that were about to be driven out

from before them? For what had made them to differ? The sovereign mercy and

electing love of their covenant God. And to what did they owe their deliverance out of

Egypt, their sustenance in the wilderness, and their entrance into the land? Simply to

the eternal stability of the covenant made with their fathers, "a covenant ordered in all

things and sure," a covenant ratified and established by the blood of the Lamb, in

virtue of which all Israel shall yet be saved and blessed in their own land.

But we must now quote for the reader the splendid paragraph with which our chapter

closes—a paragraph eminently fitted to open Israel's eyes to the utter folly of all their

thoughts respecting Moses, their thoughts respecting themselves, and their thoughts

respecting that blessed One who had so marvellously borne with all their dark

unbelief and daring rebellion.

"Thus I fell down before the Lord forty days and forty nights, as I fell down at the

first; because the Lord had said he would destroy you. I prayed therefore unto the

Lord, and said, O Lord God, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance which thou

hast redeemed through thy greatness, which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with

a mighty hand. Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look; not unto the

stubbornness of this people, nor to their uncleanness, nor to their sin : lest the land

whence thou broughtest us out say, Because the Lord was not able to bring them into

the land which he promised them, and because he hated them, he hath brought them

out to slay them in the wilderness. Yet they are Thy people, and thine inheritance,

which thou broughtest out by thy mighty power, and by thy stretched out arm."

What marvellous words are these to be addressed by a human being to the living God!

What powerful pleadings for Israel! What self-renunciation! Moses refuses the

offered dignity of being the founder of a greater and mightier nation than Israel. He

only desires that Jehovah should be glorified, and Israel pardoned, blessed and

brought into the promised land. He could not endure the thought of any reproach

being brought upon that glorious Name so dear to his heart; neither could he bear to

witness Israel's destruction. These were the two things he dreaded; and as to his own

exaltation, it was just the thing about which he cared nothing at all. This beloved and

honoured servant cared only for the glory of God and the salvation of His people; and

as to himself, his hopes, his interests, his all, he could rest, with perfect composure, in

the assurance that his individual blessing and the divine glory were bound together by

a link which could never be snapped.

And oh! how grateful must all this have been to the heart of God! How refreshing to

His spirit were those earnest, loving pleadings of His servant! How much more in

harmony with His mind than the intercession of Elias against Israel, hundreds of years

afterwards! How they remind us of the blessed ministry of our Great High Priest who

ever liveth to make intercession for His people, and whose active intervention on our

behalf never ceases for a single moment!

And then how very touching and beautiful to mark the way in which Moses insists

upon the fact that the people were Jehovah's inheritance, and that He had brought

them up out of Egypt. The Lord had said, "Thy people which thou hast brought forth

out of Egypt." But Moses says, "They are Thy people, and thine inheritance, which

Thou broughtest out." This is perfectly exquisite. Indeed this whole scene is full of

profound interest.

Deuteronomy 10

"At that time the Lord said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first,

and come up unto me into the mount, and make thee an ark of wood: and I will write

on the tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brokest, and thou shalt

put them in the ark. And I made an ark of shittim wood, and hewed two tables of

stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in mine

hand. And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten

commandments, which the Lord spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the

fire, in the day of the assembly: and the Lord gave them unto me. And I turned myself

and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made? and

there they be, as the Lord commanded me." (Vers. 1-5.)

The beloved and revered servant of God seemed never to weary of rehearsing in the

ears of the people, the interesting, momentous and significant sentences of the past.

To him they were ever fresh, ever precious. His heart delighted in them. They could

never lose their charm in his eyes; he found in them an exhaustless treasury for his

own heart, and a mighty moral lever wherewith to move the heart of Israel.

We are constantly reminded, in these powerful and deeply affecting addresses, of the

inspired apostle's words to his beloved Philippians, "To write the same things to you,

to me is not grievous, but for you it is safe. "The poor restless, fickle, vagrant heart

might long for some new theme; but the faithful apostle found his deep and unfailing

delight in unfolding and dwelling upon those precious subjects which clustered, in

rich luxuriance, around the Person and the cross of his adorable Lord and Saviour

Jesus Christ. He had found in Christ all he needed, for time and eternity. The glory of

His Person had completely eclipsed all the glories of earth and of nature. He could

say, "What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless,

and I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my

Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung,

that I may win Christ." (Phil. 3: 7, 8.)

This is the language of a true Christian, of one who had found a perfectly absorbing

and commanding object in Christ. What could the world offer to such an one? What

could it do for him? Did he want its riches, its honours, its distinctions, its pleasures?

He counted them all as dung. How was this? Because he had found Christ. He had

seen an object in Him which so riveted his heart that to win Him, and know more of

Him, and be found in Him was the one ruling desire of his soul. If any one had talked

to Paul about something new, what would have been his answer? If any one had

suggested to him the thought of getting on in the world or of seeking to make money,

what would have been his reply? simply this, " I have found my ALL in Christ; I want

no more. I have found in Him 'unsearchable riches'—'durable riches and

righteousness.' In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. What do I

want of this world's riches, its wisdom or its learning? These things all pass away like

the vapours of the morning; and even while they last, are wholly inadequate to satisfy

the desires and aspirations of an immortal spirit. Christ is an eternal object, heaven's

centre, the delight of the heart of God; He shall satisfy me throughout the countless

ages of that bright eternity which is before me; and surely if He can satisfy me for

ever, He can satisfy me now. Shall I turn to the wretched rubbish of this world, its

pursuits, its pleasures, its amusements, its theatres, its concerts, its riches or its

honours to supplement my portion in Christ? God forbid! All such things would be

simply an intolerable nuisance to me. Christ is my all, and in all, now and for ever!"

Such, we may well believe, would have been the distinctly pronounced reply of the

blessed apostle; such was the distinct reply of his whole life; and such, beloved

Christian reader, should be ours also. How truly deplorable, how deeply humbling to

find a Christian turning to the world for enjoyment, recreation or pastime! It simply

proves that he has not found a satisfying portion in Christ. We may set it down as a

fixed principle that the heart which is filled with Christ has no room for ought beside.

It is not a question of the right or the wrong of things; the heart does not want them,

would not have them; it has found its present and everlasting portion and rest in that

blessed One that fills the heart of God, and will fill the vast universe with the beams

of His glory, throughout the everlasting ages.

We have been led into the foregoing line of thought in connection with the interesting

fact of Moses' unwearied rehearsal of all the grand events in Israel's marvellous

history from Egypt to the borders of the promised land. To him they furnished a

perpetual feast; and he not only found his own deep personal delight in dwelling upon

them, but he also felt the immense importance of unfolding them before the whole

congregation. To him, most surely, it was not grievous, but for them it was safe. How

delightful for him, and how good and needful for them, to dwell upon the facts

connected with the two sets of tables—the first set smashed to atoms, at the foot of

the mountain and the second set enclosed in the ark.

What human language could possibly unfold the deep significance and moral weight

of such facts as these? Those broken tables! How impressive! How pregnant with

wholesome instruction for the people. How powerfully suggestive! Will any one

presume to say that we have here a mere barren repetition of the facts recorded in

Exodus? Certainly no one who reverently believes in the divine inspiration of the

Pentateuch.

No, reader, the tenth of Deuteronomy fills a niche and does a work entirely its own. In

it the lawgiver holds up to the hearts of the people past scenes and circumstances in

such a way as to rivet them upon the very tablets of the soul. He allows them to hear

the conversation between Jehovah and himself; he tells them what took place during

those mysterious forty days upon that cloud-capped mountain. He lets them hear

Jehovah's reference to the broken tables—the apt and forcible expression of the utter

worthlessness of man's covenant. For why were those tables broken? Because they

had shamefully failed. Those shattered fragments told the humiliating the of their

hopeless ruin on the ground of the law. All was gone. Such was the obvious meaning

of the fact. It was striking, impressive, unmistakable. Like a broken pillar over a grave

which tells, at a glance, that the prop and stay of the family lies mouldering beneath.

There is no need of any inscription, for no human language could speak with such

eloquence to the heart as that most expressive emblem. So the broken tables were

calculated to convey to the heart of Israel the tremendous fact that, so far as their

covenant was concerned, they were utterly ruined, hopelessly undone; they were

complete bankrupts on the score of righteousness.

But then, that second set of tables, what of them? Thank God, they told a different

tale altogether. They were not broken. God took care of them. "I turned myself and

came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there

they be, as the Lord commanded me."

Blessed fact! "There they be." Yes, covered up in that ark which spoke of Christ, that

blessed One who magnified the law and made it honourable, who established every

jot and tittle of it, to the glory of God and the everlasting blessing of His people. Thus,

while the broken fragments of the first tables told the sad and humbling tale of Israel's

utter failure and ruin, the second tables, shut up intact in the ark set forth the glorious

truth that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth, to

the Jew first, and also to the Gentile.

We do not, of course, mean to say that Israel understood the deep meaning and far-

reaching application of those wonderful facts which Moses rehearsed in their ears. As

a nation, they certainly did not then, though, through-the sovereign mercy of God,

they will, by-and-by. Individuals may, and doubtless did enter into somewhat of their

significance. This is not now the question. It is for us to see and make our own of the

precious truth set forth in those two sets of tables, namely, the failure of everything in

the hands of man, and the eternal stability of God's covenant of grace, ratified by the

blood of Christ, and to be displayed in all its glorious results, in the kingdom, by-and-

by, when the Son of David shall reign from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends

of the earth; when the seed of Abraham shall possess, according to the divine gift, the

land of promise; and when all the nations of the earth shall rejoice under the

beneficent reign of the Prince of peace.

Bright and glorious prospect for the now desolate land of Israel, and this groaning

earth of ours! The King of righteousness and peace will then have it all His own way.

All evil will be put down with a powerful hand. There will be no weakness in that

government. No rebel tongue will be permitted to prate, in accents of insolent

sedition, against the decrees and enactments thereof. No rude and senseless

demagogue will be allowed to disturb the peace of the people, or to insult the majesty

of the throne. Every abuse will be put down, every disturbing element will be

neutralised, every stumbling-block will be removed, and every root of bitterness

eradicated. The poor and the needy shall be well looked after; yea, all shall be

divinely attended to; toil, sorrow, poverty and desolation shall be unknown; the

wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad, and the desert shall rejoice and

blossom as the rose. "Behold a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule

in judgement. And a man shall be as an hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from

the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place as the shadow of a great rock in a weary

land."

Reader, what glorious scenes are yet to be enacted in this poor sin-stricken, Satan-

enslaved, sorrowful world of ours! How refreshing to think of them! What a relief to

the heart amid all the mental misery, the moral degradation, and physical

wretchedness exhibited around us, on every side! Thank God, the day is rapidly

approaching when the prince of this world shall be hurled from his throne and

consigned to the bottomless pit, and the Prince of heaven, the glorious Emmanuel

shall stretch forth His blessed sceptre over the wide universe of God, and heaven and

earth shall bask in the sunlight of His royal countenance. Well may we cry out, O

Lord, hasten the time!

"And the children of Israel took their journey from Beeroth of the children of Jaakan

to Mosera; there Aaron died, and there he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered

in the priest's office in his stead. From thence they journeyed unto Gudgodah; and

from Gudgodah to Jotbath, a land of rivers of waters. At that time the Lord separated

the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant, to stand before the Lord to minister

unto him, and to bless in his name, unto this day. Wherefore Levi hath no part nor

inheritance with his brethren; the Lord is his inheritance, according as the Lord thy

God promised him."

The reader must not allow his mind to be disturbed by any question of historical

sequence in the foregoing passage. It is simply a parenthesis in which the lawgiver

groups together, in a very striking and forcible manner, circumstances culled, with

holy skill, from the history of the people, illustrative, at once, of the government and

grace of God. The death of Aaron exhibits the former; the election and elevation of

Levi, presents the latter. Both are placed together not with a view to chronology, but

for the grand moral end which was ever present to the mind of the lawgiver—an end

which lies far away beyond the range of infidel reason, but which commends itself to

the heart and understanding of the devout student of scripture.

How utterly contemptible are the quibbles of the infidel when looked at in the

brilliant light of divine inspiration! How miserable the condition of a mind which can

occupy itself with chronological hair splittings in order, if possible, to find a flaw in

the divine Volume, instead of grasping the real aim and object of the inspired

writer!

But why does Moses bring in, in this parenthetical and apparently abrupt manner,

those two special events in Israel's history? Simply to move the heart of the people

toward the one grand point of obedience. To this end he culls and groups according to

the wisdom given unto him. Do we expect to find in this divinely taught servant of

God the petty preciseness of a mere copyist? Infidels may affect to do so; but true

Christians know better. A mere scribe could copy events in their chronological order;

a true prophet will bring those events to bear, in a moral way, upon the heart and

conscience. Thus, while the poor deluded infidel is groping amid the shadows of his

own creation, the pious student delights himself in the moral glories of that peerless

Volume which stands like a rock, against which the waves of infidel thought dash

themselves with contemptible impotency.

We do not attempt to dwell upon the circumstances referred to in the above

parenthesis; they have been gone into elsewhere, and therefore we only feel it

needful, in this place, to point out to the reader what we may venture to call the

Deuteronomic bearing of the facts—the use which the lawgiver makes of them to

strengthen the foundation of his final appeal to the heart and conscience of the

people, to give pungency and power to his exhortation, as he urged upon them the

absolute necessity of unqualified obedience to the statutes and judgements of their

covenant God. Such was his reason for referring to the solemn fact of the death of

Aaron. They were to remember that, notwithstanding Aaron's high position as the

high priest of Israel, yet he was stripped of his robes and deprived of his life for

disobedience to the word of Jehovah. How important, then, that they should take heed

to themselves! The government of God was not to be trifled with, and the very fact of

Aaron's elevation only rendered it all the more needful that his sin should be dealt

with, in order that others might fear.

And then they were to remember the Lord's dealings with Levi in which grace shines

with such marvellous lustre. The fierce, cruel, self-willed Levi was taken up from the

depths of his moral ruin and brought nigh to God, "to bear the ark of the covenant of

the Lord, to stand before the Lord, to minister unto him, and to bless in his name.

But why should this account of Levi be coupled with the death of Aaron? Simply to

set forth the blessed consequences of obedience. If the death of Aaron displayed the

awful result of disobedience, the elevation of Levi illustrates the precious fruit of

obedience. Hear what the prophet Malachi says on this point. "And ye shall know that

I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith

the Lord of hosts. My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to

him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name. The law of

truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips; he walked with me in

peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity." Mal. 2: 4-6.

This is a very remarkable passage, and throws much light upon the subject now before

us. It tells us distinctly that Jehovah gave His covenant of life and peace to Levi "for

the fear wherewith he feared" Him on the terrible occasion of the golden calf which

Aaron (himself a Levite of the very highest order) made. Why was Aaron judged?

Because of his rebellion at the waters of Meribah. (Num. 20: 24.) Why was Levi

blessed? Because of his reverent obedience at the foot of mount Horeb. (Ex. 32.) Why

are both grouped together in Deuteronomy 10? In order to impress upon the heart and

conscience of the congregation the urgent necessity of implicit obedience to the

commandments of their covenant God. How perfect is scripture in all its parts! How

beautifully it hangs together! And how plain it is to the devout reader that the lovely

book of Deuteronomy has its own divine niche to fill, its own distinctive work to do,

its own appointed sphere, scope and object! How manifest it is that the fifth division

of the Pentateuch is neither a contradiction nor a repetition, but a divine application

of its divinely inspired predecessors! And, finally, we cannot help adding—how

convincing the evidence that infidel writers know neither what they say nor whereof

they affirm, when they dare to insult the Oracles of God—yea, that they greatly err,

not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God!* At verse 10 of our chapter, Moses

returns to the subject of his discourse. "And I stayed in the mount, according to the

first time, forty days and forty nights; and the Lord hearkened unto me at that time

also, and the Lord would not destroy thee. And the Lord said unto me, Arise, take thy

journey before the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I sware

unto their fathers to give unto them."

{*We have, in human writings, numerous examples of the same thing that infidels

object to in Deuteronomy 10: 6-9. Suppose a man is anxious to call the attention of

the English nation to some great principle of political economy, or some matter of

national importance; he does not hesitate to select facts however widely separated on

the page of history, and group them together in order to illustrate his subject. Do

infidels object to this? No; not when found in the writings of men. It is only when it

occurs in scripture, because they hate the word of God, and cannot bear the idea that

He should give to His creatures a book-revelation of His mind. Blessed be His Name,

He has given it notwithstanding, and we have it in all its infinite preciousness, and

divine authority, for the comfort of our hearts, and the guidance of our path, amid all

the darkness and confusion of this scene through which we are passing home to

glory.}

Jehovah would accomplish His promise to the fathers, spite of every hindrance. He

would put Israel in full possession of the land concerning which He had sworn to

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give it to their seed for an everlasting inheritance.

"And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy

God, to walk in all His ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all

thy heart and with all thy soul. To keep the commandments of the Lord, and his

statutes, which I command thee this day, for thy good." It was all for their real good,

their deep, full blessing to walk in the way of the divine commandments. The path of

whole-hearted obedience is the only path of true happiness; and blessed be God, this

path can always be trodden by those who love the Lord.

This is an unspeakable comfort, at all times. God has given us His precious word, the

perfect revelation of His mind; and He has given as what Israel had not, even His

Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts whereby we can understand and appreciate His

word. Hence our obligations are vastly higher than were Israel's. We are bound to a

life of obedience by every argument that could be brought to bear on the heart and

understanding.

And surely it is for our good to be obedient. There is indeed "great reward" in keeping

the commandments of our loving Father. Every thought of Him and of His gracious

ways, every reference to His marvellous dealings with us—His loving ministry, His

tender care, His thoughtful love—all should bind our hearts in affectionate devotion

to Him, and quicken our steps in treading the path of loving obedience to Him.

Wherever we turn our eyes we are met by the most powerful evidences of His claim

upon our heart's affections and upon all the energies of our ransomed being. And,

blessed be His Name, the more fully we are enabled by His grace to respond to His

most precious claims, the brighter and happier our path must he. There is nothing in

all this world more deeply blessed than the path and portion of an obedient soul.

"Great peace have they that love thy law, and nothing shall offend them." The lowly

disciple, who finds his meat and his drink in doing the will of his beloved Lord and

Master, possesses a peace which the world can neither give nor take away. True, he

may be misunderstood and misinterpreted; he may be dubbed narrow and bigoted,

and such-like; but none-of these things move him. One approving smile from his Lord

is more than ample recompense for all the reproach that men can heap upon him. He

knows how to estimate at their proper worth the thoughts of men; they are to him as

the chaff which the wind driveth away. The deep utterance of his heart, as he moves

steadily along the sacred path of obedience, is

"Let me my feebleness recline

On that eternal love of Thine,

And human thoughts forget;

Child-like attend what Thou wilt say

Go forth and serve Thee while 'tis day,

Nor leave Thy sweet retreat."

In the closing verses, of our chapter, the lawgiver seems to rise higher and higher in

his presentation of moral motives for obedience, and to come closer and closer to the

hearts of the people. "Behold," he says, "the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the

Lord's thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is. Only the Lord had a delight in

thy fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all

people, as it is this day." What a marvellous privilege to be chosen and loved by the

Possessor of heaven and earth! What an honour to be called to serve and obey Him!

Surely nothing in all this world could be higher or better. To be identified and

associated with the Most High God, to have His Name called upon them, to be His

peculiar people, His special possession, the people of His choice, to be set apart from

all the nations of the earth to be the servants of Jehovah and His witnesses. What, we

may ask, could exceed this, except it be that to which the church of God, and the

individual believer are called?

Assuredly, our privileges are higher, inasmuch as we know God in a higher, deeper,

nearer, more intimate manner than the nation of Israel ever did. We know Him as the

God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, and as our God and Father. We have the

Holy Ghost dwelling in us, shedding abroad the love of God in our hearts, and leading

us to cry, Abba, Father. All this is far beyond anything that God's earthly people ever

knew or could know; and, inasmuch as our privileges are higher, His claims upon our

hearty and unreserved obedience are also higher. Every appeal to the heart of Israel

should come home, with augmented force to our hearts, beloved Christian reader;

every exhortation addressed to them should speak, far more powerfully to us. We

occupy the very highest ground on which any creature could stand. Neither the seed of

Abraham on earth, nor the angels of God in heaven could say what we can say, or

know what we know. We are linked and eternally associated with the risen and

glorified Son of God. We can adopt as our own the wondrous language of? John 4.17,

and say, "As he is so are we in this world." What can exceed this, as to privilege and

dignity? Surely nothing save to be, in body, soul and spirit, conformed to His adorable

image, as we shall be, ere long, through the abounding grace of God.

Well then let us ever bear in mind—yea, let us have it deep, deep, down in our hearts,

that according to our privileges are our obligations. Let us not refuse the wholesome

word " obligation" as though it had a legal ring about it. Far from it; it would be

utterly impossible to conceive anything further removed from all thought of legality

than the obligations which flow out of the Christian's position. It is a very serious

mistake to be continually raising the cry of "Legal! Legal!" whenever the holy

responsibilities of our position are pressed upon us. We believe that every truly pious

Christian will delight in all the appeals and exhortations which the Holy Ghost

addresses to us as to our obligations, seeing they are all grounded upon privileges

conferred upon us by the sovereign grace of God, through the precious blood of

Christ, and made good to us by the mighty ministry of the Holy Ghost.

But let us hearken still further to the stirring appeals of Moses. They are truly

profitable for us, with all our higher light, knowledge and privilege.

"Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no more stiff-necked. For the

Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible,

which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward. He doth execute the judgement of the

fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment."

Here Moses speaks not merely of God's doings and dealings and ways, but of Himself,

of what He is. He is high over all, the great, the mighty and the terrible. But He has a

heart for the widow and the fatherless—those helpless objects deprived of all earthly

and natural props, the poor bereaved and broken-hearted widow, and the desolate

orphan. God thinks of, and cares for such, in a very special way; they have a claim

upon His loving heart and mighty hand. " A Father of the fatherless, and a Judge of

the widow is God in his holy habitation." "She that is a widow indeed and desolate

trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day." "Leave

thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me."

What a rich provision is here for widows and orphans! How wondrous God's care of

such! How many widows are much better off than when they had their husbands!

How many orphans are better cared and provided for than when they had their

parents! God looks after them! This is enough. Thousands of husbands and thousands

of parents are worse by far than none; but God never fails those who are cast upon

Him. He is ever true to His own Name, whatever relationship He takes. Let all

widows and orphans remember this for their comfort and encouragement.

And then the poor stranger! He is not forgotten. "He loveth the stranger, in giving him

food and raiment." How precious is this! Our God cares for all those who are bereft of

earthly props, human hopes, and creature confidences. All such have a special claim

upon Him to which He will, most surely, respond according to all the love of His

heart. The widow, the fatherless and the stranger are the special objects of His tender

care, and as such have but to look to Him, and draw upon His exhaustless resources in

all their varied need.

But then He must be known in order to be trusted. "They that know thy name will put

their trust in thee; for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee." Those who

do not know God would vastly prefer an insurance policy or a government annuity to

His promise. But the true believer finds in that promise the unfailing stay of his heart,

because he knows, and trusts, and loves the Promiser. He delights in the thought of

being absolutely shut up to God, wholly dependent upon Him. He would not, for

worlds, be in any other position. The very thing which would almost drive an

unbeliever out of his senses is to the Christian—the man of faith, the very deepest joy

of his heart. The language of such an one will ever be, "My soul, wait thou only upon

God; for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock." Blessed position! Precious

portion! May the reader know it as a divine reality, a living power, in his heart, by the

mighty ministry of the Holy Ghost! Then will he be able to sit loose to earthly things.

He will be able to tell the world that he is independent of it, having found all he

wants, for time and eternity, in the living God and His Christ.

"Thou, O Christ, art all I want;

More than all in Thee I find."

But let us specially note the provision which God makes for the stranger. It is very

simple—"food and raiment." This is enough for a true stranger, as the blessed apostle

says to his son Timothy, "We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can

carry nothing out. And having food and raiment, let us be therewith content."

Christian reader, let as ponder this. What a cure for restless ambition is here! What an

antidote against covetousness! What a blessed deliverance from the feverish

excitement of commercial life, the grasping spirit of the age in which our lot is cast!

If we were only content with the divinely appointed provision for the stranger, what a

different tale we should have to tell! How calm and even would be the current of our

daily life! How simple our habits and tastes! How unworldly our spirit and style!

What moral elevation above the self-indulgence and luxury so prevalent amongst

professing Christians! We should simply eat and drink to the glory of God, and to

keep the body in proper working order. To go beyond this, either in eating or

drinking, is to indulge in "fleshly lusts which war against the soul."

Alas! alas! how much of this there is, specially in reference to drink! It is perfectly

appalling to think of the consumption of intoxicating drink amongst professing

Christians. It is our thorough conviction that the devil has succeeded in ruining the

testimony of hundreds, and in causing them to make shipwreck of faith and a good

conscience, by the use of stimulants. Thousands ruin their fortunes, ruin their

families, ruin their health, ruin their souls through the senseless, vile and cursed

desire for stimulants.

We are not going to preach a crusade against stimulants or narcotics. The wrong is not

in the things themselves but in our inordinate and sinful use of them. It not

infrequently happens that persons who fall under the horrible dominion of drink seek

to lay the blame on their medical adviser; but surely no proper medical man would

ever advise his patient to indulge in the use of stimulants. He may prescribe the use of

"a little wine, for the stomach's sake and frequent infirmities," and he has the very

highest authority for so doing; but why should this lead any one to become a

drunkard? Each one is responsible to walk in the fear of God in reference to both

eating and drinking. If a doctor prescribes a little nourishing food for his patient, is he

to be blamed if that patient becomes a glutton? Surely not; the evil is not in the

doctor's prescription, or in the stimulant, or in the nourishment, but in the wretched

lust of the heart.

Here, we are persuaded, lies the root of the evil; and the remedy is found in that

precious grace of God which while it bringeth salvation unto all men, teacheth those

who are saved "to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world." And be it

remembered that " to live soberly" means a great deal more than temperance in eating

and drinking; it means this most surely, but it takes in also the whole range of inward

self-government—the government of the thoughts, the government of the temper, the

government of the tongue. The grace that saves us not only tells us how to live, but

teaches how to do it, and if we follow its teachings we shall be well content with

God's provision for the stranger.

It is, at once, interesting and edifying to notice the way in which Moses sets the divine

example before the people as their model. Jehovah "loveth the stranger, in giving him

food and raiment. Love ye therefore the stranger; for ye were strangers in the land of

Egypt." This is very touching. They were not only to keep before their eyes the divine

model, but also to remember their own past history and experience, in order that their

hearts might be drawn out in sympathy and compassion toward the poor homeless

stranger. It was the bounden duty and high privilege of the Israel of God to place

themselves in the circumstances and enter into the feelings of others. They were to be

the moral representatives of that blessed One whose people they were, and whose

Name was called upon them. They were to imitate Him in meeting the wants and

gladdening the hearts of the fatherless, the widow, and the stranger. And if God's

earthly people were called to this lovely course of action, how much more are we who

are "blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus." May we

abide more in His presence, and drink more into His Spirit, that so we may more

faithfully reflect His moral glories upon all with whom we come in contact!

The closing lines of our chapter give us a very fine summing up of the practical

teaching which has been engaging our attention. "Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God;

him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name. He is thy

praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which

thine eyes have seen. Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten

persons; and now the Lord hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude." Vers.

20-22.

How thoroughly bracing is all this to the moral being! This binding of the heart to the

Lord Himself by means of all that He is and all His wondrous actings and gracious

ways, is unspeakably precious. It is, we may truly say, the secret spring of all true

devotedness. God grant that the writer and the reader may abidingly realise its motive

power!

Deuteronomy 11

"Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and

his judgements, and his commandments, alway. And know ye this day; for I speak not

with your children which have not known, and which have not seen the chastisements

of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his stretched out arm, and

his miracles and his acts, which he did in the midst of Egypt unto Pharaoh the king of

Egypt, and unto all his land; and what he did unto the army of Egypt, unto their

horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the Red Sea to overflow them

as they pursued after you, and how the Lord hath destroyed them unto this day; and

what he did unto you in the wilderness, until ye came unto this place; and what he did

unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben; how the earth opened

her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents, and all the

substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel; but your eyes have

seen all the great acts of the Lord which he did."

Moses felt it to be of the very highest importance that all the mighty acts of Jehovah

should be kept prominently before the hearts of the people, and deeply engraved on

the tablets of their memory. The poor human mind is vagrant, and the heart volatile;

and, notwithstanding all that Israel had seen of the solemn judgements of God upon

Egypt and upon Pharaoh, they were in danger of forgetting them, and losing the

impression which they were designed and eminently fitted to make upon them.

It may be we feel disposed to wonder how Israel could ever forget the impressive

scenes of their history in Egypt from first to last—the descent of their fathers thither

as a mere handful, their steady growth and progress, as a people, spite of formidable

difficulties and hindrances, so that from the insignificant few they had become, by the

good hand of their God upon them, as the stars of heaven for multitude.

And then those ten plagues upon the land of Egypt! How full of awful solemnity!

How pre-eminently calculated to impress the heart with a sense of the mighty power

of God, the utter impotency and insignificance of man, in all his boasted wisdom,

strength and glory, and the egregious folly of his attempting to set himself up against

the Almighty God! What was all the power of Pharaoh and of Egypt in the presence of

the Lord God of Israel! In one hour all was plunged into hopeless ruin and

destruction. All the chariots of Egypt, all the pomp and glory, the valour and might of

that ancient and far-famed nation—all was overwhelmed in the depths of the sea.

And why? Because they had presumed to meddle with the Israel of God; they had

dared to set themselves in opposition to the eternal purpose and counsel of the Most

High. They sought to crush those on whom He had set His love. He had sworn to bless

the seed of Abraham, and no power of earth or hell could possibly annul His oath.

Pharaoh, in his pride and hardness of heart, attempted to countervail the divine

actings, but he only meddled to his own destruction. His land was shaken to its very

centre, and himself and his mighty army overthrown in the Red Sea, a solemn

example to all who should ever attempt to stand in the way of Jehovah's purpose to

bless the seed of Abraham His friend.

Nor was it merely what Jehovah had done to Egypt and to Pharaoh that the people

were called to remember, but also what He had done amongst themselves. How soul-

subduing the judgement upon Dathan and Abiram and their households! How awful

the thought of the earth opening her mouth and swallowing them up! And for what?

For their rebellion against the divine appointment. In the history given in Numbers,

Korah, the Levite, is the prominent character; but here he is omitted, and the two

Reubenites are named—two members of the congregation, because Moses is seeking

to act on the whole body of the people by setting before them the terrible consequence

of self-will in two of their number—two ordinary members, as we should say, and not

merely a privileged Levite.

In a word, then, whether the attention was called to the divine actings without or

within, abroad or at home, it was all for the purpose of impressing their hearts and

minds with a deep sense of the moral importance of obedience. This was the one

grand aim of all the rehearsals, all the comment, all the exhortations of the faithful

servant of God who was so soon to be removed from their midst. For this he ranges

over their history for centuries, culling, grouping, commenting, taking up this fact and

omitting that, as guided by the Spirit of God. The journey down to Egypt, the sojourn

there, the heavy judgements upon the self-willed Pharaoh, the exodus, the passage

through the sea, the scenes in the wilderness, and specially, the awful fate of the two

rebellious Reubenites—all is brought to bear, with marvellous force and clearness,

upon the conscience of the people, in order to strengthen the basis of Jehovah's claim

upon their unqualified obedience to His holy commandments.

"Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that

ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land, whither ye go to possess it; and that

ye may prolong your days in the land, which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give

unto them and to their seed, a land that floweth with milk and honey."

Let the reader note the beautiful moral link between those two clauses, "Keep all the

commandments"—"That ye may be strong." There is great strength gained by

unreserved obedience to the word of God. It will not do to pick and choose. We are

prone to this, prone to take up certain commandments and precepts which suit

ourselves; but this is really self-will. What right have we to select such and such

precepts from the word, and neglect others! None whatever. To do so is, in principle,

simply self-will and rebellion. What business has a servant to decide as to which of

his master's commands he will obey? Surely none whatever; each commandment

stands clothed with the masters authority, and therefore claims the servant's attention;

and, we may add, the more implicitly the servant obeys, the more he bends his

respectful attention to every one of his master's commands, be it ever so trivial, the

more does he strengthen himself in his position and grow in his master's confidence

and esteem. Every master loves and values an obedient, faithful, devoted servant. We

all know what a comfort it is to have a servant whom we can trust, one who finds his

delight in carrying out our every wish, and who does not require perpetual looking

after, but knows his duty and attends to it.

Now, ought we not to seek to refresh the heart of our blessed Master, by a loving

obedience to all His commandments? Only think, reader, what a privilege it is to be

allowed to give joy to the heart of that blessed One who loved us and gave Himself

for us. It is something wonderful that poor creatures such as we can in any way

refresh the heart of Jesus; yet so it is, blessed be His Name! He delights in our

keeping His commandments; and assuredly the thought of this should stir our whole

moral being, and lead us to study His word, in order to find out, more and more, what

His commandments are—so that we may do them.

We are forcibly reminded, by those words of Moses which we have just quoted, of the

apostle's prayer for "the saints and faithful brethren in Christ at Colosse." "For this

cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire

that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual

understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful

in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all

might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with

joyfulness; giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of

the inheritance of the saints in light; who hath delivered us from the power of

darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love; in whom we

have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins." (Col. 1: 9-14.)

Making allowance for the difference between the earthly and the heavenly—between

Israel and the church, there is a striking similarity between the words of the law-giver

and the words of the apostle. Both together are eminently fitted to set forth the beauty

and preciousness of a willing-hearted loving obedience. It is precious to the Father,

precious to Christ, precious to the Holy Ghost; and this surely ought to be enough to

create and strengthen in our hearts the desire to be filled with the knowledge of His

will, that so we might walk worthy of Him to all pleasing, being fruitful in every good

work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. It should lead us to a more diligent

study of the word of God, so that we might be ever finding out more and more of our

Lord's mind and will, learning what is well-pleasing to Him, and looking to Him for

grace to do it. Thus should our hearts be kept near to Him, and we should find an

ever-deepening interest in searching the scriptures not merely to grow in the

knowledge of truth, but in the knowledge of God, the knowledge of Christ—the deep,

personal, experimental knowledge of all that it treasured up in that blessed One who

is the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Oh! may the Spirit Of God, by His most precious

and powerful ministry, awaken in us a more intense desire to know and to do the will

of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, that thus we may refresh His loving

heart and be well-pleasing to Him in all things!

We must now turn, for a moment, to the lovely picture of the promised land which

Moses holds up before the eyes of the people. "For the land whither thou goest in to

possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst

thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs: but the land, whither ye

go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven;

a land which the Lord thy God careth for; the eyes of the Lord thy God are always

upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year." (Vers. 10-12.)

What a vivid contrast between Egypt and Canaan! Egypt had no rain from heaven. It

was all human effort there. Not so in the Lord's land; the human foot could do nothing

there, nor was there any need, for the blessed rain from heaven dropped upon it;

Jehovah Himself cared for it and watered it with the early and latter rain. The land of

Egypt was dependent upon its own resources; the land of Canaan was wholly

dependent upon God—upon what came down from heaven "My river is mine own,"

was the language of Egypt. "The river of God" was the hope of Canaan. The habit in

Egypt was to water with the foot; the habit in Canaan was to look up to heaven.

We have in the sixty-fifth Psalm a lovely statement of the condition of things in the

Lord's land, as viewed by the eye of faith "Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it;

thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God which is full of water; thou preparest

them corn, when thou hast so provided for it. Thou waterest the ridges thereof

abundantly; thou settlest the furrows thereof; thou makest it soft with showers; thou

blessest the springing thereof. Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy

paths drop fatness. They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness; and the little hills

rejoice on every side. The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are

covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing." (Vers. 9-13.)

How perfectly beautiful! Only think of God watering the ridges, and settling the

furrows! Think of His stooping down to do the work of a husbandman for His people!

Yes, and delighting to do it! It was the joy of His heart to pour His sunbeams and His

refreshing showers upon the "hills and valleys" of His beloved people. It was

refreshing to His spirit, as it was to the praise of His Name to see the vine, the fig-tree

and the olive flourishing, the valleys covered with the golden grain, and the rich

pastures covered with flocks of sheep.

Thus it should ever have been, and thus it would have been, had Israel only walked in

simple obedience to the holy law of God. "It shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken

diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord

your God, and to serve him with all your heart, and with all your soul, that I will give

you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou

mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. And I will send grass in thy

fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full." (Vers. 13-15)

Thus the matter stood between the God of Israel, and the Israel of God. Nothing could

be simpler, nothing more blessed. It was Israel's high and holy privilege to love and

serve Jehovah; it was Jehovah's prerogative to bless and prosper Israel. Happiness and

fruitfulness were to be the sure accompaniments of obedience. The people and their

land were wholly dependent upon God; all their supplies were to come down from

heaven, and hence so long as they walked in loving obedience the copious showers

dropped upon their fields and vineyards; the heavens dropped down the dew, and the

earth responded in fruitfulness and blessing.

But, on the other hand, when Israel forgot the Lord, and forsook His precious

commandments, the heaven became brass and the earth iron; barrenness, desolation,

famine and misery were the melancholy accompaniments of disobedience. How could

it be otherwise? "If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land; but if

ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword; for the mouth Of the Lord

bath spoken it."

Now, in all this there is deep practical instruction for the church of God. Although we

are not under law, we are called to obedience, and as we are enabled through grace to

yield a loving hearty obedience, we are blessed in our own spiritual state, our souls

are watered, refreshed and strengthened, and we bring forth the fruits of righteousness

which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

The reader may refer with much profit, in connection with this great practical subject,

to the opening of John 15—a most precious scripture, and one demanding the earnest

attention of every true-hearted child of God. "I am the true vine, and my Father is the

husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away; and every

branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are

clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As

the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye,

except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches; he that abideth in me, and I

in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without [or apart from] me ye can do

nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and

men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me,

and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As

the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you; continue ye in my love. If ye keep my

commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's

commandments, and abide in his love." (Vers. 1-10.)

This weighty passage of scripture has suffered: immensely through theological

controversy and religious strife. It is as plain as it is practical, and only needs to be

taken as it stands, in its own divine simplicity. If we seek to import into it what does

not belong to it, we mar its integrity and miss its true application. In it we have Christ,

the true vine, taking the place of Israel who had become to Jehovah the degenerate

plant of a strange vine. The scene of the parable is obviously earth and not heaven; we

do not think of a vine and a husbandman (gewrgo") in heaven. Besides, our Lord

says, "I am the true vine." The figure is very distinct. It is not the Head and the

members, but a tree and its branches. Moreover, the subject of the parable is as

distinct as the parable itself; it is not eternal life, but fruit-bearing. If this were borne

in mind, it would greatly help to an understanding of this much misunderstood

passage of scripture.

In a word then, we learn from the figure of the vine and its branches that the true

secret of fruit-bearing is to abide in Christ, and the way to abide in Christ is to keep

His precious commandments. "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my

love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love." This

makes it all so simple. The way to bear fruit in season is to abide in the love of Christ,

and this abiding is proved by our treasuring up His commandments in our hearts and a

loving obedience to every one of them. It is not running hither and thither in the mere

energy of nature; it is not the excitement of mere fleshly zeal displaying itself in

spasmodic efforts after devotedness. No; it is something quite different from all this;

it is the calm and holy obedience of the heart—a loving obedience to our own beloved

Lord which refreshes His heart and glorifies His Name.

"How blest are they who still abide

Close sheltered by Thy watchful side;

Who life and strength from Thee receive

And with Thee move and in Thee live."

Reader, may we apply our hearts diligently to this great subject of fruit-bearing. May

we better understand what it is. We are apt to make great mistakes about it. It is to be

feared that much—very much of what passes for fruit would not be accredited in the

divine presence. God cannot own anything as fruit which is not the direct result of

abiding in Christ. We may earn a great name among our fellows for zeal, energy and

devotedness; we may be abundant in labours, in every department of the work; we

may acquit ourselves as great travellers, great preachers, earnest workers in the

vineyard, great philanthropists and moral reformers; we may spend a princely fortune

in promoting all the great objects of Christian benevolence, and all the while not

produce a single cluster of fruit acceptable to the Father's heart.

And, on the other hand, it may be our lot to pass the time of our sojourn here in

obscurity and retirement from human gaze; we may be little accounted of by the

world and the professing church; we may seem to leave but little mark on the sands of

time; but if only we abide in Christ, abide in His love, treasure up His precious words

in our hearts, and yield ourselves up to a holy and loving obedience to His

commandments, then shall our fruit be in season, and our Father will be glorified, and

we shall grow in the experimental knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

We shall now look for a moment at the remainder of our chapter in which Moses, in

words of intense earnestness, presses upon the congregation the urgent need of

watchfulness and diligence in reference to all the statutes and judgments of the Lord

their God. The beloved and faithful servant of God, and true lover of the people was

unwearied in his efforts to brace them up to that whole-hearted obedience which he

knew to be, at once, the spring of their happiness and their fruitfulness; and just as our

blessed Lord warns His disciples by setting before them the solemn judgement of the

unfruitful branch, so does Moses warn the people as to the sure and terrible

consequences of disobedience.

"Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and

serve other gods, and worship them." Sad progress downward! The heart deceived.

This is the beginning of all declension. "And ye turn aside." The feet are sure to

follow the heart. Hence the deep need of keeping the heart with all diligence; it is the

citadel of the whole moral being, and so long as it is kept for the Lord, the enemy can

gain no advantage; but when once it is surrendered, all is really gone; there is the

turning aside; the secret departure of the heart is proved by the practical ways; "other

gods" are served and worshipped. The descent down along the inclined plane is

terribly rapid.

"And then"—mark the sure and solemn consequences—"the Lord's wrath be kindled

against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield

not her fruit; and ye perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord giveth you"

What barrenness and desolation there must be when heaven is shut up! No refreshing

showers coming down, no dewdrops falling, no communication between the heaven

and the earth. Alas! how often had Israel tasted the awful reality of this! "He turneth

rivers into a wilderness, and the water-springs into dry ground; a fruitful land into

barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein."

And may we not see in the barren land and the desolate wilderness an apt and striking

illustration of a soul out of communion through disobedience to the precious

commandments of Christ? Such an one has no refreshing communications with

heaven—no showers coming down—no unfoldings of the preciousness of Christ to

the heart no sweet ministrations of an ungrieved Spirit to the soul; the Bible seems a

sealed book; all is dark, dreary and desolate. Oh! there cannot be anything more

miserable in all this world than a soul in this condition. May the writer and the reader

never experience it! May we bend our ears to the fervent exhortations addressed by

Moses to the congregation of Israel! They are most seasonable, most healthful, most

needful in this day of cold indifferentism and positive wilfulness. They set before us

the divine antidote against the special evils to which the church of God is exposed at

this very hour—an hour critical and solemn beyond all human conception.

"Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind

them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And

ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house,

and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up;

and thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thine house, and upon thy gates, that

your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the

Lord sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth."

Blessed days! And oh! how ardently the large, loving heart of Moses longed that the

people might enjoy many such days! And how simple the condition! Truly nothing

could be simpler, nothing more precious. It was not a heavy yoke laid upon them, but

the sweet privilege of treasuring up the precious commandments of the Lord their

God, in their hearts, and breathing the very atmosphere of His holy word. All was to

hinge upon this. All the blessings of the land of Canaan—that goodly, highly favoured

land, a land flowing with milk and honey, a land on which Jehovah's eyes ever rested

in loving interest and tender care—all its precious fruits, all its rare privileges were to

be theirs in perpetuity, on the one simple condition of loving obedience to the word of

their covenant God.

"For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do

them, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him; then

will the Lord drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater

nations and mightier than yourselves." In a word, sure and certain victory was before

them, a most complete overthrow of all enemies and obstacles, a triumphal march

into the promised inheritance—all secured to them on the blessed ground of

affectionate and reverential obedience to the most precious statutes and judgments

that had ever been addressed to the human heart—statutes and judgements every one

of which was but the very voice of their most gracious Deliverer.

"Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours; from the

wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost

sea, shall your coast be. There shall no man be able to stand before you; for the Lord

your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall

tread upon, as he hath said unto you."

Here was the divine side of the question. The whole land, in its length, breadth and

fulness, lay before them; they had but to take possession of it, as the free gift of God;

it was for them simply to plant the foot, in artless appropriating faith, upon that fair

inheritance which sovereign grace had bestowed upon them. All this we see made

good in the Book of Joshua, as we read in Joshua 11. "So Joshua took the whole land,

according to all that the Lord said unto Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance

unto Israel, according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land rested from war."

(Ver. 23.)*

{*No doubt it was in faith that Joshua took—and could take nothing less than—the

whole land. But as to actual possession, Joshua 13: 1 shows there was "yet much land

to be possessed."}

But alas! there was the human side of the question as well as the divine. Canaan as

promised by Jehovah and made good by the faith of Joshua, was one thing; and

Canaan as possessed by Israel, was quite another. Hence the vast difference between

Joshua and Judges. In Joshua we see the infallible faithfulness of God to His promise;

in Judges, we see Israel's miserable failure from the very outset. God pledged His

immutable word that not a man should be able to stand before them; and the sword of

Joshua—type of the great Captain of our salvation—made good this pledge in its

every jot and tittle. But the Book of Judges records the melancholy fact that Israel

failed to drive out the enemy—failed to take possession of the divine grant in all its

royal magnificence.

What then? Is the promise of God made of none effect? Nay, verily, but the utter

failure of man is made apparent. At "Gilgal" the banner of victory floated over the

twelve tribes, with their invincible captain at their head. At "Bochim" the weepers had

to mourn over Israel's lamentable defeat.

Have we any difficulty in understanding the difference? None whatever; we see the

two things running all through the divine Volume. Man fails to rise to the height of

the divine revelation—fails to take possession of what grace bestows. This is as true

in the history of the church as it was in the history of Israel. In the New Testament, as

well as in the Old, we have Judges as well as Joshua.

Yes, reader, and in the history of each individual member of the church we see the

same thing. Where is the Christian, beneath the canopy of heaven, that lives up to the

height of his spiritual privileges? Where is the child of God who has not to mourn

over his humiliating failure in grasping and making good practically the high and holy

privileges of his calling of God? But does this make the truth of God of none effect?

No; blessed for ever be His Holy Name! His word holds good in all its divine integrity

and eternal stability. Just as in Israel's case, the land of promise lay before them in all

its fair proportions and divinely given attractions; and not only so, but they could

count on the faithfulness and almighty power of God to bring them in and put them in

full possession; so with us, we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies

in Christ; there is absolutely no limit to the privileges connected with our standing,

and as to our actual enjoyment it is only a question of faith taking possession of all

that God's sovereign grace has made ours in Christ.

We must never forget that it is the privilege of the Christian to live at the very height

of the divine revelation. There is no excuse for a shallow experience or a low walk.

We have no right whatever to say that we cannot realise the fulness of our portion in

Christ, that the standard is too high, the privileges are too vast, that we cannot expect

to enjoy such marvellous blessings and dignities in our present imperfect state.

All this is downright unbelief, and should be so treated by every true Christian. The

question is, Has the grace of God bestowed the privileges upon us? Has the death of

Christ made Good our title to them? And has the Holy Ghost declared them to be the

proper portion of the very feeblest member of the body of Christ? If so—and scripture

declares it is so—why should we not enjoy them? There is no hindrance on the divine

side. It is the desire of the heart of God that we should enter into the fulness of our

portion in Christ. Hear the earnest breathing of the inspired apostle, on behalf of the

saints at Ephesus, and of all saints. "Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the

Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making

mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of

glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him;

the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope

of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and

what the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the

working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from

the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenlies, far above all

principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not

only in this world, but also in that which is to come; and hath put all things under his

feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the

fulness of him that filleth all in all" (Eph. 1: 15-23.)

From this marvellous prayer we may learn how earnestly the Spirit of God desires that

we should apprehend and enjoy the glorious privileges of the true Christian position.

He would ever, by His precious and powerful ministry, keep our hearts up to the

mark; but alas! like Israel, we grieve Him by our sinful unbelief, and rob our own

souls of incalculable blessing.

But, all praise to the God of all grace, the Father of glory, the God and Father of our

Lord Jesus Christ, He will yet make good every jot and tittle of His most precious

truth, both as to His earthly and heavenly people. Israel shall yet enjoy to the full all

the blessings secured to them by the everlasting covenant; and the church shall yet

enter upon the perfect fruition of all that which eternal love and divine counsels have

laid up for her in Christ; and not only so, but the blessed Comforter is able and

willing to lead the individual believer into the present enjoyment of the hope of God's

glorious calling, and the practical power of that hope, in detaching the heart from

present things and separating it to God in true holiness and living devotedness.

May our hearts, beloved Christian reader, long more ardently after the full realisation

of all this, that thus we may live more as those who are finding their portion and their

rest in a risen and glorified Christ! God, in His infinite goodness, grant it, for Jesus

Christ's Name and glory's sake!

The remaining verses of our chapter close the first division of the Book of

Deuteronomy which, as the reader will notice, consists of a series of discourses

addressed by Moses to the congregation of Israel—memorable discourses, most

surely, in whatever way we view them. The closing sentences are, we need hardly say,

in perfect keeping with the whole, and breathe the same deep-toned earnestness in

reference to the subject of obedience—a subject which, as we have seen, formed the

special burden on the heart of the beloved speaker in his affecting farewell addresses

to the people.

"Behold, I set before you this day s blessing and a curse"—How pointed and solemn is

this!—"A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I

command you this day; and a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the

Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go

after other gods, which ye have not known. And it shall come to pass, when the Lord

thy God hath brought thee in unto the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou

shalt put the blessing upon mount Gerazim, and the curse upon mount Ebal. Are they

not on the other side Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth down, in the land of the

Canaanites, which dwell in the champaign over against Gilgal, beside the plains of

Moreh? For ye shall pass over Jordan, to go in to possess the land which the Lord your

God giveth you, and ye shall possess it, and dwell therein. AND YE SHALL

OBSERVE TO DO ALL THE STATUTES AND JUDGMENTS WHICH I SET

BEFORE YOU THIS DAY." (Vers. 26-32.)

Here we have the summing up of the whole matter. The blessing is linked on to

obedience; the curse, to disobedience. Mount Gerazim stands over against mount

Ebal—fruitfulness and barrenness. We shall see, when we come to Deuteronomy 27,

that mount Gerazim and its blessings are entirely passed over. The curses of mount

Ebal fall, with awful distinctness, on Israel's ear, while terrible silence reigns on

mount Gerazim. "As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse." The

blessing of Abraham can only come on those who are on the ground of faith. But

more of this, by-and-by.

Deuteronomy 12.

We now enter upon a new section of our marvellous book. The discourses contained

in the first eleven chapters having established the all-important principle of

obedience, we now come to the practical application of the principle to the habits and

ways of the people when settled in possession of the land "These are the statutes and

judgements which ye shall observe to do in the land which the Lord God of thy fathers

giveth thee to possess it, all the days that ye live upon the earth"

It is of the utmost moral importance that the heart and conscience should be brought

into their true attitude in reference to divine authority, irrespective altogether of any

question as to details. These will find their due place when once the heart is taught to

bow down, in complete and absolute submission, to the supreme authority of the word

of God.

Now, as we have seen in our studies on the first eleven chapters, the law-giver

labours, most earnestly and faithfully, to lead the heart of Israel into this all-essential

condition. He felt, to speak after the manner of men, it was of no use entering upon

practical details until the grand foundation principle of all morality was fully

established in the very deepest depths of the soul. The principle is this—let us

Christians apply our hearts to it—It is man's bounden duty to bow implicitly to the

authority of the word of God. It matters not, in the smallest degree, what that word

may enjoin, or whether we can see the reason of this, that or the other institution. The

one grand, all-important and conclusive point is this, Has God spoken? If He has, that

is quite enough. There is no room, no need for any further question.

Until this point is fully established, or rather until the heart is brought directly under

its full moral force, we are not in a condition to enter upon details. If self-will be

allowed to operate, if blind reason be permitted to speak, the heart will send up its

endless questionings; as each divine institution is laid before us, some fresh difficulty

will present itself as a stumbling-block in the path of simple obedience.

"What!" it may be said, "Are we not to use our reason? If not, to what end was it

given?" To this we have a twofold reply. In the first place, our reason is not as it was

when God gave it We have to remember that sin has come in; man is a fallen creature,

his reason, his judgement, his understanding, his whole moral being is a complete

wreck; and moreover, it was the neglect of the word of God that caused all this wreck

and ruin.

And, then, in the second place, we must bear in mind that if reason were in a sound

condition, it would prove its soundness by bowing to the word of God. But it is not

sound; it is blind and utterly perverted; it is not to be trusted for a moment, in things

spiritual, divine or heavenly.

If this simple fact were thoroughly understood, it would settle a thousand questions

and remove a thousand difficulties. It is reason that makes all the infidels. The devil

whispers into man's ear, "You are endowed with reason; why not use it? It was given

to be used, used in everything; you ought not to give your assent to anything which

your reason cannot grasp. It is your chartered right, as a man, to submit everything to

the test of your reason; it is only for a fool or an idiot to receive, in blind credulity, all

that is set before him."

What is our answer to such wily and dangerous suggestions? A very simple and

conclusive one, namely this. The word of God is above and beyond reason altogether;

it is as far above reason as God is above the creature, or heaven above earth Hence,

when God speaks, all reasonings must be cast down If it be merely man's word, man's

opinion, man's judgement, then verily reason may exert its powers; or rather, to speak

more correctly, we must judge what is said by the only perfect standard, the word of

God. But if reason be set to work on the word of God, the soul must inevitably be

plunged in the thick darkness of infidelity from which the descent to the awful

blackness of atheism is but too easy.

In a word, then, we have to remember, yea, to cherish in the very deepest depths of

our moral being, that the only safe ground for the soul is divinely wrought faith in the

paramount authority, divine majesty, and all-sufficiency of the word of God. This was

the ground which Moses occupied in dealing with the heart and conscience of Israel.

His one grand object was to lead the people into the attitude of profound, unqualified

subjection to divine authority. Without this all was useless. If every statute, every

judgement, every precept, every institution were to be submitted to the action of

human reason, then farewell to divine authority, farewell to scripture, farewell to

certainty, farewell to peace. But, on the other hand, when the soul is led by God's

Spirit into the delightful attitude of absolute and unquestioning submission to the

authority of God's word, then every one of His judgements, every one of His

commandments, every sentence of His blessed Book is received as coming direct

from Himself; and the most simple ordinance or institution, stands invested with all

the importance which His authority is fitted to impart. We may not be able to

understand the full meaning or exact bearing of each statute and -judgement; that is

not the question; it is sufficient for us to know that it comes from God; He has

spoken; this is conclusive. Till this great principle is grasped, or rather till it takes full

possession of the soul, nothing is done; but when it is fully understood and submitted

to, the solid foundation is laid of all true morality.

The foregoing line of thought will enable the reader to seize the connection between

the chapter which now lies open before us, and the preceding section of this book;

and not only will it do this, but we trust it will also help him to understand the special

place and bearing of the opening verses of chapter 12.

"Ye shall utterly destroy all the places wherein the nations which ye shall possess

served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green

tree. And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves

with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the

names of them out of that place." (Vers. 2, 3)

The land was Jehovah's; they were to hold as tenants under Him, and therefore their

very first duty on entering upon possession, was to demolish every trace of the old

idolatry. This was absolutely indispensable It might, according to human reason, seem

to be very intolerant to act in this way towards other people's religion. We reply,

without any hesitation, Yes, it was intolerant, for how could the one only true and

living God be otherwise than intolerant of all false gods and false worships. To

suppose, for moment, that He could permit the worship of idols in His land, would be

to suppose that He could deny Himself, which were simply blasphemy.

Let us not be misunderstood It is not that God does not bear with the world, in His

long-suffering mercy. It seems hardly needful to state this, with the history of well-

nigh six thousand years of divine forbearance before our eyes. Blessed for ever be His

holy Name, He has borne with the world most marvellously, from the days of Noah,

and He still bears with it, though stained with the guilt of crucifying His beloved Son.

All this is vain, but it leaves wholly untouched the great principle laid down in our

chapter. Israel had to learn that they were about to take possession of the Lord's land,

and that, as His tenants, their first and indispensable duty was to obliterate every trace

of idolatry. To them there was to be but "the one God.' His Name was called upon

them. They were His people, and He could not permit them to have fellowship with

demons. "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God; and him only shalt thou serve."

This might, in the judgement of the uncircumcised nations around, seem very

intolerant, very narrow, very bigoted. They indeed might boast of their freedom, and

glory in the broad platform. of their worship which admitted "gods many and lords

many." It might, according to their thinking, argue greater breadth of mind to let every

one think for himself in matters of religion, and choose his own object of worship,

and his own mode of worshipping also. Or, still further, it might give evidence of a

more advanced condition of civilisation, greater polish and refinement to erect, as in

Rome, a pantheon in which all the gods of Heathendom might find a place. "What did

it matter about the form of a man's religion, or the object of his worship, provided he

himself were sincere? All would be sure to come right in the end; the great point for

all was to attend to material progress, to help on national prosperity as the surest

means of securing individual interests. Of course, it is all right for every man to have

some religion, but as to the form of that religion it is immaterial. The great question is

what you are yourself, not what your religion is."

All this, we can well conceive, would admirably suit the carnal mind, and be very

popular amongst the uncircumcised nations. But as for Israel, they had to remember

that one commanding sentence, "The Lord thy God is one God." And again, "Thou

shalt have none other gods before me;" This was to be their religion; the platform of

their worship was to be as wide and as narrow as the one true and living God, their

Creator and Redeemer. That, assuredly, was broad enough for every true worshipper,

every member of the circumcised assembly, all whose high and holy privilege it was

to belong to the Israel of God. They were not to concern themselves with the opinions

or observations of the uncircumcised nations around. What were they worth? Not the

weight of a feather. What could they know about the claims of the God of Israel upon

His circumcised people? Just nothing. Were they competent to decide as to the proper

breadth of Israel's platform? Clearly not; they were wholly ignorant of the subject.

Hence their thoughts, reasonings, arguments and objections were perfectly worthless,

not to be listened to for a moment. It was Israel's one simple, bounden duty to bow

down to the supreme and absolute authority of the word of God; and that word

insisted upon the complete abolition of every trace of idolatry from that goodly land

which they were privileged to hold as tenants under Him.

But not only was it incumbent upon Israel to abolish all the places in which the

heathen had worshipped their gods; this they were solemnly bound to do, most surely;

but there was more than this. The heart might readily conceive the thought of doing

away with idolatry, in the various places, and setting up the altar of the true God

instead. This might seem to be the right course to adopt. But God thought differently.

"Ye shall not do so unto the Lord your God. But unto the place which the Lord your

God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, even unto his habitation

shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come; and thither ye shall bring your burnt

offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and heave offerings of your hand, and

your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your

flocks; and there ye shall eat before the Lord your God; and ye shall rejoice in all that

ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the Lord thy God hath

blessed thee."

Here a great cardinal truth is unfolded to the congregation of Israel. They were to

have one place of worship—a place chosen of God and not of man. His habitation—

the place of His presence was to be Israel's grand centre; thither they were to come

with their sacrifices and their offerings, and there they were to offer their worship,

and find their common joy.

Does this seem exclusive? Of course it was exclusive; how else could it be? If God

was pleased to select a spot in which He would take up His abode in the midst of His

redeemed people, surely they were, of necessity, shut up to that spot as their place of

worship. This was divine exclusiveness, and every pious soul would delight in it.

Every true lover of Jehovah would say, with all his heart, "Lord, I have loved the

habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth." And, again,

"How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth; yea, even

fainteth for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living

God... . Blessed are they that dwell in thy house; they will be still praising thee.... A

day in Thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house

of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." (Psalms 26: 84.)

Here was the one grand and all-important point. It was the dwelling-place of Jehovah

which was dear to the heart of every true Israelite. Restless self-will might desire to

run hither and thither; the poor vagrant heart might long for some change; but, for the

heart that loved God, any change from the place of His presence, the place where He

had recorded His blessed Name, could only be a change for the worse. The truly

devout worshipper could find satisfaction and delight, blessing and rest only in the

place of the divine presence; and this, on the double ground, the authority of His

precious word, and the powerful attractions of His presence. Such an one could never

think of going anywhere else. Whither could he go? There was but one altar, one

habitation, one God, that was the place for every right-minded, every true-hearted

Israelite. To think of any other place of worship would, in his judgement, be not only

a departure from the word of Jehovah, but from His holy habitation.

This great principle is largely insisted upon throughout the whole of our chapter.

Moses reminds the people that from the moment they entered Jehovah's land, there

was to be an end to all the irregularity and self-will that had characterised them in the

plains of Moab or in the wilderness. "Ye shall not do after all the things that we do

here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes. For ye are not as yet

come to the rest, and to the inheritance, which the Lord your God giveth you. But

when ye go over Jordan, and dwell in the land which the Lord your God giveth you to

inherit, and when he giveth you rest from all your enemies round about, so that ye

dwell in safety; then there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose, to

cause his name to dwell there; thither shall ye bring all that I command you.... Take

heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt-offerings in every place that thou seest;

but in the place which the Lord shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer

thy burnt offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee." (Vers. 4-14.)

Thus, not only in the object, but also in the place and mode of Israel's worship, they

were absolutely shut up! to the commandment of Jehovah. Self pleasing, self-

choosing, self-will was to have an end, in reference to the worship of God, the

moment they crossed the river of death, and, as a redeemed people planted their foot

on their divinely given inheritance. Once there, in the enjoyment of Jehovah's land,

and the rest which the land afforded, obedience to His word was to be their

reasonable, their intelligent service. Things might be allowed to pass in the wilderness

which could not be tolerated in Canaan. The higher the range of privilege, the higher

the responsibility and the standard of action.

Now, it may be that our broad thinkers, and those who contend for freedom of will

and freedom of action, for the right of private judgement in matters of religion, for

liberality of mind and catholicity of spirit, will be ready to pronounce all this, which

has been engaging our attention, extremely narrow, and wholly unsuited to our

enlightened age, and to men of intelligence and education.

What is our answer to all who adopt this form of speech? A very simple and

conclusive one; it is this, Has not God a right to prescribe the mode in which His

people should worship Him? Had He not a perfect right to fix the place where He

would meet His people Israel? Surely we must either deny His existence, or admit His

absolute and unquestionable right to set forth His will as to how, when and where His

people should approach Him. Will any one, however educated and enlightened, deny

this? Is it a proof of high culture, refinement, breadth of mind or catholicity of spirit,

to deny God His rights.

If then God has a right to command, is it narrowness or bigotry for His people to

obey? This is just the point. It is, in our judgement, as simple as anything can be. We

are thoroughly convinced that the only true breadth of mind, largeness of heart and

catholicity of spirit, is to obey the commandments of God. Hence, when Israel were

commanded to go to one place and there offer their sacrifices, it most assuredly was

neither bigotry nor narrowness on their part to go thither, and to refuse, with holy

decision, to go anywhere else. Uncircumcised Gentiles might go where they pleased;

the Israel of God were to go only to the place of His appointment.

And oh! what an unspeakable privilege for all who loved God and loved one another

to assemble themselves at the place where He recorded His Name! And what touching

grace shines in the fact of His desiring to gather His people round Himself, from time

to time! Did that fact infringe their personal rights and domestic privileges? Nay, it

enhanced them immensely. God, in His infinite goodness, took care of this. It was His

delight to minister to the joy and blessing of His people, privately, socially and

publicly. Hence we read, "When the Lord thy God shall enlarge thy border, as he hath

promised thee, and thou shalt say, I will eat flesh, because thy soul longeth to eat

flesh, thou mayest eat flesh, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after. If the place which the

Lord thy God hath chosen to put his name there be too far from thee, then thou shalt

kill of thy herd and of thy flock, which the Lord hath given thee, as I have

commanded thee, and thou shalt eat in thy gates whatsoever thy soul lusteth after,

even as the roebuck and the hart is eaten, so thou shalt eat them; the unclean and the

clean shall eat of them alike."

Here we have, most surely, a broad margin afforded by the goodness and tender

mercy of God, for the fullest range of personal and family enjoyment. The only

restriction was in reference to the blood. "Only be sure that thou eat not the blood; for

The blood is the life; and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh, Thou shalt not eat

it; thou shalt pour it upon the earth as water. Thou shalt not eat it; that it may go well

with thee, and with thy children after thee, when thou shalt do that which is right in

the sight of the Lord."

This was a great cardinal principle under the law, to which reference has been made

in our "Notes on Leviticus." How far Israel understood it is not the question; they

were to obey that it might go well with them, and with their children after them. They

were to own, in this matter, the sovereign rights of God.

Having made this exception, in reference to personal and family habits, the law-giver

returns to the all-important subject of their public worship. "Only thy holy things

which thou hast, and thy vows, thou shalt take, and go unto the place which the Lord

shall choose; and thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, upon

the altar of the Lord thy God; and the blood of thy sacrifices shall be poured out upon

the altar of the Lord thy God, and thou shalt eat the flesh." (Vers. 26, 27.) If reason, or

self-will were permitted to speak, it might say, "Why must we all go to this one place?

Can we not have an altar at home? Or, at least, an altar in each principal town, or in

the centre of each tribe?" The conclusive answer is, "God has commanded otherwise;

this is enough for every true Israelite. Even though we may not be able, by reason of

our ignorance, to see the why or the wherefore, simple obedience is our obvious and

bounden duty. It may be, moreover, that, as we cheerfully tread the path of obedience,

light will break in upon our souls as to the reason, and we shall find abundant blessing

in doing that which is well-pleasing to the Lord our God."

Yes; reader, this is the proper method of answering all the reasonings and

questionings of the carnal mind which is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed

can be. Light is sure to break in upon our souls, as we tread, with a lowly mind, the

sacred path of obedience; and, not only so, but untold blessing will flow into the heart

in that conscious nearness to God which is only known to those who lovingly keep

His most precious commandments. Are we called upon to explain to carnal objectors

and infidels our reasons for doing this or that? Most certainly not; that is no part of

our business; it would be time and labour lost, inasmuch as objectors and reasoners

are wholly incapable of understanding or appreciating our reasons.

For example, in the matter now under our consideration, could a carnal mind, an

unbeliever, a mere child of nature, understand why Israel's twelve tribes were

commanded to worship at one altar—to gather in one place—to cluster round one

centre? Not in the smallest degree. The grand moral reason of such a lovely institution

lies far away beyond his ken.

But to the spiritual mind all is as plain as it is beautiful. Jehovah would gather His

beloved people around Himself, from time to time, that they might rejoice together

before Him and that He might have His own peculiar joy in them.

Was not this something most precious? Assuredly it was to all who really loved the

Lord.

No doubt, if the heart were cold and careless toward God, it would matter little about

the place of worship; all places would be alike. But we may set it down as a fixed

principle that every loyal loving heart from Dan to Beersheba would rejoice to flock

to the place where Jehovah had recorded His Name, and where He had appointed to

meet His people. "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go unto the house of the

Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem [God's centre for Israel].

Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together; whither the tribes go up, the

tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the

Lord. For there—and nowhere else—"are set thrones of judgement, the thrones of the

house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love thee.

Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and

companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee. Because of the house of the

Lord our God I will seek thy good." (Ps. 102.)

Here we have the lovely breathings of a heart that loved the habitation of the God of

Israel—His blessed centre—the gathering-place of Israel's twelve tribes—that

hallowed spot which was associated in the mind of every true Israelite with all that

was bright and joyous in connection with the worship of Jehovah and the communion

of His people.

We shall have occasion to refer to this most delightful theme again, when we come to

study Deuteronomy 16, and shall draw this section to a close by quoting for the reader

the last paragraph of the chapter before us.

"When the Lord thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest

to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; take heed to

thyself, that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from

before thee; and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations

serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy

God; for every abomination to the Lord, which he hateth, have they done unto their

gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.

What thing soever I command you, observe to do it; thou shalt not add thereto, nor

diminish from it." (Vers. 29-32.)

The precious word of God was to form a sacred enclosure round about His people,

within which they might enjoy His presence, and delight themselves in the abundance

of His mercy and loving-kindness; and wherein, they were to be entirely apart from all

that was offensive to Him whose presence was to be, at once, their glory, their joy and

their grand moral safeguard from every snare and every abomination.

Alas! alas! they did not abide within that enclosure; they speedily broke down the

walls thereof, and wandered away from the holy commandment of God. They did the

very things they were told not to do, and they have had to reap the terrible

consequences. But more of this and of their future by-and-by.

Deuteronomy 13.

This chapter abounds in most weighty principles. It consists of three distinct sections,

each one of which claims our deep attention. We must not attempt to weaken the

admonitory force of such a scripture, or turn aside its keen edge, by saying that it does

not apply to Christians; that it is wholly Jewish in its scope and application. No doubt,

primarily, it was addressed to Israel; this is so obvious as not to admit of a question.

But let us not forget that it was "written for our learning;" and not only so, but the

more closely we study it, the more we shall see that its teaching is of universal

importance.

"If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or

a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee,

saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them:

thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams; for

the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all

your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him,

and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave

unto him. And that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because

he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God, which brought you out of

the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of

the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the

evil away from the midst of thee." (Vv. 1-5)

Here we have divine provision made for all cases of false teaching, and false

religious influence. We all know how easily the poor human heart is led astray by

anything in the shape of a sign or a wonder, and especially when such things stand

connected with religion. This is not confined to the nation of Israel; we see it

everywhere and at all times. Anything supernatural, anything involving an

infringement of what are called the ordinary laws of nature is almost sure to act

powerfully on the human mind. A prophet rising up, in the midst of the people, and

confirming his teaching by miracles, signs and wonders, would be almost sure to get a

hearing, and obtain an influence.

In this way, Satan has worked in all ages, and he will work yet more powerfully, at

the end of this present age, in order to deceive and lead to their everlasting destruction

those who will not hearken to the precious truth of the gospel. "The mystery of

iniquity," which has been working in the professing church for eighteen centuries,

will be headed up, in the person of "that Wicked whom the Lord shall consume with

the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming; even him,

whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying

wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because

they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause

God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they all might

be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." (2 Thess.

2: 8-12.)

So also, in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, our Lord warns His disciples against

the same kind of influence. "Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo here is Christ, or

there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall

show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive

the very elect. Behold, I have told you before." (Vers. 23-25.)

Again, in Revelation 13, we read of the second beast, coming up out of the earth, the

great false prophet, the antichrist, doing great wonders, "so that he maketh fire come

down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on

the earth by means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the

beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the

beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live." (Vers. 13, 14.)

Now, each of the above three passages of holy scripture refers to scenes which shall

be enacted after the church has been taken away out of this world; but on this we do

not dwell, inasmuch as our object in quoting them for the reader is to let him see how

far the devil can go in the way of signs and wonders, to lead people away from the

truth; and also to set before him the one divine and therefore perfect safeguard against

all the delusive power of the enemy.

The human heart has no ability whatever to resist the influence of "great signs and

wonders" put forth in favour of the most deadly error. There is but the one thing

which can fortify the soul, and enable it to resist the devil and all his deadly

delusions, and that is the word of God. To have the precious truth of God treasured up

in the heart is the divine secret of preservation from all error, even though backed up

by the most astounding miracles.

Hence, in the first of the above quotations we see that the reason why people will be

deceived by the signs and lying wonders of "that wicked" one is "because they

received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." It is the love of the truth

that preserves from error, be it ever so persuasive, ever so fascinating, ever so strongly

supported by the powerful evidence of "great signs and wonders." It is not cleverness,

intellectual power, mental grasp, extensive learning; all these things are perfectly

powerless in the presence of Satan's wiles and machinations. The most gigantic

human intellect must fall an easy prey to the wiles of the serpent.

But, blessed be God, the craft, the subtlety, the signs and lying wonders, all the

resources of Satan, all the machinery of hell are perfectly powerless with a heart that

is governed by the love of the truth. A little child who knows and believes and loves

the truth is blessedly shielded, sheltered and divinely preserved from the blinding and

deceiving power of the wicked one. If ten thousand false prophets were to arise and

perform the most extraordinary miracles that were ever presented to the human gaze,

in order to prove that the Bible is not the inspired word of God, or that our Lord Jesus

Christ is not God over all blessed for ever, or in order to set aside the glorious truth

that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth from all sin, or any other precious

truth revealed in holy scripture, it could have no effect whatever on the very simplest

babe in Christ whose heart is governed by the word of God. Yea, if an angel from

heaven were to come down and preach anything contrary to what we are taught in the

word of God, we have a divine warrant to pronounce him anathema, without any

discussion or argument whatever.

This is an unspeakable mercy. It puts the simple hearted, unlettered child of God into

the most blessed position—a position, not only of moral security, but of sweetest

repose. We are not called upon to analyse the false doctrine, or to weigh the evidence

advanced in favour of it; we reject, with stern decision, both the one and the other,

simply because we have the certainty of the truth and the love of it in our hearts.

"Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams;"—

although the sign or the wonder had come to pass—"for the Lord your God proveth

you to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your

soul."

Here, beloved reader, was the all-important point for Israel; and it is the same for us.

Then, now, and always, the true moral security is in having the heart fortified with the

love of the truth, which is only another way of expressing the love of God. The

faithful Israelite who loved Jehovah, with all his heart and with all his soul, would

have a ready and conclusive answer for all the false prophets and dreamers who might

arise—a thoroughly effectual method of dealing with them. "Thou shalt not hearken."

If the enemy does not get the ear, he is not likely to reach the heart. The sheep follow

the Shepherd; "for they know his voice. And a stranger"—even though showing signs

and wonders—"will they not follow, but will flee from him." Why? Is it because they

are able to discuss and argue and analyse? No, thanks and praise to God! but because

"they know not the voice of strangers." The simple fact of not knowing the voice is a

sufficient reason for not following the speaker.

All this is full of comfort and consolation for the beloved lambs and sheep of the

flock of Christ. They can hear the voice of their loving, faithful shepherd; they can

gather round Him, and find in His presence true Test and perfect safely. He makes

them to lie down in green pastures, and leads them by the still waters of His love.

This is enough. They may be very weak, yea, perfect weakness in themselves; but this

is no hindrance to their rest and blessing; quite the contrary, it only casts them more

upon His almighty power. We need never be afraid of weakness, it is fancied strength

we have to dread, vain confidence in our own wisdom, our own intelligence, our

scriptural knowledge, our spiritual attainments; these are the things we have to fear;

but as for our weakness, the more deeply we feel it the better, for our Shepherd's

strength is made perfect in weakness, and His precious grace is amply sufficient for

all the need of His beloved and blood bought flock as a whole, and for each member,

in particular. Only let us keep near to Him in the abiding sense of our own perfect

helplessness and nothingness; let us treasure up His precious word in our hearts, let us

feed upon it, as the very sustenance of our souls, day by day, the staple article of our

lives, the living bread for the strengthening of the inward man. Thus shall we be safe

from every strange voice, every false prophet, every snare of the devil, every

influence which might tend to draw us away from the path of obedience, and the

practical confession of the Name of Christ.

We must now quote for the reader the second paragraph of our chapter, in which the

Lord's people are warned against another snare of the devil. Oh! how many and varied

are his snares and wiles! How manifold are the dangers of the people of God! But,

blessed be His holy Name, there is full provision in His word for all.

"If thy brother, the son of thy mother, nearer, dearer and more tender than the son of

the father—or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend which

is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods,

which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers, namely, of the gods of the people

which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of

the earth even unto the other end of the earth; thou shalt not consent unto him, nor

hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither

shalt thou conceal him; but thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon

him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt

stone him with stones that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the

Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage.

And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is

among you" (Vv. 6-11.)

Here, then, we have something quite different from the false prophet or the dreamer

of dreams. Thousands might be proof against the influence of these, and yet fall

before the ensnaring and seductive power of natural affection. It is very hard to resist

the action of this latter. It demands deep-toned devotedness, great singleness of eye,

firm purpose of heart, to deal faithfully with those who live deep down in our hearts'

tender affections. The trial to some of withstanding and rejecting a prophet or a

dreamer with whom there was no personal relationship, no tender link of fond

affection, would be as nothing compared with having to treat with stern and severe

decision the wife of the bosom, the beloved brother or sister, the devoted and tenderly

loved friend.

But where the claims of God, of Christ, of truth are at stake, there must be no

hesitation. If any should seek to make use of the ties of affection in order to draw us

aside from our allegiance to Christ, we must resist them, with unqualified decision.

"If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife and children,

and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." (Luke

10: 26)

Let us see that we thoroughly understand this aspect of the truth, and also that we give

it its proper place. If poor blind reason be listened to, it will be sure to present to the

mind the most hideous perversion of this great practical subject. Reason, whenever it

attempts to exercise its powers in the things of God, is sure to prove itself the active

and efficient agent of the devil in opposition to the truth. In things human and earthly,

reason may go for what it is worth; but in things divine and heavenly, it is not only

worthless, but positively mischievous.

What then, we may ask, is the true moral force of Luke 14: 28, and Deuteronomy 13:

8-10? Most assuredly, they do not mean that we are to be "without natural affection,"

which is one of the special marks of the apostasy of the last days. This is perfectly

clear. God Himself has established our natural relationships, and each of these

relationships has its characteristic affections the exercise and display of which are in

lovely harmony with the mind of God. Christianity does not interfere with our

relationships in nature, but it introduces a power whereby the responsibilities which

attach to those relationships can be duly fulfilled to the glory of God. And not only so,

but in the various epistles, the Holy Ghost has given the most ample instructions to

husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants, thus proving, in the

very fullest and most blessed manner, the divine sanction of those relationships and

the affections which belong to them.

All this is perfectly plain; but still we have to inquire how it fits in with Luke 14 and

Deuteronomy 13? The answer is simply this. The harmony is divinely perfect. Those

scriptures apply only to cases in which our natural relationships and affections

interfere with the claims of God and of Christ. When they operate in this way, they

must be denied and mortified. If they dare to intrude upon a domain which is wholly

divine, the sentence of death must be written upon them.

In contemplating the life of the only perfect man that ever trod this earth of ours, we

can see how beautifully He adjusted the various claims which as a man and a servant,

He had to meet. He could say to His mother, "Woman, what have I to do with thee?"

And, yet, at the fitting moment, He could, with exquisite tenderness, commend that

mother to the care of the disciple whom He loved. He could say to His parents, "Wist

ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" and, at the same time, go home

with them and be sweetly subject to parental authority. Thus the written teachings of

holy scripture, and the perfect ways of the living Christ do both combine to teach us

how to discharge aright the claims of nature and the claims of God.

But it may be that the reader feels considerable difficulty in reference to the line of

action enjoined in Deuteronomy 13: 9, 10. He may find it hard to reconcile it with a

God of love, and with the grace, gentleness and tenderness inculcated in the New

Testament scriptures. Here again we must keep a vigilant eye upon reason. It always

affects to find ample scope for its powers in the stern enactments of the divine

government; but, in reality, it only displays its blindness and folly. Still, though we

would make very short work with infidel reason, we earnestly desire to help any

honest soul who may not be able to see his way through this question.

We have had occasion, in our studies on the earlier chapters of this book, to refer to

the very weighty subject of God's governmental dealings, both with Israel and the

nations; but, in addition to what has already come under our notice, we have to bear

in mind the very important difference between the two economies of law and grace. If

this be not clearly apprehended, we shall find very considerable difficulty in such

passages as Deuteronomy 13: 9, 10. The great characteristic principle of the Jewish

economy was righteousness; the characteristic principle of Christianity is grace—

pure, unqualified grace.

If this fact be fully grasped, all difficulty vanishes. It was perfectly right, perfectly

consistent, and in perfect harmony with the mind of God for Israel to slay their

enemies. God commanded them to do so. And, in like manner, it was right and

consistent for them to execute righteous judgement, even unto death, upon any

member of the congregation who should seek to draw them aside after false gods, as

in the passage before us. To do so was in full moral harmony with the grand ruling

principles of government and law, under which they were placed, in accordance with

the dispensational wisdom of God.

All this is perfectly plain. It runs through the entire canon of Old Testament scripture.

God's government in Israel, and His government of the world, in connection with

Israel was on the strict principle of righteousness. And as it was in the past, so it shall

be in the future. "A king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in

judgement."

But, in Christianity, we see something quite different. The moment we open the pages

of the New Testament, and hearken to the teachings, and mark the actings of the Son

of God, we find ourselves on entirely new ground, and in a new atmosphere. In a

word, we are in the atmosphere and on the ground of pure, unqualified grace.

Thus, as a sample of the teaching, take a passage or two from what is called the

Sermon on the Mount—that marvellous and precious compendium of the principles

of the kingdom of heaven. "Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye,

and a tooth for a tooth; but I say unto you, That ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall

smite thee on the one cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee

at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall

compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain." Again, "Ye have heard that it hath been

said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy; but I say unto you, love

your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for

them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the sons [uiJoiv] of

your Father which is in heaven; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the

good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust..... Be ye therefore perfect

[tevleioi] even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Matt. 5: 38-48)

We cannot now dwell upon those blessed sentences; we merely quote them for the

reader in order to let him see the immense difference between the Jewish and

Christian economy. What was perfectly right and consistent for a Jew, might be quite

wrong and inconsistent for a Christian.

This is so plain that a child may see it; and yet, strange to say, many of the Lord's

beloved people seem to be clouded on the subject. They judge it to be perfectly right

for Christians to deal in righteousness, and go to war, and to exercise worldly power.

Well, then, if it be right for Christians to act thus, we would simply ask, Where is it

taught in the New Testament? Where have we a single sentence from the lips of our

Lord Jesus Christ, or from the pen of the Holy Ghost to warrant or sanction such a

thing? As we have said, in reference to other questions that have come before us in

our studies on this book, it is of no possible use for us to say, "We think so and so."

Our thoughts are simply worth nothing. The one grand question, in all matters of

Christian faith and morals is, "What saith the New Testament?" What did our Lord

and Master teach, and what did He do? He taught that His people now are not to act

as His people of old acted. Righteousness was the Principle of the old economy; grace

is the principle of the new.

This was what Christ taught, as may be seen in numberless passages of scripture. And

how did He act? Did He deal in righteousness with people? Did He assert His rights?

Did He exercise worldly power? Did He go to law? Did He vindicate Himself, or

retaliate? When His poor disciples, in utter ignorance of the heavenly principles

which He taught, and in total forgetfulness of His whole course of action, said to Him,

on one occasion in the which a certain village of the Samaritans refused to receive

Him, "Lord, wilt thou that me command fire to come down from heaven, and

consume them, even as Elias did?" What was His answer? "He turned and rebuked

them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of, For the Son of man is

not come to destroy men's lives but to save. And they went to another village." It was

perfectly consistent with the spirit, principle and genius of the dispensation of which

Elias was the exponent and representative, to call down fire from heaven to consume

the men sent by a godless king to arrest him. But the blessed Lord was the perfect

Exponent and divine Representative of another dispensation altogether His was a life

of perfect self-surrender, from first to last. He never asserted His rights. He came to

serve and to give. He came to represent God, to be the perfect expression of the

Father in every way. The Father's character shone out in His every look, His every

word, His every act, His every movement.

Such was the Lord Christ when He was down here among men; and such was His

teaching. He did what He taught, and He taught what He did. His words expressed

what He was, and His ways illustrated His words. He came to serve and to give; and

His whole life was marked by those two things, from the manger to the cross. We may

truly say, time would fail us to quote the passages in proof and illustration of this, nor

is there any need, inasmuch as the truth of it will hardly be called in question.

Well, then, is not He our great Exemplar in all things? Is it not by His teaching and

ways that our course and character as Christians are to be formed? How are we to

know how we ought to walk save by hearkening to His blessed words and gazing on

His perfect ways? If we as Christians are to be guided and governed by the principles

and precepts of the Mosaic economy, then, assuredly, it would be right for us to go to

law, to contend for our rights, to engage in war, to destroy our enemies. But then what

becomes of the teaching and example of our adorable Lord and Saviour? What of the

teachings of the Holy Ghost. What of the New Testament? Is it not as plain as a

sunbeam to the reader that for a Christian to do these things is to act in flagrant

opposition to the teaching and example of his Lord?

Here, however, we may be met by the old and oft-repeated inquiry, "What would

become of the world, what would become of its institutions, what would become of

society, if such principles were to be universally dominant?" The infidel historian, in

speaking of the early Christians, and their refusal to join the Roman army, sneeringly

inquires, "What would have become of the empire, surrounded as it was on all sides,

by barbarians, if every one had indulged in such pusillanimous ideas as these?"

We reply at once, If those spiritual and heavenly principles were universally

dominant, there would be no wars, no fighting, and hence, there would be no need of

soldiers, no need of standing armies or navies, no need of constabulary or police;

there would be no wrong doings, no strife about property, and hence no need of courts

of law, judges or magistrates; in short, the world, as it now is, would have an end; the

kingdoms of this world would have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His

Christ.

But the plain fact is, those heavenly principles of which we speak, are not intended

for the world at all, inasmuch as the world could not adopt them, or act upon them for

a single hour; to do so would involve the immediate and complete break up of the

present system of things, the dissolution of the entire framework of society as at

present constituted.

Hence, the objection of the infidel crumbles into dust beneath our feet, like all other

infidel objections, and the questions and the difficulties which are based upon them.

They are deprived of every atom of moral force. Heavenly principles are not designed

for "this present evil world," at all; they are designed for the church which is not of

the world, even as Jesus is not of the world. "If," said our Lord to Pilate, "my kingdom

were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the

Jews; but now is my kingdom not from hence."

Mark the word "now." By-and-by, the kingdoms of this world will become the

kingdom of our Lord; but now He is rejected, and all who belong to Him—His

church—His people are called to share His rejection, to follow Him into the outside

place, and walk as pilgrims and strangers here below, waiting for the moment when

He shall come to receive them to Himself, that where He is, there they may be also.

Now, it is the attempt to mix the world and the church together that produces such

terrible confusion. It is one of Satan's special wiles; and it has done more to mar the

testimony of the church of God, and hinder its progress than most of us are aware. It

involves a complete turning of things upside down, a confounding of things that differ

essentially, an utter denial of the church's true character, her position, her walk and

her hope. We sometimes hear the expression, "Christian world." What does it mean?

It is simply an attempt to combine two things which in their source, nature and

character, are as diverse as light and darkness. It is an effort to tack a new piece upon

an old garment which, as our Lord tells us, only makes the rent worse.

It is not God's object to Christianise the world, but to call His people out of the world

to be a heavenly people, governed by heavenly principles, formed by a heavenly

object, and cheered by a heavenly hope. If this be not clearly seen, if the truth as to

the church's true calling and course be not realised as a living power in the soul, we

shall be sure to make the most grievous mistakes in our work, walk and service. We

shall make an entirely wrong use of the Old Testament scriptures, not only on

prophetic subjects, but in reference to the whole range of practical life; indeed, it

would be utterly impossible to calculate the loss which must result from not seeing

the distinctive calling, position and hope of the church of God, her association and

identification—her living union with a rejected, risen and glorified Christ.

We cannot attempt to enlarge upon this most precious and interesting theme; but we

should just like to point out to the reader an instance or two illustrative of the Spirit's

method of quoting and applying Old Testament scripture. Take, for example, the

following passage from that lovely thirty-fourth Psalm: "The face of the Lord is

against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth." Now,

mark the way in which the Holy Spirit quotes this passage in the first epistle of Peter.

"The face of the Lord is against them that do evil." (1 Peter 3: 12.) Not a word about

cutting off. Why is this? Because the Lord is not now acting upon the principle of

cutting off. He acted upon it under the law; and He will act upon it, in the kingdom,

by-and-by. But, just now, He is acting in grace, and long-suffering mercy. His face is

quite as much and quite as decidedly against all evil-doers as ever it was, or ever it

will be, but not now to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. The most

striking illustration of this marvellous grace and forbearance, and of the difference

between the two principles on which we have been dwelling is seen in the fact that

the very men who, with wicked hands, crucified His only-begotten and well-beloved

Son—evil-doers, surely, of the most pronounced type-instead of being cut off from

the earth, were the very first to hear the message of full and free pardon through the

blood of the cross.

Now, it may appear to some that we are making too much of the mere omission of a

single clause of Old Testament scripture. Let not the reader think so. Even had we but

this one instance, it would be a serious mistake to treat it with anything like

indifference. But the fact is there are scores of passages of the same character as the

one just quoted, all illustrative of the contrast between the Jewish and Christian

economies, and also between Christianity and the coming kingdom.

God is now dealing in grace with the world, and so should His people, if they want to

be like Him, and such they are called to be. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your

Father which is in heaven is perfect" and again, "Be ye therefore imitators of God, as

dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself

for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour. (Eph. 5: 1)

This is our model. We are called to copy our Father's example, to imitate Him. He is

not going to law with the world; He is not enforcing His rights with the strong hand of

power. By-and-by, He will; but just now, in this day of grace, He showers His

blessings and benefits, in rich profusion, upon those whose whole life is one of

enmity and rebellion against Him.

All this is perfectly marvellous; but thus it is, and we, as Christians, are called to act

on this morally glorious principle. It may be said, by some, "How could we ever get

on in the world, how could we conduct our business, on such a principle as this? We

should be robbed and ruined; designing people would take advantage of us, if they

knew that we would not go to law with them; they would take our goods, or borrow

our money, or occupy our houses, and refuse to pay us. In short, we could never get

on in a world like this, if we did not assert our rights and establish our claims by the

strong hand of power. What is the law for but to make people behave themselves? Are

not the powers that be ordained of God for the very purpose of maintaining peace and

good order in our midst? what would become of society, if we had not soldiers,

policemen, magistrates and judges? And if God has ordained that such things should

be, why should not His people avail themselves of them? And not only so, but who so

fit to occupy places of authority and power, or to wield the sword of justice as the

people of God?

There is, no doubt, very great apparent force in all this line of argument. The powers

that be are ordained of God. The king, the governor, the judge, the magistrate are,

each in his place, the expression of the power of God. It is God who invests each with

the power which he wields; it is He who has put the sword into his hand, for the

punishment of evil-doers, and the praise of them that do well. We bless God with all

our hearts for the constituted authorities of the country. Day and night, in private and

in public, we pray for them. It is our bounden duty to obey and submit ourselves to

them, in all things, provided always that they do not call upon us to disobey God, or

do violence to conscience. If they do this, we must—what? Resist? Nay, but suffer.

All this is perfectly plain. The world, as it now is, could not go on for a single day, if

men were not kept in order by the strong hand of power. We could not live, or at least

life would be perfectly intolerable, were it not that evil-doers are kept in terror of the

glittering sword of justice. Even as it is, through lack of moral power on the part of

those who bear the sword, lawless demagogues are allowed to stir up the evil passions

of men to resist the law of the land, and disturb the peace, and threaten the lives and

property of well-disposed and harmless subjects of the government.

But, admitting all this, in the fullest possible manner, as every intelligent Christian,

every one taught by scripture, most assuredly will, it leaves wholly untouched the

question of the Christian's path in this world. Christianity fully recognises all the

governmental institutions of the country. It forms no part of the Christian's business to

interfere, in any one way, with such institutions. Wherever he is, whatever be the

principle or character of the government of the country in which his lot is cast, it is

his duty to recognise its municipal and political arrangements, to pay taxes, pray for

the government, honour governors in their official capacity, wish well to the

legislature and the executive, pray for the peace of the country, live in peace with all,

so far as in him lies.

We see all this in the blessed Master Himself, in perfection, blessed be His holy

Name for evermore! In His memorable reply to the crafty Herodians, He recognises

the principle of subjection to the powers that be: "Render to Caesar the things that be

Caesar's; and to God the things that be God's." And not only so, but we find Him also

paying tribute, although personally free. They had no right to demand it of Him, as He

plainly shows to Peter; and it might be said, "Why did He not appeal?" Appeal! Nay;

He shows us something quite different. Hear His exquisite reply to His mistaken

apostle, "Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an

hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth,

thou shalt find a piece of money; that take and give unto them for me and thee.*

(Matt. 17.)

{*The fact that the tribute money may have been for the temple does not touch the

principle set forth in the text}

And here we get back, with increased moral force, to our thesis, namely, the

Christian's path in this world. What is it? He is to follow his Master—to imitate Him

in all things. Did He assert His rights? Did He go to law? Did He try to regulate the

world? Did He meddle with municipal or political matters? Was He a politician? Did

He wield the sword? Did He consent to be a judge or a divider, even when appealed

to, as we say, to arbitrate about property? Was not His whole life one of complete

self-surrender, from first to last? Was He not continually giving up until, at the cross,

He gave up His precious life as a ransom for many?

We shall leave these questions to find their answer deep down in the heart of the

Christian reader, and to produce their practical effect in his life. We trust that the

foregoing line of truth will enable him to interpret aright such passages as

Deuteronomy 13: 9, 10. Our opposition to idolatry, and our separation from evil, in

every shape and form, while not less intense and decided, most surely, than that of

Israel of old, is not to be displayed in the same way. The church is imperatively called

upon to put away evil, and evil-doers, but not after the same fashion as Israel. It is no

part of her duty to stone idolaters and blasphemers, or burn witches. The church of

Rome has acted upon this principle; and even Protestants—to the shame of

Protestantism—have followed her example.* The church is not called—nay, she is

positively and peremptorily forbidden to use the temporal sword. It is a flat denial of

her calling, character and mission to do so. When Peter, in ignorant zeal and carnal

haste, drew the sword in defence of his blessed Master, he was at once corrected by

his Master's faithful word, and instructed by his Master's gracious act: "Put up thy

sword into the sheath; for all they that take the sword shall perish by the sword." And

having thus reproved the act of His mistaken though well-meaning servant, He undid

the mischief by His gracious touch. "The weapons of our warfare," says the inspired

apostle, "are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;

casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the

knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of

Christ" (2 Cor. 10: 4, 5.)

{*The burning of Servetus, in 1553, for his theological opinions, is a frightful blot

upon the Reformation, and upon the man who sanctioned such an unchristian

proceeding. True, the opinions of Servetus were fatally and fundamentally false. He

held the Arian heresy, which is simply blasphemy against the Son of God. But to burn

him, or any one else for false doctrine was a flagrant sin against the spirit, genius and

principle of the gospel, the deplorable fruit of ignorance as to the essential difference

between Judaism and Christianity.}

The professing church has gone all astray as to this great and most important

question. She has joined herself with the world, and sought to further the cause of

Christ by carnal and worldly agency. She has ignorantly attempted to maintain the

Christian faith by the most shameful denial of Christian practice. The burning of

heretics stands as a most fearful moral blot upon the page of the church's history. We

can form no adequate idea of the terrible consequences resulting from the notion that

the church was called to take Israel's place and act on Israel's principles.* It

completely falsified her testimony, robbed her of her entirely spiritual and heavenly

character, and led her upon a path which ends in Revelation 17 and 18. Let him that

readeth understand.

{*It is one thing for the church to learn from the history of Israel, and another thing

altogether to take Israel's place, act on Israel's principles, and appropriate Israel's

promises. The former is the church's duty and privilege; the latter has been the

church's fatal mistake.}

But we must not pursue this line of things further here. We trust that what has passed

before us will lead all whom it may concern to consider the whole subject in the light

of the New Testament, and thus be the means, through the infinite goodness of God,

of leading them to see the path of entire separation which we as Christians are called

to tread; in the world but not of it, even as our Lord Christ is not of it. This will solve

a thousand difficulties, and furnish a grand general principle which can be practically

applied to a thousand details.

We shall now conclude our study of Deuteronomy 13 by a glance at its closing

paragraph.

"If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the Lord thy God hath given thee to

dwell there, saying, Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you,

and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other

gods, which ye have not known. Then shalt thou inquire, and make search, and ask

diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is

wrought among you; thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge

of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with

the edge of the sword. And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the

street thereof, and shalt burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof every whit, for

the Lord thy God; and it shall be an heap for ever; it shall not be built again. And

there shall cleave nought of the cursed thing to thine hand; that the Lord may turn

from the fierceness of his anger, and show thee mercy, and have compassion upon

thee, and multiply thee, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers; when thou shalt hearken to

the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep all his commandments which I command thee

this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord thy God." (Vers. 12-18.)

Here we have instruction of the most solemn and weighty character. But the reader

must bear in mind that, solemn and weighty as it most surely is, It is based upon a

truth of unspeakable value, and that is Israel's national unity. If we do not see this, we

shall miss the real force and meaning of the foregoing quotation. A case is supposed

of grave error in some one of the cities of Israel; and the question might naturally

arise, "Are all the cities involved in the evil of one?"'*

{*It is, of course, needful to bear in mind that the evil referred to in the text was of

the very gravest character. It was an attempt to draw the people away from the one

living and true God. It touched the very foundation of Israel's national existence. It

was not merely a local or municipal question, but a national one.}

Assuredly, inasmuch as the nation was one. The cities and tribes were not

independent, they were bound up together by a sacred bond of national unity—a unity

which had its centre in the place of the divine presence. Israel's twelve tribes were

indissolubly bound together. The twelve loaves on the golden table in the sanctuary

formed the beauteous type of this unity, and every true Israelite owned and rejoiced in

this unity. The twelve stones in Jordan's bed; the twelve stones on Jordan's bank;

Elijah's twelve stones on mount Carmel, all set forth the same grand truth—the

indissoluble unity of Israel's twelve tribes. The good king Hezekiah recognised this

truth, when he commanded that the burnt-offering and the sin-offering should be

made for all Israel. (2 Chron. 29: 24.) The faithful Josiah owned it and acted upon it,

when he carried his reformatory operations into all the countries that pertained to the

children of Israel. (2 Chron. 34: 33.) Paul, in his magnificent address before king

Agrippa, bears witness to the same truth, when he says, "Unto which promise our

twelve tribes, instantly serving God, night and day, hope to come."* (Acts 26: 7.) And

when we look forward into the bright future, the same glorious truth shines, with

heavenly lustre, in the seventh chapter of Revelation, where we see the twelve tribes

sealed and secured for blessing, rest and glory, in connection with a countless

multitude of the Gentiles. And, finally, in Revelation 21 we see the names of the

twelve tribes engraved on the gates of the holy Jerusalem, the seat and centre of the

glory of God and the Lamb.

{*It may interest the reader to know that the word rendered, in the above passage,

"twelve tribes," is singular, to; dwdekavfulon. It certainly gives very full and vivid

expression to the grand idea of indissoluble unity which is so precious to God, and

therefore so precious to faith.}

Thus, from the golden table in the sanctuary, to the golden city descending out of

heaven from God, we have a marvellous chain of evidence in proof of the grand truth

of the indissoluble unity of Israel's twelve tribes.

And, then, if the question be asked, where is this unity to be seen? or how did Elijah,

or Hezekiah, or Josiah, or Paul see it? The answer is a very simple one, They saw it by

faith; they looked within the sanctuary of God, and there on the golden table, they

beheld the twelve loaves setting forth the perfect distinctness and yet the perfect

oneness of the twelve tribes. Nothing can be more beautiful. The truth of God must

stand for ever. Israel's unity was seen in the past, and it will be seen in the future; and

though, like the higher unity of the church, it is unseen in the present, faith believes it

all the same, holds it and confesses it in the face of ten thousand hostile influences.

And, now, let us look, for a moment, at the practical application of this most glorious

truth, as presented in the closing paragraph of Deuteronomy 13. A report reaches a

city in the far north of the land of Israel of serious error taught in a certain city in the

extreme south—deadly error, tending to draw the inhabitants away from the true God.

What is to be done? The law is as plain as possible; the path of duty is laid down with

such distinctness, that it only needs a single eye to see it, and a devoted heart to tread

it. "Then shalt thou inquire, and make search, and ask diligently." This surely is

simple enough.

But some of the citizens might say, "What have we in the north to do with error taught

in the south? Thank God, there is no error taught amongst us; it is entirely a local

question; each city is responsible for the maintenance of the truth within its own

walls. How could we be expected to examine into every case of error which may

spring up here and there all over the land; our whole time would be taken up, so that

we could not attend to our fields, our vineyards, our oliveyards, our flocks and our

herds. It is quite as much as we can do to keep our own borders all right. We certainly

condemn the error, and if any one holding or teaching it were to come here, and that

we knew of it, we should most decidedly shut our gates against him. Beyond this, we

do not feel ourselves responsible to go."

Now what, we may ask, would be the reply of the faithful Israelite to all this line of

argument which, in the judgement of mere nature, seems so exceedingly plausible? A

very simple and very conclusive one, we may be sure. He would say it was simply a

denial of Israel's unity. If every city and every tribe were to take independent ground,

then verily the high priest might take the twelve loaves off the golden table before the

Lord and scatter them here and there and everywhere; our unity is gone; we are all

broken up into independent atoms having no national ground of action.

Besides, the commandment is most distinct and explicit, "Thou shalt inquire, and

make search, and ask diligently." We are bound therefore, on the double ground of the

nation's unity and the plain command of our covenant God. It is of no possible use to

say there is no error taught amongst us, unless we want to separate ourselves from the

nation; if we belong to Israel, then verily the error is taught amongst us, as the word

says—"Such abomination is wrought among you." How far does the "you" extend? As

far as the national boundaries. Error taught at Dan affects those dwelling at

Beersheba. How is this? Because Israel is one.

And then the word is so plain, so distinct, so emphatic. We are bound to search into it.

We cannot fold our arms and sit down in cold indifference and culpable neutrality,

else we shall be involved in the awful consequences of this evil; yea, we are involved

until we clear ourselves of it by judging it, with unflinching decision, and unsparing

severity.

Such, beloved reader, would be the language of every loyal Israelite, and such his

mode of acting in reference to error and evil wherever found. To speak or act

otherwise, would simply be indifference as to the truth and glory of God, and

independency as regards Israel. For any to say that they were not responsible to act

according to the instructions given in Deuteronomy 13: 12-18, would be a complete

surrender of the truth of God, and of Israel's unity. All were bound to act or else be

involved in the judgement of the guilty city.

And surely if all this was true in Israel of old, it is not less true in the church of God

now. We may rest assured that anything like indifference, where Christ is concerned,

is most hateful to God. It is the eternal purpose and counsel of God to glorify His Son;

that every knee should bow to Him, and every tongue confess that He is Lord to the

glory of God the Father. "That all should honour the Son even as they honour the

Father."

Hence, if Christ be dishonoured, if doctrines be taught derogatory to the glory of His

Person, the efficacy of His work, or the virtue of His offices, we are bound by every

motive which could possibly act on our hearts to reject, with stern decision, such

doctrines. Indifference or neutrality, where the Son of God is concerned, is high

treason in the judgement of the high court of Heaven. We would not be indifferent if

it were a question of our own reputation, our personal character, or our personal or

family property; we should be thoroughly alive to anything affecting ourselves or

those dear to us. How much more deeply ought we to feel in reference to what

concerns the glory and honour, the Name and cause of the One to whom we owe our

present and everlasting all—-the One who laid aside His glory, came down into this

wretched world, and died a shameful death upon the cross in order to save us from the

everlasting flames of hell! Could we be indifferent to Him? Neutral where He is

concerned? God, in His great mercy forbid!

No; reader, it must not be. The honour and glory of Christ must be more to us than all

beside—reputation, property, family, friends, all must stand aside if the claims of

Christ are involved. Does not the Christian reader own this, with all the energy of his

ransomed soul? We feel persuaded he does even now; and oh! how shall we feel when

we see Him face to face, and stand in the full light of His moral glory? With what

feelings shall we then contemplate the idea of indifference or neutrality with respect

to Him?

And are we not justified in declaring that next to the glory of the Head stands the

great truth of the unity of His body, the church? Unquestionably. If the nation of Israel

was one, how much more is the body of Christ one! And if independency was wrong

in Israel, how much more wrong in the church of God! The plain fact is this, the idea

of independency cannot be maintained for a moment, in the light of the New

Testament. As well might we say that the hand is independent of the foot, or the eye

of the ear, as assert that the members of the body of Christ are independent one of

another. "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that

one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ"—a very remarkable statement,

setting forth the intimate union of Christ and the church—"For by one Spirit are we

all baptised into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or

free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member,

but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it

therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not

of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where

were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath

God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if

they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members,

yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee; nor

again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more, those members of

the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary; and those members of the

body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant

honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely

parts have no need; but God hath tempered the body together, having given more

abundant honour to that part which lacked. That there should be no schism in the

body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether

one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all

the members rejoice with it. NOW YE ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST, AND

MEMBERS IN PARTICULAR." (1 Cor. 12: 12-27.)

We do not attempt to dwell upon this truly marvellous scripture; but we earnestly

desire to call the attention of the Christian reader to the special truth which it so

forcibly sets before us—a truth which intimately concerns every true believer on the

face of the earth, namely, that he is a member of the body of Christ. This is a great

practical truth, involving, at once, the very highest privileges, and the very weightiest

responsibilities. It is not merely a true doctrine, a sound principle, or an orthodox

opinion; it is a living fact, designed to be a divine power in the soul. The Christian

can no longer view himself as an independent person, having no association, no vital

link with others. He is livingly bound up with all the children of God, all true

believers, all the members of Christ's body upon the face of the earth.

"By one Spirit are we all baptised into one body." The church of God is not a mere

club, or a society, an association, or a brotherhood; it is a body united by the Holy

Ghost to the Head, in heaven; and all its members on earth are indissolubly bound

together. This being so, it follows of necessity, that all the members of the body are

affected by the state and walk of each. "If one member suffer, all the members suffer

with it." That is, all the members of the body. If there is anything wrong with the foot,

the hand feels it. How? Through the head. So in the church of God, if anything goes

wrong with an individual member, all feel it through the Head with whom all are

livingly connected by the Holy Ghost.

Some find it very hard to grasp this great truth. But there it stands plainly revealed on

the inspired page, not to be reasoned about, or submitted, in any way, to the human

judgement, but simply to he believed. It is a divine revelation. No human mind could

ever have conceived such a thought; but God reveals it, faith believes it, and walks in

the blessed power of it.

It may be the reader feels disposed to ask, " How is it possible for the state of one

believer to affect those who know nothing about it?" The answer is, "If one member

suffer, all the members suffer with it." All the members of what? Is it of any mere

local assembly or company who may happen to know or be locally connected with the

person concerned Nay, but the members of the body wherever they are. Even in the

case of Israel, where it was only a national unity, we have seen that if there was evil

in any one of their cities, all were concerned, all involved, all affected. Hence, when

Achan sinned, although there were myriads of people totally ignorant of the fact, the

Lord said, "Israel hath sinned," and the whole assembly suffered a humiliating defeat.

Can reason grasp this weighty truth? No; but faith can. If we listen to reason we shall

believe nothing; but, by the grace of God, we shall not listen to reason, but believe

what God says because He says it.

And oh! beloved Christian reader, what an immense truth is this unity of the body!

What practical consequences flow out of it! How eminently calculated it is to minister

to holiness of walk and life! How watchful it would make us over ourselves, our

habits, our ways, our whole moral condition! How careful it would make us not to

dishonour the Head to whom we are united, or grieve the Spirit by whom we are

united, or injure the members with whom we are united!

But we must close this chapter, much as we should like to linger over one of the very

grandest, most profound, and most powerfully formative truths that can possibly

engage our attention. May the Spirit of God make it a living power in the soul of

every true believer on the face of the earth!

DEUTERONOMY, Section 5 of 6. (Deut. 14 - 19).

C H Mackintosh

Deuteronomy 14

"Ye are the children of the Lord your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any

baldness between your eyes for the dead: for thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy

God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the

nations that are upon the earth." (Vers. 1, 2.)

The opening clause of this chapter sets before us the basis of all the privileges and

responsibilities of the Israel of God. It is a familiar thought amongst us that we must

be in a relationship before we can know the affections or discharge the duties which

belong to it. This is a plain and undeniable truth. If a man were not a father, no

amount of argument or explanation, could make him understand the feelings or

affections of a father's heart; but the very moment he enters upon the relationship, he

knows all about them.

Thus it is as to every relationship and position; and thus it is in the things of God. We

cannot understand the affections or the duties of a child of God until we are on the

ground. We must be Christians before we can perform Christian duties. Even when

we are Christians, it is only by the gracious aid of the Holy Ghost that we can walk as

such; but clearly if we are not on Christian ground, we can know nothing of Christian

affections or Christian duties. This is so obvious, that argument is needless.

Now, most evidently, it is God's prerogative to declare how His children ought to

conduct themselves, and it is their high privilege and holy responsibility to seek, in all

things, to meet His gracious approval. "Ye are the children of the Lord your God: ye

shall not cut yourselves." They were not their own; they belonged to Him, and

therefore they had no right to cut themselves or disfigure their faces for the dead.

Nature, in its pride and self-will, might say, "Why may we not do like other people?

What harm can there be in cutting ourselves, or making a baldness between our eyes?

It is only an expression of grief, an affectionate tribute to our loved departed ones.

Surely there can be nothing morally wrong in such a suited expression of sorrow!

To all this there was one simple but conclusive answer, "Ye are the children of the

Lord your God" This face altered everything. The poor ignorant and uncircumcised

Gentiles around them might cut and disfigure themselves, inasmuch as they knew not

God, and were not in relationship to Him. But as for Israel, they were on the high and

holy ground of nearness to God, and this one fact was to give tone and character to all

their habits. They were not called upon to adopt or refrain from any particular habit or

custom, in order to be the children of God. This would be, as we say, beginning at the

wrong end; but, being His children, they were to act as such.

"Thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God." He does not say, "Ye ought to be an

holy people." How could they ever make themselves an holy people, or a peculiar

people unto Jehovah? Utterly impossible. If they were not His people, no effort of

theirs could ever make them such. But God, in His sovereign grace, in pursuance of

His covenant with their fathers, had made them His children, made them a peculiar

people above all the nations that were upon the earth. Here was the solid foundation

of Israel's moral edifice. All their habits and customs, all their doings and ways, their

food and their clothing, what they did and what they did not do—all was to flow out

of the one grand fact, with which they had no more to do than with their natural birth,

namely, that they actually were the children of God, the people of His choice, the

people of His own special possession.

Now, we cannot but acknowledge it to be a privilege of the very highest order to have

the Lord so near to us, and so interested in all our habits and ways. To mere nature, no

doubt, to one who does not know the Lord, is not in relationship to Him, the very idea

of His holy presence, or of nearness to Him would be simply intolerable. But to every

true believer, every one who really loves God, it is a most delightful thought to have

Him near us, and to know that He interests Himself in all the most minute details of

our personal history, and most private life; that He takes cognisance of what we eat

and what we wear; that He looks after us by day and by night, sleeping and waking, at

home and abroad; in short, that His interest in and care for us go far beyond those of

the most tender, loving mother for her babe.

All this is perfectly wonderful; and surely if we only realised it more fully we should

live a very different sort of life, and have a very different tale to tell. What a holy

privilege, what a precious reality to know that our loving Lord is about our path by

day, and about our bed by night; that His eye rests upon us when we are dressing in

the morning, when we sit down to our meals, when we go about our business, and in

all our intercourse, from morning till night. May the sense of this be a living and

abiding power in the heart of every child of God on the face of the earth!

From verse 3 to 20, we have the law as to clean and unclean beasts, fishes and fowls.

The leading principles as to all these have already come under our notice in Leviticus

11.* But there is a very important difference between the two scriptures. The

instructions in Leviticus are given primarily to Moses and Aaron; in Deuteronomy

they are given directly to the people. This is perfectly characteristic of the two books.

Leviticus may be specially termed, the priest's guide book. In Deuteronomy the priests

are almost entirely in the background, and the people are prominent. This is strikingly

apparent all through the book, so that there is not the slightest foundation for the idea

that Deuteronomy merely repeats Leviticus. Nothing can be further from the truth.

Each book has its own peculiar province, its own design, its own work. The devout

student sees and owns this with deep delight. Infidels are wilfully blind, and can see

nothing.

{*As we have given in our "Notes on the Book of Leviticus," chapter 11, what we

believe to be the scriptural import of Verses 4-20 of our chapter, we must refer the

reader to what is there advanced.}

In verse 21 of our chapter, the marked distinction between the Israel of God and the

stranger is strikingly presented. " Ye shall not eat of anything that dieth of itself; thou

shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates; that he may eat it; or thou mayest

sell it unto an alien; for thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God" The grand fact

of Israel's relationship to Jehovah marked them off from all the nations under the sun.

It was not that they were, in themselves, a whit better or holier than others; but

Jehovah was holy, and they were His people. "Be ye holy, for I am holy."

Worldly people often think that Christians are very Pharisaic in separating themselves

from other people, and refusing to take part in the pleasures and amusements of the

world; but they do not really understand the question. The fact is, for a Christian to

participate in the vanities and follies of a sinful world would be, to use a typical

phrase, like an Israelite eating that which had died of itself. The Christian, thank God,

has gotten something better to feed upon than the poor dead things of this world. He

has the living bread that came down from heaven, the true manna; and not only so,

but he eats of "the old corn of the land of Canaan," type of the risen and glorified Man

in the heavens. Of these most precious things the poor unconverted worldling knows

absolutely nothing and, hence, he must feed upon what the world has to offer him. It

is not a question of the right or the wrong of things looked at in themselves. No one

could possibly have known ought about the wrong of eating of anything that had died

of itself, if God's word had not settled it.

This is the all-important point for us. We cannot expect the world to see or feel with

us as to matters of right and wrong. It is our business to look at things from a divine

standpoint. Many things may be quite consistent for a worldly man to do which a

Christian could not touch at all, simply because he is a Christian. The question which

the true believer has to ask as to everything which comes before him is simply, "Can I

do this to the glory of God? Can I connect the Name of Christ with it?" If not, he must

not touch it.

In a word, the Christian's standard and test for everything is Christ. This makes it all

so simple. Instead of asking, Is such a thing consistent with our profession, our

principles, our character or our reputation? we have to ask, Is it consistent with

Christ? This makes all the difference. Whatever is unworthy of Christ is unworthy of

a Christian. If this be thoroughly understood and laid hold of it will furnish a great

practical rule which may be applied to a thousand details. If the heart be true to

Christ, if we walk according to the instincts of the divine nature, as strengthened by

the ministry of the Holy Ghost, and guided by the authority of holy scripture, we shall

not be much troubled with questions of right or wrong in our daily life.

Before proceeding to quote for the reader the lovely paragraph which closes our

chapter, we would very briefly call his attention to the last clause of verse 21. "Thou

shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk." The fact that this commandment is given

three times, in various connections, is sufficient to mark it as one of special interest

and practical importance. The question is, what does it mean? what are we to learn

from it? We believe it teaches very plainly that the Lord's people must carefully avoid

everything contrary to nature. Now, it was, manifestly, contrary to nature that what

was intended for a creature's nourishment should be used to seethe it.

We find, all through the word of God, great prominence given to what is according to

nature—what is comely. "Does not even nature itself teach you?" says the inspired

apostle, to the assembly at Corinth. There are certain feelings and instincts implanted

in nature, by the Creator, which must never be outraged. We may set it down as a

fixed principle, an axiom in Christian ethics, that no action can possibly be of God

that offers violence to the sensibilities proper to nature. The Spirit of God may, and

often does, lead us beyond and above nature, but never against it.

We shall now turn to the closing verses of our chapter, in which we shall find some

uncommonly fine Practical instruction. "Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy

seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year. And thou shalt eat before the Lord thy

God, in the place which he shall choose to place his name there, the tithe of thy corn,

of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herds and of thy flocks; that thou

mayest learn to fear the Lord thy God always. And if the way be too long for thee, so

that thou art not able to carry it; or if the place be too far from thee, which the Lord

thy God shall choose to set his name there, when the Lord thy God hath blessed thee;

then shalt thou turn it into money, and bind up the money in thine hand, and shalt go

unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose; and thou shalt bestow that money

for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine or for strong

drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth; and thou shalt eat there before the Lord thy

God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and thine household, and the Levite that is within

thy gates; thou shalt not forsake him; for he hath no part nor inheritance with thee. At

the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase the same

year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates And the Levite (because he hath no part nor

inheritance with thee) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are

within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat, and be satisfied, that the Lord thy God may

bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest." (Vers. 22-29.)

This is a deeply interesting and most important passage, setting before us, with

special simplicity, the basis, the centre and practical features of Israel's national and

domestic religion. The grand foundation of Israel's worship was laid in the fact that

both they themselves and their land belonged to Jehovah. The land was His, and they

held as tenants under Him. To this precious truth they were called, periodically, to

bear testimony by faithfully tithing their land. "Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase

of thy seed, that thy field bringeth forth year by year." They were to own, in this

practical way, the proprietorship of Jehovah, and never lose sight of it. They were to

own no other landlord but the Lord their God. All they were and all they had belonged

to Him. This was the solid groundwork of their national worship—their national

religion.

And then as to the centre, it is set forth with equal clearness. They were to gather to

the place where Jehovah recorded His Name. Precious privilege for all who truly

loved that glorious Name! We see in this passage, as also in many other portions of

the word of God, what importance He attached to the periodical gatherings of His

people around Himself. Blessed be His Name, He delighted to see His beloved people

assembled in His presence, happy in Him and in one another; rejoicing together in

their common portion, and feeding in sweet and loving fellowship on the fruit of

Jehovah's land. "Thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God, in the place which He shall

choose, to place his name there, the tithe of thy corn ....that thou mayest learn to fear

the Lord thy God always."

There was—there could be, no other place like that, in the judgement of every faithful

Israelite, every true lover of Jehovah. All such would delight to flock to the hallowed

spot where that beloved and revered Name was recorded. It might seem strange and

unaccountable to those who knew not the God of Israel, and cared nothing about Him,

to see the people travelling—many of them—a long distance from their homes, and

carrying their tithes to one particular spot. They might feel disposed to call in

question the needs-be for such a custom. "Why not eat at home? they might say. But

the simple fact is, such persons knew nothing whatever about the matter, and were

wholly incapable of entering into the preciousness of it. To the Israel of God, there

was the one grand moral reason for journeying to the appointed place, and that reason

was found in the glorious motto—Jehovah Shammah—" the Lord is there." If an

Israelite had wilfully determined to stay at home, or to go to some place of his own

choosing, he would neither have met Jehovah there, nor his brethren, and hence he

would have eaten alone. Such a course would have incurred the judgement of God; it

would have been an abomination. There was but one centre, and that was not of man's

choosing, but of God's. The godless Jeroboam, for his own selfish political ends,

presumed to interfere with the divine order, and set up his calves at Bethel and Dan;

but the worship offered there was offered to demons and not to God. It was a daring

act of wickedness which brought down upon him and upon his house the righteous

judgement of God; and we see, in Israel's after history, that "Jeroboam the son of

Nebat" is used as the terrible model of iniquity for all the wicked kings.

But all the faithful in Israel were sure to be found at the one divine centre, and

nowhere else. You would not find such making all sorts of excuses for staying at

home; neither would you find them running hither and thither to places of their own

or other people's choosing; no, you would find them gathered to Jehovah Shammah,

and there alone. Was this narrowness and bigotry? Nay, it was the fear and love of

God. If Jehovah had appointed a place where He would meet His people, assuredly

His people should meet Him there.

And not only had He appointed the place, but in His abounding goodness, He devised

a means of making that place as convenient as possible for His worshipping people.

Thus we read, "And if the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry

it; or if the place be too far from thee which the Lord thy God shall choose to set his

name there, when the Lord thy God hath blessed thee; then thou shalt turn it into

money, and bind up the money in thine hand, and shalt go unto the place which the

Lord thy God shall choose.... And thou shalt eat there before the Lord thy God, and

thou shalt rejoice, thou and thy household."

This is perfectly beautiful. The Lord, in His tender care and considerate love, took

account of everything. He would not leave a single difficulty in the way of His

beloved people, in the matter of their assembling round Himself. He had His own

special joy in seeing His redeemed people happy in His presence; and all who loved

His Name would delight to meet the loving desire of His heart by being found at the

divinely appointed centre.

If any Israelite were found neglecting the blessed occasion of assembling with his

brethren, at the divinely chosen place and time, it would have simply proved that he

had no heart for God or for His people, or, what was worse, that he was wilfully

absent. He might reason as he pleased about his being happy at home, happy

elsewhere; it was a false happiness, inasmuch as it was happiness found in the path of

disobedience, the path of wilful neglect of the divine appointment.

All this is full of most valuable instruction for the church of God now. It is the will of

God now, no less than of old, that His people should assemble in His presence, on

divinely appointed ground, and to a divinely appointed centre. This, we presume, will

hardly be called in question by any one having a spark of divine light in his soul. The

instincts of the divine nature, the leadings of the Holy Ghost, and the teachings of

holy scripture, do all, most unquestionably, lead the Lord's people to assemble

themselves together for worship, communion, and edification. However dispensations

may differ, there are certain great principles and leading characteristics which always

hold good; and the assembling of ourselves together is, most assuredly, one of these.

Whether under the old economy or under the new, the assembling of the Lord's people

is a divine institution.

Now, this being so, it is not a question of our happiness, one way or the other; though

we may be perfectly sure that all true Christians will be happy in being found in their

divinely appointed place. There is ever deep joy and blessing in the assembly of God's

people. It is impossible for us to find ourselves together in the Lord's presence and not

be truly happy. It is simply heaven upon earth for the Lord's dear people—those who

love His Name, love His Person, love one another, to be together, round His table,

around Himself. What can exceed the blessedness of being allowed to break bread

together in remembrance of our beloved and adorable Lord, to show forth His death

until He come; to raise, in holy concert, our anthems of praise to God and the Lamb;

to edify, exhort and comfort one another, according to the gift and grace bestowed

upon us by the risen and glorified Head of the church; to pour out our hearts, in sweet

fellowship, in prayer, supplication, intercession and giving of thanks for all men, for

kings and all in authority, for the whole household of faith, the church of God, the

body of Christ, for the Lord's work and workmen all over the earth.

Where, we would ask, with all possible confidence, is there a true Christian, in a right

state of soul, who would not delight in all this, and say, from the very depths of his

heart, that there is nothing this side the glory to be compared with it?

But, we repeat, our happiness is not the question; it is less than secondary. We are to

be ruled, in this, as in all beside, by the will of God as revealed in His holy word. The

question for us is simply this, Is it according to the mind of God that His people

should assemble themselves together for worship and mutual edification? If this be

so, woe be to all who wilfully refuse, or indolently neglect to do so, on any ground

whatsoever; they not only suffer serious loss, in their own souls, but they are offering

dishonour to God, grieving His Spirit, and doing injury to the assembly of His people.

These are very weighty consequences, and they demand the serious attention of all the

Lord's people. It must be obvious to the reader that it is according to the revealed will

of God that His people should assemble themselves together, in His presence. The

inspired apostle exhorts us, in the tenth chapter of his Epistle to the Hebrews, not to

forsake the assembling of ourselves together. There is special value, interest and

importance attaching to the assembly. The truth as to this begins to dawn upon us in

the opening pages of the New Testament. Thus, in Matt. 18: 20, we read the words of

our blessed Lord, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I

in the midst of them." Here we have the divine centre. "My Name." This answers to

"The place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name there," so

constantly named, and so strongly insisted upon in the book of Deuteronomy. It was

absolutely essential that Israel should gather at that one place. It was not a matter as

to which people might choose for themselves. Human choice was absolutely and

rigidly excluded. It was "The place which the Lord thy God shall choose," and no

other. This we have seen distinctly. It is so plain that we have only to say, "How

readest thou?"

Nor is it otherwise with the church of God. It is not human choice, or human

judgement, or human opinion, or human reason, or human anything. It is absolutely

and entirely divine. The ground of our gathering is divine, for it is accomplished

redemption. The centre round which we are gathered is divine, for it is the Name of

Jesus. The power by which we are gathered is divine, for it is the Holy Ghost. And the

authority for our gathering is divine, for it is the word of God.

All this is as clear as it is precious; and all we need is the simplicity of faith to take it

in and act upon it. If we begin to reason about it, we shall be sure to get into darkness;

and if we listen to human opinions, we shall be plunged in hopeless perplexity

between the conflicting claims of Christendom's sects and parties. Our only refuge,

our only resource, our only strength, our only comfort, our only authority is the

precious word of God. Take away that, and we have absolutely nothing. Give us that,

and we want no more.

This is what makes it all so real and so solid for our souls. Yes; reader, and so

consolatory and tranquillising, too. The truth as to our assembly is as clear, and as

simple, and as unquestionable as the truth in reference to our salvation. It is the

privilege of all Christians to be as sure that they are gathered on God's ground, around

God's centre, by God's power, and on God's authority, as that they are within the

blessed circle of God's salvation.

And, then, if we be asked, "How can we be certain of being round God's centre?" We

reply, simply by the word of God. How could Israel of old be sure as to God's chosen

place for their assembly? By His express commandment. Were they at any loss for

guidance? Surely not; His word was as clear and as distinct as to their place of

worship as it was in reference to everything else. It left not the slightest ground for

uncertainty. It was so plainly set before them that, for any one to raise a question,

could only be regarded as wilful ignorance or positive disobedience.

Now, the question is, Are Christians worse off than Israel in reference to the great

subject of their place of worship, the centre and ground of their assembly? Are they

left in doubt and uncertainty? Is it an open question? Is it a matter as to which, every

man is left to do what is right in his own eyes? Has God given us no positive, definite

instruction on a question so intensely interesting, and so vitally important? Could we

imagine, for a moment, that the One who graciously condescended to instruct His

people of old in matters which we, in our fancied wisdom, would deem unworthy of

notice, would leave His church now without any definite guidance as to the ground,

centre, and characteristic features of our worship? Utterly impossible! Every spiritual

mind must reject, with decision and energy, any such idea.

No, beloved Christian reader, you know it would not be like our gracious God to deal

thus with His heavenly people. True, there is no such thing now as a particular place

to which all Christians are to betake themselves periodically for worship. There was

such a place, for God's earthly people; and there will be such a place for restored

Israel and for all nations by-and-by. "It shall come to pass in the last days, that the

mountain of the Lord's house shall be established m the top of the mountains, and

shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people

shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house

of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths;

for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." (Isa.

2) And again, "It shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which

came against Jerusalem, shall even go up from year to year to worship the King the

Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be that whoso will not

come up of all the families of the earth, unto Jerusalem, to worship the King, the Lord

of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain." (Zech. 14: 16, 17.)

Here are two passages culled, one from the first, and the other from the last but one,

of the divinely inspired prophets, both pointing forward to the glorious time when

Jerusalem shall be God's centre for Israel and for all nations. And we may assert, with

all possible confidence, that the reader will find all the prophets, with one consent, in

full harmony with Isaiah and Zechariah, on this profoundly interesting subject. To

apply such passages to the church, or to heaven, is to do violence to the clearest

grandest utterances that ever fell on human ears; it is to confound things heavenly and

earthly, and to give a flat contradiction to the divinely harmonious voices of prophets

and apostles.

It is needless to multiply quotations. All scripture goes to prove that Jerusalem was

and will yet be God's earthly centre for His people, and for all nations. But, just now,

that is to say, from the day of Pentecost, when God the Holy Ghost came down, to

form the church of God, the body of Christ, until the moment when our Lord Jesus

Christ shall come to take His people away out of this world, there is no place, no city,

no sacred locality, no earthly centre for the Lord's people. To talk to Christians about

holy places or consecrated ground is as thoroughly foreign to them—at least it ought

to be—as it would have been to talk to a Jew about having his place of worship in

heaven. The idea is wholly out of place, wholly out of character.

If the reader will turn, for a moment, to the fourth chapter of John, he will find, in our

Lord's marvellous discourse with the woman of Sychar, the most blessed teaching on

this subject. "The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our

fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where

men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, woman, believe me, the hour cometh,

when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye

worship ye know not what; we know what we worship; for salvation is of the Jews.

But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father

in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit; and

they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." (Vers. 19-24.)

This passage entirely sets aside the thought of any special place of worship now.

There really is no such thing. "The Most High dwelleth not in temples made with

hands; as saith the prophet, Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what

house will ye build me? saith the Lord; or what is the place of my rest? Hath not my

hand made all these things?" (Acts 7.48-50.) And again, "God that made the world,

and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in

temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with man's hands, as though he

needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things." (Acts 17: 24,

25.)

The teaching of the New Testament, from beginning to end, is clear and decided as to

the subject of worship; and the Christian reader is solemnly bound to give heed to that

teaching, and to seek to understand and submit his whole moral being to its authority.

There has ever been, from the very earliest ages of the church's history, a strong and

fatal tendency to return to Judaism, not only on the subject of righteousness, but also

on that of worship. Christians have not only been put under the law for life and

righteousness, but also under the Levitical ritual for the order and character of their

worship. We have dealt with the former of these in chapters 4 and 5 of these "Notes;"

but the latter is hardly less serious in its effect upon whole tone and character of

Christian life and conduct.

We have to bear in mind that Satan's great object is to cast the church of God down

from her excellency, in reference to her standing, her walk and her worship. No

sooner was the church set up on the day of Pentecost than he commenced his

corrupting and undermining process, and for eighteen long centuries he has carried it

on with diabolical persistency. In the face of these plain passages quoted above, in

reference to the character of worship which the Father is now seeking, and as to the

fact that, God does not dwell in temples made with hands, we have seen, in all ages,

the strong tendency to return to the condition of things under the Mosaic economy.

Hence the desire for great buildings, imposing rituals, sacerdotal orders, choral

services, all of which are in direct opposition to the mind of Christ and to the plainest

teachings of the New Testament. The professing church has entirely departed from

the spirit and authority of the Lord in all these things; and yet, strange and sad to say,

these very things are continually appealed to as proofs of the wonderful progress of

Christianity. We are told by some of our public teachers and guides that the blessed

Apostle Paul had little idea of the grandeur to which the church was to attain; but if

he could only see one of our venerable cathedrals, with its lofty aisles and painted

windows, and listen to the peals of the organ and the voices of the choristers, he

would see what an advance had been made upon the upper room at Jerusalem!

Ah! reader, be assured it is all a most thorough delusion. It is true, indeed, the church

has made progress, but it is in the wrong direction; it is not upward but downward. It

is away from Christ, away from the Father, away from the Spirit, away from the word.

We should like to ask the reader this one question, If the Apostle Paul were to come

to London for next Lord's day? where could he find what he found in Troas, eighteen

hundred years ago, as recorded in Acts 20: 7? Where could he find a company of

disciples gathered simply by the Holy Ghost, to the Name of Jesus, to break bread in

remembrance of Him, and to show forth His death till He come? Such was the divine

order then, and such must be the divine order now. We cannot for a moment, believe

that the apostle would accept anything else. He would look for the divine thing; he

would have that or nothing. Now, where could He find it? Where could he go and find

the table of his Lord as appointed by Himself, the same night in which He was

betrayed?

Mark, reader, we are bound to believe that the apostle Paul would insist upon having

the table and the supper of his Lord, as he had received them direct from Himself in

the glory, and given them by the Spirit, in the tenth and eleventh chapter of his epistle

to the Corinthians—an epistle addressed to all that in every place call on the name of

our Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours." We cannot believe that he would teach

God's order, in the first century and accept man's disorder in the nineteenth. Man has

no right to tamper with a divine institution. He has no more authority to alter a single

jot or tittle connected with the Lord's supper than Israel had to interfere with the order

of the Passover.

Now, we repeat the question—and earnestly entreat the reader to ponder and answer

it in the divine presence, and in the light of scripture—Where could the apostle find

this in London, or anywhere else in Christendom on next Lord's day? Where could he

go and take his seat at the table of his Lord, in the midst of a company of disciples

gathered simply on the ground of the one body, to the one centre, the Name of Jesus,

by the power of the Holy Ghost, and on the authority of the word of God? Where

could he find a sphere in which he could exercise his gifts without human authority,

appointment, or ordination? We ask these questions in order to exercise the heart and

conscience of the reader. We are fully convinced that there are places, here and there,

where Paul could find these things carried out, though in weakness and failure; and

we believe the Christian reader is solemnly responsible to find them out. Alas! alas!

they are few and far between, compared with the mass of Christians meeting

otherwise.

We may perhaps be told that if people knew that it was the apostle Paul, they would

willingly allow him to minister. But then he would neither seek nor accept their

permission, inasmuch as he tells us plainly, in the first chapter of Galatians, that his

ministry was "not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father,

who raised him from the dead."

And not only so, but we may rest assured that the blessed apostle would insist upon

having the Lord's table spread upon the divine ground of the one body; and he could

only consent to eat the Lord's Supper according to its divine order as laid down in the

New Testament. He could not accept, for a moment, anything but the divine reality.

He would say, "Either that or nothing." He could not admit any human interference

with a divine institution; neither could He accept any new ground of gathering, or any

new principle of organisation. He would repeat his Own inspired statements, "There

is one body and one Spirit;" and "We being many, are one bread, one body; for we are

all partakers of that one bread." These words apply to "all that in every place call on

the name of Jesus Christ our Lord; and they hold good in all ages of the church's

existence on earth.

The reader must be very clear and distinct as to this. God's principle of gathering and

unity must, on no account, be surrendered. The moment men begin to organise, to

form societies, churches or associations, they act in direct opposition to the word of

God, the mind of Christ, and the present action of the Holy Ghost. Man might as well

set about to form a world as to form a church. It is entirely a divine work. The Holy

Ghost came down, on the day of Pentecost, to form the church of God, the body of

Christ; and this is the only church, the only body that scripture recognises; all else is

contrary to God, even though it may be sanctioned and defended by thousands of true

Christians.

Let not the reader misunderstand us. We are not speaking of salvation, of eternal life,

or of divine righteousness, but of the true ground of gathering the divine principle on

which the Lord's table should be spread, and the Lord's supper celebrated. Thousands

of the Lord's beloved people have lived and died in the communion of the church of

Rome; but the church of Rome is not the church of God, but a horrible apostasy; and

the sacrifice of the mass is not the Lord's supper, but a marred, mutilated and

miserable invention of the devil. If the question in the mind of the reader be merely

what amount of error he can sanction without forfeiting his soul's salvation, it is

useless to proceed with the grand and important subject before us.

But where is the heart that loves Christ that could be content to take such miserably

low ground as this? What would have been thought of an Israelite of old who could

content himself with being a child of Abraham, and could enjoy his vine and his fig-

tree, his flocks and his herds, but never think of going to worship at the place where

Jehovah had recorded His Name? Where was the faithful Jew who did not love that

sacred spot? "Lord, I have loved the habitation of thine house, and the place where

thine honour dwelleth"

And when, by reason of Israel's sin, the national polity was broken up, and the people

were in captivity, we hear the true-hearted exiles amongst them Pouring forth their

lament in the following touching and eloquent strain, "By the rivers of Babylon, there

we sat down; yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion, We hanged our harps upon

the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required

of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the

songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O

Jerusalem,"—God's centre for His earthly people—"let my right hand forget her

cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I

prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy." (Ps. 137.)

And again, in Daniel 6, we find that beloved exile opening his window, three times a

day, and praying toward Jerusalem, although he knew that the lions' den was the

penalty. But why insist upon praying toward Jerusalem? Was it a piece of Jewish

superstition? Nay; it was a magnificent display of divine principle; it was an unfurling

of the divine standard amid the depressing and humiliating consequences of Israel's

folly and sin. True, Jerusalem was in ruins; but God's thoughts respecting Jerusalem

were not in ruins. It was His centre for His earthly people. "Jerusalem is builded as a

city that is compact together, whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the

testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of Lord. For there are set thrones of

judgement, the thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they

shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy

palaces. For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within

thee. Because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good." (Ps. 122)

Jerusalem was the centre for Israel's twelve tribes, in days gone by, and it will be so in

the future. To apply the above and similar passages to the church of God here or

hereafter, on earth or in heaven, is simply turning things upside down, confounding

things essentially different, and thus doing an incalculable amount of damage both to

scripture and the souls of men. We must not allow ourselves to take such

unwarrantable liberties with the word of God.

Jerusalem was and will be God's earthly centre; but, now, the church of God should

own no centre but the glorious and infinitely precious Name of Jesus. "Where two or

three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Precious

centre! To this alone the New Testament points, to this alone the Holy Ghost gathers.

It matters not where we are gathered, in Jerusalem or Rome, London, Paris or Canton.

It is not where but how.

But be it remembered, it must be a divinely real thing It is of no possible use to

profess to be gathered in or to the blessed Name of Jesus, if we are not really so. The

apostle's word as to faith may apply with equal force to the question of our centre of

gathering. 'What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say "he is gathered to the

Name of Jesus? God deals in moral realities; and while it is perfectly clear that a man

who desires to be true to Christ cannot possibly consent to own any other centre or

any other ground of gathering but His Name, yet it is quite possible—alas! alas! how

very possible—for people to profess to be on that blessed and holy ground, while their

spirit and conduct, their habits and ways, their whole course and character go to prove

that they are not in the power of their profession.

The apostle said to the Corinthians that he would "know not the speech but the

power." A weighty word, most surely, and much needed at all times, but specially

needed in reference to the important subject now before us. We would lovingly, yet

most solemnly press upon the conscience of the Christian reader his responsibility to

consider this matter in the holy retirement of the Lord's presence, and in the light of

the New Testament. Let him not set it aside on the plea of its not being essential. It is,

in the very highest degree, essential, inasmuch as it concerns the Lord's glory, and the

maintenance of His truth. This is the only standard by which to decide what is

essential and what is not. Was it essential for Israel to gather at the divinely appointed

centre? Was it left an open question? Might every man choose a centre for himself?

Let the answer be weighed in the light of Deuteronomy 14. It was absolutely essential

that the Israel of God should assemble round the centre of the God of Israel. This is

unquestionable. Woe be to the man who presumed to turn his back on the place where

Jehovah had set His Name. He would, very speedily, have been taught his mistake.

And if this was true for God's earthly people, is it not equally true for the church, and

the individual Christian? Assuredly it is. We are bound, by the very highest and most

sacred obligations, to refuse every ground of gathering but the one body; every centre

of gathering but the Name of Jesus; every power of gathering but the Holy Ghost;

every authority of gathering but the word of God. May all the Lord's beloved people,

everywhere, be led to consider those things in the fear and love of His holy Name!

We shall now close this section by quoting the last paragraph of our chapter, in which

we shall find some most valuable practical teaching.

"At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase the same

year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates; and the Levite, (because he hath no part nor

inheritance with thee,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are

within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat, and be satisfied; that the Lord thy God

may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest."

Here we have a lovely home-scene, a most touching display of the divine character, a

beautiful outshining of the grace and kindness of the God of Israel. It does the heart

good to breath the fragrant air of such a passage as this. It stands in vivid and striking

contrast with the cold selfishness of the scene around us. God would teach His people

to think of, and care for, all who were in need. The tithe belonged to Him, but He

would give them the rare and exquisite privilege of devoting it to the blessed object of

making hearts glad.

There is peculiar sweetness in the words, "shall come"—"shall eat"—"and be

satisfied." So like our own ever Gracious God! He delights to meet the need of all. He

opens His hand, and satisfies the desire of every living thing. And not only so, but it is

His joy to make His people the channel through which the grace, the kindness and the

sympathy of His heart may flow forth to all. How precious is this! What a privilege to

be God's almoners, the dispensers of His bounty, the exponents of His goodness!

Would that we entered more fully into the deep blessedness of all this! May we

breathe more the atmosphere of the divine presence, and then we shall more faithfully

reflect the divine character!

As the deeply interesting and practical subject presented in verses 28 and 29 will

come before us in another connection, in our study of chapter 26, we shall not dwell

further upon it here.

Deuteronomy 15

"At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. And this is the manner of

the release. Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour shall release it; he

shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother; because it is called the Lord's

release. Of a foreigner thou mayest exact it again; but that which is thine with thy

brother thine hand shall release. Save when there shall be no poor among you; for the

Lord shall greatly bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an

inheritance to possess it; only if thou carefully hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy

God, to observe to do all these commandments which I command thee this day. For

the Lord thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee; and thou shalt lend unto many

nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they

shall not reign over you." (Vers. 1-6.)

It is truly edifying to mark the way in which the God of Israel was ever seeking to

draw the hearts of His people to Himself by means of the various sacrifices,

solemnities and institutions of the Levitical ceremonial. There was the morning and

evening lamb, every day; there was the holy Sabbath, every week; there was the new

moon, every month; there was the Passover, every year; there was the tithing, every

three years; there was the release, every seven years; and there was the jubilee, every

fifty years.

All this is full of deepest interest. It tells its own sweet tale, and teaches its own

precious lesson to the heart. The morning and evening lamb, as we know, pointed

ever to "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world" The Sabbath was

the lovely type of the rest that remaineth to the people of God. The new moon

beautifully pre-figured the time when restored Israel shall reflect back the beams of

the Sun of righteousness upon the nations. The Passover was the standing memorial

of the nation's deliverance from Egyptian bondage. The year of tithing set forth the

fact of Jehovah's proprietorship of the land, as also the lovely way in which His rents

were to be expended in meeting the need of His workmen and of His poor. The

sabbatic year gave promise of a bright time when all debts would be cancelled, all

loans disposed of, all burdens removed. And, finally, the jubilee was the magnificent

type of the times of the restitution of all things, when the captive shall be set free,

when the exile shall return to his long lost home and inheritance; and when the land

of Israel and the whole earth shall rejoice beneath the beneficent, government of the

Son of David.

Now, in all these lovely institutions we notice two prominent characteristic features,

namely, glory to God, and blessing to man These two things are linked together by a

divine and everlasting bond. God has so ordained that His full glory and the creature's

full blessing should be indissolubly bound up together. This is deep joy to the heart,

and it helps us to understand, more fully, the force and beauty of that familiar

sentence: "We rejoice in hope of the glory of God." When that glory shines forth in its

full lustre, then, assuredly, human blessedness, rest and felicity shall reach their full

and eternal consummation.

We see a lovely pledge and foreshadowing of all this in the seventh year. It was "The

Lord's release," and therefore its blessed influence was to be felt by every poor debtor

from Dan to Beersheba. Jehovah would grant unto His people the high and holy

privilege of having fellowship with Him in causing the debtor's heart to sing for joy.

He would teach them, if they would only learn, the deep blessedness of frankly

forgiving all. This is what He Himself delights in, blessed for ever be His great and

glorious Name!

But alas! the poor human heart is not up to this lovely mark. It is not fully prepared to

tread this heavenly road. It is sadly cramped and hindered, by a low and miserable

selfishness, in grasping and carrying out the divine principle of grace. It is not quite at

home in this heavenly atmosphere. It is but ill-prepared for being the vessel and

channel of that royal grace which shines so brightly in all the ways of God. This will

only too fully account for the cautionary clauses of the following passage. "If there be

among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates, in thy land,

which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine

hand from thy poor brother; but thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and surely

lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth. Beware that there be not a

thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand:

and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought; and he cry

unto the Lord against thee, and it be sin unto thee. Thou shalt surely give him, and

thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him; because that for this thing

the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine

hand unto. For the poor shall never cease out of thy land; therefore I command thee,

saying, thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy

needy, in thy land." (verses. 7-11.)

Here the deep springs of the poor selfish heart are discovered and judged. There is

nothing like grace for making manifest the hidden roots of evil in human nature. Man

must be renewed in the very deepest springs of his moral being ere he can be the

vehicle of divine love; and even those who are thus through grace renewed, have to

watch continually against the hideous forms of selfishness in which our fallen nature

clothes itself. Nothing but grace can keep the heart open wide to every form of human

need. We must abide hard by the fountain of heavenly love if we would be channels

of blessing in the midst of a scene of misery and desolation like that in which our lot

is cast.

How lovely are those words, "Thou shalt open thine hand wide!" They breathe the

very air of heaven. An open heart and a wide hand are like God. "The Lord loveth a

cheerful giver. because that is precisely what He is Himself. "He giveth to all

liberally, and upbraideth not." And He would grant unto us the rare and most

exquisite privilege of being imitators of Him. Marvellous grace! The very thought of

it fills the heart with wonder, love and praise. We are not only saved by grace, but we

stand in grace, live under the blessed reign of grace, breathe the very atmosphere of

grace, and are called to be the living exponents of grace, not only to our brethren but

to the whole human family. "As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto

all, especially unto them which are of the household of faith."

Christian reader, let us diligently apply our hearts to all this divine instruction. It is

most precious; but its real preciousness can only be tasted in the practical carrying out

of it. We are surrounded by ten thousand forms of human misery, human sorrow,

human need. There are broken hearts, crushed spirits, desolate homes, around us, on

every side. The widow, the orphan and the Stranger meet us, daily, in our walks. How

do we carry ourselves in reference to all these? Are we hardening our hearts and

closing our hands against them? Or are we seeking to act in the lovely spirit of "the

Lord's release"? We must bear in mind that we are called to be reflectors of the divine

nature and character, to be direct channels of communication between our Father's

loving heart and every form of human need. We are not to live for ourselves; to do so

is a most miserable denial of every feature and principle of that morally glorious

Christianity which we profess. It is our high and holy privilege, yea, it is our special

mission, to shed around us the blessed light of that heaven to which we belong.

wherever we are, in the family, in the field, in the mart or the manufactory, in the

shop or in the counting house, all who come in contact with us should see the grace of

Jesus shining out in our ways, our words, our very looks. And then if any object of

need come before us, if we can do nothing more, we should drop a soothing word into

the ear, or shed a tear or heave a sigh of genuine heartfelt sympathy.

Reader, is it thus with us? Are we so living near the fountain of divine love, and so

breathing the very air of heaven that the blessed fragrance of these things shall be

diffused around us? Or are we displaying the odious selfishness of nature, the unholy

temper and dispositions of our fallen and corrupt humanity? What an unsightly object

is a selfish Christian. He is a standing contradiction, a living, moving lie. The

Christianity which he professes throws out into dark and terrible relief the unholy

selfishness which governs his heart and comes out in his life.

The Lord grant that all who profess and call themselves Christians may so carry

themselves, in daily life, as to be an unblotted epistle of Christ, known and read of all

men! In this way, infidelity will, at least, be deprived of one of its weightiest

arguments, its gravest objections. Nothing affords a stronger plea to the infidel than

the inconsistent lives of professing Christians.

Not that such a plea will stand for a moment, or even be urged before the judgement-

seat of Christ, inasmuch as each one who has within his reach a copy of the holy

scriptures will be judged by the light of those scriptures, even though there were not a

single consistent Christian on the face of the earth. Nevertheless, Christians are

solemnly responsible to let their light so shine before men that they may see their

good works and glorify our Father in heaven. We are solemnly bound to exhibit and

illustrate in daily life the heavenly principles unfolded in the word of God. We should

leave the infidel without a shred of a plea or an argument; we are responsible so to do.

May we lay these things to heart, and then we shall have occasion to bless God for our

meditation on the delightful institution of "The Lord's release."

We shall now quote for the reader the touching and beautiful institution in reference

to the Hebrew servant. We increasingly feel the importance of giving the veritable

language of the Holy Ghost; for albeit it may be said that the reader has his Bible to

refer to, yet we know, as a fact, that when passages of scripture are referred to, there

is, in many cases, a reluctance to lay down the volume which we hold in our hand in

order to read the reference. And beside, there is nothing like the word of God; and as

to any remarks which we may offer, their object is simply to help the beloved

Christian reader to understand and appreciate the scriptures which we quote.

"If thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve

thee six years, then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee. And when

thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty; thou shalt

furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress;

of that wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him."

How perfectly beautiful, how like our own ever gracious God is all this! He would not

have the brother go away empty. Liberty and poverty would not be in moral harmony.

The brother was to be sent on his way free and full, emancipated and endowed, not

only with his liberty but with a liberal fortune to start with.

Truly, this is divine. We do not want to be told the school where such exquisite ethics

are taught. They have the very ring of heaven about them; they emit the fragrant

odour of the very paradise of God. Is it not in this way that our God has dealt with us?

All praise to His glorious Name! He has not only given us life and liberty, but He has

furnished us liberally with all we can possibly want for time and eternity. He has

opened the exhaustless treasury of heaven for us; yea, He has given the Son of His

bosom for us, and to us—for us, to save; to us, to satisfy. He has given us all things

that pertain to life and godliness; all that pertains to the life that now is, and to that

which is to come, is fully and perfectly secured by our Father's liberal hand.

And is it not deeply affecting to mark how the heart of God expresses itself in the

style in which the Hebrew servant was to be treated? "Thou shalt furnish him

liberally." Not grudgingly or of necessity. It was to be done in a manner worthy of

God. The actings of His people are to be the reflection of Himself. We are called to

the high and holy dignity of being His moral representatives. It is marvellous; but thus

it is, through His infinite grace. He has not only delivered us from the flames of an

everlasting hell, but He calls us to act for Him, and to be like Him in the midst of a

world that crucified His Son. And not only has He conferred this lofty dignity upon

us, but He has endowed us with a princely fortune to support it. The inexhaustible

resources of heaven are at our disposal. "All things are ours," through His infinite

grace. Oh! that we may more fully realise our privileges, and thus more faithfully

discharge our holy responsibilities!

At verse 15 of our chapter, we have a very touching motive presented to the heart of

the people, one eminently calculated to stir their affections and sympathies. "And

thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy

God redeemed thee; therefore I command thee this thing today. The remembrance of

Jehovah's grace in redeeming them out of Egypt was to be the ever-abiding and all-

powerful motive-spring of their actings towards the poor brother. This is a never

failing principle; and nothing lower than this will ever stand. If we look for our

motive-springs anywhere but in God Himself, and in His dealings with us, we shall

soon break down in our practical career. It is only as we keep before our hearts the

marvellous grace of God displayed toward us, in the redemption which is in Christ

Jesus, that we shall be able to pursue a course of true, active benevolence, whether

toward our brethren or those outside. Mere kindly feelings bubbling up in our own

hearts, or drawn out by the sorrows and distresses and necessities of others, will prove

evanescent. It is only in the living God Himself we can find perennial springs.

At verse 16, a case is contemplated in which a servant might prefer remaining with

his master. "And it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not go away from thee, because

he loveth thee and thine house, because he is well with thee, then thou shalt take an

awl, and thrust it through his ear unto the door, and he shall be thy servant for ever"

In comparing this passage with Exodus 21: 1-6, we observe a marked difference

arising, as we might expect, from the distinctive character of each book. In Exodus,

the typical feature is prominent; in Deuteronomy, the moral, Hence, in the latter, the

inspired writer omits all about the wife and the children, as foreign to his purpose

here, though so essential to the beauty and perfectness of the type in Exodus 21. We

merely notice this as one of the many striking proofs that Deuteronomy is very far

indeed from being a barren repetition of its pre-decessors. There is neither repetition,

on the one hand, nor contradiction, on the other but lovely variety in perfect

accordance with the divine object and scope of each book. So much for the

contemptible shallowness and ignorance of those infidels who have had the impious

temerity to level their shafts at this magnificent portion of the oracles of God.

In our chapter, then, we have the moral aspect of this interesting institution. The

servant loved his master and was happy with him. He preferred perpetual slavery and

the mark thereof, with a master whom he loved, to liberty and a liberal portion away

from him. This, of course, would argue well for both parties. It is ever a good sign for

both master and servant when the connection is of long standing. Perpetual changing

may, as a general rule, be taken as a proof of moral wrong somewhere. No doubt,

there are exceptions; and not only so, but in the relation of master and servant, as in

everything else, there are two sides to be considered. For instance, we have to

consider whether the master is perpetually changing his servants, or the servant

perpetually changing his masters. In the former case, appearances would tell against

the master; in the latter, against the servant.

The fact is, we have all to judge ourselves in this matter. Those of us who are masters

have to consider how far we really seek the comfort, happiness and solid profit of our

servants. We should bear in mind that we have very much more to think of, in

reference to our servants, than the amount of work we can get out of them. Even upon

the low-level principle of "live and let live," we are bound to in every possible way, to

make our servants happy and comfortable; to make them feel that they have a home

under our roof; that we are not content with the labour of their hands, but that we

want the love of their hearts. We remember once asking the head of a very large

establishment, How many hearts do you employ?" He shook his head, and owned with

real sorrow how little heart there is in the relation of master and servant. Hence, the

common heartless phrase of "employing hands."

But the Christian master is called to stand upon a higher level altogether; he is

privileged to be an imitator of his Master, Christ. The remembrance of this will

regulate all his actings towards the servant; it will lead him to study, with ever-

deepening interest and solid profit, his divine model, in order to reproduce Him, in all

the practical details of daily life.

So also, in reference to the Christian servant, in his position and line of action. He, as

well as the master, has to study the great example set before :him in the path and

ministry of the only true Servant that ever trod this earth. He is called to walk in His

blessed footsteps, to drink into His spirit, to study His word. It is not a little

remarkable that the Holy Ghost has devoted more attention to the instruction of

servants than to all the other relationships put together. This the reader can see at a

glance, in the Epistles to the Ephesians, Colossians, and Titus. The Christian servant

can adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour, by not purloining and not answering again.

He can serve the Lord Christ, in the most common-place duties of domestic life, just

as effectually as the man who is called to address thousands on the grand realities of

eternity.

Thus when both master and servant are mutually governed by heavenly principles,

both seeking to serve and glorify the one Lord, they will get on happily together. The

master will not be severe, arbitrary and exacting; and the servant will not be self-

seeking, heady and high-minded; each will contribute, by the faithful discharge of

their relative duties, to the comfort and happiness of the other, and to the peace and

happiness of the whole domestic circle. Would that it were more after this heavenly

fashion, in every Christian household on the face of the earth! Then indeed would the

truth of God be vindicated, His word honoured, and His Name glorified in our

domestic relations and practical ways.

In verse 18, we have an admonitory word which reveals to us, very faithfully, but with

great delicacy, a moral root in the poor human heart. " It shall not seem hard unto

thee, when thou sendest him away free from thee; for he hath been worth a double

hired servant to thee, in serving thee six years; and the Lord thy God shall bless thee

in all that thou doest."

This is very affecting. Only think of the most High God condescending to stand

before the human heart—the heart of a master, to plead the cause of a poor servant,

and set forth his claims! It is as if He were asking a favour for Himself. He leaves

nothing unsaid in order to strengthen the case. He reminds the master of the value of

six years' service, and encourages him by the promise of enlarged blessing as a reward

for his generous acting. It is perfectly beautiful. The Lord would not only have the

generous thing done, but done in such a way as to gladden the heart of the one to

whom it was done; He thinks not only of the substance of an action, but also of the

style. We may, at times, brace ourselves up to the business of doing a kindness; we do

it as a matter of duty; and, all the while, it may "seem hard" that we should have to do

it; thus the act will be robbed of all its charms. It is the generous heart that adorns the

generous act. We should so do a kindness as to assure the recipient that our own heart

is made glad by the act. This is the divine way: "When they had nothing to pay, he

frankly forgave them both." "It is meet that we should make merry, and be glad."

"There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth" Oh! to be a brighter reflection

of the precious grace of our Father's heart!

Ere closing our remarks on this deeply interesting chapter, we shall quote for the

reader its last paragraph. "All the firstling males that come of thy herd and of thy

flock thou shalt sanctify unto the Lord thy God; thou shalt do no work with the

firstling of thy bullock, nor shear the firstling of thy sheep; thou shalt eat it before the

Lord thy God year by year, in the place which, the Lord shall choose, thou and thy

household. And if there be any blemish therein, as if it be lame, or blind, or have any

ill blemish, thou shalt not sacrifice it unto the Lord thy God. Thou shalt eat it within

thy gates, the unclean the clean person shall eat it alike, as the roebuck, as the hart.

Only thou shalt not eat the blood thereof. Thou shalt pour it upon the ground as

water." (Vers 19-23)

Only that which was perfect was to be offered to God. The first-born, unblemished

male, the apt figure of the spotless Lamb of God, offered upon the cross for us, the

imperishable foundation of our peace, and the precious food of our souls, in the

presence of God. This was the divine thing; the assembly gathered together, around

the divine centre, feasting in the presence of God, on that which was the appointed

type of Christ, who is, at once, our sacrifice, our centre, and our feast. Eternal and

universal homage to His most precious and glorious Name!

Deuteronomy 16.

We now approach one of the most profound and comprehensive sections of the Book

of Deuteronomy, in which the inspired writer presents to our view what we may call

the three great cardinal feasts of the Jewish year, namely, the Passover, Pentecost, and

Tabernacles; or redemption, the Holy Ghost, and the glory. We have here a more

condensed view of lovely institutions than that given in Leviticus 23 where we have,

if we count the Sabbath, eight feasts but if we view the Sabbath as distinct, and

having its own special place as the type of God's own eternal rest, then there are seven

feasts, namely, the Passover; the feast of unleavened bread; the feast first-fruits;

Pentecost; trumpets; the day of atonement; and tabernacles.

Such is the order of feasts in the Book of which, as we have ventured to remark in our

studies on that most marvellous book, may be called "The priests guide book" But in

Deuteronomy, which is pre-eminently the people's book, we have less of ceremonial

detail, and the lawgiver confines himself to those great moral and national landmarks

which, in the very simplest manner, as adapted to the people, present the past, the

present, and the future.

"Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover unto the Lord thy God; for in the

month of Abib the Lord thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. Thou shalt

therefore sacrifice the Passover unto the Lord thy God, of the flock and the herd, in

the place which the Lord shall choose to place his name there. Thou shalt eat no

leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the

bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste; that thou

mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days

of thy life. And there shall be no leavened bread seen with thee in all thy coasts seven

days; neither shall there anything of the flesh, which thou sacrificedst the first day at

even, remain all night until the morning. Thou mayest not sacrifice the Passover

within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee"—as if it were a matter of

no importance where, provided the feast were kept—"but at the place which the Lord

thy God shall choose to place his name in, there"—and nowhere else "thou shalt

sacrifice the Passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou

camest forth out of Egypt. And thou shalt roast and eat it in the place which the Lord

thy God shall choose; and thou shalt turn in the morning, and go unto thy tents. Six

days thou shalt eat unleavened bread; and on the seventh day shall be a solemn

assembly to the Lord thy God; thou shalt do no work therein" (vers. 1-8.)

Having, in our "Notes on Exodus," gone, somewhat fully, into the great leading

principles of this foundation feast, we must refer the reader to that volume, if he

desires to study the subject. But there are certain features peculiar to Deuteronomy to

which we feel it our duty to call his special attention. And, in the first place, we have

to notice the remarkable emphasis laid upon "the place" where the feast was to be

kept. This is full of interest and practical moment. The people were not to choose for

themselves. It might, according to human thinking, appear a very small matter how or

where the feast was kept provided it was kept at all. But—be it carefully noted and

deeply pondered by the reader—human thinking had nothing whatever to do in the

matter; it was divine thinking and divine authority altogether. God had a right to

prescribe and definitively settle where He would meet His people; and this He does in

the most distinct and emphatic manner, in the above passage, where, three times over,

He inserts the weighty clause, "In the place which the Lord thy God shall choose."

Is this vain repetition? Let no one dare to think, much less to assert it. It is most

necessary emphasis; Why most necessary? Because of our ignorance, our

indifference, and our wilfulness. God, in His infinite goodness, takes special pains to

impress upon the heart, the conscience and the understanding of His people, that He

would have one place, in particular, where the memorable and most significant feast

of the Passover was to be kept.

And be it remarked that it is only in Deuteronomy that the place of celebration is

insisted upon. We have nothing about it in Exodus, because there it was kept in

Egypt. We have nothing about it in Numbers, because there it was kept in the

wilderness. But, in Deuteronomy, it is authoritatively and definitively settled, because

there we have the instructions for the land. Another striking proof that Deuteronomy

is very far indeed from being a barren repetition of its predecessors.

The all-important point, in reference to "the place" so prominently and so

peremptorily insisted upon in all the three great solemnities recorded in our chapter,

is this, God would gather His beloved people around Himself, that they might feast

together in His presence; that He might rejoice in them, and they in Him and in one

another. All this could only be in the one special place of divine appointment. All

who desired to meet Jehovah and to meet His people, all who desired worship and

communion according to God, would thankfully betake themselves to the divinely

appointed centre. Self-will might say, "Can we not keep the feast in the bosom of our

families? What need is there of a long journey? Surely if heart is right, it cannot

matter very much as to place." To all this we reply that the clearest, and best proof of

the heart being right would be found in the simple, earnest desire to do the will of

God. It was quite sufficient for every one who loved and feared God that He had

appointed a Place where He would meet His people; there they would be found and

nowhere else. His presence it was that could alone impart joy, comfort, strength and

blessing to all their great national reunions. It was not the mere fact of a large number

of people gathering together, three times a year, to feast and rejoice together; this

might minister to human pride, self complacency and excitement. But to flock

together to meet Jehovah, to assemble in His blessed presence, to own the place

where He had recorded His Name, this would be the deep joy of every truly loyal

heart throughout the twelve tribes of Israel. For any one, wilfully, to abide at home, or

to go anywhere else than to the one divinely appointed place, would not only be to

neglect and insult Jehovah, but actually to rebel against His supreme authority.

And now, having briefly spoken of the place, we may, for a moment, glance at the

mode of celebration This, too, is, as we might expect, quite characteristic of our book.

The leading feature here is "the unleavened bread." But the reader will specially note

the interesting fact that this bread is "the bread of affliction." Now what is the

meaning this? We all understand that unleavened bread is the type of that holiness of

heart and life so absolutely essential to the enjoyment of true communion with God.

We are not saved by personal holiness but, thank God, we are saved to it. It is not the

ground of our salvation; but it is an essential element in our communion. Allowed

leaven is the death-blow to communion and worship.

We must never, for one moment, lose sight of this great cardinal principle in that life

of personal holiness and Practical godliness which, as redeemed by the blood of the

Lamb, we are called, bound and privileged to live from day to day, in the midst of the

scenes and circumstances through which we are journeying home to our eternal rest in

the heavens. To speak of communion and worship while living in known sin is the

melancholy proof that we know nothing of either the one or the other In order to

enjoy communion with God or the communion of saints, and in order to worship God

in spirit and in truth, we must be living a life of personal holiness, a life of separation

from all known evil. To take our place in the assembly of God's people, and appear to

take part in the holy fellowship and worship pertaining thereto, while living in secret

sin, or allowing evil in others, is to defile the assembly, grieve the Holy Ghost, sin

against Christ, and bring down upon us the judgement of God, who is now judging

His house and chastening His children in order that they may not ultimately be

condemned with the world.

All this is most solemn, and calls for the earnest attention of all who really desire: to

walk with God, and serve Him with reverence and godly fear It is one thing to have

the doctrine of the type in the region of our understanding, and another thing

altogether to have its great, moral lesson engraved on heart and worked out in the life.

May all who profess to have the blood of the Lamb sprinkled on their conscience seek

to keep the feast of unleavened bread. "Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the

whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are

unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the

feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with

the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." (1 Cor. 5: 6-8.)

But what are we to understand by "the bread of affliction"? Should we not rather look

for joy, praise and triumph, in connection with a feast in memory of deliverance from

Egyptian bondage and misery? No doubt, there is very deep and real joy, thankfulness

and praise in realising the blessed truth of our full deliverance from our former

condition, with all its accompaniments and all its consequences. But it is very plain

that these were not the prominent features of the paschal feast; indeed, they are not

even named. We have "the bread of affliction," but not a word about joy, praise or

triumph.

Now, why is this? What great moral lesson is conveyed to our hearts by the bread of

affliction? We believe it sets before as those deep exercises of heart which the Holy

Ghost produces by bringing powerfully before us what it cost our adorable Lord and

Saviour to deliver us from our sins and from the judgement which those sins

deserved. Those exercises are also typified by the "bitter herbs" of Exodus 12, and

they are illustrated, again and again, in the history of God's people of old who were

led, under the powerful action of the word and Spirit of God to chasten themselves

and "afflict their souls" in the divine presence.

And be it remembered that there is not a tinge of the legal element, or of unbelief in

these holy exercises; far from it. When an Israelite partook of the bread of affliction

with the roasted flesh of the Passover, did it express a doubt or a fear as to his full

deliverance? Impossible! How could it? He was in the land; he was gathered to God's

own centre, His own very presence. How could he then doubt his full and final

deliverance from the land of Egypt? The thought is simply absurd.

But although he had no doubts or fears as to his deliverance, yet had he to eat the

bread of affliction; it was an essential element in his paschal feast, "For thou camest

forth out of the land of Egypt in haste, that thou mayest remember the day when thou

camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life.

This was very deep and real work. They were never to forget their Exodus out of

Egypt; but to keep up the remembrance of it, in the promised land throughout all

generations. They were to commemorate their deliverance by a feast emblematic of

those holy exercises which ever characterise true, practical Christian piety.

We would, very earnestly, commend to the serious attention of the Christian reader

the whole line of truth indicated by "that bread of affliction." We believe it is much

needed by those who profess great familiarity with what are called the doctrines of

grace. There is very great danger, especially to young professors, while seeking to

avoid legality and bondage, of running into the opposite extreme of levity—a most

terrible snare. Aged and experienced Christians are not so liable to fall into this sad

evil; it is the young amongst us who so need to be most solemnly warned against it.

They hear, it may be, a great deal about salvation by grace, justification by faith,

deliverance from the law, and all the peculiar privileges of the Christian position.

Now, we need hardly say that all these are of cardinal importance; and it would be

utterly impossible for any one to hear too much about them Would they mere more

spoken about, written about, and preached about. Thousands of the Lord's beloved

people spend all their days in darkness, doubt and legal bondage, through ignorance

of those great foundation truths.

But, while all this is perfectly true, there are, on the other hand, many—alas! too

many who have a merely intellectual familiarity with the principles of grace but—if

we are to judge from their habits and manners, their style and deportment—the only

way we have of judging—who know but little of the sanctifying power of those great

principles—their power in the heart and in the life.

Now, to speak according to the teaching of the paschal feast, it would not have been

according to the mind of God for any one to attempt to keep that feast without the

unleavened bread, even the bread of affliction. Such a thing would not have been

tolerated in Israel of old. It was an absolutely essential ingredient. And so, we may

rest assured, it is an integral part of that feast which we, as Christians, are exhorted to

keep, to cultivate personal holiness and that condition of soul which is so aptly

expressed by the "bitter herbs" of Exodus 12 or the Deuteronomic ingredient, "the

bread of affliction," which latter would seem to be the permanent figure for the land.

In a word, then, we believe there is a deep and urgent need amongst us of those

spiritual feelings and affections, those profound exercises of soul which the Holy

Ghost would produce by unfolding to our hearts the sufferings of Christ—what it cost

Him to put away our sins namely—what He endured for us when passing under the

billows and waves of God's righteous wrath against our sins. We are sadly lacking—if

one may be permitted to speak for others—in that deep contrition of heart which

flows from spiritual occupation with the sufferings and death of our precious Saviour.

It is one thing to have the blood of Christ sprinkled on the conscience, and another

thing to have the death of Christ brought home, in a spiritual way, to the heart, and

the cross of Christ applied, in a practical way, to our whole course and character.

How is it that we can so lightly commit sin, in thought, word and deed? How is it that

there is so much levity, so much unsubduedness, so much self-indulgence, so much

carnal ease, so much that is merely frothy and superficial? Is it not because that

ingredient typified by "the bread of affliction" is lacking in our feast? we cannot doubt

it. We fear there is a very deplorable lack of depth and seriousness in our Christianity.

There is too much flippant discussion of the profound mysteries of the Christian faith,

too much head knowledge without the inward power.

All this demands the serious attention of the reader. We cannot shake off the

impression that not a little of this melancholy condition of things is but too justly

traceable to a certain style of preaching the gospel, adopted, no doubt, with The very

best intentions, but none the less pernicious in its moral effect. It is all right to preach

a simple Gospel It cannot, by any possibility, be put more simply than God the Holy

Ghost has given it to us in scripture.

All this is fully admitted; but, at the same time we are persuaded there is a very

serious defect in the preaching of which we speak. There is a want of spiritual depth,

a lack of holy seriousness. In the effort to counteract legality, there is that which tends

to levity. Now, while legality is a great evil, levity is much greater. We must guard

against both. We believe grace is the remedy for the former, truth for the latter; but

spiritual wisdom is needed to enable us rightly to adjust and apply these two. If we

find a soul, deeply exercised, under the powerful action of truth, thoroughly ploughed

up by the mighty ministry of the Holy Ghost, we should pour in the deep consolation

of the pure and precious grace of God, as set forth in the divinely efficacious sacrifice

of Christ. This is the divine remedy for a broken heart, a contrite spirit, a convicted

conscience. When the deep furrow has been made by the spiritual ploughshare, we

have only to cast in the incorruptible seed of the gospel of God, in the assurance that

it will take root, and bring forth fruit in due season.

But, on the other hand, if we find a person going on in a light, airy, unbroken

condition, using very high-flown language about grace, talking loudly against legality,

and seeking, in a merely human way to set forth an easy way of being saved, we

consider this to be a case calling for a very solemn application of truth to the heart

and conscience.

Now, we greatly fear there is a vast amount of this last named element abroad in the

professing church. To speak according to the language of our type, there is a tendency

to separate the Passover from the feast of unleavened bread—to rest in the fact of

being delivered from judgement and forget the roasted lamb, the bread of holiness,

and the bread of affliction. In reality, they never can be separated, inasmuch as God

has bound them together; and, hence, we do not believe that any soul can be really in

the enjoyment of the precious truth that "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us," who

is not seeking to "keep the feast." When the Holy Spirit unfolds to our hearts

something of the deep blessedness, preciousness, and efficacy of the death of our

Lord Jesus Christ, He leads us to meditate upon the soul-subduing mystery of His

sufferings, to ponder in our hearts all that He passed through for us, all that it cost

Him to save us from the eternal consequences of that which we, alas! so often lightly

commit.

Now this is very deep and holy work, and leads the soul into those exercises which

correspond with "the bread of affliction" in the feast of unleavened bread. There is a

wide difference between the feelings produced by dwelling upon our sins and those

which flow from dwelling upon the sufferings of Christ to put those sins away.

True, we can never forget our sins, never forget, the hole of the pit from whence we

were digged. But it is one thing to dwell upon the pit, and another and a deeper thing

altogether to dwell upon the grace that digged us out of it, and what it cost our

precious Saviour to do it. It is this latter we so much need to keep continually in the

remembrance of the thoughts of our hearts. We are so terribly volatile, so ready to

forget.

We need to look, very earnestly, to God to enable us to enter more deeply and

practically into the sufferings of Christ, and into the application of the cross to all that

in us which is contrary to Him. This will impart depth of tone, tenderness of spirit, an

intense breathing after holiness of heart and life, practical separation from the world,

in its every phase, a holy subduedness, jealous watchfulness over ourselves, our

thoughts, our words, our ways, our whole deportment in daily life. In a word, it would

lead to a totally different type of Christianity from what we see around us, and what,

alas! we exhibit in our own personal history. May the Spirit of God graciously unfold

to our hearts, by His own direct and powerful ministry, more and more of what is

meant by "the roasted lamb," the "unleavened bread," and "the bread of affliction"!*

We shall now briefly consider the feast of Pentecost which stands next in order to the

Passover. "Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee; begin to number the seven

weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn. And thou shalt

keep the feast of weeks unto the Lord thy God with a tribute of a freewill offering of

thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the Lord thy God, according as the Lord thy

God hath blessed thee; and thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou, and thy

son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is

within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among

you, in the place which the Lord thy God hath chosen to place his name there. And

thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt; and thou shalt observe and

do these statutes." (Vers. 9-12.)

{*For further remarks on the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread, the reader is

referred to Exodus 12, and Numbers 9. Specially, in the latter, the connection

between the Passover and the Lord's supper. This is a point of deepest interest, and

immense practical importance. The Passover looked forward to the death of Christ;

the Lord's supper looks back to it. What the former was to a faithful Israelite, the

latter is to the church. If this were more fully seen it would greatly tend to meet the

prevailing laxity, indifference and error as to the table and supper of the Lord.

To any one who lives habitually in the holy atmosphere of scripture, it must seem

strange indeed to mark the confusion of thought and the diversity of practice in

reference to a subject so very important, and one so simply and clearly presented in

the word of God.

It can hardly be called in question by any one who bows to scripture, that the apostles

and the early church assembled on the first day of the week to break bread. There is

not a shadow of warrant, in the New Testament, for confining that most precious

ordinance to once a month, once a quarter, or once in six months. This can only be

viewed as a human interference with a divine institution. We are aware that much is

sought to be made of the words, "as oft as ye do it;" but we do not see how any

argument based on this clause can stand, for a moment, in the face of apostolic

precedent, in Acts 20: 7. The first day of the week is, unquestionably, the day for the

church to celebrate the Lord's supper.

Does the Christian reader admit this? If so, does he act upon it? It is a perilous thing

to neglect a special ordinance of Christ, and one appointed by Him the same night in

which He was betrayed, under circumstances so deeply affecting. Surely all who love

the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity would desire to remember Him in this special way,

according to His own word, "This do in remembrance of me." Can we understand any

true lover of Christ living in the habitual neglect of this precious memorial? If an

Israelite of old neglected the Passover, he would have been "cut off." But this was

law, and we are under grace. True; but is that a reason for neglecting our Lord's

commandment?

We would commend this subject to the reader's careful attention. There is much more

involved in it than most of us are aware. We believe the entire history of the Lord's

supper, for the last eighteen centuries, is full of interest and instruction. We may see

in the way in which the Lord's table has been treated, a striking moral index of the

church's real condition. In proportion as the church departed from Christ and His

word, did she neglect and pervert the precious institution of the Lord's supper. And,

on the other hand, just as the Spirit of God wrought, at any time, with special power

in the church, the Lord's supper has found its true place in the hearts of His people.

But we cannot pursue this subject further in a footnote; we have ventured to suggest it

to the reader, and we trust he may be led to follow it up for himself. We believe he

will find it a most profitable and suggestive study.}

Here we have the well-known and beautiful type of the day of Pentecost. The

Passover sets forth the death of Christ. The sheaf of first-fruits is the striking figure of

a risen Christ. And, in the feast of weeks, we have prefigured before us the descent of

the Holy Ghost, fifty days after the resurrection.

We speak, of course, of what these feasts convey to us, according to the mind of God,

irrespective altogether of the question of Israel's apprehension of their meaning. It is

our privilege to look at all these typical institutions in the light of the New Testament;

and when we so view them we are filled with wonder and delight at the divine

perfectness, beauty and order of all those marvellous types.

And not only so, but—what is of immense value to us—we see how the scriptures of

the New Testament dovetail, as it were, into those of the Old; we see the lovely unity

of the divine Volume, and how manifestly it is one Spirit that breathes through the

whole, from beginning to end. In this way we are inwardly strengthened in our

apprehension of the precious truth of the divine inspiration of the holy scriptures, and

our hearts are fortified against all the blasphemous attacks of infidel writers. Our

souls are conducted to the top of the mountain where the moral glories of the Volume

shine upon us in all their heavenly lustre, and from whence we can look down and see

the clouds and chilling mists of infidel thought rolling beneath us. These clouds and

mists cannot affect us, inasmuch as they are far away below the level on which,

through infinite grace, we stand. Infidel writers know absolutely nothing of the moral

glories of scripture; but one thing is awfully certain, namely, that one moment in

eternity will completely revolutionise the thoughts of all the infidels and atheists that

have ever raved or written against the Bible and its Author.

Now, in looking at the deeply interesting feast of weeks or Pentecost, we are at once

struck with the difference between it and the feast of unleavened bread. In the first

place, we read of "a freewill offering" Here we have a figure of the church, formed by

the Holy Ghost and presented to God as "a kind of first-fruits of his creatures."

We have dwelt upon this feature of the type in the "Notes on Leviticus," chapter 23,

and shall not therefore enter upon it here, but confine ourselves to what is purely

Deuteronomic. The people were to present a tribute of a freewill offering of their

hand, according as the Lord their God had blessed them. There was nothing like this

at the Passover, because that sets forth Christ offering Himself for us, as a sacrifice,

and not our offering anything. We remember our deliverance from sin and Satan, and

what that deliverance cost. We meditate upon the deep and varied sufferings of our

precious Saviour as prefigured by the roasted lamb. We remember that it was our sins

that were laid upon Him. He was bruised for our iniquities, judged in our stead, and

this leads to deep and hearty contrition, or, what we may call, true Christian

repentance. For we must never forget that repentance is not a mere transient emotion

of a sinner when his eyes are first opened, but an abiding moral condition of the

Christian, in view of the cross and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. If this were better

understood, and more fully entered into, it would impart a depth and solidity to the

Christian life and character in which the great majority of us are lamentably deficient.

But, in the feast of Pentecost, we have before us the power of the Holy Ghost, and the

varied effects of His blessed presence in us and with us. He enables us to present our

bodies and all that we have as a freewill offering unto our God, according as He hath

blessed us. This, we need hardly say, can only be done by the power of the Holy

Ghost; and hence the striking type of it is presented, not in the Passover which

prefigures the death of Christ; not in the feast of unleavened bread, which sets forth

the moral effect of that death upon us, in repentance, self-judgment and practical

holiness; but in Pentecost, which is the acknowledged type of the precious gift of the

Holy Ghost.

Now, it is the Spirit who enables us to enter into the claims of God upon us—claims

which are to be measured only by the extent of the divine blessing. He gives us to see

and understand that all we are and all we have belong to God. He gives us to delight

in consecrating ourselves, spirit, soul and body, to God. It is truly "a freewill

offering." It is not of constraint, but willingly. There is not an atom of bondage, for

"where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.

In short we have here the lovely spirit and moral character of the entire Christian life

and service. A soul under law cannot understand the force and beauty of this. Souls

under the law never received the Spirit. The two things are wholly incompatible. Thus

the apostle says to the poor misguided assemblies of Galatia, "This only would I learn

of you, Received ye the Spirit by works of law, or by the hearing of faith?... He

therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth

he it by works of law, or by the hearing of faith?" The precious gift of the Spirit is

consequent upon the death, resurrection, ascension, and glorification of our adorable

Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and consequently can have nothing whatever to do

with "works of law" in any shape or form. The presence of the Holy Ghost on earth,

His dwelling with and in all true believers is a grand characteristic truth of

Christianity. It was not, and could not be known in Old Testament times. It was not

even known by the disciples in our Lord's life time. He Himself said to them, on the

eve of His departure, "Nevertheless, I tell you the truth; it is expedient [or

profitable—sumfevrei] for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will

not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him Unto you." (John 16: 7.)

This proves, in the most conclusive manner, that even the very men who enjoyed the

high and precious privilege of personal companionship with the Lord Himself, were

to be put in an advanced position by His going away, and the coming of the

Comforter. Again, we read, "If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray

the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for

ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him

not, neither knoweth him; but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you and shall be in

you."

We cannot, however, attempt to go elaborately into this immense subject here. Our

space does not admit of it, much as we should delight in it. We must just confine

ourselves to one or two points suggested by the feast of weeks, as presented in our

chapter.

We have referred to the very interesting fact that the Spirit of God is the living spring

and power of the life of personal devotedness and consecration beautifully prefigured

by "the tribute of a freewill offering." The sacrifice of Christ is the ground, the

presence of the Holy Ghost, is the power of the Christian's dedication of himself,

spirit, soul and body, to God. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of

God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which

is your reasonable service." (Romans 12: 1.)

But there is another point of deepest interest presented in verse 11 of our chapter,

"And thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God." We have no such word in the

paschal feast, or in the feast of unleavened bread. It would not be in moral keeping

with either of these solemnities. True it is, the Passover lies at the very foundation of

all the joy we can or ever shall realise here or hereafter; but, we must ever think of the

death of Christ, His sufferings, His sorrows—all that He passed through, when the

waves and billows of God's righteous wrath passed His soul It is upon these profound

mysteries that our hearts are, or ought to be mainly fixed, when we surround the

Lord's table and keep that feast by which we show the Lord's death until He come.

Now, it is plain to the spiritual and thoughtful reader that the feelings proper to such a

holy and solemn institution are not of a jubilant character. We certainly can and do

rejoice that the sorrows and sufferings of our blessed Lord are over, and over for ever;

that those terrible hours are passed never to return. But what we recall in the feast is

not simply their being over, but their being gone through—and that for us. "Ye do

show the Lord's death," and we know that, whatever may accrue to us from that

precious death, yet when we are called to meditate upon it, our joy is chastened by

those profound exercises of soul which the Holy Spirit produces by unfolding to us

the sorrows, the sufferings, the cross and passion of our blessed Saviour. Our Lord's

words are, "This do in remembrance of me but what we especially remember in the

Supper is Christ suffering and dying for us; what we show is His death; and with these

solemn realities before our souls, in the power of the Holy Ghost, there will—there

must be holy subduedness and seriousness.

We speak, of course, of what becomes the immediate occasion of the celebration of

the Supper—the suited feelings and affections of such a moment. But these must be

produced by the powerful ministry of the Holy Ghost. It can be of no possible use to

seek, by any pious efforts of our own, to work ourselves up to a suitable state of mind.

This would be ascending by steps to the altar, a thing most offensive to God. It is only

by the Holy Spirit's ministry that we can worthily celebrate the holy Supper of the

Lord. He alone can enable us to put away all levity, all formality, all mere routine, all

wandering thoughts, and to discern the body and blood of the Lord in those memorials

which, by His own appointment, are laid on His table.

But, in the feast of Pentecost, rejoicing was a prominent feature. We hear nothing of

"bitter herbs" or "bread of affliction," on this occasion, because it is the type of the

coming of the other Comforter, the descent of the Holy Ghost, Proceeding from the

Father, and sent down by the risen, ascended and glorified Head in the heavens, to fill

the hearts of His people with praise, thanksgiving and triumphant joy, yea to lead

them into full and blessed fellowship with their glorified Head, in His triumph over

sin, death, hell, Satan and all the powers of darkness. The Spirit's presence is

connected with liberty, light, power and joy. Thus we read, "The disciples were filled

with joy, and with the Holy Ghost." Doubts, fears, and legal bondage flee away before

the precious ministry of the Holy Ghost.

But we must distinguish between His work and indwelling—His quickening and His

sealing. The very first dawn of conviction in the soul is the fruit of the Spirit's work. It

is His blessed operation that leads to all true repentance, and this is not joyful work; it

is very good, very needful, absolutely essential; but it is not joy, nay, it is deep sorrow.

But when, through grace, we are enabled to believe in a risen and glorified Saviour,

then the Holy Ghost comes and takes up His abode in us, as the seal of our acceptance

and the earnest of our inheritance.

Now this fills us with joy unspeakable and full of glory; and being thus filled

ourselves, we become channels of blessing to others. "He that believeth on me, as the

scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he

of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive; for the Holy Ghost was

not yet; because that Jesus was not yet glorified." The Spirit is the spring of power

and joy in the heart of the believer. He fits, fills and uses us as His vessels in

ministering to poor thirsty, needy souls around us. He links us with the Man in the

glory, maintains us in living communion with Him, and enables us to be, in our feeble

measure, the expression of what He is. Every movement of the Christian should be

redolent with the fragrance of Christ. For one who professes to be a Christian to

exhibit unholy tempers, selfish ways, a grasping, covetous, worldly spirit, envy and

jealousy, pride and ambition, is to belie his profession, dishonour the holy Name of

Christ, and bring reproach upon that glorious Christianity which he professes, and of

which we have the lovely type in the feast of weeks—a feast pre-eminently

characterised by a joy which had its source in the goodness of God, and which flowed

out far and wide, and embraced in its hallowed circle every object of need: "Thou

shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy

manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the

stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you."

How lovely! How perfectly beautiful! Oh! that its antitype were more faithfully

exhibited amongst us! Where are those streams of refreshing which ought to flow

from the church of God? Where those unblotted epistles of Christ known and read of

all men? Where can we see a practical exhibition of Christ in the ways of His

people—something to which we could point and say, "There is true Christianity"? Oh!

may the Spirit of God stir up our hearts to a more intense desire after conformity to

the image of Christ, in all things. May He clothe with His own mighty power the word

of God which we have in our hands and in our homes; that it may speak to our hearts

and consciences, and lead us to judge ourselves, our ways, and our associations by its

heavenly light, so that there may be a thoroughly devoted band of witnesses gathered

out to His Name, to wait for His appearing! Will the reader join us in asking for this?

We shall now turn for a moment to the lovely institution of the feast of tabernacles

which gives such remarkable completeness to the range of truth presented in our

chapter.

"Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered

in thy corn and thy wine; and thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou and thy son, and thy

daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and

the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates. Seven days shalt thou keep a

solemn feast unto the Lord thy God in the place which the Lord shall choose; because

the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the works of thine

hands, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice. Three times in a year shall all thy males

appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of

unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles; and they

shall not appear before the Lord empty; every man shall give as he is able, according

to the blessing of the Lord thy God which he hath given thee." (Vers. 13-17.)

Here, then we have the striking and beautiful type of Israel's future. The feast of

tabernacles has not yet had its antitype. The Passover and Pentecost have had their

fulfilment in the precious death of Christ, and the descent of the Holy Ghost; but the

third great solemnity points forward to the times of the restitution of all things which

God has spoken of by the mouth of all His holy prophets which have been since the

world began.

And let the reader note particularly the time of the celebration of this feast. It was to

be "after thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine;" in other words, it was after the

harvest and the vintage. Now there is a very marked distinction between these two

things. The one speaks of grace, the other of judgement. At the end of the age, God

will gather His wheat into His garner, and then will come the treading of the

winepress, in awful judgement.

We have in Revelation 14 a very solemn passage bearing upon the subject now before

us. "And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the

Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And

another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the

cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap; for the time is come for thee to reap; for the

harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the

earth; and the earth was reaped."

Here we have the harvest; and then, "Another came out of the temple which is in

heaven, he having a sharp sickle. And another angel came from the altar, which had

power over fire"—the emblem of judgement—"and cried with a loud cry to him that

had the sharp sickle, saying Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the

vine the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And angel thrust in his sickle into the

earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the

wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of

the winepress, even unto the horse bridles by the space of a thousand and six hundred

furlongs." Equal to the whole length of the land of Palestine!

Now these apocalyptic figures set before us in a characteristic way, scenes which

must be enacted previous to the celebration of the feast of tabernacles. Christ will

gather His wheat into His heavenly garner, and after that He will come in crushing

judgement upon Christendom. Thus, every section of the Volume of inspiration,

Moses, the Psalms, the Prophets, the Gospels—or the acts of Christ—the Acts of the

Holy Ghost, the Epistles, and Apocalypse—all go to establish unanswerably the fact

that the world will not be converted by the gospel, that things are not improving and

will not improve, but grow worse and worse. That glorious time prefigured by the

feast of tabernacles must be preceded by the vintage, the treading of the winepress of

the wrath of Almighty God.

Why, then, we may well ask, in the face of such an overwhelming body of divine

evidence, furnished by every section of the inspired canon, will men persist in

cherishing the delusive hope of a world converted by the gospel? What mean

"gathered wheat and a trodden winepress"? Assuredly, they do not and cannot mean a

converted world.

We shall perhaps be told that we cannot build anything upon Mosaic types and

Apocalyptic symbols. Perhaps not, if we had but types and symbols. But when the

accumulated rays of inspiration's heavenly lamp converge upon these types and

symbols and unfold their deep meaning to our souls, find them in perfect harmony

with the voices of prophets and apostles, and the living teachings our Lord Himself, In

a word, all speak the same language, all teach the same lesson, all bear the

unequivocal testimony to the solemn truth that, the end of this age, instead of a

converted world, prepared for a spiritual millennium, there will be a vine covered and

borne down with terrible clusters fully ripe for the winepress of the wrath of Almighty

God.

Oh! may the men and women of Christendom, and the teachers thereof apply their

hearts to these solemn realities! May these things sink down into their ears, and into

the very depths of their souls, so that they may fling to the winds their fondly

cherished delusion, and accept instead the plainly revealed and clearly established

truth of God!

But we must draw this section to a close; and ere doing so, we would remind the

Christian reader, that we are called to exhibit in our daily life the blessed influence of

all those great truths presented to us in the three interesting types on which we have

been meditating. Christianity is characterised by those three great formative facts,

redemption, the presence of the Holy Ghost, and the hope of glory. The Christian is

redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, sealed by the Holy Ghost, and he is looking

for the Saviour.

Yes, beloved reader, these are solid facts, divine realities, great formative truths. They

are not mere principles or opinions, but they are designed to be a power in our souls,

and to shine in our lives. See how thoroughly practical were these solemnities on

which we have been dwelling; mark what a tide of praise and thanksgiving and joy

and blessing and active benevolence flowed from the assembly of Israel when

gathered round Jehovah in the place which He had chosen. Praise and thanksgiving

ascended to God; and the blessed streams of a large-hearted benevolence flowed forth

to every object of need. "Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the

Lord thy God.... And they shall not appear before the Lord empty; every man shall

give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which he hath, given

thee."

Lovely words! They were not to come empty into the Lord's presence; they were to

come with the heart full of praise, and the hands full of the fruits of divine goodness

to gladden the hearts of the Lord's workmen, and the Lord's poor. All this was

perfectly beautiful. Jehovah would gather His people round Himself, to fill them to

overflowing with joy and praise, and to make them His channels of blessing to others.

They were not to remain under their vine and under their fig tree, and there

congratulate themselves upon the rich and varied mercies which surrounded them.

This might be all right and good in its place; but it would not have fully met the mind

and heart of God. No; three times in the year they had to arise and betake themselves

to the divinely appointed meeting place, and there raise their hallelujahs to the Lord

their God, and there too, to minister liberally of that which He had bestowed upon

them to every form of human need. God would confer upon His people the rich

privilege of rejoicing the heart of the Levite, the stranger, widow and the fatherless.

This is the work in He Himself delights, blessed for ever be His Name, and He would

share His delight With His people. He would have it to be known, seen and felt, that

the place where He met His people was a sphere of joy and praise, and a centre from

whence streams of blessing were to flow forth in all directions.

Has not all this a voice and a lesson for the church of God? Does it not speak home to

the writer and the reader of these lines? Assuredly it does. May we listen to it! May it

tell upon our hearts! May the marvellous grace of God so act upon us that our hearts

may be full of praise to Him and our hands full of good works. If the mere types and

shadows of our blessings were connected with so much thanksgiving and active

benevolence, how much more powerful should be the effect of the blessings

themselves!

But ah! the question is, Are we realising the blessings? Are we making our own of

them? Are we grasping them in the power of an artless faith? Here lies the secret of

the whole matter. Where do we find professing Christians in the full and settled

enjoyment of what the Passover prefigured, namely, full deliverance from judgement

and this present evil world? Where do we find them in the full and settled enjoyment

of their Pentecost, even the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, the seal, the earnest, the

unction and the witness? Ask the vast majority of professors the plain question, "Have

you received the Holy Ghost?" and see what answer you will get. What answer can

the render give? Can he say, "Yes, thank God, I know I am washed in the precious

blood of Christ, and sealed with the Holy Ghost"? It is greatly to be feared that

comparatively few of the vast multitudes of professors around us know anything of

those precious things, which nevertheless are the chartered privileges of the very

simplest member of the body of Christ.

So also as to the feast of tabernacles, how few understand its meaning! True, it has

not yet been fulfilled; but the Christian is called to live in the present power of that

which it set forth. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things

not seen." Our life is to be governed and our character formed by the combined

influence of the "grace" in which we stand, and the "glory" for which we wait.

But if souls are not established in grace, if they do not even know that their sins are

forgiven; if they are taught that it is presumption to be sure of salvation, and that it is

humility and piety to live in perpetual doubt and fear; and that no one can be sure of

their salvation until they stand before the judgement-sent of Christ, how can they

possibly take Christian ground, manifest the fruits of Christian life, or cherish proper

Christian hope? If an Israelite of old was in doubt as to whether he was a, child of

Abraham, a member of the congregation of the Lord, and in the land, how could he

keep the feast of unleavened bread, Pentecost or tabernacles? There would have been

no sense, meaning or value in such a thing; indeed, we may safely affirm that no

Israelite would have thought, for a moment, of anything so utterly absurd.

How is it then that professing Christians, many of them, we cannot doubt, real

children of God, never seem to be able to enter upon proper Christian ground? They

spend their days in doubt and fear, darkness and uncertainty. Their religious exercises

and services, instead of being the outcome of life possessed and enjoyed, are entered

upon and gone through more as a matter of legal duty, and as a moral preparation for

the life to come. Many truly pious souls are kept in this state all their days; and as to

"the blessed hope" which grace has set before us, to cheer our hearts and detach us

from present things, they do not enter into it or understand it. It is looked upon as a

mere speculation indulged in by a few visionary enthusiasts here and there. They are

looking forward to the day of judgement, instead of looking out for "the bright and

morning star." They are praying for the forgiveness of their sins and asking God to

give them His Holy Spirit, when they ought to be rejoicing in the assured possession

of eternal life, divine righteousness, and the Spirit of adoption.

All this is directly opposed to the simplest and clearest teaching of the New

Testament; it is utterly foreign to the very genius of Christianity, subversive of the

Christian's peace and liberty, and destructive of all true and intelligent Christian

worship, service and testimony. It is plainly impossible that people can appear before

the Lord with their hearts full of praise for privileges which they do not enjoy, or their

hands full of the blessing which they have never realised.

We call the earnest attention of all the Lord's people, throughout the length and

breadth of the professing church, to this weighty subject. We entreat them to search

the scriptures and see if they afford any warrant for keeping souls in darkness, doubt

and bondage all their days. That there are solemn warnings, searching appeals,

weighty admonitions, is most true, and we bless God for them; we need them, and

should diligently apply our hearts to them. But let the reader distinctly understand that

it is the sweet privilege of the very babes in Christ to know that their sins are all

forgiven, that they are accepted in a risen Christ, sealed by the Holy Ghost and heirs

of eternal glory. Such, through infinite and sovereign grace, are their clearly

established and assured blessings—blessings to which the love of God makes them

welcome, for which the blood of Christ makes them fit, and as to which the testimony

of the Holy Ghost makes them sure.

May the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls lead all His beloved people, the lambs

and sheep of His blood-bought flock, to know, by the teaching of His holy Spirit, the

things that are freely given to them of God! And may those who do know them, in

measure, know them more fully, and exhibit the precious fruits of them in a life of

genuine devotedness to Christ and His service!

It is greatly to be feared that many of us who profess to be acquainted with the very

highest truths of the Christian faith are not answering to our profession; we are not

acting up to the principle set forth in verse 17 of our beautiful chapter, "Every man

shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which he hath

given thee." We seem to forget that, although we have nothing to do and nothing to

give for salvation, we have much that we can do for the Saviour, and much that we

can give to His workmen and to His poor. There is very great danger of pushing the

do-nothing and give-nothing principle too far. If, in the days of our ignorance and

legal bondage, we worked and gave upon a false principle, and with a false object, we

surely ought not to do less and give less now that we profess to know that we are not

only saved but blessed with all spiritual blessings, in a risen and glorified Christ. We

have need to take care that we are not resting in the mere intellectual perception and

verbal profession of these great and glorious truths, while the heart and conscience

have never felt their sacred action, nor the conduct and character been brought under

their powerful and holy influence.

We venture, in all tenderness and love, just to offer these practical suggestions to the

reader for his prayerful consideration. We would not wound, offend, or discourage the

very feeblest lamb in all the flock of Christ. And, further, we can assure the reader,

that we are not casting a stone at any one, but simply writing, as in the immediate

presence of God, and sounding in the ears of the church a note of warning as to that

which we deeply feel to be our common danger. We believe there is an urgent call, on

all sides, to consider our ways, to humble ourselves before the Lord, on account of our

manifold failures, shortcomings and inconsistencies, and to seek grace from Him to

be more real, more thoroughly devoted, more pronounced in our testimony for Him,

in this dark and evil day.

Deuteronomy 17.

We must remember that the division of scripture into chapters and verses is entirely a

human arrangement, often very convenient, no doubt, for reference; but not

infrequently it is quite unwarrantable, and interferes with the connection. Thus we

can see, at a glance, that the closing verses of chapter 16. are much more connected

with what follows than with what goes before.

"Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which the Lord thy God

giveth thee, throughout thy tribes; and they shall judge the people with just

judgement. Thou shalt not wrest judgement; thou shalt not respect persons, neither

take a gift; for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the

righteous. That which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live and

inherit the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."

These words teach us a twofold lesson; in the first place, they set forth the even-

handed justice and perfect truth which ever characterise the government of God.

Every case is dealt with according to its own merits and on the ground of its own

facts. The judgement is so plain that there is not a shadow of ground for a question;

all dissension is absolutely closed, and if any murmur is raised, the murmurer is at

once silenced by, "Friend, I do thee no wrong." This holds good everywhere and at all

times, in the holy government of God, and it makes us long for the time when that

government shall be established from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the

earth.

But, on the other hand, we learn, from the lines just quoted, what man's judgement is

worth, if left to himself. It cannot be trusted, for a moment. Man is capable of

"wresting judgement," of "respecting persons," of "taking a gift," of attaching

importance to a person because of his position and wealth. That he is capable of all

this is evident from the fact of his being told not to do it. We must ever remember

this. If God commands man not to steal, it is plain that man has theft in his nature.

Hence, therefore, human judgement and human government are liable to the grossest

corruption. Judges and governors if left to themselves, if not under the direct sway of

divine principle, are capable of perverting justice for filthy lucre's sake, of favouring a

wicked man because he is rich, and of condemning a righteous man because he is

poor; of giving a judgement in flagrant opposition to the plainest facts because of

some advantage to be gained, whether in the shape of money, or influence, or

popularity, or power.

To prove this it is not necessary to point to such men as Pilate and Herod, and Felix

and Festus; we have no need to go beyond the passage just quoted, in order to see

what man is, even when clothed in the robes of official dignity, seated on the throne

of government, or on the bench of justice.

Some, as they read these lines, may feel disposed to say, in the language of Hazael, "Is

thy servant a dog, that he should do this thing?" But let such reflect, for a moment, on

the fact that the human heart is the seed plot of every sin, and of every vile and

abominable and contemptible wickedness that ever was committed in this world; and

the unanswerable proof of this is found in the enactments, commandments, and

prohibitions which appear on the sacred page of inspiration.

And herein we have an uncommonly fine reply to the oft-repeated question, "What

have we to do with many of the laws and institutions set forth in the Mosaic

economy? Why are such things set down in the Bible? Can they possibly be inspired?"

Yes; they are inspired, and they appear on the page of inspiration in order that we may

see, as reflected in a divinely perfect mirror, the moral material of which we ourselves

are made, the thoughts we are capable of thinking, the words we are capable of

speaking, and the deeds we are capable of doing.

Is not this something? Is it not good and wholesome to find, for example, in some of

the passages of this most profound and beautiful book of Deuteronomy, that human

nature is capable, and hence we are capable of doing things that put us morally below

the level of a beast? Assuredly it is, and well would it be for many a one who walks in

Pharisaic pride and self-complacency, puffed up with false notions of his own dignity

and high-toned morality, to learn this deeply humbling lesson.

But how morally lovely, how pure, how refined and elevated were the divine

enactments for Israel! They were not to wrest judgement, but allow it to flow in its

own straight and even channel, irrespective altogether of persons. The poor man in

vile raiment was to have the same impartial justice, as the man with a gold ring and

gay clothing. The decision of the judgement-seat was not to be warped by partiality or

prejudice, or the robe of justice to be defiled by the stain of bribery.

Oh! what will it be for this oppressed and groaning earth to be governed by the

admirable laws which are recorded in the inspired pages of the Pentateuch, when a

king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall decree justice! "Give the king thy

judgements, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son. He shall judge thy

people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment"—no wresting, no bribery, no

partial judgements then—"The mountains [or higher dignities] shall bring peace to

the people, and the little hills [or lesser dignities], by righteousness. He shall judge [or

defend] the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break

in pieces the oppressor. They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure,

throughout all generations. He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass; as

showers that water the earth. In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance

of peace so long as the moon endureth. He shall have dominion also from sea to sea,

and from the river unto the ends of the earth.... He shall deliver the needy when he

crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy,

and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and

violence; and precious shall their blood be in his sight." (Ps. 72.)

Well may the heart long for the time—the bright and blessed time when all this shall

be made good, when the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters

cover the sea; when the Lord Jesus shall take to Himself His great power and reign;

when the church in the heavens shall reflect the beams of His glory upon the earth;

when Israel's twelve tribes shall repose beneath the vine and fig tree in their own

promised land, and all the nations of the earth shall rejoice beneath the peaceful and

beneficent rule of the Son of David. Thanks and praise be to our God, thus it shall be,

ere long, as sure as His throne is in the heavens. A little while and all shall be made

good, according to the eternal counsels and immutable promise of God. Till then,

beloved Christian reader, be it ours to live in the constant, earnest, believing

anticipation of this bright and blessed time, and to pass through this ungodly scene as

thorough strangers and pilgrims, having no place or portion down here, but ever

breathing forth the prayer, "Come, Lord Jesus!"

In the closing lines of chapter 16 Israel is warned against the most distant approach to

the religious customs of the nations around. "Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any

trees near unto the altar of the Lord thy God, which thou shalt make thee. Neither

shalt thou set thee up any image which the Lord thy God hateth." They were carefully

to avoid everything which might lead them in the direction of the dark and

abominable idolatries of the heathen nations around. The altar of God was to stand

out in distinct and unmistakable separation from those groves and shady places where

false gods were worshipped, and things were done which are not to be named.* In a

word, everything was to be most carefully avoided which might, in any way, draw the

heart away from the one living and true God.

{*It may interest the reader to know that the Holy Ghost, in speaking of the altar of

God, in the New Testament, does not apply to it the word used to express a heathen

altar, but has a comparatively new word—a word unknown in the world's classics.

The heathen altar is bwmovn. (Acts 17. 23.) The altar of God is qusiasthvrion. The

former occurs but once; the latter twenty-three times. So jealously is the worship of

the only true God guarded and preserved from the defiling touch of heathen idolatry.

Men may feel disposed to inquire why this should be? or how could the altar of God

be affected by a name? We reply, the Holy Ghost is wiser than we are; and although

the heathen word was before Him—a short and convenient word, too—He refuses to

apply it to the altar of the one true and living God. See Trench's "Synonyms of the

New Testament," p. 242. New edition revised. London and Cambridge, Macmillan &

Co.}

Nor this only; it was not enough to maintain a correct outward form; images and

groves might be abolished, and the nation might profess the dogma of the unity of the

Godhead, and, all the while, there might be an utter want of heart and genuine

devotedness in the worship rendered. Hence we read, "Thou shalt not sacrifice unto

the Lord thy God any bullock, or sheep, wherein is blemish, or any evil-favouredness;

for that is an abomination unto the Lord."

That which was absolutely perfect could alone suit the altar and answer to the heart of

God. To offer a blemished thing to Him was simply to prove the absence of all true

sense of what became Him, and of all real heart for Him. To attempt to offer an

imperfect sacrifice was tantamount to the horrible blasphemy of saying that anything

was good enough for Him.

Let us hearken to the indignant pleadings of the Spirit of God, by the mouth of the

prophet Malachi. "Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have

we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the Lord is contemptible. And if ye offer

the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil?

offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person?

saith the Lord of hosts. And now, I pray you, beseech God that he will be gracious

unto us; this hath been by your means; will he regard your persons? saith the Lord of

hosts. Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought? neither do

ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of

hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand. For from the rising of the sun

unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in

every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering; for my name

shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye have profaned it, in

that ye say, The table of the Lord is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even his meat is

contemptible. Ye said also Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at it,

saith the Lord of hosts: and ye brought that which was torn, and the lame and the sick;

thus ye brought an offering; should I accept this of your hand? saith the Lord. But

cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth

unto the Lord a corrupt thing; for I am a great King, saith the Lord of hosts, and my

name is dreadful among the heathen" (Mal. 1: 7-14.)

Has all this no voice for the professing church? Has it no voice for the writer and the

reader of these lines? Assuredly it has. Is there not, in our private and public worship

a deplorable lack of heart, of real devotedness, deep-toned earnestness, holy energy,

and integrity of purpose? Is there not much that answers to the offering of the lame

and the sick, the blemished and the evil-favoured? Is there not a deplorable amount of

cold formality and dead routine in our seasons of worship both in the closet and in the

assembly? Have we not to judge ourselves for barrenness, distraction and wandering

even at the very table of our Lord? How often are our bodies at the table, while our

vagrant hearts and volatile minds are at the ends of the earth! How often do our lips

utter words which are not the true expression of our whole moral being! We express

far more than we feel. We sing beyond our experience.

And then, when we are favoured with the blessed opportunity of dropping our

offerings into our Lord's treasury what heartless formality! What an absence loving,

earnest, hearty devotedness! What little reference to the apostolic rule, "as God hath

prospered us" What detestable niggardliness! How little of the whole-heartedness of

the poor widow who, having but two mites in the world, and having the option of at

least keeping one for her living, willingly cast in both—cast in her all! Pounds may be

spent on ourselves, perhaps on superfluities during the week, but when the claims of

the Lord's work, His poor, and His cause in general, are brought before us, how

meagre is the response!

Christian reader, let us consider these things. Let us look at the whole subject of

worship and devotedness in the divine presence, and in the presence of the grace that

has saved us from everlasting burnings. Let us calmly reflect upon the precious and

powerful claims of Christ upon us. We are not our own; we are bought with a price. It

is not merely our best, but our all we owe to that blessed One who gave Himself for

us. Do we not fully own it? Do not our hearts own it? Then may our lives express it!

May we more distinctly declare whose we are and whom we serve! May the heart, the

head, the hands, the feet, the whole man be dedicated, in unreserved devotedness, to

Him, in the power of the Holy Ghost, and according to the direct teaching of holy

scripture. God grant it may be so, with us and with all His beloved people!

A very weighty and practical subject now claims our attention. We feel it right to

adhere, as much as possible, to the custom of quoting, at full length, the passages for

the reader; we believe it to be profitable to give the very word of God itself; and,

moreover, it is convenient to the great majority of readers to be saved the trouble of

laying aside the volume and turning to the Bible in Order to find the passages for

themselves.

"If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth

thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the Lord thy God,

in transgressing his covenant, and hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped

them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not

commanded; and it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and inquired diligently,

behold, it be true and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in Israel—

something the whole nation—"Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman,

which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or woman,

and shalt stone them with stones till they die. At the mouth of two witnesses, or three

witnesses shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one

witness he shall not put to death. The hands of the witnesses shall first upon him to

put him to death, and afterwards the hands of all the people. So thou shalt put the evil

away from among you)' (Ver. 2-7.)

We have already had occasion to refer to the great principle laid down in the

foregoing passage. It is one of immense importance, namely, the absolute necessity of

having competent testimony ere forming a judgement in any case. It meets us

constantly in scripture, indeed it is the invariable rule, in the divine government, and

therefore it claims our attention. We may be sure it is a safe and wholesome rule, the

neglect of which must always lead us astray. We should never allow ourselves to

form, much less to express and act upon a judgement without the testimony of two or

three witnesses. However trustworthy and morally reliable any one witness may be, it

is not a sufficient basis for a conclusion. We may feel convinced in our minds that the

thing is true because affirmed by one in whom we have confidence; but God is wiser

than we. It may be that the one witness is thoroughly upright truthful, that he would

not, for worlds, tell an untruth or bear false witness against any one; all this may be

true, but we must adhere to the divine rule, "In the mouth of two or three witnesses

shall every word be established."

Would that this were more diligently attended to in the church of God! Its value in all

cases of discipline, and in all cases affecting the character or reputation of any one is

simply incalculable. Ere ever an assembly reaches a conclusion or acts on a

judgement, in any given case, it should insist on adequate evidence. If this be not

forthcoming, let all wait on God, wait patiently and confidingly, and He will surely

supply what is needed.

For instance, if there be moral evil or doctrinal error in an assembly of Christians, but

it is only known to one; that one is perfectly certain, and thoroughly convinced of the

fact. What is be done? Wait on God for further witness. To act without this, is to

infringe a divine principle laid down with all possible clearness, again and again, in

the word of God. Is the one witness to feel aggrieved or insulted because his

testimony is not acted upon? Assuredly not; indeed he ought not to expect such a

thing, yea he ought not to come forward as a witness until he can corroborate his

testimony by the evidence of one or two more. Is the assembly to be deemed

indifferent or supine because it refuses to act on the testimony of a solitary witness?

Nay, it would be flying in the face of a divine command were it to do so.

And be it remembered, that this great practical principle is not confined in its

application to cases of discipline, or questions connected with an assembly of the

Lord's people; it is of universal application. We should never allow ourselves to form

a judgement or come to a conclusion without the divinely appointed -measure of

evidence; if that be not forthcoming, it is our plain duty to wait, and if it be needful

for us judge in the case, God will, in due time, furnish needed evidence. We have

known a case in which a man was falsely accused because the accuser based his

charge upon the evidence of one of his senses; had he taken the trouble of getting the

evidence of one or two more of his senses, he would have made the charge.

Thus the entire subject of evidence claims the attention of the reader, let his position

be what it may. We are all prone to rush to hasty conclusions to take up impressions,

to give place to baseless surmisings, and allow our minds to be warped and carried

away by prejudice. All these have to be most carefully guarded against. We need

more calmness, seriousness and cool deliberation in forming and expressing our

judgement about men and things. But specially about men, inasmuch as we may

inflict a grievous wrong upon a friend, a brother, or a neighbour, by giving utterance

to a false impression or a baseless charge. We may allow ourselves to be the vehicle

of an utterly groundless accusation, whereby the character of another may be

seriously damaged. This is very sinful in the sight Of God, and should be most

jealously watched against in ourselves, and sternly rebuked in others, whenever it

comes before us. Whenever any one brings a charge against another behind his back,

we should insist upon his proving or withdrawing his statement. Were this plan

adopted, we should be delivered from a vast amount of evil speaking which is not

only most unprofitable, but positively wicked, and not to be tolerated.

Before turning from the subject of evidence, we may just remark that inspired history

supplies with more than one instance in which a man has been condemned with an

appearance of attention to Deuteronomy 17: 6, 7. Witness the case of Naboth in 1

Kings 21; and the case of Stephen in Acts 6 and 7 and, above all, the case of the only

perfect Man that ever trod this earth. Alas! men can, at times, put on the appearance

wonderful attention to the letter of scripture when it suits their own ungodly ends;

they can quote its sacred words in defence of the most flagrant unrighteousness and

shocking immorality. Two witnesses accused Naboth of blaspheming God and the

king, and that faithful Israelite was deprived of his inheritance and of his life on the

testimony of two liars hired by the direction of a godless cruel woman. Stephen, a

man full of the Holy Ghost, was stoned to death for blasphemy, on the testimony of

false witnesses received and acted upon by the great religious leaders of the day who

could, doubtless, quote Deuteronomy 17 as their authority.

But all this, while it so sadly and forcibly illustrates what man is, and what mere

human religiousness without conscience is, leaves wholly untouched the moral rule

laid down for our guidance, in the opening lines of our chapter. Religion, without

conscience or the fear of God, is the most degrading, demoralising, hardening thing

beneath the canopy of heaven; and one of its most terrible features is seen in this, that

men under its influence are not ashamed or afraid to make use of the letter of holy

scripture as a cloak wherewith to cover the most horrible wickedness.

But, thanks and praise to our God, His word stands forth before the vision of our

souls, in all its heavenly purity, divine virtue, and holy morality, and flings back in the

face of the enemy his every attempt to draw from its sacred pages a plea for ought

that is not true, venerable, just, pure, lovely and of good report.

We shall now proceed to quote for the reader the second paragraph of our chapter in

which we shall find instruction of great moral value, and much needed in this day of

self-will and independence.

"If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgement, between blood and blood,

between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy

within thy gates; then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the Lord

thy God shall choose; and thou shalt come unto the priests, the Levites, and unto the

judge that shall be in those days, and inquire; and they shall show thee the sentence of

judgement. And thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that place

which the Lord shall choose shall show thee; and thou shalt observe to do according

to all that they inform thee; according to the sentence of the law which they teach

thee, and according to the judgement they shall tell thee, thou shalt do; thou shalt

decline from the sentence which they shall show thee, to the right hand, nor to the

left. And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest

that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge, even that

man shall die; and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel. And all the people shall

hear and fear, and do no more presumptuously." (Vers. 8-13)

Here we have divine provision made for the perfect settlement of all questions which

might arise throughout the congregation of Israel. They were to be settled in the

divine presence, at the divinely appointed centre, by the divinely appointed authority,

Thus self-will and presumption were effectually guarded against. All matters of

controversy were to be definitively settled by the judgement of God as expressed by

the priest or the judge appointed God for the purpose.

In a word, it was absolutely and entirely a matter of divine authority. It was not for

one man to set himself up in self-will and presumption against another. This would

never do in the assembly of God. Each one had to submit his cause to a divine

tribunal, and bow implicitly to its decision. There was to be no appeal, inasmuch as

there was no higher court The divinely appointed priest or judge spoke as the oracle

of God, and both plaintiff and defendant had to bow, without a demur, to the decision.

Now, it must be very evident to the reader that no member of the congregation of

Israel would ever have thought of bringing his case before a Gentile tribunal for

judgement. This, we may feel assured, would have been utterly foreign to the thoughts

and feelings of every true Israelite. It would have involved a positive insult to Jehovah

Himself who was in their midst to give judgement in every case which might arise.

Surely He was sufficient. He knew the ins and outs, the pros and cons, the roots and

issues of every controversy however involved or difficult. All were to look to Him,

and to bring their causes to the place which He had chosen, and nowhere else. The

idea of two members of the assembly of God appearing before a tribunal of the

uncircumcised for judgement would not have been tolerated for a moment. It would

be as much as to say that there was a defect in the divine arrangement for the

congregation.

Has this any voice for us? How are Christians to have their questions and their

controversies settled? Are they to betake themselves to the world for judgement? Is

there no provision in the assembly of God for the proper settlement of cases which

may arise? Hear what the inspired apostle says on the point, to the assembly at

Corinth, and "to all that in every Place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both

theirs and ours," and therefore to all true Christians, now.

"Dare any of you, having a matter against another; go to law before the unjust, and not

before the saints Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? And if the

world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye

not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? If then

ye have judgements of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least

esteemed in the church. I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man

among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren? But brother

goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. Now therefore there is

utterly a fault among you because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather

take wrong? why do ye not rather be defrauded? Nay ye do wrong, and defraud, and

that your brethren. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of

God? Be not deceived." (1 Cor. 6: 1-9)

Here, then, we have the divine instruction for church of God, in all ages. We must

never, for a moment, lose sight of the fact that the Bible a is Book for every stage of

the church's earthly career. True it is, alas! the church is not as it was when the above

lines were penned by the inspired apostle; a vast change has taken place in the

church's practical condition There was no difficulty, in early days, in distinguishing

between the church and the world, between "the saints" and "unbelievers;" between

"those within" and "those without." The line of demarcation was broad, distinct, and

unmistakable, in those days. Any one who looked at the face of society, in a religious

point of view, would see three things, namely, Paganism, Judaism and Christianity the

Gentile, the Jew and the church of God—the temple, the synagogue, and the assembly

of God. There was no confounding these things. The Christian assembly stood out in

vivid contrast with all beside. Christianity was strongly and clearly pronounced in

those primitive times. It was neither a national, provincial nor parochial affair, but a

personal, practical, living reality. It was not a mere nominal, national, professional

creed, but a divinely wrought faith, a living power in the heart flowing out in the life.

But now things are totally changed. The church and the world are so mixed up, that

the vast majority of professors could hardly understand the real force and proper

application of the passage which we have just quoted. Were we to speak to them

about "the saints" going to law "before the unbelievers," it would seem like a foreign

tongue. Indeed the term "saint" is hardly heard in the professing church save when

used with a sneer, or as applied to such as have been canonised by a superstitious

reverence.

But has any change come over the word of God, or over the grand truths which that

word unfolds to our souls? Has any change come over the thoughts of God in

reference to what His church is, or what the world is, or as to the proper relation of

the one to the other Does He not know who are "saints" and who are "unbelievers"?

Has it ceased to be "a fault" for "brother to go to law with brother, and that before the

unbelievers"? In a word, has holy scripture lost its power, its point, its divine

application? Is it no longer our guide, our authority, our one perfect rule and unerring

standard? Has the marked change that has come over the church's moral condition

deprived the word of God of all power of application to us—"to all that in every place

call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ"? Has our Father's most precious Revelation

become, in any one particular, a dead letter—a piece of obsolete writing—a

document pertaining to days long gone by? Has our altered condition robbed the word

of God of a single one of its moral glories?

Reader, what answer does your heart return these questions? Let us, most earnestly,

entreat you to weigh them honestly, humbly and prayerfully in the presence of your

Lord. We believe your answer will be a wonderfully correct index of your real

position and moral state. Do you not clearly see and fully admit that scripture can

never lose its power? Can the principles of 1 Cor 6 ever cease to be binding on the

church of God. It is fully admitted—for who can deny that things are sadly

changed?—but "scripture cannot be broken and therefore what was "a fault" in the

first century cannot be right in the nineteenth; there may be more difficulty in

carrying out divine principles, but we must never consent to surrender them, or to act

on any lower ground. If once we admit the idea that because the whole professing

church has gone wrong, it is impossible for us to do right, the whole principle of

Christian obedience is surrendered. It is as wrong for "brother to go to law with

brother, before the unbelievers" today, as it was when the apostle wrote his epistle to

the assembly at Corinth* True, the church's visible unity is gone; she is shorn of many

gifts, she has departed from her normal condition; but the principles of the word of

God can no more lose their power than the blood of Christ can lose its virtue, or His

Priesthood lose its efficacy.

{*It is well for us to bear in mind that wherever there are "two or three" gathered to

the Name of the Lord Jesus, in ever such weakness, there will be found, if only they

are truly humble and dependent, spiritual ability to judge in any case that may arise

between brethren. They can count on divine wisdom being supplied for the settlement

of any question, plea or controversy, so that there need not be any reference to a

worldly tribunal.

No doubt, worldly men would smile at such an idea; but we must adhere, with holy

decision, to the guidance of scripture. Brother must not go to law with brother before

the unbelievers. This is distinct and emphatic. There are resources available for the

assembly in Christ the Head and Lord, for the settlement of every possible question.

Let the Lord's people seriously apply their hearts to the consideration of this subject.

Let them see that they are gathered on the true ground of the church of God; and then,

though ever conscious that things are not as they once were, in the church, though

sensible Of the greatest weakness, failure and shortcoming, they will, nevertheless,

find the grace of Christ ever sufficient for them, and the word of God full of all

needed instruction and authority, so that they need never betake themselves to the

world for help, counsel or judgement. Where two or three are gathered together in my

name, there am I in the midst of them."

This surely is enough for every exigency. Is there any question that our Lord Christ

cannot settle? Do we want natural cleverness, worldly wisdom, longheadedness, great

learning, keen sagacity, if we have Him? Surely not; indeed all such things can only

prove like Saul's armour to David. All we want is simply to use the resources which

we have in Christ. We shall assuredly find, "in the place where his name is recorded,"

priestly wisdom to judge in every case which may arise between brethren.

And, farther, let the Lord's dear people remember, in all cases of local difficulty

which might arise, that there is no need whatever for them to look for extraneous aid,

to write to other places to get some wise men to come and help them. No doubt, if the

Lord sends any of His beloved servants, at the moment, their sympathy, fellowship,

counsel and help will be highly prized. We are not encouraging independence one

another, but absolute and complete dependence upon Christ our Head and Lord.}

And, further, we must bear in mind that there are resources of wisdom, grace, power

and spiritual gift treasured up for the church in Christ her Head, ever available for

those who have faith to use them. We are not straitened in our blessed and adorable

Head. We need never expect to see the body restored to its normal condition on the

earth; but, for all that, it is our privilege to see what the true ground of the body is,

and it is our duty to occupy that ground and no other.

Now, it is perfectly wonderful the change that takes place in our whole condition, in

our view of things, in our thoughts of ourselves and our surroundings, the moment we

plant our foot on the true ground of the church of God. Everything seems changed.

The Bible seems a new book. We see everything in a new light. Portions of scripture

which we have been reading for years without interest or profit now sparkle with

divine light, and fill us with wonder, love and praise. We see every thing from a new

stand-point; our whole range of vision is changed; we have made our escape from the

murky atmosphere which enwraps the whole professing church, and can now look

round and see things clearly in the heavenly light of scripture. In fact, it seems like a

new conversion; and we find we can now read scripture intelligently, because we

have the divine key. We see Christ to be the centre and object of all the thoughts,

purposes and counsels of God from everlasting to everlasting, and hence we are

conducted into that marvellous sphere of grace and glory which the Holy Ghost

delights to unfold in the precious word of God.

May the reader be led into the thorough understanding of all this, by the direct and

powerful ministry of the Holy Spirit! May he be enabled to give himself to the study

of scripture, and to surrender himself, unreservedly to its teaching and authority! Let

him not confer with flesh and blood, but cast himself, like a little child, on the Lord,

and seek to be led on, in spiritual intelligence and practical conformity to the mind of

Christ.

We must now look for a moment at the closing verses of our chapter in which we

have a remarkable onlook into Israel's future, anticipating the moment in which they

should seek to set a king over them.

"When thou art come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt

possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all

the nations that are about me; thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee whom the

Lord thy God shall choose; one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee;

thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother. But he shall not

multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he

should multiply horses; forasmuch as the Lord hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth

return no more that way. Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn

not away; neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold"

How very remarkable that the three things which the king was not to do, were just the

very things which were done—and extensively done by the greatest and wisest of

Israel's monarchs. "King Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which is

beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. And Hiram sent in the

navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of

Solomon. And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and

twenty talents [over two millions], and brought it to king Solomon." "And Hiram sent

to the king six-score talents of gold." "And the weight of gold that came to Solomon

in one year was six hundred three-score and six talents of gold. [Nearly three-and a-

half millions.] Beside that he had of the merchantmen, and of the traffic of the spice

merchants, and of all the kings of Arabia, and of the governors of the country." Again,

we read, "And the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones.... And Solomon had

horses brought out of Egypt.... But king Solomon loved many strange women.... And

he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives

turned away his heart." (1 Kings 10, 11.)

What a tale this tells! What a commentary it furnishes upon man in his very best and

highest estate! Here was a man endowed with wisdom beyond all others, surrounded

by unexampled blessings, dignities, honours and privileges; his earthly cup was full to

the brim; there was nothing lacking which this world could supply to minister to

human happiness. And not only so, but his remarkable prayer at the dedication of the

temple might well lead us to cherish the brightest hopes respecting him, both

personally and officially.

But, sad to say, he broke down, most deplorably, in every one of the particulars as to

which the law of his God had spoken so definitely and so clearly. He was told not to

multiply silver and gold, and yet he multiplied them. He was told not to return to

Egypt to multiply horses, and yet to Egypt he went for horses. He was told not to

multiply wives, and yet he had a thousand of them, and they turned away his heart!

Such is man! Oh! how little is he to be counted upon! "All flesh is as grass, and all the

glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth and the flower thereof falleth

away." "Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be

accounted of?"

But we may ask, how are we to account for Solomon's signal, sorrowful and

humiliating failure? What was the real secret of it? To answer this, we must quote for

the reader the closing verses of our chapter.

"And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write

him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites;

and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of His life; that he may

learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to

do them; that his. heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside

from the commandment, to the right hand or to the left; to the end that he may

prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the midst of Israel." (Vers.

18-20.)

Had Solomon attended to these most precious and weighty words, his historian would

have had a very different task to perform. But he did not. We hear nothing of his

having made a copy of the law; and, most assuredly, if he did make a copy of it, he

did not attend to it; yea, he turned his back upon it, and did the very things which he

was told not to do. In a word, the cause of all the wreck and ruin that so rapidly

followed the splendour of Solomon's reign, was neglect of the plain word of God.

It is this which makes it all so solemn for us, in this our own day, and which leads us

to call the earnest attention of the reader to it. We deeply feel the need of seeking to

rouse the attention of the whole church of God to this great subject. Neglect of the

word of God is the source of all the failure, all the sin, all the error, all the mischief

and confusion, the heresies, sects and schisms that have ever been or are now in this

world. And we may add, with equal confidence, that the only real sovereign remedy

for our present lamentable condition will be found in returning, every one for himself

and herself, to the simple but sadly neglected authority of the word of God. Let each

one see his own departure, and that of the whole professing body, from the plain and

positive teaching of the New Testament—the commandments of our blessed Lord and

Saviour Jesus Christ. Let us humble ourselves under the mighty hand of our God,

because of our common sin, and let us turn to Him in true self-judgment, and He will

graciously restore, and heal, and bless us, and lead us in that most blessed path of

obedience which lies open before every truly humble soul.

May God the Holy Ghost, in His own resistless power, bring home to the heart and

conscience of every member of the body of Christ, on the face of the earth, the urgent

need of an immediate and unreserved surrender to the authority of the word of God!

Deuteronomy 18.

The opening paragraph of this chapter suggests a deeply interesting and practical line

of truth.

"The priests the Levites, and all the tribe of Levi, shall have no part nor inheritance

with Israel; they shall eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and his inheritance.

Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren: the Lord is their

inheritance, as he hath said unto them. And this shall be the priest's due from the

people, from them that offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep; and they shall give

unto the priest, the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the maw. The firstfruit also of

thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the first of the fleece of thy sheep, shalt

thou give him. For the Lord thy God hath chosen him out of all thy tribes, to stand to

minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons for ever. And if a Levite come

from any of thy gates out of all Israel, where he sojourned, and come with all the

desire of his mind unto the place which the Lord shall choose; then he shall minister

in the name of the Lord his God, as all his brethren the Levites do, which stand there

before the Lord They shall have like portions to eat, beside that which cometh out of

the sale of his patrimony." (Vers. 1-8.)

Here, as in every part of the book of Deuteronomy, the Priests are classed with the

Levites, in a very marked way. We have called the reader's attention to this, as a

special characteristic feature of our book, and shall not dwell upon it now, but merely,

in passing, remind the reader of it, as something claiming his attention. Let him weigh

the opening words of our chapter, "The priests the Levites," and compare them with

the way in which the priests, the sons of Aaron, are spoken of in Exodus, Leviticus

and Numbers; and if he should be disposed to ask the reason of this distinction, we

believe it to be this, that in Deuteronomy the divine object is to bring the whole

assembly of Israel more into prominence, and hence it is that the priests, in their

official capacity, come rarely before us. The grand Deuteronomic idea is, Israel in

immediate relationship with Jehovah.

Now, in the passage just quoted, we have the priests and the Levites linked together,

and presented as the Lord's servants, wholly dependent upon Him, and intimately

identified with His altar and His service. This is full of interest, and opens up a very

important field of practical truth to which the Church of God would do well to attend.

In looking through the history of Israel, we observe that when things were in anything

like a healthful condition, the altar of God was well attended to, and, as a

consequence, the priests and Levites were well supplied. If Jehovah had His portion,

His servants were sure to have theirs. If He was neglected, so were they. They were

bound up together. The people were to bring their offerings to God, and He shared

them with His servants. The priests the Levites were not to exact or demand of the

people, but the people were privileged to bring their gifts to the altar of God, and He

permitted His servants to feed upon the fruit of His people's devotedness to Him.

Such was the true, the divine idea as to the Lord's servants of old. They were to live

upon the voluntary offerings presented to God by the whole congregation. True it is

that, in the dark and evil days of the sons of Eli, we find something sadly different

from this lovely moral order. Then "the priest's custom with the people was, that,

when any one offered sacrifice, the priest's servant came, while the flesh was in

seething, with a fleshhook of three teeth in his hand; and he struck it into the pan, or

kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the flesh hook brought up the priest took for himself.

So they did in Shiloh unto all the Israelites that came thither. Also before they burnt

the fat"—God's special portion—"the priest's servant came, and said to the man that

sacrificed, Give flesh to roast for the priest; for he will not have sodden flesh of thee,

but raw. And if any man said unto him, Let them not fail to burn the fat presently, and

then take as much as thy soul desireth then he would answer him, Nay; but thou shalt

give it me now; and if not, I will take it by force. Wherefore the sin of the young men

was very great before the Lord; for men abhorred the offering of Lord." (1 Sam. 2: 13-

17.)

All this was truly deplorable, and ended in the solemn judgement of God upon the

house of Eli. It could not be otherwise. If those who ministered at the altar could be

guilty of such terrible iniquity and impiety, judgement must take its course.

But the normal condition of things, as presented in our chapter, was in vivid contrast

with all this frightful iniquity. Jehovah would surround Himself with the willing

offerings of His people, and, from these offerings He would feed His servants who

ministered at His altar. Hence, therefore, when the altar of God was diligently,

fervently and devotedly attended to, the priests the Levites had a rich portion, an

abundant supply; and, on the other hand, when Jehovah and His altar were treated

with cold neglect, or merely waited upon in a barren routine or heartless formalism,

the Lord's servants were correspondingly neglected. In a word, they stood intimately

identified with the worship and service of the God of Israel.

Thus, for example, in the bright days of the good king Hezekiah, when things were

fresh and hearts happy and true, we read, "And Hezekiah appointed the courses of the

priests and the Levites after their courses, every man according to his service, the

priests and Levites for burnt offerings, and for peace offerings, to minister, and to

give thanks, and to praise in the gates of the tents of the Lord. He appointed also the

king's portion of his substance for the burnt offerings, to wit, for the morning and

evening burnt offerings, and the burnt offerings for the Sabbaths, and for the new

moons, and for the set feasts, as it is written in the law of the Lord. Moreover he

commanded the people that dwelt in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and

the Levites, that they might be encouraged in the law of the Lord. And as soon as the

commandment came abroad, the children of Israel brought in abundance the

firstfruits of corn, wine, and oil, and honey, and of all the increase of the field; and

the tithe of all things brought they in abundantly. And concerning the children of

Israel and Judah, that dwelt in the cities of Judah, they also brought in the tithe of

oxen and sheep, and the tithe of holy things which were consecrated unto the Lord

their God, and laid them by heaps. In the third month they began to lay the foundation

of the heaps, and finished them in the seventh month. And when Hezekiah and the

princes came and saw the heaps, they blessed the Lord, and his people Israel Then

Hezekiah questioned with the priests and the Levites concerning the heaps. And

Azariah the chief priest of the house of Zadok answered him, and said, Since the

people began to bring the offerings into the house of Lord, we have had enough, to

eat, and have left plenty, for the Lord hath blessed his people; and that which is left is

this great store." (2 Chron. 31: 2-10.)

How truly refreshing is all this! And how encouraging! The deep, full, silvery tide of

devotedness flowed around the altar of God bearing upon its bosom an ample supply

to meet all the need of the Lord's servants, and "heaps" beside. This, we feel assured,

was grateful to the heart of the God of Israel, as it was to the hearts of those who had

given themselves, at His call and by His appointment, to the service of His altar and

His sanctuary.

And let the reader specially note those precious words, "As it is written in the law of

the Lord." Here was Hezekiah's authority, the solid basis of his whole line of conduct,

from first to last. True, the nation's visible unity was gone; the condition of things,

when he began his blessed work, was most discouraging; but the word of the Lord

was as true, as real, and as direct in its application in Hezekiah's day as it was in the

days of David or Joshua. Hezekiah rightly felt that Deuteronomy 18: 1-8 applied to his

day and to his conscience, and that he and the people were responsible to act upon it,

according to their ability. Were the priests and the Levites to starve because Israel's

national unity was gone? Surely not. They were to stand or fall with the word, the

worship, and the work of God. Circumstances might vary, and the Israelite might find

himself in a position in which it would be impossible to carry out in detail all the

ordinances of the Levitical ceremonial, but he never could find himself in

circumstances in which it was not his high privilege to give full expression to his

heart's devotedness to the service, the altar, and the law of Jehovah.

Thus, then, we see, throughout the entire history of Israel, that when things were at all

bright and healthy, the Lord's worship, His work, and His workmen were blessedly

attended to. But, on the other hand, when things were low, when hearts were cold,

when self and its interests had the uppermost place, then all these great objects were

treated with heartless neglect. Look for example, at Nehemiah 13. When that beloved

and faithful servant returned to Jerusalem, after an absence of certain days, he found,

to his deep sorrow, that, even in that short time, various things had gone sadly astray;

amongst the rest, the poor Levites had been left without anything to eat. " And I

perceived that the portions of the Levites had not been given them; for the Levites and

the singers that did the work were fled every one to his field." There were no "heaps"

of firstfruits in those dismal days, and surely it was hard for men to work and sing

when they had nothing to eat. This was not according to the law of Jehovah, nor

according to His loving heart. It was a sad reproach upon the people that the Lord's

servants were obliged, through their gross neglect, to abandon His worship and His

work, in order to keep themselves from starving.

This, truly, was a deplorable condition of things. Nehemiah felt it keenly, as we read,

"Then contended I with the rulers, and said, why is the house of God forsaken? And I

gathered them together, and set them in their place. Then brought all Judah the tithe

of the corn, and the new wine, and the oil, unto the treasuries. And I made treasurers

over the treasuries....for they were counted faithful;"—they were entitled to the

confidence of their brethren—"and their office was to distribute unto their brethren."

It needed a number of tried and faithful men to occupy the high position of

distributing to their brethren the precious fruit of the people's devotedness; they could

take counsel together, and see that the Lord's treasury was faithfully managed,

according to His word, and the need of His true and bona fide workmen fully met,

without prejudice or partiality.

Such was the lovely order of the God of Israel—an order to which every true Israelite

such as Nehemiah and Hezekiah, would delight to attend. The rich tide of blessing

flowed forth from Jehovah to His people, and back from His people to Him, and from

that flowing tide His servants were to draw a full supply for all their need. It was a

dishonour to Him to have the Levites obliged to return to their fields; it proved that

His house was forsaken, and that there was no sustenance for His servants.

Now, the question may here be asked, What has all this to say to us? What has the

church of God to learn from Deuteronomy 18: 1-8? In order to answer this question,

we must turn to 1 Corinthians 9 where the inspired apostle deals with the very

important subject of the support of the Christian ministry—a subject so little

understood by the great mass of professing Christians. As to the law of the case, it is

as distinct as possible. "Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who

planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and

eateth not of the milk of the flock? Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law

the same also? For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth

of ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? or saith he it altogether

for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written; that he that ploweth should

plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. If we

have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal

things? If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather?

Nevertheless"—here grace shines out, in all its heavenly lustre—"we have not used

this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ. Do ye not

know, that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and

they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar? Even so hath the Lord

ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. But"—here,

again, grace asserts its holy dignity—"I have used none of these things; neither have I

written these things, that it should be so done unto me; for it were better for me to die,

than that any man should make my glorying void. For though I preach the gospel, I

have nothing to glory of; for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I

preach not the gospel! For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward; but if against

my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me. What is my reward then?

Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge,

that I abuse not my power in the gospel." (1 Cor. 9: 7-18)

Here we have this interesting and weighty subject presented in all its bearings. The

inspired apostle lays down, with all possible decision and clearness the divine law on

the point. There is no mistaking it. "The Lord hath ordained that they that preach the

gospel should live of the gospel;" that, just as the priests and the Levites, of old, lived

on offerings presented by the people, so, now, those who are really called of God,

gifted by Christ, and fitted by the Holy Ghost, to Preach the gospel, and who are

giving themselves constantly and diligently, to that glorious work, are morally entitled

to temporal support. It is not that they should look to those to whom they preach for a

certain stipulated sum. There is no such idea as this in the New Testament. The

workman must look to his Master, and to Him alone for support. Woe be to him if he

looks to the church, or to men in any way The priests and Levites had their portion in

and from Jehovah. He was the lot of their inheritance. True, He expected the people

to minister to Him in the persons of His servants. He told them what to give, and

blessed them in giving; it was their high privilege as well as their bounden duty to

give; had they refused or neglected, it would have brought drought and barrenness

upon their fields and vineyards. (Haggai 1: 5-11)

But the priests the Levites had to look only to Jehovah. If the people failed in their

offerings, the Levites had to fly to their fields and work for their living. They could

not go to law with any one for tithes and offerings; their only appeal was to the God

of Israel who had ordained them to the work, given them the work to do.

So also with the Lord's workmen, now; they must look only to Him. They must be

well assured that He has fitted them for the work and called them to it ere they

attempt to push out—if we may so express it—from the shore of circumstances, and

give themselves wholly to the work of preaching. They must take their eyes

completely off from men, from all creature streams and human props, and lean

exclusively upon the living God. We have seen the most disastrous consequences

resulting from acting under a mistaken impulse in this most solemn matter; men not

called of God, or fitted for the work, giving up their occupations, and coming forth, as

they said, to live by faith and give themselves to the work. Deplorable shipwreck was

the result in every instance. Some, when they began to look the stern realities of the

path straight in the face, became so alarmed, that they actually lost their mental

balance, lost their reason for a time; some lost their peace; and some went right back

into the world again.

In short, it is our deep and thorough conviction, after forty years' observation, that the

cases are few and far between in which it is morally safe and good for one to abandon

his bread-winning calling in order to preach the gospel. It must be so distinct and

unquestionable to the man himself, that he has only to say, with Luther, at the Diet of

Worms, "Here am; I can do no otherwise: God help me! Amen" Then he may be

perfectly sure that God will sustain him in the work to which He has called him, and

meet all his need, "according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." And as to men,

and their thoughts respecting him and his course, he has simply to refer them to his

Master. He is not responsible to them nor has he ever asked them for anything. If they

were compelled to support him, reason would they might complain or raise questions;

but, as they are not, they must just leave him, remembering that to his own Master he

standeth or falleth.

But when we look at the splendid passage just quoted from 1 Corinthians 9, we find

that the blessed apostle, after having established, beyond all question, his right to be

supported, relinquishes it completely. "Nevertheless, I have used none of these

things." He worked with his hands; he wrought with labour and travail night and day,

in order not to be chargeable or burdensome to any. These hands," he says, "have

ministered to my necessities, and those that were with me." He coveted no man's

silver, or gold, or apparel. He travelled, he preached, he visited from house to house,

he was the laborious apostle, the earnest evangelist the diligent pastor, he had the care

of all the churches. Was not he entitled to support? Assuredly he was. It ought to have

been the joy of the church of God to minister to his every need. But he never enforced

his claim; nay, he surrendered it. He supported himself and his companions by the

labour of his hands; and all this as an example, as he says to the elders of Ephesus, "I

have showed you all things how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak and to

remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to

receive.

Now, it is perfectly wonderful to think of this beloved and revered servant of Christ,

with his extensive travels, from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum, his gigantic

labours as an evangelist, a pastor and a teacher, and yet finding time to support

himself and others by the work of his hands. Truly he occupied high moral ground.

His case is a standing testimony against hirelingism, in every shape and form. The

infidel's sneering reference to well-paid ministers could have no application whatever

to him. He certainly did not preach for hire.

And yet he thankfully received help from those who knew how to give it. Again and

again, beloved assembly at Philippi ministered to the necessities of their revered and

beloved father in Christ. How well for them that they did so! It will never be

forgotten. Millions have read the sweet record of their devotedness, and been

refreshed by the odour of their sacrifice; it is recorded in heaven where nothing of the

kind is ever forgotten, yea, it is engraved on the very tablets of the heart of Christ.

Hear how the blessed apostle pours out his grateful heart to his much loved children

"I rejoice in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished

again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in

respect of want;"—blessed, self-denying servant—"for I have learned in whatsoever

state I am, to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound;

everywhere, and in all things I am instructed, both to be full and to be hungry, both to

abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Notwithstanding, ye have well done that ye did communicate with my affliction Now

ye know Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed

from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and

receiving, but ye only. For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my

necessity. Not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your

account. But I have all and abound; I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the

things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable,

well-pleasing to God. But my God shall supply all your need, according to his riches

in glory by Christ Jesus." (Phil. 4: 10-19.)

What a rare privilege to be allowed to comfort the heart of such an honoured servant

of Christ, at the close of his career, and in the solitude of his prison at Rome! How

seasonable, how right, how lovely was their ministry! What joy to receive the

apostle's acknowledgments! And then how precious the assurance that their service

had gone up, as an odour of sweet smell, to the very throne and heart of God! Who

would not rather be a Philippian ministering to the apostle's need, than a Corinthian

calling his ministry in question, or a Galatian breaking his heart? How vast the

difference! The apostle could not take anything from the assembly at Corinth. Their

state did not admit of it. Individuals in that assembly did minister to him, and their

service is recorded on the page of inspiration, remembered above, and it will be

abundantly rewarded in the kingdom by-and-by. "I am glad of the coming of

Stephanus and Fortunatus and Achaicus: for that which was lacking on your part they

have supplied. For they have refreshed my spirit and yours: therefore acknowledge ye

them that are such." (1 Cor. 16: 17, 18.)

Thus, then, from all that has passed before us, we learn, most distinctly, that both

under the law and under the gospel, it is according to the revealed will, and according

to the heart of God that those who are really called of Him to the work, and who

devote themselves, earnestly, diligently and faithfully to it, should have the hearty

sympathy and practical help of His people. All who love Christ will count it their

deepest joy to minister to Him in the persons of His servants. When He Himself was

here upon earth, He graciously accepted help from the hands of those who loved Him,

and had reaped the fruit His most precious ministry—"certain women, which had

been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went

seven devils, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many

others, which ministered unto Him of their substance." (Luke 8: 2, 3.)

Happy, highly privileged women! What joy be allowed to minister to the Lord of

glory, in the days of His human need and humiliation! There stand their honoured

names, on the divine page written down by God the Holy Ghost, to be read by untold

millions, to be borne along the stream of time right onward into eternity. How well it

was for those women that they did not waste their substance in self-indulgence, or

hoard it up to be rust on their souls, or a positive curse, as money must ever be if not

used for God!

But, on the other hand, we learn the urgent need on the part of all who take the place

of workers, whether in or out of the assembly, of keeping themselves perfectly free

from all human influence, all looking to men, in any shape or form. They must have

to do with God in the secret of their own souls, or they will, assuredly, break down,

sooner or later. They must look to Him alone for the supply of their need. If the

church neglect them, the church will be the serious loser here and hereafter. If they

can support themselves by the labour of their hands, without curtailing their direct

service to Christ, so much the better; it is unquestionably the more excellent way. We

are as persuaded of this as of the truth of any proposition that could be submitted to

us. There is nothing more spiritually and morally noble than a truly gifted servant of

Christ supporting himself and his family, by the sweat of his brow or the sweat of his

brain, and, at the same time, giving himself diligently to the Lord's work, whether as

an evangelist, a pastor or a teacher. The moral antipodes of this is presented to our

view in the person of a man who, without gift, or grace, or spiritual life, enters what is

called the ministry, as a mere profession or means of living. The position of such a

man is morally dangerous and miserable in extreme. We shall not dwell upon it,

inasmuch as it does not come within the range of the subject which been engaging our

attention, and we are only too thankful to leave it, and proceed with our chapter.

"When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not

learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among

you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth

divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a

consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these

things are an abomination unto Lord; and because of these abominations the Lord thy

God doth drive them out from before thee. Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy

God. For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times,

and unto diviners; but as for thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee so to do."

(Vers. 9-14.)

Now, it may be that, on reading the foregoing quotation, the reader feels disposed to

ask what possible application it can have to professing Christians? We ask, in reply,

Are there any Christians who are in the habit of going to the performances of wizards,

magicians and necromancers? Are there any who take part in table- turning, spirit-

rapping, mesmerism, or clairvoyance?* If so, the passage which we have just quoted

very pointedly and solemnly, upon all such. We most surely believe that all these

things which we have named are of the devil. This may sound harsh and severe; but

we cannot help that. We are thoroughly persuaded that when people lend themselves

to the awful business of bringing up, in any way, the spirits of the departed, they are

simply putting themselves into the hands of the devil to be deceived and deluded by

his lies. What, we may ask, do those who hold in their hands a perfect revelation from

God, want of table-turning and spirit-rapping? Surely nothing And, if not content with

that precious word, they turn to the spirits of departed friends or others, what can they

expect but that God will judicially give them over to be blinded and deceived by

wicked spirits who come up and personate the departed, and tell all manner lies?

{*Some of our readers may object to our classing with mesmerism with spirit-rapping

and table-turning. It may be they would regard it in the same light, and use it in the

same way, as ether or chloroform, in medical practice. We do not attempt to

dogmatise on the point. We can only say that we could have nothing whatever to do

with it. We consider it a solemn thing for any one to allow himself to be placed by

another in a state of utter unconsciousness [mesmerism, Compiler.], for any purpose

whatsoever. And as to the idea of listening to, or being guided by the ravings of a

person in that state, we can only regard it as absolutely absurd, if not positively

sinful.}

We cannot attempt go fully into this subject here. We have no time, for anything of

the sort. We merely fell it to be our solemn duty to warn the reader about having

anything whatever to do with consulting departed spirits. We believe it to be most

dangerous work. We do not enter upon the question as to whether souls can come

back to this world; no doubt, God could permit them to come if He saw fit; but this

we leave. The great point for us to keep ever before our hearts is the perfect

sufficiency of divine revelation, what do we want of departed spirits? The rich man

imagined that if Lazarus were to go back to earth and speak to his five brethren, it

would have a great effect. "I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him

to my father's house; for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they

also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and

the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham; but if one went

unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not

Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the

dead" (Luke 16: 27-31.)

Here we have a thorough settlement of this question. If people will not hear the word

of God, if they will not believe its clear and solemn statements as to themselves, their

present condition, their future destiny, neither will they be persuaded though a

thousand departed souls were to come back and tell them what they saw, and heard,

and felt in heaven above or in hell beneath; it would produce no saving or permanent

effect upon them. It might cause great excitement, great sensation, furnish great

material for talk, and fill the newspapers far and wide; but there it would end. People

would go on all the same, with their traffic and gain, their folly and vanity, their

pleasure-hunting and self-indulgence. "If they hear not Moses and the prophets,"—

and we may add, Christ and His holy apostles—"neither will they be persuaded,

though one rose from the dead. The heart that will not bow to scripture will be not

convinced by anything; and as to the true believer, he has in scripture all he can

possibly want, and therefore he has no need to have recourse to table-turning, spirit-

rapping or magic. "And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have

familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter; should not a people seek

unto their God for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony; if they

speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." (Isaiah 8: 19,

20.)

Here is the divine resource of the Lord's people, at all times and in all places; and to

this it is that Moses refers the congregation in the splendid paragraph which closes

our chapter. He shows them, very distinctly, that they had no need to apply to familiar

spirits, enchanters, wizards, or witches, which all were an abomination to the Lord.

The Lord thy God," he says, " will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee,

of thy brethren, like unto me unto him ye shall hearken; according to all that desiredst

of the Lord thy God in Horeb, in day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear the

voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not.

And the Lord said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken. I

will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put

my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.

And it shall to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto words which he shall speak

in my name, I will require it of him. But the prophet which shall presume to speak a

word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in

the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. And if thou say in thine heart,

How shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? When a prophet

speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the

thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously:

thou shalt not be afraid of him." (Vers. 15-22.)

We can be at no loss to know who this Prophet is, namely, our adorable Lord and

Saviour Jesus Christ. In the third chapter of Acts, Peter so applies the words of

Moses. "He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you; whom the

heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken

by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said unto

the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like

unto me; him shall ye hear in all things, whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall

come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed

from among the people." (Vers. 20-23.)

How precious the privilege of hearing the voice of such a Prophet! It is the voice of

God speaking through the lips of the Man Christ Jesus—speaking, not in thunder, not

with flaming fire, nor the lightning's flash, but in that still small voice of love and

mercy which falls in soothing power, on the broken heart and contrite spirit, which

distills like the gentle dew of heaven upon the thirsty ground. This voice we have in

the holy scriptures, that precious revelation which comes so constantly and so

powerfully before us, in our studies on this blessed book of Deuteronomy. We must

never forget this. The voice of scripture is the voice of Christ, and the voice of Christ

is the voice of God.

We want no more. If any one presumes to come with a fresh revelation, with some

new truth not contained in the divine Volume, we must judge him and his

communication by the standard of scripture and reject them utterly. "Thou shalt not

be afraid of him" False prophets come with great pretensions, high-sounding words

and sanctimonious bearing. Moreover they seek to surround themselves with a sort of

dignity, weight and impressiveness which are apt to impose on the ignorant. But they

cannot stand the searching power of the word of God. Some simple clause of holy

scripture will strip them of all their imposing surroundings, and cut up by the roots

their wonderful revelations. Those who know the voice of the true Prophet will not

listen to any other; those who have heard the voice of the good Shepherd will not

listen to the voice of a stranger.

Reader, see that you listen only to the voice of Jesus.

Deuteronomy 19.

"When the Lord thy God hath cut off the nations, whose land the Lord thy God giveth

thee, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their cities, and in their houses; thou

shalt separate three cities for thee in the midst of thy land, which the Lord thy God

giveth thee to possess it. Thou shalt prepare thee a way, and divide the coasts of thy

land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee to inherit, into three parts, that every slayer

may flee thither." (Vers. 1-3.)

What a very striking combination of "goodness and severity" we observe in these few

lines! We have the "cutting off" of the nations of Canaan, because of their

consummated wickedness which had become positively unbearable. And, on the other

hand, we have a most touching display of divine goodness in the provision made for

the poor manslayer, in the day of his deep distress, when flying for his life, from the

avenger of blood. The government and the goodness of God are, we need hardly say,

both divinely perfect. There are cases in which goodness would be nothing but a

toleration of sheer wickedness and open rebellion which is utterly impossible under

the government of God. If men imagine that, because God is good, they may go on

and sin with a high hand, they will, sooner or later, find out their woeful mistake.

"Behold," says the inspired apostle, "the goodness and severity of God!"* God will,

most assuredly, cut off evil doers who despise His goodness and long-suffering mercy.

He is slow to anger, blessed be His Holy Name! and of great kindness. For hundreds

of years He bore with the seven nations; of Canaan, until their wickedness rose up to

the very heavens, and the land' itself could bear them no longer. He bore with the

enormous wickedness of the guilty cities of the plain; and if He had found even ten

righteous people in Sodom, He would have spared it for their sakes. But the day of

terrible vengeance came, and they were "cut off"

{*The word rendered "severity" is ajpotomiva, which literally means "Cutting off."}

And so will it be, ere long, with guilty Christendom. "Thou also shalt be cut off." The

reckoning time will come, and oh! what a reckoning time it will be! The heart

trembles at the thought of it, while the eye scans and the pen traces the soul subduing

words.

But mark how divine "goodness" shines out in the opening lines of our chapter. See

the gracious painstaking of our God to make the city of refuge as available as possible

for the slayer. The three cities were to be "in the midst of thy land" It would not do to

have them in remote corners, or in places difficult of access. And not only so, but

"thou shalt prepare thee a way." And again, "thou shalt divide the coasts of thy

land.... into three parts." Everything was to be done to facilitate the slayer's escape.

The gracious Lord thought of the feelings of the distressed one "flying for refuge to

lay hold on the hope set before him." The city of refuge was to be "brought near, just

as "the righteousness of God" is brought near to the poor broken-hearted helpless

sinner—so near, that it is "to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth

the ungodly."

There is peculiar sweetness in the expression, "Thou shalt prepare thee a way". How

like our own ever gracious God—"The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! "

And yet it was the same God that cut off the nations of Canaan in righteous

judgement, who thus made such gracious provision for the manslayer "Behold, the

goodness and severity of God."

"And this is the case of the slayer which shall flee thither, that he may live, whoso

killeth his neighbour ignorantly, whom he hated not in time past; as when a man

goeth into the wood with his neighbour to hew wood, and his hand fetcheth a stroke

with the axe to cut down the tree, and the head slippeth from the helve, and lighteth

upon his neighbour, that he die; he shall flee unto one of those cities and live; lest the

avenger of the blood pursue the slayer, while his heart is hot, and overtake him,

because the way is long"—most touching.. and exquisite grace!—"and slay him;

whereas he was not worthy of death, inasmuch as he hated him not in time past.

Wherefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt separate three cities for thee." (Vers.

4-7.)

Here we have a most minute description of the man for whom the City of refuge was

provided. If he did not answer to this, the city was not for him; but if he did, he might

feel the most perfect assurance that a gracious God had thought of him, and found a

refuge for him where he might be as safe as the hand of God could make him. Once

the slayer found himself within the precincts of the city of refuge, he might breathe

freely, and enjoy calm and sweet repose. No avenging sword could reach him there,

not a hair of his head could be touched there.

He was safe; yes, perfectly safe; and not only perfectly safe, but perfectly certain. He

was not hoping to be saved, he was sure of it. He was in the city, and that was enough.

Before he got in, he might have many a struggle deep down in his poor terrified heart,

many doubts and fears and painful exercises. He was flying for his life, and this was a

serious and an all-absorbing matter for him—a matter that would make all beside

seem light and trifling. We could not imagine the flying slayer stopping to gather

flowers by the roadside. Flowers, he would say, "What have I to do with flowers just

now? My life is at stake. I am flying for my life. What if the avenger should come and

find me gathering flowers? No, the city is my one grand all-engrossing object; nothing

else has the smallest interest or charm for me. I want to be saved; that is my exclusive

business now.

But the moment he found himself within the gates, he was safe, and he knew it. How

did know it? By his feelings? By his evidences? By experiences? Nay; but simply by

the word of God. No doubt, he had the feeling, the evidence and the experience, and

most precious they would be to him after his tremendous struggle and conflict to get

in. But these things were, by no means, the ground of his certainty or the basis of his

peace. He knew he was safe because God told him so. The grace of God had made

him safe, and the word of God made him sure.

We cannot conceive a manslayer, within the walls of the city of refuge, expressing

himself as many of the Lord's dear people do, in reference to the question of safety

and certainty. He would not deem it presumption to be sure he was safe. If any one

had asked him, "Are you sure you are safe?" "Sure!" he would say, "How can I be

otherwise than sure? Was I not a slayer? Have I not fled to this city of refuge? Has not

Jehovah, our covenant God, pledged His word for it? Has not said that, 'fleeing thither

he may live'? Yes, thank God, I am perfectly sure. I had a terrible run for it—a fearful

struggle. At times, I felt as if the avenger had me in his dreaded grasp. I gave myself

up for lost; but then, God, in infinite mercy, made the way so plain, and made the city

so easy of access to me, that, spite of all doubts and fears, here I am, safe and certain.

The struggle is all over, the conflict past and gone. I can breathe freely now, and walk

up and down in the perfect security of this blessed place, praising our gracious

covenant God, for His great goodness in having provided such a sweet retreat for a

poor slayer like me."

Can the reader speak thus as to his safety Christ? Is he saved, and does he know it? If

not, may the Spirit of God apply to his heart the simple illustration of the manslayer

within the walls of the city of refuge! May he know that "strong consolation" which is

the sure, because divinely appointed portion of all those who have "fled for refuge to

lay hold on the hope see before them." (Heb. 6: 18.)

We must now proceed with our chapter; and, in so doing, we shall find that there was

more to be thought of in the cities of refuge than the question of the slayer's safety.

That was provided for perfectly, as we have seen; but the glory of God, the purity of

His land, and the integrity of His government had to be duly maintained. If these

things were touched, there could be no safety for any one. This great principle shines

on every page of the history of God's ways with man. Man's true blessing and God's

glory are indissolubly bound together, and both the one and the other rest on the same

imperishable foundation, namely, Christ and His precious work.

"And if the Lord thy God enlarge thy coast, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, and

give thee all the land which he promised to give unto thy fathers; if thou shalt keep all

these commandments to do them, which I command thee this day, to love the Lord

thy God, and to walk ever in his ways; then shalt thou add three cities more for thee,

beside these three; that innocent blood be not shed in thy land, which the Lord thy

God giveth thee for an inheritance, and so blood be upon thee. But if any man hate his

neighbour, and lie in wait for him, and rise up against him, and smite him mortally

that he die, and fleeth into one of these cities; then the elders of his city shall send and

fetch him thence, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may

die. Thine eye shall not pity him, but thou shalt put away the guilt of innocent blood

from Israel, that it may go well with thee." (Vers. 8-13.)

Thus, whether it was grace for the slayer, or judgement for the murderer, the glory of

God, and the claims of His government had to be duly maintained. The unwitting

manslayer was met by the provision of mercy; the guilty murderer fell beneath the

stern sentence of inflexible justice. We must never forget the solemn reality of divine

government. It meets us everywhere; and if it were more fully recognised, it would

effectually deliver us from one-sided views of the divine character. Take such words

as these, "Thine eye shall not pity him." Who uttered them? Jehovah. Who penned

them? God the Holy Ghost. What do they mean? Solemn judgement upon wickedness.

Let men beware how they trifle with these weighty matters. Let the Lord's people

beware how they give place to foolish reasonings in reference to things wholly

beyond their range. Let them remember that a false sentimentality may constantly be

found in league with an audacious infidelity in calling in question the solemn

enactments of divine government. This is a very serious consideration. Evil doers

must look out for the sure judgement of a sin-hating God, If a wilful murderer

presumed to avail himself of God's provision for the ignorant manslayer, the hand of

justice laid hold of him and put him to death, without mercy. Such was the

government of God in Israel Of old; and such will it be in a day that is rapidly

approaching. Just now, God is dealing in long-suffering mercy with the world; this is

the day of salvation, the acceptable time. The day of vengeance is at hand. Oh! that

man, instead of reasoning about the justice of God's dealings with evil doers, would

flee for refuge to that precious Saviour who died on the cross to save us from the

flames of an everlasting hell!*

{*For other points presented in the cities of refuge we must refer the reader to 'Notes

on the Book of Numbers," chapter 35.}

Before quoting for the reader the closing paragraph Of our chapter, we would just call

his attention to Verse 14, in which we have a very beautiful proof of God's tender care

for His people, and His most gracious interest in everything which, directly or

indirectly concerned them. "Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour's landmark, which

they of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land that

the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it."

This passage, taken in its plain import and primary application is full of sweetness, as

presenting the loving heart of our God, and showing us how marvellously He entered

into all the circumstances of His beloved people. The landmarks were not to be

meddled with. Each one's portion was to be left intact according to the boundary lines

set up by those of old time. Jehovah had given the land to Israel; and, not only so, but

He had assigned to each tribe and to each family their proper portion, marked off

With perfect precision, and indicated by landmarks so plain that there could be no

confusion, no clashing of interests, no interference one with another, no ground for

lawsuit or controversy about property. There stood the ancient landmarks marking off

each one's portion in such a manner as to remove all possible ground of dispute. Each

one held as a tenant under the God of Israel, who knew all about his little holding, as

we say; and every tenant had the comfort of knowing that the eye of the gracious and

Almighty Landlord was upon his bit of land, and His hand over it to protect it from

every intruder. Thus he could abide in peace under his vine and under his fig-tree,

enjoying the portion assigned by the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Thus much as to the obvious sense of this beautiful clause of our chapter. But surely it

has a deep spiritual meaning also. Are there not spiritual landmarks for the church of

God, and for each individual member thereof, marking off, with divine accuracy, the

boundaries of our heavenly inheritance—those landmarks which they of old time,

even the apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus have set up? Assuredly there are, and

God has His eye upon them, and He will not permit them to removed with impunity.

Woe be to the man that attempts to touch them; he will have to give account to God

for so doing. It is a serious thing for any one to interfere, in any way, with the place,

portion, and prospect of the church of God; and it is to be feared that many are doing

it without being aware of it.

We do not attempt to go into the question of what these landmarks are; we have

sought to do this in our first volume of "Notes on Deuteronomy," as well as in the

other four volumes of the series; but we feel it to be our duty to warn, in the most

solemn manner, all whom it may concern, against doing that which, in the church of

God, answers to the removal of the landmarks in Israel. If any one had come forward

in the ]and of Israel to suggest some new arrangement in the inheritance of the tribes,

to adjust the property of each upon some new principle, to set up some new boundary

lines, what would have been the reply of the faithful Israelite? A very simple one, we

may be sure. He would have replied in the language of Deuteronomy 19: 14. He

would have said "We want no novelties here; we are perfectly content with those

sacred and time-honoured landmarks which they of old time have set in our

inheritance. We are determined, by the grace of God, to keep to them, and to resist,

with firm purpose, any modern innovation."

Such, we believe, would have been the prompt reply of every true member of the

congregation of Israel; and surely the Christian ought not to be less prompt or less

decided in his answer to all those who, under the plea of progress and development,

remove the landmarks of the church of God, and instead of the precious teaching of

Christ and His apostles, offer us the so-called light of science, and the resources of

philosophy. Thank God, we want them not. We have Christ and His word; what can

be added to these? What do we want of human progress or development, when we

have "that which was from the beginning"? What can science or philosophy do for

those who possess "all truth"? No doubt, we want, yea, long to make progress in the

knowledge of Christ; long for a fuller, clearer development of the life of Christ in our

daily history; but science and philosophy cannot help us in these; nay, they could only

prove a most serious hindrance.

Christian reader, let us seek to keep close to Christ, close to His word. This is our

only security, in this dark and evil day. Apart from Him, we are nothing, have

nothing, can do nothing. In Him we have all He is the portion of our cup and the lot of

our inheritance. May we know what it is not only to be safe in Him, but separated to

Him, and satisfied with Him, till that bright day when we shall see Him as He is, and

be like Him and with Him for ever.

We shall now do little more than quote the remaining verses of our chapter. They

need no exposition. They set forth wholesome truth to which professing Christians,

with all their light and knowledge, may well give attention.

"One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin

that he sinneth; at the mouth of two witnesses, or at mouth of three witnesses, shall

the matter be established." (Ver. 15.)

This subject has already come before us. It cannot be too strongly insisted upon. We

may judge of its importance from the fact that, not only does Moses, again and again,

press it upon Israel's attention, but our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and the Holy Ghost

in the apostle Paul, in two of his epistles, insists upon the principle of "two or three

witnesses," in every case. One witness, be he ever so trustworthy, is not sufficient to

decide a case. If this plain fact were more carefully weighed and duly attended to, it

would put an end to a vast amount of strife and contention. We in our fancied

wisdom, might imagine that one thoroughly reliable witness ought to be sufficient to

settle any question. Let us remember that God is wiser than we are, and that it is ever

our truest wisdom as well as our greatest moral security to hold fast by His unerring

word.

"If a false witness rise up against any man, to testify against him that which is wrong;

then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before the Lord,

before the priests and the judges which shall be in those days; and the judges shall

make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and have

testified falsely against his brother; then shall ye do unto him as he had thought to

have done unto his brother: so shalt thou put the evil away from among you. And

those which remain shall hear and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any

such evil among you. And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for

eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot." (Vers. 16-21.)

We may here see how God hates false witness; and further, we have to bear in mind

that, though we are not under law but under grace, false witness is not less hateful to

God; and surely the more fully we enter into the grace in which we stand, the more

intensely we shall abhor false witness, slander, and evil speaking, in every shape and

form. The good Lord preserve us from all such!

DEUTERONOMY, Section 6 of 6. (Deut. 20 - end).

C H Mackintosh

Deuteronomy 20.

"When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses and chariots, and a

people more than thou, be not afraid of them for the Lord thy God is with thee, which

brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And it shall be when ye are come nigh unto the

battle that priest shall approach, and speak unto the people, and shall say, unto them, Hear, O

Israel; ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies let not your hearts faint; fear

not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them for the Lord your God is he

that goeth with you to fight for you against your enemies, to save you (Vers. 1-4.)

How wonderful to think of the Lord as a Man of war! Think of His fighting against people!

Some find it very hard to take in the idea—to understand how a benevolent Being could act

in such a character. But the difficulty arises mainly from not distinguishing between the

different dispensations. It was just as consistent with the character of the God of Abraham,

Isaac and Jacob to fight against His enemies, as it is with the character of the God and Father

of our Lord Jesus Christ to forgive them. And inasmuch as it is the revealed character of God

that furnishes the model on which His people are to be found—the standard by which they

are to act, it was quite as consistent for Israel to cut their enemies in pieces, as it is for us to

love them, pray for them, and do them good.

If this very simple Principle were borne in mind, it would remove a quantity of

misunderstanding, and save a vast amount of unintelligent discussion. No doubt it is

thoroughly wrong for the church of God to go to war. No one can read the New Testament,

with a mind free from bias, and not see this. We are positively commanded to love our

enemies, to do good to them that hate us, and to pray for them that despitefully use us. "Put

up again thy sword into his place; for all they that take the sword, shall perish with the

sword." And again, in another gospel, "Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the

sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" Again, our Lord says to

Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, then would my

servants fight"—it would be perfectly consistent them so to do. ···· "But now is my kingdom

not from hence"—and therefore it would be wholly out of character utterly inconsistent,

thoroughly wrong for them to fight.

Ah this is so plain that we need only say, "How readest thou?" Our blessed Lord did not fight;

He meekly and patiently submitted to all manner of abuse and ill-treatment, and in so doing

He left us an example that we should follow His steps. If we only honestly ask ourselves the

question, "What would Jesus do?" it would close all discussion on this point as well as on a

thousand other points besides. There is really no use in reasoning, no need of it. If the words

and ways of our blessed Lord, and the distinct teaching of His Spirit, by His holy apostles, be

not sufficient for our guidance, all discussion is utterly vain.

And, if we be asked, What does the Holy Ghost teach on this great practical point? Hear His

precious clear and pointed words. "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves; but rather give

place unto wrath; for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay saith the Lord. Therefore

if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap

coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good" (Rom. 12.)

These are the lovely ethics of the church of God: the principles of that heavenly kingdom to

which all true Christians belong. Would they have suited Israel of old? Certainly not. Only

conceive Joshua. acting toward the Canaanites on the principles of Romans 12! It would have

been as flagrant an inconsistency as for us to act on the principle of Deuteronomy 20. How is

this? Simply because, in Joshua's day, God was executing judgement in righteousness;

whereas, now, He is dealing in unqualified grace. This makes all the difference. The

principle of divine action is the grand moral regulator for God's people in all ages. If this be

seen, all difficulty is removed, all discussion definitively closed.

But then if any feel disposed to ask, "What about the world? How could it get on upon the

principle of grace? Could it act on the doctrine of Romans 12: 20?" Not for a moment. The

idea is simply absurd. To attempt to amalgamate the principles of grace with the law of

nations, or to infuse the spirit of the New Testament into the framework of political economy

would instantly plunge civilized society into hopeless confusion. And here is just where many

most excellent and well-meaning people are astray. They want to press the nations of the

world into the adoption of a principle which would be destructive of their national existence.

The time is not come yet for nations to beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears

into pruning hooks, and learn war no more. That blessed time will come, thank God, when

this groaning earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

But to seek to get nations, now to act upon peace principles is simply to ask them to cease to

be; in a word, it is thoroughly hopeless, unintelligent labour. It cannot be. We are not called

upon to regulate the world, but to pass through it, as pilgrims and strangers. Jesus did not

come to set the world right. He came to seek and to save that which was lost; and as to the

world, He testified of it that its deeds were evil. He will, ere long come to set things right. He

will take to Himself His great power and reign. The kingdoms of this world shall, most

assuredly, become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. He will gather out of His

kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity. All this is most blessedly true: but

we must wait His time. It can be of no possible use for us, by our ignorant efforts, to seek to

bring about a condition of things which all scripture goes to prove can only be introduced by

the personal presence and rule of our beloved and adorable Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

But we must proceed with our chapter.

Israel were called to fight the Lord's battles. The moment they put their foot upon the land of

it was war to the knife with the doomed inhabitants. "Of the cities of these people which the

Lord God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou save alive nothing that breatheth." This was

distinct and emphatic. The seed of Abraham were not only to possess the land of Canaan, but

they were to be God's instruments in executing His just judgement upon the guilty

inhabitants, whose sins had risen up to heaven, and become absolutely intolerable.

Does any one feel called upon to apologise for the divine actings towards the seven nations

of Canaan. If so, let him be well assured of this that his labour is perfectly gratuitous, entirely

uncalled for. What folly for any poor worm of the earth to think of entering upon such work!

And what folly, too for any one to require an apology or an explanation. It was a high honour

put upon Israel to exterminate those guilty nations—an honour of which they proved

themselves utterly unworthy, inasmuch as they failed to do as they were commanded. They

left alive many of those who ought to have been utterly destroyed; they spared them to be the

wretched instruments of their own ultimate ruin, by leading them into the self-same sins

which had so loudly called for divine judgement.

But let us look, for a moment, at the qualifications which were necessary for those who

would fight the Lord's battles. We shall find the opening paragraph of our chapter full of

most precious instruction for ourselves in the spiritual warfare which we are called to wage.

The reader will observe that the people, on approaching to the battle, were to be addressed,

first, by the priest, and secondly, by the officers. This order is very beautiful. The priest came

forward to unfold to the people their high privileges; the officers came to remind them of

their holy responsibilities. Such is the divine order here. Privilege comes first, and then

responsibility. "The priest shall approach, and speak unto the people, and shall say unto them,

Hear O Israel; ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies; let not your hearts faint,

fear not and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them; for the Lord your God is

he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you".

What blessed words are these! How full of comfort and encouragement! How eminently

calculated to banish all fear and depression, and to infuse courage and confidence into the

most sinking fainting heart! The priest was the very expression of the grace of God; his

ministry a stream of most precious consolation flowing from the loving heart of the God of

Israel to each individual warrior. His loving words were designed and fitted to gird up the

loins of the mind, and nerve the feeblest arm for fight. He assures them of the divine

presence with them. There is no question, no condition, no "if," no "but." It is an unqualified

statement. Jehovah Elohim was with them. This surely was enough. It mattered not, in the

smallest degree how many, how powerful, or how formidable were their enemies; they would

all prove to be as chaff before the whirlwind, in the presence of the Lord of hosts, the God of

the armies of Israel.

But then the officer had to be heard as well as the priest. "And the officers shall speak unto

the people; saying, What man is there that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it

let him go return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it. And what

man is he that hath planted a vineyard, and hath not yet eaten of it? let him also go and return

unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man eat of it. And what man is there that

hath betrothed a wife, hath not taken her? let him go and return unto his house, lest he die in

the battle, and another man take her. And the officers shall speak further unto the people, and

they shall say, What man is there that In fearful and fainthearted? let him go and return unto

his house, lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart. And it shall be that when the

officers have made an end of speaking unto the people, that they shall make captains of the

armies to lead the people." (vers. 5-9.)

Thus we learn that there were two things absolutely essential to all who would fight the

Lord's battles, namely, a heart thoroughly disentangled from the things of nature and of earth;

and a bold unclouded confidence in God. "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the

affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier." There is a

very material difference between being engaged in the affairs of this life, and being

entangled by them. A man might have had a house, a vineyard, and a wife, and yet have been

fit for the battle. These things were not, in themselves, a hindrance; but it was having them

under such conditions as rendered them an entanglement that unfitted a man for the conflict.

It is well to bear this in mind. We, as Christians, are called to carry on a constant spiritual

warfare. We have to fight for every inch of heavenly ground. What the Canaanites were to

Israel, the wicked spirits in the heavenlies are to us. We are not called to fight for eternal life;

we have gotten that as God's free gift, before we begin. We are not called to fight for

salvation; we are saved before we enter upon the conflict. It is most needful to know what it

is that we have to fight for, and whom we are to fight with. The object for which we fight is

make good, maintain, and carry out, practically, our heavenly position and character, in the

midst of scenes and circumstances of ordinary human life, from day to day. And then as to

our spiritual foes they are wicked spirits who, during this present time, are permitted to

occupy the heavenlies. "We wrestle not against flesh and blood"—as Israel had to do in

Canaan—"but against principalities, against powers, against the world-rulers

[kosmokravtora"] of this darkness, against wicked spirits in the heavenlies."

Now, the question is, what do we want in carrying on such a conflict as this? Must we

abandon our lawful earthly callings? Must we detach ourselves from those relationships

founded on nature and sanctioned of God? Is it needful to become an ascetic, a mystic or a

monk, in order to carry on the spiritual warfare to which We are called? By no means; indeed

for a Christian to do any one of these things would, in itself, be a proof that he had

completely mistaken his calling, or that he had, at the very outset, fallen in the battle. We are

imperatively called upon to work with our hands the thing is good, that we may have to give

to him that needeth. And not only so, but we have the ample guidance, in the pages of the

New Testament as to how we are to carry ourselves in the varied natural relationships which

God Himself has established, and to which He has affixed the seal of His approval. Hence it

is perfectly plain that earthly callings and natural relationships are, in themselves no

hindrance to our waging a successful spiritual warfare.

What then is needed by the Christian warrior? A heart thoroughly disentangled from things

earthly and natural; and an unclouded confidence in God. But how are these things to be

maintained? Hear the divine reply. "Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that

ye may be able to withstand in the evil day,"—that is the whole time from the cross to the

coming of Christ — and, having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt

about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness and your feet shod with the

Preparation of the gospel of peace! above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be

able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the

sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Praying always with all prayer and

supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for

all saints." (Eph 6.)

Reader, mark the qualification of a Christian warrior as here set forth: by the Holy Ghost. It is

not the question of a house, a vineyard or a wife, but of having the inward man governed by

"truth;" the outward conduct characterised by real practical "righteousness;" the moral habits

and ways marked by the sweet "peace" of the gospel; the whole man covered by the

impenetrable shield of "faith;" the seat of the understanding guarded by the full assurance of

"salvation; and the heart continually sustained and strengthened by persevering prayer and

supplication; and led forth in earnest intercession for all saints, and specially for the Lord's

beloved workmen and their blessed work. This is the way in which the spiritual Israel of God

are to be furnished for the warfare which they are called to wage with wicked spirits in the

heavenlies. May the Lord, in His infinite goodness, make all these things very real in our

souls' experience, and in our practical career, from day to day!

The close of our chapter contains the principles which were to govern Israel in their warfare.

They were most carefully to discriminate between the cities which were very far off from

them, and those that pertained to the seven judged nations. To the former they were, in the

first place, to make overtures of peace. With the latter, on the contrary, they were to make no

terms whatever. "When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace

unto it"—a marvellous method of fighting!—"And it shall be, if it make thee answer of

peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein shall be

tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee. And if it will make no peace with thee, but

will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it; and when the Lord thy God hath

delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof"—as expressing the positive

energy of evil—"with the edge of the sword. But the women, and the little ones, and the

cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof"—all that was capable of being

turned to account, in the service of God, and of His people- thou shalt take unto thyself; and

thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the Lord thy God hath given thee. Thus shalt

thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee, which not of the cities of these

nations."

Indiscriminate slaughter and wholesale destruction formed no part of Israel's business. If any

cities were disposed to accept the proffered terms of peace, they were to have the privilege of

becoming tributaries to the people of God; and, in reference to those cities which would

make no peace, all within their walls which could be made use of was to be reserved.

There are things in nature and things of earth which are capable of being used for God, they

are sanctified by the word of God and prayer. We are told to make to ourselves friends of the

mammon of unrighteousness, that when we fail, they may receive us into everlasting

habitations; which simply means that if this world's riches come into the Christian's hands, he

should diligently and faithfully use them in the service of Christ; he should freely distribute

them to the poor, and to all the Lord's needy workmen; in short, he should make them

available, in every right and prudent way, for the furtherance of the lord's work in every

department. In this way, the very riches which else might crumble into dust in their hands, or

prove to be as rust on their souls, shall produce precious fruit that shall serve to minister an

abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Many seem to find considerable difficulty in Luke 16: 9; but its teaching is as clear and

forcible as it is practically important. We find very similar instruction in 1 Timothy 6 "charge

them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches,

but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be

rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for

themselves a Good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal

life."* There is not a fraction which we spend, directly and simply, for Christ which will not

be before us by and-by. The thought of this, though it should not, by any means, be a motive

spring, may well encourage us to devote all we have, and all we are, to the service of our

blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

{*It may interest the reader to know that the four leading authorities agree in reading o[ntw"

instead of aijwnivou, in 1 Timothy 6: 19. Thus the passage would be, "That they may lay hold

on life in earnest" or in reality. The only real life is to live for Christ; to live in the light of

eternity; to use all we possess for the promotion of God's glory, and with an eye to the

everlasting mansions. This, and only this, is life in earnest.}

Such is the plain teaching of Luke 16 and 1 Timothy 6; let us see that we understand it. The

expression, "That they may receive you into everlasting habitations" simply means that what

is spent for Christ will be rewarded in the day that is coming. Even a cup of cold water given

in His precious Name shall have its sure reward in His everlasting kingdom. Oh! to spend and

be spent for Him!

But we muse close this section by quoting the few last lines of our chapter, in which we have

a very beautiful illustration of the way in which our God looks after the smallest matters, and

His gracious care that nothing should be lost or injured. "When thou shalt besiege a city a

long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by

forcing an axe against them; for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down

(for the tree of the field is man's life) to employ them in the siege; only the trees which thou

knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down; and thou shalt

build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee, until it be subdued." (Vers. 19,

20.)

"Let nothing be lost," is the Master's own word to us—a word which should ever he kept in

remembrance. "Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused." We should

carefully guard against all reckless waste of ought that can be made available for human use.

Those who occupy the place of domestic servants should give their special attention to this

matter. It is painful, at times, to witness the sinful waste of human food. Many a thing is

flung out as offal which might supply a welcome meal for a needy family. If a Christian

servant should read these lines, we would earnestly entreat him or her to weigh this subject in

the divine presence, and never to practise or sanction the waste of the smallest atom that is

capable of being turned to account for human use. We may depend upon it that to waste any

creature of God is displeasing in His sight. Let us remember that His eye is upon us; and may

it be our earnest desire to be agreeable to Him in all our ways.

Deuteronomy 21.

"If one be found slain in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it, lying in

the field, and it be not known who hath slain him; then thy elders and thy judges"—the

guardians of the claims of truth and righteousness—" shall come forth, and they shall

measure unto the cities that are round about him that is slain; and it shall be, that the city

which is next unto the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take an heifer, which hath

not been wrought with, and which hath not drawn in the yoke; and the elders of that city shall

bring down the heifer unto a rough valley which is neither eared nor sown and shall strike off

the heifer's neck there in the valley. And the priests the sons of Levi—exponents of grace and

mercy—"shall come near; for them the Lord thy God hath chosen to minister unto him, and

to bless in the name of the Lord, and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke

be tried"—blessed, comforting fact!—"And all the elders of that city, that are next unto the

slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley; and they shall

answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. Be

merciful, O Lord, unto thy people Israel whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent

blood to thy people of Israel's charge. And the blood shall be forgiven them. So shalt thou put

away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do that which is right in

the sight of the Lord." (Vers. 1-9.)

A very interesting and suggestive passage of holy scripture now lies open before us, and

claims our attention. A sin is committed, a man is found slain in the land; but no one knows

ought about it, no one can tell whether it is murder or manslaughter, or who committed the

deed. It lies entirely beyond the range of human knowledge. And yet, there it is, an

undeniable fact. Sin has been committed, and it lies as a stain on the Lord's land, and man is

wholly incompetent to deal with it.

What then is to be done? The glory of God and the purity of His land must be maintained. He

knows all about it, and He alone can deal with it; and truly His mode of dealing with it is full

of most precious teaching.

First of all, the elders and judges appear on the scene. The claims of truth and righteousness

must be duly attended to; justice and judgement must be perfectly maintained. This is a great

cardinal truth running all through the word of God. Sin must be judged, ere sins can be

forgiven, or the sinner justified. Ere mercy's heavenly voice can be heard, justice must be

perfectly satisfied, the throne of God vindicated, and His Name glorified. grace must reign

through righteousness. Blessed be God that it is so! What a glorious truth for all who have

taken their true place as sinners! God has been glorified as to the question of sin, and

therefore He can, in perfect righteousness, pardon and justify the sinner.

But we must confine ourselves simply to the interpretation of the passage before us; and, in

so doing, we shall find in it a very wonderful onlook into Israel's future. True, the great

foundation truth of atonement is presented; but it is with special reference to Israel. The

death of Christ is here seen in its two grand aspects, namely, as the expression of Man's guilt,

and the display of God's grace, the former we have in the man found slain in the field; the

latter in the heifer slain in the rough valley. The elders and the judges find out the city nearest

to the slain man; and nothing can avail for that city save the blood of a spotless victim—the

blood of the One who was slain at the guilty city of Jerusalem.

The reader will note, with much interest, that the moment the claims of justice were met by

the death of the victim, a new element is introduced into the scene. "The priests the sons of

Levi shall come near." This is grace acting on the blessed ground of righteousness. The

priests are the channels of grace, as the judges are the guardians of righteousness. How

perfect, how beautiful is scripture, in every page, every paragraph, every sentence! It was not

until the blood was shed that the ministers of grace could present themselves. The heifer

beheaded in the valley changed the aspect of things completely "The priests the sons of Levi

shall come near; for them the Lord thy God hath chosen to minister unto him, and to bless in

the name of the Lord; and by their word"—blessed fact for Israel! blessed fact for every true

believer!—"shall every controversy and every stroke be tried." All is to be settled on the

glorious and eternal principle of grace reigning through righteousness.

Thus it is that God will deal with Israel by-and-by. We must not attempt to interfere with the

primary application of all those striking institutions which come under our notice in this

profound and marvellous book of Deuteronomy. No doubt, there are lessons for us—precious

lessons; but we may rest perfectly assured that the true way in which to understand and

appreciate those lessons is to see their true and proper bearing. For instance, how precious,

how full of consolation, the fact that it is by the word of the minister of grace that every

controversy and every stroke is to be tried, for repentant Israel by-and-by, and for every

repentant soul now! Do we lose ought of the deep blessedness of this by seeing and owning

the proper application of the scripture? Assuredly not; so far from this, the true secret of

profiting by any special passage of the word of God is to understand its true scope and

bearing.

"And all the elders of that city that are next unto the slain man, shall wash their hands over

the heifer that is beheaded in the valley."* "I will wash my hands in innocency; and so will I

compass thine altar." The true place to wash the hands is where the blood of atonement has

for ever expiated our guilt. "And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this

blood, neither have our eyes seen it. Be merciful, O Lord, unto thy people Israel, whom thou

hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel's charge. and the blood

shall be forgiven them."

{*How full of suggestive power is the figure of "the rough valley! " How aptly it sets forth

what this world at large, and the land of Israel in particular, was to our blessed Lord and

Saviour! Truly it was a rough place to Him, a place of humiliation, a dry and thirsty land a

place that had never been eared or sown. But, all homage to His Name! by His death in this

rough valley, He has procured for this earth and for the land of Israel a rich harvest of

blessing which shall be reaped throughout the millennial age to the full praise of redeeming

love. And even now, He from the throne of heaven's majesty, and we, in spirit with Him, can

look back to that rough valley as the place where the blessed work was done which forms the

imperishable foundation of God's glory, the church's blessing, Israel's full restoration, the joy

of countless nations, and the glorious deliverance of this groaning creation.}

"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." "Unto you, first, God having raised

up his Son Jesus sent him to bless you, by turning away every one of you from his iniquities."

Thus all Israel shall be saved and blessed by-and-by, according to the eternal counsels of

God, and in pursuance of His promise and oath to Abraham, ratified and eternally established

by the precious blood of Christ, to whom be all homage and praise, world without end!

Verses 10-17 bear, in a very special way, upon Israel's relationship to Jehovah. We shall not

dwell upon it here. The reader will find numerous references to this subject, throughout the

pages of the prophets, in which the Holy Ghost makes the most touching appeals to the

conscience of the nation—appeals grounded on the marvellous fact of the relationship into

which He had brought them to Himself, but in which they had so signally and grievously

failed. Israel has proved an unfaithful wife, and, in consequence thereof, has been set aside.

But the time will come when this long rejected but never forgotten people shall not only be

reinstated but brought into a condition of blessedness, privilege and glory beyond anything

ever known in the past.

This must never, for a moment, be lost sight of or interfered with. It runs like a brilliant

golden line through the prophetic scriptures from Isaiah to Malachi; and the lovely theme is

resumed and carried on in the New Testament. Take the following glowing passage, which is

only one of a hundred. "For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I

will not rest, until the righteousness thereof Go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof

as a lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory;

and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. Thou shalt

also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.

Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate;

but thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah [My delight is in her], and thy land Beulah [married]; for

the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. For as a young man marrieth a

virgin, so shall thy Sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall

thy God rejoice over thee. I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall

never hold their peace day nor night; ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and

give him no rest, till he establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. The Lord

hath sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength"—let men beware how they

meddle with this!—"Surely I will no more give thy corn to be meat for thine enemies; and the

sons of the stranger shall not drink thy wine, for the which thou hast laboured; but they that

have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the Lord; and they that have brought it together shall

drink it in the court of my holiness.... Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the

world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is

with him, and his work before him. And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed

of the Lord; and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken." (Isa. 62)

To attempt to alienate this sublime and glorious passage from its proper object, and apply it

to the Christian church, either on earth or in heaven, is to do positive violence to the word of

God, and introduce a system of interpretation utterly destructive of the integrity of holy

scripture. The passage which we have just transcribed with intense spiritual delight, applies

only to the literal Zion, the: literal Jerusalem, the literal land of Israel. Let the reader see that

he thoroughly seizes and faithfully holds fast this fact.

As to the church, her position on earth is that of an espoused virgin, not of a married wife.

Her marriage will take place in heaven. (Rev. 19: 7, 8) To apply to her such passages as the

above is to falsify her position entirely, and deny the plainest statements of scripture as to her

calling, her portion, and her hope, which are purely heavenly.

Verses 18-21 of our chapter record the case of "a stubborn and rebellious son." Here again we

have Israel viewed from another standpoint. It is the apostate generation for which there is no

forgiveness. "If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of

his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not

hearken unto them; then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out

unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; and they shall say unto the elders of

his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton

and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die; so shalt

thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear and fear.

The reader may, with much interest, contrast the solemn action of law and government, in the

case of the rebellious son, with the lovely and familiar parable of the prodigal son, in Luke

15. Our space does not admit of our dwelling upon it here, much as we should delight to do

so. It is marvellous to think that it is the same God who speaks and acts in Deuteronomy 21

and in Luke 15. But oh! how different the action! how different the style! Under the law, the

father is called upon to lay hold of his son, and bring him forth to be stoned. Under grace, the

father runs to meet the returning son; falls on his neck and kisses him; clothes him in the best

robe, puts a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; has the fatted calf killed for him; seats

him at the table with himself, and makes the house ring with the joy that fills his own heart at

getting back the poor wandering spendthrift.

Striking contrast! In Deuteronomy we see the hand of God, in righteous government,

executing judgement upon the rebellious. In Luke 15 we see the heart of God pouring itself

out, in soul-subduing tenderness, upon the poor repentant one, giving him the sweet

assurance that it is His own deep joy to get back His lost one. The persistent rebel meets the

stone of judgement; the returning penitent meets the kiss of love.

But we must close this section by calling the reader's attention to the last verse of our chapter.

It is referred to in a very remarkable way by the inspired apostle, in Galatians 3 "Christ hath

redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is

every one that hangeth on a tree."

This reference is full of interest and value, not only because it presents to us the precious

grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in making Himself a curse for us, in order that

the blessing of Abraham might come on us poor sinners of the Gentiles; but also because it

furnishes a, very striking illustration of the way in which the Holy Spirit puts His seal upon

the writings of Moses, in general, and upon Deuteronomy. in particular. All scripture hangs

together so perfectly that if one part be touched you mar the integrity of the whole. The same

Spirit breathes in the writings of Moses, in the pages of the prophets, in the four evangelists,

in the Acts, in the apostolic epistles general and particular, and in that most profound and

precious section which closes the divine Volume. We deem it our sacred duty (as it is, most

assuredly, our high privilege) to press this weighty fact upon all with whom we come in

contact; and we would, very earnestly, entreat the reader to give it his earnest attention, to

hold it fast and bear a steady testimony to it, in this day of carnal laxity, cold indifference and

positive hostility.

Deuteronomy 22-25.

The portion of our book on which we now enter, though not calling for elaborate exposition,

yet teaches us two very important practical lessons In the first place, many of the institutions

and ordinances here set forth prove and illustrate, in a most striking way, the terrible

depravity of the human heart. They show us, with unmistakable distinctness, what man is

capable of doing, if left to himself. We must ever remember, as we read some of the

paragraphs of this section of Deuteronomy, that God the Holy Ghost has indicted them. We,

in our fancied wisdom, may feel disposed to ask why such passages were ever penned? Can it

be possible that they are actually inspired by the Holy Ghost? and of what possible value can

they be to us? If they were written for our learning, then what are we to learn from them?

Our reply to all these questions is, at once, simple and direct; and it is this, the very passages

which we might least expect to and on the page of inspiration teach us, in their own peculiar

way, the moral material of which we are made, and the moral depths into which we are

capable of plunging. And is not this of great moment? Is it not well to have a faithful mirror

held up before our eyes in which we may see every moral trait, feature and lineament

perfectly reflected? Unquestionably. We hear a great deal about the dignity of human nature,

and very many find it exceedingly hard to admit that they are really capable of committing

some of the sins prohibited in the section before us, and in other portions of the divine

Volume. But we may rest assured that when God commands us not to commit this or that

particular sin, we are verily capable of committing it. This is beyond all question. Divine

wisdom would never erect a dam if there was not a current to be resisted. There would be no

necessity to tell an angel not to steal; but man has theft in his nature, and hence the command

applies to him. And just so in reference to every other prohibited thing; the prohibition

proves the tendency—proves it beyond all question. We must either admit this or imply the

positive blasphemy that God has spoken in vain.

But then it may be said; and is said by many, that while some very terrible samples of fallen

humanity are capable of committing some of the abominable sins prohibited in scripture, yet

all are not so. This is a most thorough mistake. Hear what the Holy Ghost says, in the

seventeenth chapter of the prophet Jeremiah. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and

desperately wicked." Whose heart is he speaking of? Is it the heart of some atrocious

criminal, or of some untutored savage? Nay; it is the human heart, the heart of the writer and

of the reader of these lines.

Hear also what our Lord Jesus Christ says on this subject. "Out of the heart proceed evil

thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." Out of what

heart? Is it the heart of some hideously depraved and abominable wretch wholly unfit to

appear in decent society? Nay; it is out of the human heart the heart of the writer and of the

reader of these lines.

Let us never forget this; it is a wholesome truth for every one of us. We all need to bear in

mind that if God were to withdraw His sustaining grace, for one moment, there is no depth of

iniquity into which we are not capable of plunging; indeed, we may add—and we do it with

deep thankfulness it is His own gracious hand that preserves us, each moment, from

becoming a complete wreck, in every way, physically, mentally, morally, spiritually, and in

our circumstances. May we keep this ever in the remembrance of the thoughts of our hearts,

so that we may walk humbly and watchfully, and lean upon that arm which alone can sustain

and preserve us!

But, we have said, there is another valuable lesson furnished by this section of our book

which now lies open before us. It teaches us, in a manner peculiar to itself, the marvellous

way in which God provided for everything connected with His people. Nothing escaped His

gracious notice; nothing was too trivial for His tender care. No mother could be more careful

of the habits and manners of her little child, than the Almighty Creator and moral Governor

of the universe was of the most minute details connected with the daily history of His people.

By day and by night, waking and sleeping at home and abroad, He looked after them. Their

clothing, their food, their manners and ways toward one another, how they were to build their

houses, how they were to plough and sow their ground, how they were to carry themselves in

the deepest privacy of their personal life—all was attended to and provided for in a manner

that fills us with wonder, love and praise. We may here see, in a most striking way, that there

is nothing too small for our God to take notice of when His people are concerned. He takes a

loving, tender, fatherly interest in their most minute concerns. We are amazed to find the

Most High God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, the Sustainer of the vast universe,

condescending to legislate about the matter of a bird's nest; and yet why should we be

amazed when we know that it is just the same to Him to provide for a sparrow as to feed a

thousand millions of people daily?

But there was one grand fact which was ever to be kept prominently before each member of

the congregation of Israel, namely, the divine presence in their midst. This fact was to govern

their most private habits, and give character to all their ways. "The Lord thy God walketh in

the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up, thine enemies before thee; therefore

shall thy camp be holy; that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee." (Deut.

23: 14.)

What a precious privilege to have Jehovah walking in their midst! What a motive for purity

of conduct, and refined delicacy in their persons and domestic habits! If He was in their

midst to secure victory over their enemies, He was also there to demand holiness of life.

They were never, for one moment, to forget the august Person who walked up and down in

their midst. Would the thought of this be irksome to any? Only to such as did not love

holiness, purity and moral order. Every true Israelite would delight in the thought of having

One dwelling in their midst who could not endure ought that was unholy, unseemly or

impure.

The Christian reader will be at no loss to seize the moral force and application of this holy

principle. It is our privilege to have God the Spirit dwelling in us, individually and

collectively. Thus we read, in 1 Corinthians 6: 19, "What! know ye not that your body is the

temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?"

This is individual. Each believer is a temple of the Holy Ghost, and this most glorious and

precious truth is the ground of the exhortation given in Ephesians 4: 30, "Grieve not the holy

Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption."

How very important to keep this ever in the remembrance of the thoughts of our hearts! What

a mighty moral motive for the diligent cultivation of purity of heart, and holiness of life!

When tempted to indulge in any wrong current of thought or feeling, any unworthy manner of

speech, any unseemly line of conduct, what a powerful corrective would be found in the

realisation of the blessed fact that the Holy Spirit dwells in our body as in His temple! If only

we could keep this ever before us it would preserve us from many a wandering thought, many

an unguarded and foolish utterance, many an unbecoming act.

But, not only does the Holy Spirit dwell in each individual believer, He also dwells in the

church collectively. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God

dwelleth in you?" (1 Cor. 3: 16.) It is upon this fact that the apostle grounds his exhortation

in 1 Thess 5: 19 "Quench not the Spirit." How divinely perfect is scripture! How blessedly it

hangs together! The Holy Ghost dwells in us individually; hence we are not to grieve Him.

He dwells in the assembly, hence we are not to quench Him, but give Him His right place,

and allow full scope for His blessed operations. May these great practical truths find a deep

place in our hearts, and exerts more powerful influence over our ways both in private life and

in the public assembly!

We shall now proceed to quote a few passages from the section of our book which now lies

open before us strikingly illustrative of the wisdom, goodness, tenderness, holiness and

righteousness which marked all the dealings of God with His people of old. Take, for

example, the very opening paragraph. "Thou shalt not see thy brother's ox or his sheep go

astray, and hide thyself from them; thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy brother.

And if thy brother be not nigh unto thee, or if thou know him not, then thou shalt bring it

unto thine own house, and it shall be with thee until thy brother seek after it, and thou shalt

restore it to him again. In like manner shalt thou do with his ass; and so shalt thou do with his

raiment; and with all lost thing of thy brother's, which he hath lost, and thou hast found shalt

thou do likewise; thou mayest not hide thyself. Thou shalt not see thy brother's ass or his ox

fall down by the way, and hide thyself from them; thou shalt surely help him to lift them up

again" (Deut. 22: 1-4)

Here the two lessons of which we have spoken are, very distinctly, presented. What a deeply

humbling picture of the human heart have we in that one sentence, "Thou mayest not hide

thyself!" We are capable of the base and detestable selfishness of hiding ourselves from our

brother's claims upon our sympathy and succour—of shirking the holy duty of looking after

his interests—of pretending not to see his real need of our aid. Such is man! Such is the

writer!

But oh! how blessedly the character of our God shines out in this passage! The brother's ox,

or his sheep, or his ass was not—to use a modern phrase—to be thrust into pound, for

trespass; it was to be brought home, cared for, and restored, safe and sound, to the owner

without charge for damage. And so with the raiment. How lovely is all this! How it breathes

upon us the very air of the divine presence, the fragrant atmosphere of divine goodness,

tenderness and thoughtful love! What a high and holy privilege for any people to have their

conduct governed and their character formed by such exquisite statutes and judgements!

Again, take the following passage so beautifully illustrative of divine thoughtfulness: "When

thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not

blood upon thine house, if any man fall from thence." The Lord would have His people

thoughtful and considerate of others; and hence, in building their houses, they were not

merely to think of themselves, and their convenience, but also of others and their safety.

Cannot Christians learn something from this? How prone we are to think only of ourselves,

our own interests, our own comfort and convenience! How rarely it happens that, in the

building or furnishing of our houses, we bestow a thought upon other people! We build and

furnish for ourselves; alas! self is too much our object and motive spring in all our

undertakings; nor can it be otherwise unless the heart be kept under the governing power of

those motives and objects which belong to Christianity. We must live in the pure and

heavenly atmosphere of the new creation, in order to get above and beyond the base

selfishness which characterizes fallen humanity. Every unconverted man woman and child on

the face of the earth is governed simply by self, in some shape or another. Self is the centre,

the object, the motive-spring of every action.

True, some are more amiable, more affectionate, more benevolent, more unselfish, more

disinterested, more agreeable than others; but it is utterly impossible that "the natural man"

can be governed by spiritual motives, or an earthly man be animated by heavenly objects.

Alas! We have to confess, with shame and sorrow, that we who profess to be heavenly and

spiritual are so prone to live for ourselves, to seek our own things, to maintain our own

interests, to consult our own ease and convenience. We are all alive and on the alert when

self, in any shape or form, is concerned.

All this is most sad and deeply humbling. It really ought not to be, and it would not be if we

were looking more simply and earnestly to Christ as our great Exemplar and model in all

things. Earnest and constant occupation of heart with Christ is the true secret of all practical

Christianity. It is not rules and regulations that will ever make us Christ-like in our spirit,

manner and ways. We must drink into His spirit, walk in His footsteps, dwell more

profoundly upon His moral glories, and then we shall, of blessed necessity, be conformed to

His image. "We all with open face beholding as in a glass [or mirror katoptrizovmenoi.] the

glory, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the, Spirit of the

Lord." (2 Cor. 3.)

We must now ask the reader to turn, for a moment, to the following very important practical

instructions—full of suggestive power for all Christian workers "Thou shalt not sow thy

vineyard with divers seeds, lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy

vineyard be defiled." (Deut. 22: 9.)

What a weighty principle is here! Do we really understand it? Do we see its true spiritual

application? It is to be feared there is a terrible amount of "mingled seed" used in the so-

called spiritual husbandry of the present day. How much of "philosophy and vain deceit.,"

how much of "science falsely so called," how much of "the rudiments of the world" do we

find mixed up in the teaching and preaching throughout the length and breadth of the

professing church! How little of the pure, unadulterated seed of the word of God, the

"incorruptible seed" of the precious gospel of Christ, is scattered broadcast over the field of

Christendom, in this our day! How few, comparatively, are content to confine themselves

within the covers of the Bible for the material of their ministry! Those who are, by the grace

of God faithful enough to do so, are looked upon as men of one idea, men of the old school,

narrow and behind the times.

Well, we can only say, with a full and glowing heart, God bless the men of one idea, men of

the precious old school of apostolic preaching! Most heartily do we congratulate them on

their blessed narrowness, and their being behind these dark and infidel times. We are fully

aware of what we expose ourselves to in thus writing; but this does not move us. We are

persuaded that every true servant of Christ must be a man of one idea, and that idea is Christ;

he must belong to the very oldest school, the school of Christ; he must be as narrow as the

truth of God; and he must, with stern decision, refuse to move one hair's breadth in the

direction of this infidel age. We cannot shake off the conviction that the effort on the part of

the preachers and teachers of Christendom to keep abreast of the literature of the day must, to

a very large extent, account for the rapid advance of rationalism and infidelity. They have got

away from the holy scriptures, and sought to adorn their ministry by the resources of

philosophy, science and literature. They have catered more for the intellect than for the heart

and conscience. The pure and precious doctrines of holy scripture, the sincere milk of the

word, the gospel of the grace of God and of the glory of Christ, were found insufficient to

attract and keep together large congregations. As Israel of old despised the manna, got tired

of it, and pronounced it light food, so the professing church grew weary of the pure doctrines

of that glorious Christianity unfolded in the pages of the New Testament, and sighed for

something to gratify the intellect, and feed the imagination. The doctrines of the cross, in

which the blessed apostle gloried, have lost their charm for the professing church, and any

who would be faithful enough to adhere and confine themselves in their ministry to those

doctrines might abandon all thought of popularity.

But let all the true and faithful ministers of Christ, all true workers in His vineyard apply

their hearts to the spiritual principle set forth in Deuteronomy 22: 9; let them, with

unflinching decision, refuse to make use of "divers seeds" in their spiritual husbandry; let

them confine themselves in their ministry to "the form of sound words," and ever seek

"rightly to divide the word of truth," that so: they may not be ashamed of their work, but

receive a full reward in that day when every man's work shall be tried of what sort it is. We

may depend upon it, the word of God—the pure seed—is the only proper material for the

spiritual workman to use. We do not despise learning; far from it, we consider it most

valuable in its right place. The facts of science, too, and the resources of sound philosophy

may all be turned to profitable account in unfolding and illustrating the truth of holy

scripture. We find the blessed Master Himself and His inspired apostles making use of the

facts of history and of nature in their public teaching; and who in his sober senses, would

think of calling in question the value and importance of a competent knowledge of the

original languages of Hebrew and Greek, in the private study and public exposition of the

word of God?

But admitting all this, as we most fully do, it leaves wholly untouched the great practical

principle before us-a principle to which all the Lord's people and His servants are bound to

adhere, namely, that the Holy Ghost is the only power, and holy scripture the only material

for all true ministry in the gospel and the church of God. If this were more fully understood

and faithfully acted upon, we should witness a very different condition of things throughout

the length and breadth of the vineyard of Christ.

Here, however, we must close this section. We have elsewhere sought to handle the subject

of "The Unequal Yoke," and shall not therefore dwell upon it here.* The Israelite was not to

plow with an ox and an ass together; neither was he to wear a, garment of divers sorts, as of

woollen and linen. The spiritual application of both these things is as simple as it is

important. The Christian is not to link himself with an unbeliever, for any object whatsoever,

be it domestic, religious, philanthropic, or commercial, neither must he allow himself to be

governed by mixed principles. His character must be formed and his conduct ruled by the

pure and lofty principles of the word of God. Thus may it be with all who profess and call

themselves Christians.

{*See a pamphlet entitled, "The Unequal Yoke."}

Deuteronomy 26.

"And it shall be, when thou shalt come in unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee

for an inheritance, and possessest it, and dwellest therein; that thou shalt take of the first of

all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the Lord thy God giveth thee,

and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose

to place his name there"—not to a place of their own or others' choosing—"And thou shalt go

unto the priest that shall be in those days, and say unto him, I profess this day unto the Lord

thy God, that I am come unto the country which the Lord sware unto our fathers for to give

us. And the priest shall take the basket out of thine hand and set it down before the altar of

the Lord thy God." (Vers. 1-4.)

The chapter on which we now enter contains the lovely ordinance of the basket of firstfruits

in which we shall find some principles of the deepest interest, and practical importance. It

was when the hand of Jehovah had conducted His people into the land of promise, that the

fruits of that land could be presented. It was, obviously, necessary to be in Canaan, ere

Canaan's fruits could be offered in worship. The worshipper was able to say, "I profess this

day unto the Lord thy God, that I am come unto the country which the Lord sware unto our

fathers for to give us."

Here lay the root of the matter. "I am come." He does not say, "I am coming, hoping to come,

or longing to come." No; but, "I am come." Thus it must ever be. We must know ourselves

saved, ere we can offer the fruits of a known salvation. We may be most sincere in our

desires after salvation, most earnest in our efforts to obtain it. But then we cannot but see that

efforts to be saved, and the fruits of a known and enjoyed salvation are wholly different. The

Israelite did not offer the basket of firstfruits in order to get into the land, but because he was

actually in it. "I profess this day, that I am come." "There is no mistake about it, no question,

no doubt, not even a hope. I am actually in the land, and here is the fruit of it."

"And thou shalt speak, and say before the Lord thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my

father; and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a

nation, great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and

laid upon us hard bondage. And when we cried unto the Lord God of our fathers, the Lord

heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labour, and our oppression. And the

Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and

with great terribleness, and with signs and with wonders; and he hath brought us into this

place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey. And now,

behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O Lord, hast given me. And

thou shalt set it before the Lord thy God, and worship before the Lord thy God. And thou

shalt rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thine

house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you."

This is a very beautiful illustration of worship. "A Syrian ready to perish." Such was the

origin. There is nothing to boast of, so far as nature is concerned. And as to the condition in

which grace had found them; what of it? Hard bondage in the land of Egypt. Toiling amid the

brick kilns, beneath the cruel lash of Pharaoh's taskmasters. But then, "We cried unto

Jehovah." Here was their sure and blessed resource. It was all they could do; but it was

enough. That cry of helplessness went directly up to the throne and to the heart of God, and

brought Him down into the very midst of the brick kilns of Egypt. Hear Jehovah's gracious

words to Moses, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have

heard their cry, by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; and I am come down

to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a

good land, and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.... Now therefore, behold,

the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me; and I have also seen the oppression

wherewith the Egyptians oppress them." (Ex. 3: 7-9.)

Such was the immediate response of Jehovah to the cry of His people. "I am come down to

deliver them." Yes; blessed be His Name, He came down, in the exercise of His own free and

sovereign grace, to deliver His people; and no power of men or devils, earth or hell, could

hold them for one moment beyond the appointed time. Hence, in our chapter, we have the

grand result as set forth in the language of the worshipper, and in the contents of his basket. I

am come unto the country which the Lord sware unto our fathers for to give us.... And now,

behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land which thou, O Lord, hast given me." The

Lord had accomplished all, according to the love of His heart, and the faithfulness of His

word. Not one jot or tittle had failed. "I am come." And "I have brought the fruit." The fruit

of what? Of Egypt? Nay; but "of the land which thou, O Lord, hast given me." The

worshipper's lips proclaimed the completeness of Jehovah's work. The worshipper's basket

contained the fruit of Jehovah's land. Nothing could be simpler, nothing more real. There was

no room for a doubt, no ground for a question. He had simply to declare Jehovah's work and

show the fruit. It was all of God from first to last. He had brought them out of Egypt, and He

had brought them into Canaan. He had filled their baskets with the mellow fruits of His land,

and their hearts with His Praise.

And now, beloved reader, let us just ask you, do you think it was presumption on the part of

the Israelite to speak as he did? Was it right, was it modest, was it humble of him to say "I am

come"? Would it have been more becoming in him merely to give expression to the faint

hope that, at some future period, he might come? Would doubt and hesitation, as to his

position and his portion, have been more honouring and gratifying to the God of Israel? What

say you? It may be that, anticipating our argument, you are ready to say, "There is no

analogy." Why not? If an Israelite could say, "I am come unto the country which the Lord

sware unto our fathers for to give us," why cannot the believer now say, "I am come unto

Jesus"? True, in the one case, it was sight; in the other, it is faith. But is the latter less real

than the former? Does not the inspired apostle say to the Hebrews, "Ye are come unto mount

Zion"? And again, "We receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace

whereby we may serve God with reverence and godly fear." If we are in doubt as to whether

we have "come" or not, and as to whether we have "received the kingdom" or not, it is

impossible to worship in truth, or serve with acceptance. It is when we are in intelligent and

peaceful possession of the place and portion in Christ, that true worship can ascend to the

throne above, and effective service be rendered in the vineyard below.

For what, let us ask, is true worship? It is simply telling out, in the presence of God, what He

is, and what He has done. It is the heart occupied with, and delighting in God and in all His

marvellous actings and ways. Now, if we have no knowledge of God, and no faith in what He

has done, how can we worship Him? "He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that

he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." But, then, to know God is life eternal. I

cannot worship God if I do not know Him; and I cannot know Him without having eternal

life. The Athenians had erected an altar "to the unknown God," and Paul told them that they

were worshipping in ignorance, and proceeded to declare unto them the true God as revealed

in the Person and work of the Man Christ Jesus.

It is deeply important to be clear as to this. I must know God ere I can worship Him. I may

"feel after him, if haply I may find him;" but feeling after One whom I have not found, and

worshipping and delighting in One whom I have found, are two totally different things. God

has revealed Himself, blessed be His Name! He has given us the light of the knowledge of

His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. He has come near to us in the Person of that blessed

One, so that we may know Him, love Him, trust in Him, delight in Him, and use Him, in all

our weakness and in all our need. We have no longer to grope for Him amid the darkness of

nature, nor yet among the clouds and mists of spurious religion, in its ten thousand forms.

No; our God has made Himself known by a revelation so plain that the wayfaring man,

though a fool in all beside, may not err therein. The Christian can say, "I know whom I have

believed." This is the basis of all true worship. There may be a vast amount of fleshly

pietism, mechanical religion, and ceremonial routine, without a single atom of true spiritual

worship. This latter can only flow from the knowledge of God.

But our object is not to write a treatise on worship, but simply to unfold to our readers the

instructive and beautiful ordinance of the basket of firstfruits And having shown that worship

was the first thing with an Israelite who found himself in possession of the land—and,

further, that we, now, must know our place and privilege in Christ before we can truthfully

and intelligently worship the Father—we shall proceed to point out another very important

practical result illustrated in our chapter, namely, active benevolence.

"When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase the third year, which is

the year of tithing, and hast given it unto the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless and the

widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled; then thou shalt say before the Lord

thy God, I have brought away the hallowed things out of mine house, and also have given

them unto the Levite, and unto the stranger, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to

all thy commandments, which thou hast commanded me; I have not transgressed thy

commandments, neither have I forgotten them." (Vers. 12, 13.)

Nothing can be more beautiful than the moral order of these things. It is precisely similar to

what we have in Hebrews 13. "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God

continually, that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name." Here is the worship. "But

to do good and communicate, forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." Here

is the active benevolence. Putting both together, we have what we may call the upper and the

nether side of the Christian's character—praising God and doing good to men. Precious

characteristics! May we exhibit them more faithfully! One thing is certain, they will always

go together. Show us a man whose heart is full of praise to God, and we will show you one

whose heart is open to every form of human need. He may not be rich in this world's goods.

He may be obliged to say, like one of old who was not ashamed to say it, "Silver and gold

have I none, but he will have the tear of sympathy, the kindly look, the soothing word, and

these things tell far more powerfully upon a sensitive heart than the opening of the purse-

strings, and the jingling of silver and gold. Our adorable Lord and Master, our Great

Exemplar, "went about doing good;" but we never read of His giving money to any one;

indeed, we are warranted in believing that the Blessed One never possessed a penny. When

He wanted to answer the Herodians on the subject of paying tribute to Caesar, He had to ask

them to show Him a penny; and when asked to pay tribute, He sent Peter to the sea to get it.

He never carried money; and, most assuredly, money is not named in the category of gifts

bestowed by Him upon His servants. Still He went about doing good, and we are to do the

same, in our little measure; it is, at once, our high privilege and our bounden duty to do so.

And let the reader mark the divine order laid down in Hebrews 13 and illustrated in

Deuteronomy 26. Worship gets the first, the highest place. Let us never forget this. We, in

our wisdom or our sentimentality, might imagine that doing good to men, usefulness,

philanthropy is the highest thing. But it is not so. "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me." God

inhabits the praises of His people. He delights to surround Himself with hearts filled to

overflowing with a sense of His goodness, His greatness and His glory. Hence, we are to offer

the sacrifice of praise to God "continually." So also the Psalmist says, "I will bless the Lord at

all times, his praise shall continually be in my mouth." It is not merely now and then, or when

all is bright and cheery around us, when everything goes on smoothly and prosperously; no,

but "at all times"—"continually" The stream of thanksgiving is to flow uninterruptedly. There

is no interval for murmuring or complaining, fretfulness or dissatisfaction, gloom or

despondency. Praise and thanksgiving are to be our continual occupation. We are ever to

cultivate the spirit of worship. Every breath, as it were, ought to be a hallelujah. Thus it shall

be, by-and-by. Praise will he our happy and holy service while eternity rolls along its course

of golden ages. When we shall have no further call to "communicate," no demand on our

resources or our sympathies, when we shall have bid an eternal adieu to this scene of sorrow

and need, death and desolation, then shall we praise our God, for evermore, without let or

interruption, in the sanctuary of His own blessed presence above.

"But to do good and to communicate, forget not." There is singular interest attaching to the

mode in which this is put. He does not say, "But to offer the sacrifice of praise, forget not."

No; but lest, in the full and happy enjoyment of our own place and portion in Christ, we

should "forget" that we are passing through a scene of want and misery, trial and pressure, the

apostle adds the salutary and much needed admonition as to doing good and communicating.

The spiritual Israelite is not only to rejoice in every good thing which the Lord his God has

bestowed upon him, but he is also to remember the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and

the widow—that is, the one who has no earthly portion and is thoroughly devoted to the

Lord's work; and the one who has no home, the one who has no natural protector, and the one

who has no earthly stay. It must ever be thus. The rich tide of grace rolls down from the

bosom of God, fills our hearts to overflowing, and, in its overflow, refreshes and gladdens

our whole sphere of action. If we were only living in the enjoyment of what is ours in God,

our every movement, our every act, our every word, yea, our every look would do good. The.

Christian, according to the divine idea, is one who stands, with one hand lifted up to God, in

the presentation of the sacrifice of praise, and the other hand filled with the fragrant fruits of

genuine benevolence to meet every form of human need.

O beloved reader, let us deeply ponder these things. Let us really apply our whole hearts to

the earnest consideration of them. Let us seek a fuller realisation and a truer expression of

these two great branches of practical Christianity, and not be satisfied with anything less.

We shall now briefly glance at the third point in the precious chapter before us. We shall do

little more than quote the passage for the reader. The Israelite, having presented his basket,

and distributed his tithes, was further instructed to say, "I have not eaten thereof in my

mourning, neither have I taken away ought thereof for any unclean use, nor given ought

thereof for the dead; but I have hearkened to the voice of the Lord my God, and have done

according to all that thou hast commanded me. Look down from thy holy habitation, from

heaven, and bless thy people Israel, and the land which thou hast given us, as thou swarest

unto our fathers, a land that floweth with milk and honey. This day the Lord thy God hath

commanded thee to do these statutes and judgements; thou shalt therefore keep and do them,

with all thine heart and with all thy soul. Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God,

and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his

judgements, and to hearken unto his voice. And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be

his peculiar people"—that is a people of His own special possession—"as he hath promised

thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments; and to make thee high above all

nations which he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour; and that thou mayest be

an holy people unto the Lord thy God, as he hath spoken." (Vers. 14-19.)

Here we have personal holiness, practical sanctification, entire separation from everything

inconsistent with the holy place and relationship into which they had been introduced, in the

sovereign grace and mercy of God. There must be no mourning, no uncleanness, no dead

works. We have no room, no time for any such things as these; they do not belong to that

blessed sphere in which we are privileged to live and move and have our being. We have just

three things to do; we look up to God, and offer the sacrifice of praise. We look around at a

needy world, and do good. We look in upon the circle of our own being—our inner life, and

seek, by grace, to keep ourselves unspotted. "Pure religion and undefiled, before God and the

Father, is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself

unspotted from the world." (Jas. 1: 27)

Thus, whether we hearken to Moses, in Deuteronomy 26, or to Paul in Hebrews 13, or to

James in his most wholesome, needed, practical epistle, it is the same Spirit that speaks to us,

and the same grand lessons that are impressed upon us—lessons of unspeakable value and

moral importance—lessons loudly called for, in this day of easygoing profession, in the

which the doctrines of grace are taken up and held in a merely intellectual way, and

connected with all sorts of worldliness and self-indulgence.

Truly there is an urgent need of a more powerful, practical ministry amongst us. There is a

deplorable lack of the prophetic and pastoral element in our ministrations. By the Prophetic

element we mean that character of ministry that deals with the conscience and brings it into

the immediate presence of God. This is greatly needed. There is a good deal of ministry

which addresses itself to the intelligence; but sadly too little for the heart and the conscience.

The teacher speaks to the understanding; the prophet speaks to the conscience;* the pastor

speaks to the heart. We speak, of course, generally. It may so happen that the three elements

are found in the ministry of one man; but they are distinct; and we cannot but feel that where

the prophetic and Pastoral gifts are lacking in any assembly the teachers should very

earnestly wait upon the Lord for spiritual power to deal with the hearts and consciences of

His beloved people. Blessed be His Name, He has all needed gift, grace and power for His

servants. All we need is to wait on Him, in real earnestness and sincerity of heart, and He

will, most assuredly, supply us with all suited grace and moral fitness for whatever service

we may be called to render in His church.

{*Very many seem to entertain the idea that a prophet is one who foretells future events; but

it would be a mistake thus to confine the term. 1 Cor 14: 28-32 lets us into the meaning of the

words "prophet" and "prophesying." The teacher and the prophet are closely and beautifully

connected. The teacher unfolds truth from the word of God; the prophet applies it to the

conscience; and, we may add, the pastor sees how the ministry of both the one and the other

is acting on the heart and in the life.}

Oh! that all the Lord's servants may be stirred up to a more deep-toned earnestness, in every

department of His blessed work! May we be "instant in season, out of season," and in no wise

discouraged by the condition of things around us, but rather find, in the very condition, an

urgent reason for more intense devotedness.

Deuteronomy 27.

"And Moses with the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, Keep all the

commandments which I command you this day. And it shall be on the day when ye shall pass

over Jordan unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, that thou shalt set thee up

great stones, and plaster them with plaster; and thou shalt write upon them all the words of

this law, when thou art passed over, that thou mayest go in unto the land which the Lord thy

God giveth thee, a land that floweth with milk and honey; as the Lord God of thy fathers hath

promised thee. Therefore it shall be, when ye be gone over Jordan, that ye shall set up these

stones, which I command you this day, in mount Ebal, and thou shalt plaster them with

plaster. And there shalt thou build an altar unto the Lord thy God, an altar of stones: thou

shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them. Thou shalt build the altar of the Lord thy God of

whole stones; and thou shalt offer burnt offerings thereon unto the Lord thy God; and thou

shalt offer peace offerings, and shalt eat there, and rejoice before the Lord thy God. And thou

shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly. And Moses, and the priests

the Levites, spake unto all Israel, saying, Take heed, and hearken, O Israel; this day thou art

become the people of the Lord thy God Thou shalt therefore obey the voice of the Lord thy

God, and do his commandments and his statutes, which I command thee this day. And Moses

charged the people the same day, saying, These shall stand upon mount Gerazim to bless the

people, when ye are come over Jordan; Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and

Joseph, and Benjamin. And these shall stand upon mount Ebal to curse; Reuben, Gad, and

Asher, and Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali." (Vers. 1-13.)

There could not be a more striking contrast than that which is presented in the opening and

close of this chapter. In the paragraph which we have just penned, we see Israel entering

upon the land of promise—that fair and fruitful land, flowing with milk and honey, and there

erecting an altar in mount Ebal, for burnt offerings and peace offerings. We read nothing

about sin offerings or trespass offerings here. The law, in all its fullness, was to be "written

very plainly," upon the plastered stones, and the people, in full, recognised, covenant

relationship, were to offer on the altar those special offerings of sweet savour, so blessedly

expressive of worship and holy communion. The subject here is not the trespasser in act, or

the sinner in nature, approaching the brazen altar, with a trespass offering or a sin offering;

but rather a people fully delivered, accepted and blessed—a people in the actual enjoyment

of their relationship and their inheritance.

True, they were trespassers and sinners; and, as such, needed the precious provision of the

brazen altar. This, of course, is obvious, and fully understood and admitted by every one

taught of God; but it manifestly is not the subject of Deuteronomy 27: 1-13, and the spiritual

reader will, at once, perceive the reason. When we see the Israel of God, in full covenant

relationship, entering into possession of their inheritance, having the revealed will of their

covenant God Jehovah, plainly and fully written before them, and the milk and honey

flowing around them, we must conclude that all question as to trespasses and sins is

definitively settled, and that nothing remains for a people so highly privileged and so richly

blessed, but to surround the altar of their covenant God, and present those sweet savour

offering which mere acceptable to Him and suited to them.

In short, the whole scene unfolded to our view in the first half of our chapter is perfectly

beautiful. Israel having avouched Jehovah to be their God, and Jehovah having avouched

Israel to be His peculiar people, to make them high above all nations which He had made, in

praise, and in name, and in honour; and an holy people unto the Lord their God, as He had

spoken—Israel thus privileged, blessed and exalted, in full possession of the goodly land, and

having all the precious commandments of God before their eyes, what remained, but to

present the sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving, in holy worship and happy fellowship?

But, in the latter half of our chapter, we find something quite different. Moses appoints six

tribes to stand upon mount Gerazim, to bless the people; and six on mount Ebal to curse; but

alas! when we come to the actual history, the positive facts of the case, there is not a single

syllable of blessing? nothing but twelve awful curses each confirmed by a solemn "amen"

from the whole congregation.

What a sad change! What a striking contrast! It reminds us of what passed before us in our

study of Exodus 19. There could not be a more impressive commentary on the words of the

inspired apostle in Galatians 3: 10. "For as many as are of the works of the law"—as many as

are on that ground—"are under the curse: for it is; written"—and here he quotes

Deuteronomy 27—"cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in

the book of the law to do them."

Here we have the real solution of the question. Israel, as to their actual moral condition, were

on the ground of law; and hence, although the opening of our chapter presents a lovely

picture of God's thoughts respecting Israel, yet the close of it sets forth the sad and

humiliating result of Israel's real state before God. There is not a sound from mount Gerazim,

not one word of benediction; but, instead thereof, curse upon curse falls on the ears of the

people.

Nor could it possibly be otherwise. Let people contend for it as they will, nothing but a curse

can come upon "as many as are of the works of the law. It does not merely say, "as many as

fail to keep the law," though that is true; but, as if to set the truth in the very clearest and

most forcible manner before us, the Holy Ghost declares that for all, no matter who, Jew,

Gentile or nominal Christian—all who are on the ground or principle of works of law, there

is, and can be, nothing but a curse. Thus, then, the reader will be able, intelligently, to

account for the profound silence that reigned on mount Gerazim, in the day of Deuteronomy

27 The simple fact is, if one solitary benediction had been heard, it would have been a

contradiction to the entire teaching of holy scripture on the question of law.

We have so fully gone into the weighty subject of the law, in the first volume of these Notes,

that we do not feel called upon to dwell upon it here. We can only say that the more we study

scripture, and the more we ponder the law-question in the light of the New Testament, the

more amazed we are at the manner in which some persist in contending for the opinion that

Christians are under the law, whether for life, for righteousness, for holiness, or for any

object whatsoever. How can such an opinion stand for a moment in the face of that

magnificent and conclusive statement in Romans 6: "YE ARE NOT UNDER LAW, BUT

UNDER GRACE?

Deuteronomy 28.

In approaching the study of this remarkable section of our book, the reader must bear in mind

that it is by no means, to be confounded with chapter 27. Some expositors, in seeking to

account for the absence of the blessings in the latter, have sought for them here. But it is a

grand mistake—a mistake absolutely fatal to the proper understanding of either chapter. The

obvious fact is, the two chapters are wholly distinct, in basis, scope and practical application.

Chapter 27 is—to put it as pointedly and briefly as possible—moral and personal. Chapter 28

is dispensational and national. That deals with the great root principle of man's moral

condition, as a sinner utterly ruined and wholly incapable of meeting God on the ground of

law; this, on the other hand, takes up the question of Israel as a nation, under the government

of God. In short, a careful comparison of the two chapters will enable the reader to see their

entire distinctness. For instance, what connection can we trace between the six blessings of

our chapter and the twelve curses of chapter 27? None whatever. It is not possible to

establish the slightest relationship. But a child can see the moral link between the blessings

and curses of chapter 28.

Let us quote a passage or two in proof. "And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken

diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God"—the grand old Deuteronomic motto, the key

note of the book—"to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this

day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth; and all these

blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken to the voice of the Lord

thy God"—the only safeguard, the true secret of happiness, security, victory and strength—

Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the

fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy

kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou

be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out."

Is it not perfectly plain to the reader that these are not the blessings pronounced by the six

tribes on mount Gerazim? What is here presented to us is Israel's national dignity, prosperity,

and glory founded upon their diligent attention to all the commandments set before them in

this book. It was the eternal purpose of God that Israel should be pre-eminent on the earth,

high above all the nations. This purpose shall, assuredly, be made good although Israel, in the

past, have shamefully failed to render that perfect obedience which was to form the basis of

their national pre-eminence and glory.

We must never forget or surrender this great truth. Some expositors have adopted a system of

interpretation by which the covenant blessings of Israel are spiritualised and made over to the

church of God. This is a most fatal mistake. Indeed, it is hardly possible to set forth in

language, or even to conceive the pernicious effects of such a method of handling the

precious word of God. Nothing is more certain than that it is diametrically opposed to the

mind and will of God. He will not and cannot sanction such tampering with His truth, or such

an unwarrantable alienation of the blessings and privileges of His people Israel.

True, we read, in Galatians 3. "That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles

through Jesus Christ; that we might receive"—what? Blessings in the city and in the field?

Blessings in our basket and store? Nay; but "the promise of the Spirit through faith." So also

we learn, from the same epistle, in Galatians 4, that restored Israel will be permitted to

reckon amongst her children all those who are born of the Spirit, during the Christian period.

"But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice

thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not; for the desolate hath

many more children than she which hath an husband."

All this is blessedly true; but it affords no warrant whatever for transferring the promises

made to Israel to New Testament believers. God has pledged Himself, by an oath, to bless the

seed of Abraham His friend—to bless them with all earthly blessings, This promise holds

good and is absolutely inalienable. Woe be to all who attempt in the land of Canaan. to

interfere with its literal fulfilment, in God's own time. We have referred to this in our studies

on the earlier part of this book, and must now rest content with warning the reader, most

solemnly, against every system of interpretation which involves such serious consequences as

to the word and ways of God. We must ever remember that Israel's blessings are earthly; the

church's blessings are heavenly. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ."

Thus, both the nature and the sphere of the church's blessings are wholly different from those

of Israel, and must never be confounded. But the system of interpretation above referred to

does confound them, to the marring of the integrity of holy scripture, and the serious damage

of souls. To attempt to apply the promises made to Israel to the church of God, either now or

hereafter, on earth or in heaven, is to turn things completely upside down, and to produce the

most hopeless confusion in the exposition and application of scripture. we feel called upon,

in simple faithfulness to the word of God, and to the soul of the reader, to press this matter

upon his earnest attention. He may rest assured it is, by no means, an unimportant question;

so far from this, we are persuaded that it is utterly impossible for any one who confounds

Israel and the church, the earthly and the heavenly, to be a sound or accurate interpreter of

the word of God.

However, we cannot pursue this subject further here. we only trust that the Spirit of God will

arouse the heart of the reader to feel its interest and importance, and give him to see the

necessity of rightly dividing the word of truth. If this be so, our object will be fully gained.

With regard to this twenty-eighth of Deuteronomy, if the reader only seizes the fact of its

entire distinctness from its predecessor, he will be able to read it with spiritual intelligence

and real profit. There is no need whatever for elaborate exposition. It divides itself naturally

and obviously into two parts. In the first, we have a full and most blessed statement of the

results of obedience. (See verses 1-15.) In the second, we have a deeply solemn and affecting

statement of the awful consequences of disobedience. (See verses 16-68.) And we cannot but

be struck with the fact that the section continuing the curses is more than three times the

length of the one containing the blessings. That consists of fifteen verses; this of fifty-three.

The whole chapter furnishes an impressive commentary on the government of God, and a

most forcible illustration of the fact that "our God is a consuming fire." All the nations of the

earth may learn from Israel's marvellous history, that God must punish disobedience, and

that, too, first of all, in His own. And if He has not spared His own people, what shall be the

end of those who know Him not "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations

that forget God." "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." It is the very

height of extravagant folly for any one to attempt to evade the full force of such passages, or

to explain them away. It cannot be done. Let any one read the chapter before us and compare

it with the actual history of Israel, and he will see that as sure as there is a God on the throne

of the majesty in the heavens, so surely will He punish evildoers, both here and hereafter. It

cannot be otherwise. The government that could or would allow evil to go unjudged,

uncondemned, unpunished, would not be a perfect government, would not be the government

of God. It is vain to found arguments upon one-sided views of the goodness, kindness and

mercy of God. Blessed be His Name, He is kind and good and merciful and gracious, long-

suffering and full of compassion. But He is holy and just, righteous and true; and "he hath

appointed a day in the which he will judge the world [the habitable earth, oijkoumevnhn] in

righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance [given

proof, pivstin] unto all, in that he hath raised him from the dead." (Acts 17.)

However, we must draw this section to a close; but, ere doing so, we feel it to be our duty to

call the reader's attention to a very interesting point in connection with verse 13 of our

chapter. "The Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only,

and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy

God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them." This, no doubt, refers to

Israel as a nation. They are destined to be the head of all the nations of the earth. Such is the

sure and settled purpose and counsel of God respecting them. Low as they are now sunk,

scattered and lost amongst the nations, suffering the terrible consequences of their persistent

disobedience, sleeping, as we read in Daniel 12, in the dust of the earth; yet they shall, as a

nation, arise and shine in far brighter glory than that of Solomon.

All this is blessedly true, and established, beyond all question, in manifold passages in

Moses, the Psalms, the prophets and the New Testament. But, in looking: through the history

of Israel, we find some very striking instances of individuals who were permitted and

enabled, through infinite grace, to make their own of the precious promise contained in verse

13, and that too in very dark and depressing periods of the national history, when Israel, as a

nation, was the tail and not the head. We shall just give the reader an instance or two, not

only to illustrate our point, but also to set before him a principle of immense practical

importance and universal application.

Let us turn, for a moment, to that charming little book of Esther—a book so little understood

or appreciated—a book which, we may truly say, fills a niche and teaches a lesson which no

other book does. It belongs to a period when, most assuredly, Israel was not the head, but the

tail; but, notwithstanding, it presents to our view the very edifying and encouraging picture of

an individual son of Abraham so carrying himself as to reach the very highest position, and

gaining a splendid victory over Israel's bitterest foe.

As to Israel's condition, in the days of Esther, it was such that God could not publicly own

them. Hence it is that His name is not found in the book, from beginning to end. The Gentile

was the head and Israel the tail. the relationship between Jehovah and Israel could no longer

be publicly owned; but the heart of Jehovah could never forget His people; and we may add,

the heart of a faithful Israelite could never forget Jehovah or His holy law; and these are just

the two facts that specially characterise this most interesting little book. God was acting for

Israel behind the scenes, and Mordecai was acting for God before the scenes. It is worthy of

remark that neither Israel's best Friend, nor their worst enemy, is once named in the book of

Esther; and yet the whole book is full of the actings of both. The finger of God is stamped on

every link in the marvellous chain of providence; and, on the other hand, the bitter enmity Of

Amalek come out in the cruel plot of the haughty Agagite.

All this is intensely interesting Indeed, in rising from the study of this book, we may well say,

"Oh! scenes surpassing fable and yet true." No romance could possibly exceed in interest this

simple but most blessed history. But we must not expatiate, much as we should like to do so.

time and space forbid. We merely refer to it now in order to point out to the reader the

unspeakable value and importance of individual faithfulness, at a moment when the national

glory was faded and gone. Mordecai stood like a rock for the truth of God. He refused with

stern decision, to own Amalek. He would save the life of Ahasuerus and bow to his authority

as the expression of the power of God; but he would not bow to Haman. His conduct, in this

matter, was governed simply by the word of God. The authority for his course was to be

found in this blessed book of Deuteronomy. Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the

way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt; how he met thee by the way, and smote the

hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary; and

he feared not God"—here was the true secret of the whole matter—"therefore it shall be,

when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land

which the Lord thy God giveth for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the

remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it." (Deut. 25: 17-19.)

This was distinct enough for every circumcised ear, every obedient heart, every upright

conscience. Equally distinct is the language of Exodus 17. "And the Lord said unto Moses,

write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua; for I will utterly put

out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar, and called the

name of it JEHOVAH-nissi [the Lord my banner]: for he said, Because the Lord hath sworn

that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation." (Vers. 14-16.)

Here then was Mordecai's authority for refusing a single nod of his head to the Agagite. How

could a faithful member of the house of Israel bow to a member of a house with which

Jehovah was at war? Impossible. He could clothe himself in sackcloth, fast and weep for his

people, but he could not, he would not, he dare not bow to an Amalekite. He might be

charged with presumption, blind obstinacy, stupid bigotry, and contemptible narrow-

mindedness; but with that he had nothing whatever to do. It might seem the most

unaccountable folly to withhold the common mark of respect from the highest noble in the

kingdom; but that noble was an Amalekite, and that was enough for Mordecai. The apparent

folly was simple obedience.

It is this which makes the case so interesting and important for us. Nothing can ever do away

with our responsibility to obey the word of God. It might be said to Mordecai that the

commandment as to Amalek was a bygone thing, having reference to Israel's palmy days. It

was quite right for Joshua to fight with Amalek; Saul, too, ought to have obeyed the word of

Jehovah instead of sparing Agag; but now all was changed; the glory was departed from

Israel, and it was perfectly useless to attempt to act on Exodus 17 or Deuteronomy 27.

All such arguments, we feel assured, would have no weight whatever with Mordecai. It was

enough for him that Jehovah had said, "Remember what Amalek did.... Thou shalt not forget

it." How long was this to hold good? "From generation to generation. Jehovah's war with

Amalek was never to cease until his very name and remembrance were blotted out from

under heaven. And why? Because of his cruel and heartless treatment of Israel. Such was the

kindness of God toward His people! How then could a faithful Israelite ever bow to an

Amalekite? Impossible. Could Joshua bow to Amalek? Nay. Did Samuel? Nay; "he hewed

Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal." How then could Mordecai bow to him? He could

not do it, cost what it might. It mattered not to him that the gallows was erected for him. He

could be hanged, but he could never do homage to Amalek.

And what was the result? A magnificent triumph! There stood the proud Amalekite near the

throne, basking in the sunshine of royal favour, boasting himself in his riches, his greatness,

his glory, and about to crush beneath his foot the seed of Abraham. There, on the other hand,

lay poor Mordecai in sackcloth and ashes and tears. What could he do? He could obey. He

had neither sword nor spear; but he had the word of God, and by simply obeying that word,

he gained a victory over Amalek quite as decisive and splendid in its way, as that gained by

Joshua, in Exodus 17—a victory which Saul failed to gain, though surrounded by a host of

warriors selected from the twelve tribes of Israel. Amalek sought to get Mordecai hanged; but

instead of that he was obliged to act as his footman, and conduct him in all but regal pomp

and splendour through the street of the city. "And Haman answered the king, For the man

whom the king delighteth to honour, let the royal apparel be brought which the king useth to

wear, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head:

and let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble

princes, that they may array the man withal whom the king delighteth to honour, and bring

him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be

done to the man whom the king delighteth to honour. Then the king said to Haman, Make

haste, and take the apparel and the horse, as thou hast said, and do even so to Mordecai the

Jew, that sitteth at the king's gate: let nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken. Then took

Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and brought him on horseback

through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done unto the man

whom the king delighteth to honour. And Mordecai came again to the king's gate. But Haman

hasted to his house mourning and having his head covered."

Here, assuredly Israel was the head and Amalek the tail—Israel, not nationally but

individually. But this was only the beginning of Amalek's defeat and of Israel's glory. Haman

was hanged on the very gallows he had erected for Mordecai, "And Mordecai went out from

the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold,

and with a garment of fine linen and purple: and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad."

Nor was this all. The effect of Mordecai's marvellous victory was felt far and wide over the

hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the empire. "In every province, and in every city

whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness,

a feast and a good day. And many people of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews

fell upon them." And, to crown all, we read that "Mordecai the Jew was next unto king

Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking

the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed."

Now, reader, does not all this prove to us, in the most striking manner, the immense

importance of individual faithfulness? Is it not eminently calculated to encourage us to stand

for the truth of God, cost what it may? Only see what marvellous results followed from the

actings of one man! Many might have condemned Mordecai's conduct. It might have seemed

like unaccountable obstinacy to refuse a simple mark of respect to the highest noble in the

empire. But it was not so. It was simple obedience. It was decision for God, and it led to a

most magnificent victory, the spoils of which were reaped by his brethren at the very ends of

the earth.

For further illustration of the subject suggested by Deuteronomy 28: 13, we must refer the

reader to Daniel 3 and Daniel 6 there he will see what morally glorious results can be

reached by individual faithfulness to the true God, at a moment when Israel's national glory

was gone; their city and temple in ruins. The three worthies refused to worship the golden

image. They dared to face the wrath of the king, to withstand the universal voice of the

empire, yea, to meet the fiery furnace itself, rather than disobey. They could surrender life,

but they could not surrender the truth of God.

And what was the result? A splendid victory! They walked through the furnace with the Son

of God, and were called forth from the furnace as witnesses and servants of the Most High

God. Glorious privilege! Wondrous dignity! And all the simple result of obedience. Had they

gone with the crowd, and bowed the head in worship to the national god, in order to escape

the dreadful furnace, see what they would have lost! But, blessed be God, they were enabled

to stand fast in the confession of the grand foundation truth of the unity of the Godhead—that

truth which had been trampled under foot amid the splendours of Solomon's reign; and the

record of their faithfulness has been penned for us by the Holy Spirit, in order to encourage

us to tread, with firm step, the path of individual devotedness, in the face of a God-hating,

Christ-rejecting world, and in the face of a truth-neglecting Christendom. It is impossible to

read the narrative and not have our whole renewed being stirred up and drawn out in earnest

desire for more deep-toned personal devotedness to Christ and His precious cause.

Similar must be the effect produced by the study of Daniel 6. We cannot allow ourselves to

quote or expatiate. We can only commend the soul-stirring record to the attention of the

reader. It is uncommonly fine, and it furnishes a splendid lesson for this day of soft, self-

indulgent, easy-going profession, in which it costs people nothing to give a nominal assent to

the truths of Christianity; but in which, notwithstanding, there is so little desire or readiness

to follow, with whole-hearted decision, a rejected Lord, or to yield an unqualified and

unhesitating obedience to His commandments.

How refreshing, in the face of so much heartless indifference, to read of the faithfulness of

Daniel! He, with unflinching decision, persisted in his holy habit of praying three times a

day, with his window open toward Jerusalem, although he knew that the den of lions was the

penalty of his act. He might have closed his window and drawn his curtains and retired into

the privacy of his chamber to pray, or he might have waited for the midnight hour when no

human eye could see, or human ear hear him. But no; this beloved servant of God would not

hide his light under a bed or a bushel. There was a great principle at stake. It was not merely

that he would? pray to the one living and true God, but he would pray with "his windows

open towards Jerusalem." And why "toward Jerusalem"? Because it was God's centre. But it

was in ruins. True, for the present and as looked at from a human standpoint. But to faith,

and from a divine standpoint, Jerusalem was God's centre for His earthly people. It was and it

shall be, beyond all question. And not only so, but its dust is precious to Jehovah; and hence

Daniel was in full communion with the mind of God when he opened his windows toward

Jerusalem and prayed. He had scripture for what he did, as the reader may see by referring to

2 Chronicles 6. "If they return to thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of

their captivity, whither they have carried them captives, and pray toward their land, which

thou gavest unto their fathers, and toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the

house which I have built for thy name."

Here was Daniel's warrant. This was what he did, utterly regardless of human opinions; and

utterly regardless, too, of pains and penalties. He would rather be thrown into the den of lions

than surrender the truth of God. He would rather go to heaven with a good conscience than

remain on earth with a bad one.

And what was the result? Another splendid triumph! "Daniel was taken up out of the den, and

no manner of hurt was found upon him, BECAUSE HE BELIEVED IN HIS GOD."

Blessed servant! Noble witness! Assuredly he was the head, on this occasion, and his enemies

the tail. And how? Simply by obedience to the word of God. This is what we deem to be of

such vast moral importance for this our day. It is to illustrate and enforce this that we refer to

those brilliant examples of individual faithfulness at a time when Israel's national glory was

in the dust, their unity gone and their polity broken up. We cannot but regard it as a fact full

of interest, full of encouragement, full of suggestive power, that in the darkest days of Israel's

history as a nation we have the brightest and noblest examples of personal faith and

devotedness. We earnestly press this upon the attention of the Christian reader. We consider

it eminently calculated to strengthen and cheer up our hearts in standing for the truth of God

at a moment like the present, when there is so much to discourage us in the general condition

of the professing church. It is not that we are to look for such speedy, striking and splendid

results as were realised in those cases to which we have referred. This is by no means the

question. What we have to keep before our hearts is the fact that, no matter what may be the

condition of the ostensible people of God at any given time, it is the privilege of the

individual man of God to tread the narrow path and reap the precious fruits of simple

obedience to the word of God and the precious commandments of our Lord and Saviour

Jesus Christ.

This, we feel persuaded, is a truth for the day. May we all feel its holy power! We are in

imminent danger of lowering the standard of personal devotedness because of the general

condition. This is a fatal mistake; yea, it is the positive suggestion of the enemy of Christ and

His cause. If Mordecai, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Daniel had acted thus, what

would have been the result?

Ah! no; reader, we have ever to bear in mind that our one great business is to obey and leave

results with God. It may please Him to permit His servants to see striking results, or He may

see fit to allow them to wait for that great day that is coming when there will be no danger of

our being puffed up by seeing any little fruit of our testimony. Be this as it may, it is our plain

and bounden duty to tread that bright and blessed path indicated for us by the commandments

of our precious and adorable Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. May God enable us, by the grace

of His Holy Spirit so to do! May we cleave to the truth of God with purpose of heart, utterly

regardless of the opinions of our fellow men who may charge us with narrowness, bigotry,

intolerance and such like. We have just to go on with the Lord.

Deuteronomy 29.

This chapter closes the second grand division of our book. In it we have a most solemn

appeal to the conscience of the congregation. It is what we may term the summing up and

practical application of all that has gone before in this most profound, practical and hortatory

section of the five books of Moses.

"These are the words of the covenant, which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the

children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which He made with them by

Horeb." Allusion has already been made to this passage as one of the many proofs of the

entire distinctness of the book of Deuteronomy from the preceding section of the Pentateuch.

But it claims the reader's attention on another ground. It speaks of a special covenant made

with the children of Israel, in the land of Moab, in virtue of which they were to be brought

into the land. This covenant was as distinct from the covenant made at Sinai, as it was from

the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In a word, it was neither pure law, on the

one hand; nor Pure grace, on the other, but government exercised in sovereign mercy.

It is perfectly clear that Israel could not enter the land on the ground of the Sinai or Horeb

covenant, inasmuch as they had completely failed under it, by making a golden calf. They

forfeited all right and title to the land, and were only saved from instant destruction by

sovereign mercy exercised toward them through the mediation and earnest intercession of

Moses. It is equally plain that they did not enter the land on the ground of the Abrahamic

covenant of grace, for had they done so, they would not have been turned out of it. Neither

the extent nor the duration of their tenure answered to the terms of the covenant made with

their fathers. It was by the terms of the Moab covenant that they entered upon the limited and

temporary possession of the land of Canaan; and inasmuch as they have as signally failed

under the Moab covenant, as under that of Horeb—failed under government as completely as

under law, they are expelled from the land and scattered over the face of the earth, under the

governmental dealings of God.

But not for ever. Blessed be the God of all grace, the seed of Abraham His friend shall yet

possess the land of Canaan, according to the magnificent terms of the original grant. "The

gifts and calling of God are without repentance." Gifts and calling must not be confounded

with law and government. Mount Zion can never be classed with Horeb and Moab. The new

and everlasting covenant of grace, ratified by the precious blood of the Lamb of God, shall be

gloriously fulfilled to the letter, spite of all the powers of earth and hell, men and devils

combined. "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the

house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with

their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt;

because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this

is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will

put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and

they shall be to Me a people; and they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every

man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I

remember no more. In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that

which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away." (Heb. 8: 8-13.)

Now the reader must carefully guard against a system of interpretation that would apply this

precious and beautiful passage to the church. It involves a threefold wrong: namely, a wrong

to the truth of God; a wrong to the church; and a wrong to Israel. We have raised a warning

note on this subject, again and again, in the course of our studies on the Pentateuch, because

we feel its immense importance. It is our deep and thorough conviction that no one can

understand, much less expound the word of God who confounds Israel with the Church The

two things are as distinct as heaven and earth; and hence when God speaks of Israel,

Jerusalem and Zion, if we presume to apply those names to the New Testament church, it can

only issue in utter confusion. We believe it to be a simple impossibility to set forth the

mischievous consequences of such a method of handling the word of God. It puts an end to

all accuracy of interpretation and to all that holy precision and divine certainty which

scripture is designed and fitted to impart. It mars the integrity of truth, damages the souls of

God's people, and hinders their progress in divine life and spiritual intelligence. In short, we

cannot too strongly urge upon every one who reads these lines the absolute necessity of

guarding against this fatally false system of handling holy scripture.

We must beware of meddling with the scope of prophecy, or the true application of the

promises of God. We have no warrant whatever to interfere with the divinely appointed

sphere of the covenants. The inspired apostle tells us distinctly, in the ninth of Romans, that

they pertain to Israel; and if we attempt to alienate them from the Old Testament fathers and

transfer them to the church of God, the body of Christ, we may depend upon it, we are doing

what Jehovah-Elohim will never sanction. The church forms no part of the ways of God with

Israel and the earth. Her place, her portion, her privileges, her prospect are all heavenly. She

is called into existence in this time of Christ's rejection, to be associated with Him where He

is now hidden in the heavens, and to share His glory in the coming day. If the reader fully

grasps this grand and glorious truth, it will go far towards helping him to put things into their

right places and leave them there.

We must now turn our attention to the very solemn, practical application of all that has

passed before us to the conscience of every member of the congregation.

"And Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the Lord did

before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his

land; the great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles;

yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto

this day.

This is peculiarly solemn. The most astounding miracles and signs may pass before us, and

leave the heart untouched. These things may produce a transient effect upon the mind and

upon the natural feelings; but unless the conscience is brought into the light of the divine

presence, and the heart brought under the immediate action of the truth by the power of the

Spirit of God, there is no permanent result reached. Nicodemus inferred from the miracles of

Christ that he was a teacher come from God; but this was not enough. He had to learn the

deep and wondrous meaning of that mighty sentence, "Ye must be born again." A faith

founded on miracles may leave people unsaved, unblessed, unconverted—awfully

responsible, no doubt, but wholly unconverted. we read, at the close of the second of John's

Gospel, of many who professed to believe on Christ when they saw His miracles; but He did

not commit Himself unto them. There was no divine work, nothing to be trusted. There must

be a new life, a new nature; and miracles and signs cannot impart this. We must be born

again—born of the word and Spirit of God. The new life is communicated by the

incorruptible seed of the Gospel of God, lodged in the heart by the power of the Holy Ghost.

It is not a head belief founded on miracles, but a heart-belief in the Son of God. It is

something which could never be known under law or government. "The gift of God is eternal

life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." Precious gift! Glorious source! Blessed channel!

Universal and everlasting praise to the Eternal Trinity!

"And I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes are not waxen old upon you,

and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot"—wonderful clothes! wonderful shoes! God took

care of them and made them last, blessed for ever be His great and Holy Name!—"Ye have

not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink; that ye might know that I am the

Lord your God." They were fed and clothed by God's own gracious hand. "Man did eat

angels' food." They had no need of wine or strong drink, no need of stimulants. "They drank

of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ." That pure stream

refreshed them in the dreary desert, and the heavenly manna sustained them day by day. All

they wanted was the capacity to enjoy the divine provision.

Here alas! like ourselves, they failed. They got tired of the heavenly food, and lusted for other

things. How sad that we should he so like them! How very humbling that we should so fail to

appreciate that precious One whom God has given to be our life, our portion, our object, our

all in all! How terrible to find our hearts craving the wretched vanities and follies of this poor

passing world—its riches, its honours, its distinctions, its pleasures which all perish in the

usage, and which even if they were lasting, are not, for a, moment, to be compared with "the

unsearchable riches of Christ!" may God, in His infinite goodness, "grant us, according to the

riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ

may dwell in our hearts by faith; that we, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to

comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height: and to

know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that we may be filled with all the fullness

of God." Oh! that this most blessed prayer may be answered in the deep and abiding

experience of the reader and the writer!

"And when ye came unto this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of

Bashan"—formidable and much dreaded foes!—"came out against us unto battle, and we

smote them." and had they been ten thousand times as great and as formidable, they would

have proved to be as chaff before the presence of the God of the armies of Israel. "And we

took their land, and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to

the half tribe of Manasseh." Will any one dare to compare this with what human history

records respecting the invasion of South America by the Spaniards? Woe be to those who do

so! They will find themselves terribly mistaken. There is this grand and all-important

difference, that Israel had the direct authority of God for what they did to Sihon and Og; the

Spaniards could show no such authority for what they did to the poor ignorant savages of

South America. This alters the case completely. The introduction of God and His authority is

the one perfect answer to every question, the divine solution of every difficulty. May we ever

keep this weighty fact in the remembrance of the thoughts of our hearts, as a divine antidote

against every infidel suggestion!

"Keep therefore the words of this [the Moab] covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in

all that ye do." Simple obedience to the word of God ever has been, is now, and ever shall be

the deep and real secret of all true prosperity. To the Christian, of course, the prosperity is

not in earthly or material things, but in heavenly and spiritual; and we must never forget that

it is the very height of folly to think of prospering or making progress in the divine life if we

are not yielding an implicit obedience to all the commandments of our blessed and adorable

Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask

what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much

fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you; continue

ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept

my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." Here is true Christian prosperity. May we

earnestly long after it, and diligently pursue the proper method of attaining it!

"Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God; your captains of your tribes, your

elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel, your little ones"—touching and

interesting fact!—"your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp"—How exquisite, how

deeply affecting the expression "thy stranger!" What a powerful appeal to Israel's heart on

behalf of the stranger!—"From the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water; that thou

shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into his oath, which the Lord thy

God maketh with thee this day; that he may establish thee today for a people unto himself,

and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy

fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Neither with you only do I make this covenant

and this oath; but with him that standeth here with us this day before the Lord our God, and

also with him that is not here with us this day;—for ye know how we have dwelt in the land

of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which ye passed by; and ye have seen their

abominations [that is, the objects of their worship, their false gods], and their idols, wood and

stone, silver and gold, which were among them." (Vers. 10-17.)

This earnest appeal is not only general, but also intensely individual. This is very important.

We are ever prone to generalise, and thus miss the application of truth to our individual

conscience. This is a grave mistake, and a most serious loss to our souls. We are, every one

of us, responsible to yield an implicit obedience to the precious commandments of our Lord.

It is thus we enter into the real enjoyment of our relationship, as Moses says to the people,

"that he may establish thee for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God."

Nothing can be more precious. And then it is so very simple. There is no vagueness,

obscurity or mysticism about it. It is simply having His most precious commandments

treasured up in our hearts, acting upon the conscience, and carried out in the life. This is the

true secret of habitually realising our relationship with our Father, and with our Lord and

Saviour Jesus Christ.

For any one to imagine that he can enjoy the blessed sense of intimate relationship, while

living in the habitual neglect of our Lord's commandments is a miserable and mischievous

delusion. "If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love." This is the grand point.

Let us deeply ponder it. "If ye love me keep my commandments." "Not every one that saith

unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my

Father which is in heaven." "For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven,

the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." "Circumcision is nothing, and

uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God."

These are seasonable words for this day of easy going, self-indulgent, worldly profession.

May they sink down into our ears and into our hearts! May they take full possession of our

whole moral being, and bring forth fruit in our individual history. We feel persuaded of the

need of this practical side of things. We are in imminent danger, while seeking to keep clear

of everything like legality, of running into the opposite evil of carnal laxity. The passages of

holy scripture which we have just quoted—and they are but a few of many—supply the

divine safeguard against both these pernicious and deadly errors. It is blessedly true that we

are brought into the holy relationship of children by the sovereign grace of God, through the

power of His word and Spirit. This one fact cuts up by the roots the noxious weed of legality.

But then surely the relationship has its suited affections, its duties and its responsibilities, the

due recognition of which furnishes the true remedy for the terrible evil of carnal laxity so

prevalent on all hands. If we are delivered from law-works—as, thank God, we are, if we are

true Christians—it is not that we should be good-for-nothing, self-pleasers, but that life-

works might be produced in us, to the glory of Him whose Name we bear, whose we are, and

whom we are bound, by every argument, to love, obey and serve.

May we, beloved reader, earnestly seek to apply our hearts to this practical line of things. We

are imperatively called upon to do so, and we may fully count upon the abundant grace of our

Lord Jesus Christ to enable us to respond to the call, spite of the ten thousand difficulties and

hindrances that lie in our way. Oh! for a deeper work of grace in our souls, a closer walk with

God, a more pronounced discipleship! Let us give ourselves to the earnest pursuit of these

things!

We must now proceed with the lawgiver's solemn appeal. He warns the people to take heed,

"Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth

away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there

should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood."

These searching words are referred to by the inspired apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrews, in

a very emphatic manner. "Looking diligently," he says, "lest any man fail of the grace of God;

lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled."

What weighty words are these! How full of wholesome admonition and warning! They set

forth the solemn responsibility of all Christians. We are all called upon to exercise a holy,

jealous, godly care over each other, which alas! is but little understood or recognised. We are

not all called to be pastors or teachers. The passage just quoted does not refer particularly to

such. It refers to all Christians, and we are bound to attend to it. We hear great complaints, on

all sides, of the sad lack of pastoral care. No doubt there is a great lack of true pastors in the

church of God, as there is of every other gift. This is only what we might expect. How could

it be otherwise? How could we expect a profusion of spiritual gifts in our present miserable

condition? The Spirit is grieved and quenched by our lamentable divisions, our worldliness,

our gross unfaithfulness. Need we then marvel at our deplorable poverty?

But our blessed Lord is full of deep and tender compassion toward us, in the midst of our ruin

and spiritual desolation; and if we only humbled ourselves under His mighty hand, He would

graciously lift us up, and enable us, in many ways, to meet the deficiency of pastoral gift

amongst us. We might, through His precious grace, look, more diligently and lovingly, after

one another, and seek each other's spiritual progress and prosperity in a thousand ways.

Let not the reader imagine, for a, moment, that we mean to give the smallest countenance to

prying officiousness or unwarrantable espionage on the part of Christians. Far away be the

thought! We look upon such things as perfectly insufferable in the church of God. They stand

at the very moral antipodes of that loving, holy, tender, diligent pastoral care of which we

speak, and for which we long.

But does it not strike the reader that, while giving the widest possible berth to these most

contemptible evils to which we have just referred, we might cultivate and exercise a loving

prayerful interest in one another, and a holy watchfulness and care which might prevent

many a root of bitterness from springing up? We cannot doubt it. It is quite true we are not all

called to be pastors; and it is equally true that there is a grievous dearth of pastors in the

church of God. We mean, of course, true pastors—pastors given by the Head of the church-

men with a pastor's heart, and real pastoral gift and power. All this is undeniable, and for this

very reason, it ought to stir the hearts of the Lord's beloved people everywhere to seek of Him

grace to enable them to exercise a tender, loving, brotherly care over one another which

might go a great way toward supplying the need of pastors amongst us. One thing is clear,

that in the passage just quoted from Hebrews 12 there is nothing said about pastors. It is

simply a most stirring exhortation to all Christians to exercise mutual care, and to watch

against the springing up of any root of bitterness.

And oh! how needful this is! How terrible are those roots! How bitter they are! How widely

spread are their pernicious tendrils, at times! What irreparable mischief they do! How many

are defiled by them! How many precious links of friendship are snapped, and how many

hearts broken by them! Yes, reader, and how often we have felt persuaded that a little

judicious pastoral or even brotherly care, a little loving, godly counsel might have nipped the

evil in the bud and thus hindered an incalculable amount of mischief and sorrow. May we all

lay these things to heart, and earnestly seek grace to do what we can to prevent roots of

bitterness springing up and spreading abroad their defiling influence!

But we must hearken to further weighty and searching words from the beloved and venerable

lawgiver He drags a most solemn picture of the end of the one who caused the root of

bitterness to spring up.

"And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his

heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add

drunkenness to thirst." Fatal delusion! Crying peace, peace, when there is no peace, but

imminent wrath and judgement. "The Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord

and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and,"—instead of the "peace" which he vainly

promised himself—"all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the

Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven." Awful warning to all who act as roots of

bitterness in the midst of the people of God, and to all who countenance them!

"And the Lord shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the

curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law; so that the generation to come

of your children, that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land,

shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the Lord hath laid

upon it; and that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not

sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and

Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath."

Soul-subduing examples of the governmental dealings of the living God which ought to

speak with a voice of thunder in the ears of all those who are turning the grace of our God

into lasciviousness and denying the Lord that bought them! —"Even all nations shall say,

Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land? What meaneth the heat of this great

anger? Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their

fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt; for

they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and

whom he had not given unto them; and the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, to

bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book; and the Lord rooted them out of their

land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is

this day." (Vers. 19-28.)

Reader, how peculiarly solemn is all this! What a powerful illustration of the apostle's words,

"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!" And again, "Our God is a

consuming fire!" How important that the professing church should give heed to such warning

notes! Most assuredly, she is called to learn much from the history of God's dealings with His

people Israel; Romans 11 is perfectly clear and conclusive as to this. The apostle, in speaking

of the divine judgement upon the unbelieving branches of the olive tree, thus appeals to

Christendom, "If some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert

graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;

boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.

Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because

of unbelief they were broken off; and thou standest by faith. BE NOT HIGH-MINDED, BUT

FEAR; for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.

Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God; on them which fell severity; but toward

thee goodness, if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off."

Alas! the professing church has not continued in the goodness of God. It is utterly impossible

to read her history, in the light of scripture, and not see this. She has grievously departed, and

there is nothing before her save the unmingled wrath of Almighty God. The beloved

members of the body of Christ who, sad to say, are mingled with the terrible mass of corrupt

profession, will be gathered out of it and taken to the place prepared in the Father's house in

heaven. Then, if not before, they will see how wrong it was to have remained in connection

with what was so flagrantly opposed to the mind of Christ as revealed with divine clearness

and simplicity in the holy scriptures.

But as to the great thing known as Christendom, it will be "spued out" and "cut off." It will be

given over to strong delusion, to believe a lie, "That they all might be damned who believed

not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."

Tremendous words! May they ring in the ears and sink down into the hearts of thousands who

are going on from day to day, week to week, and year to year, content with a mere name to

live, a form of godliness but denying the power, "lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of

God". What an awfully graphic picture of so-called Christian England! How appalling the

condition and the destiny of the pleasure hunting thousands who are rushing blindly,

heedlessly and madly down the inclined plane that leads to hopeless and everlasting misery!

May God, in His infinite goodness, by the power of His Spirit and by the mighty action of His

word, rouse the hearts of His people everywhere to a more profound and influential sense of

these things!

We must now, ere closing this section, briefly direct the reader's attention to the last verse of

our chapter. It is one of those passages of scripture sadly misunderstood and misapplied.

"The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong

unto us, and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law." This verse is

constantly used to hinder the progress of souls in the knowledge of "the deep things of God;"

but its simple meaning is this; the things "revealed" are what we have had before us in the

preceding chapter of this book; the things "secret," on the other hand, refer to those resources

of grace which God had in store to be unfolded when the people should have utterly failed to

"do all the words of this law." The revealed things are what Israel ought to have done, but did

not do; the secret things are what God would do, spite of Israel's sad and shameful failure,

and they are most blessedly presented in the following chapters—the counsels of divine

grace, the provisions of sovereign mercy to be displayed when Israel shall have thoroughly

learnt the lesson of their utter failure under both the Moab and the Horeb covenants.

Thus this passage, when rightly understood, so far from affording any warrant for the use so

constantly made of it, encourages the heart to search into these things which, though "secret"

to Israel, in the plains of Moab, are fully and clearly "revealed" to us for our profit, comfort

and edification.* The Holy Spirit came down, on the day of Pentecost to lead the disciples

into all truth. The canon of scripture is complete; all the purposes and counsels of God are

fully revealed. The mystery of the church completes the entire circle of divine truth. The

apostle John could say to all God's children, "Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and

know all things."

{*1 Cor 2: 9 is another of the misunderstood and misapplied passages. "But, as it is written,

Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which

God hath prepared for them that love him." Here, people are sure to stop, and hence conclude

that we cannot possibly know anything of the precious things which God has in store for us.

But the very next verse proves the gross absurdity of any such conclusion. "But God hath

revealed them unto us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of

God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even

so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we"—that is, all the Lord's

people—"have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we

might know the things that are freely given to us of God." Thus this passage, like

Deuteronomy 19: 29, teaches the very opposite of what is so constantly deduced from it. How

important to examine and weigh the context of the passages which are quoted!}

Thus the entire New Testament abounds with evidence to prove the mistaken use that is so

constantly made of Deuteronomy 29: 29. We have dwelt upon it because we are aware that

the Lord's beloved people are sadly hindered by it, in their progress in divine knowledge. The

enemy would ever seek to keep them in the dark, when they ought to be walking in the

sunlight of divine revelation—to keep them as babes feeding upon milk, when they ought, as

those "of full age," to be feeding upon the "strong meat" so freely provided for the church of

God. We have but little idea of how the Spirit of God is grieved, and Christ dishonoured by

the low tone of things amongst us. How few really "know the things that are freely given to

us of God!" Where are the proper privileges of the Christian understood, believed and

realised? How meagre is our apprehension of divine things! How stunted our growth! How

feeble our practical exposition of the truth of God! What a blotted epistle of Christ we

present!

Beloved Christian reader, let us seriously ponder these things in the divine presence. Let us

honestly search out the root of all this lamentable failure, and have it judged and put away,

that so we may, more faithfully and unmistakably, declare whose we are and whom we serve.

May it be more thoroughly manifest that Christ is our one absorbing object!

Deuteronomy 30.

This chapter is one of very deep interest and importance. It is prophetic, and presents to us

some of "the secret things" referred to at the close of the Preceding chapter. It unfolds some

of those most precious resources of grace treasured up in the heart of God to be unfolded

when Israel, having utterly failed to keep the law, should be scattered to the ends of the earth.

"And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the

curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations

whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee, and shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt

obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all

thine heart, and with all thy soul; that then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have

compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the Lord

thy God hath scattered thee."

How touching, how perfectly beautiful is all this! It is no question of law-keeping, but

something far deeper, far more precious; it is the turning of the heart—the whole heart, the

whole soul to Jehovah, at a time when a literal obedience to the law is utterly impossible. It is

a broken and contrite heart turning to God, and God, in deep and tender compassion, meeting

that heart. This is true blessedness, at all times, and in all places. It is something above and

beyond all dispensational dealings and arrangements. It is God Himself, in all the fullness

and ineffable blessedness of what He is, meeting a repentant soul; and we may truly say that

when these two meet, all is divinely and eternally settled.

It must be perfectly clear to the reader that what we have now before us is something as far

removed from law-keeping and human righteousness as heaven is above earth. The first verse

of our chapter proves, in the clearest possible manner, that the people are viewed as in a

condition in which the carrying out of the ordinances of the law is a simple impossibility.

But, blessed be God, there is not a spot on the face of the earth, be it ever so remote, from

which the heart cannot turn to God. The hands might not be able to present a victim for the

altar; the feet might not be able to travel to the appointed place of worship; but the heart

could travel to God. Yes; the poor crushed, broken, contrite heart could go directly to God,

and God, in the depth of His compassion and tender mercy, could meet that heart, bind it up

and fill it to overflowing with the rich comfort and consolation of His love, and the full joy of

His salvation.

But let us hearken yet further to those "secret things" which "belong to God"—things

precious beyond all human thought. "If any of thine be driven out unto the utmost parts of

heaven as far as they could go—"from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from

thence will he fetch thee; and the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers

possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and He will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy

fathers."

How precious is all this! But there is something far better still. Not only will He gather them,

fetch them, and multiply them, not only will He act in power for them, but He will do a

mighty work of grace in them of far more value than any outward prosperity however

desirable. "And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart"—the very centre of the whole

moral being, the source of all those influences which go to form the character—"and the

heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart"—the grand moral regulator of

the entire life—"and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live. And the Lord thy God will put

all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee"—A

solemn word for all those nations who have ever sought to oppress the Jews!—"And thou

shalt return, and obey the voice of the Lord, and do all his commandments, which I command

thee this day.

Nothing can be more morally lovely than all this. The people gathered, fetched, multiplied,

blessed, circumcised in heart, thoroughly devoted to Jehovah, and yielding a whole-hearted,

loving obedience to all His precious commandments! What can exceed this in blessedness for

a people on the earth?

"And the Lord thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of

thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good; for the Lord will

again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers," "if thou shalt hearken unto

the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written

in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the Lord thy God, with all thine heart, and with

all thy soul. For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from

thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to

heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that

thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it,

and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou

mayest do it." (Vers. 10-14.)

This is a singularly interesting passage. It furnishes a key to "the secret things" already

referred to, and sets forth the great principles of divine righteousness, in vivid and beautiful

contrast to legal righteousness in every possible aspect. According to the truth here unfolded,

it matters not, in the least, where a soul may be, here, there or anywhere; "The word is nigh

thee." It could not possibly be nigher. What could be nigher than "In thy mouth, and in thy

heart?" We need not, as we say, move a muscle to get it. If it were above us or beyond us,

reason would that we might complain of our utter inability to reach it. But no; there is no

need of either hands or feet, in this most blessed and all-important matter. The heart and the

mouth are here called into exercise.

There is a very beautiful allusion to the above passage in the tenth chapter of the epistle to

the Romans, to which the reader may refer with much interest and profit. Indeed it is so full

of evangelic sweetness that we must quote it.

"Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I

bear them record, that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they,

being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,

have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the day

for righteousness to every one that believeth"—not to every one who says he believes, as in

James 2: 14.—"For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man

which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh

on this wise, Say not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ

down")—striking parenthesis! Marvellous instance of the Spirit's use of Old Testament

scripture! It bears the distinct stamp of His master hand—"Or, who shall descend into the

deep? (that is, to bring up Christ Again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh

thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is, the word of faith, which we preach;"—How

perfectly beautiful the addition! Who but the Spirit could have supplied it?—"That if thou

shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath

raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto

righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation For the scripture saith,

Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed."

Mark this beautiful word, "whosoever." It, most assuredly, takes in the Jew. It meets him

wherever he may be, a poor exile, at the very ends of the earth, under circumstances where

obedience to the law, as such, was simply impossible; but where the rich and precious grace

of God, and His most glorious salvation could meet him, in the depth of his need. There,

though he could not keep the law, he could confess with his mouth the Lord Jesus, and

believe in his heart that God had raised Him from the dead; and this is salvation.

But then, if it be "whosoever" it cannot possibly be confined to the Jew; nay, it cannot be

confined at all; and hence the apostle goes on to say, "There is no difference between the Jew

and the Greek" There was the greatest possible difference under the law. There could not be

a broader or more distinct line of demarcation than that which the lawgiver had drawn

between the Jew and the Greek; but that line is obliterated, for a double reason: first, because

"all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." (Rom. 3: 23.) And, secondly, because

"The same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the

name of the Lord shall be saved."

How blessedly simple! "Calling" "believing" "confessing!" Nothing can exceed the

transcendent grace that shines in these words. No doubt, it is assumed that the soul is really

in earnest; that the heart is engaged. God deals in moral realities. It is not a nominal,

notional, head belief; but divine faith wrought in the heart by the Holy Ghost—a Living faith

which connects the soul, in a divine way and by an everlasting link, to Christ.

And then there is the confessing with the mouth, the Lord Jesus. This is of cardinal

importance. A man may say, "I believe in my heart, but I am not one for parading my

religious belief. I am not a talker. I keep my religion to myself. It is entirely a matter between

my soul and God; I do not believe in that perpetual intruding our religious impressions upon

other people. Many who talk loudly and largely about their religion in public, make but a

sorry figure in private, and I certainly do not want to be identified with such. I utterly abhor

all cant. Deeds, not words for me.

All this sounds very plausible; but it cannot stand for a moment in the light of Romans 10: 9.

There must be the confession with the mouth. Many would like to be saved by Christ, but

they shrink from the reproach of confessing His precious Name. They would like to get to

heaven when they die, but they do not want to be identified with a rejected Christ. Now God

does not own such. He looks for the full, bold, clear confession of Christ, in the face of a

hostile world. Our Lord Christ, too, looks for this confession. He declares that whoso

confesses Him before men, He will confess before the angels of God; but whoso denies Him

before men, He will deny before the angels of God. The thief on the cross exhibited the two

great branches of true saving faith. He believed with his heart, and confessed with his mouth.

Yes, he gave a flat contradiction to the whole world on the most vital question that ever was

or ever could be raised, and that question was Christ. He was a thoroughly pronounced

disciple of Christ. Oh! that there were more such! There is a terrible amount of indefiniteness

and cold half-heartedness in the professing church, grievous to the Holy Ghost, offensive to

Christ, hateful to God. We long for bold decision, out-and-out, unmistakable testimony to the

Lord Jesus. May God the Holy Spirit stir up all our hearts, and lead us forth, in more

thorough consecration of heart, to that blessed One who freely gave His life to save us from

everlasting burnings!

We shall close this section by quoting for the reader the last few verses of our chapter in

which Moses makes a peculiarly solemn appeal to the hearts and consciences of the people.

It is a most powerful word of exhortation.

"See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil." Thus it is ever in the

government of God. The two things are inseparably linked together. Let no man dare to snap

the link. God "will render to every man according to his deeds; to them who by patient

continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, and honour and immortality, eternal life. But unto

them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation

and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first,

and also of the Gentile; but glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good to the

Jew first, and also to the Gentile. For there is no respect of persons with God." (Rom 2: 6-11)

The apostle does not, in this great practical passage, go into the question of power; he simply

states the broad fact—a fact applicable at all times, and under all dispensations, government,

Law and Christianity; it ever holds good that "God will render to every man according to his

deeds." This is of the very last possible importance. May we ever bear it in mind. It may

perhaps be said, "Are not Christians under grace?" Yes, thank God; but does this weaken, in

the smallest degree, the grand governmental principle stated above? Nay, it strengthens and

confirms it immensely.

But, again, some may feel disposed to say, "Can any unconverted person do good?" We reply,

this question is not raised, in the scripture just quoted. Every one taught of God knows, and

feels and owns, that not one atom of "good" has ever been done in this world but by the grace

of God; that man left to himself will do evil only, evil continually. "Every good gift and every

perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights." All this is most

blessedly true, and thankfully owned by every pious soul; but it leaves wholly untouched the

fact set forth in Deuteronomy 30 and confirmed by Romans 2 that life and good, death and

evil are bound together by an inseparable link. May we never forget it! May it ever abide in

the remembrance of the thoughts of our hearts!

"See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; in that I command thee

this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and

his statutes and his judgements, that thou mayest live and multiply; and the Lord thy God

shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so

that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I

denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your

days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and

earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and

cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live; that thou mayest love the

Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him;"—

the all important, essential thing, for each, for all, the very spring and power of all true

religion, in every age, in every place—"for he is thy life, and the length of thy days"—How

close! How vital! How real! How very precious!—"that thou mayest dwell in the land which

the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them." (Vers. 15-

20.)

Nothing can be more solemn than this closing appeal to the congregation: it is in full keeping

with the tone and character of the entire book of Deuteronomy—a book marked throughout

by the most powerful exhortations that ever fell on mortal ears, we have no such soul-stirring

appeals in any of the preceding sections of the Pentateuch. Each book, we need not say, has

its own specific niche to fill, its own distinct object and character; but the great burden of

Deuteronomy, from beginning to end, is exhortation; its thesis, the word of God, its object,

obedience—whole-hearted, earnest, loving obedience—grounded on a known relationship,

and enjoyed privileges.

Deuteronomy 31.

The heart of Moses still lingers, with deep tenderness and affectionate solicitude, over the

congregation. It seems as though he could never weary of pouring into their ears his earnest

exhortations. He felt their need; he foresaw their danger; and, like a true and faithful

shepherd, he sought, with all the deep and tender affection of His large, loving heart, to

prepare them for what was before them. No one can read his closing words without being

struck with their peculiarly solemn tone. They remind us of Paul's touching farewell to the

elders of Ephesus. Both these beloved and honoured servants realised, in a very vivid

manner, the seriousness of their own position, and that of the persons they were addressing.

They felt the uncommon gravity of the interests at stake, and the urgent need of the most

faithful dealing with the heart and conscience. This will account for what we may term the

awful solemnity of their appeals. All who really enter into the situation and destiny of the

people of God, in a world like this, must be serious. The true sense of these things, the

apprehension of them in the divine presence must, of necessity, impart a holy gravity to the

character and a special pungency and power to the testimony.

"And Moses went, and spake these words unto all Israel. And he said unto them, I am an

hundred and twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in; also the Lord hath

said unto me, Thou shalt not go over this Jordan." How very touching this allusion to his

great age, and this fresh and final reference to the solemn governmental dealing of God with

himself personally! The direct and manifest object of both was to give effect to his appeal to

the hearts and consciences of the people—to strengthen the moral lever by which this

beloved and honoured servant of God sought to move them in the direction of simple

obedience. If he points to his gray hairs, or to the holy discipline exercised towards him, it,

most assuredly, is not for the purpose of bringing himself, his circumstances, or his feelings

before them, but simply to touch the deepest springs of their moral being by every possible

means.

"The Lord thy God, he will go over before thee, and he will destroy these nations from before

thee, and thou shalt possess them; and Joshua, he shall go over before thee, as the Lord hath

said. And the Lord shall do unto them as he did to Sihon and to Og, kings of the Amorites,

and unto the land of them whom he destroyed. And the Lord shall give them up before your

face, that ye may do unto them according unto all the commandments which I have

commanded you" Not a word of murmuring or repining as to himself; not the faintest tinge of

envy or jealousy in his reference to the one who was to take his place; not the most distant

approach to anything of the kind; every selfish consideration is swallowed up in the one

grand object of encouraging the hearts of the people to tread, with firm step, the pathway of

obedience which was then, is now, and ever must be, the path of victory, the path of blessing,

the path of peace.

"Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them; for the Lord thy God, he it

is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." What precious, soul-

sustaining words are these, beloved Christian reader! How eminently calculated to lift the

heart above every discouraging influence! The blessed consciousness of the Lord's presence

with us, and the remembrance of His gracious ways with us, in days gone by, must ever prove

the true secret of strength in moving onward. The same mighty hand which had subdued

before them Sihon and Og, could subdue all the kings of Canaan. The Amorites were quite as

formidable as the Canaanites; Jehovah was more than a match for all. "We have heard with

our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of

old. How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst

afflict the people, and cast them out"

Only think of God driving out people with His own hand! What an answer to all the

arguments and difficulties of a morbid sentimentality! How very shallow and erroneous are

the thoughts of some in reference to the governmental ways of God! How miserably one-

sided their notions of His character and actings! How Perfectly absurd the attempt to measure

God by the standard of human judgement and feeling! It is very evident that Moses had not

the smallest particle of sympathy with such sentiments, when he addressed to the

congregation of Israel the magnificent exhortation quoted above. He knew something of the

gravity and solemnity of the government of God, something too of the blessedness of having

Him as a shield in the day of battle, a refuge and a resource in every hour of peril and need.

Let us hearken to his encouraging words addressed to the man who was to succeed him. "And

Moses called unto Joshua, and said unto him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of a

good courage: for thou must go with this people unto the land which the Lord hath sworn

unto their fathers to give them; and thou shalt cause them to inherit it. And the Lord, he it is

that doth go before thee; he will be with thee; he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee; fear

not, neither be dismayed."

Joshua needed a special word for himself, as one called to occupy a prominent and very

distinguished place in the congregation. But the word to him embodies the same precious

truth as that addressed to the whole assembly. He is assured of the divine presence and power

with him. This is enough for each, for all; for Joshua as for the most obscure member of the

assembly. Yes, reader, and enough for thee, whoever thou art, or whatever be thy sphere of

action. It matters not, in the least, what difficulties or dangers may lie before us, our God is

amply sufficient for all. If only we have the sense of the Lord's presence with us, and the

authority of His word for the work in which we are engaged, we may move on with joyful

confidence, spite of ten thousand difficulties and hostile influences.

"And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it unto the priests the sons of Levi, which bare the

ark of the covenant of the Lord, and unto all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded

them saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the

feast of tabernacles, when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place

which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the

people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that

they may hear and that they may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and observe to do all the

words of this law; and that their children, which have not known anything, may hear; and

learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over Jordan to

possess it." (Vers. 9-35.)

Two things in the forgoing passage claim our special attention; first, the fact that Jehovah

attached the most solemn importance to the public assembly of His people for the purpose of

hearing His word. "all Israel"—"men, women and children"—with the stranger who had cast

in his lot amongst them, were commanded to assemble themselves together to hear the

reading of the book of the law of God, that all might learn His holy will and their duty. Each

member of the assembly, from the eldest to the youngest, was to be brought into direct

personal contact with the revealed will of Jehovah, that each one might know his solemn

responsibility.

And, secondly, we have to weigh the fact that the children were to be gathered before the

Lord to hearken to His word. Both these facts are full of weighty instruction for all the

members of the church of God—instruction urgently called for on all sides. There is a most

deplorable amount of failure as to these two points. We sadly neglect the assembling of

ourselves together for the simple reading of the holy scriptures. There does not seem to be

sufficient attraction in the word of God itself to bring us together. There is an unhealthy

craving for other things; human oratory, music, religious excitement of some kind or other

seems needful to bring people together; anything and everything but the precious word of

God.

It will perhaps be said that people have the word of God in their houses; that it is quite

different now from what it was with Israel; every one can read the scriptures at home, and

there is not the same necessity for the public reading. Such a plea will not stand the test of

truth for a moment. We may rest assured if the word of God were loved and prized and

studied in private and in the family, it would be loved and prized and studied in public. We

should delight to gather together round the fountain of holy scripture, to drink, in happy

fellowship, of the living water for our common refreshment and blessing.

But it is not so. The word of God is not loved and studied, either privately or publicly. Trashy

literature it devoured in private; and music, ritualistic services and imposing ceremonies, are

eagerly sought after in public. Thousands will flock to hear music and pay for admission; but

how few care for a meeting to read the holy scriptures! These are facts, and facts are

powerful arguments. We cannot get over them. There is a growing thirst for religious

excitement, and a growing distaste for the calm study of holy scripture, and the spiritual

exercises of the Christian assembly. It is perfectly useless to deny it. We cannot shut our eyes

to it. The evidence of it meets us on every hand.

Thank God, there are a few, here and there, who really love the word of God, and delight to

meet, in holy fellowship, for the study of its precious truths. May the Lord increase the

number of such, and bless them abundantly! May our lot be cast with them, "till travelling

days are done!" They are but an obscure and feeble remnant everywhere; but they love Christ

and cleave to His word; and their richest enjoyment is to get together and think and speak

and sing of Him. May God bless them and keep them! May He deepen His precious work in

their souls, and bind them more closely to Himself and one another, and thus prepare them,

in the state of their affections, for the appearing of "The Bright and Morning Star".

We must now turn, for a few moments, to the closing verses of our chapter, in which

Jehovah speaks to His beloved and honoured servant in tones of deep and touching solemnity

as to His own death, and as to Israel's dark and gloomy future.

"And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold, thy days approach that thou must die: call Joshua,

and present yourselves in the tabernacle of the congregation, that I may give him a charge.

And Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tabernacle of the congregation.

And the Lord appeared in the tabernacle in a pillar of a cloud; and the pillar of the cloud

stood over the door of the tabernacle. And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep

with thy fathers; and this people will rise up and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers

of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant

which I have made with them. Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I

will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many

evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come

upon us, because our God is not among us? And I will surely hide my face in that day, for all

the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods."

"Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god." So says the Spirit of Christ,

in Psalm 16. Israel has proved, is proving, and shall yet more fully prove the solemn truth of

these words. Their history in the past, their present dispersion and desolation, and, beyond

all, the "great tribulation" through which they have yet to pass, at "the time of the end"—all

go to confirm and illustrate the truth that the sure and certain way to multiply our; sorrows is

to turn away from the Lord, and look to any creature resource. This is one of the many and

varied practical lessons which we have to gather from the marvellous history of the seed of

Abraham. May we learn it effectually! May we learn to cleave to the Lord with purpose of

heart, and turn away, with holy decision, from every other object. This, we feel persuaded, is

the only path of true happiness and peace. May we ever be found in it!

"Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel; put it in their

mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel. For when I

shall have brought them into the land which I sware unto their fathers, that floweth with milk

and honey; and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxen fat; then will they turn

unto other gods, and serve them, and provoke me, and break my covenant. And it shall come

to pass, when many evils and troubles are befallen them, that this song shall testify against

them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed: for I know

their imagination which they go about, even now, before I have brought them into the land

which I sware."

How deeply affecting, how peculiarly solemn is all this! Instead of Israel being a witness for

Jehovah, before all nations, the song of Moses was to be a witness for Jehovah against the

children of Israel. They were called to be His witnesses; they were responsible to declare His

Name, and to show forth His praise in that land into which, in His faithfulness, and sovereign

mercy, He conducted them. But alas! they utterly and shamefully failed; and hence in view of

this sad and most humiliating failure a song was to be written which, in the first place, as we

shall see, sets forth, in most magnificent strains, the glory of God; and, secondly, records, in

accents of inflexible faithfulness, Israel's deplorable failure, in every stage of their history.

"Moses therefore wrote this song the same day, and taught it the children of Israel. And he

gave Joshua the son of Nun a charge, and said, Be strong, and of a good courage, for thou

shalt bring the children of Israel into the land which I sware unto them: and I will be with

thee." Joshua was not to be discouraged or faint-hearted because of the predicted

unfaithfulness of the people. He was, like his great progenitor, to be strong in faith giving

glory to God. He was to move forward with joyful confidence, leaning on the arm and

confiding in the word of Jehovah, the covenant God of Israel, in nothing terrified by his

adversaries, but resting in the precious, soul-sustaining assurance that, however the seed of

Abraham might fail to obey, and as a consequence bring down judgement on themselves, yet

the God of Abraham would infallibly maintain and make good His promise, and glorify His

Name in the final restoration and everlasting blessing of His chosen people.

All this comes out, with uncommon vividness and power in the song of Moses; and Joshua

was called to serve in the faith of it. He was to fix his eye not upon Israel's ways, but upon the

eternal stability of the divine covenant with Abraham. He was to conduct Israel across the

Jordan and plant them in that fair inheritance designed for them in the purpose of God. Had

Joshua occupied his mind with Israel, he must have flung down his sword and given up in

despair. But no, he had to encourage himself in the Lord his God, and serve in the energy of a

faith that endures as seeing Him who is invisible.

Precious, soul-sustaining, God-honouring faith! May the reader, whatever be his line of life

or sphere of action, know, in the profoundest depths of his soul, the moral power of this

divine principle! May every beloved child of God and every servant of Christ know it! It is

the only thing which will enable us to grapple with the difficulties, hindrances and hostile

influences which surround us in the scene through which we are passing, and to finish our

course with joy.

"And it came to pass when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a

book, until they were finished that Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the

covenant of the Lord saying, Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the

covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee. For I know thy

rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been

rebellious against the Lord; and how much more after my death? Gather unto me all the

elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call

heaven and earth to record against them. For I know that after my death ye will utterly

corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will

befall you in the latter days; because ye will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him

to anger through the work of your hands."

How forcibly we are here reminded of Paul's farewell address to the elders of Ephesus! "For I

know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the

flock. Also from among your own selves, shall men arise speaking perverse things, to draw

away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I

ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. And now, brethren, I commend you to

God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an

inheritance among all them which are sanctified." (Acts 20: 29-32.)

Man is the same always and everywhere. His history is a blotted one, from beginning to end.

But oh! it is such a relief and solace to the heart to know and remember that God is ever the

same, and His word abides and is "settled for ever in heaven." It was hid in the side of the ark

of the covenant and there preserved intact, spite of all the grievous sin and folly of the

people. This gives sweet rest to the heart, at all times, in the face of human failure, and the

wreck and ruin of everything committed to man's hand. "The word of our God shall stand for

ever:" and while it bears a true and solemn testimony against man and his ways, it also

conveys home to the heart the most precious and tranquillising assurance that God is above

all man's sin and folly, that His resources are absolutely inexhaustible, and that, ere long, His

glory shall shine out and fill the whole scene. The Lord be praised for the deep consolation of

all this!

Deuteronomy 32.

"And Moses spake in the ears of all the congregation of Israel the words; of this song, until

they were ended." It is not too much to say that one of the very grandest and most

comprehensive sections in the divine Volume now lies open before us and claims our

prayerful attention. It takes in the whole range of God's dealings with Israel from first to last,

and presents a most solemn record of their grievous sin and of divine wrath and judgement.

But, blessed be God, it begins and ends with Him; and this is full of deepest and richest

blessing for the soul. If it were not so, if we had only the melancholy story of man's ways, we

should be completely overwhelmed. But in this magnificent song, as indeed in the entire

Volume, we begin with God and we end with God. This tranquillises the spirit most

blessedly, and enables us, in calm and holy confidence, to pursue the history of man; to see

everything going to pieces in his hands, and to mark the actings of the enemy in opposition to

the counsels and purposes of God. We can afford to see the complete failure and ruin of the

creature, in every shape and form, because we know and are assured that God will be God, in

spite of everything. He will have the upper hand in the end, and then all will be, must be

right. God shall be all in all, and there shall be neither enemy nor evil occurrent throughout

that vast universe of bliss of which our adorable Lord Christ shall be the central sun for ever.

But we must turn to the song.

"Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth."

Heaven and earth are summoned to hearken to this magnificent outpouring. Its range is

commensurate with its vast moral importance. "My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech

shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the

grass; because I will publish the name of the Lord; ascribe ye greatness unto our God."

Here lies the solid, the imperishable foundation of everything. Come what may, the Name of

our God shall stand for ever. No power of earth or hell can possibly countervail the divine

purpose, or hinder the outshining of the divine glory. What sweet rest this gives the heart, in

the midst of this dark, sorrowful sin-stricken world, and in the face of the apparently

successful schemes of the enemy! Our refuge, our resource, our sweet relief and solace are

found in the Name of the Lord our God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Truly

the publication of that blessed Name must ever be as the refreshing dew and tender rain

falling upon the heart. This is, of a truth, the divine and heavenly doctrine on which the soul

can feed, and by which it is sustained, at all times, and under all circumstances.

"He is the Rock"—not merely a rock. There is, there can be no other Rock but Himself.

Eternal and universal homage to His glorious Name!—"His work is perfect;"—not a single

flaw in anything that comes from His blessed hand, all bears the stamp of absolute

perfection. This will be made manifest to all created intelligences by-and-by. It is manifest to

faith now, and is a spring of divine consolation to all true believers. The very thought of it

distills as the dew upon the thirsty soul. "For all his ways are judgement; a God of truth, and

without iniquity, just and right is he." Infidels may cavil and sneer; they may, in their fancied

wisdom, try to pick holes in the divine actings; but their folly shall be manifest to all. "Let

God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy

sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged." God must have the upper hand, in the

end. Let men beware how they presume to call in question the sayings and doings of the only

true, the only wise and the almighty God.

There is something uncommonly fine in the opening notes of this song. It gives the sweetest

rest to the heart to know that however man and even the People of God may fail and come to

ruin, yet we have to do with One who abideth faithful and can not deny Himself, whose ways

are absolutely perfect, and who, when the enemy has done his very utmost, and brought all

his malignant designs to a head, shall glorify Himself and bring in universal and everlasting

blessedness.

True, He has to execute judgement upon man's ways. He is constrained to take down the rod

of discipline and use it, at times, with terrible severity upon His own people. He is perfectly

intolerant of evil in those who bear His holy Name. All this comes out, with special

solemnity in the song before us. Israel's ways are exposed and dealt with unsparingly; nothing

is allowed to pass; all is set forth with holy precision and faithfulness. Thus we read, "They

have corrupted themselves; their spot is not the spot of his children; they are a perverse and

crooked generation. Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy

father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee?"

Here we have the first note of reproof, in this song; but no sooner has it fallen on the ear than

it is followed by a most precious outpouring of testimony to the goodness, loving kindness,

faithfulness, and tender mercy of Jehovah, the Elohim of Israel, and the Most High, or Elion

of all the earth. "Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations; ask thy

father, and he will show thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee; when the Most High [God's

millennial title] divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam,

he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel."

What a glorious fact is here unfolded to our view! A fact but little understood or taken

account of by the nations of the earth. How little do men consider that, in the original

settlement of the great national boundaries, the Most High had direct reference to "the

children of Israel"! That thus it was, and the reader should seek to grasp this grand and

intensely interesting fact. When we look at Geography and History from a divine standpoint,

we find that Canaan and the seed of Jacob are God's centre. Yes; Canaan, a little strip of

land, lying along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, with an area of eleven thousand

square miles, about a third of the extent of Ireland is the centre of God's geography; and the

twelve tribes of Israel are the central object of God's history. How little have geographers and

historians thought of this! They have described countries, and written the history of nations

which in geographical extent and political importance far outstrip Palestine and its people,

according to human thinking, but which, in God's account, are as nothing compared with that

little strip of land which He deigns to call His own, and which it is His fixed purpose to

inherit through the seed of Abraham His friend.*

{*How true it is that God's thoughts are not man's thoughts, or His ways as man's ways? Man

attaches importance to extensive territories, material strength, pecuniary resources, well-

disciplined armies, powerful fleets. God, on the contrary, takes no account of such things,

they are to Him as the small dust of the balance. "Have ye not known? have ye not heard?

hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of

the earth? It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as

grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to

dwell in; that bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.

Hence we may see the moral reason why, in selecting a country to be the centre of His earthly

plans and counsels, Jehovah did not select one of vast extent, but a very small and

insignificant strip of land of little account in the thoughts of men. But oh! what importance

attaches to that little spot! What principles have been unfolded there! What events have taken

place there! What deeds have been done there! What plans and purposes are yet to be

wrought out there! There is not a spot on the face of the earth so interesting to the heart of

God as the land of Canaan and the city of Jerusalem. Scripture teems with evidence as to this.

We could fill a small volume with proofs. The time is rapidly approaching when living acts

will do what the fullest and clearest testimony of scripture fails to do, namely, convince men

that the land of Israel was, is, and ever shall be God's earthly centre. All other nations owe

their importance, their interest, their place in the pages of inspiration simply to the fact of

their being, in some way or other, connected with the land and people of Israel. How little do

historians know or think of this! But surely every one who loves God ought to know it and

ponder it.}

We cannot attempt to dwell upon this most important and suggestive fact, but we would ask

the reader to give it his serious consideration. He will find it fully developed and strikingly

illustrated in the prophetic scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. "The Lord's portion is

his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste

howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his

eye"—the most sensitive, delicate part of the human body—"As an eagle stirreth up her nest,

fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them upon her

wings;"—to teach them to fly and keep them from falling "so the Lord alone did lead him,

and there was no strange god with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that

he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and

oil out of the flinty rock; butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the

breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure

blood of the grape."

Need we say that the primary application of all this is to Israel? No doubt, the church may

learn from it, and profit by it; but to apply it to the church would involve a double mistake, a

mistake of the most serious nature; it would involve nothing less than the reducing of the

church from a heavenly to an earthly level; and the most unwarrantable interference with

Israel's divinely appointed place and portion. What, we may lawfully inquire, has the church

of God, the body of Christ to do with the settlement of the nations of the earth? Nothing

whatever. The church, according to the mind of God, is a stranger on the earth. Her portion,

her hope, her home, her inheritance, her all is heavenly. It would make no difference in the

current of this world's history if the church had never been heard of. Her calling, her walk,

her destiny, her whole character and course, her principles and morals, are, or ought to be

heavenly. The church has nothing to do with the politics of this world. Our citizenship is in

heaven, from whence she looks for the Saviour: She proves false to her Lord, false to her

calling, false to her principles in so far as she meddles with the affairs of nations. It is her

high and holy privilege to be linked and morally identified with a rejected, crucified, risen

and glorified Christ. She has no more to do with the present system of things, or with the

current of this world's history, than her glorified Head in the heavens. "They," says our Lord

Christ, speaking of His people, "are not of the world, even as I am not of the world."

This is conclusive. It fixes our position and our path in the most precise and definite way

possible. "As he is so are we in this world." This involves a double truth, namely, our perfect

acceptance with God, and our complete separation from the world. We are in the world, but

not of it. We have to pass through it as pilgrims and strangers looking out for the coming of

our Lord, the appearing of the bright and morning star. It is no part of our business to

interfere with municipal or political matters. We are called and exhorted to obey the powers

that be, to pray for all in authority, to pay tribute, and owe no man anything; to be "blameless

and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation"

among whom we are to "shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life."

From all this we may gather something of the immense practical importance of "rightly

dividing the word of truth." We have but little idea of the injury done both to the truth of God

and to the souls of His people by confounding Israel with the church, the earthly and the

heavenly. It hinders all progress in the knowledge of scripture, and mars the integrity of

Christian walk and testimony. This may seem a strong statement; but we have seen the truth

of it painfully illustrated, times without number; and we feel that we cannot too urgently call

the attention of the reader to the subject. We have, more than once, referred to it in the

progress of our studies on the Pentateuch, and therefore we shall not further pursue it here,

but proceed with our chapter.

At verse 15, we reach a very different note in the song of Moses. Up to this point, we have

had before us God and His actings, His purposes, His counsels, His thoughts, His loving

interest in His people Israel, His tender gracious dealings with them. All this is full of

deepest, richest blessing. There is—there can be no drawback here. When we have God and

His ways before us, there is no hindrance to the heart's enjoyment. All is perfection —

absolute, divine perfection, and as we dwell upon it, we are filled. with wonder, love and

praise.

But there is the human side; and here alas! all is failure and disappointment. Thus at the

fifteenth verse of our chapter we read, "But Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked"—what a very

full and suggestive statement! How vividly it presents, in its brief compass, the moral history

of Israel!—thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he

forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They provoked

him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger. They

sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly

up, whom your fathers feared not. Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast

forgotten God that formed thee."

There is a solemn voice in all this for the writer and the reader. We are, each of us, in danger

of treading the moral path indicated by the words just quoted. Surrounded, on all hands, by

the rich and varied mercies of God, we are apt to make use of them to nourish a spirit of self-

complacency. We make use of the gifts to shut out the Giver. In a word, we, too, like Israel,

wax fat and kick. We forget God. We lose the sweet and precious sense of His presence, and

of His perfect sufficiency, and turn to other objects as Israel did to false gods. How often do

we forget the Rock that begat us, the God that formed us, the Lord that redeemed us! And all

this is so much the more inexcusable in us, inasmuch as our privileges are so much higher

than theirs. We are brought into a relationship and a position of which Israel knew absolutely

nothing; our privileges and blessings are of the very highest order; it is our privilege to have

fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ; we are the objects of that perfect

love which stopped not short of introducing us into a position in which it can be said of us,

"As he [Christ] is, so are we in this world." Nothing could exceed the blessedness of this;

even divine love itself could go no further than this. It is not merely that the love of God has

been manifested to us in the gift and the death of His only-begotten and well-beloved Son,

and in giving us His Spirit; but it has been made perfect with us by placing us in the very

same position as that blessed One on the throne of God.

All this is perfectly marvellous. It passeth knowledge. And yet how prone we are to forget the

blessed One who has so loved us, and wrought for us, and blessed us! How often we slip

away from Him in the spirit of our minds and the affections of our hearts! It is not merely a

question of what the professing church, as a whole, has done, but the very much deeper,

closer, more pointed question of what our own wretched hearts are constantly prone to do.

We are apt to forget God, and to turn to other objects, to our serious loss and His dishonour.

Would we know how the heart of God feels as to all this? Would we form anything like a

correct idea of how He resents it? Let us hearken to the burning words addressed to His

erring people Israel, the overwhelming strains of the song of Moses. May we have grace to

hear them aright, and deeply profit by them!

"And when the Lord saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of His sons and of

His daughters. And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall

be;"—alas! alas! a truly deplorable end—"for they are a very froward generation, children in

whom is no faith. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have

provoked me to anger with their vanities; and I will move them to jealousy with those which

are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. For a fire is kindled in

mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her

increase, and shall set on fire the foundations of the mountains. I will heap mischiefs upon

them; I will spend mine arrows upon them. They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured

with burning heat, and with bitter destruction; I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them,

with the poison of serpents of the dust. The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy

both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs." (Vers. 19-

26.)

Here we have a most solemn record of God's governmental dealings with His people—a

record eminently calculated to set forth the awful truth of Hebrews 10: 31, "It is a fearful

thing to fall into the hands of the living God." The history of Israel, in the past; their

condition, at present; and what they are yet to pass through, in the future, all goes to prove in

the most impressive manner that "our God is a consuming fire." No nation on the face of the

earth has ever been called to pass through such severe discipline as the nation of Israel. As

the Lord reminds them in those deeply solemn words, "You only have I known of all the

families of the earth, therefore will I punish you for your iniquities." No other nation was

ever called to occupy the highly privileged place of actual relationship with Jehovah. This

dignity was reserved for one nation; but the very dignity was the basis of a most solemn

responsibility. If they were called to be His people, they were responsible to conduct

themselves in a way worthy of such a wondrous position, or else have to undergo the heaviest

chastenings ever endured by any nation under the sun. Men may reason about all this; they

may raise all manner of questions as to the moral consistency of a benevolent Being acting

according to the terms set forth in verses 22-25 of our chapter. But all such questions and

reasonings must, sooner or later, be discovered to be utter folly. It is perfectly useless for men

to argue against the solemn actings of divine government, or the terrible severity of the

discipline exercised towards the chosen People of God. How much wiser, and better, and

safer to be warned by the facts of Israel's history to flee from the wrath to come, and lay hold

upon eternal life, and full salvation revealed in the precious gospel of God!

And then, with regard to the use which Christians should make of the record of His dealings

with His earthly people, we are bound to turn it to most profitable account by learning from it

the urgent need of walking humbly, watchfully and faithfully in our high and holy position.

True, we are the possessors of eternal life, the privileged subjects of that magnificent grace

which reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord; we are

members of the body of Christ, temples of the Holy Ghost, and heirs of eternal glory. But;

does all this afford any warrant for neglecting the warning voice which Israel's history utters

in our ears? Are we, because of our incomparably higher privileges, to walk carelessly and

despise the wholesome admonitions which Israel's history supplies? God forbid! Nay, we are

bound to give earnest heed to the things which the Holy Ghost has written for our learning.

The higher our privileges, the richer our blessings, the nearer our relationship, the more does

it become us the more solemnly are we bound to be faithful, and to seek, in all things, to

carry ourselves in such a way as to be well-pleasing to Him who has called as into the very

highest and most blessed place that even His perfect love could bestow. The Lord, in His

great goodness, grant that we may, in true purpose of heart, ponder these things in His holy

presence, and earnestly seek to serve Him with reverence and godly fear!

But we must proceed with our chapter.

At verse 26, we have a point of deepest interest in connection with the history of the divine

dealings with Israel. "I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the

remembrance of them to cease from among men." And why did He not? The answer to this

question presents a truth of infinite value and importance to Israel—a truth which lies at the

very foundation of all their future blessing. No doubt, so far as they are concerned, they

deserved to have their remembrance blotted out from among men. But God has His own

thoughts, and counsels, and purposes respecting them; and not only so, but He takes account

of the thoughts and the actings of the nations in reference to His people. This comes out with

singular force and beauty at verse 27. He condescends to give us His reasons for not

obliterating every trace of the sinful and rebellious people—and oh! what a touching reason it

is! "were it not what I feared the wrath of the enemy lest their adversaries should behave

themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the Lord hath not done

all this."

Can anything be more affecting than the grace that breathes in these words? God will not

permit the nations to behave themselves strangely toward His poor erring people. He will use

them as His rod of discipline, but the moment they attempt, in the indulgence of their own

bitter animosity, to exceed their appointed limit, He will break the rod in pieces, and make it

manifest to all that He Himself is dealing with His beloved, though erring people, for their

ultimate blessing and His glory.

This is a truth of unspeakable preciousness. It is the fixed purpose of Jehovah to teach all the

nations of the earth that Israel has a special place in His heart, and a destined place of pre-

eminence on the earth. This is beyond all question. The pages of the prophets furnish a body

of evidence perfectly unanswerable on the point. If nations forget or oppose, so much the

worse for them. It is utterly vain for them to attempt to countervail the divine purpose, for

they may rest assured that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will confound every scheme

formed against the people of His choice. Men may think, in their pride and folly, that their

hand is high, but they will have to learn that God's hand is higher still.

But our space does not admit of our dwelling upon this deeply interesting subject; we must

allow the reader to pursue it for himself, in the light of holy scripture. He will find it a most

profitable and refreshing study. Most gladly would we accompany him through the precious

pages of the prophetic scriptures, but we must just now confine ourselves to the magnificent

song which is in itself a remarkable epitome of the entire teaching on the point—a brief, but

comprehensive and impressive history of God's ways with Israel and Israel's ways with God,

from first to last—a history strikingly illustrative of the great principles of grace, law,

government and glory.

At verse 29, we have a very touching appeal. "O that they were wise, that they understood

this, that they would consider their latter end? How should one chase a thousand, and two

put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had shut them up?

For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges."—There is,

there can be but the one Rock, blessed, throughout all ages be His glorious Name!—"For

their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of

gall, their clusters are bitter; their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of

asps."

Terrible picture of a people's moral condition drawn by a master hand! Such is the divine

estimate of the real state of all those whose rock was not as the Rock of Israel. But a day of

vengeance will come. It is delayed, in long-suffering mercy, but it will come as sure as there

is a God on the throne of heaven. A day is coming when those nations which have dealt

proudly with Israel shall have to answer at the bar of the Son of man for their conduct, hear

His solemn sentence, and meet His unsparing wrath.

"Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures? To me belongeth

vengeance, and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time; for the day of their calamity is

at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. For the Lord shall judge

[vindicate, defend or avenge] his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth

that their power is gone, and there is none shut up or left." Precious grace for Israel, by-and-

by—for each, for all, now, who feel and own their need!

"And he shall say, "Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted: which did eat the

fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help

you and be your protection. See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill,

and I make alive; I wound and I heal:"—wound in governmental wrath, and heal in pardoning

grace; all homage to His great and holy Name, throughout the everlasting ages!—"neither is

there any that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for

ever."—Glory be to God in the highest! Let all created intelligences adore His matchless

Name!—"If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgement,"—as it most

assuredly, will—"l will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate

me"—whoever and wherever they are. Tremendous sentence for all whom it may concern—

for all haters of God—all lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God!—"I will make mine

arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the

slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy."

Here we reach the end of the heavy record of judgement, wrath and vengeance, so briefly

presented in this song of Moses, but so largely unfolded throughout the prophetic scriptures.

The reader can refer, with much interest and profit, to Ezekiel 38 and 39, where we have the

judgement of Gog and Magog, the great northern foe who is to come up, at the end, against

the land of Israel and there meet his ignominious fall and utter destruction.

He may also turn to Joel 3 which opens with words of balm and consolation for the Israel of

the future. "For behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity

of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the

valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage

Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land." Thus he will see

how perfectly the voices of the prophets harmonise with the song of Moses; and how fully,

how clearly, and how unanswerably, in both the one and the other, does the Holy Ghost set

forth and establish the grand truth of Israel's future restoration, supremacy and glory.

And then how truly delightful is the closing note of our song! How magnificently it places the

topstone upon the whole superstructure! All the hostile nations are judged, under whatever

style or title they appear upon the scene, whether it be Gog and Magog, the Assyrian, or the

king of the north—all the foes of Israel shall be confounded and consigned to everlasting

perdition, and then this sweet note falls upon the ear, "REJOICE, O YE NATIONS, WITH

HIS PEOPLE; FOR HE WILL AVENGE THE BLOOD OF HIS SERVANTS, AND WILL

RENDER VENGEANCE TO HIS ADVERSARIES, AND WILL BE MERCIFUL UNTO

HIS LAND AND TO HIS PEOPLE"

Here ends this marvellous song, one of the very finest, fullest and most forcible utterances in

the whole Volume of God. It begins and ends with God, and takes in, in its comprehensive

range, the history of His earthly people Israel, past, present and future. It shows us the

ordering of the nations in direct reference to the divine purpose as to the seed of Abraham. It

unfolds the final judgement of all those nations that have acted or shall yet act in opposition

to the chosen seed; and then when Israel is fully restored and blessed, according to the

covenant made with their fathers, the saved nations are summoned to rejoice with them.

How glorious is all this! What a splendid circle of truths is presented to the vision of our

souls in the thirty-second chapter of Deuteronomy! Well may it be said, "God is the Rock, his

work is perfect." Here the heart can rest, in holy tranquillity, come what may. Everything

may go to pieces in man's hand; all that is merely human may and must issue in hopeless

wreck and ruin; but "The Rock" shall stand for ever, and every "work" of the divine Hand

shall shine in everlasting perfection to the glory of God and the perfect blessing of His

people.

Such, then, is the song of Moses; such its scope, range and application. The intelligent reader

does not need to be told that the church of God, the body of Christ, the mystery of which the

blessed apostle Paul was made the minister, finds no place in this song. When Moses wrote

this song, the mystery of the church lay hid in the bosom of God. If we do not see this, we are

wholly incompetent to interpret or even to understand the holy scriptures. To a simple mind,

taught exclusively by scripture, it is as clear as a sunbeam that the song of Moses has for its

thesis the government of God, in connection with Israel and the nations; for its sphere, the

earth; and for its centre, the land of Canaan.

"And Moses came and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and

Hoshea the son of Nun. And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel; and

he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day,

which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law. For it is not

a vain thing for you; because it is your life; and through this thing ye shall prolong your days

in the land, whither ye go over Jordan to possess it" (Vers. 44-47.)

Thus, from first to last, through every section of this precious book of Deuteronomy, we find

Moses, that beloved and most honoured servant of God, urging upon the people the solemn

duty of implicit, unqualified, hearty obedience to the word of God. In this lay the precious

secret of life, peace, progress, prosperity, all. They had nothing else to do but obey. Blessed

business! Happy holy duty! May it be ours, beloved reader, in this day of conflict and

confusion in the which man's will is so fearfully dominant. The world, and the so-called

church are rushing on together, with appalling rapidity, along the dark pathway of self-will—

a pathway which must end in the blackness of darkness for ever. Let us bear this in mind, and

earnestly seek to tread the narrow path of simple obedience to all the precious

commandments of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Thus shall our hearts be kept in sweet

peace; and although we may seem to the men of this world, and even to professing Christians

to be odd and narrow-minded, let us not be moved, the breadth of a hair, from the path

indicated by the word of God. May the word of Christ dwell in us richly, and the peace of

Christ rule in our hearts, until the end?

It is very remarkable, and indeed eminently impressive, to find our chapter closing with

another reference to Jehovah's governmental dealing with His beloved servant Moses. "And

the Lord spake unto Moses that self-same day"—the very day in which he uttered his song in

the ears of the people—"saying, Get thee up into this mountain Abarim, unto mount Nebo,

which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan,

which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession; and die in the mount whither thou

goest up, and be gathered unto thy people; as Aaron thy brother died in mount Hor, and was

gathered unto his people; because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at

the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, because ye sanctified me not in the

midst of the children of Israel. Yet thou shalt see the land before thee; but thou shalt not go

thither unto the land which I give the children of Israel." (Vers. 48-52)

How solemn and soul-subduing is the government of God! Surely it ought to make the heart

tremble at the very thought of disobedience. If such an eminent servant as Moses was judged

for speaking unadvisedly with his lips, what will be the end of those who live from day to

day, week to week, month to month, and year to year, in deliberate and habitual neglect of

the plainest commandments of God, and positive self-willed rejection of His authority?

Oh! for a lowly mind, a broken and contrite heart! This is what God looks for and delights in;

it is with such He can make His blessed abode. "To this man will I look, even to him who is

poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word." God in His infinite goodness, grant

much of this sweet spirit to each of His beloved children, for Jesus Christ's sake!

Deuteronomy 33.

"And this is the blessing, wherewith Moses, the man of God, blessed the children of Israel

before his death"

It is full of interest and comfort to find that the last words of the lawgiver were words of

unmingled blessing. We have dwelt upon his various discourses, those solemn, searching and

deeply affecting homilies addressed to the congregation of Israel. We have meditated upon

that marvellous song with its mingled notes of grace and government. But we are now called

to hearken to words of most precious benediction, words of sweetest comfort and

consolation, words flowing from the very heart of the God of Israel and giving His own

loving thoughts respecting them, and His onlook into their glorious future.

The reader will, doubtless, notice a marked difference between the last words of Moses as

recorded in Deuteronomy 33, and the last words of Jacob as given in Genesis 49. It is

needless to say that both are given by the same pen, both divinely inspired; and hence,

although they differ, they do not and cannot clash; there is—there can be no discrepancy

between two sections of the Volume of God. This is a cardinal truth, a vital and fundamental

principle with every devout Christian, every true believer—a truth to be tenaciously grasped

and faithfully confessed, in the face of all the ignorant and insolent assaults of infidelity.

We are not, of course, going to enter upon an elaborate comparison of the two chapters; this

would be impossible just now, on various grounds. We are obliged to be as concise and brief

as possible. But there is one grand point of difference which can be seized at a glance. Jacob

gives the history of the actings of his sons, some of them, alas! most sad and humiliating.

Moses, on the contrary, presents the actings of divine grace, whether in them or toward them.

This will, at once, account for the difference. The evil actings of Reuben, of Simeon, and of

Levi are recorded by Jacob, but entirely omitted by Moses. Is this discrepancy? Nay; but

divine harmony, Jacob views his sons in their personal history; Moses views them in their

covenant relationship with Jehovah. Jacob gives us human failure, infirmity and sin; Moses

gives us divine faithfulness, goodness and loving-kindness. Jacob gives us human actings and

judgement thereon; Moses gives us divine counsels and unmingled blessing flowing out of

them. Thanks and praise to our God, His counsels and His blessings and His glory are above

and beyond all human failure, sin and folly. He will, ultimately, have it all His own way, and

that for ever; then Israel and the nations shall be fully blessed, and shall rejoice together in

the abundant goodness of God, and celebrate His praise from shore to shore, and from the

river to the ends of the earth.

We shall now do little more than quote for the reader the various blessings of the tribes. They

are full of most precious instruction, and do not call for much in the way of exposition.

"And he said, The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth

from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints [holy ones]; from his right hand

went a fiery law for them. Yea, he loved the people" precious, unfailing source of all their

future blessing!—"All his saints are in thy hand;"—True secret of their perfect security!

"And they sat down at thy feet;"—The only safe and proper attitude, for them, for us, for

each, for all!—"Every one shall receive of thy words;"—Blessed boon! Precious treasure!

Every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord is more precious by far than

thousands of gold and silver; sweeter also than honey and the honey-comb—"Moses

commanded us a law, even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob. And he was king in

Jeshurun, when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together. Let

Reuben live and not die, and let not his men be few."

We have nothing here about Reuben's instability, nothing about his sin. Grace is in the

ascendant; blessings are flowing in rich abundance from the loving heart of the One who

delights to bless and to surround Himself with hearts filled to overflowing with the sense of

His goodness.

"And this is the blessing of Judah; and he said, Hear, Lord, the voice of Judah, and bring him

unto his people; let his hands be sufficient for him; and be thou an help to him from his

enemies." Judah is the royal line. "Our Lord sprang out of Judah," thus illustrating, in a truly

marvellous manner, how divine grace rises, in its majesty, above human sin, and triumphs

gloriously over circumstances which reveal man's utter weakness.

"Judas: begat Phares and Zara of Thamar!" Who but the Holy Spirit could have penned these

words? How plainly they declare that God's thoughts are not as our thoughts! What human

hand would have introduced Thamar into the genealogical line of our adorable Lord and

Saviour Jesus Christ? Not one. The stamp of divinity is strikingly impressed on Matthew 1: 3,

as it is upon every clause of the Holy Volume from beginning to end. The Lord be praised

that it is so!

"Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise; thy hand shall be in the neck of thine

enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion's whelp; from the

prey, my son, thou art gone up; he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion;

who shall rouse him up? The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from

between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments

in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes; his eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth

white with milk." (Gen. 49: 8-12.)

"And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the

backside; sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice,

Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor

in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I

wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look

thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not; behold, the Lion of tribe of Judah,

the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. And

I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst

of the elders, stood a Lamb, as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which

are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth."

How highly favoured is the tribe of Judah! Surely to be in the genealogical line from which

our Lord sprang, is a high honour; and yet we know—for our Lord Himself has told us—that

it is far higher, far more blessed to hear the word of God and keep it. To do the will of God,

to treasure up in our hearts His precious commandments brings us morally nearer to Christ

than even the fact of being of His kindred according to the flesh. (Matt 12: 46-50.)

"And of Levi he said, Let thy Thummim and thy Urim [lights and perfections] be with thy

holy one, whom thou didst prove at Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of

Meribah; who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he

acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children; for they have observed thy word, and

kept thy covenant. They shall teach Jacob thy judgements, and Israel thy law; they shall put

incense before thee, and whole burnt sacrifice upon thing altar. Bless, Lord, his substance,

and accept the work of his hands; smite through the loins of them that rise against him, and

of them that hate him, that they rise not again." (Vers. 8-11.)

The reader will notice the fact that Simeon is left out here, though so intimately associated

with Levi in Genesis 49. "Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their

habitations. O my soul, come not thou into their secret: unto their assembly, mine honour, be

not thou united; for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down a

wall. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide

them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel."

Now, when we compare Genesis 49 with Deuteronomy 33, we observe two things, namely,

human responsibility, on the one hand; and divine sovereignty, on the other. Moreover, we

see nature and its actings; grace and its fruits. Jacob looks at Simeon and Levi linked together

in nature, and displaying nature's tempers and ways. So far as they were concerned, they both

alike deserved the curse. But in Levi, we see the glorious triumphs of sovereign grace. It was

grace which enabled Levi, in the days of the golden calf, to gird on the sword and stand for

the glory of the God of Israel. "Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is

on the Lord's side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves

together unto him. And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man

his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay

every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. And the

children of Levi did according to the word of Moses; and there fell of the people that day

about three thousand men. For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, even

every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this

day." (Ex. 32: 26-29)

Where was Simeon, on this occasion? He was with Levi in the day of nature's self-will, fierce

anger and cruel wrath; why not in the day of bold decision for Jehovah? He was ready to go

with his brother to avenge a family insult, why not to vindicate the honour of God, insulted as

it was by the idolatrous act of the whole congregation? Will any one say he was not

responsible? Let such an one beware how he raises such a question. The call of Moses was

addressed to the whole congregation; Levi alone responded; and he got the blessing. He stood

for God, in a dark and evil day, and for this he was honoured with the priesthood—the very

highest dignity that could be conferred upon him. The call was addressed to Simeon as well

as to Levi, but Simeon did not respond. Is there any difficulty here? To a mere theologian

there may be; but to a devout Christian, there is none. God is sovereign. He does as He

pleases and gives none account of any of His matters. If any one feels disposed to ask, "Why

is Simeon omitted in Deuteronomy 33?" The simple and conclusive answer is, "O man, who

art thou that repliest against God?" In Simeon, we see nature's actings judged; in Levi, we see

the fruits of grace rewarded; in both we see God's truth vindicated and His Name glorified.

Thus it ever has been; thus it is, and thus it shall be. Man is responsible; God is sovereign.

Are we called upon to reconcile these two propositions? Nay; we are called to believe them;

they are reconciled already, inasmuch as they appear side by side on the page of inspiration.

This is enough for every pious mind; and as for cavillers, they will get their definitive

answer, by-and-by.*

{*For further remarks on the tribe of Levi, the reader is referred to "Notes on the book of

Exodus," chapter 32. "Notes on the book of Numbers," chapters 3, 4 and 8. Also a small

pamphlet, first published in the year 1846, entitled, "The History of the Tribe of Levi

Considered."}

"And of Benjamin"—"the son of my right hand"—he said, "The beloved of the Lord shall

dwell in safety by him; and the Lord shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell

between his shoulders." Blessed place for Benjamin! Blessed place for each beloved child of

God! How precious is the thought of dwelling in safety in the divine presence, in conscious

nearness to the true and faithful Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, day and night abiding

under the covert of his sheltering wings.

"How blest are they who still abide,

Close sheltered by Thy watchful side;

Who life and strength from Thee receive,

And with Thee move and in Thee live."

Reader, seek to know, more and more, the reality and blessedness of Benjamin's place and

portion. Be not satisfied with anything short of the enjoyed presence of Christ, the abiding

sense of relationship and nearness to Him. Be assured of it, it is your happy privilege. Let

nothing rob you of it. Keep ever near the Shepherd's side, reposing in His love, lying down in

the green pastures and beside the still waters. The Lord grant that the writer and the reader

may prove the deep blessedness of this, in this day of hollow profession and empty talk! May

we know the unspeakable preciousness of deep personal intimacy with Himself! This is the

special need of the day in which our lot is cast—a day of so much intellectual traffic in truth,

but of so little heart knowledge and true appreciation of Christ.

"And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the Lord be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for

the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath, and for the precious fruits brought forth by

the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon, and for the chief things of the

ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills, and for the precious things

of the earth and fullness thereof, and for the goodwill of him that dwelt in the bush; let the

blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that was

separated from his brethren. His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are

like the horns of unicorns; with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the

earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh."

Joseph is a very remarkable type of Christ. We have dwelt upon his history in our studies on

the book of Genesis. The reader will notice the emphatic way in which Moses speaks of the

fact of his having been separated from his brethren. He was rejected and cast into the pit. He

passed, in figure, through the deep waters of death, and thus reached the place of dignity and

glory. He was raised from the dungeon to be ruler over the land of Egypt, and the preserver

and sustainer of his brethren. The iron entered into his soul, and he was made to taste the

bitterness of the place of death ere he entered the sphere of glory. Striking type of Him who

hung upon the cross, lay in the grave, and is now on the throne of the majesty of heaven.

We cannot but be struck with the fullness of the blessing pronounced upon Joseph, both by

Moses, in Deuteronomy 33 and by Jacob, in Genesis 49. Jacob's utterance is uncommonly

fine. "Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well,"—Exquisitely beautiful

figure!—"whose branches run over the wall. The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at

him, and hated him: but his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made

strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of

Israel) even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty who shall

bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of

the breasts, and of the womb: the blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of

my progenitors, unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of

Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren."

Magnificent range of blessing! And all this flowing from and based upon his sufferings. It is

needless to say that all these blessings will be made good in the experience of Israel, by-and-

by. The sufferings of the true Joseph will form the imperishable foundation of the future

blessedness of His brethren in the land of Canaan; and not only so but the tide of blessing,

deep and full, shall flow forth from that highly favoured though now desolate land, in

refreshing virtue into all the earth. "And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out

from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea:

in summer and in winter shall it be." Bright and blessed prospect for Jerusalem, for the land

of Israel, and for the whole earth! What a sad mistake to apply such scriptures to the gospel

dispensation or to the church of God! How contrary to the testimony of holy scripture—to the

heart of God and to the mind of Christ!

"And of Zebulun he said, Rejoice, Zebulun, in thy going out, and, Issachar, in thy tents. They

shall call the people unto the mountain; there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness; for

they shall suck of the abundance of the seas, and of the treasures hid in the sand."

Zebulun is to rejoice in his going forth, and Issachar in abiding in his tents. It will be joy at

home and abroad; and there will be power to act on others also—calling the people unto the

mountain to offer the sacrifices of righteousness. All this grounded upon the fact that they

themselves shall suck of the abundance of the seas and of hidden treasures. Thus it is always

in principle. It is our privilege to rejoice in the Lord, come what may, and to draw from those

eternal springs and hidden treasures that are to be found in Himself. Then shall we be in a

condition of soul to call others to taste and see that the Lord is good; and, not only so, but to

present to God those sacrifices of righteousness so acceptable to Him.

"And of Gad he said, Blessed be he that enlargeth Gad: he dwelleth as a lion, and teareth the

arm with the crown of the head. And he provided the first part for himself, because there, in a

portion of the lawgiver, was he seated; and he came with the heads of the people, he

executed the justice of the Lord, and his judgements with Israel. And of Dan he said, Dan is a

lion's whelp; he shall leap from Bashan. And of Naphtali he said, O Naphtali, satisfied with

favour, and full with the blessing of the Lord: possess thou the west and the south. And of

Asher he said, Let Asher be blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his brethren, and

let him dip his foot in oil. Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days thy strength.

There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in

his excellency on the sky. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting

arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them. Israel

then shall dwell in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine;

also his heavens shall drop down dew. Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O

people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! and

thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places."

(Vers. 20-29.)

Truly we may say human comment is uncalled for here. Nothing can exceed the preciousness

of the grace that breathes in the closing lines of our book. The blessings of this chapter, like

the song of chapter 33. begin and end with God and His marvellous ways with Israel. It is

refreshing and comforting, beyond expression, at the close of all the appeals, all the

exhortations, all the solemn warnings, all the faithful declarations, all the prophetic records

as to failure and sin, judgement and governmental wrath—after all these, to listen to such

accents as those which we have just penned. It is indeed a most magnificent termination to

this blessed book of Deuteronomy. Grace and glory shine out with uncommon lustre. God

will yet be glorified in Israel, and Israel fully and for ever blessed in God. Nothing can hinder

this. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. He will make good every jot and

tittle of His precious word to Israel. The last words of the lawgiver bear the clearest and

fullest testimony to all this. Had we nothing but the last four verses of the precious chapter on

which we have been dwelling, they would be amply sufficient to prove, beyond all question,

the future restoration, blessing, pre-eminence and glory of the twelve tribes of Israel in their

own land.

True it is—blessedly true—that the Lord's people now can draw instruction, comfort and

refreshment from the blessings pronounced upon Israel. Blessed be God, we can know what

it is to be "satisfied with favour, and full of the blessing of the Lord." We may take comfort

from the assurance that "as our days shall be our strength." We too can say, "The eternal God

is our refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." We can say all this and much more.

We can say what Israel never could and never can say. The church's blessings and privileges

are all heavenly and spiritual; but that does not hinder our taking comfort from the promises

made to Israel. The grand mistake of professing Christians is in applying to the church

exclusively what most manifestly applies to God's earthly people. We must, once more,

earnestly entreat the Christian reader to watch against this serious error. He need not be in the

least afraid of losing anything of His own special blessing by leaving to the seed of Abraham

the place and the portion assigned them by the counsels and promises of God; on the

contrary, it is only when these are clearly understood and fully acknowledged that we can

make an intelligent use of the entire canon of Old Testament scripture. We may lay it down

as a great root principle that no one can possibly understand or interpret scripture who does

not clearly recognise the grand distinction between Israel and the church of God.

Deuteronomy 34.

This brief chapter forms an inspired postscript to the book of Deuteronomy. We are not told

who was employed as the instrument in the hand of the inspiring Spirit; but this is a matter of

no moment to the devout student of holy scripture. We are fully persuaded that the postscript

is as truly inspired as the book, and the book as the Pentateuch; and the Pentateuch as the

whole Volume of God.

"And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top, of

Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead, unto

Dan, and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah,

unto the utmost sea, and the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm

trees, unto Zoar. And the Lord said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham,

unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed; I have caused thee to see it

with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. So Moses the servant of the Lord died

there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in a valley

in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this

day."

In our studies on the books of Numbers and Deuteronomy, we have had occasion to dwell

upon the very solemn and, we may truly add, soul subduing fact recorded in the above

quotation. It will not therefore be needful to add many words in this our closing section. We

would merely remind the reader that, if he would have a full understanding of the whole

subject, he must look at Moses in a twofold aspect, namely, officially and personally.

Now, looking at this beloved and honoured man in his official capacity, it is very plain that it

lay not in his province to conduct the congregation of Israel into the promised land. The

wilderness was his sphere of action; it pertained not to him to lead the people across the river

of death, into their destined inheritance. His ministry was connected with man's responsibility

under law and the government of God, and hence it never could lead the People into the

enjoyment of the promise. It was reserved for his successor to do this. Joshua, a type of the

risen Saviour, was God's appointed instrument to lead His people across the Jordan, and plant

them in their divinely given inheritance.

All this is plain and deeply interesting; but we must look at Moses personally as well as

officially; and here, too, we must view him in a twofold aspect, as the subject of government

and the object of grace. We must never lose sight of this most important distinction. It runs

all through scripture, and is strikingly illustrated in the history of many of the Lord's beloved

people and of His most eminent servants. The subject of grace and government demands the

reader's most profound attention. We have dwelt upon it again and again, in the course of our

studies; but no words of ours could adequately set forth its moral importance and immense

practical value. We consider it one of the weightiest and most seasonable subjects that could

possibly engage the attention of the Lord's people, at the present moment.

It was the government of God which, with stern decision, forbade the entrance of Moses into

the Promised land, much as he longed to do so. He spoke unadvisedly with his lips; he failed

to glorify God in the eyes of the congregation at the waters of Meribah, and for this he was

forbidden to cross the Jordan and plant his foot on the promised land.

Let us deeply ponder this, beloved Christian reader. Let us see that we fully apprehend its

moral force and practical application. It is surely with the greatest tenderness and delicacy

that we would refer to the failure of one of the most beloved and illustrious of the Lord's

servants; but it has been recorded for our learning and solemn admonition, and therefore we

are bound to give earnest heed to it. We should ever remember that we, too, though under

grace, are also the subjects of divine government. We are here on this earth, in the place of

solemn responsibility, under a government which cannot be trifled with. True, we are

children of the Father, loved with an infinite and everlasting love—loved even as Jesus is

loved. We are members of the body of Christ, loved, cherished and nourished according to all

the perfect love of His heart. There is no question of responsibility here, no possibility of

failure; all is divinely settled, divinely sure; but we are the subjects of divine government

also. Let us never, for one moment, lose sight of this. Let us beware of one-sided and

pernicious notions of grace. The very fact of our being objects of divine favour and love,

children of God, members of Christ, should lead us to yield all the more reverent attention to

the divine government.

To use an illustration drawn from human affairs, her Majesty's children should, above all

others, just because they are her children, respect her government; and were they, in any way,

to transgress her laws, the dignity of government would be strikingly illustrated by their being

made to pay the penalty. If they, because of being the queen's children, were to be allowed to

transgress with impunity the enactments of her Majesty's government, it would be simply

exposing the government to public contempt, and affording a warrant to all her subjects to do

the same. And if it be thus in the case of a human government, how much more in the

government of God! "You only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore will I

punish you for your iniquities." "The time is come that judgement must begin at the house of

God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?"

Solemn fact! Solemn inquiry! May we ponder them deeply.

But, as we have said, Moses was the subject of grace, as well as of government; and truly that

grace shines with special lustre on the top of Pisgah. There the venerable servant of God was

permitted to stand in his Master's presence, and, with undimmed eye, survey the land of

promise, in all its fair proportions. He was permitted to see it from a divine stand-point—see

it, not merely as possessed by Israel, but as given by God.

And what then? He fell asleep and was gathered to his people. He died, not as a withered and

feeble old man, but in all the freshness and vigour of matured manhood. "And Moses was an

hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force

abated." Striking testimony! Rare fact in the annals of our fallen race! The life of Moses was

divided into three important and strongly marked periods of forty years each. He spent forty

years in the house of Pharaoh; forty years "at the backside of the desert;" and forty years in

the wilderness. Marvellous life! Eventful history! How instructive! How suggestive! How

rich in its lessons from first to last! How profoundly interesting the study of such a life! To

trace him from the river's brink where he lay a helpless babe, up to the top of Pisgah where

he stood, in company with his Lord, to gaze with undimmed vision upon the fair inheritance

of the Israel of God; and to see him again on the mount of Transfiguration in company with

his honoured fellow-servant Elias, "talking with Jesus" on the grandest theme that could

possibly engage the attention of men or angels. Highly favoured man! Blessed servant!

Marvellous vessel!

And then let us hearken to the divine testimony to this most beloved man Of God. "And there

arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, in all

the signs and the wonders which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and

to all his servants, and to all his land, and in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror

which Moses showed in the sight Of all Israel."

May the Lord, in His infinite goodness, bless our study of the book of Deuteronomy! May its

precious lessons be engraved upon the tablets of our hearts with the eternal pen of the Holy

Ghost, and produce their proper result in forming our character, governing our conduct and

shaping our way through this world! May we earnestly seek to tread with a humble spirit and

firm step, the narrow path of obedience, till travelling days are done! C. H. M.