CHAPTER XXXI.-GIFTS TO GOD.

Gratitude yearning for utterance-Suitable provision in the law-Dedicating property to GodRedemptions on payment of money on a scale of values Personal consecrations-Devoted things unredeemable-Samuel- Jephthah's daughter-The typical distinction between sanctification and devotedness-This mortal and the immortal beyond-God only fitly served in the latter-The apparent inference from special consecrations that Israel were at liberty to live secular lives-A mistake-Only special holinesses in the midst of a holy people-A ty pe of what is coming-Provision for sanitation-Far better than modern sewage schemes-A clean, holy, happy earth coming-The antitype-The incorruptible camp of the saints-A perfect nature-perfect digestion-No residue-A pleasing pro pect - Food not necessary to life in the future state, but assimilatable to the spirit substance of the new body and a source of pleasure and refreshment-Wizards-The reason of their not being toleratedNecromancers, witches, diviners, familiar spirits and all pretenders, and robbers of the glory of God.

CHAPTER XXXII.—MINOR THINGS.

The non-muzzling of oxen in treading out the corn- A typical significance encouraging to workers--Unequal yoking of ox and ass-A lesson on the limits of practical co-operationNeck not to be put in the same collar with the unbelieving-The first numberings of Israel in the wilderness - Names of the enumerators-Their meanings-A concealed prophecy in a dry list The numbering a preparation for inheritance--A pattern as to days to come-The life of the redeemed not a social chacs-Exact in number and definite in station-The second numbering The number about the same after forty years-its probable significance in the second and final adjustment of human affairs at the close of the thousand years-Exclusion of the tribe of Levi from the census-Given to God-Counterpart in the saints given to Christ The Bride in the endless age-Captains, guides and officers for ever-The immortal population in the perfect age an organised and well-ordered society-The honour of being called to the millennial kingdom greater than the millennial Invitation to life eternal-The saved state a state of endlessly varied and joyful activity.

CHAPTER XXXIII.-FINISHINGS.

Extraneous but related matters-The present of wagons and oxen by the twelve princes-The divine acceptances of the present- The lesson of the incident-Unprescribed co-operation acceptable if in harmony with the principles of divine work Another instance in Jethro's recommendation of helpers to Moses- Modern applications-Shadowing of the work of Christ in the age to come-The twelve apostles on twelve thror es-Reigning and Co-operating-Yet individuality of thought ar d vo ition-The offering of the princes besides the present of the wagons and the oxen-Twelve similar offerings on twelve successive days -Why?-A probable explanation-The nature of the offering and its typical significances, pointing forward to the perfect service of God-Orders to march-Order of processionBeautiful order-No hitch-A foreshadowing of the perfect order that will prevail in the age of glory-The end of these commentaries -The law, though ended in Christ, to be brought into force again in Israel's midst at their restoration-The testimony that it will be soGeneral prophetic allusions to the same effect-In the day of Christ, the Law of Moses the understood typical memorial of the work accomplished in him-The last injunction of the Old Testament, to remember the Law of Moses-The hostile attitude of the nineteenth -century-In the twentieth century, the law enthroned in Zion.

AS A RULE OF NATIONAL AND INDIVIDUAL LIFE AND THE ENIGMATICAL ENUNCIATION OF DIVINE

PRINCIPLES AND PURPOSES.

CHAPTER I.--LAW: ITS NEED AND BEAUTY.

OW much the excellence of human life depends upon law : we do not at first realise how much !

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We grow up under the feeling that the best thing for us is to be just let

alone to follow the bent of our own sweet will. We learn at last that this is just the worst for any man or nation. Experience confounds false philosophy. Men are not as cabbage roses that will automatically unfold their blushing beauty, and exhale their fragrant odour if left alone; they are rather as the apple trees that will grow crabs unless grafted with good slips. The dictum of Christ and Paul is found correct: "in the flesh dwelleth no good thing" (Jno. vi. 63; Rom. vii. 18).

The fact is nationally illustrated in barbarous races, and, individually, in the uneducated members of civilised communities. The extremest demonstration is seen when a child happens to be kidnapped and brought up in the woods away from human culture, of which there have been instances.

Modern literature is impregnated with false notions on this subject. These false notions are generated by à false method of study. Man is looked at as he develops under the surroundings of an established civilization, and because he is interesting when enlightened and subject to law, he is supposed to be innately good and rational, requiring only a proper self-evolution. Disastrous results come from this theory when it is acted on in either public or family life. A lawless community, or stubborn and rebellious children bring misery when the hand of repressive discipline and kindly culture is absent.

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Human nature in itself is only a bundle of potentialities, which cannot be developed except by firm discipline under the wise administration of good laws. The best men of the best nations are those that have seen the most trouble, along with the possession of knowledge.

But what is law? In the abstract, it is a rule of action made obligatory; but its value must depend not only upon its obligatoriness, but upon its nature. Unless a law is calculated to evoke results of well-being, its obligatoriness will be a calamity. Its enforcement will oppress, and destroy instead of blessing. Hence the importance of devising laws and rules that will work out for good. But who is able to do this? It evidently requires a very far-sighted acquaintance with human nature and its needs, to be qualified to prescribe a law which in all points will work out individual and social well-being. The world knows much of law of one kind or another. That it has not attained to the law that it needs, is manifest from its evil state, and the ceaseless law-tinkering and agitation for law-tinkering going on in every country.

Among all the systems of law that have appeared among men, there is only one that makes any admissible claim to be Divine; and that is the system known as the law of Moses. Of this we have the most ample information in the Bible, apart from which we could have no reliable knowledge of it, for Jewish tradition and Rabbinical gloss tend rather to obscure than to reveal its features. We could wish for nothing fuller or more satisfactory on the subject than we get in the Bible; and we must assume on the present occasion that the Bible is good authority in spite of all the hostile endeavours of German, French, and British criticism. That body of criticism seems a weighty affair to people who make no endeavour to master the subject for themselves. In the abstract it is a mighty mass, but reduced to its elements, it only amounts to the opinions of men groping in obscurities, who hazard suggestions in a learned style, and catch up and send round each others' suggestions with the effect of holding each other up in their uncertainties. A single authoritative declaration of the resurrected Christ is as destructive to the whole mass as a spark of fire would be to a mountain of gunpowder.

We have more than a single word. Christ says that God spoke to Moses (Mark xii. 26) and that Moses gave the law (Jno. vii. 19); and that the books containing it are his writings (Jno. v. 46-47), and that it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than for one tittle of the law to fail (Luke xvi. 17). This is decisive against a whole world of speculation or doubt. We may trust absolutely, on Christ's authority, to the unmixed divinity of the law given by the instrumentality of

Moses. We are certain not to be deceived or disappointed in Christ's view of the case: who can say as much for the merely speculative critics of these late days?

If the law of Moses were not divine, there could be no object in considering it. A merely human conception of what was suitable for an age long gone by would be of no practical interest to men of our age, and of no value for guidance in a state of things so radically different. If it could be shown there were good things in it, they could only appear good on a principle that would leave us at liberty to discard or modify them according to our particular bias. Moses, in that case, would be down on our own level; and we probably should not feel disposed to submit our judgment to his on the mere score of antiquity, but probably the reverse, as we should naturally hold a later and longer experience to be a better guide than the experience of Moses at so early a time.

It is as a divine system that its study becomes so important. There is something in a work of God for us to profitably exercise our faculties on. A divinely prescribed rule of human action must be wise; and a ritual system that is divinely declared to be an allegory of the principles and the purposes before the divine mind in His dealings with the human race, cannot but be interesting and profitable when worked out by the clues divinely supplied (as they are in the later writings of inspiration, by the apostles).

The study of the law of Moses on this basis will lead us to share the intense admiration of it expressed in various parts of the Bible — panegyrics that otherwise appear as the mere extravagances of sentimentalism. Such for example as the language of David: "O, how love I thy law; it is my meditation all the day." And again, "The law of thy mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver; and again, "I hate vain thoughts; but thy law do I love "; and again, "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them thy servant is warned, and in keeping of them is great reward" (Psa. cxix. 97, 72, 113; xix. 9-11).

Moses himself speaks thus on the subject: "Behold I have taught you judgments and statutes, even as the Lord my God commanded me. 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 shall say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people; for what nation is there that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day?'

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(Deut. iv. 5-8). Paul in another way utters the same praise: law is holy, and the commandment holy, just and good. law is spiritual, but I am carnal and sold under sin " (Rom. vii. 14).

That the law should be strenuously enjoined on Israel is natural in view of its divine character. One of the most interesting of all the interesting incidents connected with Israel's settlement in the Land of Promise, when they came out of Egypt, was the public endorsement of its leading features by the assembled tribes in the valley formed by the two hills of Ebal and Gerizim-as commanded, and the imprecation of a curse on those who should fail to keep it. The particulars will be

found in Deut. xxvii. 2-26; Joshua viii. 33-35. In the presence of the massed multitudes, the Levites, stationed in the hollow, and within hearing of all (as travellers have found who have experimented), briefly recited the principal commandments of the law in rotation, and the whole multitude, at the end of each sentence, ejaculated an endorsing "Amen!" which must have sounded like a wave breaking on the shore. It was also a commandment (Deut. xxxi. 11-13) that, always when Israel should gather at the feasts (which was three times in a year-Deut. xvi. 16), the law should be read in their hearing. Before leaving them, Moses was very earnest in his entreaties that they should be obedient. He impressed upon them that their wellbeing depended upon it: "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. . . See," said he, "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 judgments that thou mayest live and multiply. . . 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" (Deut. xxx. 10, 15, 19). There is no more interesting chapter in the whole Bible than the long chapter in which he describes the blessings and the curses that were associated with the keeping or the breaking of the law (Deut. xxviii.), or the similar recital in Lev. xxvi. Joshua, before his death, spoke to them in a similar "Take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law which Moses, the servant of the Lord, charged you, to love the Lord your God and to walk in all His ways and to keep His commandments, and to cleave unto Him and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul" (Josh. xxii. 5).

vein :

Such later sayings as the following are the natural the subject:-"Whoso keepeth the law is a wise son, but

corollaries of

he that