THE DYING BELIEVER BIDDING FAREWELL TO
THE BIBLE.

O BOOK! life's guide! how shall we part,
And thou so long seized of my heart?
Take this last kiss; and let me weep,
True thanks to thee before I sleep.

Thou wert the first put in my hand,
When yet I could not understand,
And daily didst my young eyes lead
To letters, till I learnt to read;

But as rash youths, when once grown strong,
Fly from their nurses to the throng,

Where they new consorts choose, and stick
To those, till either hurt or sick:

So with that first light gain'd from thee,
Ran I in chase of vanity.

Cried dross for gold, and never thought
My first cheap book had all I sought.
Long reign'd this vogue; and thou, cast by,
With meek dumb looks didst woo mine eye,
And oft left open, would'st convey

A sudden and most searching ray
Into my soul, with whose quick touch,
Refusing still, I struggled much.
By this mild act of love, at length
Thou overcam'st my sinful strength;
And having brought me home, didst there
Shew me that pearl I sought elsewhere.
Gladness, and peace, and hope, and love,
The secret favours of the Dove;

Her quickening kindness, smiles, and kisses,
Exalted pleasures, crowning blisses,
Fruition, union, glory, life,

Thou didst lead to, and still all strife.
Living, thou wert my soul's sure ease,
And dying mak'st me go in peace:
Thy next effects no tongue can tell;
Farewell, O book of God, farewell!

From Silex Scintillans, or Sacred
Poems, by Henry Vaughan.

No. XXXII.

DEUTERONOMY.

We now come to the Book of Deuteronomy, a book full of interest in its moral warnings as to testimony, but presenting fewer subjects for interpretation and exegesis than those the summary of which we have sought to give. This book takes up Israel just on the borders of Canaan, and insists upon the maintenance of their relations with God, and on obedience to his commandments, as the only ground on which Israel can enter and continue therein; adding warnings as to the consequence of failure in obedience. The book may be divided into three parts. The first eleven chapters insist upon obedience, presenting various motives to lead the people to it. Then come, as far as the end of the twenty-ninth, divers commandments; to which are added, by way of sanction, the consequences of obedience, and the curse upon disobedience. From the thirtieth to the end we have things to come, the blessing of the people, and the death of Moses. Of the first eleven chapters, the first four form rather a distinct part. That which strikes one in the first chapters is, the pains that the Lord takes to present all possible motives to that poor people to lead them to obedience, in order that they may be blessed. These things, which ought at least to have touched the heart, served, alas! only to prove its hardness, and to show that, if man is to be blessed, God must give him a new heart, as it is written in the chapter which closes the second part of his exhortations to obcdience."Yet the Lord hath not given you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day" (xxix. 4).

Deuteronomy is, then, of all the books of Moses, that which is the most essentially conditional; that is to say, the first two divisions which I have pointed out. Chapter xxix., which is the last of the second division, ends

consequently by saying, "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."

The chapters which follow throw this into greater prominence, by unfolding the secret things which were to happen after the people had completely failed in the fulfilment of the law, as chapter xxx., and, still more strikingly, chapter xxxii., by speaking of righteousness by faith. For the discussion of righteousness by the law ended with chapter xxix.; and chapter xxx. supposes the people in a position in which the securing of righteousness by the law was impossible, and where it was only a question as to the spirit and the end of the law, in the counsels of God. Now, Christ was the end of it, and it is thus the Apostle applies the passage (Rom. x.). It is interesting also to see that the Lord always quotes Deuteronomy in answering Satan. puts Himself on the true ground where Israel stood, in order to possess and keep the land; being not only the faithful man, but the Jew, the true Son called out of Egypt, put to the test, as to His faithfulness, in the conditions under which the people were placed by Deuteronomy.

He

Let us examine a little more closely these chapters, which show the pains the Spirit took to set before the eyes of the people all the motives which could induce them to walk faithfully in the career which now lay

before them.

He begins with the narrative of what had occurred since the sojourn of the children of Israel at Sinai; and Moses reminds them of the commandment to leave that place and to go to the mount of the Amorites, to go up and possess the land. They get there, and, discouraged by the spies, they will not go up; then, trying to do so without God, they are smitten before their enemies. Passing by the borders of Esau and Moab, God gives them the land of Sihon and of Og. In a word, Moses

a It is interesting to put together the second and third verses. For an eleven days' journey, Israel took forty years. Alas! how often it is thus with us, owing to our unfaithfulness.

relates to them, in general, what had taken place with regard to their entrance into the land of which they are to take possession-the patience and the goodness of God. In reminding them of Horeb, he insists on the privilege they had enjoyed in nearness to God, who Himself had spoken to them out of the midst of the fire, when they saw no similitude-on the authority of the word-its majesty-excluding thus all thought of idolatry. He shews them that all that were of full age had perished, as a consequence of their unbelief-that he himself could not enter into that good land-that God is a jealous God, a consuming fire-and that, if they made any graven image, they would utterly perish from off the land they were about to enter, and would be scattered amongst the nations and left to serve the gods they had loved. That, nevertheless, they should find God if they sought Him with all their heart, for He is a merciful God, who would not forsake them; that if Sinai had been the brightness of His majesty, it was also true that such a God of majesty had never vouchsafed to come so near to a people, elect and chosen for their fathers' sakes. Such is the basis of the government of this people. Moses sets apart three cities of refuge, as a token of possession, on the part of God, of what was on this side Jordan. In chapter v. Moses reminds them of the ten commandments given in Horeb; and it is to be remarked, that the deliverance out of Egypt (not the rest of God after the work of creation) is the reason he gives for the sabbath.

He reminds them of their fear in the presence of the Lord; engages them, in chapter vi., to love God with all their heart; and exhorts them to remember His words in every way, and to keep them, when they should enjoy the land, having nothing to do with other gods. When they should cast out their enemies, as the Lord had spoken, and when their children should ask the meaning of the ordinances, they were to tell them of the deliverances and of the signs wrought in Egypt.

They were to destroy every vestige of false gods, being a people holy to the Lord, and that, not on account of their own importance, but because of the election and

love of God.

He assures them that their faithfulness

would also be the channel of blessing, for God would recompense them according to their ways.

Neither

In

ought they to fear, after all the signs they had seen. chapter viii. he also brings to mind the dealings of God with them by the way, as a motive, and how God had humbled and exercised them, lest through enjoyment of the blessings of the land they should be puffed up (for it was God who gave them the needed strength); that, otherwise, God would destroy them, as he had destroyed the nations (chap. ix.). He reminds them of their continual perverseness, to shew them, that it was not on account of their righteousness, but because of the wickedness of the nations, that God drove them out before them. This he applies to them (chap. x.), reminding them that God had renewed the law. Then, in chapter xi., he brings to their remembrance the judgments upon the Egyptians, and those upon Dathan and Abiram, and declares to them the beauty and excellency of the land into which they were about to enter, a land upon which the eyes of the Lord ever rested; and, lastly, he puts before them the blessing and the curse which there awaited them, according to their conduct, when brought in; charging them to keep carefully the commandments of the Lord, and to teach them to their children. And it is added, that, by keeping the commandments of God, they would be able to take possession according to the full extent of the promise.

The second division begins with chapter xii., and contains the statutes and ordinances they were bound to observe, It is not a repetition of the old ordinances, but what specially referred to their conduct in the land, that they might keep it and be blessed in it. It is a covenant or the conditions of their relations with God, and of the enjoyment of His promises, added to what had been said before (see chap. xxix. 1). The ordinances tended in general to this, that they were a people belonging to the Lord, and that they were to give up every

b The terms in which this is expressed present a perfectly beautiful contrast between the carefulness of man in seeking for blessing and the grace from above.