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sible for the use which he makes of it, and is bound to distribute it freely, as the steward of his Lord; these are sentiments to which the worldly-minded and unrenewed heart is an entire stranger.

How, my young friend, do you feel in prosperity; and especially if what you enjoy appears to be the result of your own efforts? Do you still see the hand of God in it all? Do you glory, not in your own agency in the matter, but in the Lord; and praise his goodness for thus making his strength perfect in your weakness? Do you hold your blessings at his disposal, to use them and yourself as he sees best, for the promotion of his cause in the world, the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom, and the best interests of your fellow-men?

CHAPTER LXIV.

Moses continues his counsels. Promises and threatenings. The prediction of Moses respecting Christ. Gerizim and Ebal.

Moses continues to press additional considerations upon the children of Israel, to lead them to be constant in their obedience to God. When they

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shall have obtained possession of Canaan, he cautions them against indulging the sentiment, that, on account of any goodness of theirs, God had cast, out the heathen before them. " Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess the land: but for the wickedness of these 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."

No; they must always feel how utterly unwor thy they are of the blessings which they receive; and the deepest gratitude must be awakened in their breasts, and constrain them to love and obey God from the consideration of his unmerited goodness.

Moses speaks very plainly to them. He reminds them of their true character. He calls them a stiffnecked people; and bids them remember how they have provoked the Lord to wrath in the wilderness, and been rebellious against him, from the very day of their departure from Egypt, to the time when he is addressing them. He recounts the scenes at Horeb, when the molten calf was made; and the divine indignation was ready to destroy both them and Aaron utterly; and they were spared only in answer to his importunate intercession, through the mere mercy of God.

Such a people, spared, forgiven, and blessed by

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their offended Sovereign, while other guilty nations are to be cut off to give them a rich and happy inheritance, oh how ought they to love the Bealone maketh them thus to differ! ing whose grace And hath God been thus good to them, unworthy as they are, let them not forget to imitate this goodness. Let them treat with compassion and kindness those who need their aid. Jehovah himself protects the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.

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"Love ye, therefore, the stranger," is the solemn injunction of Moses; "for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." Thy fathers went down into Egypt with three score and ten persons; and now the Lord thy God hath made thee as the stars of the heaven for multitude." Among those who are so able to furnish it, let the wanderer and the friendless find a home, the soothing of their sorrows, and the supply of their necessities.

ness,

In Egypt, where the Israelites were strangers, God had appeared for their rescue, in his greatwith his mighty hand and his outstretched arm. Moses recalls this to their recollection,—the judgments which were inflicted upon Pharaoh and his people, and their destruction in the Red Sea. Will not a people thus rescued, show their gratitude by their obedience to their Deliverer?

They are going to a land much more highly favored than that in which they were in bondage,

in one important respect. In the middle and upper Egypt, the rain scarcely ever falls to moisten the earth, and bless the labors of the husbandman. He is often obliged to toil hard to supply this deficiency. To many places the inundations of the Nile do not extend; and the water must be conducted through channels, at the time of its overflowing, into ponds and reservoirs; thence to be distributed to the spots where it is needed. But Canaan, as Moses informs them, is "a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven." If obedient, God will give them rain in due season, the former and the latter rain, and abundance both for man and beast. But if disobedient, his wrath will be kindled against them; and he will shut up the heaven, and withhold the rain. The land will yield no increase, and the people perish with hunger.

If obedient, they shall dwell in perfect security. No man shall be able to stand before them; but the fear and dread of them shall fall upon all the inhabitants round about. Thus, adds Moses, "Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse 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."

We find, succeeding these solemn exhortations, a series of statutes and ordinances, most of them a recapitulation of what had before been promulgated, respecting the domestic, social, civil, military, and religious institutions of the Israelites, and the manner in which they should treat the inhabitants of Canaan; to rehearse which would be to repeat almost verbatim the portions of Scripture that record them. They are contained in the Book of Deuteronomy, from the twelfth to the twenty-sixth chapters inclusive; to which the reader is referred, with the advice before given, of making these, and the other parts of the same subject, matter of careful study and investigation.

We must not fail to notice, however, one very remarkable passage in the eighteenth chapter, in which Moses utters a prediction concerning the Saviour of mankind. When at Horeb, the Israelites having entreated that they might not again hear the voice of Jehovah, nor see the great fire, lest they should die, the Lord thus spake unto Moses: "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 come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.

What prophet, after Moses, ever has appeared

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