REASONABLENESS AND EXCELLENCY OF GOd's COMMANDS.
Deut. x. 12, 13. And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his tvays, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and to keep the com- mandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good ?
PECULIAR seasons call for the exercise of pecu- liar duties. A new era was just opening upon the Hebrews, at the time when this address to them was delivered. They had, by the worshipping of the golden calf, entirely annulled the covenant which God had made with them, and had subjected them- selves to his heavy displeasure. But, at the inter- cession of Moses, God had graciously renewed his covenant with them, by giving them again a copy of that Law which they had broken, and by committing them again to the care of Moses, whom he had ap- pointed to conduct them to the land of Canaan. Now, therefore, Moses called on them to renew their solemn dedication of themselves to God, according to the tenor of those commandments which he had given them.
Somewhat of a similar era has commenced to us this daya. Many have been our offences in the past year: and God might have justly cast us off, and abandoned us to utter ruin. But he is now renewing to us his tender mercies: and may, therefore, justly call upon us to renew our surrender of ourselves to his service.
The words which I have just read to you will lead me to point out,
I. What God requires from us —
Israel had been redeemed from Egypt, and were regarded as a peculiar people unto the Lord. And such is our state. We have been redeemed from a far sorer bondage, by the blood of God's only dear
a This supposes that the subject is used on New- Year's Day.