what precise distance it is, we know not. But should not this thought stimulate us to improve our every remaining hour ? Yes, verily : we should turn unto God without delay ; and "apply our hearts to wisdom" with all diligence: and so " watch for the coming of our Lord, that, at whatever hour it may be, we may be found ready." " What I say therefore to one, I say unto all, Watch."]
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Deut. xxxi. 19. 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.
IN order that Moses in his own person should exemplify the nature of that law which he had given, it was appointed of God that he should die for one offence, and not have the honour of leading the people of Israel into Canaan. The time of his departure was now nigh at hand ; and God said to him, " Be- hold, thy days approach that thou must die." Little remained for him to do. He had written the whole of his law, and had " delivered it unto the priests," that they might " put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord their God." But God would have a song composed, which should contain a brief summary of his dealings with his people, and which should be committed by them to memory, as " a wit- ness for him against themselves." This song we now propose to consider: and we shall open to you,
I. Its subject-matter —
As being an epitome of all their past history, and of God's dispensations towards them to the end of time, its contents are various: they are,
1. Commemorative —
[It records God's sovereign mercy to that people in the original designation of the land of Canaan to them, even from the first distribution of mankind over the face of the earth. When the sons of Adam and of Noah multiplied in the earth, he so ordered and overruled their motions, that the descendants of