joshua's covenant with Israel to serve the lord.
Josh. xxiv. 21 — 27. And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the Lord. And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are tvitnesses against yourselves, that ye have chosen you the Lord, to serve him. Arid they said, We are witnesses. Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel. And the people said unto Joshua, The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey. So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. And Joshua wrote these ivords in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak, that ivas by the sanctuary of the Lord. And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us ; for it hath heard all the words of the Lord which he spake unto us: it shall be therefore a wit- ness unto you, lest ye deny your God.
THE pious servants of God may be disabled through age and infirmities from continuing their personal exertions, but they never will relax their zeal in the service of their Divine Master; and what they want in effective labours, they will endeavour to supply by stimulating and confirming the zeal of others. Moses, at an advanced age, renewed with Israel in the land of Moab the covenant which he had forty years before made with them in Horeba: and Joshua in like manner, now that he was " waxed old and stricken in age," and was speedily " going the way of all the earth," convened all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, for the purpose of engaging them once more to give themselves up to God in a per- petual covenant ; that so the good effects of his
a Deut. xxix. 1.