or it,s kind, it is not to be compnrcd, ns n mirror or holiness, with the pcrrect h11mnn life or JesU8 Christ. No nccumulati•rn of ~epnrate precepts cnn exhaust all that is r,1,n- tnined in holiness. Precepts convey also a defective idea of the good by brenkin" up that which is in its own nature one-an ideal-into a number of separate parts."' What, howovor, the law could not do for us, is done in the perfer.t example of our Lord. Ja him, lnw is translated into life. The ideal is no longer prescntecl to us, as even in the Dernlog•ie, in detnched precepts, "broken lights," "words," which-j•1st because holi- ness is so vast a thing-are left to hint more than they express, but in its true unbrohn u.c.ity, in the sphered whole of a perfect human character. Onr law is C:hrist.---J. 0. Vere. 1, 2.-The 'l'en Commandments-an introductory reminder. Before the speaker of these commandments proceeded to the utterance of them, it was necessary that he should call special and reverent attention to himself. Not one of the worrls he was about to say could either be undtrstood or obeyed without a constant reference ia thought to him who had delivered and arranged them. He did not bring them before Israel as a far seeing legislator might bring such rules as were best adapted to the Ii mi ta- tions and infirmities of-those whom he sought to guide. They were the laws of that k:ngdom where the King himself is a real and immutable lawgiver, he whose reign never come8 to an end. Some of the commandments had a direct reference to himself; aml all had to do with his service. Should it not, then, be ever a helpful an<l sobering trut~ to us that the great laws for human life thus come as expressions through a Divine will'! We cannot overrate the importance of requirements which God himself solemnly declare,. And just as we Christians in repeating the Lord's prayer must think constantly of the invocation to our Father in heaven, in order to enforce and enrich the pica of each petition, so in carrying out these ten commandments, each Israelite was bound to think of each commandment in connection with that Jehovah who had spoken it. The thought that he had brought them out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of l> mtlage was meant to give special force to everything he required from the hands of his . eople. l. JEHOVAH SPEAKS OF HIMSELF IN THE LIGHT OF WHAT HE HAS DO~"E FOR THE){ TO WHOM HE SPEAKS. He solemnly charges them to look back on their own experienr.e, to consider their past suffering and helplessness, and how they had come to the present hour entirely because of what he had done for them. Note that he does not, as on former occasions, speak of himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; that was a necessary mode of description when he made his first approach to them, but now they have their own rich and crowded experiences to constitute a claim for their attention and obedience. God bases his expectations on services rendered to the present genera- tion ; and the claim he makes is founded on the greatest boon that could be conferred, liberty. When from this very mountain he sent Moses to them, they were in bitter servitude; now Moses finds himself at this mountain a,,aain, with a nation of freemen around him. Jehovah is not afraid of referring to the land of Egypt, even though the people had allowed the agreeable associations of the name to override the disagreeable ones. 'l'hey delighted in thinking of it as a land where they sat by the fleshpots and ate bread to the full (eh. xvi. 3; Num. xi. 4, 5). But now in this reference to himself which would hencel'orth be so conspicuous, Jehovah fixes together in a permanent associjttion the land of Egypt and the house of bondage. When t!J.e people disparaged the wilderness and glorified Egypt, he made them hear again the sound of the clanking chain; and if that sound, heard only in memory, was not dreadful as in the old reality, yet God, who is not influenced by the lapses of time, knew how dreadful that reality wa~. It is a good thing that he remembers what men forget. Even tho•1gh we be Christians, and should have better aims and better joys, we too often catch our thoughts turned longingly towards a forsaken world. And so God comes in to speak plainly an,l burst the bubble of this world's attractions by the emphasised truth that spiritual Egypt is the house of bondage. He that committeth_ sin is the slave of sin .. While the people were in Egypt they had not talked of these th11~gs as p~ea~ant; the life there, iu the actual experience of it, was intolerable. And so with pedect confidence God coul<l appeal to their past consciousness. • II. There was also an indication that GoDHAD TAKEN AWAY ALL E:ST~R..'\'.\.L HDlDRA~cF.s TO OBEDIENCE. He had taken them clean out of the house of bon,lage. They were IH THE BOOK OF EXODUS, [en. n. 3-G.
now free to cl\rry out all the obl!crv11nce~ which Jehovah w11e about to 11ppoint. They had no Ph11rnoh to struggle with, grudging them time to serve their Uod (eh. v. 4), they hnd no danger to fear from s11crificing the abominntions of Egypt "'ithin it~ borders. If God nsks us for service, we m11y be sure th11t in the very first place he will pro\"ide 1111 the conditions of rendering it efl'ectunlly 1md comfo1tably. As we ,'.~,d our :New 'J'esmmeot, we nre mnde to fool th11t God expects ,·ery large things from u~. He is mo~t exacting in hi~ clllims for self-denilll and completeness of devotion to hiH cnuse, but "·hat of thnt? Has he not given us his own Spirit, which is a spirit of libert)', working for the express pui110se of lifting us above the c1ipplina restraints of naturnl life? The very largeness of God's demands helps us to mClU!ure°the largeness of God's spiritual gifts; nod the very largeness of the gifts should prepare us for large demands. God's expectations nre from the free. He asked nothing from Israel oove silent and submissive waiting, until the verge of the Inst plague, which wns al;o t11e verge of liberty; and from the frlll: beca~e lie l,Q,l',freed tltem, he entertains large expec tat1ons. It Wl\6 tu those who believed ID Jesus, nscn from the dead, I\Utl m,1kina his people to live in newness of life, that he gave a spirit of such power in prud~cin" obedience a.nd conformity as never had been known befure.-Y. "