Vers. 5, 6.-The duti.es which me,i owe to their enemies. Tbese duties may be con- sidered as they were revealed to men. 1. Under the law: and 2. Under the gospel. I. UNDER THE LAW. Men were required to protect the interests of their enemies when they could do so without loss to themselves. For instance--1. They were not ~ cut down fruit trees in an enemy's country (Deut. x:x.. 19, 20). 2. They were not to remove a neighbour's landmark, even though he might be an enemy. 3. They were to hasten aft.er an enemy's ox or ass if they saw it going astray, to catch it, and bring it back to him. 4. They were to approach him, if they saw his ass fallen under the weight of it,s load, and to help him to raise it up. 5. If he were suffering from hunger or thirst, they were to give him bread to eat and water to drink (Prov. :x:xv. 21). 6. They were to refrain from rejoicing1>ver his misadventures (ib. eh. :uiv. 17). II. UNDEB THE GosPEL. Men are required under the Gospel to do all this, and much more. I. They are to •• love their enemies" (Matt. v. 44). 2. To do good to them in every way-feed them (Rom. xii. 20), bless them (Matt. 1.s.c.), pray for them (ih.), be patient towards them (1 Thess. v. 14), seek to convert them from the error of their ways (Jas. v. 20), save them (ib.). Christ set the example of praying for his enemies upon the cross-God set the example of loving his enemies when he gave his Son to sufter death for them-the Holy Spirit sets the example of patience toward!! his «>.nemies, when he strives with them. We have to forgive our enemies day by day their trespasses a,,o-ainst us-to pray and work for their conversion-to seek to overcome their evil with our good. In temporal matters, it is our business to be most careful that we do them no injury, by misrepresentation, by disparagement, by unfair criticism, by lies, even by" faint praise." We are to" love" them; or, if poor human nature find!! this t.()o hard, we are to act as if we loved them, and then ultimately love will come.
Vers. 10, 11.-79ie Sabbatiad year. The Sabbatical year-an institution peculiar to the lsnielites, and quite contrary to anything of which they had had experience in Egypt-is a remarkable proof, I. OF THE DIVINE WISDOIL Under the ordinary circumstances of tillage, land from time to time requires rest. In Egypt it was otherwise. There, under the exceptional cir- cumstances of a soil continually recruited by the spread over it of a rich alluvium from the great river, not only was the whole arable area capable of producing good crops year after year, without ever lying fallow, but from the same soil several crops were ordinarily taken in the course of the twelvemonth. The Israelites had had no experience of any other agri- culture th.e.n this for above four centuries. Yet now, suddenly, a new system is adopted by them. God knew that the system of Egyptian tillage was not suitable for Palestine---that there the soil would not recruit itself-that, cultivated on the Egyptian system, it would rapidly become exhawrt.ed; and therefore he devised, in the interests of his people, a new ~ystem for Palestine. The whole I.and should have rest one year in seven. Thus only, in the then existing condition of agriculture, could exhaustion be prevented, pro- ductlveue~s =ured, and the land enabled to retain its character of" a. good land,"" a .l&IJ•J flowing with milk and honey," "a land of oorn and wine, of bread and vineyardi, en. xxm. 12-17.] 'l'HE nooK UF EXODUS. 205