The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 2 — Section 195

and oil olive," "I\ ll\nn of wheat, l\nd barley, and vines, an,\ fig-tree~, and pomegranates -a ll\nd of oil olive, n.nd honey-n. ln.nd wherein thou slrnlt en.t bren.d without- scarr;e- 'less, thou shn.lt not In.ck anything in it" (Deut. viii. 8, 9). II. OF THE DIVINE BENEFJOENOE. Under the system thus Divinely impos~,\ upon the Israelites, three beneficent purposes were o.ccornplished. 1. The proprietor wa.s benefited, Not only was he prevented from exhausting his farm by over-cropping, and so sinking into poverty, but he was forced to form habits of forethought and proviilcnce He necessarily laid by something for the seventh year, and hence learnt to calculate his needs, to store his gm.in, and to keep something in hand against the future. In this way his reason and reflective powers were developed, and he was advanced from a mere labouring hind to a thoughtful cultivator. 2. The poor were benefited. As whatever grew in the seventh year grew spontaneously, without expense or trouble on the part of the owner, it could not be rightfully considered to belong exclusively to him. The Mosaic la,v placed it on a par with ordinary wild fruits, and granted it to the first comer (Lev. xxv. 5, 6). By this arrangement the poor were enabled to profit, since it was they especially who gathered the stpre that Nature's bounty provided. In the dry climate of Palestine, where much grain is sure to be shed during the gathering in of the harvest, the spontaneous growth would probably be considerable, and would amply suffice for the sustenance of those who had no other resource. 3. The beasts were benefited. God "careth for cattle." He appoints the Sabbatical year, in part, that "the beasts of the field" may have abundance to eat. When men dole out their food, they have often a scanty allowance. God would have them, for one year in seven at . east, eat their fill. Ver. 12.-The rest of the Sabbath. In the fourth commandment it is the main object of the Sabbath that is put prominently forward. It is a day to be "kept holy "-a ,lay which God has "blessed and hallowed." Here, on the contrary, our attention is called to its secondary object-it is for "rest" and "refreshment." Perhaps men of the classes who are in easy circumstances do not sufficiently realise the intense relief that is fur- nished by the Sunday rest to the classes below them, to the over-taxed artisan, the household drudge, the wearied and stupefied farm-labourer-nay, even to the clerk, the accountant, the shopkeeper, the salesman. Continuous mechanical work of one and the same kind is required of most of those who labour, from morning till night, and -from one end of the week to the other. The monotony Qf their occupations is terrible-- is deadening-is sometimes maddening. For them, the treat that the Sunday affords is the single gleam of light in their uniformly murky sky, the single ray of hope that gilds their else miserable existence, the single link that connects them with the living world of thought, and sentiment, and feeling, for which they were born, and in which their spirits long to expatiate. Rest! To the tired brute, forced to slave for his owner up to the full measure of his powers, and beyond them-ready to sink to the earth the moment he is not artificially sustained-who goes through his daily round in a state that is half-sleep, half-waking-what a blessed change is the quietude of the Sunday, when for four-and-twenty hours at least he enjoys absolute and entire repose, recruits his strength, rests all his muscles, is called on to make no exertion! Refreshment! How thrice blessed to the overwrought man, and still more to the overwrought woman, is thEl relaxation of the dreadful tension of their lives which Sunday brings ! "No rest, no pause, no peo.ce," for six long days-Iays beginning early and ending late-- days without change or variety-without relaxation or amusement-wretched, miserable days, durin" which they wish a hundred times that they had never been born. On such the S~day rest falls as a refreshing dew. Their drooping spirits rise to it. They inhale at every pore its beneficent influences. They feel it to be " a refuge from the storms of life a bourne of peace after six days of care and toil, a goal to which they may look with gl.;d hearts and towards which they may work with hopeful spirits a.mid the intense struggles, and fervid contests, and fierce strifes of existence." \Vithout the Sunday rest, modern life, at any rate, would be intolerable; and the mass of those w11u are actively engaged in its various phases would drift into idiocy, or be driven to madness! Vers. 14--17.-Festival times. I. FESTIVALS ARE COMMEMORATIOXS. The joyful ticcurrer:.ces of our own lives we by a natural instinct commemorate yearly, '\S the day  TTIE TIOOK OF RXODUS. [en. nm. 14-17.