HOMILETICS. Ver. 18.-The Tablu of Testimmi,y were in many respects like the document impressed upon them. For instance, they were-- I. OF STONE, AND TBEBEFOBE ENDURING AND WELL !.'IGB Ill(PEBISBABLE. Few things are more enduring than some kinds of stone. Inscriptions exist, engraved on st.one, which are certainly anterior to Abra.ha.m. No remains in metal go back so far. Gold and silver are, comparatively &pea.king, soft. Iron corrodes. Steel was unknown at the period. The material selected to receive the moral law was as nearly inde- structible as possible. The tables may still exist, and may one day be discovered under the mounds of Babylon, or in the bed of the Euphrates. The character of the material was thus in harmony with the contents of the tables, consisting, a.s they did, of laws whereof no jot or tittle shall pass away till the fulfilment of all things (Matt. v. 18). II. WarrrEN WITH THE FINGER OF Goo. The stones had the laws engraved upon them by e. Divine agency which is called •• the finger of God." The laws themselves ha.d been long previously written with the finger of God in the fleshly tables of men's hearts. The Divine power, which was competent to do the one, could no doubt with ease accomplish the other. The human heart is the most stubbom of all materials, and the most difficult to impress permanently. III. Two-FOLD. Twin t.a.bles, e.li.ke in the ma.in, but inscribed differently. So was the la.w of the tables two-fold-containing (I) man's duty to God, and (2) his duty to his neighbour. It is uncertain how the Ten Commandments were divided between the two tables, but quite possible that the first four were written on one table, and the last six on the other. In that case the materia.1 division would have exactly corresponded to the spiritwtl. TV. WlllTTEN ol!I BOTB THEIR BIDES (eh. xxxii. 15). So the moral law-the law of the Deca.logu&-is written both within and without the human heart-presses exter- willy upon men e.s e. rule of right which they are constrained t-0 obey, and approves itself u, th8Ill from within, as one which the voice of conscience declares to be binding, C'TI. XUII. 1-G.) THF, BOOK OF F,XODUS.
npnrt from external sanction. The hook Reen in viRion by Ezekiel ( r,zek. ii. !l) mts "written within and without" ( ib. 10), like the ta.hies; but it• entire contents were "lamentation, e.nd mourning, and woe." The moral la,v, as convincing 11s of sin, has " painful aide; but it sustains as much as it alarms, and produces as much effort as mourning.