I. THAT TRF.Y nROKE A Pr,AIN COMMANJ) 01" Goo, AND ONE TO WHICH Trrnv HAD nEcENTLY PLEDOim Tflr:MsEr,vrr,s, "All the words which the Lord hath s,i,ir\," they hnd declnred "we will do" ( eh. xxiv. 3); !Lnd among these "words" was the plnin one--" Thou she.It not make to thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth; thon ehalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them." Nevertheless they requirerl. Aaron to make them a material god, and it WM no sooner made than they hastened co worship it with burnt-offerings and other sacrifices. JI. 'l'HAT THEY PROCEEDED TO BREAr.: THE HORAL LAW WRITTEN IN THEIR HEARTS, AND LATELY REINFOIIOED BY THE PLAIN PROIDBITION 01" THE SEVENTH COMMANDMEXT. "They sat down to eat and drink, and roire up to play." They engaged in licentions dancing (ver. 19), and perhaps laid a&ide some of their usual garments (ver. 25). They turned a worship, which they still pretended to render to Jehovah (ver. 5) into an orgy. If they did not proceed to the lengths of completed sin, they entered upon the slippery path which, almost of necessity, leads to it. By this conduct they so provoked God- III. THAT THEY RAN THE BISK OF BEING SWEPT A.WAY FROM THE EARTH. A sentence of death was at first pronounced against the whole people (ver. 10), and would infallibly have taken effect, had not Moses interceded, and by his intercession prevailed. Universal apostasy deserved universal destruction. There is no reason to believe that the execution of the sentence pronounced would have been stayed, but for the expostu- lation and the prayer recorded in verses 11-13. IV. THAT THEY ACTUALLY BROUGHT UPON THEMSELVES A HEAVY PUNISHllE~"'T. The immediate slaughter of three thousand was required to purge the offence (ver. 28). The sin was further visited upon the offenders subsequently (see co=ent on ver. 34). Some were, on account of it, "blotted out of God's book" (ver. 33). Christians should take warning, and not, when they have once begun" living after the Spirit," fall back and "live after the flesh" (Rom. viii. 13). There are still in the world numerous tempting idolatries. We may hanker after the "lusts of the flesh," or "of the eye "-we may weary of the strain upon our nature which the spiritual life imposes-we may long to exchange the high and rare atmosphere in which we have for a while with difficulty sustained ourselves, for the lower region where we sha.11 breathe more easily. But we must control our inclinations. To draw back is to incur a terrible danger-no Jess a _one than" the perdition of our souls." It were better "not to have known the way of righteousness," or walked in it for a time, "than, after we have known it," and walked in it," to tum from the holy co=andment delivered unto us" (1 Pet. ii. 21).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vera. l~.-T1ie Golden Calf. I. THE PEOPLE'S BEQUEST TO A.ARON. 1. The cause of the request. There are really two causes to be considered here, first, a cause of which they were conscious, and then, secondly, a deeper cause of which they were not conscious. The delay of Moses to return was the reason they put forward. We must do them the justice of noticing that they seem to have waited till the forty days were well~nigh expired before preferring their request; and an absence of forty days was inex- plicable to minds as yet so spiritually darkened and benumbed as those of the majority of the people. What he could have to do, and how he could live so long, away up on a barren mountain, was beyond their power of imagination. Moses was given up just as a ship is given up when it has not been heard of for many da.ys after the reasonable period of the voyage. It was not a case of being out of sight, out of mind; he had been a great deal in mind, and the general conclusion was that in some mysterious way he had vanished altogether. But there is also the deeper reason of the request to be found in the people's continued ignorance of the real hold which Jehovah had upon them, and the sort of future towards which he would have them look. Their action here was -founded not on what they knew, but emphatically on what they did not know. They could not say," Moses is dead," or" he has forsaken us." They could only say, "We wot not what is become of him." So far as outward circumstances were concerned, the people seem to have been in a state of comparative security and comfort. Wheu y 3 THE TIOOK OF EXODUS. [cu. XXXTI. 1-11. - ----------------------~