The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 339

,bis, and that he bad sovereign right to dispose of it as be willeil, everything being of him ·and belonging to him. God claims all as bis; and hie claim is rigbteo118. For we have nothing but that which we have received from him; we are nothing but that which he has created and preserved. " All our springs are in him," and all that we hold and -occupy is bis property. When we forget our derivation from him and our dependence upon him, he reminds us, by some providential privation, that we are falling from the -1Spirit of reverence, gratitude, and submission which is the very life of our soul .And it is well for us voluntarily to set aside to bis service the fi.rstfruits of our labour, that -we may be thus powerfully and practically reminded that we owe our very being and our whole substance to bis bounty and bis grace. III. TBE BENEFICENCE OF THE DIVINE RULE. By this provision God sought, as he is ever seeking, (1) spiritual well-being and (2) temporal prosperity. By teach- ing them the truths which this abstinence suggested, and by requiring of them the patient waiting and the childlike obedience involved in the fulfilment of his will, be was disciplining and perfecting their spiritual nature. By giving them leave to pluck cand partake for themselves after the fourth year, he provided for their bodily wants and appetites. These two ends God has cont!nual~y in view in all his providential dealing with ourselves. He seeks our present sat1sfact1on, and also-and far more---our spiritual well-being ; our pleasure as children of time and sense, and our perfectwn as children of the Father of spirits, as followers of the righteo11B Leader, 1111 temples of the Holy Ghost.-C. Ver. 30.-Three helps to spiritual progress. "There are many adversaries," it is true; many drawbacks, hindrances, difficulties in the way of spiritual advancement. But there are these three powerful aids. I. ONE SACRED DAY IN EVERY SEVEN, "Ye shall keep my sabbaths." Gou has wrested from an exacting, rapacious world one-seventh of human life, and given it to us for the culture of the soul, for spiritual growth, for sacred usefulness. The observance of the sabbath is an act of (1) filial obedience to God, and (2) wise regard for our own true welfare. II. A PLACE FOB SOOUL WORSHIP. "Ye shall reverence my sanctuary." We have all the advantage of social influences, the impulse which comes from association, to impress, to direct, to establish the soul in heavenly wisdom. We should worship regularly at the sanctuary, because (1) we should not draw so near to God elsewhere, or gain in any other place such spiritual nourishment; (2) worship there helps to devotion everywhere. III. DEVOTEDNESS OF HEART TO A DIVINE BEmo. "I am the Lord." Not the ineffectual endeavour to fill and feed, to nourish and strengthen the soul with admirable abstractions; but holy thought and sanctifying feeling gathered round a Divine One : <lirected toward him who says, 11 Trust me, love me, follow me, exalt me."-0. Social morality. Ch. xix.; er. Matt. xxii. 35-40; Rom. xii.; Jas., passim . .From the primary principle of unworldliness, we now have to proceed to sundry deto.ils about social morality. Although these details are given indiscriminately, it is yet possible to discern certain great principles among them. And- I. ALL SOCIAL MORALITY IS MADE TO REST ON OUR RELATION TO GOD Bil[BELF. In the Decalogue we have social morality, that is, our duty to man, based upon our duty to God ; the II second table" rests upon the first. It is the same here. God brooks no rival (ver. 4). He sets himself as our model of holiness (ver. 2). He calls man to fellowship through the peace offering (vers. 6-8). His Name mllBt be subjected to no profanation (ver. 12), and the sabbaths are to be strictly kept (ver. 30). In other words, we have the four commandments of the first table strewn up and down these .ietails, and exhibiting the fountain-head of social morality in faithfulness to God. It is significant that all the efforts to make out an "independent morality" by the elimination or ignoring of God are proving failures. He is, after all, the sine qoo non of real morality as well as of salvation. It is when his Name is feared and reverenced as it ought to be that man acts aright in his various relations. JI. COMPABBION FOB THE POOR AND AFFLICTED BESULTB1 OF NECESSITY, l'BO:M A DUJI REGARD Fon Goo. For God is compassionate, and so should his people be. Hence the  30-1 THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. [CH. XIX. 1-37_