reoeived, o.nd the obligation to purity thus spiritual Egypt, the house of bondage, we imposed, he o.dds, '' Jam tibi enim non Iicet are slaves to sin and corruption. When we templo Dei uti, nisi in so.nctitate, nee enter into fellowship with Christ, the re- mcmbra Christi ad indignum dare negotinm proach of Egypt is rolled away, and we enjoy . . . Si quaudo to maim concupiscentim "the glorious liberty of the children of God " pulso.t illecebra , , . die non sum meus, (see Rom. vi. 18-22; Gal. v. 1 ; also ,John enitus enim sum pretio so.nguinis Christi, viii. 32-36). Gllgal. It is quite possible, et membrum ipsius effect.us sum." Theo- since the word to roll is in Hebrew, as doret remo.rks how the Israelites who had indeed in English, spoken of a circular been circumcised perished in the wilder- ness, while their uncircumcised children motion and since ~hJ is e. wheel in were miraculously preserved and brought Hebrew, that the place·, like Geliloth, i.e., over Jordan. A remarkable commentary this circles (eh. xviii. 17), originally meant a. on the words, "Now circumcision verily circle, and the.t the new signification was profiteth if thou keep the law; but if thou attached to the name from this moment. be a breaker of the law thy circumcision is If Deut. xi. 30 be not a later insertion, the made uncircumcision" (Rom. ii. 25. Cf. place was known by the name before this 1 Cor. vii. 19). He also remarks that "we time. The root is found in the Aryan as may here learn how we, who have received well as in the Semitic languages (as in the spiritual circumcision, thereby laid aside the Greek <vAiw, e'i;>..w, and the Latin volvo, reproach of sin." Trusting by nature in the globus).
HOMILETICS. Vera. 1-9.-The great renewal of the covenant. Matthew Henry very felicitously quotes here and combines the two passages (Cant. viii. 5 and vi. 10), "Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved, who looks forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?" Terrible as an army in the eyes of her enemies (ver. 1); fair as the moon, clear as the sun, when the reproach of Egypt is rolled away (ver. 9). I. ISRAEL IS A TYPE OF THE CHURCH OF GOD IN HER WARFARE AGAISST SIN. When God's Church resolutely binds herself to the conflict with the powers of evil, their heart must needs melt, neither is there spirit in them any more. "Then Satan doth fear, his citadels fall," says the hymn. For the Church comes in the strength of her Lord. The" strong man armed" must have his" armour, wherein he trusted," taken from him, and the spoils of human souls which he has so industriously acquired must be divided, because "the stronger than he " has come upon him and bound him. Satan has no weapcns for a hand-to-hand conflict with the Body of Christ. His weapons are to corrupt, to deceive, to persuade to a spirit of compromise with the world. So it has ever been that he has triumphecl by co1TUpting the Church of God. Whenever God's disciples have gone forth to battle boldly and unflinchingly against evil, they have been victorious. They first humbled impurity and licentiousness, as well as unbelief. If they did not destroy these enemies of the soul, they at least compelled them to hide their heads, to shrink into corners, to admit unwillingly the superiority of purity a.nd faith by ceasing to para.de sins of this kind openly before the world. Next carne the conflict with brute violence, which was kept in awe by the sacred character of the ministers of religion. Shameless and cynical effrontery in vice among those very ministers of religion, when the Church became corrupt, wns next put down, even in spite of the weapons of force and temporal authority. So in Inter days a good cause has ever been victorious against the most overwhelming odds, when it has been prosecutecl with persevere.nee and faith. ·witness the abolition of slavery, first here, and next in America, so that even the Portuguese themselves, once the most hardened offenders in this respect, are now offering their co-operation with the English to put • it down. So, again, the voice of God's faithful ones has spoken, and men dare not now stand up to take away one another's lives in this Christian land for a few hasty wo'rds, spoken without reflection. 'fhis may embolden us when we take up our weapons of prayer and holy exhortatic;n to clcuouuce the sins that yet JOSHUA, li 82 THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. [en. v. 1-9,