The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 204

plainly shows the children of Israel that the formal renewal of the covenant which wa,s made as soon as Jordan was crossed was of no avail in God's sight, unless the fow were set up as the necessary consequence of that covenant. So we learn that it is of no use for us to be God's covenant people unless we have the law written in our hearts. For one of the first conditions of that covenant is that God shall give us His Spirit. Woe be to us if we grieve or quench Him. He gives us power to fulfil the law of God. To neglect to carry out that law jg to resist Him anrl ficrht against Him. This entails upon us the same consequences as it did to Israel, fi"rst in the wilderness, and afterwards in Canaan-rejection from the high privileges they had inherited. After our admission into covenant with God there must be (1) the engraving the law in our hearts by the study of its precepts, and (2) the earnest endeavour to walk after the law thus set up in our midst. III. THE LAW WAS READ. This public reading of the law was a feature of Jewish public solemnities when their faith had waxed cold, and it needed revival (see 2 Kings xxiii. 2, 3; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 30, 31; Neh. viii. 1-8). It does not appear to have formed part of the ceremonies either of David or Solomon, or even of Hezekiah. Perhaps it would have been better if it had, although these ceremonies were pious and edifying. So we cannot agree with those who would remove from the Church of England Service that continual recitation of the Ten Commandments which was added to the Communion Service at the Reformation. We cannot tell how much this reading of the law has tended to keep alive in the nation an abhor- rence of certain sins, has preserved among us a regard for God's holy clay, for domestic purity and order, for honesty and truthfulness, which some other nations have lost. So the daily and weekly reading of the Scriptures, as a whole, jg a feature of the Church system which we would not willingly see surrendered. And he who neglects the private reading of the law must expect the life of his soul to be deadened thereby. IV. THE LAW HAS CURSES AS WELL AS BLESSINGS. The sterner features of God's law are kept out of sight by many in these days. They talk of a God of love, but they forget that a God of love must, as such, punish sin, and therefore sinners, as long as they cling to their sin. It would be no love to leave sin unpunished, for that were to enc0trrage men to commit it. And as sin, by its very nature, is the parent of misery, tho God who does not punish sin is rather a Goel of hate than a Goel of love. No preaching of the blessings of the gospel is of o,ny avail which sys- tematically conceals the ten-ors of the gospel; which tries to exalt the lo,e of Goel in Christ while studiously ignoring the vengeance which is pronounced against them who " obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." No reading of the law is of any avail, except Ebal be read from as well as Gerizim. Joshua read "all the worcls of the law, the blessings and the Clll'sings, accorcling to all that is written in the book of the law." So must the Christian minister rehearse faithfully to his flock all that is written in the book of the law of Christ. V. THE ARK• OF GOD wAS •IN THE MIDST. That is, the reading of the law was no mere formal recitation. There was the altar, the offerings, and the sacrifices. It was a religious celebration. God's presence was recognised. The devotion of the heart was required. The whole celebration woulcl have been a pretence had it not been carried on as in God's sight. So now, when God's Word is reacl in the con- gregation, it should not be a mere form. There should be the arclent desire to profit by it, the solemn reverence for the spoken worcl of the l\Iost High. And when studied in private, it should not be a cold, critical, merely intellectual study. The warmth of devotion should be kindled. The reading sboulcl be distinctly a religious act. The presence of God, alike in the word He has given, and the heart He has renewed, should be recognised, and a mutual glow be derived fro_m the contact. And this glow should be further inflamed by the simultaneous sacrifice of the thoughts and intentions of the heart to God. 144 THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. [ OH, VIII. 80-8/!,