The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 299

excessiw "·ealth and excessive poverty. A third idea, lying at the fonndation of tills legislation, "·as that the equality of the citizens is the condition most favourable to the well-bemg of the State. All exaggerated differences of condition tend to <livide and alienR,te classes, depriving the land in some degree of co-operation in enterprise, in defence of liberties, in practice of religion. Joshua aimed not at a st.ngn~nt cQnmrnnism, which wou_ld rob life of its energy, but yet of a brotherly state m which all would ha,e a fan· chance of comfort, and none an nnfair chance of inordinate "·ealth. Iu the present circumstances of Olli' country the land legisla- tion of l\Ioses is especially worthy of om· study. We differ from Israel in one impo1-tant condit.ion-England finds the chief part of her national wealth, not in agriculture, but in manufactures and in commerce. This fact has made land laws, such as ever:, other ci,i!ised nation has abolished, tolerable here. But even for England, and still more for Ireland, which is an agricnltlll·al land, the time has come when the needless loss and harm and waste which they produce should ter- minn,te. In these circumstances mark- II. Sm!E SUGGESTIONS FOR LAND LEGISLATION AT HOME CONTAINED IN THE LAWS OF C.'-'-AAN. l. These present us with the ideal at which to aim; viz., to get the land into as many hands as possible. 2. Such an ideal should, it is ahnost needless to say, be pursued only in a righteous and peaceful way. In a land of such wealth and resource as ours any other method would be as foolish as wicked. 3. E,ery facility that the law can give for the sale and transfer of lands ought to he given. Entail ought to be forbidden at once, as unjust to the younger children of a family, and injurious to the State. Settlements destroying the right of sale should he prohibited. These two alterations would at once bring much land into the market. 4. A law for division of property among his children on the death of the holder would in two or three generations effect a marvellous revolution in the present most deplorable distribution of land, and would work the same blessings here as such a law has wrought in France, Belgium, Denmark, &c. Instead of 2,000 persons (2,148 exactly) holding more than one-half of the land in the United Kingdom, it is desirable 2,000,000 of persons should share it. If by facilities for sale, the abolition of feudal laws tending to accumulate property in few hands which survive nowhere but here, the land could be by jnstice and peace brought again into the possession of the people, the gain to the nation wonld be incalculable. An enormous increasa in productiveness would, judging from the experience of the other nations of Europe, at once accrue. This would be the least of the benefits. There would be less po,erty, more self-respect, more energy, more patriotism, more union amongst our people; perhaps, with the extinction of so much injustice, more religion too. And we should find in tills, as in other things, that modern civilisation is never so wise as when it sits at the feet of ancient inspiration. Moses and Joshua are the grandest of all political economists.-G. Yer. 6-eml.-Caleb the son of Jephunneh. Few characters finer than that oI Caleb. If Moses was pattern of faithful leader, Caleb was of faithful follower. There are some things which suggest he was not an Israelite by birth. Kenaz the name of his father or brother, is an Edomite name, and the expression in eh. xiv. 14, "Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb . . . because that he wholly followed the God of Israel;" and that of eh. xv. 13, "Unto Caleb he gave a part 0//'Y!ong the chi:ldren of Judah,'' are expressions which suggest that he was associated with that tribe rather than sprung from it. ·whether or not he was an Israelite in flesh, he was earnestly so in faith. If not by birth an Israelite, he is an instance of the converting power of truth, and of the way in wbich identity of heart and aim supersedes all diversity of nature. He was one of the twelve spies. Had there been other ten like him, t.J.1e invasion of Canaan would have begun and finished forty years earlier. There was no delusion in his mind; he saw all his colleague saw-the stature of tLe men, the walls of the cities, the difficulty and all but impossibility of the con- quest. But he saw what only Joshua saw besides him-the presence and the power of Go<l. And seeing that, he believed in the possibility of what seemed to others impossible. Consider some elements of instruction here,. 911. xv. 1-68.J THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. 245