The Pulpit Commentary — Deuteronomy — Section 134

Yers. 4---9.-Trutli and godliness to be perpetuated by means of home training. In this paragraph, the aged lawgiver rehearses the sum and substance of the Law he had rlelivered, and is showing what provision God had made in the structure of society for the maintenance and perpetuation of truth and godliness. It is easy to see how very incomplete his work would have been, had he not been guided to make provision for its perpetuation after his death. Douotless God designs to use various kinds of workers in bis field. Some may, like Whitefield, make a great impression while their oratory is swaying its thousands and tens of thousands. Others may be like Wesley, who not only moved the people for a generation by his pulpit power, but also prepared the way by his organizing skill for a great institution which should last for ages. Now, it is not for us to disparage one man because he does not do the work of another, but certain it is that, other things being equal, there is no comparison between the power of a man "l"l"hose felt influence passes away with his life, and that of one whose works follow him, in the productions of his pen or the creations of his up-building skill. Now, it was not by one like Aaron, eloquent though he was, that the continuance of the Hebrew faith and life was to be secured. He gives us no proof of stability or of that kind of power which ensures its own reproduction. That was found in Moses, a man naturally slow of speech, who, in spite of his qccasional outbreaks of vehemence, was yet a patient, wise, faithful leader, by whose practical genius provision was made for the permanence of Israel's religious ordinances and life. Moved by the Holy Ghost, he calied into existence those great institutions of worship and teaching, by means of which even we down to this day are feeling the impulses which started from Mount Sinai. In the six verses before us, we have what may be called a threefold appointment of God, which ia all its essential features is as much in force now as ever. We propose to study it, not so much in its historical and local aspect, as in its bearing on us and on all men for all time. ' l. HEilE, AT THE BACK OF NATIONAL LIFE, 18 BET THE EXPRESSION OF .A. CONDENSED THEOLOGY. "The Lord our God is one Lord." Time was when this verse was quoted in the Socinian controversy in proof of the unity of God, as against the Trinitarians, though it has in fact no bearing on the matter at all. It refers, not to the nature of the Divine Being in ltimself, but is rather set over against the faiths with which Israel l,ad been surrounded, of "lords many and gods many." la. contrast from polytheism, it declares that there is but one Great Supreme, who is the Lord of heaven and earth, And this is not the basis of Israel's faith alone, but of ours likewise. \Ve know more (Jf God than the Hebrews did, but what they knew we retain. In atheism, the highest i,;telltclual natures never can rest. Deism chills. Pantheism ignores personality. The God of the Bible, as revealed to ~, satisfies the cravings of intellect and heart. lu Jesus Christ, God is" manifest" as nowhera else. Nor should we leave out tho touching word," the Lord our God." We have one God and Father of all, to whom tl,c vast and the minute are equally distinct, and by whose hand both are moved with <:q ual case ; who, while he rolls the stars along, can take under his special sheltering J.,,e the widow and the fatherless; who hears the orphan's moan and dries the falling tt:a.r. It is our inestimable privilege to know that in.finitely above us, combined with 3.ll a.rm of mighty power, there is a heart of tenderest love, whose great concern it ill ell. VI, 1-25.) 'l'HE nooK OF DEUTERoNOMY. 123