the mountain ridge betwe~n the Nile valley an~ the valley of the Euphrates, there is constant rlepondence experienced upon the bounties of hMven. This suggests-- I. TIIAT CANAAN WAS A SPLENDID LAND IN wmcFI TO TRAIN UP A BPIRITCJAL PEOPLE. It was not na~urnlly so fer:tile as eith~r the valley_of the Nile or the val_ley of the guphrates. Hence famme touched 1t more qmckly than either Egypt or Assyna. But it was fitter! to foster dependence upon God and hope in him. If the inhabitants were obedient then the land might flow with milk and honey; if disobedient, it might become brow~ and baro through the withholding of the rain. Hence we find, in Egypt and in Assyria, a turning of the people to the worship of the inorganic and the organic forces of naLur~ respectively. The valleys, being in some measure more independent of the changmg seasons, seem to have nurtured inde- pendence of God; while the hills of Syria, like the Highlands of Scotland and of Switzerland, fostered morn faith in the Supreme. "Those Syrian bills," says a living writer, "are the Spirit's throne, where, lifted above the deserts of earth, it sits nearest to heaven, while spread beneath it on either hand, restincr on the desert's level as their home, are nature's twin provinces of matter and life, rich and green with the beauty and greenness of time, always imposing and often victorious in the region of sense; bnt doomed, like all thing~ visible and temporal, to fall before the power which shall yet clothe itself with their glory, and which is itself unseen and eternal." Il. THE BLESSINGS WERE GUARANTEED ON CONDITIOY OF MAN LOYALLY CO-OPEIU.TIXG WITH GoD. Canaan was no land for indolent lotus-eaters ; it was not- " A land where all things always seem'd the same I'' It was a land where man must -co-operate with God in order to the blessing-a land where man realized the dignity of being a" fellow-worker with God." It would be a. land of promise and of real blessing on no other condition. If man were asked for no effort, if everything grew to please his taste and palate spontaneously, if daily bread came without even the trouble of asking, it would be a land of danger and of moral death. Better was it for Israel to have themselves bound by a wholesome destiny to dependence on God and co-operation with him, than if the land bore spontaneously all man's needs. Ill. WE NEED LOOK FOB NO OTHER LAND OF PROMISE IN TRIS WORLD OR THE NEXT. The idea of "independence" is the great danger of the human heart. We would be indebted to nobody, not even God, if we could. Alas, for our pride! Now, it so happens that we cannot become independent of God's bounty, no matter how hard we try. A.nd it is best so. 'l'he land of promise is the land where we depend humbly upon God, and are thus most independent of persons and things around us. 1 The land of promise is where we do our honest share of public work, and get our share of the fruits of industry. A.nd in the life beyond death we need not desire an inglorious idleness, which is some folk's notion of "everlasting rest," but we shall have there the privilege of serving God" day and night in his temple." A. life of consecration is the true" land of promise." It is the only deep enjoyment, it is the only worthy inheritance. Let us then resolve (1) to trust God so lovingly as never to harbour even in thought the hopo of independence of him; and (2) to co-operate with him as life's highest privilege and honour. We have entered" the land of promise" when we have learned to trust God; and we are enjoying it when we have learned to be "fellow-workers with him."-R. M. E.
Vers. 18-25.-Family training aB elemmil of success. A.s in eh. vi. 6-25, Moses again insists on the words of God being preserved among the people by faithful family instruction. The "home school" is, in fact, the great factor in national success. Education must give due prominence to the family institution, as the providential unit of mankind. And here let us notice- I. GoD's WORDS ARE TO BE RECEIVED FIRST OF ALL INTO THE HEABT, It is when individuals, and especially parents, receive God's testimony into the heart, as Lydia did 1 Of. Sir Henry Taylor'~ 'Notes frolll Life,' E~y ii.,• Humility and lndepenuence.' 212 THE BOOK OIi' DEUTERONOMY, [oH. XI. 1-82,