HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vere. 1-5.-Destruction of monuments of idolatry. Israel's entrance into Canaan was the entrance of true knowledge, of pure forms of religion, of cleansed morals. The worship of Jehovah was the very antithesis of that of which these altars, pillars, and graven images, were the polluted memorials. "What did the grove conceal? Lust- blood-imposture. What sounds shook the fane? .Alternate screams of anguish and tho laughter of mad votaries. What was the priest? The teacher of every vice of which his god was the patron and example. What were the worshippers? The victims of every woe which superstition and sensuality can gender, and which cruelty can cherish" (Isaac Taylor). Why should the last trace of these hateful worships not be removed from the. land of God's abode? (see on eh. vii. 1-6). These commands had- I. A GROUND IN RELIGIOUS FEELING. Even the dumb memorials of iniquity will excite in pure minds feelings of horror and revulsion. It is positive pain to look upon them. The only sentiments which these monuments of a dark polythei~m-suggestive of every species of wickedness, and steeped in foulness through the cruel and lustful rites once associated with them~ould awaken in the minds of devout worshippers of Jehovah were those of inexpressible abhorrence. The sooner they were swept away the b~tter. Healthy moral instincts will lead us to hate "even the garment spotted by the flesh" (Jude 23). II. A GnoUND IN PRUDENCE. It removed from Israel's midst what would obviously have proved a snare. Prone of their own motion to idolatry, how certainly would the people have been drawn into it had idol sanctuaries, idol altars, idol groves stood to tempt them at every corner, met their gaze on every hill-summit. .A wise legislation will aim at the removal of temptations. 'l'he business of legislation, as has been well said, is to make it as easy as possible for the people to choose virtue, and as difficult as possible to choose vice. III. A Gil0UND IN POLICY. The design of Moses, to gather the life and religion of the people round a central sanctuary, would plainly have been frustrated had innumer- able sacred places of repute, associated with the old idolatry, been allowed to remain unshorn of their honours. On the same principle, missionaries, in order to prevent relapses into idolatry, have often found it needful to get their converts to collect their idols, and unitedly to destroy them-burning them, it may be, or flinging them into some river.-J. 0.
Vers. 6-29.-The central sanctuary. There are difficulties connected with this law from which conclusions have been drawn adverse to the Mosaic authorship of Deu- teronomy. These arise : I. From the lack of evidence that the law was in force in the days of the judges and earlier kings. 2. From the practice of judges, kings, prophets, nnd other good men in offering sacrifices elsewhere than at the prescribed centre. 3. From the mention of other sanctuaries in the history (e.g. Josh, =iv. 26; 1 Sam. vii. 26, LXX.). But: 1. Ver. 10 shows that it was not contemplated that the law should come into perfect operation till the land was settled, and till a place for a fixed centre had been definitely chosen. In l)Oint of fact, the unsettled state of mntters lasted till the reign of David (2 Sam. vii. 1). Accordingly, in 1 Kings iii. 2, it is not urged that 220 '.rHE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY. [en. xu. 1--82,