Yers. 10-20.-Forbeai·a'llce and severity. If these rules embody a severity happily rare in modern warfare, they also exhibit a forbearance which many modern nations 111ic'.ht well learn from. ,ve have here- i. W AR's HORRORS MITIGATEn. 1. Peace was invariably to be offered before atlaclc to a foreign city (vers. 10, 11). It is presumed that the war was just, and undertaken "·ith the sanction of Jehovah. If peace was accepted, no one was to be injured, but n1,ly tribute imposed. The peacemaking spirit is pleasing to God (Matt.· v. 9; Hom. xii. 18). 2. In the case 'If a city taken by storm, no women, children, or cattle were tu be desti-oyed (ver. 14). The amount of self-restraint which this implies can only be :tJ1prcciated after reading the accounts of warfare as anciently conducted. But we may get some light upon it by studying the horrors of the sack of a city, even in modern times, and under European, or even British, generalship (see histories of the Peninsular \\'ars). 3. In the sparing of trees useful for food (ver. 19). War conducted on theso principles, however severe in certain of its aspects, cannot be described as barbarous. II. vVAR'S SEVERITIES EXEMPLIFIED. 1. Tlie resisting city, if foreign, was to be punished by the slaughter ef its adult males (ver. 13). This, which sounds so harsh, \\'as perhaps a necessity from the circumstances of the nation. It certainly typifies the " utter destruction" which shall fall on all resisting God's will, and placing themselves in an attitude of hostility to his kingdom on the earth. 2. The Canaanites were to be com7,letely exterminated (vers. 16-18). This case differs from the other in being the execution of a judicial sentence, as well as an indispensable means to their own pre- scrrntion against corruption (ver. 18). A general type of the fate which shall ovenake the uogodly.-J. 0.
'Vers. 1-20.-Eeligious wars. We have in this chapter an instructive direction about the prosecution of a religious war. For, after all, war may be the only way of adrnncing the interests of nations. Disputes become so entangled, and great principles become so staked in the disputes, that war is welcomed as the one way to peace anrl progress. It is an awful expedient, but there are worse things than war. "Cowardice," said Rev. F. W. Robertson, of Brighton, "is worse. And the decay of enthusiasm and mar!lin~ss is worse. And it is worse than death, ay, worse than a hundred thousand deaths, when a people has gravitated down into the creed that 'the wealth of nations' consists, not in generous hearts--' Fire in each breast, and freedom on each brow '-in national virtues, and primitive simplicity, and heroic endurance, and preference of duty 10 life ;-not in men, but in silk and cotton and something that they call' capital.' Peace is blessed. Peace arising out of charity. But peace springing out of the calcu- lations of selfishness, is not blessed. If the price to be paid for peace is this, that' wealth accumulate and men decay,' better far that every street in every town of our once noble country should run blood!" From the directions in the chapter before us, we learn such lc,;sons as these- I. THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE CAUSE, A?-.'D NOT THE NUMBJr.RS IN THE FIELD, IS TO BE TIJE FOU?-.'DATION OF TRUST. The Jews were going into Palestine as the Lord's host, and, even though a minol'ity sometimes, they were sure to win. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" was to be their ground of confidence. And our Lord con- templated the victory of a minority in his illustration about calculating the cost. "Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and \;(Jnsulteth whether be be able with ten thousand to meet him th.at cometh against him with twenty thousand?" (Luke xiv. 31). A good cause, like a good king, is worth ten ~hoWl8.nc! soldiers (2 Sam. xvilL 3). David's great ein was trusting in numbers and not lll God (2 Sam. xriv. 2, etc.). CII, XX, 1-20,] THE UOOK OF DEUTERONOMY. 33.5