1 crs. 9-14.-A pure camp for a pure King. After insisting on purity giving power in war (ver. 9), and giving direction to men about putting away uncleanness which rnay be due to natural causes, Moses urges the precaution, because the All-seeing One walketh through the cam_p, Inspector of all their ways (ver. 14). The directions here given might have been urged on sanitary grounds, but Moses puts them deliberately upon religious. For the experience among Orientals and Occidentals is that something more than sanitary reasons is needed to overcome man's indolence and keep him clean. L CLEil."'LTh'ESS MAY BE RAISED INTO A PHASE OF GODLINESS. In the proverb is is said to be next to godliness; but here Moses makes it a part of godliness. Religion comes to the aid of science, and helps by its sanctions the wise regulations suggested by science. Witness how painfully slow remedial and sanitary measures are in getting adopted. It would be well if religion could aid the civil power in making sanitation a sacred thing in the eyes of the people. The reason why cleanliness is not more sacred than it is is a latent Manichreanism, which see= to lurk in human nature; as if matter were essentially unholy, and could not be made sacred. But the religion of Christ lays hold of body as well .as soul, and urges a mens sana in corpore sano, and promises the perfection of its idea in a bodily resurrection. There is, consequently, a physical side to our religion, which should find expression in the consecration of cleanliness, and divers washings, and food and drink; all that religion may be a more manly and efficient thing. We believe thoroughly in the religious duty of denouncing dirt. II. RELIGION IS LIFE SPENT IN THE REALIZED PRESENCE OF GOD. " Thou God seest rue" is the watchword of religion. When all our life is brought under his eye, when we believe that the c0mmonest and most trivial things are not beneath his notice, when we desire to hide nothing from him by night or by day,-then the light of his pure be:ing illumines and regulates all, and the highest purity is reached. "Mus- cular Christianity" is a good idea, if by it we mean that Christianity has a physical as well as spiritual sphere. No efforts of our own, muscular or otherwise, will ever save us; but, beinJl; saved by Divine grace, our whole being, muscles and all, is at God's service. Religion in everything i~ the sense of God all through, and this should be our aim. Ill. Go-o IS THE CAPTAIN oi-'LY OF THE PUBE. A holy camp is the preliminary to God leading Israel successfully against the enemy (ver. 14). 'fhe pure in heart see God u.ud follow him to victory. It is the state of the camp of Israel, not the state ot ott. xxttr. 1-115.J THE BOOK OF DtWTERONOMY. 375
their enemies, that is all important. IC Israel is impure, it will soon prove impotent. 'l'he pure are, in the long run, th11 powerful. God is on the side, not of the heaviest, but of the purest batte.lions. Really religions men are ultimately, under God victorious.-R. M. E. ' Vers. 16, 16.-The Hebrew fugitive law. We have here a most remarkable law, entirely in the interests of the slave, and showing conclusively that no such thincr as 0 property in mankind was recognized in the theocracy. When a slave ran away, tbc person to whom he repaired is directed to harbour him and give him a place with his servants, but not to restore him to his former master. Here, then, is a fugitive law such as permitted no such monster as a slave-hunter to defile the land of Palestine. I. TnE DIBLE RECOGNIZES NO PROPERTY IN MAN. We cannot do better than qno1e from Dr. Cheever's 'God against Slavery.' He srtys, "The Jewish Law strictly fur- bade any one from ever returning unto his master that servant that had fled from his master to him. If an ox or an ass had strayed from its owner, any one finding the beast was commanded to restore it to its owner as his property; but if a man's servant had fled away, every one was in like manner forbidden to restore him, demonstrating in the strongest manner that a servant was never regarded as property, and could not be treated as such. A man's ox belonged to him, and must be restored to him as his property; but a man's servant did not belong to him, and could not be his property, and, if he chose to take himself away, was not considered as taking away anything that belonged to his master or could be claimed and taken back by him. It is not possible for an incidental demonstration to be stronger than this." II. RUNAWAY SLAVES ARE ENTITLED TO AN OPPORTUNITY OF EARNING A LI'VF.LIHOOD. Not only is he not to be restored, but he is also to be allowed a place in the establish- ment to which he has escaped. Doubtless be bad a good idea of a vacancy being therr, and the need for an extra servant. In such a case be is to get his chance, and be nllowed without oppression to earn bis livelihood. We do not assert that every human being, no matter bow "heart-lazy," has a right to a living; but every one bas surely a right to a livelihood. It is the organization of labour and livelihoods, rather than poor-laws, that should engross the attention of philanthropists. III. WHILE MEN HAVE NO RIGIIT TO OUR PERSONS, GOD IIAS-WE ARE ms. We are God's slaves.· "We are bought with a price," and therefore bound to glorify him with our bodies (1 Cor. vi. 20). He bas a title to us by virtue of creation; but for him we should not have existed. He has a title to us by virtue of bis providence; for in him we not only live, but move and have our being. He has a title to us by virtue of redemption; for he bas redeemed us at no less a cost than the blood of his Son. He has a title to us by virtue of his inspirations; for any good and holy desires and aspirations we entertain are through the indwelling of his Spirit. If we intelli- gently recognize our position, we shall own our obligations to him, and acknowledge we are slaves of God. But bis slavery is "perfect freedom." Better to be the Lord's slave than the world's freeman. His Law is "the perfect Law of liberty," and when under it we are realizing that broadest phase of freedom which has made his slaves the mightiest of men.-R. M. E.