Vers. 24, 25.-Pos~eaSsion of earthly things only partial. The mode and condition of human life in this world serve a moral purpose. A material body requires material food; material food implies material possessions. The use of these affords fine scope for the development of many virtues. Without material possessions, selfishness woc.1d scarcely be possible; nor could some moral qualities, as generosity, find a field for exercise. I. EARTHLY ESTATE ADMITS ONLY OF A PARTIAL POSSESSION. We cannot retain for our exclusive use the beauty of the hills, or the fragrance of the flowers within territory called "our own." It is not possible for us to appropriate to our personal use all the products of our fields. Restrict the enjoyment as we may, we can succeed only to a limited extent. And why should we make the attempt? It adds immensely to our real pleasure to share the products with others. Indiscriminate appropriation of harvests would do good to no one. It would diminish productiveness. It would create waste; it would promote idleness. But profuse generosity is not only pleasurable: it is profitable. We gain the esteem of men. The whole community bands tocrether 0 to protect our crops. God smiles on our fields and our toil. II. HUNGER HAS UNQUESTIONABLE CLAIM ON NATURE'S PRODUCTS. Be our skilful labour to secure a harvest what it may, the largest possible, yet we cannot forget.that God too has contributed largely to make our fields productive. In God's contribution to the result, his poor ones ought to share. Lest the ordinary philanthropy of men might not suffice for this need of poverty, God himself has taken the poor under his sheltering wing; he has become their Champion, he has proclaimed a law for the protection of the needy. Inasmuch as God retains absolute proprietorship over all created things, and counts the richest men as h:s chief stewards, he has fullest right to determine on what conditions his bounty shall be enjoyed. When man has added his labour to the result, when he has garnered his crops, the condition is changed ; but so long as it is standing in the field, hunger may find a meal. ill THOUGH HU1'GER HAS A CLAIM, COVETOUSNESS IIAB NONE. The labourer or the weary traveller had a statutory right to relieve Lis existing hunger; he had no right to carry any fruit or corn away. This would be to abuse a precious privilege. "Thus far might they go, and no farther." The path of obedience always bas been narrow. Here was a test of trust in God. He who has provided a meal for the hungry man to-day can also provide another meal to-morrow. Or, if one door is closed, can;ot God open another? Covetousness is suicidal. In the long run it defeats its own ends. Careful obedienc1: is a firstfruit of genuine trust. Give a bad man an inch, and he will take an ell. By this he may be known. But a good roan is as careful of another man's possessions as of his own. This is but another outcome of the command, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."-D.
EXPOSITION. regulating divorce; that is simply assumed CHAPTER XXIV. as what-might occur, and what is here LAWS RE.SPECTING DIVORCE, AGAINST MAN- regulated ie the treatment by the first STEALING AND ll1JUSTICE. husband of a woman who has been divorced Vere. 1-4.-0f dfoorce. If a man put a second time. awav his wife because she did not any Vere. 1-4.-These verses should be read longer please him, and she became the wife as one continuous sentence, of which the of e.nother man, by whom also she was put protasie ie in vers. 1-3, and the apodosis in away, or from whom she was severed by his ver. 4, thus : "If a man h.ath taken o. wife, and married her, and it come to pass that del!.th, the fust hUBband might not remarry she doth not find favour in his eyes, because her, for that would be an abomination in of some uncleanness in her, and he bath t.he eyea of the Lord, and would bring sin on written her a bill of divorcement, and given the land. This is not a le.w ea.nctioning or it in _her hand, and sent her out of his house: OJI, xnv, 1-22.J 'l'IIE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY. 381