Vers. 6-22.-Neighbourly love and good will to be cultivated in detail. One golden thread runs through all the varied precepts of this chapter, They are most interesting illustrations, one and all, of the spirit of humanity and of far-reriching wisdom which pervades the Mosaic Law. The followi:! 6 headings include the gist of the several injunctions hero given, and show also their relation to each other. 1. Man's "in- humanity to men" is sternly restrained. No Israelite, however poor, is to be kidnapped and sold into foreign slavery (ver. 7). 2. No one might be deprived of the machinery, tools, or implements on the use of which his daily bread depended, for a pledge (ver. 6). It is doubtless to this humane regulation that we owe the ancient common law of this realm, that no man shall be distrained of the necessaries of his trade or profession as long as there are other things on which the distraint can be made. 3. A. man's house is to be his castle. No one may enter it, even to fetch a pledge (vers. 10, 11). The exception to this is in the case of leprosy, in which instance the priest had a right to enter a man's house to see into the state of things, i.e. home is to be inviolable save where the public security demands it otherwise. Hence a special caution is given to avoid anything which might bring such a plague upon them. The case of Miriam should be before their eyes (vers. 8, 9). 4. If Lhe poor man has pledged that in which he needs to sleep, it is to be restored to him before sundown (ver. 13). 5. Hired servants were not to be oppressed, but were to have fair and even generous treatment (vers. 14, 15). 6. The spirit of the checks upon blood-revenge, which are found in connection with the cities of refuge (see Homily thereon), is never to be violated, and no one is to suffer any civil penalty on account of another's sin. Justice is to operate always (ver. 16). 7. No advantage is ever to be taken of the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. They who are deprived of earthly helpers on whom they might lean are to find their safeguard in the sentiments of honour and benevolence which pervade the people (vers. 17, 18). 8. Not only is no wrong to be done to them, but their aid and comfort are to he specially studied, in the time of harvest, and in the gathering in of the olive and the grape (vers.19-22). 9. The reason for such cultiva- tion of kindness to others is that God had been kind to them (vers. 18, 22). I. The requirements of God in the social relations of life are righteousness, justice, mercy, love, and good will to all. II. God has fenced round the poor, the weak, the widow, and the fatherless with a special guard. III. A wrong done by man to man is sin against God. IV. The inspiring motive for our showing love to others is the love of God to us (cf. Micah vi. 8, 9).
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-4.-Divorce. The Hebrew Law," for the hardness of men's hearts," found H necessary to" suffer" many things not approved of absolutely (Matt. :xi:x. 8). Divorce was ono of these. It was permitted on grounds of strong personal dislike (ver. 3). The Law was innpplicable to adultery, that being judged a capital offence. While per- mitting divorce, Moses obviously aims nt restricting it, and shows, by his modes of expression, how alien this rupture of tho marriage bond is to the original institution. W o may learn- I. TIU.T THE RIGIIT OF DIVORCE 1B ONE TO BE STRICTLY GUARDED. Divorce, even where most justified, is a great evil. It is the rupture of n tie intended by the Creator to be indissolublo. Adultery warrants it, but it must be deemed not the least part of the ovil that so unhappy a cause for the dissolutiou of marriag'I should exist. The THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY, [ell XXIV, 1-22.
revelRtions of the divorce courts are most injurious to public morality. Facilities for dn·or~c, ~uch as some advocate, w?uld lead to serious mischiefs. Desides being wrong rn prn!c1plc, t.~ey would crcRte_ mcons_t:u1cy, lead to domestic unhappine.s, inflict lrnrdslnp on children, prcYent efforts bemg made to mend matters by forbearance and compliance. Frequent diYorces blunt the sense of the sacredness of the marriage 1111i0n, and so lead to liccntionsness. "At the time when divorces were most frequent nmnng the Tiomans marriages were most rare; and Augustus was obliged, by penal la "·s, to force men or fashion into the married state" (Hume). Moses restrains divorce thus far that he requires it to take place: 1. By means of a legal d0cument. 2. For r~nson gi,·cn. 3. He debars the man dirnrcing from remarrying the woman divorced if, in the int.cn·al, she has been married to another. The Christian law recognizes no legitimate ground of diYorce save adultery (Malt. v. 32). II. TIIAT nIGHT nEws ON DIYORCE ARE CON!IECTED WITII A SENSE OF TlIE INIIERENT ~,,nmu:--r.ss oF THE MARRIAGE RELATION.· This is suggC's.ted by the terms employed in nr. 4. A husband is prohibited from remarryiug his di\·orced wife if in the interval she has been the wifo of another, and the ground given for the prohibition is that "she is defiled." But why "defiled"? 'l'he expression could not have been used had the first marriage been regarded as perfectly nullified by the legal divorce. 'l'he statement that a divorced woman, remarrying, is "defiled," implies that deep view of the marriaae relation given in Genesis (ii. U), and reiterated by Christ (Matt. xix. 3-:--10). .A;d it will be found, in practice, that light views of the sacredness of the marriage relation inrnriabl)· work in the direction of increasing facilities for divorce. "The sceptical party in France not long ago proposed to make marriage dissoluble at the pleasure of the parties whenever the woman had passed the age at which child-bearing was no iongcr to be expected" (R. H. Hutton, in Expositor, January, 1881). 'l'he writer just <JUotcd ably argues that strict views on marriage, aud divorce, a1·e not possible, save under the sanction of a super£ensual morality.-J. 0,
"fer. 5.-The ma,i 'llewly married. The precept is in addition to those in eh. xx. 5-8. It provides that the newly married man shall be left free to enjoy the relation into which he has entered for a whole year, not being required to serve in war, and not being liable to be called from home on public business. It may be inserted here as tending to prevent divorces. We learn: 1. '!'hat it is the duty of the husband to love and cherish the wife (Eph. v. 29). 2. 'l'hat it is the interest of the State to do what it can to endear the marriage relation. 3. That laws should be framed in a spirit of kindness, and with consideration for the happiness of the subjects. This law shows kindly consideration for the wife, (I) in not depriving her of the husband of her youth in the months of their early love; (2) in allowing time for the husb::md's affections to become securely fixed, so preventing inconstancy.-J. 0.