Generous treatment or the poor secures their warmest interest on our behalf. The poorest or the pour has still access to the audience-chamber of the heavenly palace. 'l'heir simple suit on our behalf will sometimes secure blessings which no arithmetic can measure. Deeds of kindness done to the indigent are done to God for Gori identifies himself with them. "Ho that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord." If the concession be an act of sterling love, pure from the alloy of selfishness, it is an act of righteousness-the fruit of the Divine Spirit's grace. This is not se\f-righteon~- ness, for genuine love to men is a gracious affection. It does not begin with self; it does not terminate in self. God is its object; hence it shall be counted for righteous- ness. As Abrnham's faith counted for righteousness, so does also genuine love.-D. Ver. 7.-Slave-traffic a capital offence. Slavery, in modified form, has always prevailen in Eastern lands; and, with prudent limitations, was tolerated among the Hebrews. To promnlgate laws for men, which transcended their moral sense, would defeat the ends of law. Gon has continually to lead men from lower levels to higher. A man may voluntarily sell his liberty for a time. But to deprive a man of liberty by violence is a scarlet sin ; and man-stealing is rightly branded with the deepest indignation of God. I. LIBERTY IS ESSENTIAL TO MAN'S FULLEST LIFE. Any form of bondage is a CUl'- tailment of life, a mutilation of the man. His outward condition may be bettered. He may have more food and warmer clothing and a. healthier home, but the real man is injured. He is not folly susceptible of self-development. The springs of life are poisoned. He learns to despise himself, and to despise oneself is a step on the slippery road to ruin. Yet liberty is a. human right not well understood. It must be distinguished from licence. True liberty has its limits and its checks. A man is at liberty to pa.rt with his liberty for a time. Every man who toils for his bread is com- pelled to do this. Yet even this temporary cessation of his liberty must be voluntary. II. To DEPRIVE A MAN FORCIBLY OF ms LIBERTY IS TO DEPRIVE HIM OF HIS LIFE. The life of the body is not the whole of a man's life. The intellect, affections, choice, will, have a life more precious than the life of the body. To steal a man or to kidnap a child is to interfere, wantonly and injuriously, with the proper life of the person. 'fhe outward conditions of training and probation are not such as God ordained. The man's eternal prospects, as well as his earthly possibilities, a.re blighted. And all this moral damage is done for paltry gain. The man who can lend himself to such a. business as slave-mongering is lost to all goodness, lost to shame. He is a disgrace to the human species-a. tool of Satan. III. Fon BUCH A CRIME THE GOD-APPOINTED PENALTY IS DEATH. NO heavier penalty is ii;nposed by the civil magistrate, -because no heavier penalty is. possible. Such a monster must be removed from the scenes of human sodety, because his presence is pestilential, demoralizing, deadly. Where human judgment ends, God's judgment begins. Such a. one is hurried before the higher court of heaven, is arraigned before the great white throne of the Eternal, and fullest justice will here be meted out. My soul, be thou free from such taint as this !-D. Vere. 8, 9.-Leprosy symbolic, God has intended the material world to be a school- house, and every event a vehicle of moral instruction. The sick-chamber may become an audience-room, where lessons of heavenly wisdom are conveyed by the Spirit of truth. Leprosy was singled out by God to be a visible picture of sin; so that" out of the eater there.might come forth meat." Out of seeming evil, e,ood can be distilled. I. LEPROSY HAD A RELIGIOUS CHARACTER, More was meant by the infliction than was seen by the bodily eye. It was mysterious in its origin, and irresistible in its progress. It grndnally spread and covered the whole man. It touched and injured every faculty. The intention was salutary, viz. to lead the sufferer's thoughts to the discovery of a deeper malady, and to awaken desire for a more enduring cw·e. The outward is an index of the inward. Leprosy is a type and picture of sin. II. LEPROSY REQUIRED RELIOIOUS TREATMENT. It was vain to seek the offices of an ordinary physician. Eorthly remedy was and still is unknown. The sufferer was required to visit the priest. Direct application to God was to be made. Meanwhile, the leper was to be completely isolated. He might not consort with his fellows. 890 THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY. [oa, lllV. 1-22,
Hereb~- he might learn the disastrous effects of sin, viz. in disintegrating society; nnd lwrc•by be might in solitude mourn over sin, and seek its cure. 'l'he only possibility of the removnl of leprosy was in religious obedience, Every part of the prescription was furnished by God, 11nd was to be applied by God's ministers, Com- pletest. submission was a condition of cure. III. LEPROSY, m ITS CAUSE AND CURE, HAD AN HISTORIC TYPE. This type was furnished by Miriam. Her sprcific sin was known; it was insubordination to authority. Her chastisement was sudden. It came direct from God in the form of leprosy. 'l'he injured man became brr intercessor. God graciously responded to tho AUit of Moses. Temporary separation and strict seclusion were the method of cure. Golden lessons iic hrre. Every leper may confidently follow this indication of God's will. If he healed Miriam, can he not also heal me? IY. LEPROSY HEALED WAS CHARGED WITH RELIGIOUS ODLIGATIONB. .As a healed man will cheerfully recompense the physician for his pains, so God required the restored leper to express his gratitude in the form of animal sacrifice. His gratitude could not be expressed in empty words. He was not permitted to briner that" which cost him nothing." In the sl11ughter of the devoted victim, the grntef~I man would confess that he himself had deserved to die, and that Goel had permitted a substitute. If the man were fully penitent, the sight of the dying substitute would vividly impress his heart with a sense of God's mercy. In every arrangement which God ma<lc, the good of man was sought. The method will often seem strange to our dim Yision, but respecting the beneficent end there can be no question.-D.