,ers. 11-16.-Honesty the best policy. We have first a law of purity, which needs no exposition, but in its holy severity (vers. 11, 12) was fitted to check all tendency to lewd practices among the women of Israel. Then Moses passes on to speak of the crime of having divers weights and measures, and the effort to make money by dis- honest practices. No blessing from God can rest upon such wilfully dishonest ones; if bis blessing is to be experienced, it must be by a policy of honesty all round. J. IT IS APPARENTLY EASY TO MAKE MONEY BY LIGHT WEIGHTS AND SHORT MEASURES. It is not only securing the ordinary profits, but gaining by the deficiency palmed off for the perfect measure. It is a gain by quantity as well as by price. And plenty of people who look only at the surface imagine that they can easily en.rich themselves by a little dishonesty, which will never be detected. Inspectors of weights and measures are the embodime:;t of the suspicions of society. IJ. lT IS A SYSTEM OF BUSINESS UPON WHICH NO DIVINE BLESSING CAN BE ASKED. No better test of the propriety of our procedure can be found than this. Will it stand the test of prayer?" Can God, the All-holy One, be expected to bless it? Now, his whole Word shows that such practices are abominations to him. The stars of heaven will at length fight 11gainst such a policy. III. Ko TEMPORARY SUCCESS CAN COMPENSATE FOB AN UNEASY CONSCIENCE. Suppose that success waited on dishonesty invariably and proved lasting, life would be made rni:;erable by the uneasy conscience. Stifled for a time, it rises like the furies at last, and rnakes life a lastina misery. No man ever trifled with conscience and did not suffor for it. Success becom;s in such a case but a whited sepulchre; the exp~rience within is but the rottenness of the tomb. IV. HONESTY 18 THE BEST POLICY FOB PERSONAL PEACE AND FOB DIVINE BLESSING. We say that no man should so far outrage his conscience as to be dishonest. Honesty is a policy to he pursued for its own sake, as the only condition of personal peace, \Vere there no Divine blessing in question at all, conscientious men would be as honest liS they are now. At the same time, it makeH the honesty all the happier that it lies in the sunshine of tlµ, lnfi{).ite I'resence, ind that his r~iant sw.ile is 011 it, Tllerci is i:io de,nger of • en. nvr. 1-19.J THE BOOK OF' DEUTERONOMY.
mercenary spirit entering into euch a. relation with God. He so wra.ps us round that in hie circle of love it would be moet ungrateful e.nd most dieeonant to practise diehoneety. With people under a. theocrooy, or reign'ofGod, we should expect to find just weights and full measures. The visits of the inspectors should prove superfluous with all those whose life lies open as the da.y to the inspection of their King.-R. M. E.
Vere. 17-19.-The extermination of the merciless. The crlme of the Amalekitcs was foiling upon the hindmost, who were faint 11nd weary. It was a.n act of judgment nntempered by any mercy; a.nd the decree of God is their extermination because they were merciless. Just as we see in another place that God won't forgive the unforgiving, so here we see that he will blot out the merciless from under his merciful heaven. "For he shall havejudgment without mercy, that bath showed no mercy" (Ja.s. ii. 13). I. THE MERCILESS DESERVE NO MERCY. In the case before llS there was everything calculated to stir up mercy. The rearguard was feeble and faint and weary. Surely these Arnalekites will pity the poor pilgrims, and show them some mercy. But no, they think they are all the better prey, and so they smite the people of God most mercilessly. In their heartless act they put themselves beyond the pale of God's compassion. He consigns them to extermination under the swords of Israel. Our conscience says, "Amen" to this decree. The Amalekites deserve destructiou for their heartlessness. What a word of warning to heartless people still! Let it be carried to a. certain point, .and God will hand them over to deserved destruction. II. THE REARGUARD IS ALWAYS AVENGED. The tribe of Dan was directed to go "hindmost with their standards" (Numb. ii 31). .And it must have seemed a trial to be always in the rear and never in the van. But they were here taught that they had in God a special Avenger. He espouses their cause, and will bring forth their righteousness as the light, and their judgment as the noonday (Ps. xxxvii. 6). III. LET us CONTENTEDLY TAKE THE HINDMOST PLACE IF GoD GIVES IT TO us. .All cannot be in the van, and the faithfulness of the rear:i;uard is as much a matter of Divine observation as is the dash and courage which characterize the van.-R. M. E.
EXPOSITION. Vers. 1-11.-0r the firstfrnits the Is- CHAPTER XXVI. raelite was to take a. portion, and placing it THANKSGIVING AND PRAYER AT TBE PRE• in a. basket, to bring it to the place of the SEJITATION OF F!RSTFRUITB AND TITHES, sanctuary, where it was to Le received by As 1\fosos began bis exposition of the the attendant priest. The offerer was to laws and rights instituted for Israel by a. accompany his presentation with the decla- reference to the sanctuary as the place ration, " I profess this day unto the Lord which the Lord should choose, 11ud the thy Gou, that I am come unto the coll.Iltry place where religious service was to be which the Lord sware unto our futbers for rendered (eh. xii.), so here he follows up to give us;" and the priest having set the his address by II reference to the s11mo. Of basket down before the alt1u, the offerer the gifts wl1ich had to be presented at the was to ma.ke confession and prayer, grate- snnctmu-y there were two specially con- fully e.cknowleilgiug the Divine favour nected with the social and domestic life of showed to Israel in choosing them to be a. the people, viz. the firstfruits 11nd the great nation, in deli veri11g them out of second tithe. To these, by II natural tran- Egypt, and bringing them into II rich e.nd sition from the preceding discourse-occu- fertile le.nd; 11nd along with th,s bis bounty pied as that is with injunctions regarding to the individual who now presented the their social and domestic relations-Moses firstfruits of his laud unto the Lord. hero refers for the purpose of prescribing Ver. 2.-The first of e.ll the fruit of the cerfoin liturgiClll forms with which the ee.rth. (On the fow of the firstfruits, see presentation of the gift wae to be accom• Numb. xviii. 12; eh. xviil. 4.) A buket; pllllied by tile otferer, 1t~19, a basket of wickerwork. TII~ BOOK OF DEtJTEMNOMY: