J, MEN ARE RULED BY A SYSTEM OF RF.WARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. Notwithst:mding tl,c de,·clopment. of the bumnn mind, nnd the progress of civilization since Moses' day, human 11ature is still in its minority, still in a state of childhood. \Ve do not yet seo into the interior nature of spiritual realities. \Ve do not see the inherent excellence of righteousness. \Ve do not sec the native benuty of obedience. llenco wo need to be ntt.rac!:ell by rewards and awed by pnnishments. We perceive the glory or the shame of morn] conduct chiefly by its fruits. As we grow in piety, we shall value virtue and holiness for their own sakes, and think less about remote effects nnd consequences. At present we need the attendant pleasure and pain, the promises and threateninga. II. FINAL SEPARATIONS OF MANKIND ARE TIERE PREFIGURED. As the twelve tribes were here divided into two distinct groups, divided by the vnle of Shecbem; so all the tribes of men shall eventually be separated, and that by 11n impassable gulf. 'l'he principle of clRSsification on Eb&l and Gerizim was not personal merit or demerit (as it will be at the final assize), yet even this ultimate principle of separation seems to ha,·e been foreshadowed there. Only children of Jacob's mnrried wives were placed on the monnt of blessing; but Reuben, the first born, had forfeited this privilco-e by reason of his s!n, As y~t, the evil could be averted-the positions might be rev~rsed; these dramatic proceedings were omens both of good and of evil, and were intended to arouse a torpid conscience. To heaven or to hell each man hourly gravitates. III. Gon's nLESSING OB CURSE TAKES EFFECT FROM: CENTRE TO cmCUMFERENCE, These mountains were situated almost central in the land. Soon this vast congregation would be scattered to their allotted homes, and thus the influence of this scene would be transmitted all over Canaan. Even this external transmission was typical. 'l'he blessing alfd the curse touched every interest and relationship of Jewish life-religion, home, society, government. The curse was invoked upon idolatry, undutifulness, arnrice, oppression, unchastity, insubordination. It began in the inner chamber of the heart, and extended to the outermost circle of the social system. It begins at once, follows the crime as the shadow does the object, until it reaches into the most distant cycles of eternity. IV. THE HUll.AN CONSCIENCE IS THE RECIPROCAL OF THE MORAL LAW, THE ECHO OF lTS SANCTIONS Alm rrs PENALTIES. Every healthy conscience utters its sincere "Amen" to every dictate of God's Law. When free from the mists and storms of guilty passion, 'it reflects, with the fidelity of a mirror, the decisions of God's royal will. E,·en when a man is the victim of judicial sentence, his conscience admits ihe justice of the doom. The culprit, in his calmer moods, is self-convicted and self-conuemned, When God, by the lips of Moses, required all the tribes to affirm th~s solemnly the curses due to disobedience, he knew that every man would heartily take his part in that august deed. V. MEN BECOME THE ADIIIIIIBTRATOBS OF GoD's LAW, We cannot doubt that one reason why God required this public assent to the sanctions of his Law, was that each man might feel more deeply his responsibility toward himself and toward his neigh- bours. In proportion to our reverential regard for God becomes our concern for others obedience. The Levites more than once had girded on their swords, and, fired with zeal for their God, had slain their own countrymen. No resistance was attempted, for conscience bad made cowards of the culprits. To the same end, David prays, "Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness." Mof'ed by this impulse, men would seek "to please their neighbours for their good unto edification." Possessed with a pious disposition, they endeavour to make !mown on every side God's will, to preserve its remembrance among those disposed to grow oblivious, and to exalt its authority on every hand. Self-consistency required that those who had publicly pronounced the curses of the Law should jealously wal.ch their own conduct-should tenderly caution others!-D.
Vers. 1-10.-Law-abiding people. We have here a direction about writing, upon great stones in Mount Ebal, the words of the Divine Law. Whether this meant only the ulessings and curses, as Josephus thinks, or an abstract of Deuteronomy, or only the ten commandments, we cannot tell. But the idea implied is similar to the writing of tl,e Decalogue in stone; it was to render fixed the Law on which the national policy was to rest. In other words, it was a symbolic way of declaring that _Israel will be ll!I, ll.VU. 1-26.] 'l'HE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY.