II. T1_IERE IS_ l'l'O vmTUE IN RAOOEDN~ss. I? f~ct, one of the prophets, in order to convey 1mpress1vely the worthlessness m Gods sight of our self-riahteousness uses this very figure: "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness~s are as filthy rngs; and we all do fade 11s a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind have taken us 11way" (!Ra. )xiv. 6). Suppose that Israel bad reached the land of p;omiso in desperato raggedness; it would have been no credit to themselves or to their God. It woulll, on tho other hand, havo made the invasion more perilous. But when, instead of "ragged regiments," they came with unworn uniforms from the wilderness, the very freshness of the appearance of the host struck terror into their adversaries. III. THE FA0T HAD EVIDENTLY FAILED TO STRIKE THE ISRAELITES AS IT OUGHT TO HAVE DONE, "Yet the Lord," Rays Moses," hath not given you an heart to perceive, 11nd eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto thi3 day" (ver. 4). The unch11naina, well- appointed host had ceased to be a marvel to itself, although it must htve "'been a roa1·vel to all other observers. The bright, unfading, well-kept dresses continually beforo their eyes failed to make adequate impression. They took God's goodness, as we are too prone to do, as a matter of course. IV. Goo's PROVISION FOR MAN'S DODY WAS A TYPE OF HIS PROVISI0::-1 FOR MAX's SPIDIT. The spirit of man has its hunger and thirst and nakedness, just as well as the body. And we are accustomed to see in the manna, which satisfieJ the hunger of the Israelites, a. type of him who, as the Living Bread, came down from heave!l (John vi. 49, 50); in the water from the smitten rock, which satisfied their thirst, a type of the Spirit, proceeding from the Son, to refresh the souls of men (John vii. 37-39). And why, we ask, shoulJ we not discern in the time-defying garments, which God so wonderfully preserved, a type of that righteousness with which he clothes our spiritual nakedness, which is unto all and upon all them that believe (Rom. iii. 22)? Round the human spirit, as Carlyle has put it, there lies a "garment of flesh contextured in the loom of heaven . . . it is sky-woven, and worthy of a God;" but a.round it he is pleased to place another garment, of which the unworn uniforms of Israel were types, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which is sufficient to cover all our nakedness, and which stands defiantly against the powers of time. It is in this array and panoply that, as pilgrims, we shall reach the land of eternal promise. Vicissitude and change will work no havoc in this garment of God. In contrast to all man's "shoddy" a.nd "ragged righteousness," it stands in perennial brightness, the time-defying clothing out of the commiss:uiat of God. May we all be arrayed in none other a.s we approach the Jordan 1-R. M. E.
Vere. 10-28.-The land of promise becoming accursed. Moses has tried the principle of gratitude with the Israelites, urging obedience from a. sense of the great goodness of the Lord. And now be turns to the other principle of fear, which cannot be dispensed with in religion,1 and urges obedience out of respect for the promised land, since if they are disobedient it will be turned to a land accursed. The land will in such a. case become a witness to the curse of God, instead of continuing a standing evidence of his love; a. beacon instead of a type ; a wilderness instead of a pa.radise. And it is instructive to notice the exact Janger Moses meets in this passage. The curses have already been pronounced; but it is just possible for some one to say that the curse is levelled at collective sin. National apostacy is contemplated, but an individual will never be noticed in his course of licentiousness. The wholesale is judged; the retail ma.y escape. This is the idea. that Moses here refutes. He shows that the individual shall be judged, and the land become accursed through the apostacy of individuals. We remark, then- I. 'fHE NATION APOSTATIZES THROUGH THE APOSTACY OF INDIVIDUALS. No nation as a public act apostatizes, but it gets rotten through individual action. When then n number of units, under the delusion that as units they shall escape, betake themselves to evil courses, blessing themselves in their hearts, saying, "I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst,'' then does rottenness enter into the state of Denmark! It is well for units not to pretend to under estimate their influence as an excuse for living as they please. The nation 1 Cf. Mozley's ' Sermons Parochial and Occasional,' pp. 322-329. 162 THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY, [OB.utt. 1-29.