The Pulpit Commentary — Deuteronomy — Section 464

all the elements of weakness and pain and decay shall be eliminated. Compared with tho future life of the righteous, the pre110nt life is but childhood-the feebleness and ignorance of infancy. '!'ho life which Is promised to the righteous is nothin" less than the life of Goel. "We shall be like him." 2. The destiny ef disloyally is destruction. "Ye shall surely perish." This includes disappointment-the sudden collapse of all earthly hopes. It embraces shame and public reproach. The disloyal will be the laughing-stock of the universe. They shall be covered with confusion. This dark destiny includes poignant remorse. The unrighteous will know, to their deepest grief, that they might have been saved if they would. Such despair baffles all description. IV. INSTANT CHOICE DEMANDED. We cannot do other than admire the condescension of God in pleading so pathetically with men. 1. There is full instruction. "I have set before thee life and death.'' Every element of needed information is furnished ; and personal examination of spiritual facts is expected. Every man is bound to in- vestigate, to ponder, to judge. 2. There is authoritative command. "I command thee.'' On the side of righteous precept there is supreme authority. Every appeal of God is an appeal to the noblest part of our nature-to conscience. Every solicitation of the tempter is an appeal to appetite and passion. 3. There is tender entreaty. To the activities of wisdom and authority is added the impulse of love. If man's benevolent love prompt him to use all measures to turn the disloyal unto God; how much deeper must be the love of God, of which man's affection is but a faint adt1mbration ! With all the pathos which human sympathy can lend to entreaty Moses pleads, "therefore choose life." 4. Heaven and earth are summoned to hear the solemn charge. Angels note the fidelity of God's prophets. All heaven is interested in man's obedience. The joy of heaven rises to new heights with every accession of loyal subjects. And all the inhabitants of earth are interested in onr obedience, whether they feel that interest or not. The future history of this world is in our hands-is being moulded by our deeds. What we are to-day determines what the next generation will be. E-,ch man who hears the lieavenly summons makes deci,ion straightway, if not in form, yet in reality. Each man is writing the epi~aph for his tomb-preparing his verdict for the last assize I Can we not to-day forecast our final destiny ?-D. Vers. 1-10.-The restoration of the Je11Js. So certain is the apostacy and the judg- ment on the land, that Moses assumes it as an accomplished fact, thereupon proceeding to predict a restoration of the "scattered nation" in case of their repentance. There must be the penitent return to God, and then God will restore them and bless them abundantly. It was this principle which was carried out in the restoration from Babylon, and which will be carried out in any future restoration of Israel. We have here the raison d'etre of Jewish missions. I. THE PENITENCE OF ISRAEL IS THE PRELIMINARY TO THIS RESTORATION. Their captivity and dispersion having arisen from their forsaking God, it is only reasonable that their penitence should precede their restoration. Into the question of the re-establishment of the Jews in Palestine we need not here enter. Dr. Brown, who has written so well on the second advent, and shown conclusively, we think, that it will not be premillennial, has also advoca·ted a restoration of Israel to their own land.1 However this may be, of one thing we may be certain, that the spiritual restoration of Israel will precede any local restoration. 'fhey will be restored to God before being restored-if restored they are to be-to Palestine. JI. To THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE JEWS CHRISTIAN CHtIBCHES SHOULD INTEL- LIGENTLY DEVOTE THEMSELVES. The winning of them by and to the gospel is the most important service we can render them. No movement of the political chess-board is half so important as the winning of them back to God. When, moreover, the local restoration is problematical, while the spiritual restoration is the indispensable pre- liminary to any further good fortune,-the duty of Christians is most clear. The gospel of Jesus must be adapted to the peculiar circumstances of Israel, and pressed upon their attention with all the sweet persuasiveness Christian grace ensures. Ill. JEWISH MISSIONS ARE THE TRUE COMl.'ENSATION FOR THE PERSECUTION OF THE 1 • The Restoration of the J ewe: the History, Principles, and Bearings of the Question, oy Dr. David Brown. Edinburgh : 1861. 476 THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY. [OH. XU. 1-20,