The Pulpit Commentary — Deuteronomy — Section 465

JEWB, TO WHICH, ALAS! THEY .lRE STILL IN SOME QUARTERS SUBJECTED. For It muet be remembered that the persecution of Israel, though allowed as a just retribution for their rejection of God, may be prosecuted in such an unholy spirit as to entail upon the persecutors the merited curse of God. Because there may be Shylocks among the Jews is no reason why men should wreak their vengeance on them. Indeed, the Lord threatens to put the curses upon their persecutors, when they have turned unto him. If this be so, then it is the duty of Christian people to repudiate all persecution of the Jews as such, and to organize such mission work as may bring the truth and claims of God before the mind and heart of his ancient people. This will prove the true compensation to them. It will solace them under suffering and trial, and enable them to forget in the joys of a new life the pains and judgments of the old. Besides, the mission work undertaken by God's people may avert the judgments of Almighty God deserved by the nations that have persecuted the Jews. It is a matter of great thank• fulness that England and America have au open door for Israel, and no sympathy with their present oppressors. IV. 'l'RE FUTURE OF ISRAEL IS TO EXCEED IN OLORY THE PAST. This seems clear from this pass~ge. The Jewish development is to exceed all past developments. They are to have a mighty population, great wealth, and God is to rejoice over them for good again. \Ye do not regard a national organization as essential to influence. Christianity is now, for example, the mightiest factor in human society, and yet it is not organized nationally. Should the Jews by their rare linguistic powers, by their patient courage, by tLeir singleness of aim, become when converted to Christianity the predomi- nant missionary factor in the world, then we can see in such a restoration a more powerful and blessed influence than if they furnished to the world a new line of famous kings. It is not dynasties, but the devotion of the people, which goes to make a people mighty. The kingdoms over which men rule may not be defined in statute-book or in treaties. There are kingships exercised by humble, devoted, cross-bearing men, which explain the kingship of the crucified Nazarene. It is to this spiritual domi- nation that we trust Israel shall yet come. And this shall prove its glory. For glory consists not in the employment of physical and mechanical force, but in the exercise of self-denial and devotedness of spirit. As Carlyle has said in' Sartor Resartus,' "The first preliminary moral act, annihilation of self (Selbst-todtung), had been happily accomplished; and my mind's eyes were now unsealed and its hands ungyved." It is they who have realized this who are on the path of real glory. From their money-lending and money-grubbing the Jews, by Christianity, shall yet be delivered, to devote themselves in a more excellent way to the interests of mankind.-R. M. E. Vers. 11-14.-'.lne revelation at man's door. We have a very beautiful thought inserted by Moses regarding the proximity and handiness-if we may be allowed the thought-of God's commandments. It is used by Paul in the same connection, and so adapted to the gospel as to show its practical tenor (Rom. x. 6-9). And here we would observe- !. EXTRAVAGANT NOTIONS ARE ENTERTA.Th'ED OF WHAT A DIVINE REVELATION OUGHT TO BE. It is thought that it should be some far-away affair, to which none but seraphic spirits could soar; as high as heaven, and requiring !ast _powers and efforts to reach. Or it is thougLt to be as recondite as matters lyrng m the deep-sea bed, demanding such diving apparatus as practically to put it out of reach of ordinary mortals. 'Ibis is the favourite notion of the self-confident critics, that a Divine revela- tion must be something attainable only by scholars, appreciable only by the geniuses of mankind. II. BuT AS A :MATTER OF FACT, Goo's REVELATION COMES DOWN TO EVERY MAN'S noon. God came down to Mount Sinai, and spoke to the people directly. 'l'hc trouble then was that he was too near-too homely; they wished him further away. Then prophets came, and for fifteen hundred years the word was brought very nigh to men. At last God's Son became incarnate, and was each man's Brother, and brought the message so close to men that only the proud escaped it. The whole genius of revelation is contained in the remarkable words, "I thank thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these tbingA from the wise and prudent, and hast revc~Jed them cu. x:u:. 1-20.] THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY.