Here we see that the moral claim upon their hearty obedience is grounded upon the revealed character of God, and His marvelous actings on their behalf. In a word, they were bound to obey--bound by every argument that could possibly act on the heart, the conscience, and the understanding. The One who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, with a mighty hand and outstretched arm; who had made that land to tremble to its very centre, by stroke after stroke of His judicial rod; who had opened up a pathway for them through the sea; who had sent them bread from heaven, and brought forth water for them out of the flinty rock; and all this for the glory of His great name, and because He loved their fathers--surely He was entitled to their whole-hearted obedience.
This is the grand argument, so eminently characteristic of this blessed book of Deuteronomy. And surely this is full of instruction for Christians now. If Israel were morally bound to obey, how much more are we! If their motives and objects were powerful, how much more so are ours! Do we feel their power? do we consider them in our hearts? Do we ponder the claims of Christ upon us? Do we remember that we are not our own, but bought with a price, even the infinitely precious price of the blood of Christ? Do we realize this? Are we seeking to live for Him? Is His glory our ruling object?--His love our constraining motive? or are we living for ourselves? Are we seeking to get on in the world--that world that crucified our blessed Lord and Saviour? Are we seeking to make money? do we love it in our hearts, either for its own sake or for the sake of what it can procure? does money _govern_ us? Are we seeking a place in the world, either for ourselves or for our children? Let us honestly challenge our hearts, as in the divine presence, in the light of God's truth, what is our object--our real, governing, cherished, heart-sought object?
Reader, these are searching questions. Let us not put them aside: let us really weigh them in the very light of the judgment-seat of Christ. We believe they are wholesome, much-needed questions. We live in very solemn times. There is a fearful amount of sham on every side, and in nothing is this sham so awfully apparent as in so-called religion.
The very days in which our lot is cast have been sketched by a pen that never colors--never exaggerates, but always presents men and things precisely as they are.--"This know also, that in _the last days_"--quite distinct from "_the latter times_" of 1 Timothy iv.--far in advance, more pronounced, more closely defined, more strongly marked, these last days in which "perilous [or difficult] times shall come. For men shall be _lovers of their own selves_, covetous, _boasters_, proud, blasphemers, _disobedient to parents_, unthankful, unholy, _without natural affection_, truce-breakers, _false accusers_, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, _lovers of pleasures more_ [or rather] _than lovers of God_." And then mark the crown which the inspired apostle puts upon this appalling superstructure!--"Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." (2 Tim. iii. 1-5.)
What a terrible picture! We have here, in a few glowing, weighty sentences, _infidel_ christendom, just as in 1 Timothy iv. we have _superstitious_ christendom. In the latter, we see popery; in the former, infidelity. Both elements are at work around us, but the latter will yet rise into prominence--indeed, even now it is advancing with rapid strides. The very leaders and teachers of christendom are not ashamed or afraid to attack the foundations of Christianity. A so-called Christian bishop is not ashamed or afraid to call in question the integrity of the five books of Moses, and, with them, of the whole Bible; for, most assuredly, if Moses was not the inspired writer of the Pentateuch, the entire edifice of holy Scripture is swept from beneath our feet. The writings of Moses are so intimately bound up with all the other grand divisions of the divine Volume, that if they are touched, all is gone. We boldly affirm that if the Holy Ghost did not inspire Moses, the servant of God, to write the first five books of our English Bible, we have not an inch of solid ground to stand upon; we are positively left without a single atom of divine authority on which to rest our souls; the very pillars of our glorious Christianity are swept away, and we are left to grope our way, in hopeless perplexity, amid the conflicting opinions and theories of infidel doctors, without so much as a single ray from Inspiration's heavenly lamp.