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and came down from the mount, and the mount burned with fire: and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands. And I looked, and, behold, ye had sinned against the LORD your God, and had made you a molten calf: ye had turned aside quickly out of the way which the LORD had commanded you. And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and brake them 18 Thus a greater than Moses wept and fasted, and even died for us. may my heart be grateful!

before your eyes. 18 And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger. For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the LORD was wroth against you to destroy you. But the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also. And the LORD was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him and I prayed for Aaron also the same time. And I took your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire, and stamped it, and ground it very small, even until it was as small as dust: and I cast the dust thereof into the brook that descended out of the mount. And at Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah, ye provoked the LORD to wrath. Likewise when the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea, saying, Go up and possess the land which I have given you; then ye rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God, and ye believed him not, nor hearkened to his voice. Ye have been rebellious against the LORD from the day that I knew you. Thus I fell down before the LORD forty days and forty nights, as I fell down at the first; because the LORD had said he would destroy you. I prayed therefore unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, destroy not thy people and thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed through thy greatness, which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember thy servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; look not unto the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their

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sin :
28 lest the land whence
thou broughtest us out say,
Because the LORD was not
able to bring them into the
land which he promised them,

26 How encouraging the hope of pardon, when we reflect that Jesus pleads for us, and that God's honour is concerned to hear that plea. Are we not his people-his inheritance ?

28 Moses boldly appeals to the honour of God to save his people. Thus we also plead "his name and honour's sake." Let me obey the God whose servant I profess to be! Let me honour the heavenly Father whom I profess to love!

and because he hated them, he hath brought them out to slay them in the wilderness. Yet they are thy people and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest out by thy mighty power and by thy stretched out arm.

Sunday after Ascension Bay.

MORNING. DEUTERONOMY xii.

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THESE are the statutes and judgments, which ye shall observe to do in the land, which the LORD God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it, all the days that ye live upon the earth. Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree: 'and ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names shall not do so unto the LORD your God. But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come: and thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks: and there ye shall eat before the LORD your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your housholds, wherein the LORD thy God hath blessed thee*. Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every

3 May I so utterly destroy my pride, my self-will, my self-confidence before God, and my envy, hitherto too often the idols of my hatred, and malice before menheart-that henceforth I" shall not do so unto the Lord my God." His grace will aid me.

of them out of that place. Ye

5 May I love this house of God, wherein I worship! may I rejoice to feel that it is his habitation, where in very deed He dwelleth ! there, even unto his habitation

6 As I bring here my offering and sacrifice of prayer, and penitence, and praise, let me remember that "to obey is better" even sacrifice."

"than

During their wanderings it was permitted to Israel, in choosing a place of worship, to do, in that respect, whatever" was right in their own eyes;" for they had not yet come to the land of rest. But when that was reached, order and regularity would be indispensable in this very matter: then there would be an appointed place, chosen of God! Thither the worshippers would then flock together.

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13 This repetition of the command indicates its higher importance, and the stronger obligation of obedience to it. See note, verse 8.

man whatsoever is right in his own eyes. For ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the LORD your God giveth you. But when ye go over Jordan, and dwell in the land which the LORD your God giveth you to inherit, and when he giveth you rest from all your enemies round about, so that ye dwell in safety; then there shall be a place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there; thither shall ye bring all that I command you; your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which ye vow unto the LORD: and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God, ye, and your sons, and your daughters, and your menservants, and your maidservants, and the Levite that is within your gates; forasmuch as he hath no part nor inheritance with you. Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest: but in the place which the LORD shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee. Notwithstanding thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee: the unclean and the clean may eat thereof, as of the roebuck, and as of the hart. Only ye shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it upon the earth as water. Thou mayest not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy corn, or of thy wine, or of thy oil, or the firstlings of thy herds or of thy flock, nor any of thy vows which thou vowest, nor thy freewill offerings, or heave offerings of thine hand: but thou must eat them before the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates: and thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God in all that thou puttest thine hands unto*. Take heed to thyself that thou forsake not the Levite as long as thou livest upon the earth. When the LORD thy God shall

* The reason of this admonition is plain. The office of the Levite, being appointed of God, could never lose aught of its authority, however the worth of individuals who bore it, might vary. So is it with the authorized ministers of the Church now. Thus our blessed Lord taught his countrymen to view the office and authority of the Scribes and Pha"They sat in Moses' seat"-they were invested with the autho rity transmitted to them through their lawgiver. Matth. xxiii. 2.

risees.

enlarge thy border, as he hath promised thee, and thou shalt say, I will eat flesh because thy soul longeth to eat flesh; thou mayest eat flesh, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after. If the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to put his name there be too far from thee, then thou shalt kill of thy herd and of thy flock, which the LORD hath given thee, as I have commanded thee, and thou shalt eat in thy gates whatsoever thy soul lusteth after. Even as the roebuck and the hart is eaten, so thou shalt eat them: the unclean and the clean shall eat of them alike. Only be sure that thou eat not the blood: for the blood is the life; and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh. Thou shalt not eat it; thou shalt pour it upon the earth as water. Thou shalt not eat it; that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the LORD. Only thy holy things which thou hast, and thy vows, thou shalt take, and go unto the place which the LORD shall choose: and thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, upon the altar of the LORD thy God: and the blood of thy sacrifices shall be poured out upon the altar of the LORD thy God, and thou shalt eat the flesh. * Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the LORD thy God. When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. 2 What thing 32 Let me strive to keep the whole soever I command you, ob- law of God; so may his blessing be serve to do it: thou shalt not with me in my going out and coming add thereto, nor diminish in; specially in this his own holy from it. house. Here I find my hour of calm-here, the haven of my rest. No wave of a troublesome world entereth here. This is the gate of

28 All these numerous minute observances were enjoined to the people of God, lest any relaxation in

heaven.

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their religious services should afford

them opportunity for sharing the idolatrous observances of the nations who surrounded them.

EVENING. DEUTERONOMY xiii.

If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto other gods, which thou hast not 3 thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams : for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee. If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: but thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. 10 And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bond

1 Let me never listen to the suggestions of the unbeliever, the Sabbath-breaker, and the worldly. They are but dreamers of vain dreams, who awake to a reality of misery.

thee, saying, Let us go after known, and let us serve them;

3 However my heavenly Father may see fit to try me and prove me, I pray that divine grace may enable me so to bear the trial, that my faith may be proved firm.

10 Idolatry in those to whom the true God had revealed Himself as the only fit object of worship, was a sin which so utterly offended against the majesty of the unseen but everpresent Lord of all, that it visited upon them by his severest judgments.

was

age. And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more

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