had one in Athens, in the grove and in the porch. Holiness is that without which no heaven could exist."—[Dr. Stoughton.]

THE LORD IMPRESSING HIS HOLINESS UPON THE MINDS OF THE ISRAELITES.

"In the Temple, even every little ' ornament of the mighty structure that crowned the cliffs of Zion was 'holy' to the Lord. Not the great courts and inner shrines and pillared halls merely, but all. Not a carven pomegranate, not a bell, silver or golden, but was 'holy.' The table and its lamps, with flowers of silver light, tent and staves, fluttering curtain and ascending incense, altar and sacrifice, breastplate and ephod, mitre and gem-clasped girdle, wreathen chains and jewelled hangings-over all was inscribed HOLY, while within, in the innermost shrine, where God manifested Himself above the mercy-seat, was THE HOLIEST. Thus the utter holiness of that God with whom they had to do was by every detail impressed upon the heart and conscience of ancient Israel." [Grosart.]

Verse 20.-FORSAKING GOD.

I. To forsake the true God is ever to serve strange gods.

II. To forsake God is to be forsaken by God.

III. To be forsaken by God is to be presently hurt and consumed by God.

Verse 21.-THE INTERPRETING AND DETERMINING POWER OF A LOVING HEART.

I. Pious love instinctively interpreting the trying words of God. Joshua had said, "Ye cannot serve Jehovah." The people immediately answered back, "Nay; but we will serve Jehovah." They never for a moment understood that such service was absolutely impossible. Loving God indeed, their hearts read, even through the contrary words, the love that was in the heart of God.

II. Pious love firmly determining to adhere to God. Whether they could serve or not, they would. The heart that loves the holy and merciful God

cannot take "No" for an answer. Love says: "If I perish, I will pray; if I get no reward, I will nevertheless serve." And such love ever triumphs, when it pleads resolutely with God. However readily the wicked may spurn a loving heart away, the kingdom of heaven always "suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." "Love never faileth," when it contends with God. Thus, the people who say, "We will serve," are ever taken then and there into covenant..

I. No reservation must be made in the direction of sin. Men must be prepared even to witness against themselves. They must come to enter into covenant with God with a mind which contemplates no excuse for sin.

II. Sin itself must be first put away. "Put away the strange gods which are among you." God will enter into no covenant with those who deliberately cherish sin.

III. God Himself must be unhesitatingly and persistently chosen. 1. He must be chosen in the heart. "Incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel." 2. He must be chosen openly. The declaration was made by the people before each other. 3. He must be chosen with no faltering purpose. "The Lord our God will we serve." Though the service be fairly stated as severe and difficult, there must be no hesitation. 4. He must be chosen with a submissive

spirit. "And His voice will we obey."

The

IV. The covenant thus made with God must be made through a mediator. The covenant is made with the mediator on behalf of the people. covenant is recorded by the mediator for the joy of all who are faithful, and for a witness against all transgressors. Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, also makes record of every man's utterance who says, "The Lord God will I serve." The names of those who have truly confessed Jesus are written "in the Lamb's book of life."

V. The covenant is preliminary to rest in the life which now is, and for that also which is to come. When

the covenant was made, then, and not till then, the people departed "every man unto his own inheritance." No man can truly enter into rest, excepting through Jesus. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ." Till a man is at peace with God, he can have little real joy in his own inheritance. He only is wise, who, before setting himself to enjoy his earthly estate, accepts the invitation of Jesus: "Come unto me... I will give you rest."

Verses 22, 27.- GOD'S WITNESSES AGAINST THE SINNER.

I. The witness which a man bears against his own sin. "Ye are witnesses against yourselves." "We are witnesses." How many insincere worshippers are daily witnessing against themselves. In their attendance in God's house. In the songs of the sanctuary. In the religious instruction which they impart, or cause to be imparted, to their children, etc. Surely the Judge may say again presently, "Out of thine own mouth will I condemn thee, thou wicked servant!"

II. The witness borne against a sinful man by his fellows. Joshua was a witness of the people's choice. Every man was a witness against every other. "We also are compassed about with a great cloud of witnesses." They are not mere spectators of our course, but testifiers (μáprupes). Like the martyrs and others spoken of in Heb. xi, they bear witness to the blessedness of faith and faithful service; they testify, in like manner, against all who "refuse Him that speaketh."

III. The witness borne against a sinful man by the ordinary records of life. "Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us, for it hath heard," etc. Among the Israelites, this was an ordinary method of providing testimony. Not only this stone, set up by Joshua at Shechem, would bear witness against Israel's unfaithfulness; other monuments, similarly erected, would bear their testimony also. There were the altars of Abraham (Gen xii. 7, xiii. 4), and Isaac (Gen. xxvi. 25). There was the stone of Bethel, set up by Jacob

(Gen. xxviii. 18-22). There were the memorials erected by these Israelites themselves (chap. iv. 4-9, viii. 30—32, xxii. 10). These and other monuments had been raised by themselves and their fathers, and represented so much faith. and fervour in bygone days. In any relapse into idolatry, or even carelessness, these memorials would testify against all backsliders. It is ever thus in our days also: every man's past service for God and truth is an almost vocal remonstrance against his future worldliness. "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear."

Verse 23.-JEHOVAH GOD, AND STRANGE GODS.

I. God and strange gods cannot be worshipped together.

II. Strange gods can be and are to be put away.

III. To worship no strange gods is not enough; he who would worship towards the true God. acceptably must incline his heart

Verse 24.-THE FREEDOM OF THE WILL.

I. "God of His pleasure leaves us free to do wrong as well as right. Doubtless God could have created man without giving him liberty of will. He might have formed him merely capable of wishing to do what is right There is nothing in the soul that shews this freedom to be a part of its nature. We can only believe that it is the will and pleasure of God to create us free from all necessity.

II. "Conscience urges and our hearts tell us that we have this free power of will. Our inner feelings continually tell us we are free agents. It is of no avail that we argue down our clearer convictions. Our convictions still tell us that we do wrong, that we are to blame when we do wrong, that we have the power of avoiding our faults. Nature within us utters this truth. All men understand this truth. From the cradle of the child to the study of the philosopher, this truth is everywhere uncontradicted. The race of man over all the earth believes itself free.

III. "Our daily life assures us that we have this power over our wills. The same consciousness that assures us we exist, with equal authority tells us that we are free. We may argue, and shuffle our words, we may deceive ourselves, but in actual life we still take this freedom for granted, and move our limbs in the belief that we move them at our own pleasure. Reason as we will, we are yet obliged to follow this persuasion that we are free. The belief that we have power over our

wills, and the daily exercise of this power, are arguments so unanswerable that no man who is not in a dream can deny them. In all the common actions of life it is impossible for a man seriously to question his power to follow his right reason.

IV. Without freedom to do wrong there could be no virtue. Could we take away this free will from man, the whole of human life would be overthrown. If men are not free in what they do of good and evil, good is not good, and evil is not evil. If an unavoidable necessity oblige us to wish what we wish, human responsibility is gone; there is no more virtue or vice, praise or blame. There is no religion left upon earth.

V. "God is with us, helping us to use this power aright. When God made man free, He did not thereby leave him to himself. He gave him reason to be a light to him. He is Himself with him, to inspire him with goodness, to reprove him for his smallest faults, to lead him on by promises, to hold him back by threats, to melt him by His love. He forgives us, He avenges us, He waits for us. He bears with our neglect, and invites us even to the last. Our life is full of His grace.

"It were terrible to believe that, without any power of his own to do right, man is required by his Maker to attain a virtue quite beyond his reach. No, indeed! man suffers no evil but what he makes for himself. He is able to procure for himself the greatest blessings.

VI. In this freedom of will God has given us a part of His own nature. By making man free, God has given him a strong feature of likeness to Himself. Man's empire over his own will has in it something divine. Master of his own inner movements, he turns to whatever seems to him good. God gave to man a noble power when He made him capable of deserving praise and approbation. What is higher or grander than to deserve? It is the power of rising to a rank and order above our present state. By deserving, man improves and exalts himself, goes forward step by step, and wins his reward. What richer crown of ornament could God put upon His work?"-[Fenelon.]

Verse 25.-THE COVENANT AT SHECHEM. "Seven things are to be considered in this renewal of the covenant:

I. "The dignity of the mediator. Take a view of his names, Hosea and Jehoshua. God will save: He will save. The first is like a promise; the second, the fulfilment of that promise. God will save some time or other: this is the very person by whom He will accomplish His promise. Take a view of Joshua's life: his faith, courage, constancy, heroism, and success. A remarkable type of Christ. (See Heb. iv. 8.)

II. "The freedom of those who contracted. 'Take away the gods which your fathers served beyond the flood, and in Egypt,' etc. (ver. 14). Consider the liberty of choice which every man has, and which God, in matters of religion, calls into action.

III. "The necessity of the choice. To be without religion is to be without happiness here, and without any title to the kingdom of God. To have a false religion is the broad road to perdition; and to have the true religion, and live agreeably to it, is the high road to heaven. Life is precarious, death is at the door; the Judge calls; much is to be done, and perhaps there is but little time to do it in. Choose: choose speedily and de

terminately.

IV. "The extent of the conditions. 'Fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth and righteousness.' Consider His being, His power, holiness, justice, etc. Religion itself consists of two parts. 1. Truth. (a) In opposition to the idolatry of the surrounding nations. (b) In reference to that revelation which God gave of Himself. (c) In reference to that peace and comfort which false religions may promise, but cannot give, and which the true religion communicates to all who properly embrace it. 2. Uprightness or integrity, in opposition to those abominable vices by which themselves and the neighbouring nations had been defiled. (a) The major part of men have one religion for youth, and another for old age. He who serves God with integrity serves Him with all his heart in every part of life. (b) Most men have a religion of times, places, and circumstances. Integrity takes in every time, every place, and every circumstance; God's law ever being kept before the eyes, and His love in the heart, dictating purity and perfection to every thought, word, and work. (c) Many content themselves with abstaining from vice, and think themselves sure of the kingdom of God because they do not sin as others. But he who serves God in integrity, not only abstains from the act and appearance of evil, but steadily performs every moral good.

V. "The peril of the engagement. This covenant had in it the nature of an oath; for so much the phrase 'before the Lord' implies.

Joshua allows there is a great danger in making this covenant. 'Ye cannot serve the Lord,' etc. But this only supposes that nothing could be done right but by His Spirit, and in His strength. The energy of the Holy Spirit is equal to every requisition of God's holy law, as far as it regards the moral conduct of a believer in Christ.

VI. "The solemnity of the acceptance. Notwithstanding Joshua faithfully laid down the dreadful evils which those might expect who should abandon the Lord, yet the people entered solemnly into the covenant. God forbid that we should forsake the Lord.' 'We will serve the Lord.' They seemed to think that not to covenant in this case was to reject.

VII. "The nearness of the consequence. There were false gods among them, and these must be immediately put away (ver. 23). The moment the covenant is made, that same moment the conditions of it come into force. He who makes this covenant with God should immediately break off from every evil design, companion, word, and work."—[Dr. A. Clarke, from M. Saurin.]

"THE REPEATED PROFESSION OF THE PEOPLE THAT THEY WILL SERVE THE LORD. I. "The profession in reference to its import.

II. "The profession in reference to the responsibilities which the people thus took upon them.

"It is easily said, I will serve the Lord and obey His voice; but actually to keep the promise when the world allures to its altars is another thing.

"Israel's resolution to serve the Lord was wholly voluntary. So should it be also with us. There should be no compulsion."-[Fay.]

Verses 26, 27.-" THE RELIGIOUS USE OF MEMORIALS.

"This action of Joshua seems a strange importance to be conferred on a piece of insensible matter, on a mere block of stone, unnoticed, perhaps, for a thousand years. 'It hath heard,' is an excessively strong figure; but it is quite in the Eastern style to give things the attributes of persons.

1. "How little it can be foreseen or conjectured to what use numberless things in the creation, apparently insignificant, are destined by Divine appointment to be applied. They may be entirely unnoticed while waiting that use, with no marks upon them to distinguish them from the most ordinary things of the same kind. The trees for Noah's ark. The rod of Moses. The stones which were to be the tables of the Law, and which were to be written upon by the Almighty. The rams' horns used at the siege of Jericho. The materials destined to the most awful use of ali-THE CROSS. There is, as to most of us, now existing, somewhere, the very wood which will form our coffins. Some of us may have passed near the very trees, or the wood no longer in the state of trees. The material bears no mark what it is for; but God has on it His secret mark of its destination. If it were visible, what a reading we should have of inscriptions !-tomb inscriptions, seen beforehand!

2. The sovereign Lord has some appointed use for everything in creation. The uses of an infinite number of things we shall never know; but He can have made nothing but for an use-to that it will come. What

a view has He on all things as bearing His destination! What a stupendous prospective vision, if we may express it so, before His mind!

If

3. "Wise and good men can find for many things many uses, for instruction and piety, which do not occur to other men. such a man, towards the close of life, could make out an account of the things that have served him to such a purpose, how many things, seeming not in themselves qualified to instruct him, would he have to recount as having been the occasions of his receiving instruction or salutary impressions!.

4. "The great leaders of Israel, Moses and Joshua, were solicitous to employ every expedient to secure an eternal remembrance of God in the people's minds. . . . It was not enough that human and even angelic

...

monitors should be speaking. They perceived how constantly the popular mind was withdrawing and escaping from under the impressive sense of an invisible Being; how easily the delusions of the surrounding idolatry stole on their senses and their imagination, to beguile their hearts and their very reason away; how imperfectly the grand scene of nature, of the creation, preserved, in any active force, the thought of the Creator; how apt to grow feeble and faint was their memory of even the miraculous events which themselves had beheld. Accordingly they marked places and times with monuments, built altars, raised heaps of stones, etc.

"Now can all this be turned to no good account for us? Have we less of this unhappy tendency to forget things which ought to stand conspicuous in our memory, relative to our concerns with God? What kind of memory have we, for example, of the mercies of God?

"We then, as much as the Israelites, need all manner of aids to revive the memory of them. Valuable advantage may be taken of particular circumstances, aiding us to recall them. This stone shall be a witness to us.' Everything that can be made a witness and remembrancer to us is worth being made so. We should not despise its assistance. The place where we were delivered from an accident should be a witness to us. The apartment where an oppressive sickness had brought its victim just to the gate of death; the place in which a person was saved from falling into some great sin; the house, book, letter, in or through which some important lesson of instruction was given at an opportune and critical moment: these, and similar things, should be memorials and witnesses to

men.

"A man should take like methods to remember his sins. A man may happen to meet, now sinking in age, a person who once remonstrated against his sinful ways; or he may pass by the grave of one who was once an associate in evil. Let him stand by it and reflect. Or, not to suppose heinous sins, there may be presented to a man various things which will remind him of a careless, irreligious season of his life; a Bible that he cared not to read; articles used for mere vain amusement and waste of time. Now, such monumental witnesses should suggest to a man to think of guilt, repentance, and pardon. He might fix his eyes on those objects while on his bended knees.

"There are men in whose memories are reposited times and places when and where they trembled under the terrors of the Lord.'

"It is wise to seize upon all means of turning the past into lessons of solemn admonition; it is, as it were, bringing it back to be present, that we may have it over again. With the instructing, sanctifying influence of the Divine Spirit, we may thus pass again, in thought, over the scenes of our life, and reap certain benefit now, even in those where we reaped none then."-[From John Foster's Lectures.]