1. Liberty.

2. Political power and eminence.

3. Diffusion of God's Word. Number and influence of pious and holy men.

II. THAT OUR VALUABLE ADVANTAGES AND BLESSINGS AS A NATION PLACE US UNDER MOMENTOUS OBLIGATIONS TO THE GOD BY WHOM THEY WERE BESTOWED.

1. An obligation to gratitude.

2. An obligation to repentance.

3. An obligation to the maintenance and diffusion of Divine truth.

(Dr. Parsons.)

I. In the first place, then, THE BIBLE BRINGS GREATNESS TO A NATION, BECAUSE, WHEN RECEIVED AND OBEYED, IT BRINGS GOD'S BLESSING WITH IT. The glory of Israel was the presence of Jehovah amongst them. There was no nation — to use the words of Moses in the text — that had God so nigh them as had they. In their journeys through the wilderness He was visibly present in the pillar of cloud; and afterwards, in the temple which was founded on Mount Moriah to His praise, the Holy of holies sufficiently indicated to them His special abode with them. When He departed from them their safeguard was withdrawn: the enemy made Jerusalem, hitherto invincible, a heap of stones. Similarly, our own land, at the period of the Reformation, received the Holy Scriptures, and since then, in their possession and use, has obtained from God innumerable blessings: religion has extended itself in renewed vitality amongst us; and this great nation has become a wise and understanding people. But, apart from the security which the fear of the Lord brings with it, we shall see that —

II. THE BIBLE BRINGS GREATNESS TO A NATION BECAUSE IT ELEVATES THE NATIONAL CHARACTER. I do not seek to palliate our multitudinous sins. Still, even now, Britain I do believe to be the stronghold of pure, because scriptural, religion. The Bible is not yet dethroned from the affections of her people; and, for tiffs reason, the basis of the national character is yet sound.

III. THE DUTY OF PERSONAL ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE SCRIPTURES AND OF INSTRUCTING THE YOUNG OUT OF THEM.

(S. Hayman, B. A.)

1. It is of no small advantage to the mutual correspondence of the members of a community that religion is agreeable both to the natural tendency of every particular man's mind, and the general consent of all nations interweaving it in their several constitutions. Because as, on the one hand, whatever notion is so universal cannot be destroyed without the greatest violence to human nature; so, on the other hand, it is an obvious fixed point in which all the members may the most easily be supposed to centre, and will in course, if duly cultivated, be not only a bond of union between God and man, but also between one man and another.

2. The many happy consequences and natural good effects of religion are so serviceable to a state as upon the most cogent arguments to recommend the exercise of it to every wise government as its principal end.(1) It was wisely ordained of our ancestors, that as well great pleadings as noble actions should begin with devotion, because without the aid of heaven nothing can be prudently undertaken or ever rightly succeed. For certainly as it is evident from reason that the power of the Almighty extends to the rewarding or punishing, the advancing or destroying every nation, as their actions please or displease Him, so will ordinary reading, and even common experience, assure us that God does actually interpose in all governments.(2) But further, religion is not only the truest support, and therefore ought to be the chief end of every government with respect to the unforeseen and unaccountable blessings of Providence which attend it, but also with respect to its own natural good effects in the influence which it has upon the several members of a society.(a) If we consider the governing part of a nation. As nothing can temper the greatness and power of a prince more than a just sense of religion, so neither can anything more recommend him to the love and reverence of his people.(b) If we consider what shall render people most tractable and obedient to governors, we shall find that Christianity must certainly have the most beneficial effect.

II. A SETTLED FORM OF RELIGION IS, AS THE MEANS, MOST CONDUCIVE TO THAT END, AND THEREFORE AN IMPROVEMENT OF THE WISDOM. For however religion, naturally speaking, may not consist in form, and we may allow that a person supposed separate from all community may practise it without any form; yet, besides that, even in that case the want of a fixed method may create many inconsistencies, and in time destroy his religion. So that though forms are not always of the essence of the thing formed, yet, at least, they are the means of promoting and even preserving it; and accordingly in all acts of government, in the sessions of all great councils, there are settled methods of proceeding; and particularly in the practice of the law, there are forms of process, terms, garb, rules of court, and other formalities which, though not the essence of the law, yet are the means of the execution of it. The same reason therefore which prescribes a settled form to all other acts of society prescribes it to religion also.

1. It is to be feared lest too great a latitude of worship should destroy religion itself, and the liberty, as nowadays stretched beyond the design of the toleration of every man serving God in his own way, should end in not serving Him at all.

2. Supposing Christianity in general were not endangered from a boundless latitude, nor liable to be lost in the confusion; yet, at least, the better part of it, Protestantism, must needs run a mighty hazard from so unlimited a variety.

3. A boundless latitude of worship may not only prove destructive to religion in general, and Protestantism in particular, but, what even men of the loosest principles ought to be concerned for, will also disturb the peace of a nation. For as religion has not only the most universal, but even the most powerful sway over men's minds, so it will be heard wherever it pleases to exert its voice; and the very calves of Dan and Bethel shall be able to divide the kingdom of Israel from that of Judah.

III. A DUE PROVISION FOR THE SECURITY AND ADVANCEMENT OF SUCH A SETTLED FORM IS THE ONLY COMPLETION OF THAT WISDOM. With regard to this notion was it that our pious reformers established it by law, and for a further security did their successors appoint penalties and settle a test.

(John Savage, M. A.)

I. THE CAUSES OF BRITAIN'S GREATNESS.

1. The first thing mentioned in the text, and which is presented throughout this book, is that the nation's greatness consists in having the knowledge of the true God; and this is peculiar in respect to England. God is nigh unto this nation, and has given it the knowledge of Himself, and this is the foundation of our prosperity.

2. Another cause mentioned in the text, and which may also be ascribed to Britain, is our multitudinous and wonderful deliverances. If anyone will open the pages of history and read them, he will see how this country has risen among the nations of the earth by the remarkable power of the hand of the Lord.

3. Another means which this text prescribes is the institution and preservation of the Christian ministry. This agency has distributed knowledge — this has nerved the people with right principles — this has taught them industry, benevolence, and all the social virtues — and, above all, it has exhibited to the people the way of salvation by Christ, and furnished motives to holiness, and to every kind benevolent act, of which even the learned amongst the heathen were all ignorant.

4. Again, the text points out another means of promoting this greatness, and that is the communication of religious knowledge to the young.

5. Another point is the influence of a praying community; "for what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is, in all things that we call upon Him for?" What a multitude of praying people — formed by the Gospel — live in Britain! This has doubtless been a greater security to her than all her wooden walls, or than all her large armies. Prayer is a benevolence which any man can confer on kings or on statesmen, and the only thing very many have to do with them is to pray for them.

6. I will mention one other source of her greatness, and that is her unrestricted possession of the Divine Word, and the laws of the land being largely founded on the laws of that book. What a blessing has the Bible been! Among our mercies are the statutes and laws by which we are governed taken principally from this book. Much imperfection, it is true, still remains in these laws; and many of us have grievous complaints to make about them; but, viewed as a nation amongst other nations, there are no laws like those of Britain, because they more closely conform to the laws of God than those of any existing nation; and they are being brought nearer to the blessed book of God; but still, as they are, they are looked upon with envy as the glory of the world.

II. THE DANGERS TO WHICH THE POSSESSION OF THIS GREATNESS EXPOSES US. The first which Moses presents to them was self-conceit. If not very watchful over prosperity, luxuriousness, the indulgence of fleshly appetites, indolence, and neglect of others, come in with it taking rest, and lying down in the nest which we have made so comfortable for ourselves, and never looking over it to see the miseries of those who have not got a nest, and for whom it is our duty to assist in making one, that they may be as happy as we are. See how these sins are abroad amongst us! — how prevalent are pride and forgetfulness of God, Sabbath profanation, rejection of the Gospel, luxuriousness, prodigality, and many other sins.

III. THE MEANS OF PRESERVING AND OF PERPETUATING THIS GREATNESS. There are two modes of doing this, which are particularly referred to in the text. The first is personal piety, and the second the instruction of the rising generation.

1. Amidst the greatness and dignity of Britain there is reason to fear that personal piety is falling off. Never, as a nation, was Britain more exalted; yet observe, while this exaltation continues, all sections of the Church are complaining of the want of vital fire. With a few exceptions the Churches represent trees that have not been rained upon — they want those showers from heaven which fill the heart with gladness and piety. It is of the utmost moment that your piety should be of the highest stamp, and that you may maintain and improve it, you must labour; it must be your ambition — your holy joy — to be a sort of being above everybody else in the Church. Nothing can compensate for the loss of communion with God in the closet; and if you are addicting yourselves to any of the fond pleasures of the day — misspending your time which has been taken by popular opinion from your employers, and, instead of devoting yourselves to the work of God, enjoying pleasures and amusements — if you are doing this, your poor soul will suffer, and you will require more heavenly grace to sustain you than before.

2. Another thing the text proposes is religious instruction in the family: "Teach thy sons, and thy sons' sons." The way to pardon and peace through the Cross must be made known; this great subject must not be kept back from the children.

(James Sherman.)

I. The ideal of many nations has been delight in WAR. They have not cared to have any annals which were not written in blood. Such a people were the Assyrians of Scripture. In the hall of Sargon, that king has had himself represented stabbing and butchering his captives with his own hands; and, in the one domestic scene found among these sculpturings of horror and bloodshed (you may see it in the British Museum), the son of Sennacherib is seated in a vine-clad arbour at a feast, opposite to him is his queen among her maidens, and close behind the queen hangs from the branch of a palm tree a ghastly human head, with an iron ring driven through the lip. Well, did it prosper, this bloody city? Read the prophet Nahum for answer, and you will see how soon it passed away in fire and sword, amid the wrath and hatred of the nations. And did war-loving Egypt fare better? We see the serried ranks of the numberless archers, we read the pompous enumeration of the victories of her Rameses; but Egypt snapped like one of her own river reeds before the might of Persia, and the fellaheen have scooped their millstones out of the face of the Rameses, the most colossal statue in the world.

II. But there has been another ideal of nations — not war in its cruelty, but general GLORY; not the tyranny and vengeance of armies, but their pomp and fame. This, until she learnt wisdom by bitterly humiliating experience, was the ideal of France. The nation which follows glory follows a "will-o'-the-wisp'' which flickers over the marshes of death; the nation which follows duty has its eye fixed on the polar star.

III. Again, any nations in the East, from natural slavishness and insolence of temperament, in the West from unwarrantable fetish worship of the mere letter of Scripture, and even that grossly misinterpreted, have cherished the grovelling idea of ABSOLUTISM — the crawling at the feet of some royal house, the deification of some human divinity. So it was under the cruel despotisms of Asia; so it was under the wicked deified Caesars; so it was for whole cycles in China; so it was till quite recently in Russia. From this debased notion — that mankind has no nobler destiny than to be made the footstool of a few families; that kings have a right Divine to govern wrong; that nations ought to deliver themselves, bound hand and foot, to the arbitrary caprices of men who may chance to be as despicable as a Sardanapalus, a Nero, or a John — the blood, and the good sense, and the God-fearing manhood, and the mighty passion for liberty in the breasts of our fathers saved us.

IV. Other nations, again, many of them, have had as their ideal the GAINING OF WEALTH and thirst for gold. Of all false gods, at once the meanest, and the one who most assumes the air of injured innocence and perfect respectability, is Mammon. What has this kind of wealth ever done for men and for nations? Was ever any man the better for having coffers full of gold? But who shall measure the guilt that is often incurred to fill them? Men do not disbelieve Christ, but they sell Him. By individual superiority to Mammon, let us help England to rise superior to this base idolatry. "You glory." said Oliver Cromwell, "in the ditch which guards your shores. I tell you, your ditch will not save you if you do not reform yourselves."

V. Once more; it some nations have had a false idea of absolutism, many, and especially modern nations, have had a false ideal of LIBERTY. There is no ideal more grand and inspiring than that of true freedom. But what is freedom? It is the correlative of order; it is the function of righteousness. Its home, too, like that of law, is the bosom of God; its voice the harmony of the world. Liberty is not the liberty to do wrong unchecked. To be free is not synonymous with infinite facilities for drunkenness, any more than it is synonymous with infinite facilities for burglary; but to be free, as Milton said, is the same thing as to be pious, to be temperate, and to be magnanimous —

"He is a freeman whom the truth makes free;

And all are slaves beside."

The description "every man did that which was right in his own eyes," which is rapidly becoming our national ideal, is a description not of heroic freedom, but of hideous anarchy. A man's liberty ends, and ought to end, when that liberty becomes the curse of his neighbours. "Oh Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy name!"

VI. WHAT, THEN, IS A GREAT NATION'S ONE AND ONLY TRUE IDEAL, IF IT IS TO BE INDEED A WISE AND UNDERSTANDING PEOPLE? The frivolous may sneer and the faithless may deride, but it is duty and it is righteousness. That is as much the law of Christ as it is the law of Sinai. If a nation be not the uplifter of this banner it is nothing, and it is doomed in due time to fall. And that is why the Bible, when men will read it by the light of truth and not of pseudo-religious theories, is still the best statesman's manual. For it will teach him several things. It will teach him that progress is the appointed, inevitable law of human life, and that it is a deadly error to suppose that we are sent into the world only to preserve and not to improve; and it will teach him to honour man simply as man, and to regard all men, from the highest to the lowest, as absolutely equal before the bar of justice. It will teach him that always and invariably the unjust gains and the immoral practices of the class must be put down in the interests of the community, and that the interests of the community are subordinate always to those of the nation. And it will teach him that the true glory of nations lies, not in the splendid misery of war, but in the dissemination of honourable happiness, and the encouragement of righteousness, and the suppression of vice. And it will teach him that the true wealth of a nation is not in gold and silver, but in the souls of strong, contented, and self-respecting men. When statesmen have learnt all these lessons they will not be long in learning others. Nations will aim at only such conditions of life and government as shall make it easy to do right and difficult to do wrong. Statesmen will not toil for reward; they will hold allegiance to the loftiest ideal of their faith in Christ dearer than all the glories of place and all the claims of party. Like Edmund Burke, they will bring to politics "a horror of clime, a deep humanity, a keen sensibility, a singular vivacity and sincerity of conscience." Like Sir Robert Peel, they will, amid all the chequered fortunes of their career, be able to turn from the storm without to the sunshine of an approving heart within. They will not be afraid to cut against the grain of godless prejudice; they will not be sophisticated by the prudential maxims of an immoral acquiescence: they will sweeten with words of justice and gentleness the conflicts of party; they will be quick to the encouragement of virtue; and they will be firm and fearless to the prompt, inflexible suppression and extirpation — so far as powers of government can do it — of all open and soul destroying vice.

(Dean Farrar.)

     7312   Baal

Deuteronomy
(Third Sunday after Easter.) Deut. iv. 39, 40. Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else. Thou shall keep therefore his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, for ever. Learned men have argued much of late as to who wrote …
Charles Kingsley—The Gospel of the Pentateuch

Political and Religious Life of the Jewish Dispersion in the West - their Union in the Great Hope of the Coming Deliverer.
It was not only in the capital of the Empire that the Jews enjoyed the rights of Roman citizenship. Many in Asia Minor could boast of the same privilege. [327] The Seleucidic rulers of Syria had previously bestowed kindred privileges on the Jews in many places. Thus, they possessed in some cities twofold rights: the status of Roman and the privileges of Asiatic, citizenship. Those who enjoyed the former were entitled to a civil government of their own, under archons of their choosing, quite independent …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Of the Cities of Refuge.
Hebron, the most eminent among them, excites us to remember the rest. "The Rabbins deliver this; Moses separated three cities of refuge beyond Jordan, [Deut 4:41-43;] and, against them, Joshua separated three cities in the land of Canaan, [Josh 20:7,8]. And these were placed by one another, just as two ranks of vines are in a vineyard: Hebron in Judea against Bezer in the wilderness: Shechem in mount Ephraim against Ramoth in Gilead: Kedesh in mount Napthali against Golan in Basan. And these three …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

That the Devout Soul Ought with the Whole Heart to Yearn after Union with Christ in the Sacrament
The Voice of the Disciple Who shall grant unto me, O Lord, that I may find Thee alone, and open all my heart unto Thee, and enjoy Thee as much as my soul desireth; and that no man may henceforth look upon me, nor any creature move me or have respect unto me, but Thou alone speak unto me and I unto Thee, even as beloved is wont to speak unto beloved, and friend to feast with friend? For this do I pray, this do I long for, that I may be wholly united unto Thee, and may withdraw my heart from all created …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

The First Covenant
"Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice, and keep My covenant, ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me."--EX. xix. 5. "He declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even ten commandments."--DEUT. iv. 13.i "If ye keep these judgments, the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant,"--DEUT. vii. 12. "I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, which My covenant they brake."--JER. xxxi. 31, 32. WE have …
Andrew Murray—The Two Covenants

The Unity of God
Q-5: ARE THERE MORE GODS THAN ONE? A: There is but one only, the living and true God. That there is a God has been proved; and those that will not believe the verity of his essence, shall feel the severity of his wrath. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.' Deut 6:6. He is the only God.' Deut 4:49. Know therefore this day, and consider it in thy heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath, there is none else.' A just God and a Saviour; there is none beside …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

The Northern Coasts of Galilee. Amanah. The Mountain of Snow.
This coast is described by Moses, Numbers 34:7: "From the Great Sea to mount Hor: from mount Hor to the entrance of Hamath," &c. Mount Hor, in the Jewish writers, is Amanah; mention of which occurs, Canticles 4:8, where R. Solomon thus: "Amanah is a mount in the northern coast of the land of Israel, which in the Talmudical language is called, The mountainous plain of Amanon; the same with mount Hor." In the Jerusalem Targum, for mount 'Hor' is the mount Manus: but the Targum of Jonathan renders it …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

Ninth Sunday after Trinity Carnal Security and Its vices.
Text: 1 Corinthians 10, 6-13. 6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. 7 Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. 8 Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. 9 Neither let us make trial of the Lord, as some of them made trial, and perished by the serpents. 10 Neither murmur ye, as …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III

Epistle cxxvii. From S. Columbanus to Pope Gregory .
From S. Columbanus to Pope Gregory [89] . To the holy lord, and father in Christ, the Roman [pope], most fair ornament of the Church, a certain most august flower, as it were, of the whole of withering Europe, distinguished speculator, as enjoying a divine contemplation of purity (?) [90] . I, Bargoma [91] , poor dove in Christ, send greeting. Grace to thee and peace from God the Father [and] our [Lord] Jesus Christ. I am pleased to think, O holy pope, that it will seem to thee nothing extravagant …
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

The Second Commandment
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am o jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of then that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.' Exod 20: 4-6. I. Thou shalt not …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

"They have Corrupted Themselves; their Spot is not the Spot of his Children; they are a Perverse and Crooked Generation. "
Deut. xxxii. 5.--"They have corrupted themselves; their spot is not the spot of his children; they are a perverse and crooked generation." We doubt this people would take well with such a description of themselves as Moses gives. It might seem strange to us, that God should have chosen such a people out of all the nations of the earth, and they to be so rebellious and perverse, if our own experience did not teach us how free his choice is, and how long-suffering he is, and constant in his choice. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

A Reformer's Schooling
'The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace, 2. That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. 3. And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Second visit to Nazareth - the Mission of the Twelve.
It almost seems, as if the departure of Jesus from Capernaum marked a crisis in the history of that town. From henceforth it ceases to be the center of His activity, and is only occasionally, and in passing, visited. Indeed, the concentration and growing power of Pharisaic opposition, and the proximity of Herod's residence at Tiberias [3013] would have rendered a permanent stay there impossible at this stage in our Lord's history. Henceforth, His Life is, indeed, not purely missionary, but He has …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Covenant Duties.
It is here proposed to show, that every incumbent duty ought, in suitable circumstances, to be engaged to in the exercise of Covenanting. The law and covenant of God are co-extensive; and what is enjoined in the one is confirmed in the other. The proposals of that Covenant include its promises and its duties. The former are made and fulfilled by its glorious Originator; the latter are enjoined and obligatory on man. The duties of that Covenant are God's law; and the demands of the law are all made …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

Subjects of Study. Home Education in Israel; Female Education. Elementary Schools, Schoolmasters, and School Arrangements.
If a faithful picture of society in ancient Greece or Rome were to be presented to view, it is not easy to believe that even they who now most oppose the Bible could wish their aims success. For this, at any rate, may be asserted, without fear of gainsaying, that no other religion than that of the Bible has proved competent to control an advanced, or even an advancing, state of civilisation. Every other bound has been successively passed and submerged by the rising tide; how deep only the student …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life

Wisdom and Revelation.
"Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness …
W. H. Griffith Thomas—The Prayers of St. Paul