It does not seem certain whether this counsel is addressed to Moab in relation to the people fleeing for shelter from the invasion of Sennacherib, or to Israel in relation to the outcasts from Moab. Whichever it be, the point of the counsel is that they should act kindly, considerately, charitably. Righteousness is like "pure religion and undefiled;" it is doing something - "visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction." "He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous;" "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." Absolute righteousness, as before the all-searching God, is not a human possibility; but Scripture uses the term in reference to men. The psalmist says, "Judge me according to mine integrity, and according to my righteousness which is in me." And our Lord pleaded thus, "Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."

I. RIGHTEOUSNESS MAY BE MERE SENTIMENT. A delusion of excited feeling, as it too often is with persons who take up with "holiness theories." The danger of sentiment is that too often it satisfies, and in the pleasant enjoyment of it a man has no care about giving righteousness its due expression. No fruits ever grew on the tree of sentimentality, and its leaves have no virtue for the healing of the nations.

II. RIGHTEOUSNESS MAY BE A PROFESSION. It is assumed in our being Christians. It is the state into which we are called. It is guaranteed in our regeneration. Why, then, may we not be satisfied with this profession? Because such righteousness is, at the best, something belonging to a class, and not to the individual; and the only righteousness worth having is something which the individual has for himself alone.

III. RIGHTEOUSNESS MUST BE A PRACTICE. "Even as he [Christ] is righteous;" and his righteousness was distinctly conduct, and the spirit of conduct. Righteousness is truth, brotherliness, service, charity, self-denial, purity; it is God-likeness, and God is righteous in all his works. It is well for us to have and to cherish right feelings and good resolves, but the question to ask ourselves is this - If we have the opportunity, do we give these good resolves, do we find for these good thoughts and feelings practical expression? The message sent to David has often been misunderstood and misused. In connection with building the temple God said, "Thou didst well that it was in thine heart." But we forget that David went as far as he was allowed, in giving practical expression to what was in his heart; he made preparations for what he might not himself accomplish. - R.T.

An injunction is given to Moab to shelter the Jewish fugitives.

I. GOD OWNS HIS PEOPLE WHEN ALL THE WORLD FORSAKES OR OPPOSES THEM. No doubt Sennacherib thought the "outcasts" to be his victims, his prey; but God claims a personal interest in them, watches over them when they wander, supplies them in their need, and protects them by His guardian providence. They are His: His as the subjects of His government; His as the objects of His regard; His as the children of His grace.

II. GOD RAISES UP FRIENDS AND COMFORTERS FOR HIS CHURCH IN STRANGE AND UNEXPECTED QUARTERS. Here He provides for them a shelter before the storm comes on, and makes Moab, one of the most powerful of the Church's enemies, a near and a present friend. God proves to Moab that it was their interest to do so, because the Jews would soon be in a condition to requite the favour, when their country should be invaded, and their daughters should wander without a home (ver. 2). The providence of God often makes the hostile feelings of bad men the occasion of good to the righteous.

III. GOD CAN OVERRULE CALAMITIES, WHICH THREATEN NOTHING BUT DISASTER TO HIS CHURCH, INTO THE MEANS OF CONFIRMING FAITH AND HOPE. God's outcasts in Moab learned many a useful lesson there, and when they returned it was to uphold the government of Hezekiah, and to promote the welfare of the people with whom they had sojourned. "And the throne shall be established in mercy, and He shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David" (ver. 5). Sennacherib's invasion, which scattered his subjects in exile, threatened the overthrow of Hezekiah, but it really tended to establish him, for never was his kingdom more secure than after the overthrow of the Assyrian army. The same thing obtains in the experience of the Christian. As the birds sing most sweetly after a tempest; as torches shine brighter for shaking; as the flowers shed forth their fragrance at the close of a troubled day, so the graces of a Christian, his faith, his patience, and his hope, are matured by the trials that threatened their utter extinction. In the kingdom of Christ, a kingdom which is established in mercy, you find perpetual progress amidst perpetual storm, and a noontide of brightness often succeeds the darkest night.

IV. AMIDST ALL WANDERINGS GOD WOULD HAVE HIS PEOPLE REMEMBER THEIR DISTINCTIVE CHARACTER AND PREPARE FOR RETURN. They were to dwell in Moab, but only for a season, and always to bear the heart of a stranger. It is a great thing in days of worldly compliance and conformity, when everyone seems to live as if he were to live here always, to have in exercise a better hope, and for Christians to preserve the distinctness of their character. The Divine hand that created our frame and put life into it, has provided us with other resources than are found in feeble self, or in creatures feeble as ourselves. Besides this earth and these lower skies, there is an invisible world, and a kingdom of spirits. Let Christians seek to be in the world, but not of it.

(Homiletic Magazine.)