(For an example of fulfillment of this command, see Nehemiah 8.) Observe -

I. IT WAS TO BE READ AT A RELIGIOUS FEAST. On an occasion of solemnity - at the Feast of Tabernacles (ver. 10). Our feelings in reading the Scriptures, or in hearing them read, ought always to be of a solemn and reverential kind. But it is well to avail ourselves of every aid which may lend solemnity and impressiveness to the reading of words so sacred.

II. IT WAS TO BE READ AT A TIME OF GENERAL LEISURE. In the sabbatical year" the year of release." Leisure hours cannot be better employed than in making ourselves acquainted with "what God the Lord will speak" (Psalm 85:8). We should avail ourselves of the leisure of others to endeavor to instruct them.

III. IT WAS TO BE READ PUBLICLY. (Ver. 11.) The private reading of the Law would doubtless be attended to in many pious homes. But the practice would not be general (scarcity and expensiveness of manuscripts, want of education, religious indifference). The Levites were to teach Israel the Law (Deuteronomy 33:10; Leviticus 10:11; Malachi 2:7); but they might not do so, or the people might not wait on their instructions. The public reading of the Law, even once in seven years, was thus calculated to be of great advantage. As long as the practice was observed, multitudes would derive benefit from it. The reading was of the nature of a public testimony, but also, as we see in Nehemiah 8., for purposes of real instruction. The public reading of Scripture, with or without comment, is an important means of edification. Read with intelligence and judgment, the Word commends itself. And such readings are necessary. Many have Bibles, yet do not read them; many read and do not understand.

IV. IT WAS TO BE READ FOR THE BENEFIT OF OLD AND YOUNG. (Ver. 12.) All are interested in listening to the Word of God. Men and women, little children, strangers, no class but has a concern-in it. None but may be edified by it. Children ought to be more recognized than they are in religious services. Need for making them feel that they too are interested in what is being said; that the Bible has a message for them as well as for their elders.

V. THE END OF READING GOD'S WORD IS THAT WE MAY BE ENABLED TO OBEY IT, (Ver. 13.) - J.O.

I. GODLINESS IN CHILDREN IS ACCOUNTED BY CHRISTIANS GENERALLY TO BE EXTRAORDINARY, OR AT LEAST UNCOMMON; AND PERHAPS THERE ARE BUT FEW GODLY CHILDREN. Compared with the number of children who are blessed with godly parentage, and taught in Christian schools, who are present when the public ordinances of Christ's Church are administered, the children who manifest true piety are certainly not many. If our observation be accurate, Christian parents and teachers and pastors do not, with sufficient confidence, look for, or expect to find, godliness in children. If we employ those means which are divinely ordained for the conversion of human beings in our efforts On behalf of children, why should we not expect immediate and early results?

II. IT IS TRUE THAT THE SIGHS OF A CHILD ARE NOT HEAVY; THEY ARE NOT, AS IN THE SOUL OF MANHOOD AND WOMANHOOD, OCEAN WAVES, BUT THEY ARE RATHER LIKE THE RIPPLE UPON THE WATERS OF SOME SHELTERED LAKE. It is true that the emotions of a child are not the hardy blossoms of a sturdy fruit tree, but the tender and delicate bloom of a tree that has as yet yielded little more than promise of fruit. Nevertheless, that blossom, which winds will tear and shake, is the outflowing of life; that ripple on the lake shows susceptibility in the water towards its sister element, air; and those dewdrop tears show that earth and heaven, man and God, are working upon the child's nature. If the understanding of a child be less enlightened, the soul is more sensitive; if the judgment be less formed, the conscience is more tender; if there be but little strength of purpose, the heart is less hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

III. If decided piety be within reach of a child, HOW IS IT THAT THE ABSENCE OF GODLINESS FROM CHILDREN DOES NOT MORE DISTRESS US, AND THAT PIETY IN CHILDREN IS NOT MORE OUR AIM AND HOPE, AND THAT IT IS NOT MORE FREQUENTLY THE BURDEN OF OUR PRAYER? Why, as some, always suspect a child who professes to be godly? Godly children are God's workmanship, created by Jesus Christ, and if we would be the means of leading children into true godliness, we must bid them look to our Saviour Jesus. I say to Him, not at Him. There is a vast difference between these things. The child looks at the King when he goes to see him proceed in state to open the Parliament; but he looks to his mother when he relies on her for the supply of his daily wants.

(S. Martin, D. D.)