the borrower was not bound to make it good; but if he was not present, then the borrower was responsible.

It was a law, that the man who seduced a woman should certainly marry her; unless the father of the woman utterly refused, and then a fine was imposed, equal to the dowry of a virgin.

A witch was not to be suffered to live.

Idolaters, and persons guilty of unnatural crimes, were to be punished with death.

SECTION XIV.

PROVISION FOR THE POOR, THE STRANGER, WIDOW, AND ORPHAN-LOANS TO A BROTHER-PLEDGES-SPEAKING EVIL OF RULERS-FIRST-FRUITS-ANIMALS TORN BY WILD BEASTS-SLANDER FORBIDDEN-DUTIES TO ENEMIES-SABBATICAL YEARANNUAL FESTIVALS THE PASSOVER-FEAST OF TABERNACLES-AND FEAST OF HARVEST OF PENTECOST-LEAVEN FORBIDDEN IN THE SACRIFICES-OTHER LAWS.

A SPECIAL provision was made for relief to the stranger, the widow, and the fatherless. The very words of this law are worthy of our consideration. "Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him; for ye were strangers in the land. of Egypt. Ye shall not afflict any widow nor fatherless child. If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.'

Money lent to a brother who was poor, was to be without interest or usury.

When a neighbour's garment was taken in pledge, the law required, that it should be restored before the going down of the sun.

It was expressly forbidden to speak evil of judges or magis

trates.

The firstlings of the flocks and herds, the first fruits of the field, the garden, and the wine-press, were the Lord's.

The flesh of animals torn by wild beasts was forbidden to be eaten by the Israelites.

Slander and false witness are expressly prohibited.

And it was forbidden to follow a multitude to do evil; and especially not to advocate an unrighteous cause, to decline after a multitude.

Neither were they permitted to countenance a poor man in his cause; that is, when it was unjust; neither might they wrest the judgment of the poor.

No enmity of another can exonerate us from the obligations of neighbourly conduct towards him; therefore, it was enjoined, that if a man met the ox or ass of his enemy going astray, he

should surely bring it back to him; or if he saw his ass lying under a burden, he should by all means assist him.

Great disapprobation is manifested towards all partiality and injustice in the settling of disputes between man and man. No gift was allowed to be received by judges from either party concerned in a cause.

As the people were commanded to do all their secular work in six days, and rest the seventh day; so they were directed to sow the land and gather in the fruits for six years, but the seventh year they were to let it lie uncultivated. The reason here assigned for the rest of the weekly Sabbath, is a political one, and still of as great force as at first, "That thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thine handmaid, and the stranger may be refreshed;" and the reason assigned for a sabbatical year was, "that the poor of thy people may eat; and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat?" for in this year, no man was permitted to gather into his barn any of the spontaneous productions of the earth: these were free to all, and the owner of the field had no peculiar claim to them.

Three times in the year, all the males were required to appear before the Lord. At the feast of the PASSOVER, or of unleavened bread, on the fourteenth of Abib or Nisan, of the institution of which, a particular account has already been given; at the feast of HARVEST, which was to be celebrated fifty days after the passover, and was therefore called by the Greeks, PENTECOST; and the feast of INGATHERING, at the end of the year, which is commonly called, the feast of TABERNACLES; because during its celebration, the people cut down branches of trees. and made themselves booths, in commemoration of their dwelling in tents in the wilderness. This feast was set to the fifteenth day of the seventh month. And as their families and habitations would be peculiarly exposed, when all the males were absent, a special promise was given, that during these visits of piety to the place where the Lord should record his name, no one should desire their land, or molest their families. Thus, also, there was a special promise, that the sixth year should be so abundantly productive, that there would be no danger of want from baving their fields untilled on the seventh.

Some laws were given, the reason of which does not clearly appear. Of this sort is the one forbidding leaven to be offered with any of their sacrifices; and that none of the fat of a sacrifice should remain until the morning. Probably many such regulations were intended to guard the people against the superstitious rites of the heathen around them. Some precepts, however, seem to have had no other end than to cherish humanity, and kind feelings even to animals. Such as this, "Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk."

SECTION XV.

THE ANGEL OF GOD PROMISED TO GO BEFORE THE PEOPLE.

To encourage the people, and prevent their murmurings, the Lord said, "Behold I send an Angel before thee to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice: provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions; for my name is in him. But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies; and an adversary unto thine adversaries. For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perrizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I will cut them off. Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them; nor do after their works; but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images. And ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee. There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil. I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy the people to whom thou shalt come. And I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee. And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee. I will not drive them out before thee in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By little and little, will I drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased and inherit the land. And I will set thy bounds from the Red Sea, even unto the sea of the Philistines; and from the desert unto the river; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and thou shalt drive them out before thee. Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. They shall not dwell in thy land; lest they make thee sin against me; for if thou serve their gods it will surely be a snare to thee."

SECTION XVI.

MOSES, AARON, NADAB, AND ABIHU CALLED INTO THE MOUNT-GLORIOUS APPEARANCE OF GOD-TABLES OF THE LAW.

MOSES was, after this, called up into the mount, and directed to bring with him Aaron and his two oldest sons, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel: but these were to worship afar off, and Moses alone to come near the Lord. And

Moses wrote all the words of the Lord. And early in the morning he builded an altar at the foot of the mountain, and set up twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. "And he sent young men of the children of Israel who offered burnt-offerings, and sacrificed peace-offerings of oxen unto the Lord." Some remarks have already been made on the existence of priests in Israel, before the consecration of Aaron, and reference was made to what is here stated. We have also here a more particular account than occurs before, of the ceremonies in relation to the blood of the sacrifices; "And Moses took half of the blood and put it into a basin; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar." Having committed to writing the laws which had been committed to him by the Lord, and which the people had repeatedly promised that they would obey, he now took the book containing this covenant and read it in the audience of the people. "And they said, all that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient." And Moses took the blood which he had put in basins, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, "Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words." After this solemn ratification of the covenant, Moses, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel, went up on the mount. "And they saw the God of Israel; and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire-stone, as it were the body of heaven in its clearness. And upon the nobles of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink." The visible appearance, on this occasion, must have been that of the Angel of the Covenant, the Son of God, who often appeared in the form of a man; and sometimes, as in this instance, surrounded with glory.

It was not sufficient that the law of the ten commandments should be uttered by the voice of God, and written by Moses in the book of the law, the Lord now directed Moses to come up to him in the mount, and he would give him tables of stone, which should contain the law and commandments. On this occasion, Moses was accompanied only by Joshua. "And he said unto the elders of Israel, tarry ye here for us, until we come again unto you. And behold, Aaron and Hur are with you: if any man have matters to do, let him come unto them. And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount. And the glory of the Lord abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount. And Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights."

SECTION XVII.

OFFERINGS FOR THE TABERNACLE-PATTERN-CURTAINS-ALTAR-LAVER-HOLY, AND MOST HOLY PLACE, AND THEIR FURNITURE.

AT this time, directions were given to Moses in relation to offerings of gold, and silver, and brass; blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goat's hair, and ram's skins dyed red, and badger skins, and shittim wood; oil for the light; spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense, onyx-stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breast-plate, for the purpose of making a sanctuary, or house of worship, in which God might, as it were, dwell among them. The exact pattern of this structure was shown to Moses in the mount; and he was ordered to be careful to make a tabernacle, and the instruments and furniture thereof, exactly according to the pattern which he had seen. The tabernacle itself was directed to be made with boards, plated with silver, and inserted in sockets; and held together by cross-bars, and by braces at the corners. Over this frame several sets of curtains were suspended. The first of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet. And above these, another set of curtains, of goat's hair, eleven in number; to be a covering on the tabernacle. And as an outer covering of the whole, there was a canopy of ram skins dyed red, and skins dyed blue.

The tabernacle was to be divided into two compartments, the exterior of which was to be twenty cubits in length, and ten cubits wide; and the interior, which was THE MOST HOLY PLACE, ten cubits square. The entrance into the outer tabernacle, or holy place, was by an opening covered by a thick impervious curtain; and the separation between the holy and most holy place, was by another curtain of most precious materials and workmanship. The furniture of the exterior apartment was, first, the golden candlestick of pure beaten gold, with its seven ornamented branches, or stems, with their respective lamps and oil vessels. 2. The table of shew-bread covered with plates of gold, on which twelve loaves were placed every Sabbath morning; and those were directed to be eaten by the priests within the sacred precincts. And, 3. The golden altar, or altar of incense. Within the inner veil, in the interior recess of the tabernacle, called the most holy place, was the ark of the covenant, a chest covered all over with pure gold, the lid of which, called the mercy-seat, or place of atonement, was a piece of gold on which, at each end, were formed cherubims, whose faces were turned inwards, towards the mercy-seat. Within this sacred chest were deposited the two tables of the law, written