release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother; because it is called the Lord's release.

3. Of a foreigner thou mayest exact it again: but that which is thine with thy brother thine hand shall release;

4. Save when there shall be no poor among you; for the Lord shall greatly bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it.

5. Only if thou carefully hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all these commandments which I command thee this day.

6. For the Lord thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee.

7. If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother:

8. But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth.

9. Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought; and he cry unto the Lord against thee, and it be sin unto thee.

10. Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee

in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto.

11. For the poor shall never cease out of the land : therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.

12. And if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee.

13. And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty :

14. Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress: of that wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him.

15. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee: therefore I command thee this thing to-day.

When we read such laws as those that have now been brought before us, and in which slavery is evidently recognised, without disapproval, by the Almighty, we must always bear in mind the state of the world when they were promulgated. In the history of all the great nations of antiquity, whether Chaldeans, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks or Romans, we find slavery countenanced, and the laws by which it was regulated bearing not a moment's comparison with those

we have just read, for kindness and consideration. Among other nations, the slavery was perpetual, and the power of life and death usually in the hands of the master. To the Israelites, such an atrocity as the latter was unknown, and the rigours of captivity were greatly mitigated, both by the manner in which they were enjoined to treat their captors, and also by the certain liberation which awaited them every seventh year. Still under every circumstance, with our more enlightened views, and kindlier dispensation, slavery must ever be considered as an accursed thing; and happy is it for our country, that she has been led, in perfect acquiescence with the spirit of the christian revelation, to destroy, even at a great national sacrifice, every vestige of it from the face of her almost boundless dominions. For this God be praised, and may He permit us to find a rich reward in the far wider extension among ourselves, of that spiritual liberty, that release from a worse than Egyptian bondage, wherewith Christ makes his people free.

But we must observe still more closely, the merciful regulations we have been reading. We are told that every seventh year, all who had borrowed money, should, if unable to pay, be released from the debt; and that the knowledge

of this should not prevent the rich man from lending to his poorer brother, toward the close of the six years, from the fear that the debt should be cancelled instead of paid; nor that he should give grudgingly, but readily, and cheerfully, or he should receive no blessing himself from the hands of the Almighty. Observe, then, how scrutinizingly God examines the spirit in which our duties are performed. It might have been thought a great demand, that men should lend, when there was so small a prospect of re-payment, but this is not sufficient; they must lend, and lend cheerfully, at God's bidding, even when the loan should certainly become a gift. The reason given for this, is, "For the poor shall never cease out of the land, therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother."

This declaration of infinite wisdom, that " the poor shall never cease out of the land," appears to be an eternal truth. In vain have men in every age attempted to falsify it, however apparently wise may have been the means, however palpable, or however recondite, have been the principles, upon which they have acted, they have utterly and equally failed of their object; the poor have never ceased out of the land, they yet remain, and have remained, and even in

creased during years of such remarkable prosperity, as no nation before has ever witnessed. And doubtless, despite all the worldly maxims of political economy, they shall remain unto the end of time, as a proof of the everlasting verities of God's word, and as a continual means afforded to his people to inherit his own peculiar benediction: "Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto me."

EXPOSITION LVIII.

[Here may be read from verse 16, chapter xv. to verse 14, of chapter xviii. inclusive.]

DEUTERONOMY Xviii. 15-22.

15. The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken ;

16. According to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that 1 die not.

17. And the Lord said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken.