be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.

And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.

And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:

And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day

and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life:

In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.

And the LORD shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.

Question.-Were the terrible consequences of disobedience threatened in the curses which followed these blessings ever felt by the Israelites ?

Answer-We shall see, in other books of the Old Testament that the people, having fallen into idolatry, were delivered into the hands of their enemies, made slaves, and suffered from pestilences and terrible diseases, and afterwards were carried into captivity to Babylon. Many years after their return from captivity Jerusalem was besieged and destroyed, and the Jewish people scattered over the earth.

Q-Which was the nation of fierce countenance to

be brought against the disobedient people ? A.-The reference is probably, in the first place, to the Chaldeans and Medes, who invaded the country; but the prophecy was completely fulfilled when the Romans under Titus besieged and destroyed Jerusalem. So terrible were the sufferings from starvation of the Jewish people in this siege that they did actually eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and women devoured their own babes.

Q.-The Israelites were threatened that they should

be scattered among all people from the one end of the earth even unto the other. Was that fulfilled?

4.—After the conquest of Judea by the Romans, the Jews

ceased to exist as a nation. They were scattered among the nations. The few who remained in their

To this day

native land were poor and ill-treated.
Jews are to be met with in all the countries of the
earth. They retain their peculiar features, and observe
many of the old customs, but they are no longer a
nation. Ten of the tribes carried away into captivity
never returned, but were so scattered over the earth
that they cannot now be traced.

Q.-Did the Jewish people, when scattered, find na ease for day and night, and have no assurance of their life but sorrow of mind?

A. They suffered great persecution in every country where they dwelt, were robbed, tortured and murdered by tyrannous monarchs and cruel people, who even believed they were acting acceptably to God in inflicting such sufferings on the Jewish people. Judea has been for hundreds of years under the rule of the believers in the false prophet Mahomet, and the country once so fertile, "flowing with milk and honey, a goodly land," is now unproductive, and in parts barren.

Q.-Were they taken "into Egypt again with ships" and "sold for bondmen and bondwomen ?"

A.-Many thousands of Jews were sent into Egypt and sold into slavery by order of the Roman emperors Titus and Hadrian. It has been noticed that ships are particularly mentioned as if to remind the Israelites that when they were brought out of Egypt, the waters of the sea were parted, and they went over without so much as wetting their feet; but when they returned to Egypt it would be to go into captivity, and they would be taken by sea, miserably imprisoned in slave ships.

ND it shall come to pass, when

all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee, and shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul;

That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee:

And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.

And the LORD thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee.

And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the LORD, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day. And the LORD thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good: for the LORD will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers:

If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God to keep his com

mandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.

For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? but the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.

See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; in that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.

But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.

I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: that thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD Sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

Question. Is there any promise of pardon and restoration of the disobedient people?

Answer. It is distinctly promised that if they repent the Lord will gather them from the nations, and bring them again to the land which their fathers possessed; the land shall again be fruitful, and the Lord will rejoice over them for good, as He rejoiced over their fathers. Q-Has this repentance and restoration yet taken place?

A.-No; but it is believed that it will take place, the Jews

believing on the Saviour, and coming through Him to God for pardon of their sins; and that they will once more become a nation in the land of their fathers. Q.-What lesson may we learn from the manner in which the Lord speaks of the commandments He gives?

A. We may learn that it is not hard to know the will of God; His word is very nigh unto us, in our Bibles, so that we can easily know it. We have set before us, on the one hand, "life and good," on the other, "death and evil." The choice rests with ourselves.

How large the promise, how divine,

To Abraham and his seed,

"I'll be a God to thee and thine Supplying all their need."

The words of this extensive love
From age to age endure;
The Angel of the cov'nant proves
And seals the blessing sure.

AND Moses went and spake these

words unto all Israel.

And he said unto them, I am an hundred and twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in: also the LORD hath said unto me, Thou shalt not go over this Jordan. The LORD thy God, he will go over before thee, and he will destroy these nations from before thee, and thou shalt possess them and Joshua, he shall go over before thee, as the LORD hath said.

And the LORD shall do unto them as he did to Sihon and to Og, kings of the Amorites, and unto the land of them, whom he destroyed. And the LORD shall give them up before your face, and ye may do unto them according unto all the commandments which I have commanded you.

Be strong and of a good courage,

fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

And Moses called unto Joshua, and said unto him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of a good courage: for thou must go with this people unto the land which the LORD hath sworn unto their fathers to give them; and thou shalt cause them to inherit it.

And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.

And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it unto the priests the sons of Levi, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and unto all the elders of Israel.

saying, At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles, when all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law and that their children, which have not known any thing, may hear, and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.

And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thy days approach that thou must die: call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tabernacle of the congregation, that I may give him a charge.

And Moses and Joshua went, and presented themselves in the tabernacle of the congregation.

And the LORD appeared in the tabernacle in a pillar of a cloud: and the pillar of the cloud stood over the door of the tabernacle. And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go [astray] after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.

Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us? and I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods.

Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel. For when I shall have brought them into the land which I sware unto their fathers, that floweth with milk and honey; and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxen fat; then will they turn unto other gods, and serve them, and provoke me, and break my covenant.

And it shall come to pass, when many evils and troubles are befallen them, that this song shall testify against them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed: for I know their imagination which they go about, even now, before I have brought them into the land which I sware.

Moses therefore wrote this song the same day, and taught it the children of Israel.

And he gave Joshua the son of Nun a charge, and said, Be strong and of a good courage: for thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the land which I sware unto them: and I will be with thee.

And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, that Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying,

Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark or the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee. For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the LORD; and how much more after my death?

Gather unto me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to record against them. For I know that after my death