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all thy soul, to keep his commandments and statutes, for thy good? For the Lord your God, is God of Gods, and Lord of Lords, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh rewards. He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger in giving him food and raiment. Love ye, therefore, the stranger, for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name,"

CHARLES. I am sorry to interrupt you, mother; but pray, why such an injunction-to swear by his name?

MRS. M. That is, when it should be necessary to make an oath, they should swear only by his name, and offer no sort of homage to the idols of the Canaanites. If they had often indicated a propensity to this atrocious crime, in their insulated situation in the wilderness, and notwithstanding their singular consecration to Jehovah, it became imperatively necessary to admonish them of the dangers to which they were about to be exposed in an idolatrous country. They were, therefore, commanded to remove every object that might tempt them from their duty. To destroy, utterly, every place where the heathens had worshipped, to cut down their sacred groves, to burn their images and their pictures, and reject and detest the gold and the silver with which they were adorned; ever remembering, that when they heard the voice of their Sovereign, they 66 saw no similitude" of any object, either terrestrial or celestial -that no imposing appearances, not even the sun and moon, and the stars, the most splendid phenomena in the universe, might entice them to imitate the heathens, and corrupt the worship of the invisible Deity. And because an intercourse with them could not be maintained with in

nocence, for they had already given deplorable evidence of, the fatal facility with which they might be assailed, they were commanded to make no treaty of friendship---no covenant---and especially no marriages, with the nations of Canaan---but utterly to exterminate them.

CHARLES. Was not that a cruel command?

MRS. M. A severe one, no doubt, with respect to the Israelites, who, having no personal quarrel with the inhabitants of Canaan, must have reluctantly obeyed; but many of our duties are repugnant to our natural feelings. The Great Supreme, however, although he has a right to implicit compliance, is pleased to conciliate our reason. "Not for their own righteousness," he told the Israelites, "were they to inherit a delightful land, but the natives, for their abominable wickedness, were to be'dispossessed. Their morals were as detestable as their religion was corrupt, and this punishment he might as rightfully inflict by one instrument as by another: by famine or the sword---by earthquakes or pestilence---as his wisdom might determine.

All the people, comprehended under the general name of Canaanites, were not equally obnoxious to the divine malediction. Some nations were to be spared, on condition of submission to the conquerors, and a payment of tribute, but, in case of resistance, to be partially punished by the slaughter of the men, while the women and children were to be saved alive.

Yet in condescension to their weakness, their gracious Sovereign persuaded them to the discharge of their duty by motives addressed to the most powerful feelings of human nature, their interest. The land to which they were hastening was contrasted with that from which they had escaped---not parched, like that where they had "sowed

their seeds and reared them with labour, but watered with the rains of Heaven,"---a variegated landscape of vallies and hills---of brooks and fountains---of trees and minerals. And they were encouraged to attack without fear, a people stronger and more numerous than themselves, by the promise that their God would "go before them like a consuming fire to destroy them, and deliver their kings into their hand."

Still farther to animate their hope, the inspired orator expatiated, in glowing figures, on the surpassing prosperity, both public and private, that awaited their steady adherence to the laws; love and harmony in their families; overflowing abundance in their stores, and inviolable security from their enemies. On the other hand, an appalling catalogue of calamities portrayed the miseries of revolt. Sickness and sorrow, famine and war, and finally subjugation and captivity! "The Lord," he added," will scatter thee among all people, from one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, even wood and stone. And among these nations thou shalt find no ease; neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest, and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee, and thou shalt fear day and night. In the morning thou shalt say, 'Would God it were even, and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning!' Keep, therefore, the words of this Covenant and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do."

From the sketch I have attempted, you can have but a faint idea of this interesting speech. You must read it throughout to obtain a just conception of the piety and benevolence of Moses.

FANNY. Surely his virtues and his services, and now

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this affecting exhortation, would ensure the gratitude of his people and their observance of his statutes.

MRS. M. Their esteem for Moses, and their perfect conviction of the divine origin of his laws, did secure a nominal attachment to them. But the essence of the requisitions consisted in the consecration of the whole heart, and all the sanctions of the law;-its threatenings and its promises, he knew, would not be proof against the deteriorating power of an intercourse with heathens of the worst possible character. But that they might be without excuse, he persisted in providing expedients to counteract its fascinations. He wrote a hymn of praise and thanksgiving, and directed them to teach it to their children. He bade them to erect a pillar of stones, when they should come into the promised land, and engrave on it "the law," that it might be always in the view of the passenger. And to impress their memories and imaginations, being aware of their fondness for symbols, he commanded them to divide the congregation formally, and place them on the two mounts Ebal and Gerizzim; Simeon and Levi, Judah and Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin, on the latter; and Reuben, Asher and Gad, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali, on the former; whilst the Levites rehearsed in their hearing, the blessings that awaited their inflexible allegiance, and the curses that would be the infallible punishment of their apostacy. And lastly, he delivered the "book of the law," to the priests, and commanded them to keep it in the "side of the ark" of the Covenant, and read the whole every seventh year to the assembled tribes, at the feast of tabernacles.

CATHERINE. What do you mean by the book of the

law?

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MRS. M. The five books of Moses, both singly and collectively, are spoken of in the scriptures under that title. They are also called "the books of Moses," and sometimes are designated merely by his name, as, for instance, "they have Moses and the prophets."

Having finished his address to the people, he pronounced a prophetic blessing on each tribe, and gave a parting charge to Joshua, in the presence of all Israel, assuring him, both for his and their encouragement, that the Lord of hosts would conduct them across the Jordan to the land he had given to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

He then left them, and ascended alone a ridge of mountains that lay near the border of Moab, and from Pisgah, the summit, he was indulged with an extensive prospect of the land he had earnestly desired to enter. The stream of Jordan flowed at his feet; the lakes of Cinnereth and Asphaltite, and the stately cedars of Lebanon, on the north; and the spreading palm trees of the south, were at once in his view. He beheld the cities and the fields, which his brethren were to possess; but their faces he saw no more

for there he died-and in a valley not far distant, it is said, "the Lord buried him ;" and no man has ever discovered his sepulchre! (B. C. 1471.)

CATHERINE. That is a very extraordinary fact. Why was he not buried with funeral honours like other celebrated men? It would have gratified the people who had received so many invaluable services from him, to have -paid this last tribute to his worth.

MRS. M. He who recorded the death and secret burial of Moses, has barely related the fact, without one word of -comment a fact so very remarkable, that the curiosity of the reader is irresistibly impelled to look for a reason,

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