towards the same persons; but if we have to-day been too violent against the persons of evil men whom we do not like, this is no security against our being to-morrow much too forbearing towards the practices of evil men whom we do like; because we are all apt to respect persons in our judgments and in our feelings; sometimes to be too severe, and sometimes too indulgent, not according to justice, but according to our own likings and dislikings.

Nor is it respect of persons only which thus leads us astray, but also our own particular sympathy with, or disgust at, particular faults and particular characters. Even in one whom we may like on the whole, there may be faults which we may visit too hardly, because they are exactly such as we feel no temptation to commit. And again, in one whom we dislike on the whole, there may for the same reason be faults which we tolerate too easily, because they are like our own.

There is yet a third cause, and that a very common one, which corrupts our judgment. We may sympathize with such and such faults generally, because we are ourselves inclined to them; but if they happen to be committed against us, and we feel the bad effects of them, then we are apt to judge them in that particular case too harshly. Or again, we may rather dislike a fault in general, but when it is committed on our own

side, and to advance our own interests, then in that particular case we are tempted to excuse it too readily.

There are these dangers besetting us on the right hand and on the left, as to our treatment of other men's faults. And if we read the Scriptures we shall find, as might be expected, very strong language against the error on either side. A great deal is said against violence, wrath, uncharitableness, harsh judgment of others, and attempting or pretending to work God's service by our own bad passions; and a great deal is also said against tolerating sin, against defiling ourselves with evil doers, against preferring our earthly friendships to the will and service of God.

Of these latter commands, the words of the text, and other such passages relating to the conduct to be pursued by the Israelites towards the nations of Canaan, furnish us with most remarkable instances. We see how strong and positive the language is: "Thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them :" and the reason is given, "For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods." It is better that the wicked should be destroyed a hundred times over, yea, destroyed with everlasting destruction, than that they should tempt those who are as yet innocent to join their

company. And if we are inclined to think that God dealt hardly with the people of Canaan in commanding them to be so utterly destroyed, let us but think what might have been our fate, and the fate of every other nation under heaven at this hour, had the sword of the Israelites done its work more sparingly. Even as it was, the small portions of the Canaanites who were left, and the nations around them, so tempted the Israelites by their idolatrous practices, that we read continually of the whole people of God turning away from his service. But had the heathen lived in the land in equal numbers, and still more, had they intermarried largely with the Israelites, how was it possible, humanly speaking, that any sparks of the light of God's truth should have survived to the coming of Christ? Would not the Israelites have lost all their peculiar character, and if they had retained the name of Jehovah as of their national God, would they not have formed as unworthy notions of his attributes, and worshipped him with a worship as abominable as that which the Moabites paid to Clemosh, or the Philistines to Dagon? So had Abraham been called from out his native country in vain; and Israel had in vain been brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and fed with the bread of heaven in the wilderness; the witness to God's truth would have perished; the whole earth would have been sunk in dark

ness; and if Messiah had come, he would not have found one single ear prepared to listen to his doctrine, nor one single heart that longed in secret for the kingdom of God.

But this was not to be, and therefore the nations of Canaan were to be cut off utterly. The Israelites' sword, in its bloodiest executions, wrought a work of mercy for all the countries of the earth to the very end of the world. They seem of small importance to us now, those perpetual contests with the Canaanites, and the Midianites, and the Ammonites, and the Philistines, with which the Books of Joshua and Judges and Samuel are almost filled. We may half wonder that God should have interfered in such quarrels, or have changed the order of nature in order to give one of the nations of Palestine the victory over another. But in these contests, on the fate of one of these nations of Palestine, the happiness of the human race depended. The Israelites fought not for themselves only, but for us. Whatever were the faults of Jephthah or of Samson, never yet were any men engaged in a cause more important to the whole world's welfare. Their constant warfare kept Israel essentially distinct from the tribes around them; their own law became the dearer to them, because they found such unceasing enemies amongst those who hated it. The uncircumcised, who kept not the covenant of God,

were for ever ranged in battle against those who did keep it. It might follow that the Israelites should thus be accounted the enemies of all mankind, it might be that they were tempted by their very distinctness to despise other nations; still they did God's work; still they preserved unhurt the seed of eternal life, and were the ministers of blessing to all other nations, even though they themselves failed to enjoy it.

But still these commands, so forcible, so fearful, -to spare none-to destroy the wicked utterlyto show no mercy,-are these commands addressed to us now? or what is it which the Lord bids us do in these words addressed to his servant Moses? Certainly he does not bid us to shed blood, not to destroy the wicked, not to put on any hardness of heart which might shut out the charity of Christ's perfect law. We must not be cruel, we must do nothing against the law of justice and humanity, even to remove the evil from out of the land. And to do as the Israelites did would be to our feelings, though it was not to theirs, cruelty and injustice. But there is another part of the text which does apply to us now in the letter, thereby teaching us how to apply the whole to ourselves in the spirit. "Be ye not unequally yoked together in marriage with unbelievers," is the command of God through the Apostle Paul to Christians, no less than of God through Moses to the Israelites.