binding under the New dispensation and the better covenant, as they had ever been under the Old.

5. And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.

6. And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

7. Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

8. And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.

9. And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.

10. And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the Lord for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee.

:

11. Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.

12. Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant

with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee:

13. But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves :

14. For thou shalt worship no other god for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

Moses having obeyed the command of the Lord, and ascended the mount, with the tables of stone in his hand, the Almighty descended in a cloud, and stood before him, and proclaimed his greatness. It is well to observe the attributes which the Lord selected, in recounting, as it were, his titles in the ears of his servant: " Jehovah, Jehovah God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin." What a constellation of the most blessed and soul-encouraging attributes! Not a word of God's great power, his infinite strength, his appalling sovereignty, is here introduced, but every term that could reassure the timid, comfort the desponding, and raise the drooping and darkened soul to life and light again. When will men learn the character of Him with whom they have to do, not from their own pre-conceived imaginations, not from the distorted representations of others, but from the lips of God himself? The neglect of thus re

ceiving the Almighty's own declaration, produces a large proportion of the misery and wretchedness in the world. Men, guided by their own constitutional tendencies, perhaps deeply tinged with the ascetic or severe, array the character of the Almighty in imaginary terrors, and then fly from the fearful idol which they have themselves set up. But would they only remember that God has said, that He who cannot lie, and cannot change, has said, "I am love;" would they only bear in mind, that there is not an attribute dear to the human heart, which the Almighty has omitted when revealing himself to man, or scarcely one which does not find a place even in the description of himself that we have now been readingmercy and goodness, truth and forbearance, love and forgiveness, all separately enumerated-surely the first feeling of every heart would be, how can I remain alienated from such a God, or how can I dread the presence, or while desiring to please Him, fear the wrath, or tremble at the harshness of such a parent, or forsake such a Father? If I have hitherto done so, I will do so no longer; by God's help, "I will arise and go to my Father;" I shall find nothing in all the universe of creatures, so abundant in goodness, so plenteous in mercy, so attractive in love.

But now observe, how perfectly consistent the

most enlarged and tender compassion for sinners is with the most determined punishment of sin. The same Almighty Being immediately adds to this blessed description of his mercy; that He is a "jealous God," and that He "will by no means clear the guilty," or (as the two last words, which are in italics, would perhaps have been better supplied,) "will by no means clear the wicked,” since all are guilty, but, thanks to God's grace, all do not remain among the impenitent "wicked." Notwithstanding, therefore, God's tenderness and love, his justice is equally perfect, and He cannot "clear the wicked," so long as they remain, rejoicing in their wickedness. But listen to his own words, by his prophet Ezekiel : "Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God, and not that he should return from his ways and live?"* No, surely, all that the Almighty has said, and all that He has done, are sufficient to convince us of this truth, that "He willeth not the death of a sinner, but that he should turn from his wickedness and live." Take, therefore, the whole character of the Almighty, as you find it here delivered by his own lips, and see it verified in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ; plead to be reconciled through this Saviour, to such a Fa

* Ezek. xviii. 23.

ther, and to be made one through this atoning sacrifice, with such a God. There is no single instance throughout Scripture, of even the “wicked” man acting thus in sincerity and truth, and not finding the pardon, and reconciliation, and peace, for which he seeks, for truly to every penitent sinner coming to Him, in the name and through the merits of his Son," God is love."

[Here may be read from ver. 15 to ver. 27, inclusive.]

EXPOSITION LIV.

CHAP. XXXiv. 28-35.

28. And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

29. And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.

30. And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.