Deut. iv. 6,

8.

be, that the people thus distinguished and consecrated by special divine communications, were thereby put in trust with a sacred deposit, of whose blessings they were to be the stewards and dispensers.

And this is in accordance with the charge which Moses gave to the Israelites at the close of his life: "Keep and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great which hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? and what nation is there so great that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?"-i. e. their wisdom would not be displayed in speculating upon them, but in keeping them, and putting them into practice.

CHAPTER II.

ARRANGEMENTS OF PROVIDENCE.

Τ

IT is plain then that, in connexion with this

revelation, the Israelites had a duty to perform to surrounding nations, as well as to themselves. And it is interesting to observe the peculiar arrangements of Providence by which this duty was facilitated.

anity at first

placed and in these

later times

world; placed in

the focus of

world.

It has often been remarked, with regard to Christithe Christian Revelation, that it was exactly in the focus of the civilized and when a large mass of the Jewish people the civilised had become evangelized, they were soon scattered to all the winds of Heaven, and carried with them in all directions the holy light by which they had become luminous. It is scarcely less a matter of devout admiration, that in later times the country which has become the emporium of the world, whose inhabitants are wafted, and now almost spirited, in all directions on an element peculiarly their own-a country to which a dominion has been all but miraculously given over heathen nations occupying large portions of the globeshould be the abode of the purest form of Christianity, and-with all that country's de

The same

was true of

ancient re

velation.

ficiences-far more impressed with its value and more fertile in its fruits than any other nation of mankind.

But advantages of the same kind were in the more a high degree conferred on those who were the original depositories of the Divine Word. The land of Palestine was, as Heeren has remarked, exactly the boundary-line between the eastern and the western world, and there was everything not only in the position but in the character of the people, as part of the Semitic family, adapted to diffuse what was for this purpose committed to them.

Character of the people.

As compar

Egyptians.

of Man,

p. 150.

66

With regard to the people, their character in this respect is best perceived in coned with the trast with their neighbours the Egyptians. Though inhabiting from immemorial times," Nat. Hist. says Dr Prichard, “regions in juxtaposition, and almost contiguous to each other, no two races of men can be more strongly contrasted than were the ancient Egyptians and the Syro-Arabian races: one nation full of energy, of restless activity, changing many times their manner of existence-sometimes nomad, i. e. feeding their flocks in desert places-now settled and cultivating the earth, and filling their land with populous villages and towns and fenced cities-then spreading themselves, impelled with the love of glory and zeal of proselytism, over distant countries;-the other

reposing ever in luxurious ease and wealth on the rich soil watered by their slimy river, never quitting it for a foreign clime, or displaying, unless forced, the least change in their position or habits of life. The intellectual character, the metaphysical belief and the religious sentiments and practices of the two nations, were equally diverse; one adoring an invisible and eternal Spirit at whose Almighty word the universe started into existence, and the morning-stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy,' the other adorning splendid temples with costly magnificence, in which with mysterious and grotesque rites they paid a strange and portentous worship to some foul and grovelling object— a snake, a tortoise, a crocodile, or an ape.'

This contrast is important when the question is raised, whether Egypt or Palestine, the subjects of Rhampsinnitus and Cheops, the patrons of the Eleusinian mysteries and the builders of the Pyramids, or of David and Solomon, whose prayer was "that thy way may be known upon earth, and thy saving health among all nations," and who built a temple to Him, whom heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain;-became the source to other nations of wholesome instruction on divine subjects.

The close connexion of the Hebrews, from

with the

Phoenicians.

Connexion the time in which their religious belief became established and copiously developed, with the Phoenicians, is a most remarkable circumstance, and has all the appearance of a divine arrangement for promoting the diffusion of that "saving health" which they desired might be known among all nations.

Vol. I. ch. 2.

p. 311.

p. 323.

On this subject we have the following remarks in Heeren's Asia: "One of the most interesting spectacles which history affords us, is the spread of nations by peaceable colonization...Phoenicians and Greeks, no less than the British and the Dutch, soon discover the necessity for foreign settlements; and notwithstanding all the abuses to which they are liable, it is still undeniable that not only their own civilization, but in a great measure the civilization of the whole human race, depends very much on these peaceful means of advancement...Tyre and Sidon yielded to their fate, but they had the happiness before their fall to see flourishing around them, in their hundreds of colonies, a numerous progeny."

"The foundation of most of these certainly took place in the flourishing period of Phoenicia, during which the trade and navigation of Tyre made such wonderful advances, i.e. from the reign of David to that of Cyrus." “When the boundaries of the Jewish empire under David had been so extended by the