‘I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of    the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen;    and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you    go upright.’–LEV. xxvi. 13.The history of Israel is a parable and a prophecy as well as a history.The great central word of the…

          ‘Edify one another.’–1 THESS. v. 11.I do not intend to preach about that clause only, but I take it ascontaining, in the simplest form, one of the Apostle’s favouritemetaphors which runs through all his letters, and the significance ofwhich, I think, is very little grasped by ordinary readers.‘Edify one another.’ All metaphorical words tend to…

    ‘So He drove out the man: and He placed at the east of    the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which    turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.’    –GENESIS iii. 24.    ‘Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they    may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in    through the…

          ‘As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good          unto all. . . .’–GAL. vi. 10.‘As we have therefore’–that points a finger backwards to what has gonebefore. The Apostle has been exhorting to unwearied well-doing, on theground of the certain coming of the harvest season. Now, there is adouble link of connection between the preceding words…

          ‘Have this mind in you which was also in Christ          Jesus: 6. Who, being in the form of God, counted          it not a prize to be on an equality with God, 7.          But emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant,          being made in the likeness of men; 8. And being          found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself,          becoming…

    ‘And God spake all these words, saying, 2. I am the Lord    thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of    Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3. Thou shalt have    no other gods before me. 4. Thou shalt not make unto    thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing    that is in the heaven…

    ‘Honour thy father and thy mother; that thy days may be    long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.    13. Thou shalt not kill. 14. Thou shalt not commit    adultery. 15. Thou shalt not steal. 16. Thou shalt not    bear false witness against thy neighbour. 17. Thou    shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not    covet thy…

    ‘Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old    age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered    to his people.’–GENESIS xxv. 8.‘Full of years’ does not seem to me to be a mere synonym for longevity.That would be an intolerable tautology, for we should then have thesame thing said three times…

    ‘And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that    generation. 7. And the children of Israel were fruitful,    and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed    exceeding mighty….’–EXODUS i. 6, 7.These remarkable words occur in a short section which makes the linkbetween the Books of Genesis and of Exodus. The writer recapitulatesthe list of the immigrants into Egypt,…

    ‘And the Lord spake unto Moses after the death of the    two sons of Aaron when they offered before the Lord,    and died; 2. And the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto    Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into    the holy place within the vail before the mercy-seat,    which is upon the ark; that he die…