Jsrael. PART FIRST. Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen. -Isaiah xliii. 10. Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of man, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.-Isaiah li. 7. I. 66 The Call of Jsrael. If ye will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a chosen people unto me out of all nations, for all the earth is mine; ye shall be unto me a priestly people and a holy nation.— Exodus xix. 5, 6. HE answer made to this call by the people was worthy of the hour; for, as with one voice, they said: "All that the Lord shall say, we will do and hear." The ancient masters point to the seeming rashness of the reply since hearing ought to precede a vow of doing; but such, they explain, is always the effect of true inspiration. The self is lost in the end of the inspiring cause. Only under the sway of such an absorbing influence are great resolutions born. What generous soul does not know these sacred hours? And, although more may be vowed, to ourselves and to others, than can be fulfilled, yet are we, as it were, pushed forward and upward by these rising waves of spiritual life; we never fall back altogether to the level from which we were lifted. Israel, it is true, did relapse into old errors, and not very long after; he has often been rebuked for his backsliding; but what are these lapses compared with his unwavering faithfulness through thousands of years, and under what trials! G. G. GIVE me strength to hold to Thee for aye, I'll keep Thy covenant unbroken, Lord, II. The Best Truths. For this is not a vain thing for you, it is your life, and by this ye shall prolong your life in the land whither ye go over Jordan to possess it. Deut. xxxii. 47. believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth;" "The Lord our God is One;" "There is none good save One, that is God; "There is One God and Father of us all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all;" "One God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; "'" For in Him we live and move and have our being; "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all;" and "God is love." Here is your true creed and confession. I want to say, Get these mighty and masterful sentences by heart, and teach them to your children, that they may take them out into the world for their staff and stay, when they leave the old roof-tree. We may believe many a radiant truth besides; but these, to begin with, are the best I ever found. "Tell me the whole Law while I stand on one foot," the young heathen wit said to the old master of the Law in Jewry, just before our Christian era, and he thought he had the old scholar on the hip. But he had reckoned without his host. "Lift up your foot," the old man said promptly; and, with a smile, "Are you ready?" "Yes, master, ready." Well, 66 now, listen. 'Do not unto another what thou wouldest not have another do unto thee '—that is the whole Law: the rest is only commentary and exposition." So I want to say to myself and to you: Here is the essence of all faith; and we can hear it, as we can hear the whole Law touching the conduct of our life while we stand on one foot. ROBERT COLLYER. III. Jsrael Enduring. I, the Lord, change not; and ye, house of Israel, are not consumed.-Malachi iii. 6. FORMERLY I felt little affection for Moses, prob ably because the Hellenic spirit was dominant |