1. The dignity of the Mediator.

2. The freedom of those who contracted.
3. The necessity of the choice.
4. The extent of the conditions.
5. The peril of the engagement.
6. The solemnity of the acceptance.
7. The nearness of the consequence.

1. The dignity of the Mediator.-His name, HoseaJehoshua: God will save: He will save. The first is like to a promise; the second, the fulfilment of the promise. Joshua a remarkable type of Christ. (See Heb. iv. 8.) "For if Jesus (Joshua) had given to them rest, then would he (God) not afterwards have spoken of another day." Heb. iii. 7: "Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith) to-day, if ye will hear his voice." Psalm xcv. 7: "For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. To-day if ye will hear his voice." The Holy Ghost and God the Father are one.

2. The freedom of those who contracted.—(1.) Reject the worship of the gods of the (1) Egyptians, of (2) the Chaldeans, and of (3) the Canaanites. (2.) Serve the Lord your God with a holy worship. Use your liberty in your choice; consider your responsibility.

3. The necessity of the choice.-1. There is no happiness without religion. The form of worship is called by some persons their religion. This kind of religion never gives happiness. 2. False religion leads to hell. True religion is the high road to heaven. 3. Choose speedily: choose determinedly.

4. The extent of the conditions.-1. Fear God, and serve Him in truth and righteousness. a. Fear God: consider his power, his holiness, his justice. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, which maketh wise unto salvation. b. Religion is truth, in opposition to error and idolatry. It is uprightness, integrity, virtue, in opposition to the vices which defile those who have a false religion. c. The religion of God equally forbids every species of vice, and recommends every kind of virtue.

5. The peril of the engagement.-This covenant had in it the nature of an oath, for so much the phrase, "before the Lord," implies. Therefore, they who entered into this covenant bound themselves by oath unto the Lord to be steady and faithful in the covenant. Human nature is unable to keep the covenant. The energy of the Holy Spirit is equal to every requisition of God's law, as far as it regards the moral conduct of a believer in Christ.

6. The solemnity of the acceptance.-Joshua declared the evils which must come upon those who would not keep the covenant. The people were solemnly impressed with a sense of their duty to God. They replied, "God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, but we will serve the Lord." They felt that not to engage in the covenant was to reject it.

7. The nearness of the consequence.-1. "Put away the strange gods which are among you;" v. 23. He who makes this covenant with God should immediately break off from every evil design, companion, word, and work. Joshua established two witnesses of the people's engaging in this covenant-1. Joshua caused

an account of it to be written in the book of the law; v. 26. 2. He erected a stone under an oak; v. 27. Joshua designed that these two things should be witnesses against them if they violated the covenant into which they had then entered.

Death is at the door. Eternity is at hand. Repentance towards God; faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ-these are the doctrines which our blessed Lord has commanded to be preached. Repent; believe; and thus prepare to meet thy God in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment.

(11.) Chapter xxiv.-The last six verses in this chapter were, doubtless, not written by Joshua, for no man can give an account of his own death and burial. Eleazar, Phinehas, or Samuel, might have added them, to bring down the narrative so as to connect it with their own times, and thus preserve the thread of the history unbroken.

This is a common case. Many men write histories of their own lives which, in the last circumstances, are finished by others; and who has ever thought of impeaching the authenticity of the preceding part, because the subsequent part was the work of a different hand?

Hirtius's supplement has never invalidated the authenticity of the Commentaries of Casar, nor the work of Quintus Smyrnæus that of the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, nor the 13th book of the Eneid by Mapheus Viggius, the authenticity and genuineness of the preceding twelve, which have always been esteemed the genuine work of Virgil.

We should be thankful that an adequate and faithful hand has supplied those circumstances which the original author could not write, and without which the work would have been incomplete.-See Dr. A. Clarke.

(12.) Joshua x. 11.- "And it came to pass, as they fled before Israel, and were in the going down to Beth-horon, that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azēkah, and they died; they were more who died by hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword."

M. Izarn, a foreign chemist, exhibits a variety of facts of the fall from the clouds of stones, called, in philosophic language, aro-liths-air-stones. He constructed the following list, shewing the places and times in which these substances fell, and the testimony by which these facts are supported. As it is possible that God might have projected a shower of stones on these idolators, even from the moon, so as to arrest that planet in her course, Dr. A. Clarke gives the table, and leaves the reader to decide for aroliths or hailstones, as may seem to him most congruous to the fact here related.

It may be necessary to form a decided opinion upon

the mode of interpreting this shower of hailstones or of æroliths. In this, and in all similar records in in God's word, the believer receives the statement as true, regards it as a providential interposition, and feels that he is not called on by the great author of the miracle to account for it.

B.C. 1729, or 1728, Joseph, being seventeen years of age, was feeding the flock with his brethren. The sons of Bilhah (Dan and Napthali), and the sons of Zilpah (Gad and Asher) were with Joseph. Bilhah was Rachel's handmaid. Zilpah was Leah's handmaid. Joseph brought to his father their evil report. Jacob loved Joseph more than he loved all his children. He made for Joseph a coat of many colours. His brethren hated Joseph because Jacob so loved him. They could not speak peaceably to him. Joseph dreamed. He told the dream to his brethren-1. Their sheaves made obeisance to his sheaf. His brethren hated him the more. Joseph dreamed again, and told his dream to his brethren. 2. The sun, and the moon, and the eleven stars, made obeisance to me. father rebuked him, asking: "Shall I, and thy mother, and thy brethren indeed come to bow down "ourselves to thee to the earth ?" His brethren envied him. His father observed the saying. Envy led to the act which caused twenty years of sorrow to Jacob, and which stained with sin and shame the guilty brethren of Joseph.

His

1. In obedience to his father's command, Joseph left the vale of Hebron, his home, destined to see it no more. He must visit his brethren at Shechem. A man directed Joseph. His brethren were to be found at Dothan. They had departed from Shechem. His brethren saw him afar off. They conspired to slay him, and say that some evil beast had devoured him. "We shall see what will become of his dreams." Reuben heard them, and prevented them from slaying Joseph. They seized Joseph when he came to them; they took off his coat of many colours; and then they cast him into a pit, in which there was no water. Ishmaelites were on their way from Gilead to Egypt, with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh. Judah prevailed upon his brethren not to slay, but to sell Joseph. The Ishmaelites were followed by Midianites, proceeding to Egypt to sell what they had collected at Mount Gilead. A trade was opened for the cultivators of the mountain of Gilead by the industry of the Ishmaelites and Midianites. His brethren drew up Joseph from the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. If these pieces were shekels-the shekel being worth three shillings-the twenty pieces of silver would be equal to sixty shillings, or three pounds of our money. Reuben was absent. Benjamin was too young to be absent from home. Nine brethren divided the money between them. Each would have two shekels, and a share of the balance, which amounted to two shekels over the eighteen; the share would be eightpence of our money; so that each of the nine brethren received six shillings and eightpence of our money as the reward of his malicious cruelty. When Reuben returned to the pit Joseph was not there. His brethren gave to him no information. The coat of many colours they stained with the blood of a kid. Reuben was distracted. The coat was brought to

found; know now whether it be thy son's coat or not." Jacob rent his clothes, put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days. All Jacob's sons and daughters (granddaughters) endeavoured to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted: for he said-"I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning." Thus his father wept for him.

2. The thirty-eighth chapter of the book of Genesis contains a very shocking account of Judah, of his wife, the daughter of Shuah, an Adullamite, and of his three sons by her, Er, Onan, and Shelah. Er married Tamar by his father's wish. The Lord slew Er. Onan was then obliged to marry Tamar. Onan was wicked, and the Lord slew him. Shelah was not grown up. Judah directed Tamar to return to her father's house till Shelah was grown up. She obeyed Judah. In process of time Judah's wife, the daughter of Shuah, died. Judah was comforted, and went up to his sheep shearers to Timnath:-He and his friend Hirah, the Adullamite (Adullam, a city of Canaan, afterwards given to the descendants of Judah.) It was told to Tamar that her father-inlaw was going to Timnath to a sheep shearing. Shelah was grown. She was still a widow. She put off her widow's garments and disguised herself, sitting in an open place by the way to Timnath. Judah saw her. He could not discover who she was, for her face was covered. He lay with her. She prevailed on him to give to her a pledge that he would send to her a kid from the flock. His signet, his bracelets, and his staff were the pledge which she received. She conceived by Judah. She put on her widow's garments when Judah retired. The Adullamite returned with a kid. Tamar had secured her retreat. Three months afterwards Judah was informed that his daughter-in-law, Tamar, had played the harlot, and was with child. Judah commanded"Bring her forth, and let her be burned." She was brought forth. She produced the signet, the bracelets, and the staff. She called on Judah to discern these articles, for she was with child by the man who owned them. Judah acknowledged them. declared-"She hath been more righteous than I, because that I gave her not to Shelah, my son." Judah "knew her again no more." She was delivered of twins. She called the first Pharez, and the second she called Zarah, because he should have appeared first. Pharez was so called because he broke out first. Judah, Tamar, Pharez, and Zarah were progenitors of the Messiah. Therefore their birth must be recorded. Ancient customs are related. A knowledge of the habits of the age may be acquired from the circumstances recorded in this.-Genesis xxxviii.

He

3. Joseph in Egypt.-" And the Midianites sold him (Joseph) into Egypt, unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, and captain of the guard."

(1.) As a slave in the house of Potiphar, Joseph conducted himself with wisdom in the discharge of the duties of his office. God gave to him prosperity. His master perceived that whatever Joseph did was attended with prosperity. He,

the image of the Ephesian Diana, wore stones which really fell from the atmosphere, having some rude resemblance to the human form. [Aeroliths, ab αηρ and λιθοσ—air stones.]

4.

(14.) The character of Joshua.-1. There is no account of Joshua's marriage. 2. There is a statement that he was a godly man. God appointed him to be the successor of Moses. 3. Like to his predecessor he did not covet for himself or for his family connections any inheritance in the land of Canaan. He was qualified to be the shepherd of the people, because the spirit of God was in him.-Num. xxvii. 17. He is called the servant of God, as was Moses. He was next to Moses. 5. His wisdom and his military skill were, under God, the means of saving the people committed to his care. 6. His countrymen gave to him an inheritance among them.-xix. 50. They gave to him Timnath-Serah, in the barren mountains of Ephraim. Even this, he asked: "According to the word of the Lord," they gave to him the city which he asked.-xix. 50. In the region of the source of the Jordan, the tribe of Dan took Leshem, dwelt there, and called Leshem Dan, after the name of their father, Dan.-xix. 47. Every tribe took care of its own interests in the division of the land; but all the tribes manifested no gratitude to the man whose life had been devoted to their service. The tribe of Dan did not take Leshem before the death of Joshua. The introduction of the matter into tho text must be considered to have arisen from the mistake of a transcriber, who made a note on the margin a portion of the text in his copy. 7. Joshua, 7. Joshua, in his life, exhibited the character of a true patriot. He served an ungrateful country, and never reproached them for their ingratitude.

Church. "The Greek word, ekkλŋσia, signifies an assembly, whether common or religious. It is taken (1) for the place where an assembly is held; and (2) for the persons assembled. In the New Testament it generally denotes a congregation of believers.

"By the church is sometimes meant the faithful, who have preserved the true religion from the beginning, and will preserve it.

"The history of the church is narrated by Moses, from the beginning to his time.

"From Moses to Christ we have the sacred writings of the Hebrews.

"Moses is our guide from Shem to Abraham, but he does not inform us whether the true religion were preserved by the descendants of Ham and Japheth, nor how long it subsisted among them.

--

"We see that Abraham's ancestors worshipped idols in Chaldea. (Josh. xxiv. 2). On the other hand we know that the fear of the Lord was not entirely banished out of Palestine and Egypt when Abraham came thither; for the king of Egypt feared God, (Gen. xii. 17; xx. 3.), and had great abhorrence of sin.

"Abraham imagined that there were at least ten or twenty righteous persons in Sodom (Gen. xviii. 23, 24, 25); and it is probable that the sons of Abraham, by Hagar and Keturah, preserved for

some time the faith which they had received from their father.

"Job, who was of Esau's posterity, and his friends knew the Lord; and the Amorites and the Moabites, who descended from Lot, did not probably fall immediately into idolatry.

"The Ishmaelites, sons of Hagar and Abraham, value themselves on having always adhered to the worship of the true God, and of having extended the knowledge of the true God in Arabia, as Isaac did in Palestine. But we are certain that, in the time of Mahomet, and long before, they had forsaken the true faith."-Calmet.

CHAPTER III.

I. The effect of the Mosaic institute.-(a.) The people respected the law of Moses, or the Mosaic institute, during the lives of those who had witnessed the wonders wrought by Moses, as God's agent, both in their deliverance from Egyptian bondage at Sinai, and in the desert, and in the plains of Moab. The memory of Joshua had a similar influence upon those who witnessed the successful conquest of Canaan, and who had served under that famous leader of the people of God. They fell away from their observance of the law of Moses after the death of those who remembered Moses and Joshua. The idolatry of the heathen had its fascinations. They adopted the ritual of the heathen. God gave them into the hands of their enemies. They repented. They prayed for mercy. The Lord heard. The Lord forgave. Extraordinary men were raised up by the providence of God. These men became, in a secular or worldy sense, the saviours of the children of Israel. These men were called Judges.

(b.) The same love for idolatry manifested itself in the kings of Israel and of Judah. Prophets were appointed by God to warn the people of approaching visitations of the Almighty as punishments for their sins. These men warned, rebuked, reproved, and exhorted and entreated the people to repent and seek the mercy of God. The sins of the people under their kings were the sins of idolatry. After the division of the kingdom the ten tribes were punished for their idolatry. They were led into captivity by Shalmanezer, king of Assyria. The united tribes of Judah and of Benjamin were, one hundred and thirty years after Israel's captivity, carried captive into Babylon. These kings of Israel and of Judah failed to save the people from the sins of idolatry and from the punishment which God had declared that He would send upon them if they were guilty of idolatry.

(c.) The return from the Babylonish captivity placed the people of Israel in circumstances very different from the circumstances in which they and their forefathers had existed before the captivity. They now had synagogues. Moses and the prophets were read every Sabbath day. This form of religious service existed in whatever country the children of Israel were residing. The word of the Lord was

powerful to save the people of Israel from idolatry. The Mosaic institute failed to save God's people, the children of Israel, from idolatry. The wisdom of God proved that human reason failed to save men from idolatry amongst the nations who had no knowledge of His laws. The word of God, under the Mosaic dispensation, was the saving power.

(d.) The worldly-minded mistake the meaning of God's words. The Jews knew not the scripture nor the power of God, though Moses and the Prophets were read in their synagogues every Sabbath day. They hoped for a worldly Messiah and for the glory of a worldly kingdom. They rejected Jesus of Nazareth, and crucified" the Lord of life and of glory." In the early and advanced part of their history the love of idolatry was their ruin. In the latter part of their history infidelity to christianity has left them desolate, without the land of Canaan, without a kingdom, without the temple of Jerusalem, a byeword among the nations, and a most powerful evidence of revealed religion, as they show to all the nations of the earth the fulfilment of the predictions of Moses and of the Prophets, and of our blessed Lord, in their own distinct existence.

II. The Lawgivers of Greece.—(a.) Draco, a celebrated lawgiver of Athens. When he exercised the office of archon (chief magistrate) he made a code of laws, B.C. 623, for the use of the citizens. These laws were so severe that they were said to be written in blood. Draco was asked why he was so severe in his punishments? He replied that he punished idleness by death, and that he inflicted no heavier punishment for greater crimes. Solon totally abolished the laws of Draco, retaining the law which punished murder by death. The popularity of Draco was very great. He appeared in the theatre. The people expressed their veneration by their usual practice towards those whom they wished to honour. They threw garments upon him. Draco was smothered.

(b.) Solon, one of the seven wise men of Greece. He was born at Salamis (Cyprus), and educated at Athens. He studied moral and political philosophy. He travelled over the greater part of Greece. He was chosen archon at Athens, and refused the dangerous office of king. He reformed the system of laws at Athens. He visited Egypt. He visited Asia. In the court of Croesus, king of Lydia, he warned that monarch of the instability of fortune. When he returned to Athens he was mortified by finding that Pisistratus had caused dissensions, and that his own (Solon's) laws were neglected. He retired to Cyprus, and died at the court of the king of Cyprus, in the eightieth year of his age; B.C. 558. (c). Lycurgus, a celebrated lawgiver of Sparta. His brother, Polydectes, died, leaving his widow with child. She wished Lycurgus to marry her, promising to destroy the child, that he (Lycurgus) might hold the throne without any disturbance. Lycurgus refused. He kept the government and acted as guardian to his nephew Charilaus. His integrity during this period of his life raised enemies against him. He travelled like to a philosopher through Asia and Egypt, and did

not suffer himself to be corrupted by the licentiousness and luxury which prevailed there.

His absence from Sparta caused disorder in the government. His countrymen entreated his return. He accepted their invitation. To reform the government was a task imposed upon him by the state of Sparta, or by the confusion in which the affairs of Sparta were involved.

He felt his need of divine influence. He sought it in the only way known to him. He repaired to the oracle of Delphi, a town of Phocis, called also Pytho, because the serpent Pytho was killed there by Apollo, and rotted there (v0eσ0αιтv0w, putrefaciocalled Pytho, because the serpent rotted there.) The temple in honour of Apollo had a priestess who was called the Pythoness. She received Lycurgus with every mark of honour. mark of honour. His intentions of reforming the government of Sparta were warmly approved by the divinity. He was called the friend of the gods. He was himself called rather god than man.

No

He found difficulty in effecting the reformation which he designed. This took place, B.C. 884. All distinctions amongst the citizens, all luxury, were banished; all dined at one common table. gold or silver money could be in use. Heavy brass and iron coin afforded no temptation to dishonesty. The citizens must have no intercourse with other nations. They were forbidden to travel. Lycurgus was happy in the success of his laws. The face of Spartan society was changed. His laws called into existence men remarkable for their intrepidity, their fortitude, and their magnanimity.

Lycurgus retired from Sparta to Delphi, or, according to others, to Crete. Before his departure he bound all the citizens of Lacedemon by a solemn oath, that neither they nor their posterity would alter, violate, or abate the laws which he had established, until he returned.

He soon after put himself to death. He ordered his ashes to be thrown into the sea. Thus the Lacedemonians could not bring his ashes to Sparta, and consider themselves freed from their oath to keep his laws. The laws of Lycurgus remained in full force in Sparta for seven hundred years. The laws were productive of great and glorious results in the history of Sparta. Nevertheless some exceptions are taken against them on account of their overstrained severity. The law which forced mothers to destroy their weak or deformed offspring may be given as a specimen.

(d.) Justitian I., Emperor of Constantinople, the seat of the emperors of the eastern division of the Roman Empire. Justinian was the son of a farmer. His mother was the sister of Justin, who, from being a private soldier, had become emperor. His nephew Justinian succeeded Justin. Justinian, when he came to the throne, was in the forty-fifth year of his age. He died in the eighty-third year of his age, B.C. 565. In his reign Belisarius, and the eunuch Narses, his generals, obtained splendid successes over the Persians in the east, and over the Vandals and Goths in Italy, and in the terrible sedition which broke out at

Constantinople, A.D. 532, and was extinguished in the blood of thirty thousand persons. His uncle persuaded him to marry Theodora, a notorious actress and courtesan. Belisarius married Antonina, a professional companion of Theodora. In the sedition of Constantinople, Justinian would have fled from the city, and have lost his crown, if the daring heroism of Theodora had not interfered to alter his intention, and to advise successfully the means of suppressing the sedition.

The glory of Justinian's reign is the famous digest of the Roman law, known generally as the Justinian digest, or the Pandects of Justinian, compiled out of Gregorian, Theodorian, and Hermogenian codes, by ten of the ablest lawyers of the empire, under the guiding genius of the jurisconsult Trebonian. 1. "The Statute Law." 2. "The Pandects." 3. "The Institutes." 4. "The New Code." These four divisions complete this great work. It is a monument of human wisdom, exercised in various ages and in various countries for the regulation of the affairs of men, as members of a state, as citizens, as members of society, as members of families, and as under the influence of some religious belief, and as bound by that belief to render divine honours to the Deity whom they professed to worship.

1. The conduct of the Israelites after the death of Joshua. (a.) Joshua had left no successor. The children of Israel had inquired of the Lord by Phiněhas the high priest. He communicated to them the Divine counsels. The answer was: "Judah shall go up." Simeon joined Judah, who had invited him, up with me into my lot that we may fight against the Canaanites." They were successful. The Canaanites and Perizzites were delivered into their hands. "They slew of them in Bezek ten thousand men."

66 come

They found (surprised or took by attack and surprise) Adoni-Bezek (the lord of Bezek). He fled. He was overtaken. They caught him and cut off his thumbs and his great toes. Adoni-Bezek said: "Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table; as I have done, so God hath requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died." Judah took Jerusalem and set the city on fire. (b.) Judah fought against the Canaanites, who dwelt in Hebron, (Kirjath-Arba) and slew: 1, Shehai; 2, Ahiman; and 3, Talmai. They went against Debir (Kirjath-Sepher). Caleb promised to give Achsah, his daughter, as wife, to the man who took Debir, or Kirjath-Sepher. His nephew, Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, won the prize. Achsah obtained from her father Caleb "the upper springs and the nether springs."

(c.) Numbers xxi. 1-3.-Hormah is mentioned. This may have been the name of a town on the western side of the Jordan, taken by Othniel, and "the name of a place" on the eastern side of the Jordan. Judah and Simeon slew the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. The name of this city was Hormah: 1, Gaza; 2, Askelon; and 3, Hormah: and their coasts were sub

dued and taken by Othniel. The Lord was with Judah. He drove out the inhabitants of the mountains. He could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley because they had chariots of iron: Caleb had Hebron. Benjamin failed to drive out the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem. And the house of Joseph were sent to destroy Bethel, originally Luz. Spies were employed. A man shewed to them the entrance into the city. They smote the city with the edge of the sword, and allowed the man and his family to escape. The man went into the land of the Hittites, and built a city called Luz. The countries and their towns-called: 1, Bethshean; 2, Taanach; 3, Dor; 4, Ibleam; and 5, Megiddo-were not subdued and driven out by Manasseh. The Canaanites would dwell in the land. When Israel was strong, he put the Canaanites to tribute. He did not utterly drive them out. Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites in Gezer. They mingled with or dwelt among the inhabitants. Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, nor the inhabitants of Nahalol. The Canaanites were tributaries. They dwelt together. The inhabitants of-(1) Accho, (2) Zidon, (3) Ahlab, (4) Achzib, (5) Helbah, (6) Aphik, and (7) Rehob, dwelt among the Israelites, and were not driven out by them. They became tributaries. Naphtali failed to drive out the inhabitants of (1) Bethshemesh and (2) Bethanath, though these inhabitants became tributaries to Naphtali. Dan was forced into the mountains by the Amorites, who would not suffer him to come down into the valley. The Amorites maintained their dwelling in Mount Heres in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim. Yet, they became tributaries; for the head of the house of Joseph prevailed. The coast of the Amorites was from the going up to Akrabbim, from the rock and upward. The first chapter of the book of Judges may have been designed as a supplement to the book of Joshua. The character of the Israelites is the same, unstable, they obtain no permanent advantages. May God grant unto all his people wisdom from above "to enable them to walk worthy of their high calling of God in Christ Jesus."-Philip. iii. 14.

(d.) "The angel of the Lord," or Phinehas, the high priest, a prophet, was commissioned by God to come up from Gilgal to Bōchim, and upbraid the children of Israel on account of their failure in the discharge of the duties which God had commanded them to perform. "The inhabitants whom they had failed to drive out shall be thorns in your sides: and their gods shall be a snare unto you." When the Lord spake thus, the people lifted up their voice and wept.

The first chapter of the book of Judges contains a summary of certain things which happened shortly after the death of Joshua, during the lifetime of the elders who were contemporary with Joshua, who survived Joshua, and whilst the people were faithful to the Lord. "The Lord said to the people: "I will never break my covenant with you.' "Let God be true, though every man be a liar."-Rom. iii. 4;

John iii. 33.