years, then he shall go out in the year of jubile, both he, and his children with

him.

For unto me the children of Israel

are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD the LORD your God.

the Sabbath year.

Answer-Every seventh year the land was to be left uncultivated, and vineyards unattended to. What the ground produced of its own accord was to be given to the poor. The Lord, however, promised so to bless the sixth year, that it should yield food enough for three years. In that year no debts could be collected. This command was intended to be observed by the Israelites when they had settled in Canaan, and could not generally apply to the time when they were in the wilderness.

Q.-What was the meaning of the Jubile?

from a word meaning the sound of music, or blast of trumpets. It is derived from the same word as Jubal, mentioned in the book of Genesis as the inventor of music. The day when the feast commenced was to be announced by the sound of trumpets throughout the land. It was held every fiftieth year, and was a time of restoration, when persons and families were to be replaced, as far as possible, in the position they held fifty years before. All Israelitish servants were to be set

free, the poor were to be relieved, and no interest or "usury "taken for money lent. It is called "the acceptable year of the Lord," and was to be made a special occasion for remembering the Lord their God, which brought them out of the land of Egypt.

E shall make you no idols nor

YE

graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the LORD your God.

Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.

If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield her fruit. And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.

And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.

And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the

sword. And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.

For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you. And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new.

And

I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.

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.

But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; and if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant: I also will do this unto you;

I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.

And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: and your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits.

And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate.

And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; then wili I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins. And I will bring a sword before you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat and not be satisfied.

And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me, then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.

And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.

And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.

And I will bring the land into desolation and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. And I will scatter you among the heathen, and I will draw out a sword after you : and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.

Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies' land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.

And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth. And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies.

And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.

If they shall confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; and that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity then will I remember my

:

covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham, will I remember; and I will remember the land.

The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.

And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not

cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God. But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.

These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the LORD made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai, by the hand of Moses.

Question.-Were the promises of the Lord fulfilled? Answer. They were; the Jews became a great nation, and while they observed the law of the Lord were victorious over all their enemies. When they forgot Him and became idolatrous, their enemies trampled over them, as we shall see further on.

Q.-Did the Lord promise that if they repented He would shew mercy?

A. Yes, and the promise was repeatedly kept. As with the Israelites, so with us. The mercy of God towards those who repent "endureth for ever."

Q-What are we to understand by the promise, "Your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time ?"

4.-The harvest would be so abundant that the threshing of the corn would not be finished before the work of the vintage would be required; and the vintage would

be so heavy that sowing time would come before it was all gathered.

Q-What did the threat "make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass," signify? A.-These are very striking images of a rainless sky, and a hard soil impenetrable to seed.

Q.-With the threats, the Lord said, "Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths." How are we to understand these words?

A.-They contain a promise exactly fulfilled. From the time of Saul to the Babylonish captivity there was a space of 490 years, or 70 sabbaths of years, and the captivity lasted 70 years, and during that time the land of Israel rested; therefore the land then rested just as many years, while the Israelites were in their "enemies' land," as it should have rested sabbaths, if they had observed the law given them respecting sabbatical years.

Let the redeemed of the Lord

The wonders of His grace record; Israel, the nation which He chose And rescued from their mighty foes.

He feeds and clothes us all the way;
He guides our footsteps, lest we stray;
He guards us with a powerful hand,
And brings us to a heavenly land.

ND the LORD spake unto Moses, in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,

Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls; from twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies. And with you there shall be a man of every tribe; every one head of the house of his fathers.

As the LORD commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai.

These are those that were numbered, which Moses and Aaron numbered, and the princes of Israel, being twelve men: each one was for the house of his fathers. So were all those that were numbered of the children of Israel, by the house of their fathers, from twenty years old and

upward, all that were able to go forth to war in Israel; even all they that were numbered were six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty.

But the Levites after the tribe of their fathers were not numbered among them. For the LORD had spoken unto Moses saying, Only thou shalt not number the tribe of Levi, neither take the sum of them among the children of Israel: but thou shalt appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of testimony, and over all the vessels thereof, and over all things that belong to it: they shall bear the tabernacle, and all the vessels thereof; and they shall minister unto it, and shall encamp round about the tabernacle.

And when the tabernacle setteth forward, the Levites shall take it down: and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.

And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents, every man by his own camp, and every man by his own standard,

throughout their hosts. But the Levites shall pitch round about the tabernacle of testimony, that there be no wrath upon the congregation of the children of Israel: and the Levites shall keep the charge of the tabernacle of testimony.

And the children of Israel did according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so did they.

And the LORD spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying, Let the children of Israel

also keep the passover at his appointed season. In the fourteenth day of this month, at even, ye shall keep it in his appointed season: according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof, shall ye keep it.

And Moses spake unto the children. of Israel, that they should keep the passover. And they kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month at even in the wilderness of Sinai; according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel.

AND on the day that the tabernacle

was reared up the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely, the tent of testimony and at even there was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, until the morning. So it was alway: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night.

And when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel journeyed: and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents.

At the commandment of the LORD the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the LORD they pitched: as long as the cloud abode up

on the tabernacle they rested in their tents. And when the cloud tarried long upon the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept the charge of the LORD, and journeyed not.

And so it was, when the cloud was a few days upon the tabernacle; according to the commandment of the LORD they abode in their tents, and according to the commandment of the LORD they journeyed. And so it was, when the cloud abode from even unto the morning, and that the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they journeyed: whether it was by day or by night that the cloud was taken up, they journeyed.