it rested the observance of the letter on the good foundation of inward devotion to God.  The summary which our Saviour gave of the Mosaic law, and in it of all religion, he expressed in the very words of the law:  “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength,” Deut. 6:4, 5; “this is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”  Lev. 19:18.  Nor is this love towards our neighbor restricted to a narrow circle; for it is said of the stranger also sojourning in Israel, “Thou shalt love him as thyself.”  Lev. 19:34.

6.  Of one usage which the Mosaic law tolerated, our Saviour himself gives the true explanation when he says:  “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives; but from the beginning it was not so.”  Matt. 19:8.  This general principle applies also to polygamy and the modified form of servitude which prevailed among the Hebrew people.  That the Mosaic economy suffered, for the time being, certain usages not good in themselves, is no valid objection to it, but rather a proof of the divine wisdom of its author.  Though it was his purpose to root out of human society every organic evil, he would not attempt it by premature legislation, any more than he would send his Son into the world until the way was prepared for his advent.

7.  The extirpation of the Canaanitish nations by the sword of the Israelites was contemplated by the Mosaic economy.  The names of these nations were carefully specified, and they were peremptorily forbidden to molest other nations; as, for example, the Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites.  Deut. 2:4, 5, 8, 9, 18, 19.  The whole transaction is to be regarded as a sovereign act of Jehovah, which had in view the manifestation of his infinite perfections for the advancement of the cause of truth and righteousness in this fallen world.  Though we may not presume to fathom all the divine counsels, we can yet see how God, by the manner in which he gave Israel possession of the promised land, displayed his awful holiness, his almighty power, and his absolute supremacy over the nations of the earth, not only to the covenant people, but also to the surrounding heathen world.  Had the Canaanites perished by famine, pestilence, earthquake, or fire from heaven, it might have remained doubtful to the heathen by whose anger their destruction had been effected, that of the Canaanitish gods, or of the God of Israel.  But now that God went forth with his people, dividing the Jordan before them, overthrowing the walls of Jericho, arresting the sun and the moon in their course, and raining down upon their enemies great hailstones from heaven, it was manifest to all that the God of Israel was the supreme Lord of heaven and earth, and that the gods of the gentile nations were vanity.  This was one of the great lessons which the Theocracy was destined to teach the human family.  At the same time the Israelites, who executed God’s vengeance on the Canaanites, were carefully instructed that it was for their sins that the land spewed out its inhabitants, and that if they imitated them in their abominations, they should in like manner perish.