of progress in the revelations of God to men. We may think here not so much of the external surroundingsthe bringing into service of all the grandest agencies of nature to impress men with reverence and fear and awe, and so to plant the more deeply in their souls the idea of law as emanating unmistakably from the Infinite One; but we may consider the great fact itself of a revealed law. It is surely a point in the progress of God's revelations of himself second to nothing that has gone before-second to nothing in all the ages save the greater mission of his Son for the purposes of redemption. God revealing to man a rule of duty; expressing it in terms at once so simple and so comprehensive; including the duties we owe to God on the one hand and to fellow-beings on the other; putting it on permanent record; accompanying it with demonstrations of majesty and glory, endorsing it so surely and so sublimely; adjusting it so nicely in harmony with the intelligent convictions of rational minds, and so commending it to every man's conscience as intrinsically and eternally right:-truly the promulgation of such a law through such agencies is surpassingly grand and glorious; and, in the line of our present thought, is one of the great epochs in the march of God's revelations of himself to mortals. We pause before it to take in the value of this revealed law; the new relations into which the race are brought thereby toward their Great Father; and the bearings of this law upon the whole plan of God's moral administration toward our fallen race.

CHAPTER XVI,

THE HEBREW THEOCRACY.

NATURALLY following the national covenant (Ex. 19) and the giving of the law from Sinai (Ex. 20) and preliminary to the civil code-"the statutes and judgments" -comes in the Theocracy-a term used to designate the system of government established for the Hebrew people.

Here we may consider briefly the following points: I. The Supreme Power.

II. The powers of Jehovah's vicegerents-his chief executive officers.

III. The general assembly or congregation, and their elders.

IV. The scope afforded for self-government-democ

racy.

V. The fundamental principles of this entire system. VI. Its union of church and state.

VII. Its principles and usages in respect to war, with a notice of the war-commission against the doomed Canaanites.

I. The Supreme Power.

God himself was king. In every respect the supreme power was his. Precisely this is the sense of the term "theocracy"- a government of God.

This comprehensive fact appears in the following particulars:

1. God demanded supreme homage as their king (Ex. 19: 6 and Deut. 6: 4-15, and 7: 6-11, and 10: 12-21, and 33: 4, 5 and 1 Sam. 8: 6-8, and 10: 18, 19 and Judg. 8:23).

2. God enacted the statutes. He was the Supreme Lawgiver. We sometimes speak of the "Mosaic code," of the "statutes of Moses," meaning by these phrases only that the statutes came from God to the people by the hand of Moses; never that Moses was himself the

author of these statutes-the true legislator. (See Ex. 21: 1 and Deut. 6:1).

3. God nominated the chief executive. He called Moses (Ex. 3: 10, 12, and 4: 16 and 1 Cor. 10: 2); and Joshua (Num. 27: 18-23 and Deut. 3: 28, and 31: 3 and Josh. 1: and 5: 13-15). The same was true of the Judges, raised up for special emergencies (Judg. 2: 16, 18, and 3: 9, 15, and 4: 6, and 6: 12, etc., etc.) God called the kings-Saul (1 Sam. 9: 17, and 10: 1); also David (1 Sam. 13: 14, and 16: 1 and 2 Sam. 5: 2 and Ps. 78: 70, 71); and to name no more, Solomon (1 Chron. 28: 5).

4. In all cases not otherwise provided for, the ultimate appeal was to God. In point we have (Num. 16 and 17) a case of resistance to the authority of Moses— incipient rebellion. God interposed with his supreme authority. We have a case in civil law, not reached by the statutes, viz. the entailment of real estate in a family of daughters only. Moses brought it before the Lord for adjudication (Num. 27: 5). A special provision respecting the marriage of daughters holding property in land became necessary: this new law was sought from God (Num. 36: 6).——A criminal case occurred in which the law was not explicit; "it was not declared what should be done" with the criminal (Num. 15: 32-36). The Lord gave them the law for the case. -In the case of Achan (Josh. 7) the Lord interposed, not so much because there was no law for its decision as because the sin was flagrant and the demand for exemplary punishment was very great.

-In cases which would appropriately require the calling of a Supreme Council, the people sought direction from God. (See Judg. 1: 1, and 20: 18, 27, 28 and 1 Sam. 14: 37, and 23: 2, 4, 9-12, and 28: 6, and 30: 8 and 2 Sam. 2: 1). God made provision through the prophets for a direct revelation of his will to the people in special cases not otherwise provided for (Deut. 18:18).

5. In later times the demand of the people for a human king seemed to be constructive treason. It might be so understood, and therefore the Lord reasserted his prerogative, although he yielded to their demands (1 Sam. 8: 6-9, and 10: 17-25).

6. It scarcely need be said that God bound himself by promise to reward the people with all national prosper

ity if obedient, and by threatening, to punish them with national calamity for disobedience. These points are expanded fully Lev. 26: and Deut. chapters 27-30.

-That God inflicted these threatened punishments early in their nation's history may be seen Num. 11: 33, and 16: 1–50.

Thus it appears that in every appropriate way and in numerous vital respects God manifested his supreme authority over his people Israel.

II. The powers of Jehovah's vicegerent.

Of this we have illustrations in the cases of Moses, Joshua, the Judges, and the kings. These cases show that they were precisely the Lord's prime ministers, commissioned to execute his will. If a law touching the case existed and its application was clear, they simply adjudicated the case and put the law in force. If no statute touching the case was extant, they sought one. If the application of the law baffled their wisdom, they sought counsel from God. Hence the Scriptures speak of these prime ministers as the Lord's "servants," to serve him in this high capacity. (See Num. 12: 7 and Heb. 3: 2, 5 and Josh. 1: 1, 2, and 5: 13-15 and 2 Sam. 7: 8, etc.)

Of the officers holding under the chief executive there is no occasion to speak in great detail. The system of subordinate judges-lower courts-has come to view in the history of Jethro (Ex. 18). In Canaan they held their courts in the gates of large cities, and (for certain criminal cases) in the cities of refuge which were cities of the Levites-from which tribe judges seem largely to have been drawn.

The "elders "-" heads of the house of their fathers" held important responsibilities-a fact due largely to the influence of the patriarchal system which had come down from the earliest times, the usages of which, therefore, had essentially the force of common law in Israel. It was in great measure due to them that after the death of Joshua the processes of government went on without any chief executive, with no king, and with no Supreme Judge except as the High Priest may have performed that function.

III. The General Assembly or Congregation, and the Elders.

We read of great conventions, congregations, assemblies, in which it is not definitely said that all the people were there; and also of convocations in which

all the people" were present. In some at least of the cases of the latter sort, the elders seem to have acted distinctly from the masses of the people, being the media of communication (as the case may be) between the Lord or his servant Moses of the one party and the people at large of the other. Thus shortly before the giving of the law from Sinai when God ratified a national covenant with the people, we read-" Moses called for the elders of the people and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. And all the people answered together and said-All that the Lord hath spoken we will do" (Ex. 19: 7, 8). Moses spake to the people through their elders. It was naturally impossible that any one human voice could be heard by six hundred thousand men. -So in 1 Sam. 8: 4-10 "the elders gathered together and said to Samuel, Make us a king," "and the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people." "And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a king." These elders-chiefs of the peopleseem to have been a well-defined class. Note how they are designated (Num. 1: 16); "These are the renowned [Heb. the called ones] of the congregation, princes of the tribes of their fathers, heads of thousands in Israel.” Also Num. 16: 2: "Two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation" [Heb. the called ones of the congregation, i. e. the men summoned to represent their constituents], "men of renown." The question will arise whether these called men, the recognized heads and representatives of the people, held specially delegated powers; whether they were appointed for an occasion and were instructed by the people or whether they held the headship, this representative power, by virtue of the ancient usages of the patriarchal system. The latter is the true view, for the patriarchal system had the prestige of common law; and we find not the least hint of any election of these "heads of the house of their fathers" for any special