As the Lord God of Israel had commanded him. These words may be said to constitute the key-note of the whole Law (Exodus 39:42; Leviticus 27:34; Numbers 36:13; Deuteronomy 34:9). Just as Israel should pay heed to this commandment of Jehovah, so it would flourish and rejoice; in proportion as it should depart from these commandments, so it would fail and be distressed. Everything hung on a loyal obedience to the Divine will. There were three forms of obedience then, and there is the same number now. We look at both.

I. THE THREE FORMS OF OBEDIENCE WHICH ISRAEL WAS TO RENDER.

1. Minute conformity to positive precept. Everything, to the smallest particular, was to be "after the pattern" (Exodus 25:9, 40; Numbers 8:4). In the celebration of the sacrifices, the priests were to be studious to follow the exact directions given in the "command-merit of the Lord," and any deviation, though but slight and apparently immaterial in itself, would vitiate everything that was done.

2. Application of broad principles. It was hopeless to anticipate every possible breach of such laws as, "Thou shall not defraud thy neighbour;" "Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself." An interpretation and application of such commandments as these must have been left largely to the individual conscience.

3. Inquiry of the Lord to know his will, and so to do it. This was the case, like that recorded in this chapter, whenever the mind of God was taken by means of the lot (vers. 5, 6). A direct appeal was then made to him for his direction, and, thus gained, it was followed.

II. THE FORMS OF OBEDIENCE TO WHICH OUR LORD IS SUMMONING US. They correspond to the preceding, yet differ ha some respects from them.

1. Christ has left us but few positive enactments. We seldom meet with any minute prescriptions regulating behaviour in our New Testament. Days, forms, and methods of devotion and service are left to our conscience and judgment. But there are some interdictions and requirements which still exist, and which bind us to the obedience of conformity to statute.

2. Christ requires of us that we make constant application of the broad principles he has taught us. He has said to us, "Love me: Follow me: Care for my friends and little ones: Walk in love, in humility, in purity: Do good and communicate," etc.; and he leaves it to those who bear his Name to apply and illustrate these his general commandments, in all the details of their individual, family, Church, national life. The man or the Church that does not try to find out the will of Christ from his life and his words, and to do that will when thus discovered, is "not worthy of him," is no true friend of his (John 15:14).

3. Christ desires us to be continually seeking his will from his own Divine Spirit. He has promised to come to us, to dwell with us and within us, to instruct and inspire us by the communications of the Spirit of God. We are thus to learn his will, and, when thus directed, are to do what is right and pleasing in his sight. So far is the life of Christian obedience from being one that is merely formal and mechanical. In Christ Jesus the statutes are few; the application of heavenly principles is our daily duty; the inquiry of the Lord to know what he would have us do is our high privilege and our abiding obligation. - C.

I. THE OBJECT OF MUSIC. "To praise therewith" well expresses the attitude of the Bible towards music. Plutarch says: "The chiefest and sublimest end of music is the graceful return of our thanks to the gods." In these words the wisdom of the Bible representation is vindicated. A worthy conception of God is the only thing which can give the true inspiration of music, and keep it pure and noble through all its strains. Thus music and religion ought never to be divorced.

II. SOME OF THE FEATURES OF THE REVELATION OF GOD WHICH THE BIBLE GIVES, AND SEE HOW THEY AGREE WITH THE BEST FEATURES OF MUSICAL LIFE AND GROWTH.

1. The Bible reveals God to man, and man to himself; it opens up depths of meaning which ordinary life cannot sound; it calls man the son of God; it bases itself upon the love of God, which passeth knowledge; it speaks of things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive. If we allow music any rights of its own, they must be based upon its claim to give expression which is beyond the power of words, and to utter conceptions which thought cannot formulate. It has the power to take them out of the surroundings even of the deepest thoughts, to lift their aspirations where nothing else can go, to carry them into the presence of a power of harmony and order more fundamental than the skill of the hand or the logic of the mind can represent.

2. Then there is the universality of religion. It is meant for all men: there are all grades and kinds of reception of it. The gospel of Christ is for all men; it has truths for the simple, and doctrines for the wise; it meets all nations of men, each according to its nature and its needs. So music in one way or another affects the simplest and the most cultured, appeals to the joyful and to the sorrowing, defies lines of nationality and of language, and is appropriated by all according to the needs of each.

3. The object of religion is harmony — harmony between heaven and earth, between man and man, harmony in the life of the individual, with its varying experiences. The power of man to appreciate harmony finds a response in the growing resources of the musical art; and the yearnings of man for a better existence, where life shall not clash with death, joy with sorrow, and love with hate, finds an answer in a revelation which destroys death, comforts sorrow, and makes love seen everywhere. There could be no better expression for heaven, aa the place where such a revelation finds its completion, than as the place of music.

(Arthur Brooks, D. D.)