eir
hankerings for a country where they had been more oppressed than Spartan
Helots, idolatrous, and superstitious. They murmur for flesh to eat;
they make golden calves to worship; they seek a new leader when Moses is
longer on the Mount than they expect. When any new danger threatens they
lay the blame on Moses; they even foolishly regret that they had not
died in Egypt.

Obviously such a people were not fit for freedom, or even for the
conquest of the promised land. They were as timid and cowardly as they
were rebellious. Even the picked men sent out to explore Canaan, with
the exception of Caleb and Joshua, reported nations of giants impossible
to subdue. A new generation must arise, disciplined by forty years'
experience, made hardy and strong by exposure and suffering. Yet what
nation, in the world's history, ever improved so much in forty years?
What ruler ever did so much for a people in a single reign? This abject
race of slaves in forty years was transformed into a nation of valiant
warriors, made subject to law and familiar with the fundamental
principles of civilization. What a marvellous change, effected by the
genius and wisdom of one man, in communion with Almighty power!

But the distinguishing labor of Moses during these forty years, by which
he linked his name with all subsequent ages, and became the greatest
benefactor of mind the world has seen until Christ, was his system of
Jurisprudence. It is this which especially demands our notice, and hence
will form the main subject of this lecture.

In reviewing the Mosaic legislation, we notice both those ordinances
which are based on immutable truth for the rule of all nations to the
end of time, and those prescribed for the peculiar situation and
exigencies of the Jews as a theocratic state, isolated from
other nations.

The moral code of Moses, by far the most important and universally
accepted, rests on the fundamental principles of theology and morality.
How lofty, how impressive, how solemn this code! How it appeals at once
to the consciousness of all minds in every age and nation, producing
convictions that no sophistry can weaken, binding the conscience with
irresistible and terrific bonds,--those immortal Ten Commandments,
engraven on the two tables of stone, and preserved in the holy and
innermost sanctuary of the Jews, yet reappearing in all their
literature, accepted and reaffirmed by Christ, entering into the
religious system of every nati