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I. "I CALL HEAVEN AND EARTH TO RECORD AGAINST YOU," says Moses. This was no idle rhetorical formula. The open sky over his head was the witness and pledge of permanence, the sign that in the midst of perpetual change there is that which abides. The earth at his feet had been given to man that he might dress it and keep it, and bring food for his race out of it. The one said to man, "Thou art meant to look above thyself. Only in doing so canst thou find endurance, illumination, life." The other said, "Thou art meant to work here. Thou must put forth an energy which is not in me, or I will not yield thee my fruits."

II. But Moses says, "I HAVE SET BEFORE THEE LIFE AND DEATH," etc. There is no hint given to the Israelite upon which he can build a dream of security; he is warned in the most fearful language against forgetting the things his eyes had seen. But all the terrible warnings and prophecies of what he and his descendants may do hereafter imply that he is in a blessed condition, and that they will be.

III. And therefore he goes on, "CHOOSE LIFE." Say deliberately to thyself, "I do not mean to give up the ground on which I am standing. God has placed me on it; all that is contrary to God will not prevail against God, and therefore need not prevail against me." "Choose life" is still the command at all times.

IV. The great reward of choosing life is, "THAT THOU MAYEST LOVE THE LORD THY GOD," etc. The growth of love and knowledge is always proclaimed in Scripture as the reward and prize of a man who walks in the way in which God has set him to walk, who chooses life, and not death.

V. "THAT IT MAY GO WELL WITH THEE AND WITH THY SEED AFTER THEE." The great lesson that the fathers are to teach their children is, that God will be the present and living Guide of each succeeding race as much as He has been of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

(F. D. Maurice, M. A.)

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KJV: See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;

WEB: Behold, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil;