---

It is the burden of the Book of Deuteronomy that God chose the seed of Abraham to be a peculiar nation unto Himself above all peoples on the face of the earth. Those two words "people" and "inheritance" are perpetually linked together in the Bible. Jehovah's design is clearly declared in the significant Passage — "They shall show forth My praise." By a long process of careful training it was His intention so to form the people that their history should turn men's thoughts to the glory and beauty of His own nature, and elicit perpetual adoration and praise. On three separate occasions they thwarted Jehovah. They came nigh unto cursing instead of praising. They gave men false conceptions of His character. And on three separate occasions they had to learn the temporary suspension and postponement of His purpose.

1. In the wilderness they murmured against Him, and were sent back to wander in the waste for forty years.

2. After nineteen kings had ruled from David's throne, they were exiled to Babylon for seventy years.

3. Since the rejection of the Beloved Son, they have been driven into all the world to be a by-word and a proverb. For years God's purpose has been under arrest. It shall, no doubt, be ultimately fulfilled. This change of purpose on the part of God has been the opening of the door for us; and the words which were originally addressed to Israel are now applicable to ourselves. By the lips of the apostles Paul and Peter we are told that Jesus gave Himself for us, to redeem us and to purify us unto Himself, a people for His own possession; so that we are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that we may show forth the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvellous light. We are what we are, that we may show forth God's praises; but if we fail to realise His ideal, for us, too, there will be the inevitable postponement of His purpose.

I. THE PURPOSE OF GOD. "That they should show forth My praise." We may promote God's praise by suffering, as much as by active service. in every life there are three regions. That of the light, where duty is clearly defined; that of the dark, where wrong is no less clearly marked; and a great borderland of twilight, where there is no certainty, where dividing lines are not distinct, and where each man must be fully persuaded for himself. It is here, however, that the temper of the soul is tested.

II. THE POSSIBLE THWARTING OF HIS PURPOSE. "Ye shall know the revoking of My promise" (Numbers 14:34, R.V., marg.). There is nothing more terrible in the history of a soul than to frustrate the Divine ideal in its creation and redemption, and to prevent God deriving from us that for which He saved us.

1. Prayerlessness (ver 22). Nothing is a surer gauge of our spiritual state than our prayers.

2. Neglect of little things (ver. 23). The people were probably careful of the larger matters of Jewish ritual, but neglectful of the smaller details. None of us goes wrong at first in the breach of the great obligations of the law.

3. Lack of sweetness. "Thou hast bought Me no sweet cane" (ver, 24). It is possible to do right things from a hard sense of legalism, in which the sweetness and lovableness of true religion are painfully wanting. Many are the instances of this change of purpose. David substituted for Saul; Solomon for Adonijah; the Church for the Hebrew people; Western for Eastern Christianity; the Moravians and Lollards for the established Churches of their time.

III. THE FULFILMENT OF GOD'S PURPOSE THROUGH OUR PAIN. God's purpose cannot be ultimately set aside. So with Israel, and with each of us. But the cost, how enormous!

(F. B. Meyer B. A.)

---

---

KJV: This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.

WEB: the people which I formed for myself, that they might set forth my praise.