And here is the difficulty of getting it done and.obeyed. All external methods have failed. We say it with reverence, yet truly, that God Himself failed mandment. the Law was given in attempting it by way of com-
to the Chosen People on Sinai, amid thunders and fire and smoke. They trembled as they saw the Mount. The Commandments were given; yet, as we read the history of Israel, we see, that while in advance by ages of all other peoples, they sinned grievously. The thunders of Sinai failed to get the law of God entirely into their hearts. And here came the mission of the Hebrew prophets. If you read them, you see how their endeavour was to get the law of God into the hearts of the' people, as the Lieutenant-Governor expresses it, they tried to "develop a race of people who had Jaw within themselves." That was the work of the great and minor prophets. Here is what Jeremiah says, "I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it.'' He saw thay the only way to get God's will done is for it to have gripped the heart and coniicionce. "Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy." Yes, but men never will keep it unless they have in their hearts a sincere desire ta find God. If they have) not that, they will pre-for a game on the Sabbath. "Thou shalt not covet." But what can that commandment do, if the hearts of men are greedy, if they want their neighbour's business, and if they covet his position. "Thou shalt not steal." But we can steal without getting into court. We can steal our neigh-hour's good name; we steal if we gel¥ things by exaggerated advertisements. The only way to get the law of God done is to have' a clean heart, an honest heart, a stalwart conscience. It looks as if even God's. Jaw and threatonings go only a little way in getting His law obeyed.
And it is the same with human law. Governments can get their laws obeyed up to a point, but not perfectly, as the daily papers give us evidence enough, that it is only up to a point. At times governments have violated men's consciences, and have had to be resisted, reluctantly. But they cannot get their laws—obeyed unless they get them lodged. in the souls within their citizens. That is the trouble over Prohibition. In a large minority of the people of the United States temperance base not got "within them," and there is always trouble when this happens. In Great Britain the laws against gambling cannot be put fully. force, because the lust for getting tawney without working for it is
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.