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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · February 11, 1868

Scripture Notes.

“AS THE STARS IN MULTITUDE.”

Deut. i, 10. The Lord your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude.

As the stars.] i. e. those visible to the naked eye, comp. Gen. xv, 5. Although this is evidently poetic language, and not to be taken literally, yet there have been found objectors silly enough in their ignorance to say this is exaggerated beyond bounds. Let such an objector count all the stars visible to the naked eye (for neither Abraham nor Moses thought of telescopes), and in both hemispheres he will find only about 3,010; whereas the Israelites were 600,000 fighting men. Let him take Herschel’s telescope, which magnifies 35 or 36,000 times, and he may find perhaps 75,000,000 stars, the highest calculation ever made. We meet the objector even on this ground. Matthew, chap. i, says, there were 42 generations of Hebrews between Abraham and Christ. The Israelites (who have never ceased to be a distinct people), numbered 603,000 fighting men, besides women and children, at their second census, now they have so multiplied as far to exceed the number of all the fixed stars taken together. See Clarke.—Jenks.

BORROWED FROM THE JEWS.

Deut. iv, 6. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.

A wise and understanding people.] Almost all the nations of the earth showed that they had this opinion of the Jews, by borrowing from them the principal part of their civil code. Take away what Asia and Europe, ancient or modern, have borrowed of the Mosaic laws, and you leave behind little that can be called excellent.—Clarke.

AN INFIDEL LAWYER’S VIEW OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

Ex. xx, 3. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. &c.

An eminent lawyer, and skeptical unbeliever, being driven by ill health from his professional pursuits, was induced by a friend to read what he had so long argued against. Coming to the ten commandments, the thought occurred to him, Can’t I add something to these, can’t I take something from them, and improve them; can’t I mend them? Being a man of vigorous intellect, and of extensive information, he set himself to examining them one by one, with the same acuteness he had often brought to his business. The further he advanced the more he became absorbed in the subject, till at last the truth burst upon him, that they were, as far as he was capable of judging, sufficient and perfect; no modern wisdom could add to, or subtract from them. Whence had Moses this consummate wisdom? He was convinced it was FROM ON HIGH, and thus summed up their excellency and sufficiency: The 1st commandment directs us to make the Creator the object of our supreme love and reverence, which are due to him and to none other, he being also our Preserver and Supreme Benefactor. The 2d forbids idolatry; the 3d profaneness; and the 4th fixes a time for religious worship. For if there be a God, he ought surely to be worshipped; since it is suitable that an outward homage should express our inward regard: and if worshipped, some time should be assigned, that all may join harmoniously, and without interruption. The 5th commandment defines the peculiar duties arising from the family relations. Injuries to our neighbor are then classified. They are divided into offences against life, chastity, property, and character. Here, in each class, the greatest offence is forbidden. Thus, the greatest injury to life is murder; to chastity, adultery; to property, theft; to character, perjury; and the greater offence must include the less of the same kind,—murder must include every injury to life, adultery every injury to purity, and so of the rest. Then the moral code is closed and perfected, by a command forbidding every improper desire in regard to our neighbor.—Abbot’s Rel. Mag.