thee but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"[1]
Thus does the genuine truth, the real nature and character of our God, break out, here and there, through the appearances of the letter, like the sun breaking through clouds.
Let us turn, now, to the other question—the command given to the Israelites to exterminate their enemies. There is, indeed, at first view, an appearance of cruel severity in this; but when we look more deeply into the case, we find the cause of that severity. When a tribe or people, by a long course of indulgence in wickedness, has sunk itself into the lowest state of degradation and corruption, that tribe or people has always, in the Divine Providence, been at length cut off. This is done, seemingly, indeed, as an act of vengeance for their sins; and so it is expressed in the letter of Scripture—because, as often before remarked, the language of the letter is such as accommodates itself to man's ideas of things: and to the wicked, when punishment comes upon them, it seems an act of violence and vengeance on the part of the inflicter. But, in reality, all such dispensations proceed, not from vengeance, but from the mercy of the Divine Being—mercy to mankind at large, and in order to deliver the world from a moral pestilence. It is a wise proverb, that "mercy to the wicked is cruelty to the good." The judge, who from feelings of misplaced compassion discharges the criminal, and thus lets him out again upon society, is chargeable with cruelty instead of mercy; for while gratifying the selfish wishes and bad
