What did the schoolmaster mean? He meant that the _Person_ must precede the _Precepts_, as the _Precepts_ must precede the _Prohibitions_; he was insisting on the divine order; that was all. And I feel confident that _that_ was the burden of that powerful sermon that Ebenezer Erskine preached to his people at Portmoak in 1718. His last illness, as I have said, continued for twelve months. It was in its earlier stages that the old elder asked his question and received his minister's testimony concerning the text. A year later Mr. Erskine referred to the words again. On the morning of the first of June, he awoke from a brief sleep, and, seeing his daughter, Mrs. Fisher, sitting reading by his bedside, he asked her the name of the book. 'I am reading one of your own sermons, father!' 'Which one?' 'The one on "_I am the Lord thy God!_"' 'Ah, lass,' he exclaimed, his face lighting up, as a wave of sacred memories swept over him, 'that is the best sermon ever I preached!' A few minutes later he closed his eyes, slipped his hand under his cheek, composed himself on his pillow, and ceased to breathe. The noble spirit of Ebenezer Erskine was with God. Ebenezer Erskine reminds me of his great predecessor, Samuel Rutherford. When Rutherford was staying for a while at the house of James Guthrie, the maid was surprised at hearing a voice in his room. She had supposed he was alone. Moved by curiosity, she crept to his door. She then discovered that Rutherford was in prayer. He walked up and down the room, exclaiming, '_O Lord, make me to believe in Thee!_' Then, after a pause, he moved to and fro again, crying, '_O Lord, make me to love Thee!_' And, after a second rest, he rose again, praying, '_O Lord, make me to keep all Thy commandments!_' Rutherford, like Erskine a generation later, had grasped the spiritual significance of the divine order. '_Make me to believe in Thee!_'--the commandment that, as the schoolmaster told the Marquis, includes all the commandments! '_Make me to love Thee!_'--for love, as Jesus told the rich young ruler, is the fulfilment of the whole law. '_Make me to obey all Thy commandments!_' The man who learns the Ten Commandments at the school of Samuel Rutherford or at the school of Ebenezer Erskine will see a shining path that runs from Mount Sinai right up to the Cross and on through the gates of pearl into the City of God. VI DOCTOR DAVIDSON'S TEXT I