Let us quote a passage or two in proof. "And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt _hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God_,"--the grand old Deuteronomic motto, the key-note of the book--"to observe and to do all His commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth; and all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, _if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God_"--the only safeguard, the true secret of happiness, security, victory, and strength.--"Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out." Is it not perfectly plain to the reader that these are not the blessings pronounced by the six tribes on Mount Gerizim? What is here presented to us is Israel's national dignity, prosperity, and glory, founded upon their diligent attention to all the commandments set before them in this book. It was the eternal purpose of God that Israel should be pre-eminent on the earth, high above all the nations. This purpose shall assuredly be made good, although Israel, in the past, have shamefully failed to render that perfect obedience which was to form the basis of their national pre-eminence and glory. We must never forget or surrender this great truth. Some expositors have adopted a system of interpretation by which the covenant-blessings of Israel are spiritualized and made over to the Church of God. This is a most fatal mistake. Indeed, it is hardly possible to set forth in language, or even to conceive, the pernicious effects of such a method of handling the precious Word of God. Nothing is more certain than that it is diametrically opposed to the mind and will of God. He will not and cannot sanction such tampering with His truth, or such an unwarrantable alienation of the blessings and privileges of His people Israel. True, we read, in Galatians iii, "That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive"--what? Blessings in the city and in the field? blessings in our basket and store? Nay; but "the promise of the Spirit through faith." So also we learn from the same epistle, in chapter iv, that restored Israel will be permitted to reckon amongst her children all those who are born of the Spirit during the Christian period. "But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, 'Rejoice, thou barren, that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not; for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath a husband.'"