Let us not omit to notice that it was this precept which opened the spiritual eye of Paul and gave him a new view of the breadth and true significance of God’s law. “I had not known sin, (said he) but by the law; for I had not known lust except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet” (Rom. 7: 7). His Pharisaic training (we may suppose) had been scrupulous over the tenth part of the mint and anise and cummin――had taken even ostentatious care of the external matters of the law; but, alas! had _left the heart out_. Here at the close of the law of Sinai――last among the precepts that treat of duty to our neighbor――stands one which puts its finger squarely upon the _heart_. It says――“Thou shalt not _covet_.” It not only suggests that God looks within the soul of man for sin, but it demands that every man shall look there too and put his own restraining hand directly upon those rising desires which, indulged, would push him into overt sin. Moreover, this one precept may be supposed to have suggested to the mind of Paul that the whole law of God must be construed on this heart-principle――that every precept it contains goes beyond the letter to the spirit――pushes its demand deeper than the outward act, even to the inner thought, passion, and purpose of the soul. This view put the law of God in a new light――we might even say――revealed a new law to his soul. It gave him a new field for self-examination; brought up new sins never seen or dreamed of before, and at once demolished hopes of favor before God and of salvation on which he had perilously leaned through all his Pharisaic life.――――“Thy commandment” (said one of the Psalmists) “is exceeding broad” (Ps. 119: 96). We are not to think of all the Old Testament saints as Pharisees. Let us rather hope that many of them read in the law of Sinai the law of love, and adjusted to it, not the outward life only but the very heart as well. _Progress in the Revelation of God to Man._ The first twenty chapters of Exodus cover a period eminently rich in point of _progress_ in revealing God to the race.――――More fully than ever before God manifested those special elements of his character which are unfolded in the new name Jehovah――I am that I Am (Ex. 3: 14). He had given promises before; then he came forth to _fulfill_ them. He had talked with the patriarchs about faith, and had sought to inspire it in their souls. In these great deeds for his people he gave them demonstrations of his eternal faithfulness――a basis on which their faith might rest, and also the faith of every child of his through all the future ages. God came exceedingly near to his afflicted people in Egypt, and never missed any opportunity of suggesting and impressing the idea that these tender testimonies of his love were in proof of his _fidelity to promise_――were the very acts which his covenant with Abraham involved and called for――called for of their covenant God not in vain.