Bible Commentaries

The Way in the Wilderness (First Sunday of the Year)

Deuteronomy 8:2

(i) Let us emphasize the word all, for on that word the emphasis of the sentence truly lies.

(ii) The character of the path to be estimated not by the present difficulty or danger, but by the importance of the end.

(iii) The infinite variety of the way.

(iv) The beauty of the way. It is a goodly world which our God hath built and adorned for us, a world whose goodliness is ever around us.

(v) The bread of the wilderness. This miracle of the manna is repeated every day before our eyes.

(vi) The perils of the wilderness. Life is one long peril.

(vii) The sins of the wilderness. The past is best buried under a nobler present.

(viii) The chastisements of the way.

(ix) The Elims of the way, the sunny spots, the living verdure, the murmuring fountains, the rustling, shadowing palms.

(x) The end of the way. Each step the path will brighten as it nears the precincts of the Promised Land.

—J. Baldwin Brown, Contemporary Pulpit vol. VI. p371.

References.—VIII:2.—D. Burns, Christian World Pulpit, 1890 , p88. John Mason, Lord's Day Entertainments, vol. ii. p297. Bradley, Sermons, vol. ii. p284. E. M. Goulburn, Sermons, p485. Simeon, Works, vol. ii. p299. John Venn, Sermons, vol. iii. p397. T. Binney, Sermons (1Series), p362. Kingsley, Discipline, p40. A. Maclaren, A Year's Ministry (1Series), p151. Christian World Pulpit, vol. iv. pp397,417. F. Bourdillon, Plain Sermons for Family Beading, p84. J. Vaughan, Sermons (14th Series), p156. A. Maclaren, A Year's Ministry (1Series), p151. VIII:2 , 3.—C. M. Betts, Eight Sermons, p61. VIII:3.—J. W. Walker, A Book of Lay Sermons, p133. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii. No418. VIII:10 , 11.—G. A. Sowter, Sowing and Reaping, p84. VIII:11-18.—C. Kingsley, Gospel of the Pentateuch, p197. VIII:15.—J. M. Neale, Readings for the Aged (4th Series), p175; ibid. Sermons Preached in Sackville College Chapel, vol. ii. p336. IX:1.—T. Arnold, Christian Life, vol. v. p305. IX:6.—Bishop Goodwin, Parish Sermons (5th Series), p78. IX:26-29.—F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. ii. p53. IX:29.—Bishop Lightfoot, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. ii. p63. T. Arnold, Christian Life, p305.