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off to their companions, by whom I hear they 

 are not likely to be welcomed : I suppose they 

 are despised for not bearing the hardships of 

 the season as well as the others. 



22nd, Sunday. My uncle read the Ten 

 Commandments to us to-day, and afterwards 

 addressed us on the subject ; and though I know 

 that I cannot do justice to all he said, I will try 

 and note down a little of it. 



" 'And God spake all these words.' The 

 Hebrews emphatically called these command- 

 ments the * Ten words ;' and the same term hav- 

 ing been adopted in Greek, they have obtained 

 the name of Decalogue in every modern language. 

 Though all mankind were bound to obey the 

 precepts contained in these important laws, yet, 

 as they were more especially addressed to the 

 Israelites, the tables on which they were engraven 

 were preserved in the ark with great solemnity, 

 and were distinguished from the rest of God's 

 ordinances by a peculiar veneration, as contain- 

 ing the covenant of the Lord. The Mosaic dis- 

 pensation is at an end, but these commandments, 

 continue in full force; for we find that our Saviour 

 and his apostles quoted them as matter of per- 

 petual obligation to Christians; who are now, as 

 the Jews were formerly, ' the Israel of God.' 



" In order to understand their full extent, 

 it is necessary, my dear children, that you 



