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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/39395-8.txt b/39395-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dbadf53 --- /dev/null +++ b/39395-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12296 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Genesis, by +Marcus Dods + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Genesis + +Author: Marcus Dods + +Editor: W. Robertson Nicoll + +Release Date: April 7, 2012 [EBook #39395] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE: GENESIS *** + + + + +Produced by Colin Bell, Nigel Blower and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + [Transcriber's Note: + + _Italic words_ have been enclosed in underscores. + + As the oe ligature cannot be included in this format, it has been + replaced with the separate letters in "manoeuvre" and "Phoenician". + + A few minor typographical errors have been silently corrected. + Some inconsistent hyphenation has been retained. + + The Table of Contents refers to original page numbers.] + + + + THE BOOK + OF + GENESIS. + + BY + MARCUS DODS, D.D., + + AUTHOR OF "ISRAEL'S IRON AGE," + "THE PARABLES OF OUR LORD," + "THE PRAYER THAT TEACHES TO PRAY," ETC. + + NEW YORK: + A. C. ARMSTRONG AND SON + 714, BROADWAY. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + CHAPTER I. + THE CREATION 1 + + CHAPTER II. + THE FALL 15 + + CHAPTER III. + CAIN AND ABEL 28 + + CHAPTER IV. + CAIN'S LINE, AND ENOCH 42 + + CHAPTER V. + THE FLOOD 55 + + CHAPTER VI. + NOAH'S FALL 68 + + CHAPTER VII. + THE CALL OF ABRAHAM 81 + + CHAPTER VIII. + ABRAM IN EGYPT 96 + + CHAPTER IX. + LOT'S SEPARATION FROM ABRAM 108 + + CHAPTER X. + ABRAM'S RESCUE OF LOT 121 + + CHAPTER XI. + COVENANT WITH ABRAM 134 + + CHAPTER XII. + BIRTH OF ISHMAEL 147 + + CHAPTER XIII. + THE COVENANT SEALED 159 + + CHAPTER XIV. + ABRAHAM'S INTERCESSION FOR SODOM 172 + + CHAPTER XV. + DESTRUCTION OF THE CITIES OF THE PLAIN 186 + + CHAPTER XVI. + SACRIFICE OF ISAAC 198 + + CHAPTER XVII. + ISHMAEL AND ISAAC 212 + + CHAPTER XVIII. + PURCHASE OF MACHPELAH 226 + + CHAPTER XIX. + ISAAC'S MARRIAGE 240 + + CHAPTER XX. + ESAU AND JACOB 254 + + CHAPTER XXI. + JACOB'S FRAUD 267 + + CHAPTER XXII. + JACOB'S FLIGHT AND DREAM 279 + + CHAPTER XXIII. + JACOB AT PENIEL 293 + + CHAPTER XXIV. + JACOB'S RETURN 307 + + CHAPTER XXV. + JOSEPH'S DREAMS 321 + + CHAPTER XXVI. + JOSEPH IN PRISON 339 + + CHAPTER XXVII. + PHARAOH'S DREAMS 355 + + CHAPTER XXVIII. + JOSEPH'S ADMINISTRATION 369 + + CHAPTER XXIX. + VISITS OF JOSEPH'S BRETHREN 383 + + CHAPTER XXX. + THE RECONCILIATION 396 + + CHAPTER XXXI. + THE BLESSINGS OF THE TRIBES 415 + + + + +I. + +_THE CREATION._ + +GENESIS i. and ii. + + +If any one is in search of accurate information regarding the age of +this earth, or its relation to the sun, moon, and stars, or regarding +the order in which plants and animals have appeared upon it, he is +referred to recent text-books in astronomy, geology, and palæontology. +No one for a moment dreams of referring a serious student of these +subjects to the Bible as a source of information. It is not the object +of the writers of Scripture to impart physical instruction or to enlarge +the bounds of scientific knowledge. But if any one wishes to know what +connection the world has with God, if he seeks to trace back all that +now is to the very fountain-head of life, if he desires to discover some +unifying principle, some illuminating purpose in the history of this +earth, then we confidently refer him to these and the subsequent +chapters of Scripture as his safest, and indeed his only, guide to the +information he seeks. Every writing must be judged by the object the +writer has in view. If the object of the writer of these chapters was to +convey physical information, then certainly it is imperfectly fulfilled. +But if his object was to give an intelligible account of God's relation +to the world and to man, then it must be owned that he has been +successful in the highest degree. + +It is therefore unreasonable to allow our reverence for this writing to +be lessened because it does not anticipate the discoveries of physical +science; or to repudiate its authority in its own department of truth +because it does not give us information which it formed no part of the +writer's object to give. As well might we deny to Shakespeare a masterly +knowledge of human life, because his dramas are blotted by historical +anachronisms. That the compiler of this book of Genesis did not aim at +scientific accuracy in speaking of physical details is obvious, not +merely from the general scope and purpose of the Biblical writers, but +especially from this, that in these first two chapters of his book he +lays side by side two accounts of man's creation which no ingenuity can +reconcile. These two accounts, glaringly incompatible in details, but +absolutely harmonious in their leading ideas, at once warn the reader +that the writer's aim is rather to convey certain ideas regarding man's +spiritual history and his connection with God, than to describe the +process of creation. He does describe the process of creation, but he +describes it only for the sake of the ideas regarding man's relation to +God and God's relation to the world which he can thereby convey. Indeed +what we mean by scientific knowledge was not in all the thoughts of the +people for whom this book was written. The subject of creation, of the +beginning of man upon earth, was not approached from that side at all; +and if we are to understand what is here written we must burst the +trammels of our own modes of thought and read these chapters not as a +chronological, astronomical, geological, biological statement, but as a +moral or spiritual conception. + +It will, however, be said, and with much appearance of justice, that +although the first object of the writer was not to convey scientific +information, yet he might have been expected to be accurate in the +information he did advance regarding the physical universe. This is an +enormous assumption to make on _à priori_ grounds, but it is an +assumption worth seriously considering because it brings into view a +real and important difficulty which every reader of Genesis must face. +It brings into view the twofold character of this account of creation. +On the one hand it is irreconcilable with the teachings of science. On +the other hand it is in striking contrast to the other cosmogonies which +have been handed down from pre-scientific ages. These are the two patent +features of this record of creation and both require to be accounted +for. Either feature alone would be easily accounted for; but the two +co-existing in the same document are more baffling. We have to account +at once for a want of perfect coincidence with the teachings of science, +and for a singular freedom from those errors which disfigure all other +primitive accounts of the creation of the world. The one feature of the +document is as patent as the other and presses equally for explanation. + +Now many persons cut the knot by simply denying that both these features +exist. There is no disagreement with science, they say. I speak for many +careful enquirers when I say that this cannot serve as a solution of the +difficulty. I think it is to be freely admitted that, from whatever +cause and however justifiably, the account of creation here given is not +in strict and detailed accordance with the teaching of science. All +attempts to force its statements into such accord are futile and +mischievous. They are futile because they do not convince independent +enquirers, but only those who are unduly anxious to be convinced. And +they are mischievous because they unduly prolong the strife between +Scripture and science, putting the question on a false issue. And above +all, they are to be condemned because they do violence to Scripture, +foster a style of interpretation by which the text is forced to say +whatever the interpreter desires, and prevent us from recognising the +real nature of these sacred writings. The Bible needs no defence such as +false constructions of its language bring to its aid. They are its worst +friends who distort its words that they may yield a meaning more in +accordance with scientific truth. If, for example, the word 'day' in +these chapters, does not mean a period of twenty-four hours, the +interpretation of Scripture is hopeless. Indeed if we are to bring these +chapters into any comparison at all with science, we find at once +various discrepancies. Of a creation of sun, moon, and stars, subsequent +to the creation of this earth, science can have but one thing to say. Of +the existence of fruit trees prior to the existence of the sun, science +knows nothing. But for a candid and unsophisticated reader without a +special theory to maintain, details are needless. + +Accepting this chapter then as it stands, and believing that only by +looking at the Bible as it actually is can we hope to understand God's +method of revealing Himself, we at once perceive that ignorance of some +departments of truth does not disqualify a man for knowing and imparting +truth about God. In order to be a medium of revelation a man does not +need to be in advance of his age in secular learning. Intimate +communion with God, a spirit trained to discern spiritual things, a +perfect understanding of and zeal for God's purpose, these are qualities +quite independent of a knowledge of the discoveries of science. The +enlightenment which enables men to apprehend God and spiritual truth, +has no necessary connection with scientific attainments. David's +confidence in God and his declarations of His faithfulness are none the +less valuable, because he was ignorant of a very great deal which every +school-boy now knows. Had inspired men introduced into their writings +information which anticipated the discoveries of science, their state of +mind would be inconceivable, and revelation would be a source of +confusion. God's methods are harmonious with one another, and as He has +given men natural faculties to acquire scientific knowledge and +historical information, He did not stultify this gift by imparting such +knowledge in a miraculous and unintelligible manner. There is no +evidence that inspired men were in advance of their age in the knowledge +of physical facts and laws. And plainly, had they been supernaturally +instructed in physical knowledge they would so far have been +unintelligible to those to whom they spoke. Had the writer of this book +mingled with his teaching regarding God, an explicit and exact account +of how this world came into existence--had he spoken of millions of +years instead of speaking of days--in all probability he would have been +discredited, and what he had to say about God would have been rejected +along with his premature science. But speaking from the point of view of +his contemporaries, and accepting the current ideas regarding the +formation of the world, he attached to these the views regarding God's +connection with the world which are most necessary to be believed. What +he had learned of God's unity and creative power and connection with +man, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, he imparts to his +contemporaries through the vehicle of an account of creation they could +all understand. It is not in his knowledge of physical facts that he is +elevated above his contemporaries, but in his knowledge of God's +connection with all physical facts. No doubt, on the other hand, his +knowledge of God reacts upon the entire contents of his mind and saves +him from presenting such accounts of creation as have been common among +polytheists. He presents an account purified by his conception of what +was worthy of the supreme God he worshipped. His idea of God has given +dignity and simplicity to all he says about creation, and there is an +elevation and majesty about the whole conception, which we recognise as +the reflex of his conception of God. + +Here then instead of anything to discompose us or to excite unbelief, we +recognise one great law or principle on which God proceeds in making +Himself known to men. This has been called the Law of Accommodation. It +is the law which requires that the condition and capacity of those to +whom the revelation is made must be considered. If you wish to instruct +a child, you must speak in language the child can understand. If you +wish to elevate a savage, you must do it by degrees, accommodating +yourself to his condition, and winking at much ignorance while you +instil elementary knowledge. You must found all you teach on what is +already understood by your pupil, and through that you must convey +further knowledge and train his faculties to higher capacity. So was it +with God's revelation. The Jews were children who had to be trained +with what Paul somewhat contemptuously calls "weak and beggarly +elements," the A B C of morals and religion. Not even in morals could +the absolute truth be enforced. Accommodation had to be practised even +here. Polygamy was allowed as a concession to their immature stage of +development: and practices in war and in domestic law were permitted or +enjoined which were inconsistent with absolute morality. Indeed the +whole Jewish system was an adaptation to an immature state. The dwelling +of God in the Temple as a man in his house, the propitiating of God with +sacrifice as of an Eastern king with gifts; this was a teaching by +picture, a teaching which had as much resemblance to the truth and as +much mixture of truth as they were able then to receive. No doubt this +teaching did actually mislead them in some of their ideas; but it kept +them on the whole in a right attitude towards God, and prepared them for +growing up to a fuller discernment of the truth. + +Much more was this law observed in regard to such matters as are dealt +with in these chapters. It was impossible that in their ignorance of the +rudiments of scientific knowledge, the early Hebrews should understand +an absolutely accurate account of how the world came into being; and if +they could have understood it, it would have been useless, dissevered as +it must have been from the steps of knowledge by which men have since +arrived at it. Children ask us questions in answer to which we do not +tell them the exact full truth, because we know they cannot possibly +understand it. All that we can do is to give them some provisional +answer which conveys to them some information they can understand, and +which keeps them in a right state of mind, although this information +often seems absurd enough when compared with the actual facts and truth +of the matter. And if some solemn pedant accused us of supplying the +child with false information, we would simply tell him he knew nothing +about children. Accurate information on these matters will infallibly +come to the child when he grows up; what is wanted meanwhile is to give +him information which will help to form his conduct without gravely +misleading him as to facts. Similarly, if any one tells me he cannot +accept these chapters as inspired by God, because they do not convey +scientifically accurate information regarding this earth, I can only say +that he has yet to learn the first principles of revelation, and that he +misunderstands the conditions on which all instruction must be given. + +My belief then is, that in these chapters we have the ideas regarding +the origin of the world and of man which were naturally attainable in +the country where they were first composed, but with those important +modifications which a monotheistic belief necessarily suggested. So far +as merely physical knowledge went, there is probably little here that +was new to the contemporaries of the writer; but this already familiar +knowledge was used by him as the vehicle for conveying his faith in the +unity, love and wisdom of God the creator. He laid a firm foundation for +the history of God's relation to man. This was his object, and this he +accomplished. The Bible is the book to which we turn for information +regarding the history of God's revelation of Himself, and of His will +towards men; and in these chapters we have the suitable introduction to +this history. No changes in our knowledge of physical truth can at all +affect the teaching of these chapters. What they teach regarding the +relation of man to God is independent of the physical details in which +this teaching is embodied, and can as easily be attached to the most +modern statement of the physical origin of the world and of man. + +What then are the truths taught us in these chapters? The first is that +there has been a creation, that things now existing have not just grown +of themselves, but have been called into being by a presiding +intelligence and an originating will. No attempt to account for the +existence of the world in any other way has been successful. A great +deal has in this generation been added to our knowledge of the +efficiency of material causes to produce what we see around us; but when +we ask what gives harmony to these material causes, and what guides them +to the production of certain ends, and what originally produced them, +the answer must still be, not matter but intelligence and purpose. The +best informed and most penetrating minds of our time affirm this. John +Stuart Mill says: "It must be allowed that in the present state of our +knowledge the adaptations in nature afford a large balance of +probability in favour of creation by intelligence." Professor Tyndall +adds his testimony and says: "I have noticed during years of +self-observation that it is not in hours of clearness and vigour that +[the doctrine of material atheism] commends itself to my mind--that in +the hours of stronger and healthier thought it ever dissolves and +disappears, as offering no solution of the mystery in which we dwell and +of which we form a part." + +There is indeed a prevalent suspicion, that in presence of the +discoveries made by evolutionists the argument from design is no longer +tenable. Evolution shows us that the correspondence of the structure of +animals, with their modes of life, has been generated by the nature of +the case; and it is concluded that a blind mechanical necessity and not +an intelligent design rules all. But the discovery of the process by +which the presently existing living forms have been evolved, and the +perception that this process is governed by laws which have always been +operating, do not make intelligence and design at all less necessary, +but rather more so. As Professor Huxley himself says: "The teleological +and mechanical views of nature are not necessarily exclusive. The +teleologist can always defy the evolutionist to disprove that the +primordial molecular arrangement was not intended to evolve the +phenomena of the universe." Evolution, in short, by disclosing to us the +marvellous power and accuracy of natural law, compels us more +emphatically than ever to refer all law to a supreme, originating +intelligence. + +This then is the first lesson of the Bible; that at the root and origin +of all this vast material universe, before whose laws we are crushed as +the moth, there abides a living conscious Spirit, who wills and knows +and fashions all things. The belief of this changes for us the whole +face of nature, and instead of a chill, impersonal world of forces to +which no appeal can be made, and in which matter is supreme, gives us +the home of a Father. If you are yourself but a particle of a huge and +unconscious universe--a particle which, like a flake of foam, or a drop +of rain, or a gnat, or a beetle, lasts its brief space and then yields +up its substance to be moulded into some new creature; if there is no +power that understands you and sympathizes with you and makes provision +for your instincts, your aspirations, your capabilities; if man is +himself the highest intelligence, and if all things are the purposeless +result of physical forces; if, in short, there is no God, no +consciousness at the beginning as at the end of all things, then nothing +can be more melancholy than our position. Our higher desires which seem +to separate us so immeasurably from the brutes, we have, only that they +may be cut down by the keen edge of time, and wither in barren +disappointment; our reason we have, only to enable us to see and measure +the brevity of our span, and so live our little day, not joyously as the +unforeseeing beasts, but shadowed by the hastening gloom of anticipated, +inevitable and everlasting night; our faculty for worshipping and for +striving to serve and to resemble the perfect living One, that faculty +which seems to be the thing of greatest promise and of finest quality in +us, and to which is certainly due the largest part of what is admirable +and profitable in human history, is the most mocking and foolishest of +all our parts. But, God be thanked, He has revealed himself to us; has +given us in the harmonious and progressive movement of all around us, +sufficient indication that, even in the material world, intelligence and +purpose reign; an indication which becomes immensely clearer as we pass +into the world of man; and which, in presence of the person and life of +Christ attains the brightness of a conviction which illuminates all +besides. + +The other great truth which this writer teaches is, that man was the +chief work of God, for whose sake all else was brought into being. The +work of creation was not finished till he appeared: all else was +preparatory to this final product. That man is the crown and lord of +this earth is obvious. Man instinctively assumes that all else has been +made for him, and freely acts upon this assumption. But when our eyes +are lifted from this little ball on which we are set and to which we +are confined, and when we scan such other parts of the universe as are +within our ken, a keen sense of littleness oppresses us; our earth is +after all so minute and apparently inconsiderable a point when compared +with the vast suns and planets that stretch system on system into +illimitable space. When we read even the rudiments of what astronomers +have discovered regarding the inconceivable vastness of the universe, +the huge dimensions of the heavenly bodies, and the grand scale on which +everything is framed, we find rising to our lips, and with tenfold +reason, the words of David: "When I consider Thy heavens, the work of +Thy fingers; the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained; what is +man that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that Thou visitest +him?" Is it conceivable that on this scarcely discernible speck in the +vastness of the universe, should be played out the chiefest act in the +history of God? Is it credible that He whose care it is to uphold this +illimitable universe, should be free to think of the wants and woes of +the insignificant creatures who quickly spend their little lives in this +inconsiderable earth? + +But reason seems all on the side of Genesis. God must not be considered +as sitting apart in a remote position of general superintendence, but as +present with all that is. And to Him who maintains these systems in +their respective relations and orbits, it can be no burden to relieve +the needs of individuals. To think of ourselves as too insignificant to +be attended to is to derogate from God's true majesty and to +misunderstand His relation to the world. But it is also to misapprehend +the real value of spirit as compared with matter. Man is dear to God +because he is like Him. Vast and glorious as it is, the sun cannot think +God's thoughts; can fulfil but cannot intelligently sympathize with +God's purpose. Man, alone among God's works, can enter into and approve +of God's purpose in the world and can intelligently fulfil it. Without +man the whole material universe would have been dark and unintelligible, +mechanical and apparently without any sufficient purpose. Matter, +however fearfully and wonderfully wrought, is but the platform and +material in which spirit, intelligence and will, may fulfil themselves +and find development. Man is incommensurable with the rest of the +universe. He is of a different kind and by his moral nature is more akin +to God than to His works. + +Here the beginning and the end of God's revelation join hands and throw +light on one another. The nature of man was that in which God was at +last to give His crowning revelation, and for that no preparation could +seem extravagant. Fascinating and full of marvel as is the history of +the past which science discloses to us; full as these slow-moving +millions of years are in evidences of the exhaustless wealth of nature, +and mysterious as the delay appears, all that expenditure of resources +is eclipsed and all the delay justified when the whole work is crowned +by the Incarnation, for in it we see that all that slow process was the +preparation of a nature in which God could manifest Himself as a Person +to persons. This is seen to be an end worthy of all that is contained in +the physical history of the world: this gives completeness to the whole +and makes it a unity. No higher, other end need be sought, none could be +conceived. It is this which seems worthy of those tremendous and subtle +forces which have been set at work in the physical world, this which +justifies the long lapse of ages filled with wonders unobserved, and +teeming with ever new life; this above all which justifies these latter +ages in which all physical marvels have been outdone by the tragical +history of man upon earth. Remove the Incarnation and all remains dark, +purposeless, unintelligible: grant the Incarnation, believe that in +Jesus Christ the Supreme manifested Himself personally, and light is +shed upon all that has been and is. + +Light is shed on the individual life. Are you living as if you were the +product of blind mechanical laws, and as if there were no object worthy +of your life and of all the force you can throw into your life? Consider +the Incarnation of the Creator, and ask yourself if sufficient object is +not given to you in His call that you be conformed to His image and +become the intelligent executor of His purposes? Is life not worth +having even on these terms? The man that can still sit down and bemoan +himself as if there were no meaning in existence, or lounge languidly +through life as if there were no zest or urgency in living, or try to +satisfy himself with fleshly comforts, has surely need to turn to the +opening page of Revelation and learn that God saw sufficient object in +the life of man, enough to compensate for millions of ages of +preparation. If it is possible that you should share in the character +and destiny of Christ, can a healthy ambition crave anything more or +higher? If the future is to be as momentous in results as the past has +certainly been filled with preparation, have you no caring to share in +these results? Believe that there is a purpose in things; that in +Christ, the revelation of God, you can see what that purpose is, and +that by wholly uniting yourself to Him and allowing yourself to be +penetrated by His Spirit you can participate with Him in the working out +of that purpose. + + + + +II. + +_THE FALL._ + +GENESIS iii. + + +Profound as the teaching of this narrative is, its meaning does not lie +on the surface. Literal interpretation will reach a measure of its +significance, but plainly there is more here than appears in the letter. +When we read that the serpent was more subtile than any beast of the +field which the Lord God had made, and that he tempted the woman, we at +once perceive that it is not with the outer husk of the story we are to +concern ourselves, but with the kernel. The narrative throughout speaks +of nothing but the brute serpent; not a word is said of the devil, not +the slightest hint is given that the machinations of a fallen angel are +signified. The serpent is compared to the other beasts of the field, +showing that it is the brute serpent that is spoken of. The curse is +pronounced on the beast, not on a fallen spirit summoned for the purpose +before the Supreme; and not in terms which could apply to a fallen +spirit, but in terms that are applicable only to the serpent that +crawls. Yet every reader feels that this is not the whole mystery of the +fall of man: moral evil cannot be accounted for by referring it to a +brute source. No one, I suppose, believes that the whole tribe of +serpents crawl as a punishment of an offence committed by one of their +number, or that the whole iniquity and sorrow of the world are due to an +actual serpent. Plainly this is merely a pictorial representation +intended to convey some general impressions and ideas. Vitally important +truths underlie the narrative and are bodied forth by it; but the way to +reach these truths is not to adhere too rigidly to the literal meaning, +but to catch the general impression which it seems fitted to make. + +No doubt this opens the door to a great variety of interpretation. No +two men will attach to it precisely the same meaning. One says, the +serpent is a symbol for Satan, but Adam and Eve are historical persons. +Another says, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is a figure, +but the driving out from the garden is real. Another maintains that the +whole is a picture, putting in a visible, intelligible shape certain +vitally important truths regarding the history of our race. So that +every man is left very much to his own judgment, to read the narrative +candidly and in such light from other sources as he has, and let it make +its own impression upon him. This would be a sad result if the object of +the Bible were to bring us all to a rigid uniformity of belief in all +matters; but the object of the Bible is not that, but the far higher +object of furnishing all varieties of men with sufficient light to lead +them to God. And this being so, variety of interpretation in details is +not to be lamented. The very purpose of such representations as are here +given is to suit all stages of mental and spiritual advancement. Let the +child read it and he will learn what will live in his mind and influence +him all his life. Let the devout man who has ranged through all science +and history and philosophy come back to this narrative, and he feels +that he has here the essential truth regarding the beginnings of man's +tragical career upon earth. + +We should, in my opinion, be labouring under a misapprehension if we +supposed that none even of the earliest readers of this account saw the +deeper meaning of it. When men who felt the misery of sin and lifted up +their hearts to God for deliverance, read the words addressed to the +serpent, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy +seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his +heel"--is it reasonable to suppose that such men would take these words +in their literal sense, and satisfy themselves with the assurance that +serpents, though dangerous, would be kept under, and would find in the +words no assurance of that very thing they themselves were all their +lifetime striving after, deliverance from the evil thing which lay at +the root of all sin? No doubt some would accept the story in its literal +meaning,--shallow and careless men whose own spiritual experience never +urged them to see any spiritual significance in the words would do so; +but even those who saw least in the story, and put a very shallow +interpretation on its details, could scarcely fail to see its main +teaching. + +The reader of this perennially fresh story is first of all struck with +the account given of man's primitive condition. Coming to this narrative +with our minds coloured by the fancies of poets and philosophers, we are +almost startled by the check which the plain and sober statements of +this account give to an unpruned fancy. We have to read the words again +and again to make sure we have not omitted something which gives support +to those glowing descriptions of man's primitive condition. Certainly he +is described as innocent and at peace with God, and in this respect no +terms can exaggerate his happiness. But in other respects the language +of the Bible is surprisingly moderate. Man is represented as living on +fruit, and as going unclothed, and, so far as appears, without any +artificial shelter either from the heat of the sun or the cold of night. +None of the arts were as yet known. All working of metals had yet to be +discovered, so that his tools must have been of the rudest possible +description; and the arts, such as music, which adorn life and make +leisure enjoyable, were also still in the future. + +But the most significant elements in man's primitive condition are +represented by the two trees of the garden; by trees, because with +plants alone he had to do. In the centre of the garden stood the tree of +life, the fruit of which bestowed immortality. Man was therefore +naturally mortal, though apparently with a capacity for immortality. How +this capacity would have actually carried man on to immortality had he +not sinned, it is vain to conjecture. The mystical nature of the tree of +life is fully recognised in the New Testament, by our Lord, when He +says: "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, +which is in the midst of the Paradise of God;" and by John, when he +describes the new Jerusalem: "In the midst of the street of it, and on +either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve +manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of +the tree were for the healing of the nations." Both these +representations are intended to convey, in a striking and pictorial +form, the promise of life everlasting. + +And as of the tree of life which stands in the Paradise of the future it +is said "Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have +right to the tree of life;" so in Eden man's immortality was suspended +on the condition of obedience. And the trial of man's obedience is +imaged in the other tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. +From the child-like innocence in which man originally was, he was to +pass forward into the condition of moral manhood, which consists not in +mere innocence, but in innocence maintained in presence of temptation. +The savage is innocent of many of the crimes of civilized men because he +has no opportunity to commit them; the child is innocent of some of the +vices of manhood because he has no temptation to them. But this +innocence is the result of circumstance, not of character; and if savage +or child is to become a mature moral being he must be tried by altered +circumstances, by temptation and opportunity. To carry man forward to +this higher stage trial is necessary, and this trial is indicated by the +tree of knowledge. The fruit of this tree is prohibited, to indicate +that it is only in presence of what is forbidden man can be morally +tested, and that it is only by self-command and obedience to law, and +not by the mere following of instincts, that man can attain to moral +maturity. The prohibition is that which makes him recognise a +distinction between good and evil. He is put in a position in which good +is not the only thing he can do; an alternative is present to his mind, +and the choice of good in preference to evil is made possible to him. In +presence of this tree child-like innocence was no longer possible. The +self-determination of manhood was constantly required. Conscience, +hitherto latent, was now evoked and took its place as man's supreme +faculty. + +It is in vain to think of exhausting this narrative. We can, at the +most, only remark upon some of the most salient points. + +(1) Temptation comes like a serpent; like the most subtile beast of the +field; like that one creature which is said to exert a fascinating +influence on its victims, fastening them with its glittering eye, +stealing upon them by its noiseless, low and unseen approach, perplexing +them by its wide circling folds, seeming to come upon them from all +sides at once, and armed not like the other beasts with one weapon of +offence--horn, or hoof, or teeth--but capable of crushing its victim +with every part of its sinuous length. It lies apparently dead for +months together, but when roused it can, as the naturalist tells us, +"outclimb the monkey, outswim the fish, outleap the zebra, outwrestle +the athlete, and crush the tiger." How naturally in describing +temptation do we borrow language from the aspect and movements of this +creature. It does not need to hunt down its victims by long continued +pursuit, its victims come and put themselves within its reach. Unseen, +temptation lies by our path, and before we have time to think we are +fascinated and bewildered, its coils rapidly gather round us and its +stroke flashes poison through our blood. Against sin, when once it has +wreathed itself around us, we seem helpless to contend; the very powers +with which we could resist are benumbed or pinned useless to our +side--our foe seems all round us, and to extricate one part is but to +become entangled in another. As the serpent finds its way everywhere, +over every fence or barrier, into every corner and recess, so it is +impossible to keep temptation out of the life; it appears where least we +expect it and when we think ourselves secure. + +(2) Temptation succeeds at first by exciting our curiosity. It is a +wise saying that "our great security against sin lies in being shocked +at it. Eve gazed and reflected when she should have fled." The serpent +created an interest, excited her curiosity about this forbidden fruit. +And as this excited curiosity lies near the beginning of sin in the +race, so does it in the individual. I suppose if you trace back the +mystery of iniquity in your own life and seek to track it to its source, +you will find it to have originated in this craving to taste evil. No +man originally meant to become the sinner he has become. He only +intended, like Eve, to taste. It was a voyage of discovery he meant to +make; he did not think to get nipped and frozen up and never more return +from the outer cold and darkness. He wished before finally giving +himself to virtue, to see the real value of the other alternative. + +This dangerous craving has many elements in it. There is in it the +instinctive drawing towards what is mysterious. One veiled figure in an +assembly will attract more scrutiny than the most admired beauty. An +appearance in the heavens that no one can account for will nightly draw +more eyes than the most wonderful sunset. To lift veils, to penetrate +disguises, to unravel complicated plots, to solve mysteries, this is +always inviting to the human mind. The tale which used to thrill us in +childhood, of the one locked room, the one forbidden key, bears in it a +truth for men as well as for children. What is hidden must, we conclude, +have some interest for us--else why hide it from us? What is forbidden +must have some important bearing upon us. Else why forbid it? Things +which are indifferent to us are left in our way, obvious, and without +concealment. But as action has been taken regarding the things that are +forbidden, action in view of our relation to them, it is natural to us +to desire to know what these things are and how they affect us. + +There is added to this in young persons, a sense of incompleteness. They +wish to be grown up. Few boys wish to be always boys. They long for the +signs of manhood, and seek to possess that knowledge of life and its +ways which they very much identify with manhood. But too commonly they +mistake the path to manhood. They feel as if they had a wider range of +liberty and were more thoroughly men when they transgress the limits +assigned by conscience. They feel as if there were a new and brighter +world outside that which is fenced round by strict morality, and they +tremble with excitement on its borders. It is a fatal delusion. Only by +choosing the good in presence of the evil are true manhood and real +maturity gained. True manliness consists mainly in self control, in a +patient waiting upon nature and God's law and when youth impatiently +breaks through the protecting fence of God's law, and seeks growth by +knowing evil, it misses that very advancement it seeks, and cheats +itself out of the manhood it apes. + +(3) Through this craving for an enlarged experience unbelief in God's +goodness finds entrance. In the presence of forbidden pleasure we are +tempted to feel as if God were grudging us enjoyment. The very arguments +of the serpent occur to our mind. No harm will come of our indulging; +the prohibition is needless, unreasonable and unkind; it is not based on +any genuine desire for our welfare. This fence that shuts us out from +knowing good and evil is erected by a timorous asceticism, by a +ridiculous misconception of what truly enlarges human nature; it shuts +us into a poor narrow life. And thus suspicions of God's perfect wisdom +and goodness find entrance; we begin to think we know better than He +what is good for us, and can contrive a richer, happier life than He has +provided for us. Our loyalty to Him is loosened, and already we have +lost hold of His strength and are launched on the current that leads to +sin, misery, and shame. When we find ourselves saying Yes, where God has +said No; when we see desirable things where God has said there is death; +when we allow distrust of Him to rankle in our mind, when we chafe +against the restrictions under which we live and seek liberty by +breaking down the fence instead of by delighting in God, we are on the +highway to all evil. + +(4) If we know our own history we cannot be surprised to read that one +taste of evil ruined our first parents. It is so always. The one taste +alters our attitude towards God and conscience and life. It is a +veritable Circe's cup. The actual experience of sin is like the one +taste of alcohol to a reclaimed drunkard, like the first taste of blood +to a young tiger, it calls out the latent devil and creates a new nature +within us. At one brush it wipes out all the peace, and joy, and +self-respect, and boldness of innocence, and numbers us among the +transgressors, among the shame-faced, and self-despising, and hopeless. +It leaves us possessed with unhappy thoughts which lead us away from +what is bright, and honourable, and good, and like the letting out of +water it seems to have tapped a spring of evil within us. It is but one +step, but it is like the step over a precipice or down the shaft of a +mine; it cannot be taken back, it commits to an altogether different +state of things. + +(5) The first result of sin is shame. The form in which the knowledge +of good and evil comes to us is the knowing we are naked, the +consciousness that we are stripped of all that made us walk unabashed +before God and men. The promise of the serpent while broken in the +sense is fulfilled to the ear; the eyes of Adam and Eve were opened and +they knew that they were naked. Self-reflection begins, and the first +movement of conscience produces shame. Had they resisted temptation, +conscience would have been born but not in self-condemnation. Like +children they had hitherto been conscious only of what was external to +themselves, but now their consciousness of a power to choose good and +evil is awakened and its first exercise is accompanied with shame. They +feel that in themselves they are faulty, that they are not in +themselves complete; that though created by God, they are not fit for +His eye. The lower animals wear no clothes because they have no +knowledge of good and evil; children feel no need of covering because +as yet self-consciousness is latent, and their conduct is determined +for them; those who are re-made in the image of God and glorified as +Christ is, cannot be thought of as clothed, for in them there is no +sense of sin. But Adam's clothing himself and hiding himself were the +helpless attempts of a guilty conscience to evade the judgment of +truth. + +(6) But when Adam found he was no longer fit for God's eye, God provided +a covering which might enable him again to live in His presence without +dismay. Man had exhausted his own ingenuity and resources, and exhausted +them without finding relief to his shame. If his shame was to be +effectually removed, God must do it. And the clothing in coats of skins +indicates the restoration of man, not indeed to pristine innocence, but +to peace with God. Adam felt that God did not wish to banish him +lastingly from His presence, nor to see him always a trembling and +confused penitent. The self-respect and progressiveness, the reverence +for law and order and God, which came in with clothes, and which we +associate with the civilised races, were accepted as tokens that God was +desirous to co-operate with man, to forward and further him in all good. + +It is also to be remarked that the clothing which God provided was in +itself different from what man had thought of. Adam took leaves from an +inanimate, unfeeling tree; God deprived an animal of life, that the +shame of His creature might be relieved. This was the last thing Adam +would have thought of doing. To us life is cheap and death familiar, but +Adam recognised death as the punishment of sin. Death was to early man a +sign of God's anger. And he had to learn that sin could be covered not +by a bunch of leaves snatched from a bush as he passed by and that would +grow again next year, but only by pain and blood. Sin cannot be atoned +for by any mechanical action nor without expenditure of feeling. +Suffering must ever follow wrong-doing. From the first sin to the last, +the track of the sinner is marked with blood. Once we have sinned we +cannot regain permanent peace of conscience save through pain, and this +not only pain of our own. The first hint of this was given as soon as +conscience was aroused in man. It was made apparent that sin was a real +and deep evil, and that by no easy and cheap process could the sinner be +restored. The same lesson has been written on millions of consciences +since. Men have found that their sin reaches beyond their own life and +person, that it inflicts injury and involves disturbance and distress, +that it changes utterly our relation to life and to God, and that we +cannot rise above its consequences save by the intervention of God +Himself, by an intervention which tells us of the sorrow He suffers on +our account. + +For the chief point is that it is God who relieves man's shame. Until we +are certified that God desires our peace of mind we cannot be at peace. +The cross of Christ is the permanent witness to this desire on God's +part. No one can read what Christ has done for us without feeling sure +that for himself there is a way back to God from all sin--that it is +God's desire that his sin should be covered, his iniquity forgiven. Too +often that which seems of prime importance to God seems of very slight +importance to us. To have our life founded solidly in harmony with the +Supreme, seems often to excite no desire within us. It is about sin we +find man first dealing with God, and until you have satisfied God and +yourself regarding this prime and fundamental matter of your own +transgression and wrong-doing you look in vain for any deep and lasting +growth and satisfaction. Have you no reason to be ashamed before God? +Have you loved Him in any proportion to His worthiness to be loved? Have +you cordially and habitually fallen in with His will? Have you zealously +done His work in the world? Have you fallen short of no good He intended +you should do and gave you opportunity to do? Is there no reason for +shame on your part before God? Has His desire to cover sin no +application to you? Can you not understand His meaning when He comes to +you with offers of pardon and acts of oblivion? Surely the candid mind, +the clear-judging conscience can be at no loss to explain God's +solicitous concern for the sinner; and must humbly own that even that +unfathomable Divine emotion which is exhibited in the cross of Christ, +is no exaggerated and theatrical demonstration, but the actual carrying +through of what was really needed for the restoration of the sinner. Do +not live as if the cross of Christ had never been, or as if you had +never sinned and had no connection with it. Strive to learn what it +means; strive to deal fairly with it and fairly with your own +transgressions and with your present actual relation to God and His +will. + + + + +III. + +_CAIN AND ABEL._ + +GENESIS iv. + + +It is not the purpose of this narrator to write the history of the +world. It is not his purpose to write even the history of mankind. His +object is to write the history of redemption. Starting from the broad +fact of man's alienation from God, he means to trace that element in +human history which results in the perfect re-union of God and man. The +key-note has been struck in the promise already given that the seed of +the woman should prevail over the seed of the serpent, that the effects +of man's voluntary dissociation from God should be removed. It is the +fulfilment of this promise which is traced by this writer. He steadily +pursues that one line of history which runs directly towards this +fulfilment; turning aside now and again to pursue, to a greater or less +distance, diverging lines, but always returning to the grand highway on +which the promise travels. His method is first to dispose of collateral +matter and then to proceed with his main theme. As here, he first +disposes of the line of Cain and then returns to Seth through whom the +line of promise is maintained. + +The first thing we have to do with outside the garden is death--the +curse of sin speedily manifests itself in its most terrible form. But +the sinner executes it himself. The first death is a murder. As if to +show that all death is a wrong inflicted on us and proceeds not from God +but from sin, it is inflicted by sin and by the hand of man. Man becomes +his own executioner, and takes part with Satan, the murderer from the +beginning. But certainly the first feeling produced by these events must +have been one of bitter disappointment, as if the promise were to be +lost in the curse. + +The story of Cain and Abel was to all appearance told in order to point +out that from the very first men have been divided into two great +classes, viewed in connection with God's promise and presence in the +world. Always there have been those who believed in God's love and +waited for it, and those who believed more in their own force and +energy. Always there have been the humble and self-diffident who hoped +in God, and the proud and self-reliant who felt themselves equal to all +the occasions of life. And this story of Cain and Abel and the +succeeding generations does not conceal the fact, that for the purposes +of this world there has been visible an element of weakness in the godly +line, and that it is to the self-reliant and God-defying energy of the +descendants of Cain that we owe much of the external civilisation of the +world. While the descendants of Seth pass away and leave only this +record, that they "walked with God," there are found among Cain's +descendants, builders of cities, inventors of tools and weapons, music +and poetry and the beginnings of culture. + +These two opposed lines are in the first instance represented by Cain +and Abel. With each child that comes into the world some fresh hope is +brought; and the name of Cain points to the expectation of his parents +that in him a fresh start would be made. Alas! as the boy grew they saw +how vain such expectation was and how truly their nature had passed into +his, and how no imparted experience of theirs, taught him from without, +could countervail the strong propensities to evil which impelled him +from within. They experienced that bitterest punishment which parents +undergo, when they see their own defects and infirmities and evil +passions repeated in their children and leading them astray as they once +led themselves; when in those who are to perpetuate their name and +remembrance on earth they see evidence that their faults also will be +perpetuated; when in those whom they chiefly love they have a mirror +ceaselessly held up to them forcing them to remember the follies and +sins of their own youth. Certainly in the proud, self-willed, sullen +Cain no redemption was to be found. + +Both sons own the necessity of labour. Man is no longer in the primitive +condition, in which he had only to stretch out his hand when hungry, and +satisfy his appetite. There are still some regions of the earth in which +the trees shower fruit, nutritious and easily preserved, on men who shun +labour. Were this the case throughout the world, the whole of life would +be changed. Had we been created self-sufficing or in such conditions as +involved no necessity of toil, nothing would be as it now is. It is the +need of labour that implies occasional starvation and frequent poverty, +and gives occasion to charity. It is the need of labour which involves +commerce and thereby sows the seed of greed, worldliness, ambition, +drudgery. The ultimate physical wants of men, food and clothes, are the +motive of the greater part of all human activity. Trace to their causes +the various industries of men, the wars, the great social movements, +all that constitutes history, and you find that the bulk of all that is +done upon earth is done because men must have food and wish to have it +as good and with as little labour as possible. The broad facts of human +life are in many respects humiliating. + +The disposition of men is consequently shown in the occupations they +choose and the idea of life they carry into them. Some, like Abel, +choose peaceful callings that draw out feeling and sympathy; others +prefer pursuits which are stirring and active. Cain chose the tillage of +the ground, partly no doubt from the necessity of the case, but probably +also with the feeling that he could subdue nature to his own purposes +notwithstanding the curse that lay upon it. Do we not all sometimes feel +a desire to take the world as it is, curse and all, and make the most of +it; to face its disease with human skill, its disturbing and destructive +elements with human forethought and courage, its sterility and +stubbornness with human energy and patience? What is stimulating men +still to all discovery and invention, to forewarn seamen of coming +storms, to break a precarious passage for commerce through eternal ice +or through malarious swamps, to make life at all points easier and more +secure? Is it not the energy which opposition excites? We know that it +will be hard work; we expect to have thorns and thistles everywhere, but +let us see whether this may not after all be a thoroughly happy world, +whether we cannot cultivate the curse altogether out of it. This is +indeed the very work God has given man to do--to subdue the earth and +make the desert blossom as the rose. God is with us in this work, and he +who believes in God's purpose and strives to reclaim nature and compel +it to some better products than it naturally yields, is doing God's +work in the world. The misery is that so many do it in the spirit of +Cain, in a spirit of self-confident or sullen alienation from God, +willing to endure all hardship but unable to lay themselves at God's +feet with every capacity for work and every field He has given them to +till for Him and in a spirit of humble love to co-operate with Him. To +this spirit of godless energy, of merely selfish or worldly ambition and +enterprise, the world owes not only much of its poverty and many of its +greatest disasters, but also the greater part of its present advantages +in external civilisation. But from this spirit can never arise the +meekness, the patience, the tenderness, the charity which sweeten the +life of society and are more to be desired than gold; from this spirit +and all its achievements the natural outcome is the proud, vindictive, +self-glorifying war-song of a Lamech. + +The incompatibility of the two lines and the persecuting spirit of the +godless are set forth by the after history of Cain and Abel. The one +line is represented in Cain, who with all his energy and indomitable +courage, is depicted as of a dark, morose, suspicious, jealous, violent +temper; a man born under the shadow of the fall. Abel is described in +contrast as guileless and sunny, free from harshness and resentment. +What was in Cain was shown by what came out of him, murder. The reason +of the rejection of his offering was his own evil condition of heart. +"If thou doest well, shalt not thou also be accepted;" implying that he +was not accepted because he was not doing well. His offering was a mere +form; he complied with the fashion of the family; but in spirit he was +alienated from God, cherishing thoughts which the rejection of his +offering brings to a head. He may have seen that the younger son won +more of the parents' affection, that his company was more welcome. +Jealousy had been produced, that deep jealousy of the humble and godly +which proud men of the world cannot help betraying and which has so very +often in the world's history produced persecution. + +This cannot be considered too weak a motive to carry so enormous a +crime. Even in a highly civilised age we find an English statesman +saying: "Pique is one of the strongest motives in the human mind. Fear +is strong but transient. Interest is more lasting, perhaps, and steady, +but weaker; I will ever back pique against them both. It is the spur the +devil rides the noblest tempers with, and will do more work with them in +a week, than with other poor jades in a twelve-month." And the age of +Cain and Abel was an age in which impulse and action lay close together, +and in which jealousy is notoriously strong. To this motive John +ascribes the act: "Wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were +evil, and his brother's righteous." + +We have now learned better how to disguise our feelings; and we are +compelled to control them better; but now and again we meet with a +deep-seated hatred of goodness which might give rise to almost any +crime. Few of us can say that for our own part we have extinguished +within us the spirit that disparages and depreciates and fixes the +charge of hypocrisy or refers good actions to interested motives, +searches out failings and watches for haltings and is glad when a blot +is found. Few are filled with unalloyed grief when the man who has borne +an extraordinary reputation turns out to be just like the rest of us. +Many of us have a true delight in goodness and humble ourselves before +it when we see it, and yet we know also what it is to be exasperated by +the presence of superiority. I have seen a schoolboy interrupt his +brother's prayers, and gird at him for his piety, and strive to draw him +into sin, and do the devil's work with zest and diligence. And where +goodness is manifestly in the minority how constantly does it excite +hatred that pours itself out in sneers and ridicule and ignorant +calumny. + +But this narrative significantly refers this early quarrel to religion. +There is no bitterness to compare with that which worldly men who +profess religion, feel towards those who cultivate a spiritual religion. +They can never really grasp the distinction between external worship and +real godliness. They make their offerings, they attend to the rites of +the religion to which they belong and are beside themselves with +indignation if any person or event suggests to them that they might have +saved themselves all their trouble, because these do not at all +constitute religion. They uphold the Church, they admire and praise her +beautiful services, they use strong but meaningless language about +infidelity, and yet when brought in contact with spirituality and +assured that regeneration and penitent humility are required above all +else in the kingdom of God, they betray an utter inability to comprehend +the very rudiments of the Christian religion. Abel has always to go to +the wall because he is always the weaker party, always in the minority. +Spiritual religion, from the very nature of the case, must always be in +the minority; and must be prepared to suffer loss, calumny, and +violence, at the hands of the worldly religious, who have contrived for +themselves a worship that calls for no humiliation before God and no +complete surrender of heart and will to Him. Cain is the type of the +ignorant religious, of the unregenerate man who thinks he merits God's +favour as much as any one else; and Cain's conduct is the type of the +treatment which the Christ-like and intelligent godly are always likely +to receive at such hands. + +We never know where we may be led by jealousy and malice. One of the +striking features of this incident is the rapidity with which small sins +generate great ones. When Cain went in the joy of harvest and offered +his first fruits no thought could be further from his mind than murder. +It may have come as suddenly on himself as on the unsuspecting Abel, but +the germ was in him. Great sins are not so sudden as they seem. +Familiarity with evil thought ripens us for evil action; and a moment of +passion, an hour's loss of self-control, a tempting occasion, may hurry +us into irremediable evil. And even though this does not happen, +envious, uncharitable, and malicious thoughts make our offerings as +distasteful as Cain's. He that loveth not his brother knoweth not God. +First be reconciled to thy brother, says our Lord, and then come and +offer thy gift. + +Other truths are incidentally taught in this narrative. + +(1) The acceptance of the offering depends on the acceptance of the +offerer. God had respect to Abel and his offering--the man first and +then the offering. God looks through the offering to the state of soul +from which it proceeds; or even, as the words would indicate, sees the +soul first and judges and treats the offering according to the inward +disposition. God does not judge of what you are by what you say to Him +or do for Him, but He judges what you say to Him and do for Him by what +you are. "By _faith_" says a New Testament writer, "Abel offered a more +acceptable sacrifice than Cain." He had the faith which enabled him to +believe that God is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently +seek Him. His attitude towards God was sound; his life was a diligent +seeking to please God; and from all such persons God gladly receives +acknowledgment. When the offering is the true expression of the soul's +gratitude, love, devotedness, then it is acceptable. When it is a merely +external offering, that rather veils than expresses the real feeling; +when it is not vivified and rendered significant by any spiritual act on +the part of the worshipper, it is plainly of no effect. + +What is true of all sacrifices is true of the sacrifice of Christ. It +remains invalid and of none effect to those who do not through it yield +themselves to God. Sacrifices were intended to be the embodiment and +expression of a state of feeling towards God, of a submission or +offering of men's selves to God; of a return to that right relation +which ought ever to subsist between creature and Creator. Christ's +sacrifice is valid for us when it is that outward thing which best +expresses our feeling towards God and through which we offer or yield +ourselves to God. His sacrifice is the open door through which God +freely admits all who aim at a consecration and obedience like to His. +It is valid for us when through it we sacrifice ourselves. Whatever His +sacrifice expresses we desire to take and use as the only satisfactory +expression of our own aims and desires. Did Christ perfectly submit to +and fulfil the will of God? So would we. Did He acknowledge the infinite +evil of sin and patiently bear its penalties, still loving the Holy and +Righteous God? So would we endure all chastening, and still resist unto +blood striving against sin. + +(2) Again, we here find a very sharp and clear statement of the welcome +truth, that continuance in sin is never a necessity, that God points the +way out of sin, and that from the first He has been on man's side and +has done all that could be done to keep men from sinning. Observe how He +expostulates with Cain. Take note of the plain, explicit fairness of the +words in which He expostulates with him--instance, as it is, of how +absolutely in the right God always is, and how abundantly He can justify +all His dealings with us. God says as it were to Cain; Come now: and let +us reason together. All God wants of any man is to be reasonable; to +look at the facts of the case. "If thou doest well, shalt thou not (as +well as Abel) be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the +door," that is, if thou doest not well, the sin is not Abel's nor any +one's but thine own, and therefore anger at another is not the proper +remedy, but anger at yourself, and repentance. + +No language could more forcibly exhibit the unreasonableness of not +meeting God with penitent and humble acknowledgment. God has fully met +our case, and has satisfied all its demands, has set Himself to serve us +and laid Himself out to save us pain and misery, and has so entirely +succeeded in making salvation and blessedness possible to us, that if we +continue in sin we must trample not only upon God's love and our own +reason, but on the very means of salvation. State your case at the +worst, bring forward every reason why your countenance should be fallen +as Cain's and why your face should lower with the gloom of eternal +despair--say that you have as clear evidence as Cain had that your +offerings are displeasing to God, and that while others are accepted you +receive no token from Him,--in answer to all your arguments, these +words addressed to Cain rise up. If not accepted already you have the +means of being so. If you do well to be hardened in sin it is not +because it is necessary, nor because God desires it. If you are to +continue in sin you must put aside His hand. It can only be _sin_ which +causes you either to despair of salvation or keeps you any way separate +from God--there is no other thing worse than sin, and for sin there is +an offering provided. You have not fallen into some lower grade of +beings than that which is designated sinners, and it is sinners that God +in His mercy hems in with this inevitable dilemma He presented to Cain. + +If, therefore, you continue at war with God it is not because you must +not do otherwise: if you go forward to any new thought, plan, or action +unpardoned; if acceptance of God's forgiveness and entrance into a state +of reconciliation with Him be not your first action, then you must +thrust aside His counsel, backed though it is with every utterance of +your own reason. Some of us may be this day or this week in as critical +a position as Cain, having as truly as he the making or marring of our +future in our hands, seeing clearly the right course, and all that is +good, humble, penitent and wise in us urging us to follow that course, +but our pride and self-will holding us back. How often do men thus +barter a future of blessing for some mean gratification of temper or +lust or pride; how often by a reckless, almost listless and indifferent +continuance in sin do they let themselves be carried on to a future as +woful as Cain's; how often when God expostulates with them do they make +no answer and take no action, as if there were nothing to be gained by +listening to God--as if it were a matter of no importance what future I +go to--as if in the whole eternity that lies in reserve there were +nothing worth making a choice about--nothing about which it is worth my +while to rouse the whole energy of which I am capable, and to make, by +God's grace, the determination which shall alter my whole future--to +choose for myself and assert myself. + +(3) The writer to the Hebrews makes a very striking use of this event. +He borrows from it language in which to magnify the efficacy of Christ's +sacrifice, and affirms that the blood of Christ speaketh better things, +or, as it must rather be rendered, crieth louder than the blood of Abel. +Abel's blood, we see, cried for vengeance, for evil things for Cain, +called God to make inquisition for blood, and so pled as to secure the +banishment of the murderer. The Arabs have a belief that over the grave +of a murdered man his spirit hovers in the form of a bird that cries +"Give me drink, give me drink," and only ceases when the blood of the +murderer is shed. Cain's conscience told him the same thing; there was +no criminal law threatening death to the murderer, but he felt that men +would kill him if they could. He heard the blood of Abel crying from the +earth. The blood of Christ also cries to God, but cries not for +vengeance but for pardon. And as surely as the one cry was heard and +answered in very substantial results; so surely does the other cry call +down from heaven its proper and beneficent effects. It is as if the +earth would not receive and cover the blood of Christ, but ever exposes +it before God and cries to Him to be faithful and just to forgive us our +sins. This blood cries louder than the other. If God could not overlook +the blood of one of His servants, but adjudged to it its proper +consequences, neither is it possible that He should overlook the blood +of His Son and not give to it its proper result. + +If then you feel in your conscience that you are as guilty as Cain, and +if sins clamour around you which are as dangerous as his, and which cry +out for judgment upon you, accept the assurance that the blood of Christ +has a yet louder cry for mercy. If you had been Abel's murderer, would +you have been justly afraid of God's anger? Be as sure of God's mercy +now. If you had stood over his lifeless body and seen the earth refusing +to cover his blood, if you felt the stain of it crimson on your +conscience and if by night you started from your sleep striving vainly +to wash it from your hands, if by every token you felt yourself exposed +to a just punishment, your fear would be just and reasonable were +nothing else revealed to you. But there is another blood equally +indelible, equally clamorous. In it you have in reality what is +elsewhere pretended in fable, that the blood of the murdered man will +not wash out, but through every cleansing oozes up again a dark stain on +the oaken floor. This blood can really not be washed out, it cannot be +covered up and hid from God's eye, its voice cannot be stifled, and its +cry is all for mercy. + +With how different a meaning then comes now to us this question of +God's: "Where is thy brother?" Our Brother also is slain. Him Whom God +sent among us to reverse the curse, to lighten the burden of this life, +to be the loving member of the family on Whom each leans for help and +looks to for counsel and comfort--Him Who was by His goodness to be as +the dayspring from on high in our darkness, we found _too_ good for our +endurance and dealt with as Cain dealt with his more righteous brother. +But He Whom we slew God has raised again to give repentance and +remission of sins, and assures us that His blood cleanseth from all sin. +To every one therefore He repeats this question, "Where is thy brother?" +He repeats it to every one who is living with a conscience stained with +sin; to every one that knows remorse and walks with the hanging head of +shame; to every one whose whole life is saddened by the consciousness +that all is not settled between God and himself; to every one who is +sinning recklessly as if Christ's blood had never been shed for sin; and +to every one who, though seeking to be at peace with God, is troubled +and downcast--to all God says, "Where is thy brother?" tenderly +reminding us of the absolute satisfaction for sin that has been made, +and of the hope towards God we have through the blood of His Son. + + + + +IV. + +_CAIN'S LINE, AND ENOCH._ + +GENESIS iv. 12-24. + + +"My punishment is greater than I can bear," so felt Cain as soon as his +passion had spent itself and the consequences of his wickedness became +apparent--and so feels every one who finds he has now to live in the +presence of the irrevocable deed he has done. It seems too heavy a +penalty to endure for the one hour of passion; and yet as little as Cain +could rouse the dead Abel so little can we revive the past we have +destroyed. Thoughtlessness has set in motion agencies we are powerless +to control; the whole world is changed to us. One can fancy Cain turning +to see if his victim gave no sign of life, striving to reanimate the +dead body, calling the familiar name, but only to see with growing +dismay that the one blow had finished all with which that name was +associated, and that he had made himself a new world. So are we drawn +back and back in thought to that which has for ever changed life to us, +striving to see if there is no possibility of altering the past, but +only to find we might quite as well try to raise the dead. No voice +responds to our cries of grief and dismay and too late repentance. All +life now seems but a reaping of the consequences of the past. We have +put ourselves in every respect at a disadvantage. The earth seems +cursed so that we are hampered in our employments and cannot make as +much of them as we would had we been innocent. We have got out of right +relations to our fellow-men and cannot feel the same to them as we ought +to feel; and the face of God is hid from us, so that now and again as +time after time our hopes are blighted, our life darkened and disturbed +by the obvious results of our own past deeds, we are tempted to cry out +with Cain: "My punishment is greater than I can bear." + +Yet Cain's punishment was less than he expected. He was not put to death +as he would have been at any later period of the world's history, but +was banished. And even this punishment was lightened by his having a +token from God, that he would not be put to death by any zealous avenger +of Abel. He would experience the hardships of a man entering unexplored +territory, but to an enterprising spirit this would not be without its +charms. As the fresh beauties of the world's youth were disclosed to him +and by their bright and peaceful friendliness allayed the bitterness of +his spirit, and as the mysteries and dangers of the new regions excited +him and called his thoughts from the past, some of the old delight in +life may have been recovered by him. Probably in many a lonely hour the +recollection of his crime would return and with it all the horrors of a +remorse which would drive rest and peace from his soul, and render him +the most wretched of men. But busied as he was with his new enterprises, +there is little doubt that he would find it, as it is still found, not +impossible to banish such dreary thoughts and live in the measure of +contentment which many enjoy who are as far from God as Cain. + +It is not difficult to detect the spirit he carried with him, and the +tone he gave to his line of the race. The facts recorded are few but +significant. He begat a son, he built a city; and he gave to both the +name Enoch, that is "initiation," or "beginning," as if he were saying +in his heart, "What so great harm after all in cutting short one line in +Abel? I can begin another and find a new starting point for the race. I +am driven forth cursed as a vagabond, but a vagabond I will not be; I +will make for myself a settled abode, and I will fence it round with +knife-blade thorns so that no man will be able to assault me." + +In this settling of Cain, however, we see not any symptom of his ceasing +to be a vagabond, but the surest evidence that now he was content to be +a fugitive from God and had cut himself off from hope. His heart had +found rest and had found it apart from God. _Here_, in this city he +would make a fresh beginning for himself and for men. Here he abandoned +all clinging memories of former things, of his old home and of the God +there worshipped. He had wisdom enough not to call his city by his own +name, and so invite men to consider his former career or trace back +anything to his old life. He cut it all off from him; his crime, his God +also, all that was in it was to be no more to him and his comrades. He +would make a clean start, and that men might be led to expect a great +future he called his city, Enoch, a Beginning. + +But it is one thing to forgive ourselves, another thing to have God's +forgiveness. It is one thing to reconcile ourselves to the curse that +runs through our life, another thing to be reconciled to God and so +defeat the curse. It is sometimes, though by no means always, possible +to escape some of the consequences of sin: we can change our front so as +to lessen the breadth of life that is exposed to them, or we can +accustom and harden ourselves to a very second-rate kind of life. We can +teach ourselves to live without much love in our homes or in our +connections with those outside; we can learn to be satisfied if we can +pay our way and make the time pass and be outwardly like other people; +we can build a little city, and be content to be on no very friendly +terms with any but the select few inside the trench, and actually be +quite satisfied if we can _defend ourselves against_ the rest of men; we +can forget the one commandment, that we should love one another. We can +all find much in the world to comfort, to lull, to soothe sorrowful but +wholesome remembrances; much to aid us in an easy treatment of the +curse; much to shed superficial brightness on a life darkened and +debased by sin, much to hush up the sad echoes that mutter from the dark +mountains of vanity we have left behind us, much that assures us we have +nothing to do but forget our old sins and busily occupy ourselves with +new duties. But no David will say, nor will any man of true spiritual +discernment say, "Blessed is the man whose transgression is +_forgotten_;" but only, "Blessed is the man whose transgression is +forgiven." By all means make a fresh start, a new beginning, but let it +be in your own broken heart, in a spirit humble and contrite, frankly +acknowledging your guilt and finding rest and settlement for your soul +in reconciliation with God. + +It is in the family of Lamech the characteristics of Cain's line are +most distinctly seen, and the significance of their tendencies becomes +apparent. As Cain had set himself to cultivate the curse out of the +world, so have his children derived from him the self-reliant hardiness +and hardihood which are resolute to make of this world as bright and +happy a home as may be. They make it their task to subdue the world and +compel it to yield them a life in which they can delight. They are so +far successful that in a few generations they have formed a home in +which all the essentials of civilized life are found--the arts are +cultivated and female society is appreciated. + +Of his three sons, Jabal--or "Increase"--was "the father of such as +dwell in tents and of such as have cattle." He had originality enough to +step beyond all traditional habits and to invent a new mode of life. +Hitherto men had been tied to one spot by their fixed habitations, or +found shelter when overtaken by storm in caves or trees. To Jabal the +idea first occurs, I can carry my house about with me and regulate its +movements and not it mine. I need not return every night this long weary +way from the pastures, but may go wherever grass is green and streams +run cool. He and his comrades would thus become aware of the vast +resources of other lands, and would unconsciously lay the foundations +both of commerce and of wars of conquest. For both in ancient and more +modern times the most formidable armies have been those vast moving +shepherd races bred outside the borders of civilization and flooding as +with an irresistible tide the territories of more settled and less hardy +tribes. + +Jubal again was, as his name denotes, the reputed father of all such as +handle the harp and the organ, stringed and wind instruments. The stops +of the reed or flute and the divisions of the string being once +discovered, all else necessarily followed. The twanging of a bow-string +in a musical ear was enough to give the suggestion to an observant mind; +the varying notes of the birds; the winds expressing at one time +unbridled fury and at another a breathing benediction, could not fail to +move and stir the susceptible spirit. The spontaneous though untuned +singing of children, that follows no mere melody made by another to +express _his_ joy, but is the instinctive expression of their own joy, +could not but give however meagrely the first rudiments of music. But +here was the man who first made a piece of wood help him; who out of the +commonest material of the physical world found for himself a means of +expressing the most impalpable moods of his spirit. Once the idea was +caught that matter inanimate as well as animate was man's servant and +could do his finest work for him, Jabal and his brother Jubal would make +rapid work between them. If the rude matter of the world could _sing_ +for them, what might it not do for them? They would see that there was a +precision in machine-work which man's hand could not rival--a regularity +which no nervous throb could throw out and no feeling interrupt, and yet +at the same time when they found how these rude instruments responded to +every finest shade of feeling, and how all external nature seemed able +to express what was in man, must it not have been the birth of poetry as +well as of music? Jubal in short originates what we now compendiously +describe as the Fine Arts. + +The third brother again may be taken as the originator of the Useful +Arts--though not exclusively--for being the instructor of every +artificer in brass and iron, having something of his brother's genius +for invention and more than his brother's handiness and practical +faculty for embodying his ideas in material forms, he must have promoted +all arts which require tools for their culture. + +Thus among these three brothers we find distributed the various kinds of +genius and faculty which ever since have enriched the world. Here in +germ was really all that the world can do. The great lines in which +individual and social activity have since run were then laid down. + +This notable family circle was completed by Naamah, the sister of +Tubal-Cain. The strength of female influence began to be felt +contemporaneously with the cultivation of the arts. Very early in the +world's history it was perceived that although debarred from the rougher +activities of life, women have an empire of their own. Men have the +making of civilisation, but women have the making of men. It is they who +form the character of the individual and give its tone to the society in +which they live. It is natural to men to consider the feelings and +tastes of women and to adapt their manners and conversation to them; and +it is for women to exercise worthily the sway they thus possess. +Practically and to a large extent women settle what subjects shall be +spoken of, and in what tone, trifling or serious; and each ought +therefore to recognise her own burden of responsibility, and see to it +that the deference paid to her shall not lower him who pays it, and that +the respect shown to her shall help him who shows it to respect what is +pure and true, charitable, just, and worthy. Let women show that it is +worldly trifling or slanderous malignity or empty tittle-tattle that +delights them, then they act the part of Eve and tempt to sin; let them +show that they prize most highly the mirth that is innocent and the +conversation that is elevating and helpful, and while they win +admiration for themselves they win it also for what is healthy and +purifying. No woman can renounce her influence; helpful or hurtful she +certainly is and must be in proportion as she is pleasing and +attractive. + +Thus early did it appear how much of what is admirable and serviceable +clung to human nature apart from any recognition of God. The worldly +life was then what it is now, a life not wholly and obviously polluted +by excess, nor destroyed by violence, but displaying features which +appeal to our sensibilities and provoke applause; a life of manifold +beauty, of great power and resource, of abundant promise. There is +abundant material in the world for beautifying and elevating human life, +and this material may be used and is used by men who acknowledge neither +its origin in God nor the ends He would serve by it. The interests of +men may be advanced and the best work of the world done by three +distinct classes of men--by those who work as God's children in thorough +sympathy with His purposes; by those who do not know God but who are +humble in heart and would sympathise with God's purposes, did they +become acquainted with them; and by those who are proud and self-willed, +positively alienated from God, and who do the world's work for their own +ends. And so far as the external work goes the last-named class of men +may be most efficient. In mental endowment, social and political wisdom, +scientific aptitude, and all that tends to substantial utility, it is +quite possible they may excel the godly, for "not many noble, not many +wise are called." But we have nothing to measure permanent success by, +save conformity with God's will; and we have nothing by which we can +estimate how character will endure and how deeply it is rooted save +conformity with the nature of God. If a man believes in God, in one +Supreme Who rules and orders all things for just, holy and wise ends; +if he is in sympathy with the nature and will of God and finds his +truest satisfaction in forwarding the purposes of God, then you have a +guarantee for this man's continuance in good and for his ultimate +success. + +The precarious nature of all godless civilisation and the real tendency +of self-sufficing pride are shown in Lamech. + +It is in Lamech the tendency culminates and in him the issue of all this +brilliant but godless life is seen. Therefore though he is the father, +the historian speaks of him _after_ his children. In his one recorded +utterance his character leaps to view definite and complete--a character +of boundless force, self-reliance and godlessness. It is a little +uncertain whether he means that he has actually slain a man, or whether +he is putting a hypothetical case--the character of his speech is the +same whichever view is taken. + + "I have slain," he says, or suppose I slay, "a man for wounding me, + A young man for hurting me: + But if Cain shall be avenged seven-fold--then Lamech seventy and + seven-fold." + +That is, I take vengeance for myself with those good weapons my son has +forged for me. He has furnished me with a means of defence many times +more effectual than God's avenging of Cain. This is the climax of the +self-sufficiency to which the line of Cain has been tending. Cain +besought God's protection; he needed God for at least one purpose, this +one thread bound him yet to God. Lamech has no need of God for any +purpose; what his sons can make and his own right hand do is enough for +him. This is what comes of finding enough in the world without God--a +boastful, self-sufficient man, dangerous to society, the incarnation of +the pride of life. In the long run separation from God becomes isolation +from man and cruel self-sufficiency. + +The line of Seth is followed from father to son, for the sake of showing +that the promise of a seed which should be victorious over evil was +being fulfilled. Apparently it is also meant that during this uneventful +period long ages elapsed. Nothing can be told of these old world people +but that they lived and died, leaving behind them heirs to transmit the +promise. + +Only once is the monotony broken; but this in so striking a manner as to +rescue us from the idea that the historian is mechanically copying a +barren list of names. For in the seventh generation, contemporaneous +with the culmination of Cain's line in the family of Lamech, we come +upon the simple but anything but mechanical statement: "Enoch walked +with God and he was not; for God took him." The phrase is full of +meaning. Enoch walked with God because he was His friend and liked His +company, because he was going in the same direction as God, and had no +desire for anything but what lay in God's path. We walk with God when He +is in all our thoughts; not because we consciously think of Him at all +times, but because He is naturally suggested to us by all we think of; +as when any person or plan or idea has become important to us, no matter +what we think of, our thought is always found recurring to this +favourite object, so with the godly man everything has a connection with +God and must be ruled by that connection. When some change in his +circumstances is thought of, he has first of all to determine how the +proposed change will affect his connection with God--will his conscience +be equally clear, will he be able to live on the same friendly terms +with God and so forth. When he falls into sin he cannot rest till he +has resumed his place at God's side and walks again with Him. This is +the general nature of walking with God; it is a persistent endeavour to +hold all our life open to God's inspection and in conformity to His +will; a readiness to give up what we find does cause any +misunderstanding between us and God; a feeling of loneliness if we have +not some satisfaction in our efforts at holding fellowship with God, a +cold and desolate feeling when we are conscious of doing something that +displeases Him. This walking with God necessarily tells on the whole +life and character. As you instinctively avoid subjects which you know +will jar upon the feelings of your friend, as you naturally endeavour to +suit yourself to your company, so when the consciousness of God's +presence begins to have some weight with you, you are found +instinctively endeavouring to please Him, repressing the thoughts you +know He disapproves, and endeavouring to educate such dispositions as +reflect His own nature. + +It is easy then to understand how we may practically walk with God--it +is to open to Him all our purposes and hopes, to seek His judgment on +our scheme of life and idea of happiness--it is to be on thoroughly +friendly terms with God. Why then do any not walk with God? Because they +seek what is wrong. You would walk with Him if the same idea of good +possessed you as possesses Him; if you were as ready as He to make no +deflexion from the straight path. Is not the very crown of life depicted +in the testimony given to Enoch, that "he pleased God"? Cannot you take +your way through life with a resolute and joyous spirit if you are +conscious that you please Him Who judges not by appearances, not by your +manners, but by your real state, by your actual character and the +eternal promise it bears? Things were not made easy to Enoch. In evil +days, with much to mislead him, with everything to oppose him, he had by +faith and diligent seeking, as the Epistle to the Hebrews says, to +cleave to the path on which God walked, often left in darkness, often +thrown off the track, often listening but unable to hear the footfall of +God or to hear his own name called upon, receiving no sign but still +diligently seeking the God he knew would lead him only to good. Be it +yours to give such diligence. Do not accept it as a thing fixed that you +are to be one of the graceless and ungodly, always feeble, always +vacillating, always without a character, always in doubt about your +state, and whether life might not be some other and better thing to you. + +"Enoch was not, for God took him." Suddenly his place on earth was empty +and men drew their own conclusions. He had been known as the Friend of +God, where could he be but in God's dwelling-place? No sickness had +slowly worn him to the grave, no mark of decay had been visible in his +unabated vigour. His departure was a favour conferred and as such men +recognised it. "God has taken him," they said, and their thoughts +followed upward, and essayed to conceive the finished bliss of the man +whom God has taken away where blessing may be more fully conferred. His +age corresponded to our thirty-three, the age when the world has usually +got fair hold of a man, when a man has found his place in life and means +to live and see good days. The awkward, unfamiliar ways of youth that +keep him outside of much of life are past, and the satiety of age is not +yet reached; a man has begun to learn there is something he can do, and +has not yet learned how little. It is an age at which it is most +painful to relinquish life, but it was at this age God took him away, +and men knew it was in kindness. Others had begun to gather round him, +and depend upon him, hopes were resting in him, great things were +expected of him, life was strong in him. But let life dress itself in +its most attractive guise, let it shine on a man with its most +fascinating smile, let him be happy at home and the pleasing centre of a +pleasing circle of friends, let him be in that bright summer of life +when a man begins to fear he is too prosperous and happy, and yet there +is for man a better thing than all this, a thing so immeasurably and +independently superior to it that all this may be taken away and yet the +man be far more blessed. If God would confer His highest favours, He +must take a man out of all this and bring him closer to Himself. + + + + +V. + +_THE FLOOD._ + +GENESIS v.-ix. + + +The first great event which indelibly impressed itself on the memory of +the primeval world was the Flood. There is every reason to believe that +this catastrophe was co-extensive with the human population of the +world. In every branch of the human family traditions of the event are +found. These traditions need not be recited, though some of them bear a +remarkable likeness to the Biblical story, while others are very +beautiful in their construction, and significant in individual points. +Local floods happening at various times in different countries could not +have given birth to the minute coincidences found in these traditions, +such as the sending out of the birds, and the number of persons saved. +But we have as yet no material for calculating how far human population +had spread from the original centre. It might apparently be argued that +it could not have spread to the sea-coast, or that at any rate no ships +had as yet been built large enough to weather a severe storm; for a +thoroughly nautical population could have had little difficulty in +surviving such a catastrophe as is here described. But all that can be +affirmed is that there is no evidence that the waters extended beyond +the inhabited part of the earth; and from certain details of the +narrative, this part of the earth may be identified as the great plain +of the Euphrates and Tigris. + +Some of the expressions used in the narrative might indeed lead us to +suppose that the writer understood the catastrophe to have extended over +the whole globe; but expressions of similar largeness elsewhere occur in +passages where their meaning must be restricted. Probably the most +convincing evidence of the limited extent of the Flood is furnished by +the animals of Australia. The animals that abound in that island are +different from those found in other parts of the world, but are similar +to the species which are found fossilized in the island itself, and +which therefore must have inhabited these same regions long anterior to +the Flood. If then the Flood extended to Australia and destroyed all +animal life there, what are we compelled to suppose as the order of +events? We must suppose that the creatures, visited by some presentiment +of what was to happen many months after, selected specimens of their +number, and that these specimens by some unknown and quite inconceivable +means crossed thousands of miles of sea, found their way through all +kinds of perils from unaccustomed climate, food, and beasts of prey; +singled out Noah by some inscrutable instinct, and surrendered +themselves to his keeping. And after the year in the ark expired, they +turned their faces homewards, leaving behind them no progeny, again +preserving themselves intact, and transporting themselves by some +unknown means to their island home. This, if the Deluge was universal, +must have been going on with thousands of animals from all parts of the +globe; and not only were these animals a stupendous miracle in +themselves, but wherever they went they were the occasion of miracle in +others, all the beasts of prey refraining from their natural food. The +fact is, the thing will not bear stating. + +But it is not the physical but the moral aspects of the Flood with which +we have here to do. And, first, this narrator explains its cause. He +ascribes it to the abnormal wickedness of the antediluvians. To describe +the demoralised condition of society before the Flood, the strongest +language is used. "God saw that the wickedness of man was great," +monstrous in acts of violence, and in habitual courses and established +usages. "Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil +continually,"--there was no mixture of good, no relentings, no +repentances, no visitings of compunction, no hesitations and debatings. +It was a world of men fierce and energetic, violent and lawless, in +perpetual war and turmoil; in which if a man sought to live a righteous +life, he had to conceive it of his own mind and to follow it out unaided +and without the countenance of any. + +This abnormal wickedness again is accounted for by the abnormal +marriages from which the leaders of these ages sprang. Everything seemed +abnormal, huge, inhuman. As there are laid bare to the eye of the +geologist in those archaic times vast forms bearing a likeness to forms +we are now familiar with, but of gigantic proportions and wallowing in +dim, mist-covered regions; so to the eye of the historian there loom +through the obscurity colossal forms perpetrating deeds of more than +human savagery, and strength, and daring; heroes that seem formed in a +different mould from common men. + +However we interpret the narrative, its significance for us is plain. +There is nothing prudish in the Bible. It speaks with a manly frankness +of the beauty of women and its ensnaring power. The Mosaic law was +stringent against intermarriage with idolatresses, and still in the New +Testament something more than an echo of the old denunciation of such +marriages is heard. Those who were most concerned about preserving a +pure morality and a high tone in society were keenly alive to the +dangers that threatened from this quarter. It is a permanent danger to +character because it is to a permanent element in human nature that the +temptation appeals. To many in every generation, perhaps to the +majority, this is the most dangerous form in which worldliness presents +itself; and to resist this the most painful test of principle. With +natures keenly sensitive to beauty and superficial attractiveness, some +are called upon to make their choice between a conscientious cleaving to +God and an attachment to that which in the form is perfect but at heart +is defective, depraved, godless. Where there is great outward attraction +a man fights against the growing sense of inward uncongeniality, and +persuades himself he is too scrupulous and uncharitable, or that he is a +bad reader of character. There may be an undercurrent of warning; he may +be sensible that his whole nature is not satisfied and it may seem to +him ominous that what is best within him does not flourish in his new +attachment, but rather what is inferior, if not what is worst. But all +such omens and warnings are disregarded and stifled by some such silly +thought as that consideration and calculation are out of place in such +matters. And what is the result? The result is the same as it ever was. +Instead of the ungodly rising to the level of the godly, he sinks to +hers. The worldly style, the amusements, the fashions once distasteful +to him, but allowed for her sake, become familiar, and at last wholly +displace the old and godly ways, the arrangements that left room for +acknowledging God in the family; and there is one household less as a +point of resistance to the incursion of an ungodly tone in society, one +deserter more added to the already too crowded ranks of the ungodly, and +the life-time if not the eternity of one soul embittered. Not without a +consideration of the temptations that do actually lead men astray did +the law enjoin: "Thou shalt not make a covenant with the inhabitants of +the land, nor take of their daughters unto thy sons." + +It seems like a truism to say that a greater amount of unhappiness has +been produced by mismanagement, folly, and wickedness in the relation +subsisting between men and women than by any other cause. God has given +us the capacity of love to regulate this relation and be our safe guide +in all matters connected with it. But frequently, from one cause or +another, the government and direction of this relation are taken out of +the hands of love and put into the thoroughly incompetent hands of +convenience, or fancy, or selfish lust. A marriage contracted from any +such motive is sure to bring unhappiness of a long-continued, wearing +and often heart-breaking kind. Such a marriage is often the form in +which retribution comes for youthful selfishness and youthful +licentiousness. You cannot cheat nature. Just in so far as you allow +yourself to be ruled in youth by a selfish love of pleasure, in so far +do you incapacitate yourself for love. You sacrifice what is genuine and +satisfying, because provided by nature, to what is spurious, +unsatisfying, and shameful. You cannot afterwards, unless by a long and +bitter discipline, restore the capacity of warm and pure love in your +heart. Every indulgence in which true love is absent is another blow +given to the faculty of love within you--you make yourself in that +capacity decrepit, paralyzed, dead. You have lost, you have killed the +faculty that should be your guide in all these matters, and so you are +at last precipitated without this guidance into a marriage formed from +some other motive, formed therefore against nature, and in which you are +the everlasting victim of nature's relentless justice. Remember that you +cannot have both things, a youth of loveless pleasure and a loving +marriage--you must make your choice. For as surely as genuine love kills +all evil desire; so surely does evil desire kill the very capacity of +love, and blind utterly its wretched victim to the qualities that ought +to excite love. + +The language used of God in relation to this universal corruption +strikes every one as remarkable. "It repented the Lord that He had made +man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart." This is what is +usually termed anthropomorphism, _i.e._ the presenting of God in terms +applicable only to man; it is an instance of the same mode of speaking +as is used when we speak of God's hand or eye or heart. These +expressions are not absolutely true, but they are useful and convey to +us a meaning which could scarcely otherwise be expressed. Some persons +think that the use of these expressions proves that in early times God +was thought of as wearing a body and as being very like ourselves in His +inward nature. And even in our day we have been ridiculed for speaking +of God as a magnified man. Now in the first place the use of such +expressions does not prove that even the earliest worshippers of God +believed Him to have eyes and hands and a body. _We_ freely use the same +expressions though we have no such belief. We use them because our +language is formed for human uses and on a human level, and we have no +capacity to frame a better. And in the second place, though not +absolutely true they do help us towards the truth. We are told that it +degrades God to think of Him as hearing prayer and accepting praise; +nay, that to think of Him as a Person at all, is to degrade Him. We +ought to think of Him as the Absolutely Unknowable. But which degrades +God most, and which exalts Him most? If we find that it is impossible to +worship an absolutely unknowable, if we find that practically such an +idea is a mere nonentity to us, and that we cannot in point of fact pay +any homage or show any consideration to such an empty abstraction, is +not this really to lower God? And if we find that when we think of Him +as a Person, and ascribe to Him all human virtue in an infinite degree, +we can rejoice in Him and worship Him with true adoration, is not this +to exalt Him? While we call Him our Father we know that this title is +inadequate, while we speak of God as planning and decreeing we know that +we are merely making shift to express what is inexpressible by us--we +know that our thoughts of Him are never adequate and that to think of +Him at all is to lower Him, is to think of Him inadequately; but when +the practical alternative is such as it is, we find we do well to think +of Him with the highest personal attributes we can conceive. For to +refuse to ascribe such attributes to Him because this is degrading Him, +is to empty our minds of any idea of Him which can stimulate either to +worship or to duty. If by ridding our minds of all anthropomorphic ideas +and refusing to think of God as feeling, thinking, acting as men do, we +could thereby get to a really higher conception of Him, a conception +which would practically make us worship Him more devotedly and serve +Him more faithfully, then by all means let us do so. But if the result +of refusing to think of Him as in many ways like ourselves, is that we +cease to think of Him at all or only as a dead impersonal force, then +this certainly is not to reach a higher but a lower conception of Him. +And until we see our way to some truly higher conception than that which +we have of a Personal God, we had better be content with it. + +In short, we do well to be humble, and considering that we know very +little about existence of any kind, and least of all about God's, and +that our God has been presented to us in human form, we do well to +accept Christ as our God, to worship, love, and serve Him, finding Him +sufficient for all our wants of this life, and leaving it to other times +to get the solution of anything that is not made plain to us in Him. +This is one boon that the science and philosophy of our day have +unintentionally conferred upon us. They have laboured to make us feel +how remote and inaccessible God is, how little we can know Him, how +truly He is past finding out; they have laboured to make us feel how +intangible and invisible and incomprehensible God is, but the result of +this is that we turn with all the stronger longing to Him who is the +Image of the Invisible God, and on whom a voice has fallen from the +excellent glory, "This is My beloved Son, hear Him." + +The Flood itself we need not attempt to describe. It has been remarked +that though the narrative is vivid and forcible, it is entirely wanting +in that sort of description which in a modern historian or poet would +have occupied the largest space. "We see nothing of the death-struggle; +we hear not the cry of despair; we are not called upon to witness the +frantic agony of husband and wife, and parent and child, as they fled in +terror before the rising waters. Nor is a word said of the sadness of +the one righteous man, who, safe himself, looked upon the destruction +which he could not avert." The Chaldean tradition which is the most +closely allied to the Biblical account is not so reticent. Tears are +shed in heaven over the catastrophe, and even consternation affected its +inhabitants, while within the ark itself the Chaldean Noah says, "When +the storm came to an end and the terrible water-spout ceased, I opened +the window and the light smote upon my face. I looked at the sea +attentively observing, and the whole of humanity had returned to mud, +like seaweed the corpses floated. I was seized with sadness; I sat down +and wept and my tears fell upon my face." + +There can be little question that this is a true description of Noah's +feeling. And the sense of desolation and constraint would rather +increase in Noah's mind than diminish. Month after month elapsed; he was +coming daily nearer the end of his food, and yet the waters were +unabated. He did not know how long he was to be kept in this dark, +disagreeable place. He was left to do his daily work without any +supernatural signs to help him against his natural anxieties. The +floating of the ark and all that went on in it had no mark of God's hand +upon it. He was indeed _safe_ while others had been destroyed. But of +what good was this safety to be? Was he ever to get out of this +prison-house? To what straits was he to be first reduced? So it is often +with ourselves. We are left to fulfil God's will without any sensible +tokens to set over against natural difficulties, painful and pinching +circumstances, ill health, low spirits, failure of favourite projects +and old hopes--so that at last we come to think that perhaps safety is +all we are to have in Christ, a mere exemption from suffering of one +kind purchased by the endurance of much suffering of another kind; that +we are to be thankful for pardon on any terms; and escaping with our +_life_, must be content though it be bare. Why, how often does a +Christian wonder whether, after all, he has chosen a life that he can +endure, whether the monotony and the restraints of the Christian life +are not inconsistent with true enjoyment? + +This strife between the felt restriction of the Christian life and the +natural craving for abundant life, for entrance into all that the +world can show us, and experience of all forms of enjoyment--this +strife goes on unceasingly in the heart of many of us as it goes on +from age to age in the world. Which is the true view of life, which is +the view to guide _us_ in choosing and refusing the enjoyments and +pursuits that are presented to us? Are we to believe that the ideal +man for this life is he who has tasted all culture and delight, who +believes in nature, recognising no fall and seeking for no redemption, +and makes enjoyment his end; or he who sees that all enjoyment is +deceptive till man is set right morally, and who spends himself on +this, knowing that blood and misery must come before peace and rest, +and crowned as our King and Leader, not with a garland of roses, but +with the crown of Him Who is greatest of all, because servant of +all--to Whom the most sunken is not repulsive, and Who will not +abandon the most hopeless? This comes to be very much the question, +whether this life is final or preparatory?--whether, therefore, our +work in it should be to check lower propensities and develop and train +all that is best in character, so as to be fit for highest life and +enjoyment in a world to come--or should take ourselves as we find +ourselves, and delight in this present world? whether this is a placid +eternal state, in which things are very much as they should be, and in +which therefore we can live freely and enjoy freely; or whether it is +a disordered, initial condition in which our main task should be to do +a little towards putting things on a better rail and getting at least +the germ and small beginnings of future good planted in one another? +So that in the midst of all felt restriction, there is the highest +hope, that one day we shall go forth from the narrow precincts of our +ark, and step out into the free bright sunshine, in a world where +there is nothing to offend, and that the time of our deprivation will +seem to have been well spent indeed, if it has left within us a +capacity permanently to enjoy love, holiness, justice, and all that is +delighted in by God Himself. + +The use made of this event in the New Testament is remarkable. It is +compared by Peter to baptism, and both are viewed as illustrations of +salvation by destruction. The eight souls, he says, who were in the ark, +"were saved by water." The water which destroyed the rest saved them. +When there seemed little hope of the godly line being able to withstand +the influence of the ungodly, the Flood came and left Noah's family in a +new world, with freedom to order all things according to their own +ideas. In this Peter sees some analogy to baptism. In baptism, the +penitent who believes in the efficacy of Christ's blood to purge away +sin, lets his defilement be washed away and rises new and clean to the +life Christ gives. In Christ the sinner finds shelter for himself and +destruction for his sins. It is God's wrath against sin that saves us by +destroying our sins; just as it was the Flood which devastated the +world, that at the same time, and thereby, saved Noah and his family. + +In this event, too, we see the completeness of God's work. Often we feel +reluctant to surrender our sinful habits to so final a destruction as is +implied in being one with Christ. The expense at which holiness is to be +bought seems almost too great. So much that has given us pleasure must +be parted with; so many old ties sundered, a condition of holiness +presents an aspect of dreariness and hopelessness; like the world after +the flood, not a moving thing on the surface of the earth, everything +levelled, prostrate, and washed even with the ground; here the corpse of +a man, there the carcase of a beast; here mighty forest timber swept +prone like the rushes on the banks of a flooded stream, and there a city +without inhabitants, everything dank, dismal and repellent. But this is +only one aspect of the work; the beginning, necessary if the work is to +be thorough. If any part of the sinful life remain it will spring up to +mar what God means to introduce us to. Only that is to be preserved +which we can take with us into our ark. Only that is to pass on into our +life which we can retain while we are in true connection with Christ, +and which we think can help us to live as His friends, and to serve Him +zealously. + +This event then gives us some measure by which we can know how much God +will do to maintain holiness upon earth. In this catastrophe every one +who strives after godliness may find encouragement, seeing in it the +Divine earnestness of God for good and against evil. There is only one +other event in history that so conspicuously shows that holiness among +men is the object for which God will sacrifice everything else. There is +no need now of any further demonstration of God's purpose in this world +and His zeal for carrying it out. And may it not be expected of us His +children, that we stand in presence of the cross until our cold and +frivolous hearts catch something of the earnestness, the "resisting unto +blood striving against sin," which is exhibited there? The Flood has not +been forgotten by almost any people under heaven, but its moral result +is _nil_. But he whose memory is haunted by a dying Redeemer, by the +thought of One Whose love found its most appropriate and practical +result in dying for him, _is_ prevented from much sin, and finds in that +love the spring of eternal hope, that which his soul in the deep privacy +of his most sacred thoughts can feed upon with joy, that which he builds +himself round and broods over as his inalienable possession. + + + + +VI. + +_NOAH'S FALL._ + +GENESIS ix. 20-27. + + +Noah in the ark was in a position of present safety but of much anxiety. +No sign of any special protection on God's part was given. The waters +seem to stand at their highest level still; and probably the risk of the +ark's grounding on some impracticable peak, or precipitous hill-side, +would seem as great a danger as the water itself. Five months had +elapsed, and though the rain had ceased the sky was heavy and +threatening, and every day now was worth many measures of corn in the +coming harvest. A reflection of the anxiety within the ark is seen in +the expression, "And God remembered Noah." It was needful to say so, for +there was as yet no outward sign of this. + +To such anxieties all are subject who have availed themselves of the +salvation God provides. At the first there is an easy faith in God's +aid; there are many signs of His presence; the subjects in whom +salvation operates have no disposition or temptation to doubt that God +is with them and is working for them. But this initial stage is +succeeded by a very different state of things. We seem to be left to +ourselves to cope with the world and all its difficulties and +temptations in our own strength. Much as we crave some sign that God +remembers us, no sign is given. We no longer receive the same urgent +impulses to holiness of life; we have no longer the same freshness in +devotion as if speaking to a God at hand. There is nothing which of +itself and without reasoning about it says to us, Here is God's hand +upon me. + +In fact, the great part of our life has to be spent under these +conditions, and we need to hold some well-ascertained principle +regarding God's dealings, if our faith is to survive. And here in God's +treatment of Noah we see that God may as certainly be working for us +when not working directly upon us, as when His presence is palpable. His +absence from us is as needful as His presence. The clouds are as +requisite for our salvation as the sunny sky. When therefore we find +that salvation from sin is a much slower and more anxious matter than we +once expected it to be, we are not to suppose that God is not hearing +our prayers. When Noah day by day cried to God for relief, and yet night +after night found himself "cribb'd, cabin'd, and confined," with no sign +from God but such as faith could apprehend, depend upon it he had very +different feelings from those with which he first stepped into the ark. +And when we are left to one monotonous rut of duty and to an unchanging +and dry form of devotion, when we are called to learn to live by faith +not by sight, to learn that God's purposes with us are spiritual, and +that slow and difficult growth in self-command and holiness is the best +proof that He hears our prayers, we must strive to believe that this +also is a needful part of our salvation; and we must especially be on +our guard against supposing that as God has ceased to disclose Himself +to us, and so to make faith easy, we may cease to disclose ourselves to +Him. + +For this is the natural and very frequent result of such an experience. +Discouraged by the obscurity of God's ways and the difficulty of +believing when the mind is not sustained by success or by new thoughts +or manifest tokens of God's presence, we naturally cease to look for any +clear signs of God's concernment about our state, and rest from all +anxious craving to know God's will about us. To this temptation the +majority of Christian people yield, and allow themselves to become +indifferent to spiritual truth and increasingly interested in the +non-mysterious facts of the present world, attending to present duties +in a mechanical way, seeing that their families have enough to eat and +that all in their little ark are provided for. But to this temptation +Noah did not yield. Though to all appearance abandoned by God, he did +what he could to ascertain what was beyond his immediate sight and +present experience. He sent out his raven and his dove. Not satisfied +with his first enquiry by the raven, which could flit from one piece of +floating garbage to another, he sent out the dove, and continued to do +so at intervals of seven days. + +Noah sent out the raven first, probably because it had been the most +companionable bird and seemed the wisest, preferable to "the silly +dove;" but it never came back with God's message. And so has one often +found that an enquiry into God's will, the examination, for example, of +some portion of Scripture, undertaken with a prospect of success and +with good human helps, has failed, and has failed in this peculiar +ravenlike way; the enquiry has settled down on some worthless point, on +some rotting carcase, on some subject of passing interest or worldly +learning, and brings back no message of God to us. On the other hand, +the continued use, Sabbath after Sabbath, of God's appointed means, and +the patient waiting for some message of God to come to us through what +seems a most unlikely messenger, will often be rewarded. It may be but a +single leaf plucked off that we get, but enough to convince us that God +has been mindful of our need, and is preparing for us a habitable world. + +Many a man is like the raven, feeding himself on the destruction of +others, satisfied with knowing how God has dealt with others. He thinks +he has done his part when he has found out who has been sinning and what +has been the result. But the dove will not settle on any such +resting-place, and is dissatisfied until for herself she can pluck off +some token that God's anger is turned away and that now there is peace +on earth. And if only you wait God's time and renew your endeavours to +find such tokens, some assurance will be given you, some green and +growing thing, some living part, however small, of the new creation +which will certify you of your hope. + +On the first day of the first month, New Year's day, Noah removed the +covering of the ark, which seems to have stranded on the Armenian +tableland, and looked out upon the new world. He cannot but have felt +his responsibility, as a kind of second Adam. And many questionings must +have arisen in his mind regarding the relation of the new to the old. +Was there to be any connection with the old world at all, or was all to +begin afresh? Were the promises, the traditions, the events, the +genealogies of the old world of any significance now? The Flood +distinctly marked the going out of one order of things and the +establishment of another. Man's career and development, or what we call +history, had not before the Flood attained its goal. If this development +was not to be broken short off, and if God's purpose in creation was to +be fulfilled, then the world must still go on. Some worlds may perhaps +die young, as individuals die young. Others endure through hair-breadth +escapes and constant dangers, find their way like our planet through +showers of fire, and pass without collision the orbits of huge bodies, +carrying with them always, as our world does, the materials of their +destruction within themselves. But catastrophes do not cut short, but +evolve God's purposes. The Flood came that God's purpose might be +fulfilled. The course of nature was interrupted, the arrangements of +social and domestic life were overturned, all the works of men were +swept away that this purpose might be fulfilled. It was expedient that +one generation should die for all generations; and this generation +having been taken out of the way, fresh provision is made for the +co-operation of man with God. On man's part there is an emphatic +acknowledgment of God by sacrifice; on God's part there is a renewed +grant to man of the world and its fulness, a renewed assurance of His +favour. + +This covenant with Noah was on the plane of nature. It is man's natural +life in the world which is the subject of it. The sacredness of life is +its great lesson. Men might well wonder whether God did not hold life +cheap. In the old world violence had prevailed. But while Lamech's sword +may have slain its thousands, God had in the Flood slain tens of +thousands. The covenant, therefore, directs that human life must be +reverenced. The primal blessing is renewed. Men are to multiply and +replenish the earth; and the slaughter of a man was to be reckoned a +capital crime; and the maintenance of life was guaranteed by a special +clause, securing the regularity of the seasons. If, then, you ask, Was +this just a beginning again where Adam began? Did God just wipe out man +as a boy wipes his slate clean, when he finds his calculation is turning +out wrong? Had all these generations learned nothing; had the world not +grown at all since its birth?--the answer is, it had grown, and in two +most important respects,--it had come to the knowledge of the uniformity +of nature, and the necessity of human law. This great departure from the +uniformity of nature brought into strong relief its normal uniformity, +and gave men their first lesson in the recognition of a God who governs +by fixed laws. And they learned also from the Flood that wickedness must +not be allowed to grow unchecked and attain dimensions which nothing +short of a flood can cope with. + +Fit symbol of this covenant was the rainbow. Seeming to unite heaven and +earth, it pictured to those primitive people the friendliness existing +between God and man. Many nations have looked upon it as not merely one +of the most beautiful and striking objects in nature, but as the +messenger of heaven to men. And arching over the whole horizon, it +exhibits the all-embracing universality of the promise. They accepted it +as a sign that God has no pleasure in destruction, that He does not give +way to moods, that He does not always chide, that if weeping may endure +for a night joy is sure to follow. If any one is under a cloud, leading +a joyless, hopeless, heartless life, if any one has much apparent reason +to suppose that God has given him up to catastrophe, and lets things +run as they may, there is some satisfaction in reading this natural +emblem and recognising that without the cloud, nay, without the cloud +breaking into heavy sweeping rains, there cannot be the bow, and that no +cloud of God's sending is permanent, but will one day give place to +unclouded joy. Let the prayer of David be yours, "I know, O Lord, that +Thy judgments are right, and that Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted +me. Let, I pray Thee, Thy merciful kindness be for my comfort according +to Thy word unto Thy servant." + +It may be felt that the matters about which God spoke to Noah were +barely religious, certainly not spiritual. But to take God as our God in +any one particular is to take Him as our God for all. If we can eat our +daily bread as given to us by our Father in heaven, then we are heirs of +the righteousness which is by faith. It is because we wait for some +wonderful and out-of-the-way proofs that God is keeping faith with us +that we so much lack a real and living faith. If you think of God only +in connection with some spiritual difficulty, or if you are waiting for +some critical spiritual experience about which you may deal with +God,--if you are not transacting with Him about your daily work, about +your temporal wants and difficulties, about your friendships and your +tastes, about that which makes up the bulk of your thought, feeling, and +action, then you have yet to learn what living with God means. You have +yet to learn that God the Infinite Creator of all is present in all your +life. We are not in advance of Noah, but behind him, if we cannot speak +to God about common things. + +Besides, the relation of man to God was sufficiently determined by this +covenant. When any man in that age began to ask himself the question +which all men in all ages ask, How shall I win the favour of God? it +must, or it might, at once have struck him, Why, God has already +favoured me and has bound Himself to me by express and solemn pledges. +And radically this is all that any one needs to know. It is not a change +in God's attitude towards you that is required. What is required is that +you believe what is actually the case, that the Holy God loves you +already and is already seeking to bless you by making you like Himself. +Believe that, and let the faith of it sink more and more deeply into +your spirit, and you will find that you are saved from your sin. + +What remains to be told of Noah is full of moral significance. Rare +indeed is a _wholly_ good man; and happy indeed is he who throughout his +youth, his manhood, and his age lets principle govern all his actions. +The righteous and rescued Noah lying drunk on his tent-floor is a +sorrowful spectacle. God had given him the earth, and this was the use +he made of the gift; melancholy presage of the fashion of his posterity. +He had God to help him to bear his responsibilities, to refresh and +gladden him; but he preferred the fruit of his vineyard. Can the most +sacred or impressive memories secure a man against sin? Noah had the +memory of a race drowned for sin and of a year in solitude with God. Can +the dignity and weight of responsibility steady a man? This man knew +that to him God had declared His purpose and that he only could carry it +forward to fulfilment. In that heavy helpless figure, fallen insensible +in his tent, is as significant a warning as in the Flood. + +Noah's sin brings before us two facts about sin. First, that the +smaller temptations are often the most effectual. The man who is +invulnerable on the field of battle amidst declared and strong enemies +falls an easy prey to the assassin in his own home. When all the world +was against him, Noah was able to face single-handed both scorn and +violence, but in the midst of his vineyard, among his own people who +understood him and needed no preaching or proof of his virtue, he +relaxed. + +He was no longer in circumstances so difficult as to force him to watch +and pray, as to drive him to God's side. The temptations Noah had before +known were mainly from without; he now learnt that those from within are +more serious. Many of us find it comparatively easy to carry clean hands +before the public, or to demean ourselves with tolerable seemliness in +circumstances where the temptation may be very strong but is also very +patent; but how careless are we often in our domestic life, and how +little strain do we put upon ourselves in the company of those whom we +can trust. What petulance and irritability, what angry and slanderous +words, what sensuality and indolence could our own homes witness to! +Noah is not the only man who has walked uprightly and kept his garment +unspotted from the world so long as the eye of man was on him, but who +has lain uncovered on his own tent-floor. + +Secondly, we see here how a man may fall into new forms of sin, and are +reminded especially of one of the most distressing facts to be observed +in the world, viz., that men in their prime and even in their old age +are sometimes overtaken in sins of sensuality from which hitherto they +have kept themselves pure. We are very ready to think we know the full +extent of wickedness to which we may go; that by certain sins _we_ +shall never be much tempted. And in some of our predictions we may be +correct; our temperament or our circumstances may absolutely preclude +some sins from mastering us. Yet who has made but a slight alteration in +his circumstances, added a little to his business, made some new family +arrangements, or changed his residence, without being astonished to find +how many new sources of evil seem to have been opened within him? While +therefore you rejoice over sins defeated, beware of thinking your work +is nearly done. Especially let those of us who have for years been +fighting mainly against one sin beware of thinking that if only _that_ +were defeated we should be free from sin. As a man who has long suffered +from one bodily disease congratulates himself that at least he knows +what he may expect in the way of pain, and will not suffer as some other +man he has heard of does suffer; whereas though one disease may kill +others, yet some diseases only prepare the body for the assault of worse +ailments than themselves, and the constitution at last breaks up under a +combination of ills that make the sufferer a pity to his friends and a +perplexity to his physicians. And so is it in the spirit; you cannot say +that because you are so consumed by one infirmity, others can find no +room in you. In short, there is nothing that can secure us against the +unspeakable calamity of falling into new sins, except the direction +given by our Lord, "Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation." +There _is need_ of watching, else this precept had never been uttered; +too many things absolutely needful for us to do have to be enjoined upon +us to leave any room for the injunction of precepts that are +unnecessary, and he who is not watching has no security that he shall +not sin so as to be a scandal to his friends and a shame to himself. + +Noah's sin brought to light the character of his three sons--the coarse +irreverence of Ham, the dignified delicacy and honour of Shem and +Japheth. The bearing of men towards the sins of others is always a +touchstone of character. The full exposure of sin where good is expected +to come of the exposure and when it is done with sorrow and with shame +is one thing, and the exposure of sin to create a laugh and merely to +amuse is another. They are the true descendants of Ham, whether their +faces be black or white, and whether they go with no clothes or with +clothes that are the product of much thought and anxiety, who find +pleasure in the mere contemplation of deeds of shame, in real life, on +the boards of the theatre, in daily journals, or in works of fiction. +Extremes meet, and the savage grossness of Ham is found in many who +count themselves the last and finest product of culture. It is found +also in the harder and narrower set of modern investigators, who glory +in exposing the scientific weakness of our forefathers, and make a jest +of the mistakes of men to whom they owe much of their freedom, and whose +shoe latchet they are not worthy to tie, so far as the deeper moral +qualities go. + +But neither is religious society free from this same sin. The faults and +mistakes and sins of others are talked over, possibly with some show of +regret, but with, as we know, very little real shame and sadness, for +these feelings prompt us, not to talk them over in companies where no +good can be done in the way of remedy, but to cover them as these +sorrowing sons of Noah, with averted eye and humbled head. Charity is +the prime grace enjoined upon us and charity _covers_ a multitude of +sins. And whatever excuses for exposing others we may make, however we +may say it is only a love of truth and fair play that makes us drag to +light the infirmities of a man whom others are praising, we may be very +sure that if all _evil_ motives were absent this kind of evil speaking +would cease among us. But there is a malignity in sin that leaves its +bitter root in us all, and causes us to be glad when those whom we have +been regarding as our superiors are reduced to our poor level. And there +is a cowardliness in sin which cannot bear to be alone, and eagerly +hails every symptom of others being in the same condemnation. + +Before exposing another, think first whether your own conduct could bear +a similar treatment, whether you have never done the thing you desire to +conceal, said the thing you would blush to hear repeated, or thought the +thought you could not bear another to read. And if you be a Christian, +does it not become you to remember what you yourself have learnt of the +slipperiness of this world's ways, of your liability to fall, of your +sudden exposure to sin from some physical disorder, or some slight +mistake which greatly extenuates your sin, but which you could not plead +before another? And do you know nothing of the difficulty of conquering +one sin that is rooted in your constitution, and the strife that goes on +in a man's own soul and in secret though he show little immediate fruit +of it in his life before men? Surely it becomes us to give a man credit +for much good resolution and much sore self-denial and endeavour, even +when he fails and sins still, because such we know to be our own case, +and if we disbelieve in others until they can walk with perfect +rectitude, if we condemn them for one or two flaws and blemishes, we +shall be tempted to show the same want of charity towards ourselves, and +fall at length into that miserable and hopeless condition that believes +in no regenerating spirit nor in any holiness attainable by us. + + + + +VII. + +_THE CALL OF ABRAHAM._ + +GENESIS xi. 27-xii. 5. + + +With Abraham there opens a new chapter in the history of the race; a +chapter of the profoundest significance. The consequences of Abraham's +movements and beliefs have been limitless and enduring. All succeeding +time has been influenced by him. And yet there is in his life a +remarkable simplicity, and an entire absence of such events as impress +contemporaries. Among all the forgotten millions of his own time he +stands alone a recognisable and memorable figure. But around his figure +there gathers no throng of armed followers; with his name, no vast +territorial dominion, no new legislation, not even any work of +literature or art is associated. The significance of his life was not +military, nor legislative, nor literary, but religious. To him must be +carried back the belief in one God. We find him born and brought up +among idolaters; and although it is certain there were others besides +himself who here and there upon earth had dimly arrived at the same +belief as he, yet it is certainly from him the Monotheistic belief has +been diffused. Since his day the world has never been without its +explicit advocacy. It is his belief in the true God, in a God who +manifested His existence and His nature by responding to this belief, +it is this belief and the place he gave it as the regulating principle +of all his movements and thoughts, that have given him his everlasting +influence. + +With Abraham there is also introduced the first step in a new method +adopted by God in the training of men. The dispersion of men and the +divergence of their languages are now seen to have been the necessary +preliminary to this new step in the education of the world--the fencing +round of one people till they should learn to know God and understand +and exemplify His government. It is true, God reveals Himself to all men +and governs all; but by selecting one race with special adaptations, and +by giving to it a special training, God might more securely and more +rapidly reveal Himself to all. Each nation has certain characteristics, +a national character which grows by seclusion from the influences which +are forming other races. There is a certain mental and moral +individuality stamped upon every separate people. Nothing is more +certainly retained; nothing more certainly handed down from generation +to generation. It would therefore be a good practical means of +conserving and deepening the knowledge of God, if it were made the +national interest of a people to preserve it, and if it were closely +identified with the national characteristics. This was the method +adopted by God. He meant to combine allegiance to Himself with national +advantages, and spiritual with national character, and separation in +belief with a distinctly outlined and defensible territory. + +This method, in common with all Divine methods, was in strict keeping +with the natural evolution of history. The migration of Abraham occurred +in the epoch of migrations. But although for centuries before Abraham +new nations had been forming, none of them had belief in God as its +formative principle. Wave upon wave of warriors, shepherds, colonists +have left the prolific plains of Mesopotamia. Swarm after swarm has left +that busy hive, pushing one another further and further west and east, +but all have been urged by natural impulses, by hunger, commerce, love +of adventure and conquest. By natural likings and dislikings, by policy, +and by dint of force the multitudinous tribes of men were finding their +places in the world, the weaker being driven to the hills, and being +schooled there by hard living till their descendants came down and +conquered their conquerors. All this went on without regard to any very +high motives. As it was with the Goths who invaded Italy for her wealth, +as it is now with those who people America and Africa because there is +land or room enough, so it was then. But at last God selects one man and +says, "_I_ will make of thee a great nation." The origin of this nation +is not facile love of change nor lust of territory, but belief in God. +Without this belief this people had not been. No other account can be +given of its origin. Abraham is himself already the member of a tribe, +well-off and likely to be well-off; he has no large family to provide +for, but he is separated from his kindred and country, and led out to be +himself a new beginning, and this because, as he himself throughout his +life said, he heard God's call and responded to it. + +The city which claims the distinction of being Abraham's birthplace, or +at least of giving its name to the district where he was born, is now +represented by a few mounds of ruins rising out of the flat marshy +ground on the western bank of the Euphrates, not far above the point +where it joins its waters to those of the Tigris and glides on to the +Persian gulf. In the time of Abraham, Ur was the capital city which gave +its name to one of the most populous and fertile regions of the earth. +The whole land of Accad which ran up from the sea-coast to Upper +Mesopotamia (or Shinar) seems to have been known as Ur-ma, the land of +Ur. This land was of no great extent, being little if at all larger than +Scotland, but it was the richest of Asia. The high civilisation which +this land enjoyed even in the time of Abraham has been disclosed in the +abundant and multifarious Babylonian remains which have recently been +brought to light. + +What induced Terah to abandon so prosperous a land can only be +conjectured. It is possible that the idolatrous customs of the +inhabitants may have had something to do with his movements. For while +the ancient Babylonian records reveal a civilisation surprisingly +advanced, and a social order in some respects admirable, they also make +disclosures regarding the worship of the gods which must shock even +those who are familiar with the immoralities frequently fostered by +heathen religions. The city of Ur was not only the capital, it was the +holy city of the Chaldeans. In its northern quarter rose high above the +surrounding buildings the successive stages of the temple of the +moon-god, culminating in a platform on which the priests could both +accurately observe the motions of the stars and hold their night-watches +in honour of their god. In the courts of this temple might be heard +breaking the silence of midnight, one of those magnificent hymns, still +preserved, in which idolatry is seen in its most attractive dress, and +in which the Lord of Ur is invoked in terms not unworthy of the living +God. But in these same temple-courts Abraham may have seen the +firstborn led to the altar, the fruit of the body sacrificed to atone +for the sin of the soul; and here too he must have seen other sights +even more shocking and repulsive. Here he was no doubt taught that +strangely mixed religion which clung for generations to some members of +his family. Certainly he was taught in common with the whole community +to rest on the seventh day; as he was trained to look to the stars with +reverence and to the moon as something more than the light which was set +to rule the night. + +Possibly then Terah may have been induced to move northwards by a desire +to shake himself free from customs he disapproved. The Hebrews +themselves seem always to have considered that his migration had a +religious motive. "This people," says one of their old writings, "is +descended from the Chaldeans, and they sojourned heretofore in +Mesopotamia because they would not follow the gods of their fathers +which were in the land of Chaldea. For they left the way of their +ancestors and worshipped the God of heaven, the God whom they knew; so +they cast them out from the face of their gods, and they fled into +Mesopotamia and sojourned there many days. Then their God commanded them +to depart from the place where they sojourned and to go into the land of +Canaan." But if this is a true account of the origin of the movement +northwards, it must have been Abraham rather than his father who was the +moving spirit of it; for it is certainly Abraham and not Terah who +stands as the significant figure inaugurating the new era. + +If doubt rests on the moving cause of the migration from Ur, none rests +on that which prompted Abraham to leave Charran and journey towards +Canaan. He did so in obedience to what he believed to be a Divine +command, and in faith on what he understood to be a Divine promise. How +he became aware that a Divine command thus lay upon him we do not know. +Nothing could persuade him that he was not commanded. Day by day he +heard in his soul what he recognised as a Divine voice, saying: "Get +thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's +house, unto a land that I will show thee!" This was God's first +revelation of Himself to Abraham. Up to this time Abraham to all +appearance had no knowledge of any God but the deities worshipped by his +fathers in Chaldea. Now, he finds within himself impulses which he +cannot resist and which he is conscious he ought not to resist. He +believes it to be his duty to adopt a course which may look foolish and +which he can justify only by saying that his conscience bids him. He +recognises, apparently for the first time, that through his conscience +there speaks to him a God Who is supreme. In dependence on this God he +gathered his possessions together and departed. + +So far, one may be tempted to say, no very unusual faith was required. +Many a poor girl has followed a weakly brother or a dissipated father to +Australia or the wild west of America; many a lad has gone to the deadly +west coast of Africa with no such prospects as Abraham. For Abraham had +the double prospect which makes migration desirable. Assure the colonist +that he will find land and have strong sons to till and hold and leave +it to, and you give him all the motive he requires. These were the +promises made to Abraham--a land and a seed. Neither was there at this +period much difficulty in believing that both promises would be +fulfilled. The land he no doubt expected to find in some unoccupied +territory. And as regards the children, he had not yet faced the +condition that only through Sarah was this part of the promise to be +fulfilled. + +But the peculiarity in Abraham's abandonment of present certainties for +the sake of a future and unseen good is, that it was prompted not by +family affection or greed or an adventurous disposition, but by faith in +a God Whom no one but himself recognised. It was the first step in a +life-long adherence to an Invisible, Spiritual Supreme. It was that +first step which committed him to life-long dependence upon and +intercourse with One Who had authority to regulate his movements and +power to bless him. From this time forth all that he sought in life was +the fulfilment of God's promise. He staked his future upon God's +existence and faithfulness. Had Abraham abandoned Charran at the command +of a widely ruling monarch who promised him ample compensation, no +record would have been made of so ordinary a transaction. But this was +an entirely new thing and well worth recording, that a man should leave +country and kindred and seek an unknown land under the impression that +thus he was obeying the command of the unseen God. While others +worshipped sun, moon, and stars, and recognised the Divine in their +brilliance and power, in their exaltation above earth and control of +earth and its life, Abraham saw that there was something greater than +the order of nature and more worthy of worship, even the still small +voice that spoke within his own conscience of right and wrong in human +conduct, and that told him how his own life must be ordered. While all +around him were bowing down to the heavenly host and sacrificing to them +the highest things in human nature, he heard a voice falling from these +shining ministers of God's will, which said to him, "See thou do it not, +for we are thy fellow-servants; worship thou God!" This was the triumph +of the spiritual over the material; the acknowledgment that in God there +is something greater than can be found in nature; that man finds his +true affinity not in the things that are seen but in the unseen Spirit +that is over all. It is this that gives to the figure of Abraham its +simple grandeur and its permanent significance. + +Under the simple statement "The Lord said unto Abram, Get thee out of +thy country," there are probably hidden years of questioning and +meditation. God's revelation of Himself to Abram in all probability did +not take the determinate form of articulate command without having +passed through many preliminary stages of surmise and doubt and mental +conflict. But once assured that God is calling him, Abraham responds +quickly and resolutely. The revelation has come to a mind in which it +will not be lost. As one of the few theologians who have paid attention +to the method of revelation has said: "A Divine revelation does not +dispense with a certain character and certain qualities of mind in the +person who is the instrument of it. A man who throws off the chains of +authority and association must be a man of extraordinary independence +and strength of mind, although he does so in obedience to a Divine +revelation; because no miracle, no sign or wonder which accompanies a +revelation can by its simple stroke force human nature from the innate +hold of custom and the adhesion to and fear of established opinion; can +enable it to confront the frowns of men, and take up truth opposed to +general prejudice, except there is in the man himself, who is the +recipient of the revelation, a certain strength of mind and +independence which concurs with the Divine intention." + +That Abraham's faith triumphed over exceptional difficulties and enabled +him to do what no other motive would have been strong enough to +accomplish, there is therefore no call to assert. During his after-life +his faith was severely tried, but the mere abandonment of his country in +the hope of gaining a better was the ordinary motive of his day. It was +the _ground_ of this hope, the belief in God, which made Abraham's +conduct original and fruitful. That sufficient inducement was presented +to him is only to say that God is reasonable. There is always sufficient +inducement to obey God; because life is reasonable. No man was ever +commanded or required to do anything which it was not for his advantage +to do. Sin is a mistake. But so weak are we, so liable to be moved by +the things present to us and by the desire for immediate gratification, +that it never ceases to be wonderful and admirable when a sense of duty +enables a man to forego present advantage and to believe that present +loss is the needful preliminary of eternal gain. + +Abraham's faith is chosen by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews as +an apt illustration of his definition of Faith, that it is "the +substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." One +property of faith is that it gives to things future and which are as yet +only hoped for all the reality of actual present existence. Future +things may be said to have no existence for those who do not believe in +them. They are not taken into account. Men do not shape their conduct +with any reference to them. But when a man believes in certain events +that are to be, this faith of his lends to these future things the +reality, the "substance" which things actually existing in the present +have. They have the same weight with him, the same influence upon his +conduct. + +Without some power to realize the future and to take account of what is +to be as well as of what already is, we could not carry on the common +affairs of life. And success in life very greatly depends on foresight, +or the power to see clearly what is to be and give it due weight. The +man who has no foresight makes his plans, but being unable to apprehend +the future his plans are disconcerted. Indeed it is one of the most +valuable gifts a man can have, to be able to say with tolerable accuracy +what is to happen and what is not; to be able to sift rumours, common +talk, popular impressions, probabilities, chances, and to be able to +feel sure what the future will really be; to be able to weigh the +character and commercial prospects of the men he deals with, so as to +see what must be the issue of their operations and whom he may trust. +Many of our most serious mistakes in life arise from our inability to +imagine the consequences of our actions and to forefeel how these +consequences will affect us. + +Now faith largely supplies the want of this imaginative foresight. It +lends substance to things future. It believes the account given of the +future by a trustworthy authority. In many ordinary matters all men are +dependent on the testimony of others for their knowledge of the result +of certain operations. The astronomer, the physiologist, the navigator, +each has his department within which his predictions are accepted as +authoritative. But for what is beyond the ken of science no faith in our +fellow-men avails. Feeling that if there is a life beyond the grave, it +must have important bearings on the present, we have yet no data by +which to calculate what will then be, or only data so difficult to use +that our calculations are but guesswork. But faith accepts the testimony +of God as unhesitatingly as that of man and gives reality to the future +He describes and promises. It believes that the life God calls us to is +a better life, and it enters upon it. It believes that there is a world +to come in which all things are new and all things eternal; and, so +believing, it cannot but feel less anxious to cling to this world's +goods. That which embitters all loss and deepens sorrow is the feeling +that this world is all; but faith makes eternity as real as time and +gives substantial existence to that new and limitless future in which we +shall have time to forget the sorrows and live past the losses of this +present world. + +The radical elements of greatness are identical from age to age, and the +primal duties which no good man can evade do not vary as the world grows +older. What we admire in Abraham we feel to be incumbent on ourselves. +Indeed the uniform call of Christ to all His followers is even in form +almost identical with that which stirred Abraham, and made him the +father of the faithful. "Follow Me," says our Lord, "and every one that +forsaketh houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or +wife, or children, or lands, for My name's sake, shall receive an +hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life." And there is something +perennially edifying in the spectacle of a man who believes that God has +a place and a use for him in the world, and who puts himself at God's +disposal; who enters upon life refusing to be bound by the circumstances +of his upbringing, by the expectations of his friends, by prevailing +customs, by prospect of gain and advancement among men; and resolved to +listen to the highest voice of all, to discover what God has for him to +do upon earth and where he is likely to find most of God; who virtually +and with deepest sincerity says, Let God choose my destination: I have +good land here, but if God wishes me elsewhere, elsewhere I go: who, in +one word, believes in the call of God to himself, who admits it into the +springs of his conduct, and recognises that for him also the highest +life his conscience can suggest is the only life he can live, no matter +how cumbrous and troublesome and expensive be the changes involved in +entering it. Let the spectacle take hold of your imagination--the +spectacle of a man believing that there is something more akin to +himself and higher than the material life and the great laws that govern +it, and going calmly and hopefully forward into the unknown, because he +knows that God is with him, that in God is our true life, that man +liveth not by bread only, but by every word that cometh out of the mouth +of God. + +Even thus then may we bring our faith to a true and reliable test. All +men who have a confident expectation of future good make sacrifices or +run risks to obtain it. Mercantile life proceeds on the understanding +that such ventures are reasonable and will always be made. Men might if +they liked spend their money on present pleasure, but they rarely do so. +They prefer to put it into concerns or transactions from which they +expect to reap large returns. They have faith and as a necessary +consequence they make ventures. So did these Hebrews--they ran a great +risk, they gave up the sole means of livelihood they had any experience +of and entered what they knew to be a bare desert, because they believed +in the land that lay beyond and in God's promise. What then has your +faith done? What have you ventured that you would not have ventured but +for God's promise? Suppose Christ's promise failed, in what would you be +the losers? Of course you would lose what you call your hope of +heaven--but what would you find you had lost in this world? When a +merchant's ships are wrecked or when his investment turns out bad, he +loses not only the gain he hoped for, but the means he risked. Suppose +then Christ were declared bankrupt, unable to fulfil your expectations, +would you really find that you had ventured so much upon His promise +that you are deeply involved in His bankruptcy, and are much worse off +in this world and now than you would otherwise have been? Or may I not +use the words of one of the most cautious and charitable of men, and +say, "I really fear, when we come to examine, it will be found that +there is nothing we resolve, nothing we do, nothing we do not do, +nothing we avoid, nothing we choose, nothing we give up, nothing we +pursue, which we should not resolve, and do, and not do, and avoid, and +choose, and give up, and pursue, if Christ had not died and heaven were +not promised us." If this be the case--if you would be neither much +better nor much worse though Christianity were a fable--if you have in +nothing become poorer in this world that your reward in heaven may be +greater, if you have made no investments and run no risks, then really +the natural inference is that your faith in the future inheritance is +small. Barnabas sold his Cyprus property because he believed heaven was +his, and his bit of land suddenly became a small consideration; useful +only in so far as he could with the mammon of unrighteousness make +himself a mansion in heaven. Paul gave up his prospects of advancement +in the nation, of which he would of course as certainly have become the +leader and first man as he took that position in the Church, and plainly +tells us that having made so large a venture on Christ's word, he would +if this word failed be a great loser, of all men most miserable because +he had risked his all _in this life_ on it. People sometimes take +offence at Paul's plain way of speaking of the sacrifices he had made, +and of Peter's plain way of saying "we have left all and followed Thee, +what shall we have therefore?" but when people have made sacrifices they +know it and can specify them, and a faith that makes no sacrifices is no +good either in this world's affairs or in religion. Self-consciousness +may not be a very good thing: but self-deception is a worse. + +Here as elsewhere a clear hope sprang from faith. Recognising God, +Abraham knew that there was for men a great future. He looked forward to +a time when all men should believe as he did, and in him all families of +the earth be blessed. No doubt in these early days when all men were on +the move and striving to make a name and a place for themselves, an +onward look might be common. But the far-reaching extent, the certainty, +and the definiteness of Abraham's view of the future were unexampled. +There far back in the hazy dawn he stood while the morning mists hid the +horizon from every other eye, and he alone discerns what is to be. One +clear voice and one only rings out in unfaltering tones and from amidst +the babel of voices that utter either amazing follies or misdirected +yearnings, gives the one true forecast and direction--the one living +word which has separated itself from and survived all the +prognostications of Chaldean sooth-sayers and priests of Ur, because it +has never ceased to give life to men. It has created for itself a +channel and you can trace it through the centuries by the living green +of its banks and the life it gives as it goes. For this hope of Abraham +has been fulfilled; the creed and its accompanying blessing which that +day lived in the heart of one man only has brought blessing to all the +families of the earth. + + + + +VIII. + +_ABRAM IN EGYPT._ + +GENESIS xii. 6-20. + + +Abram still journeying southward and not as yet knowing where his +shifting camp was finally to be pitched, came at last to what may be +called the heart of Palestine, the rich district of Shechem. Here stood +the oak of Moreh, a well-known landmark and favourite meeting-place. In +after years every meadow in this plain was owned and occupied, every +vineyard on the slopes of Ebal fenced off, every square yard specified +in some title-deed. But as yet the country seems not to have been +densely populated. There was room for a caravan like Abram's to move +freely through the country, liberty for a far-stretching encampment such +as his to occupy the lovely vale that lies between Ebal and Gerizim. As +he rested here and enjoyed the abundant pasture, or as he viewed the +land from one of the neighbouring hills, the Lord appeared to him and +made him aware that this was the land designed for him. Here accordingly +under the spreading oak round whose boughs had often clung the smoke of +idolatrous sacrifice, Abram erects an altar to the living God in devout +acceptance of the gift, taking possession as it were of the land jointly +for God and for himself. Little harm will come of worldly possessions so +taken and so held. + +As Abram traversed the land, wondering what were the limits of his +inheritance, it may have seemed far too large for his household. Soon he +experiences a difficulty of quite the opposite kind; he is unable to +find in it sustenance for his followers. Any notion that God's +friendship would raise him above the touch of such troubles as were +incident to the times, places, and circumstances in which his life was +to be spent, is quickly dispelled. The children of God are not exempt +from any of the common calamities; they are only expected and aided to +be calmer and wiser in their endurance and use of them. That we suffer +the same hardships as all other men is no proof that we are not +eternally associated with God, and ought never to persuade us our faith +has been in vain. + +Abram, as he looked at the bare, brown, cracked pastures and at the dry +watercourses filled only with stones, thought of the ever-fresh plains +of Mesopotamia, the lovely gardens of Damascus, the rich pasturage of +the northern borders of Canaan; but he knew enough of his own heart to +make him very careful lest these remembrances should make him turn back. +No doubt he had come to the promised land expecting it to be the real +Utopia, the Paradise which had haunted his thoughts as he lay among the +hills of Ur watching his flocks under the brilliant midnight sky. No +doubt he expected that here all would be easy and bright, peaceful and +luxurious. His first experience is of famine. He has to look on his herd +melting away, his favourite cattle losing their appearance, his servants +murmuring and obliged to scatter. In his dreams he must have night after +night seen the old country, the green breadth of the land that Euphrates +watered, the heavy headed corn bending before the warm airs of his +native land; but morning by morning he wakes to the same anxieties, to +the sad reality of parched and burnt-up pastures, shepherds hanging +about with gloomy looks, his own heart distressed and failing. He was +also a stranger here who could not look for the help an old resident +might have counted on. It was probably years since God had made any sign +to him. Was the promised land worth having after all? Might he not be +better off among his old friends in Charran? Should he not brave their +ridicule and return? He will not so much as make it possible to return. +He will not even for temporary relief go north towards his old country, +but will go to Egypt, where he cannot stay, and from which he must +return to Canaan. + +Here, then, is a man who plainly believes that God's promise cannot +fail; that God will magnify His promise, and that it above all else is +worth waiting for. He believes that the man who seeks without flinching +and through all disappointment and bareness to do God's will, shall one +day have an abundantly satisfying reward, and that meanwhile association +with God in carrying forward His abiding purposes with men is more for a +man to live upon than the cattle upon a thousand hills. And thus famine +rendered to Abram no small service if it quickened within him the +consciousness that the call of God was not to ease and prosperity, to +land-owning and cattle-breeding, but to be God's agent on earth for the +fulfilment of remote but magnificent purposes. His life might seem to be +down among the commonplace vicissitudes, pasture might fail, and his +well-stocked camp melt away, but out of his mind there could not fade +the future God had revealed to him. If it had been his ambition to give +his name to a tribe and be known as a wide-ruling chief, that ambition +is now eclipsed by his desire to be a step towards the fulfilment of +that real end for which the whole world is. The belief that God has +called him to do His work has lifted him above concern about personal +matters; life has taken a new meaning in his eyes by its connection with +the Eternal. + +The extraordinary country to which Abram betook himself, and which was +destined to exercise so profound an influence on his descendants, had +even at this early date attained a high degree of civilisation. The +origin of this civilisation is shrouded in obscurity, as the source of +the great river to which the country owes its prosperity for many +centuries kept the secret of its birth. As yet scholars are unable to +tell us with certainty what Pharaoh was on the throne when Abram went +down into Egypt. The monuments have preserved the effigies of two +distinct types of rulers; the one simple, kindly, sensible, stately, +handsome, fearless, as of men long accustomed to the throne. These are +the faces of the native Egyptian rulers. The other type of face is heavy +and massive, proud and strong but full of care, with neither the +handsome features nor the look of kindliness and culture which belong to +the other. These are the faces of the famous Shepherd kings who held +Egypt in subjection, probably at the very time when Abram was in the +land. + +For our purposes it matters little whether Abram's visit occurred while +the country was under native or under foreign rule, for long before the +Shepherd kings entered Egypt it enjoyed a complete and stable +civilisation. Whatever dynasty Abram found on the throne, he certainly +found among the people a more refined social life than he had seen in +his native city, a much purer religion, and a much more highly developed +moral code. He must have kept himself entirely aloof from Egyptian +society if he failed to discover that they believed in a judgment after +death, and that this judgment proceeded upon a severe moral code. Before +admission into the Egyptian heaven the deceased must swear that "he has +not stolen nor slain any one intentionally; that he has not allowed his +devotions to be seen; that he has not been guilty of hypocrisy or lying; +that he has not calumniated any one nor fallen into drunkenness or +adultery; that he has not turned away his ear from the words of truth; +that he has been no idle talker; that he has not slighted the king or +his father." To a man in Abram's state of mind the Egyptian creed and +customs must have conveyed many valuable suggestions. + +But virtuous as in many respects the Egyptians were, Abram's fears as he +approached their country were by no means groundless. The event proved +that whatever Sarah's age and appearance at this time were, his fears +were something more than the fruit of a husband's partiality. Possibly +he may have heard the ugly story which has recently been deciphered from +an old papyrus, and which tells how one of the Pharaohs, acting on the +advice of his princes, sent armed men to fetch a beautiful woman and +make away with her husband. But knowing the risk he ran, why did he go? +He contemplated the possibility of Sarah's being taken from him; but, if +this should happen, what became of the promised seed? We cannot suppose +that, driven by famine from the promised land, he had lost all hope +regarding the fulfilment of the other part of the promise. Probably his +idea was that some of the great men might take a fancy to Sarah, and +that he would so temporise with them and ask for her such large gifts as +would hold them off for a while until he could provide for his people +and get clear out of the land. It had not occurred to him that she might +be taken to the palace. Whatever his idea of the probable course of +events was, his proposal to guide them by disguising his true +relationship to Sarah was unjustifiable. And his feelings during these +weeks in Egypt must have been far from enviable as he learned that of +all virtues the Egyptians set greatest store by truth, and that lying +was the vice they held in greatest abhorrence. + +Here then was the whole promise and purpose of God in a most precarious +position; the land abandoned, the mother of the promised seed in a harem +through whose guards no force on earth could penetrate. Abram could do +nothing but go helplessly about, thinking what a fool he had been, and +wishing himself well back among the parched hills of Bethel. Suddenly +there is a panic in the royal household; and Pharaoh is made aware that +he was on the brink of what he himself considered a great sin. Besides +effecting its immediate purpose, this visitation might have taught +Pharaoh that a man cannot safely sin within limits prescribed by +himself. He had not intended such evil as he found himself just saved +from committing. But had he lived with perfect purity, this liability to +fall into transgression, shocking to himself, could not have existed. +Many sins of most painful consequence we commit, not of deliberate +purpose, but because our previous life has been careless and lacking in +moral tone. We are mistaken if we suppose that we can sin within a +certain safe circle and never go beyond it. + +By this intervention on God's part Abram was saved from the consequences +of his own scheme, but he was not saved from the indignant rebuke of the +Egyptian monarch. This rebuke indeed did not prevent him from a +repetition of the same conduct in another country, conduct which was met +with similar indignation: "What have I offended thee, that thou hast +brought on me and on my kingdom this great sin? Thou hast done deeds +unto me that ought not to be done. What sawest thou that thou hast done +this thing?" This rebuke did not seem to sink deeply into the conscience +of Abram's descendants, for the Jewish history is full of instances in +which leading men do not shrink from man[oe]uvre, deceit and lying. Yet +it is impossible to suppose that Abram's conception of God was not +vastly enlarged by this incident, and this especially in two +particulars. + +(1) Abram must have received a new impression regarding God's truth. It +would seem that as yet he had no very clear idea of God's holiness. He +had the idea of God which Mohammedans entertain, and past which they +seem unable to get. He conceived of God as the Supreme Ruler; he had a +firm belief in the unity of God and probably a hatred of idolatry and a +profound contempt for idolaters. He believed that this Supreme God could +always and easily accomplish His will, and that the voice that inwardly +guided him was the voice of God. His own character had not yet been +deepened and dignified by prolonged intercourse with God and by close +observation of His actual ways; and so as yet he knows little of what +constitutes the true glory of God. + +For learning that truth is an essential attribute of God he could not +have gone to a better school than Egypt. His own reliance on God's +promise might have been expected to produce in him a high esteem for +truth and a clear recognition of its essential place in the Divine +character. Apparently it had only partially had this effect. The +heathen, therefore, must teach him. Had not Abram seen the look of +indignation and injury on the face of Pharaoh, he might have left the +land feeling that his scheme had succeeded admirably. But as he went at +the head of his vastly increased household, the envy of many who saw his +long train of camels and cattle, he would have given up all could he +have blotted from his mind's eye the reproachful face of Pharaoh and +nipped out this entire episode from his life. He was humbled both by his +falseness and his foolishness. He had told a lie, and told it when truth +would have served him better. For the very precaution he took in passing +off Sarai as his sister was precisely what encouraged Pharaoh to take +her, and produced the whole misadventure. It was the heathen monarch who +taught the father of the faithful his first lesson in God's holiness. + +What he so painfully learned we must all learn, that God does not need +lying for the attainment of His ends, and that double-dealing is always +short-sighted and the proper precursor of shame. Frequently men are +tempted like Abram to seek a God-protected and God-prospered life by +conduct that is not thoroughly straightforward. Some of us who statedly +ask God to bless our endeavours, and who have no doubt that God approves +the ends we seek to accomplish, do yet adopt such means of attaining our +ends as not even men with any high sense of honour would countenance. To +save ourselves from trouble, inconvenience, or danger, we are tempted to +evasions and shifts which are not free from guilt. The more one sees of +life, the higher value does he set on truth. Let lying be called by +whatever flattering title men please--let it pass for diplomacy, +smartness, self-defence, policy, or civility--it remains the device of +the coward, the absolute bar to free and healthy intercourse, a vice +which diffuses itself through the whole character and makes growth +impossible. Trade and commerce are always hampered and retarded, and +often overwhelmed in disaster, by the determined and deliberate +doubleness of those who engage in them; charity is minimised and +withheld from its proper objects by the suspiciousness engendered in us +by the almost universal falseness of men; and the habit of making things +seem to others what they are not, reacts upon the man himself and makes +it difficult for him to feel the abiding effective reality of anything +he has to do with or even of his own soul. If then we are to know the +living and true God we must ourselves be true, transparent, and living +in the light as He is the Light. If we are to reach His ends we must +adopt His means and abjure all crafty contrivances of our own. If we are +to be His heirs and partners in the work of the world, we must first be +His children, and show that we have attained our majority by manifesting +an indubitable resemblance to His own clear truth. + +(2) But whether Abram fully learned this lesson or not, there can be +little doubt that at this time he did receive fresh and abiding +impressions of God's faithfulness and sufficiency. In Abram's first +response to God's call he exhibited a remarkable independence and +strength of character. His abandonment of home and kindred on account of +a religious faith which he alone possessed, was the act of a man who +relied much more on himself than on others and who had the courage of +his convictions. This qualification for playing a great part in human +affairs he undoubtedly had. But he had also the defects of his +qualities. A weaker man would have shrunk from going into Egypt and +would have preferred to see his flocks dwindle rather than take so +venturesome a step. No such hesitations could trammel Abram's +movements. He felt himself equal to all occasions. That part of his +character which was reproduced in his grandson Jacob, a readiness to +rise to every emergency that called for management and diplomacy, an +aptitude for dealing with men and using them for his purposes--this came +to the front now! To all the timorous suggestions of his household he +had one reply: Leave it all to me; I will bring you through. So he +entered Egypt confident that single-handed he could cope with their +Pharaohs, priests, magicians, guards, judges, warriors; and find his way +through the finely-meshed net that held and examined every person and +action in the land. + +He left Egypt in a much more healthy state of mind, practically +convinced of his own inability to work his way to the happiness God had +promised him, and equally convinced of God's faithfulness and power to +bring him through all the embarrassments and disasters into which his +own folly and sin might bring him. His own confidence and management had +placed God's promise in a position of extreme hazard; and without the +intervention of God Abram saw that he could neither recover the mother +of the promised seed nor return to the land of promise. Abram is put to +shame even in the eyes of his household slaves; and with what burning +shame must he have stood before Sarai and Pharaoh, and received back his +wife from him whose wickedness he had feared, but who so far from +meaning to sin as Abram suspected, was indignant that Abram should have +made it even possible. He returned to Canaan humbled and very little +disposed to feel confident in his own powers of managing in emergencies; +but quite assured that God might at all times be relied on. He was +convinced that God was not depending upon him, but he upon God. He saw +that God did not trust to his cleverness and craft, no, nor even to his +willingness to do and endure God's will, but that He was trusting in +Himself, and that by His faithfulness to His own promise, by His +watchfulness and providence, He would bring Abram through all the +entanglements caused by his own poor ideas of the best way to work out +God's ends and attain to His blessing. He saw, in a word, that the +future of the world lay not with Abram but with God. + +This certainly was a great and needful step in the knowledge of God. +Thus early and thus unmistakably was man taught in how profound and +comprehensive a sense God is his Saviour. Commonly it takes a man a long +time to learn that it is God who is saving him, but one day he learns +it. He learns that it is not his own faith but God's faithfulness that +saves him. He perceives that he needs God throughout, from first to +last; not only to make him offers, but to enable him to accept them; not +only to incline him to accept them to-day, but to maintain within him at +all times this same inclination. He learns that God not only makes him a +promise and leaves him to find his own way to what is promised; but that +He is with him always, disentangling him day by day from the results of +his own folly and securing for him not only possible but actual +blessedness. + +Few discoveries are so welcome and gladdening to the soul. Few give us +the same sense of God's nearness and sovereignty; few make us feel so +deeply the dignity and importance of our own salvation and career. This +is God's affair; a matter in which are involved not merely our personal +interests, but God's responsibility and purposes. God calls us to be +His, and He does not send us a-warring on our own charges, but +throughout furnishes us with _everything_ we need. When we go down to +Egypt, when we quite diverge from the path that leads to the promised +land and worldly straits tempt us to turn our back upon God's altar and +seek relief by our own arrangements and devices, when we forget for a +while how God has identified our interests with His own and tacitly +abjure the vows we have silently registered before Him, even then He +follows us and watches over us and lays His hand upon us and bids us +back. And this only is our hope. Not in any determination of our own to +cleave to Him and to live in faith on His promise can we trust. If we +have this determination, let us cherish it, for this is God's present +means of leading us onwards. But should this determination fail, the +shame with which you recognise your want of steadfastness may prove a +stronger bond to hold you to Him than the bold confidence with which +to-day you view the future. The waywardness, the foolishness, the +obstinate depravity that cause you to despair, God will conquer. With +untiring patience, with all-foreseeing love, He stands by you and will +bring you through. His gifts and calling are without repentance. + + + + +IX. + +_LOT'S SEPARATION FROM ABRAM._ + +GENESIS xiii. + + +Abram left Egypt thinking meanly of himself, highly of God. This humble +frame of mind is disclosed in the route he chooses; he went straight +back "unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, unto the +altar which he had made there at the first." With a childlike simplicity +he seems to own that his visit to Egypt had been a mistake. He had gone +there supposing that he was thrown upon his own resources, and that in +order to keep himself and his dependants alive he must have recourse to +craft and dishonesty. By retracing his steps and returning to the altar +at Bethel, he seems to acknowledge that he should have remained there +through the famine in dependence on God. + +Whoever has attempted a similar practical repentance, visible to his own +household and affecting their place of abode or daily occupations, will +know how to estimate the candour and courage of Abram. To own that some +distinctly marked portion of our life, upon which we entered with great +confidence in our own wisdom and capacity, has come to nothing and has +betrayed us into reprehensible conduct, is mortifying indeed. To admit +that we have erred and to repair our error by returning to our old way +and practice, is what few of us have the courage to do. If we have +entered on some branch of business or gone into some attractive +speculation, or if we have altered our demeanour towards some friend, +and if we are finding that we are thereby tempted to doubleness, to +equivocation, to injustice, our only hope lies in a candid and +straightforward repentance, in a manly and open return to the state of +things that existed in happier days and which we should never have +abandoned. Sometimes we are aware that a blight began to fall on our +spiritual life from a particular date, and we can easily and distinctly +trace an unhealthy habit of spirit to a well-marked passage in our +outward career; but we shrink from the sacrifice and shame involved in a +thoroughgoing restoration of the old state of things. We are always so +ready to fancy we have done enough, if we get one heartfelt word of +confession uttered; so ready, if we merely turn our faces towards God, +to think our restoration complete. Let us make a point of getting +through mere beginnings of repentance, mere intention to recover God's +favour and a sound condition of life, and let us return and return till +we bow at God's very altar again, and know that His hand is laid upon us +in blessing as at the first. + +Out of Egypt Abram brought vastly increased wealth. Each time he +encamped, quite a town of black tents quickly rose round the spot where +his fixed spear gave the signal for halting. And along with him there +journeyed his nephew, apparently of almost equal, or at least +considerable wealth; not dependent on Abram, nor even a partner with +him, for "Lot also had flocks and herds and tents." So rapidly was their +substance increasing that no sooner did they become stationary than +they found that the land was not able to furnish them with sufficient +pasture. The Canaanite and the Perizzite would not allow them unlimited +pasture in the neighbourhood of Bethel; and as the inevitable result of +this the rival shepherds, eager to secure the best pasture for their own +flocks and the best wells for their own cattle and camels, came to high +words and probably to blows about their respective rights. + +To both Abram and Lot it must have occurred that this competition +between relatives was unseemly, and that some arrangement must be come +to. And when at last some unusually blunt quarrel took place in presence +of the chiefs, Abram divulges to Lot the scheme which had suggested +itself to him. This state of things, he says, must come to an end; it is +unseemly, unwise, and unrighteous. And as they walk on out of the circle +of tents to discuss the matter without interruption, they come to a +rising ground where the wide prospect brings them naturally to a pause. +Abram looking north and south and seeing with the trained eye of a large +flock-master that there was abundant pasture for both, turns to Lot with +a final proposal: "Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, +I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to +the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the +left." + +Thus early did wealth produce quarrelling among relatives. The men who +had shared one another's fortunes while comparatively poor, no sooner +become wealthy than they have to separate. Abram prevented quarrel by +separation. "Let us," he says, "come to an understanding. And rather +than be separate in heart, let us be separate in habitation." It is +always a sorrowful time in family history when it comes to this, that +those who have had a common purse and have not been careful to know what +exactly is theirs and what belongs to the other members of the family, +have at last to make a division and to be as precise and documentary as +if dealing with strangers. It is always painful to be compelled to own +that law can be more trusted than love, and that legal forms are a surer +barrier against quarrelling than brotherly kindness. It is a confession +we are sometimes compelled to make, but never without a mixture of +regret and shame. + +As yet the character of Lot has not been exhibited, and we can only +calculate from the relation he bears to Abram what his answer to the +proposal will probably be. We know that Abram has been the making of his +nephew, and that the land belongs to Abram; and we should expect that in +common decency Lot would set aside the generous offer of his uncle and +demand that he only should determine the matter. "It is not for me to +make choice in a land which is wholly yours. My future does not carry in +it the import of yours. It is a small matter what kind of subsistence I +secure or where I find it. Choose for yourself, and allot to me what is +right." We see here what a safeguard of happiness in life right feeling +is. To be in right and pleasant relations with the persons around us +will save us from error and sin even when conscience and judgment give +no certain decision. The heart which feels gratitude is beyond the need +of being schooled and compelled to do justly. To the man who is +affectionately disposed it is superfluous to insist upon the rights of +other persons. The instinct which tells a man what is due to others and +makes him sensitive to their wrongs will preserve him from many an +ignominious action which would degrade his whole life. But such +instinct was awanting in Lot. His character though in some respects +admirable had none of the generosity of Abram's in it. He had allowed +himself on countless previous occasions to take advantage of Abram's +unselfishness. Generosity is not always infectious; often it encourages +selfishness in child, relative, or neighbour. And so Lot instead of +rivalling, traded on his uncle's magnanimity; and chose him all the +plains of Jordan because in his eye it was the richest part of the land. + +This choice of Sodom as a dwelling-place was the great mistake of Lot's +life. He is the type of that very large class of men who have but one +rule for determining them at the turning points of life. He was swayed +solely by the consideration of worldly advantage. He has nothing deep, +nothing high in him. He recognises no duty to Abram, no gratitude, no +modesty; he has no perception of spiritual relations, no sense that God +should have something to say in the partition of the land. Lot may be +acquitted of a good deal which at first sight one is prompted to lay to +his charge, but he cannot be acquitted of showing an eagerness to better +himself, regardless of all considerations but the promise of wealth +afforded by the fertility of the Jordan valley. He saw a quick though +dangerous road to wealth. There seemed a certainty of success in his +earthly calling, a risk only of moral disaster. He shut his eyes to the +risk that he might grasp the wealth; and so doing, ruined both himself +and his family. + +The situation is one which is ceaselessly repeated. To men in business +or in the cultivation of literature or art, or in one of the +professions, there are presented opportunities of attaining a better +position by cultivating the friendship or identifying oneself with the +practice of men whose society is not in itself desirable. Society is +made up of little circles, each of which has its own monopoly of some +social or commercial or political advantage, and its own characteristic +tone and enjoyments and customs. And if a man will not join one of these +circles and accommodate himself to the mode of carrying on business and +to the style of living it has identified with itself, he must forego the +advantages which entrance to that circle would secure for him. As +clearly as Lot saw that the well-watered plain stretching away under the +sunshine was the right place to exercise his vocation as a flock-master, +so do we see that associated with such and such persons and recognised +as one of them, we shall be able more effectively than in any other +position to use whatever natural gifts we have, and win the recognition +and the profit these gifts seem to warrant. There is but one drawback. +"The men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly." +There is a tone you do not like; you hesitate to identify yourself with +men who live solely and with cynical frankness only for gain; whose +every sentence betrays the contemptible narrowness of soul to which +worldliness condemns men; who live for money and who glory in their +shame. + +The very nature of the world in which we live makes such temptation +universal. And to yield is common and fatal. We persuade ourselves we +need not enter into close relations with the persons we propose to have +business connections with. Lot would have been horrified, that day he +made his choice, had it been told him his daughters would marry men of +Sodom. But the swimmer who ventures into the outer circle of the +whirlpool finds that his own resolve not to go further presents a very +weak resistance to the water's inevitable suction. We fancy perhaps +that to refuse the companionship of any class of men is pharisaic; that +we have no business to condemn the attitude towards the Church, or the +morality, or the style of living adopted by any class of men among us. +This is the mere cant of liberalism. We do not condemn persons who +suffer from smallpox, but a smallpox hospital would be about the last +place we should choose for a residence. Or possibly we imagine we shall +be able to carry some better influences into the society we enter. A +vain imagination; the motive for choosing the society has already sapped +our power for good. + +Many of the errors of worldly men only reveal their most disastrous +consequences in the second generation. Like some virulent diseases they +have a period of incubation. Lot's family grew up in a very different +atmosphere from that which had nourished his own youth in Abram's tents. +An adult and robust Englishman can withstand the climate of India; but +his children who are born in it cannot. And the position in society +which has been gained in middle life by the carefully and hardily +trained child of a God-fearing household, may not very visibly damage +his own character, but may yet be absolutely fatal to the morality of +his children. Lot may have persuaded himself he chose the dangerous +prosperity of Sodom mainly for the sake of his children; but in point of +fact he had better have seen them die of starvation in the most barren +and parched desolation. And the parent who disregards conscience and +chooses wealth or position, fancying that thus he benefits his children, +will find to his life-long sorrow that he has entangled them in +unimagined temptations. + +But the man who makes Lot's choice not only does a great injury to his +children, but cuts himself off from all that is best in life. We are +safe to say that after leaving Abram's tents Lot never again enjoyed +unconstrainedly happy days. The men born and brought up in Sodom were +possibly happy after their kind and in their fashion; but Lot was not. +His soul was daily vexed. Many a time while hearing the talk of the men +his daughters had married, must Lot have gone out with a sore heart, and +looked to the distant hills that hid the tents of Abram, and longed for +an hour of the company he used to enjoy. And the society to which you +are tempted to join yourself may not be unhappy, but you can take no +surer means of beclouding, embittering, and ruining your whole life than +by joining it. You cannot forget the thoughts you once had, the +friendships you once delighted in, the hopes that shed brightness +through all your life. You cannot blot out the ideal that once you +cherished as the most animating element of your life. Every day there +will be that rising in your mind which is in the sharpest contrast to +the thoughts of those with whom you are associated. You will despise +them for their shallow, worldly ideas and ways; but you will despise +yourself still more, being conscious that what they are through +ignorance and upbringing, you are in virtue of your own foolish and mean +choice. There is that in you which rebels against the superficial and +external measure by which they judge things, and yet you have +deliberately chosen these as your associates, and can only think with +heart-broken regret of the high thoughts that once visited you and the +hopes you have now no means of fulfilling. Your life is taken out of +your own hands; you find yourself in bondage to the circumstances you +have chosen; and you are learning in bitterness, disappointment, and +shame, that indeed "a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the +things which he possesseth." To determine your life solely by the +prospect of worldly success is to risk the loss of the best things in +life. To sacrifice friendship or conscience to success in your calling +is to sacrifice what is best to what is lowest, and to blind yourself to +the highest human happiness. For happily the essential elements of the +highest happiness are as open to the poor as to the rich, to the +unsuccessful as to the successful--love of wife and children, congenial +and educating friendships, the knowledge of what the best men have done +and the wisest men have said; the pleasure and impulse, the sentiments +and beliefs which result from our knowledge of the heroic deeds done +from year to year among men; the enlivening influence of examples that +tell on all men alike, young and old, rich and poor; the insight and +strength of character that are won in the hard wrestle with life; the +growing consciousness that God is in human life, that He is ours and +that we are His--these things and all that makes human life of value are +universal as air and sunshine, but must be missed by those who make the +world their object. + +Though in point of fact Lot cut himself off by his choice from direct +participation in the special inheritance to which Abram was called by +God, it might perhaps be too much to say that his choice of the valley +of Jordan was an explicit renunciation of the special blessedness of +those who find their joy in responding to God's call and doing His work +in the world. It might also be extravagant to say that his choice of the +richest land was prompted by the feeling that he was not included in the +promise to Abram, and might as well make the most of his present +opportunities. But it is certain that Abram's generosity to Lot arose +out of his sense that in God he himself had abundant possession. In +Egypt he had learned that in order to secure all that is worth having a +man need never resort to duplicity, trickery, bold lying. He now learns +that in order to enter on his own God-provided lot, he need shut no +other man out of his. He is taught that to acknowledge amply the rights +of other men is the surest road to the enjoyment of his own rights. He +is taught that there is room in God's plan for every man to follow his +most generous impulses and the highest views of life that visit him. + +It was Abram's simple belief that God's promise was meant and was +substantial, that made him indifferent as to what Lot might choose. His +faith was judged in this scene, and was proved to be sound. This man +whose very calling it was to own this land, could freely allow Lot to +choose the best of it. Why? Because he has learned that it is not by any +plan of his own he is to come into possession; that God Who promised is +to give him the land in His own way, and that his part is to act +uprightly, mercifully, like God. Wherever there is faith, the same +results will appear. He who believes that God is pledged to provide for +him cannot be greedy, anxious, covetous; can only be liberal, even +magnanimous. Any one can thus test his own faith. If he does not find +that what God promises weighs substantially when put in the scales with +gold; if he does not find that the accomplishment of God's purpose with +him in the world is to him the most valuable thing, and actually compels +him to think lightly of worldly position and ordinary success; if he +does not find that in point of fact the gains which content a man of +the world shrivel and lose interest, he may feel tolerably certain he +has no faith and is not counting as certain what God has promised. + +It is commonly observed that wealth pursues the men who part with it +most freely. Abram had this experience. No sooner had he allowed Lot to +choose his portion than God gave him assurance that the whole would be +his. It is "the meek" who "inherit the earth." Not only have they, in +their very losses and while suffering wrong at the hands of their +fellows, a purer joy than those who wrong them; but they know themselves +heirs of God with the certainty of enjoying all His possessions that can +avail for their advantage. Declining to devote themselves as living +sacrifices to business they hold their soul at leisure for what brings +truest happiness, for friendship, for knowledge, for charity. Even in +this life they may be said to inherit the earth, for all its richest +fruits are theirs--the ground may belong to other men, but the beauty of +the landscape is theirs without burden--and ever and anon they hear such +words as were now uttered to Abram. They alone are inclined or able to +receive renewed assurances that God is mindful of His promise and will +abundantly bless them. It is they who are in no haste to be rich, and +are content to abide in the retired hill-country where they can freely +assemble round God's altar, it is they who seek first the kingdom of God +and make sure of that, whatever else they put in hazard, to whom God's +encouragements come. You wonder at the certainty with which others speak +of hearing God's voice and that so seldom you have the joy of knowing +that God is directing and encouraging you. Why should you wonder, if you +very well know that your attention is directed mainly to the world, +that your heart trembles and thrills with all the fluctuations of your +earthly hopes, that you wait for news and listen to every hint that can +affect your position in life? Can you wonder that an ear trained to be +so sensitive to the near earthly sounds, should quite have lost the +range of heavenly voices? + +Of the assurance here given him Abram was probably much in need when Lot +had withdrawn with his flocks and servants. When the warmth of feeling +cooled and allowed the somewhat unpleasant facts of the case to press +upon his mind; and when he heard his shepherds murmuring that after all +the strife they had maintained for their master's rights, he should have +weakly yielded these to Lot; and when he reflected, as now he inevitably +would reflect, how selfish and ungrateful Lot had shown himself to be, +he must have been tempted to think he had possibly made a mistake in +dealing so generously with such a man. This reflection on himself might +naturally grow into a reflection upon God, Who might have been expected +so to order matters as to give the best country to the best man. All +such reflections are precluded by the renewed grant he now receives of +the whole land. + +It is always as difficult to govern our heart wisely after as before +making a sacrifice. It is as difficult to keep the will decided as to +make the original decision; and it is more difficult to think +affectionately of those for whom the sacrifice has been made, when the +change in their condition and our own is actually accomplished. There is +a natural reaction after a generous action which is not always +sufficiently resisted. And when we see that those who refuse to make any +sacrifices are more prosperous and less ruffled in spirit than ourselves +we are tempted to take matters into our own hand, and, without waiting +upon God, to use the world's quick ways. At such times we find how +difficult it is to hold an advanced position, and how much unbelief +mingles with the sincerest faith, and what vile dregs of selfishness +sully the clearest generosity; we find our need of God and of those +encouragements and assistances He can impart to the soul. Happy are we +if we receive them and are enabled thereby to be constant in the good we +have begun; for all sacrifice is good begun. And as Abram saw, when the +cities of the plain were destroyed, how kindly God had guided him; so +when our history is complete, we shall have no inclination to grumble at +any passage of our life which we entered by generosity and faith in God, +but shall see how tenderly God has held us back from much that our soul +has been ardently desiring, and which we thought would be the making of +us. + + + + +X. + +_ABRAM'S RESCUE OF LOT._ + +GENESIS xiv. + + +This chapter evidently incorporates a contemporary account of the events +recorded. So antique a document was it even when it found its place in +this book, that the editor had to modernize some of its expressions that +it might be intelligible. The places mentioned were no longer known by +the names here preserved--Bela, the vale of Siddim, En-mishpat, the +valley of Shaveh, all these names were unknown even to the persons who +dwelt in the places once so designated. It can scarcely have been Abram +who wrote down the narrative, for he himself is spoken of as Abram the +Hebrew, the man born beyond the Euphrates, which is a way of speaking of +himself no one would naturally adopt. From the clear outline given of +the route followed by the expedition of Chedorlaomer, it might be +supposed that some old staff-secretary had reported on the campaign. +However that may be, the discoveries of the last two or three years have +shed light on the outlandish names that have stood for four thousand +years in this document, and on the relations subsisting between Elam and +Palestine. + +On the bricks now preserved in our own British Museum the very names we +read in this chapter can be traced, in the slightly altered form which +is always given to a name when pronounced by different races. +Chedorlaomer is the Hebrew transliteration of Kudur Lagamar; Lagamar was +the name of one of the Chaldean deities, and the whole name means +Lagamar's son, evidently a name of dignity adopted by the king of Elam. +Elam comprehended the broad and rich plains to the east of the lower +course of the Tigris, together with the mountain range (8,000 to 10,000 +feet high) that bounds them. Elam was always able to maintain its own +against Assyria and Babylonia, and at this time it evidently exercised +some kind of supremacy not only over these neighbouring powers, but as +far west as the valley of the Jordan. The importance of keeping open the +valley of the Jordan is obvious to every one who has interest enough in +the subject to look at a map. That valley was the main route for trading +caravans and for military expeditions between the Euphrates and Egypt. +Whoever held that valley might prove a most formidable annoyance and +indeed an absolute interruption to commercial or political relations +between Egypt and Elam, or the Eastern powers. Sometimes it might serve +the purpose of East and West to have a neutral power between them, as +became afterwards clear in the history of Israel, but oftener it was the +ambition of either Egypt or of the East to hold Canaan in subjection. A +rebellion therefore of these chiefs occupying the vale of Siddim was +sufficiently important to bring the king of Elam from his distant +capital, attaching to his army as he came, his tributaries Amraphel king +of Shinar or northern Chaldea, Arioch king of a district on the east of +the Euphrates, and finally Tidal, or rather Tur-gal _i.e._ the great +chief, who ruled over the nations or tribes to the north of Babylonia. + +Susa, the capital of Elam, lies almost on the same parallel as the vale +of Siddim, but between them lie many hundred miles of impracticable +desert. Chedorlaomer and his army followed therefore much the same route +as Terah in his emigration, first going north-west up the Euphrates and +then crossing it probably at Carchemish, or above it, and coming +southward towards Canaan. But the country to the east of the Jordan and +the Dead Sea was occupied by warlike and marauding tribes who would have +liked nothing better than to swoop down on a rich booty-laden Eastern +army. With the sagacity of an old soldier therefore, Chedorlaomer makes +it his first business to sweep this rough ground, and so cripple the +tribes in his passage southwards, that when he swept round the lower end +of the Dead Sea and up the Jordan valley he should have nothing to fear +at least on his right flank. The tribe that first felt his sword was +that of the Rephaim, or giants. Their stronghold was Ashteroth Karnaim, +or Ashteroth of the two horns, a town dedicated to the goddess Astarte +whose symbol was the crescent or two-horned moon. The Zuzims and the +Emims, "a people great and many and tall," as we read in Deuteronomy, +next fell before the invading host. The Horites, _i.e._ cave-dwellers or +troglodytes, would scarcely hold Chedorlaomer long, though from their +hilly fastnesses they might do him some damage. Passing through their +mountains he came upon the great road between the Dead Sea and the +Elanitic gulf--but he crossed this road and still held westward till he +reached the edge of what is roughly known as the Desert of Sinai. Here, +says the narrative (ver. 7), they returned, that is, this was their +furthest point south and west, and here they turned and made for the +vale of Siddim, smiting the Amalekites and the Amorites on their route. + +This is the only part of the army's route that is at all obscure. The +last place they are spoken of as touching before reaching the vale of +Siddim is Hazezon-Tamar, or as it was afterwards and is still called +Engedi. Now Engedi lies on the western shore of the Dead Sea about half +way up from south to north. It lies on a very steep, indeed artificially +made, pass and is a place of much greater importance on that account +than its size would make it. The road between Moab and Palestine runs by +the western margin of the Dead Sea up to this point, but beyond this +point the shore is impracticable, and the only road is through the +Engedi pass on to the higher ground above. If the army chose this route +then they were compelled to force this pass; if on the other hand they +preferred during their whole march from Kadesh to keep away west of the +Dead Sea on the higher ground, then they would only detail a company to +pounce upon Engedi, as the main army passed behind and above. In either +case the main body must have been if not actually within sight of, yet +only a few miles from, the encampment of Abram. + +At length as they dropped down through the practicable passes into the +vale of Siddim their grand object became apparent, and the kings of the +five allied towns, probably warned by the hill-tribes weeks before, drew +out to meet them. But it is not easy to check an army in full career, +and the wells of bitumen, which those who knew the ground might have +turned to good purpose against the foreigners, actually hindered the +home troops and became a trap to them. The rout was complete. No second +stand or rally was attempted. The towns were sacked, the fields swept, +and so swift were the movements of the invaders that although Abram was +barely twenty miles off, and no doubt started for the rescue of Lot the +hour he got the news, he did not overtake the army, laden as it was with +spoil and retarded by prisoners and wounded, until they had reached the +sources of Jordan. + +But well-conceived and brilliantly executed as this campaign had been, +the experienced warrior had failed to take account of the most +formidable opponent he would have to reckon with. Those that escaped +from the slaughter at Sodom took to the hills, and either knowing they +would find shelter with Abram or more probably blindly running on, found +themselves at nightfall within sight of the encampment at Hebron. There +is no delay on Abram's part; he hastily calls out his men, each +snatching his bow, his sword, and his spear, and slinging over his +shoulders a few days' provision. The neighbouring Amorite chiefs Aner, +Mamre and Eshcol join them, probably with a troop each, and before many +hours are lost they are down the passes and in hot pursuit. Not however +till they had traversed a hundred and twenty miles or more do they +overtake the Eastern army. But at Dan, at the very springs of the +Jordan, they find them, and making a night attack throw them into utter +confusion and pursue them as far as Hobah, a village near Damascus, that +retains to this day the same name. + +One is naturally curious to see how Abram will conduct himself in +circumstances so unaccustomed. From leading a quiet pastoral life he +suddenly becomes the most important man in the country, a man who can +make himself felt from the Nile to the Tigris. From a herd he becomes a +hero. But, notoriously, power tries a man, and, as one has often seen +persons make very glaring mistakes in such altered circumstances and +alter their characters and beliefs to suit and take advantage of the new +material and opportunities presented to them, we are interested in +seeing how a man whose one rule of action has hitherto been faith in a +promise given him by God, will pass through such a trial. Can a +spiritual quality like faith be of much service in rough campaigning and +when the man of faith is mixed up with persons of doubtful character and +unscrupulous conduct, and brought into contact with considerable +political powers? Can we trace to Abram's faith any part of his action +at this time? No sooner is the question put than we see that his faith +in God's promise was precisely that which gave him balance and dignity, +courage and generosity in dealing with the three prominent persons in +the narrative. He could afford to be forgiving and generous to his grand +competitor Lot, precisely because he felt sure God would deal generously +with himself. He could afford to acknowledge Melchizedek and any other +authority that might appear, as his superior, and he would not take +advantage, even when at the head of his men eager for more fighting, of +the peaceful king who came out to propitiate him, because he knew that +God would give him his land without wronging other people. And he +scorned the wages of the king of Sodom, holding himself to be no +mercenary captain, nor indebted to any one but God. In a word, you see +faith producing all that is of importance in his conduct at this time. + +Lot is the person who of all others might have been expected to be +forward in his expressions of gratitude to Abram--not a word of his is +recorded. Ashamed he cannot but have been, for if Abram said not a word +of reproach, there would be plenty of Lot's old friends among Abram's +men who could not lose so good an opportunity of twitting him about the +good choice he had made. And considering how humiliating it would have +been for him to go back with Abram and abandon the district of his +adoption, we can scarcely wonder that he should have gone quietly back +to Sodom, well as he must by this time have known the nature of the +risks he ran there. For, after all, this warning was not very loud. The +same thing, or a similar thing, might have happened had he remained with +Abram. The warning was unobtrusive as the warnings in life mostly are; +audible to the ear that has been accustomed to listen to the still small +voice of conscience, inaudible to the ear that is trained to hear quite +other voices. God does not set angels and flaming swords in every man's +path. The little whisper that no one hears but ourselves only and that +says quite quietly that we are continuing in a wrong course, is as +certain an indication that we are in danger, as if God were to proclaim +our case from heaven with thunder or the voice of an archangel. And when +a man has persistently refused to listen to conscience it ceases to +speak, and he loses the power to discern between good and evil and is +left wholly without a guide. He may be running straight to destruction +and he does not know it. You cannot live under two principles of action, +regard to worldly interest and regard to conscience. You can train +yourself to great acuteness in perceiving and following out what is for +your worldly advantage, or you can train yourself to great acuteness of +conscience; but you must make your choice, for in proportion as you gain +sensitiveness in the one direction you lose it in the other. If your eye +is _single_ your whole body is full of light; but if the light that is +in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! + +Melchizedek is generally recognised as the most mysterious and +unaccountable of historical personages; appearing here in the King's +Vale no one knows whence, and disappearing no one knows whither, but +coming with his hands full of substantial gifts for the wearied +household of Abram, and the captive women that were with him. Of each of +the patriarchs we can tell the paternity; the date of his birth, and the +date of his death; but this man stands with none to claim him, he forms +no part of any series of links by which the oldest and the present times +are connected. Though possessed of the knowledge of the Most High God, +his name is not found in any of those genealogies which show us how that +knowledge passed from father to son. Of all the other great men whose +history is recorded a careful genealogy is given; but here the writer +breaks his rule, and breaks it where, had there not been substantial +reason, he would most certainly have adhered to it. For here is the +greatest man of the time, a man before whom Abram the father of the +faithful, the honoured of all nations, bowed and paid tithes; and yet he +appears and passes away likest to a vision of the night. Perhaps even in +his own time there was none that could point to the chamber where first +he was cradled, nor show the tent round which first he played in his +boyhood, nor hoard up a single relic of the early years of the man that +had risen to be the first man upon earth in those days. So that the +Apostle speaks of him as a very type of all that is mysterious and +abrupt in appearance and disappearance, "without father, without mother, +without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life," and +as he significantly adds, "made like unto the Son of God." For as +Melchizedek stands thus on the page of history, so our Lord in +reality--as the one has no recorded pedigree, and holds an office +beginning and ending in his own person, so our Lord, though born of a +woman, stands separate from sinners and quite out of the ordinary line +of generations, and exercises an office which he received hereditarily +from none, and which he could commit to no successor. As the one stands +apparently disconnected from all before and after him, so the Other in +point of fact did thus suddenly emerge from eternity, a problem to all +who saw Him; owning the authority of earthly parents, yet claiming an +antiquity greater than Abram's; appearing suddenly to the captivity led +captive, with His hands full of gifts, and His lips dropping words of +blessing. + +Melchizedek is the one personage on earth whom Abram recognises as his +spiritual superior. Abram accepts his blessing and pays him tithes; +apparently as priest of the Most High God; so that in paying to him, +Abram is giving the tenth of his spoils to God. This is not any mere +courtesy of private persons. It was done in presence of various parties +of jealously watchful retainers. Men of rank and office and position +_consider_ how they should act to one another and who should take +precedence. And Abram did deliberately and with a perfect perception of +what he was doing, whatever he now did. Manifestly therefore God's +revelation of Himself was not as yet confined to the one line running +from Abram to Christ. Here was a man of whom we really do not know +whether he was a Canaanite, a son of Ham or a son of Shem; yet Abram +recognises him as having knowledge of the true God, and even bows to him +as his spiritual superior in office if not in experience. This shows us +how little jealousy Abram had of others being favoured by God, how +little he thought _his_ connection with God would be less secure if +other men enjoyed a similar connection, and how heartily he welcomed +those who with different rites and different prospects yet worshipped +the living God. It shows us also how apt we are to limit God's ways of +working; and how little we understand of the connections He has with +those who are not situated as we ourselves are. Here while all our +attention is concentrated on Abram as carrying the whole spiritual hope +of the world, there emerges from an obscure Canaanite valley a man +nearer to God than Abram is. From how many unthought-of places such men +may at any time come out upon us, we really can never tell. + +Again Melchizedek is evidently a title, not a name--the word means King +of Righteousness, or Righteous King. It may have been a title adopted by +a line of kings, or it may have been peculiar to this one man. But these +old Canaanites, if Canaanites they were, had got hold of a great +principle when they gave this title to the king of their city of Salem +or Peace. They perceived that it was the righteousness, the justice, of +their king that could best uphold their peaceful city. They saw that the +right king for them was a man not grinding his neighbours by war and +taxes, not overriding the rights of others and seeking always +enlargement of his own dominion; nor a merely merciful man, inclined to +treat sin lightly and leaning always to laxity; but the man they would +choose to give them peace was the righteous man who might sometimes seem +overscrupulous, sometimes over-stern, who would sometimes be called +romantic and sometimes fanatical, but through all whose dealings it +would be obvious that justice to all parties was the aim in view. Some +of them might not be good enough to love a ruler who made no more of +their special interest than he did of others, but all would possibly +have wit enough to see that only by justice could they have peace. It is +the reflex of God's government in which righteousness is the foundation +of peace, a righteousness unflinching and invariable, promulgating holy +laws and exacting punishment from all who break them. It is this that +gives us hope of eternal peace, that we know God has not left out of +account facts that must yet be reckoned with, nor merely lulled the +unquiet forebodings of conscience, but has let every righteous law and +principle find full scope, has done righteously in offering us pardon so +that nothing can ever turn up to deprive us of our peace. And it is +quite in vain that any individual holds before his mind the prospect of +peace, _i.e._ of permanent satisfaction, so long as he is not seeking it +by righteousness. In so far as he is keeping his conscience from +interfering, in so far is he making it impossible to himself to enter +into the condition for the sake of which he is keeping conscience from +regulating his conduct. + +Lastly, Abram's refusal of the king of Sodom's offers is significant. +Naturally enough, and probably in accordance with well-established +usage, the king proposes that Abram should receive the rescued goods and +the spoil of the invading army. But Abram knew men, and knew that +although now Sodom was eager to show that he felt himself indebted to +Abram, the time would come when he would point to this occasion as +laying the foundation of Abram's fortune. When a man rises in the world +every one will tell you of the share he had in raising him, and will +convey the impression that but for assistance rendered by the speaker he +would not have been what he now is. Abram knows that he is destined to +rise, and knows also by Whose help he is to rise. He intends to receive +all from God; and therefore not a thread from Sodom. He puts his refusal +in the form adopted by the man whose mind is made up beyond revisal. He +has "vowed" it. He had anticipated such offers and had considered their +bearing on his relations to God and man; and taking advantage of the +unembarrassed season in which the offer was as yet only a possibility, +he had resolved that when it was actually made he would refuse it, no +matter what advantages it seemed to offer. So should we in our better +seasons and when we know we are viewing things healthily, +conscientiously, and righteously, determine what our conduct is to be, +and if possible so commit ourselves to it that when the right frame is +passed we cannot draw back from the right conduct. Abram had done so, +and however tempting the spoils of the Eastern kings were, they did not +move him. His vow had been made to the Possessor of heaven and earth, in +Whose hand were riches beyond the gifts of Sodom. + +Here again it is the man of faith that appears. He shows a noble +jealousy of God's prerogative to bless him. He will not give men +occasion to say that any earthly monarch has enriched him. It shall be +made plain that it is on God he is depending. In all men of faith there +will be something of this spirit. They cannot fail so to frame their +life as to let it come clearly out that for happiness, for success, for +comfort, for joy, they are in the main depending on God. That this +cannot be done in the complex life of modern society, no one will +venture to say in presence of this incident. Could we more easily have +shown our reliance upon God in the hurry of a sudden foray, in the +turmoil and intense action of a midnight attack and hand to hand +conflict, in the excitement and elation of a triumphal progress, the +kings of the country vying with one another to do us honour and the +rescued captives lauding our valour and generosity? No one fails to see +what it was that balanced Abram in this intoxicating march. No one asks +what enabled him, while leading his armed followers flushed with success +through a land weakened by recent dismay and disaster, to restrain them +and himself from claiming the whole land as his. No one asks what gave +him moral perception to see that the opportunity given him of winning +the land by the sword was a temptation not a guiding providence. To +every reader it is obvious that his dependence on God was his safeguard +and his light. God would bring him by fair and honourable means to his +own. There was no need of violence, no need of receiving help from +doubtful allies. This is true nobility; and this, faith always produces. +But it must be a faith like Abram's; not a quick and superficial growth, +but a deeply-rooted principle. For against all temptations this only is +our sure defence, that already our hearts are so filled with God's +promise that other offers find no craving in us, no empty dissatisfied +spot on which they can settle. To such faith God responds by the +elevating and strengthening assurance, "I am thy shield, and thy +exceeding great reward." + + + + +XI. + +_COVENANT WITH ABRAM._ + +GENESIS xv. + + +Of the nine Divine manifestations made during Abram's life this is the +fifth. At Ur, at Kharran, at the oak of Moreh, at the encampment between +Bethel and Ai, and now at Mamre, he received guidance and encouragement +from God. Different terms are used regarding these manifestations. +Sometimes it is said "The Lord appeared unto him;" here for the first +time in the course of God's revelation occurs that expression which +afterwards became normal, "The word of the Lord came unto Abram." +Throughout the subsequent history this word of the Lord continues to +come, often at long intervals, but always meeting the occasion and needs +of His people and joining itself on to what had already been declared, +until at last the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, giving thus to +all men assurance of the nearness and profound sympathy of their God. To +repeat this revelation is impossible. A repetition of it would be a +denial of its reality. For a second life on earth is allowed to no man; +and were our Lord to live a second human life it were proof He was no +true man, but an anomalous, unaccountable, uninstructive, appearance or +simulacrum of a man. + +But though these revelations of God are finished, though complete +knowledge of God is given in Christ, God comes to the individual still +through the Spirit Whose office it is to take of the things of Christ +and show them to us. And in doing so the law is observed which we see +illustrated here. God comes to a man with further encouragement and +light for a new step when he has conscientiously used the light he +already has. The temper that "seeks for a sign" and expects that some +astounding Providence should be sent to make us religious is by no means +obsolete. Many seem to expect that before they act on the knowledge they +have, they will receive more. They put off giving themselves to the +service of God under some kind of impression that some striking event or +much more distinct knowledge is required to give them a decided turn to +a religious life. In so doing they invert God's order. It is when we +have conscientiously followed such light as we have, and faithfully done +all that we know to be right, that God gives us further light. It was +immediately on the back of faithful action that Abram received new help +to his faith. + +The time was seasonable for other reasons. Never did Abram feel more in +need of such assurance. He had been successful in his midnight attack +and had scattered the force from beyond Euphrates, but he knew the +temper of these Eastern monarchs well enough to be aware that there was +nothing they hailed with greater pleasure than a pretext for extending +their conquests and adding to their territory. To Abram it must have +appeared certain that the next campaigning season would see his country +invaded and his little encampment swept away by the Eastern host. Most +appropriate, therefore, are the words: "Fear not, Abram: I am thy +shield." + +But another train of thoughts occupied Abram's mind perhaps even more +unceasingly at this time. After busy engagement comes dulness; after +triumph, flatness and sadness. I have pursued kings, got myself a great +name, led captivity captive. Men are speaking of me in Sodom, and +finding that in me they have a useful and important ally. But what is +all this to my purpose? Am I any nearer my inheritance? I have got all +that men might think I needed; they may be unable to understand why now, +of all times, I should seem heartless; but, O Lord, Thou knowest how +empty these things seem to me, and what wilt Thou give me? Abram could +not understand why he was kept so long waiting. The child given when he +was a hundred years old might equally have been given twenty-five years +before, when he first came to the land of Canaan. All Abram's servants +had their children, there was no lack of young men born in his +encampment. He could not leave his tent without hearing the shouts of +other men's children, and having them cling to his garments--but "to me +Thou hast given no seed; and lo! one born in mine house, a slave, is +mine heir." + +Thus it often is that while a man is receiving much of what is generally +valued in the world, the one thing he himself most prizes is beyond his +reach. He has his hope irremovably fixed on something which he feels +would complete his life and make him a thoroughly happy man; there is +one thing which, above all else, would be a right and helpful blessing +to him. He speaks of it to God. For years it has framed a petition for +itself when no other desire could make itself heard. Back and back to +this his heart comes, unable to find rest in anything so long as this is +withheld. He cannot help feeling that it is God who is keeping it from +him. He is tempted to say, "What is the use of all else to me, why give +me things Thou knowest I care little for, and reserve the one thing on +which my happiness depends?" As Abram might have said; "Why make me a +great name in the land, when there is no one to keep it alive in men's +memories; why increase my possessions when there is none to inherit but +a stranger?" + +Is there then any resulting benefit to character in this so common +experience of delayed expectations? In Abram's case there certainly was. +It was in these years he was drawn close enough to God to hear Him say, +"_I_ am thy exceeding great reward." He learned in the multitude of his +debatings about God's promise and the delay of its fulfilment, that God +was more than all His gifts. He had started as a mere hopeful colonist +and founder of a family; these twenty-five years of disappointment made +him the friend of God and the Father of the Faithful. Slowly do we also +pass from delight in God's gifts to delight in Himself, and often by a +similar experience. From what have you received truest and deepest +pleasure in life? Is it not from your friendships? Not from what your +friends have given you or done for you; rather from what you have done +for them; but chiefly from your affectionate intercourse. You, being +persons, must find your truest joy in persons, in personal love, +personal goodness and wisdom. But friendship has its crown in the +friendship of God. The man who knows God as his friend and is more +certain of God's goodness and wisdom and steadfastness than he can be of +the worth of the man he has loved and trusted and delighted in from his +boyhood, the man who is always accompanied by a latent sense of God's +observation and love, is truly living in the peace of God that passeth +understanding. This raises him above the touch of worldly losses and +restores him in all distresses, even to the surprise of observers; his +language is, "There may be many that will say, Who will show us any +good? Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us. _Thou_ +hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and +their wine increased." + +But evidently there was still another feeling in Abram's heart at this +particular point in his career. He could not bear to think he was to +miss that very thing which God had promised him. The keen yearning for +an heir which God's promise had stirred in him was not lost sight of in +the great saying, "_I_ am thy exceeding great reward." When he was +journeying back to his encampment not a shoestring richer than he left, +and while he heard his men, disappointed of booty, murmuring that he +should be so scrupulous, he cannot but have felt some soreness that he +should be set before his little world as a man who had the enjoyment +neither of this world's rewards nor of God. And here must have come the +strong temptation that comes to every man: Might it not be as well to +take what he could get, to enjoy what was put fairly within his reach, +instead of waiting for what seemed so uncertain as God's gift? It is +painful to be exposed to the observation of others or to our own +observation, as persons who, on the one hand, refuse to seek happiness +in the world's way, and yet are not finding it in God. You have possibly +with some magnanimity rejected a tempting offer because there were +conditions attached to which conscience could not reconcile itself; but +you find that you are in consequence suffering greater privations than +you expected and that no providential intervention seems to be made to +reward your conscientiousness. Or you suddenly become aware that though +you have for years refused to be mirthful or influential or successful +or comfortable in the world's way and on the world's terms, you are yet +getting no substitute for what you refuse. You will not join the world's +mirth, but then you are morose and have no joy of any kind. You will not +use means you disapprove of for influencing men, but neither have you +the influence of a strong Christian character. In fact by giving up the +world you seem to have contracted and weakened instead of enlarging and +deepening your life. + +In such a condition we can but imitate Abram and cast ourselves more +resolutely on God. If you find it most weary and painful to deny +yourself in these special ways which have fallen to be your experience, +you can but utter your complaint to God, assured that in Him you will +find consideration. He knows why He has called you, why He has given you +strength to abandon worldly hopes; He appreciates your adherence to Him +and He will renew your faith and hope. If day by day you are saying, +"Lead Thou me on," if you say, "What wilt Thou give me?" not in +complaint but in lively expectation, encouragement enough will be yours. + +The means by which Abram's faith was renewed were appropriate. He has +been seeing in the tumult and violence and disappointment of the world +much to suggest the thought that God's promise could never work itself +out in the face of the rude realities around him. So God leads him out +and points him to the stars, each one called by his name, and thus +reminds the Chaldæan who had so often gazed at and studied them in +their silent steady courses, that his God has designs of infinite sweep +and comprehension; that throughout all space His worlds obey His will +and all harmoniously play their part in the execution of His vast +design; that we and all our affairs are in a strong hand, but moving in +orbits so immense that small portions of them do not show us their +direction and may seem to be out of course. Abram is led out alone with +the mighty God, and to every saved soul there comes such a crisis when +before God's majesty we stand awed and humbled, all complaints hushed, +and indeed our personal interests disappear or become so merged in God's +purposes that we think only of Him; our mistakes and wrong-doing are +seen now not so much as bringing misery upon ourselves as interrupting +and perverting His purposes, and His word comes home to our hearts as +stable and satisfying. + +It was in this condition that Abram believed God, and He counted it to +him for righteousness. Probably if we read this without Paul's +commentary on it in the fourth of Romans, we should suppose it meant no +more than that Abram's faith, exercised as it was in trying +circumstances, met with God's cordial approval. The faith or belief here +spoken of was a resolute renewal of the feeling which had brought him +out of Chaldæa. He put himself fairly and finally into God's hand to be +blessed in God's way and in God's time, and this act of resignation, +this resolve that he would not force his own way in the world but would +wait upon God, was looked upon by God as deserving the name of +righteousness, just as much as honesty and integrity in his conduct with +Lot or with his servants. Paul begs us to notice that an act of faith +accepting God's favour is a very different thing from a work done for +the sake of winning God's favour. God's favour is always a matter of +grace, it is favour conferred on the undeserving; it is never a matter +of debt, it is never favour conferred because it has been won. To put +this beyond doubt he appeals to this righteousness of Abram's. How, he +asks, did Abram achieve righteousness? Not by observing ordinances and +commandments; for there were none to observe; but by trusting God, by +believing that already without any working or winning of his, God loved +him and designed blessedness for him, in short by referring his prospect +of happiness and usefulness wholly to God and not at all to himself. +This is the essential quality of the godly; and having this, Abram had +that root which produced all actual righteousness and likeness to God. + +It is sufficiently obvious in such a life as Abram's why faith is the +one thing needful. Faith is required because it is only when a man +believes God's promise and rests in His love that he can co-operate with +God in severing himself from iniquitous prospects and in so living for +spiritual ends as to enter the life and the blessedness God calls him +to. The boy who does not believe his father, when he comes to him in the +midst of his play and tells him he has something for him which will +please him still better, suffers the penalty of unbelief by losing what +his father would have given him. All missing of true enjoyment and +blessedness results from unbelief in God's promise. Men do not walk in +God's ways because they do not believe in God's ends. They do not +believe that spiritual ends are as substantial and desirable as those +that are physical. + +Abram's faith is easily recognised, because not only had he not wrought +for the blessing God promised him, but it was impossible for him even +to see how it could be achieved. That which God promised was apparently +quite beyond the reach of human power. It serves then as an admirable +illustration of the essence of faith; and Paul uses it as such. It is +not because faith is the root of all actual righteousness that Paul +describes it as "imputed for righteousness." It is because faith at once +gives a man possession of what no amount of working could ever achieve. +God now offers in Christ righteousness, that is to say, justification, +the forgiveness of sins and acceptance with God with all the fruits of +this acceptance, the indwelling Divine Spirit and life everlasting. He +offers this freely as he offered to Abram what Abram could never have +won for himself. And all that we are asked to do is to accept it. This +is all we are asked to do in order to our becoming the forgiven and +accepted children of God. After becoming so, there of course remains an +infinite amount of service to be rendered, of work to be done, of +self-discipline to be undergone. But in answer to the awakened sinner's +enquiry, "What must I do to be saved," Paul replies, "You are to _do_ +nothing; nothing you can do can win God's favour, because that favour is +already yours; nothing you can do can achieve the rectification of your +present condition, but Christ has achieved it. Believe that God is with +you and that Christ can deliver you and commit yourself cordially to the +life you are called to, hopeful that what is promised will be +fulfilled." + +Abram's faith cordial as it was, yet was not independent of some +sensible sign to maintain it. The sign given was twofold: the smoking +furnace and a prediction of the sojourn of Abram's posterity in Egypt. +The symbols were similar to those by which on other occasions the +presence of God was represented. Fire, cleansing, consuming, and +unapproachable, seemed to be the natural emblem of God's holiness. In +the present instance it was especially suitable, because the +manifestation was made after sundown and when no other could have been +seen. The cutting up of the carcases and passing between the pieces was +one of the customary forms of contract. It was one of the many devices +men have fallen upon to make sure of one another's word. That God should +condescend to adopt these modes of pledging Himself to men is +significant testimony to His love; a love so resolved on accomplishing +the good of men that it resents no slowness of faith and accommodates +itself to unworthy suspicions. It makes itself as obvious and pledges +itself with as strong guarantees to men as if it were the love of a +mortal whose feelings might change and who had not clearly foreseen all +consequences and issues. + +The prediction of the long sojourn of Abram's posterity in Egypt was not +only helpful to those who had to endure the Egyptian bondage, but also +to Abram himself. He no doubt felt the temptation, from which at no time +the Church has been free, to consider himself the favourite of heaven +before whose interests all other interests must bow. He is here taught +that other men's rights must be respected as well as his, and that not +one hour before absolute justice requires it, shall the land of the +Amorites be given to his posterity. And that man is considerably past +the rudimentary knowledge of God who understands that every act of God +springs from justice and not from caprice, and that no creature upon +earth is sooner or later unjustly dealt with, by the Supreme Ruler. In +the life of Abram it becomes visible, how, by living with God and +watching for every expression of His will, a man's knowledge of the +Divine nature enlarges; and it is also interesting to observe that +shortly after this he grounds all his pleading for Sodom on the truth he +had learned here: "Shall not the Judge of _all the earth_ do right?" + +The announcement that a long interval must elapse before the promise was +fulfilled must no doubt have been a shock to Abram; and yet it was +sobering and educative. It is a great step we take when we come clearly +to understand that God has a great deal to do with us before we can +fully inherit the promise. For God's promise, so far from making +everything in the future easy and bright, is that which above all else +discloses how stern a reality life is; how severe and thorough that +discipline must be which makes us capable of achieving God's purposes +with us. A horror of great darkness may well fall upon the man who +enters into covenant with God, who binds himself to that Being whom no +pain nor sacrifice can turn aside from the pursuance of aims once +approved. When we look forward and consider the losses, the privations, +the self-denials, the delays, the pains, the keen and real discipline, +the lowliness of the life to which fellowship with God leads men, +darkness and gloom and smoke darken our prospect and discourage us; but +the smoke is that which arises from a purifying fire that purges away +all that prevents us from living spiritually, a darkness very different +from that which settles over the life which amidst much present +brightness carries in it the consciousness that its course is downwards, +that the blows it suffers are deadening, that its sun is steadily +nearing its setting and that everlasting night awaits it. + +But over all other feelings this solemn transacting with God must have +produced in Abram a humble ecstasy of confidence. The wonderful mercy +and kindness of God in thus binding Himself to a weak and sinful man +cannot but have given him new thoughts of God and new thoughts of +himself. With fresh elevation of mind and superiority to ordinary +difficulties and temptations would he return to his tent that night. In +how different a perspective would all things stand to him now that the +Infinite God had come so near to him. Things which yesterday fretted or +terrified him seemed now remote: matters which had occupied his thought +he did not now notice or remember. He was now the Friend of God, taken +up into a new world of thoughts and hopes; hiding in his heart the +treasure of God's covenant, brooding over the infinite significance and +hopefulness of his position as God's ally. + +For indeed this was a most extraordinary and a most encouraging event. +The Infinite God drew near to Abram and made a contract with him. God as +it were said to him, I wish you to count upon Me, to make sure of Me: I +therefore pledge Myself by these accustomed forms to be your Friend. + +But it was not as an isolated person, nor for his own private interests +alone that Abram was thus dealt with by God. It was as a medium of +universal blessing that he was taken into covenant with God. The +kindness of God which he experienced was merely an intimation of the +kindness all men would experience. The laying aside of unapproachable +dignity and entrance into covenant with a man was the proclamation of +His readiness to be helpful to all and to bring Himself within reach of +all. That you may have a God at hand He thus brought Himself down to men +and human ways, that your life may not be vain and useless, dark and +misguided, and that you may find that you have a part in a well-ordered +universe in which a holy God cares for all and makes His strength and +wisdom available for all. Do not allow these intimations of His mercy to +go for nothing but use them as intended for your guidance and +encouragement. + + + + +XII. + +_BIRTH OF ISHMAEL._ + +GENESIS xvi. + + +In this unpretending chapter we have laid bare to us the origin of one +of the most striking facts in the history of religion: namely, that from +the one person of Abram have sprung Christianity and that religion which +has been and still is its most formidable rival and enemy, +Mohammedanism. To Ishmael, the son of Abram, the Arab tribes are proud +to trace their pedigree. Through him they claim Abram as their father, +and affirm that they are his truest representatives, the sons of his +first-born. In Mohammed, the Arabian, they see the fulfilment of the +blessing of Abram, and they have succeeded in persuading a large part of +the world to believe along with them. Little did Sarah think when she +persuaded Abram to take Hagar that she was originating a rivalry which +has run with keenest animosity through all ages and which oceans of +blood have not quenched. The domestic rivalry and petty womanish spites +and resentments so candidly depicted in this chapter, have actually +thrown on the world from that day to this one of its darkest and least +hopeful shadows. The blood of our own countrymen, it may be of our own +kindred, will yet flow in this unappeasable quarrel. So great a matter +does a little fire kindle. So lasting and disastrous are the issues of +even slight divergences from pure simplicity. + +It is instructive to observe how long this matter of obtaining an heir +for Abram occupies the stage of sacred history and in how many aspects +it is shown. The stage is rapidly cleared of whatever else might +naturally have invited attention, and interest is concentrated on the +heir that is to be. The risks run by the appointed mother, the doubts of +the father, the surrender now of the mother's rights,--all this is +trivial if it concerned only one household, important only when you view +it as significant for the race. It was thus men were taught thoughtfully +to brood upon the future and to believe that, though Divine, blessing +and salvation would spring from earth: man was to co-operate with God, +to recognise himself as capable of uniting with God in the highest of +all purposes. At the same time, this long and continually deferred +expectation of Abram was the simple means adopted by God to convince men +once for all that the promised seed is not of nature but of grace, that +it is God who sends all effectual and determining blessing, and that we +must learn to adapt ourselves to His ways and wait upon Him. + +The first man, then, whose religious experience and growth are recorded +for us at any length, has this one thing to learn, to trust God's word +and wait for it. In this everything is included. But gradually it +appears to us all that this is the great difficulty, to wait; to let God +take His own time to bless us. It is hard to believe in God's perfect +love and care when we are receiving no present comfort or peace; hard to +believe we shall indeed be sanctified when we seem to be abandoned to +sinful habit; hard to pass all through life with some pain, or some +crushing trouble, or some harassing anxiety, or some unsatisfied +craving. It is easy to start with faith, most trying to endure patiently +to the end. It is thus God educates His children. Compelled to wait for +some crowning gift, we cannot but study God's ways. It is thus we are +forced to look below the surface of life to its hidden meanings and to +construe God's dealings with ourselves apart from the experience of +other men. It is thus we are taught actually to loosen our hold of +things temporal and to lay hold on what is spiritual and real. He who +leaves himself in God's hand will one day declare that the pains and +sorrows he suffered were trifling in comparison with what he has won +from them. + +But Sarah could not wait. She seems to have fixed ten years as the +period during which she would wait; but at the expiry of this term she +considered herself justified in helping forward God's tardy providence +by steps of her own. One cannot severely blame her. When our hearts are +set upon some definite blessing, things seem to move too slowly and we +can scarcely refrain from urging them on without too scrupulously +enquiring into the character of our methods. We are willing to wait for +a certain time, but beyond that we must take the matter into our own +hand. This incident shows, what all life shows, that whatever be the +boon you seek, you do yourself an injury if you cease to seek it in the +best possible form and manner, and decline upon some lower thing which +you can secure by some easy stratagem of your own. + +The device suggested by Sarah was so common that the wonder is that it +had not long before been tried. Jealousy or instinctive reluctance may +have prevented her from putting it in force. She might no doubt have +understood that God, always working out His purposes in consistency +with all that is most honourable and pure in human conduct, requires of +no one to swerve a hair's breadth from the highest ideal of what a human +life should be, and that just in proportion as we seek the best gifts +and the most upright and pure path to them does God find it easy to +bless us. But in her case it was difficult to continue in this belief; +and at length she resolved to adopt the easy and obvious means of +obtaining an heir. It was unbelieving and foolish, but not more so than +our adoption of practices common in our day and in our business which we +know are not the best, but which we nevertheless make use of to obtain +our ends because the most righteous means possible do not seem workable +in our circumstances. Are you not conscious that you have sometimes used +a means of effecting your purpose, which you would shrink from using +habitually, but which you do not scruple to use to tide you over a +difficulty, an extraordinary device for an extraordinary emergency, a +Hagar brought in for a season to serve a purpose, not a Sarah accepted +from God and cherished as an eternal helpmeet. It is against this we are +here warned. From a Hagar can at the best spring only an Ishmael, while +in order to obtain the blessing God intends we must betake ourselves to +God's barren-looking means. + +The evil consequences of Sarah's scheme were apparent first of all in +the tool she made use of. Agur the son of Jakeh says: "For three things +the earth is disquieted, and for four which it cannot bear. For a +servant when he reigneth, and a fool when he is filled with meat; for an +odious woman when she is married, and an handmaid that is heir to her +mistress." Naturally this half-heathen girl, when she found that her +son would probably inherit all Abram's possessions, forgot herself, and +looked down on her present, nominal mistress. A flood of new fancies +possessed her vacant mind and her whole demeanour becomes insulting to +Sarah. The slave-girl could not be expected to sympathize with the +purpose which Abram and Sarah had in view when they made use of her. +They had calculated on finding only the unquestioning, mechanical +obedience of the slave, even while raising her practically to the +dignity of a wife. They had fancied that even to the deepest feelings of +her woman's heart, even in maternal hopes, she would be plastic in their +hands, their mere passive instrument. But they have entirely +miscalculated. The slave has feelings as quick and tender as their own, +a life and a destiny as tenaciously clung to as their God-appointed +destiny. Instead of simplifying their life they have merely added to it +another source of complexity and annoyance. It is the common fate of all +who use others to satisfy their own desires and purposes. The +instruments they use are never so soulless and passive as it is wished. +If persons cannot serve you without deteriorating in their own +character, you have no right to ask them to serve you. To use human +beings as if they were soulless machines is to neglect radical laws and +to inflict the most serious injury on our fellow-men. Mistresses who do +not treat their servants with consideration, recognising that they are +as truly women as themselves, with all a woman's hopes and feelings, and +with a life of their own to live, are committing a grievous wrong, and +evil will come of it. + +In such an emergency as now arose in Abram's household, character shows +itself clearly. Sarah's vexation at the success of her own scheme, her +recrimination and appeal for strange justice, her unjustifiable +treatment of Hagar, Abram's Bedouin disregard of the jealousies of the +women's tent, his Gallio-like repudiation of judgment in such quarrels, +his regretful vexation and shame that through such follies, mistakes, +and wranglings, God had to find a channel for His promise to flow--all +this discloses the painful ferment into which Abram's household was +thrown. Sarah's attempt to rid herself with a high hand of the +consequences of her scheme was signally unsuccessful. In the same +inconsiderate spirit in which she had put Hagar in her place, she now +forces her to flee, and fancies that she has now rid herself and her +household of all the disagreeable consequences of her experiment. She is +grievously mistaken. The slave comes back upon her hands, and comes back +with the promise of a son who should be a continual trouble to all about +him. All through Ishmael's boyhood Abram and Sarah had painfully to reap +the fruits of what they had sown. We only make matters worse when we +endeavour by injustice and harshness to crush out the consequences of +wrong-doing. The difficulties into which sin has brought us can only be +effectually overcome by sincere contrition and humiliation. It is not +all in a moment nor by one happy stroke you can rectify the sin or +mistake of a moment. If by your wise devices you have begotten young +Ishmaels, if something is every day grieving you and saying to you, +"This comes of your careless inconsiderate conduct in the past," then +see that in your vexation there is real penitence and not a mere +indignant resentment against circumstances or against other people, and +see that you are not actually continuing the fault which first gave +birth to your present sorrow and entanglement. + +When Hagar fled from her mistress she naturally took the way to her old +country. Instinctively her feet carried her to the land of her birth. +And as she crossed the desert country where Palestine, Egypt and Arabia +meet, she halted by a fountain, spent with her flight and awed by the +solitude and stillness of the desert. Her proud spirit is broken and +tamed, the fond memories of her adopted home and all its customs and +ways and familiar faces and occupations, overtake her when she pauses +and her heart reacts from the first excitement of hasty purpose and +reckless execution. To whom could she go in Egypt? Was there one there +who would remember the little slave girl or who would care to show her a +kindness? Has she not acted madly in fleeing from her only protectors? +The desolation around her depicts her own condition. No motion stirs as +far as her eye can reach, no bird flies, no leaf trembles, no cloud +floats over the scorching sun, no sound breaks the death-like quiet; she +feels as if in a tomb, severed from all life, forgotten of all. Her +spirit is breaking under this sense of desolation, when suddenly her +heart stands still as she hears a voice utter her own name "Hagar, +Sarai's maid." As readily as every other person when God speaks to them, +does Hagar recognise Who it is who has followed her into this blank +solitude. In her circumstances to hear the voice of God left no room for +disobedience. The voice of God made audible through the actual +circumstances of our daily life acquires a force and an authority we +never attached to it otherwise. + +Probably, too, Hagar would have gone back to Abram's tents at the +bidding of a less authoritative voice than this. Already she was +softening and repenting. She but needed some one to say, "Go back." You +may often make it easier for a proud man to do a right thing by giving +him a timely word. Frequently men stand in the position of Hagar, +knowing the course they ought to adopt and yet hesitating to adopt it +until it is made easy to them by a wise and friendly word. + +In the promise of a son which was here given to Hagar and the prediction +concerning his destiny, while there was enough to teach both her and +Abram that he was not to be the heir of the promise, there was also much +to gratify a mother's pride and be to Hagar a source of continual +satisfaction. The son was to bear a name which should commemorate God's +remembrance of her in her desolation. As often as she murmured it over +the babe or called it to the child or uttered it in sharp remonstrance +to the refractory boy, she was still reminded that she had a helper in +God who had heard and would hear her. The prediction regarding the child +has been strikingly fulfilled in his descendants; the three +characteristics by which they are distinguished being precisely those +here mentioned. "He will be a wild man," literally, "a wild ass among +men," reminding us of the description of this animal in Job: "Whose +house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwelling. He +scorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth he the crying of +the driver. The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth +after every green thing." Like the zebra that cannot be domesticated, +the Arab scorns the comforts of civilized life, and adheres to the +primitive dress, food, and mode of life, delighting in the sensation of +freedom, scouring the deserts, sufficient with his horse and spear for +every emergency. His hand also is against every man, looking on all as +his natural enemies or as his natural prey; in continual feud of tribe +against tribe and of the whole race against all of different blood and +different customs. And yet he "dwells in the presence of his brethren;" +though so warlike a temper would bode his destruction and has certainly +destroyed other races, this Ishmaelite stock continues in its own lands +with an uninterrupted history. In the words of an authoritative writer: +"They have roved like the moving sands of their deserts; but their race +has been rooted while the individual wandered. That race has neither +been dissipated by conquest, nor lost by migration, nor confounded with +the blood of other countries. They have continued to dwell in the +presence of all their brethren, a distinct nation, wearing upon the +whole the same features and aspects which prophecy first impressed upon +them." + +What struck Hagar most about this interview was God's presence with her +in this remote solitude. She awakened to the consciousness that duty, +hope, God, are ubiquitous, universal, carried in the human breast, not +confined to any place. Her hopes, her haughtiness, her sorrows, her +flight, were all known. The feeling possessed her which was afterwards +expressed by the Psalmist: "Thou knowest my down-sitting, and mine +uprising, Thou understandest my thoughts afar off. Thou compassest my +path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. Thou +tellest my wanderings; put Thou my tears in Thy bottle; are they not in +Thy book?" Even here where I thought to have escaped every eye, have I +been following and at length found Him that seeth me. As truly and even +more perceptibly than in Abram's tents, God is with her here in the +desert. To evade duty, to leave responsibility behind us, is impossible. +In all places we are God's children, bound to accept the +responsibilities of our nature. In all places God is with us, not only +to point out our duty but to give us the feeling that in adhering to +duty we adhere to Him, and that it is because He values us that He +presses duty upon us. With Him is no respect of persons; the servant is +in his sight as vivid a personality as the mistress, and God appears not +to the overbearing mistress but to the overborne servant. + +Happy they who when God has thus met them and sent them back on their +own footsteps, a long and weary return, have still been so filled with a +sense of God's love in caring for them through all their errors, that +they obey and return. All round about His people does God encamp, all +round about His flock does the faithful Shepherd watch and drive back +upon the fold each wanderer. Not only to those who are consciously +seeking Him does God reveal Himself, but often to us at the very +farthest point of our wandering, at our extremity, when another day's +journey would land us in a region from which there is no return. When +our regrets for the past become intolerably poignant and bitter; when we +see a waste of years behind us barren as the sand of the desert, with +nothing done but what should but cannot be undone; when the heart is +stupefied with the sense of its madness and of the irretrievable loss it +has sustained, or when we look to the future and are persuaded little +can grow up in it out of such a past, when we see that all that would +have prepared us for it has been lightly thrown aside or spent +recklessly for nought, when our hearts fail us, this is God besetting us +behind and before. And may He grant us strength to pray, "Show me Thy +ways, O Lord, teach me Thy paths. Lead me in Thy truth and teach me: +for Thou art the God of my salvation; on Thee do I wait all the day." + +The quiet glow of hopefulness with which Hagar returned to Abram's +encampment should possess the spirit of every one of us. Hagar's +prospects were not in all respects inviting. She knew the kind of +treatment she was likely to receive at the hands of Sarah. She was to be +a bondwoman still. But God had persuaded her of His care and had given +her a hope large enough to fill her heart. That hope was to be fulfilled +by a return to the home she had fled from, by a humbling and painful +experience. There is no person for whom God has not similar +encouragement. Frequently persons forget that God is in their life, +fulfilling His purposes. They flee from what is painful; they lose their +bearings in life and know not which way to turn; they do not fancy there +is help for them in God. Yet God is with them; by these very +circumstances that reduce them to desolateness and despair He leads them +to hope in Him. Each one of us has a place in His purpose; and that +place we shall find not by fleeing from what is distressing but by +submitting ourselves cheerfully to what He appoints. God's purpose is +real, and life is real, meant to accomplish not our present passing +pleasure, but lasting good in conformity with God's purpose. Be sure +that when you are bidden back to duties that seem those of a slave, you +are bidden to them by God, Whose purposes are worthy of Himself and +Whose purposes include you and all that concerns you. + +There are, I think, few truths more animating than this which is here +taught us, that God has a purpose with each of us; that however +insignificant we seem, however friendless, however hardly used, however +ousted even from our natural place in this world's households, God has a +place for us; that however we lose our way in life we are not lost from +His eye; that even when we do not think of choosing Him He in His +Divine, all-embracing love chooses us, and throws about us bonds from +which we cannot escape. Of Hagar many were complacently thinking it was +no great matter if she were lost, and some might consider themselves +righteous because they said she deserved whatever mishap might befall +her. But not so God. Of some of us, it may be, others may think no great +blank would be made by our loss; but God's compassion and care and +purpose comprehend the least worthy. The very hairs of your head are all +numbered by Him. Nothing is so trivial and insignificant as to escape +His attention, nothing so intractable that He cannot use it for good. +Trust in Him, obey Him, and your life will yet be useful and happy. + + + + +XIII. + +_THE COVENANT SEALED._ + +GENESIS xvii. + + +According to the dates here given fourteen years had passed since Abram +had received any intimation of God's will regarding him. Since the +covenant had been made some twenty years before, no direct communication +had been received; and no message of any kind since Ishmael's birth. It +need not, therefore, surprise us that we are often allowed to remain for +years in a state of suspense, uncertain about the future, feeling that +we need more light and yet unable to find it. All truth is not +discovered in a day, and if that on which we are to found for eternity +take us twenty years or a life's experience to settle it in its place, +why should we on this account be overborne with discouragement? They who +love the truth and can as little abstain from seeking it as the artist +can abstain from admiring what is lovely, will assuredly have their +reward. To be expectant yet not impatient, unsatisfied yet not +unbelieving, to hold mind and heart open, assured that light is sown for +the upright and that all that is has lessons for the teachable, this is +our proper attitude. + + Think you, 'mid all this mighty sum + Of things for ever speaking, + That nothing of itself will come, + But we must still be seeking? + +We appreciate the significance of a revelation in proportion as we +understand the state of mind to which it is made. Abram's state of mind +is disclosed in the exclamation: "Oh, that Ishmael might live before +Thee!" He had learned to love the bold, brilliant, domineering boy. He +saw how the men liked to serve him and how proud they were of the young +chief. No doubt his wild intractable ways often made his father anxious. +Sarah was there to point out and exaggerate all his faults and to +prognosticate mischief. But there he was, in actual flesh and blood, +full of life and interest in everything, daily getting deeper into the +affections of Abram, who allowed and could not but allow his own life to +revolve very much around the dashing, attractive lad. So that the +reminder that he was not the promised heir was not entirely welcome. +When he was told that the heir of promise was to be Sarah's child, he +could not repress the somewhat peevish exclamation: "Oh, that Ishmael +might serve Thy turn!" Why call me off again from this actual attainment +to the vague, shadowy, non-existent heir of promise, who surely can +never have the brightness of eye and force of limb and lordly ways of +this Ishmael? Would that what already exists in actual substance before +the eye might satisfy Thee and fulfil Thine intention and supersede the +necessity of further waiting! Must I again loosen my hold, and part with +my chief attainment? Must I cut my moorings and launch again upon this +ocean of faith with a horizon always receding and that seems absolutely +boundless? + +We are familiar with this state of mind. We wish God would leave us +alone. We have found a very attractive substitute for what He promises, +and we resent being reminded that our substitute is not, after all, the +veritable, eternal, best possession. It satisfies our taste, our +intellect, our ambition; it sets us on a level with other men and gives +us a place in the world; but now and again we feel a void it does not +fill. We have attained comfortable circumstances, success in our +profession, our life has in it that which attracts applause and sheds a +brilliance over it; and we do not like being told that this is not all. +Our feeling is Oh, that this might do! that this might be accepted as +perfect attainment! it satisfies me (all but a little bit); might it not +satisfy God? Why summon me again away from domestic happiness, +intellectual enjoyment, agreeable occupations, to what really seems so +unattainable as perfect fellowship with God in the fulfilment of His +promise? Why spend all my life in waiting and seeking for high spiritual +things when I have so much with which I can be moderately satisfied? For +our complaint often is not that God gives so little but that He offers +too much, more than we care to have: that He never will let us be +content with anything short of what perfectly fulfils His perfect love +and purpose. + +This being Abram's state of mind, he is aroused from it by the words: "I +am the Almighty God; walk before Me and be thou perfect." I am the +Almighty God, able to fulfil your highest hopes and accomplish for you +the brightest ideal that ever My words set before you. There is no need +of paring down the promise till it square with human probabilities, no +need of relinquishing one hope it has begotten, no need of adopting some +interpretation of it which may make it seem easier to fulfil, and no +need of striving to fulfil it in any second-rate way. All possibility +lies in this: I am the Almighty God. Walk before Me and be thou perfect, +therefore. Do not train your eye to earthly distances and earthly +magnitudes and limit your hope accordingly, but live in the presence of +the Almighty God. Do not defer the advices of conscience and of your +purest aspirations to some other possible world; do not settle down at +the low level of godless nature and of the men around you; do not give +way to what you yourself know to be weakness and evidence of defeat; do +not let self-indulgence take the place of My commandments, indolence +supplant resolution and the likelihoods of human calculation obliterate +the hopes stirred by the Divine call: Be thou perfect. Is not this a +summons that comes appropriately to every man? Whatever be our +contentment, our attainments, our possessions, a new light is shed upon +our condition when we measure it by God's idea and God's resources. Is +my life God's ideal? Does that which satisfies me satisfy Him? + +The purpose of God's present appearance to Abram was to renew the +covenant, and this He does in terms so explicit, so pregnant, so +magnificent that Abram must have seen more distinctly than ever that he +was called to play a very special part in God's providence. That kings +should spring from him, a mere pastoral nomad in an alien country, could +not suggest itself to Abram as a likely thing to happen. Indeed, though +a line of kings or two lines of kings did spring from him through Isaac, +the terms of the prediction seem scarcely exhausted by that fulfilment. +And accordingly Paul without hesitation or reserve transfers this +prediction to a spiritual region, and is at pains to show that the many +nations of whom Abram was to be the father, were not those who inherited +his blood, his natural appearance, his language and earthly inheritance, +but those who inherited his spiritual qualities and the heritage in God +to which his faith gave him entrance. And he argues that no difference +of race or disadvantages of worldly position can prevent any man from +serving himself heir to Abram, because the seed, to whom as well as to +Abram the promise was made, was Christ, and in Christ there is neither +Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free, but all are one. + +In connection then with this covenant in which God promised that He +would be a God to Abram and to his seed, two points of interest to us +emerge. First that Christ is Abram's heir. In His use of God's promise +we see its full significance. In His life-long appropriation of God we +see what God meant when He said, "I will be a God to thee and to thy +seed." We find our Lord from the first living as one who felt His life +encompassed by God, embraced and comprehended in that higher life which +God lives through all and in all. His life was all and whole a life in +God. He recognised what it is to have a God, one Whose will is supreme +and unerringly good, Whose love is constant and eternal, Who is the +first and the last, beyond Whom and from under Whom we can never pass. +He moved about in the world in so perfectly harmonious a correspondence +with God, so merging Himself in God and His purpose and with so +unhesitating a reliance upon Him, that He seemed and was but a +manifestation of God, God's will embodied, God's child, God expressing +Himself in human nature. He showed us once for all the blessedness of +true dependence, fidelity and faith. He showed us how that simple +promise 'I will be a God to thee,' received in faith, lifts the human +life into fellowship with all that is hopeful and inspiring, with all +that is purifying, with all that is real and abiding. + +But a second point is, that Jesus was the heir of Abram not merely +because He was his descendant, a Jew with all the advantages of the +Jew, but because, like Abram, He was full of faith. God was the +atmosphere of His life. But He claimed God not because He was Jewish, +but because He was human. Through the Jews God had made Himself known, +but it was to what was human not to what was Jewish He appealed. And it +was as Son of man not as son of Israel or of Adam that Jesus responded +to God and lived with Him as His God. Not by specially Jewish rites did +Jesus approach and rest in God, but by what is universal and human, by +prayer to the Father, by loving obedience, by faith and submission. And +thus we too may be joint-heirs with Christ and possess God. And if we +think of ourselves as left to struggle with natural defects amidst +irreversible natural laws; if we begin to pray very heartlessly, as if +He who once listened were now asleep or could do nothing; if our life +seems profitless, purposeless, and all unhinged; then let us look back +to this sure promise of God, that He will be our God: our God, for, if +Christ's God, then ours, for if we be Christ's then are we Abram's seed +and heirs according to the promise. How few in any given day are living +on this promise: how few attach reality to God's continuous revelation +of Himself, the reality in this world's transitory history: how few can +believe in the nearness and observance and love of God, how few can +strenuously seek to be holy or understand where abiding happiness is to +be found; for all these things are here. Yet who knocks at this door? +Who makes, as Christ made, his life a unity with God, undismayed, +unmurmuring, unreluctant, neither fearful of God nor disobedient, but +diligent, earnest, jubilant, because God has said, "I will be thy God." +Do you believe these things and can you forbear to use them? Do you +believe that it is open to you, whosoever you are, to have the Eternal +and Supreme God for your God, that He may use all His Divine nature in +your behalf; have you conceived what it is that God means when He +extends to you this offer, and can you decline to accept it, can you do +otherwise than cherish it and seek to find more and more in it every day +you live? + +Two seals were at this time affixed to the covenant: the one for Abram +himself, the other for every one who shared with him in his blessings of +the covenant. The first consisted in the change of his own name to +Abraham, "the father of a multitude," and of his wife's to Sarah, +"princess" or "queen," because she was now announced as the destined +mother of kings. And however Abraham would be annoyed to see the hardly +suppressed smile on the ironical faces of his men as he boldly commanded +them to call him by a name whose verification seemed so grievously to +lag; and however indignant and pained he may have been to hear the young +Ishmael jeering Sarah with her new name, and lending to it every tone of +mockery and using it with insolent frequency, yet Abraham knew that +these names were not given to deceive; and probably as the name of +Abraham has become one of the best known names on earth, so to himself +did it quickly acquire a preciousness as God's voice abiding with him, +God's promise renewed to him through every man that addressed him, until +at length the child of promise lying on his knees took up its first +syllable and called him "Abba." + +This seal was special to Abraham and Sarah, the other was public. All +who desired to partake with Abraham in the security, hope, and happiness +of having God as their God, were to submit to circumcision. This sign +was to determine who were included in the covenant. By this outward mark +encouragement and assurance of faith were to be quickened in the heart +of all Abraham's descendants. + +The mark chosen was significant. It was indeed not distinctive in its +outward form; so little so that at this day no fewer than one hundred +and fifty millions of the race make use of the same rite for one purpose +or other. All the descendants of Ishmael of course continue it, but also +all who have their religion, that is, all Mohammedans; but besides +these, some tribes in South America, some in Australia, some in the +South Sea Islands, and a large number of Kaffir tribes. The ancient +Egyptians certainly practised it, and it has been suggested that Abraham +may have become acquainted with the practice during his sojourn in +Egypt. It is however uncertain whether the practice in Egypt runs back +to so early a time. If it were an established Egyptian usage, then of +course Hagar would demand for her boy at the usual age the rite which +she had always associated with entrance on a new stage of life. But even +supposing this was the case, the rite was none the less available for +the new use to which it was now put. The rainbow existed before the +Flood; bread and wine existed before the night of the Lord's Supper; +baptisms of various kinds were practised before the days of the +Apostles. And for this very reason, when God desired a natural emblem of +the stability of the seasons He chose a striking feature of nature on +which men were already accustomed to look with pleasure and hope; when +He desired symbols of the body and blood of the Redeemer He took those +articles which already had a meaning as the most efficacious human +nutriment; when He desired to represent to the eye the renunciation of +the old life and the birth to a new life which we have by union with +Christ, He took that rite which was already known as the badge of +discipleship; and when He desired to impress men by symbol with the +impurity of nature and with our dependence on God for the production of +all acceptable life, He chose that rite which, whether used before or +not, did most strikingly represent this. + +With the significance of circumcision to other men who practise it, we +have here nothing to do. It is as the chief sacrament of the old +covenant, by which God meant to aid all succeeding generations of +Hebrews in believing that God was their God. And this particular mark +was given, rather than any other, that they might recognise and ever +remember that human nature was unable to generate its own Saviour, that +in man there is a native impurity which must be laid aside when he comes +into fellowship with the Holy God. And these circumcised races, although +in many respects as unspiritual as others, have yet in general perceived +that God is different from nature, a Holy Being to Whom we cannot attain +by any mere adherence to nature, but only by the aid He Himself extends +to us in ways for which nature makes no provision. The lesson of +circumcision is an old one and rudely expressed, but it is vital; and no +abhorrence of the circumcised for the uncircumcised too strongly, +however unjustly, emphasizes the distinction that actually subsists +between those who believe in nature and those who believe in God. + +The lesson is old, but the circumcision of the heart to which the +outward mark pointed, is ever required. That is the true seal of our +fellowship with God; the earnest of the Spirit which gives promise of +eternal union with the Holy One; the relentings, the shame, the +softening of heart, the adoration and reverence for the holiness of God, +the thirst for Him, the joy in His goodness, these are the first fruits +of the Spirit, which lead on to our calling God Father, and feeling that +to be alone with Him is our happiness. It is this putting aside of our +natural confidence in nature and absorption in nature, and this turning +to God as our confidence and our life, which constitutes the true +circumcision of the heart. + +Believing as Abraham was, he could not forbear smiling when God said +that Sarah would be the mother of the promised seed. This incredulity of +Abraham was so significant that it was commemorated in the name of +Isaac, the laugher. This heir was typical of all God's best gifts, at +first reckoned impossible, at last filling the heart with gladness. The +smile of incredulity became the laughter of joy when the child was born +and Sarah said, "God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will +laugh with me." It is they who expect things so incongruous and so +impossible to nature unaided that they smile even while they believe, +who will one day find their hopes fulfilled and their hearts running +over with joyful laughter. If your heart is fixed only on what you can +accomplish for yourself, no great joy can ever be yours. But frame your +actual hopes in accordance with the promise of God, expect holiness, +fulness of joy, animating partnership with God in the highest matters, +the resurrection of the dead, the life everlasting, and one day you will +say, "God hath made me to laugh." But Abraham prostrating himself to +hide a smile is the symbol of our common attitude. We profess to believe +in a God of unspeakable power and goodness, but even while we do so we +find it impossible to attach a sense of reality to His promises. They +are kindly, well-intentioned words, but are apparently spoken in neglect +of solid, obstinate facts. How hard is it for us to learn that God is +the great reality, and that the reality of all else may be measured by +its relation to Him. + +Sarah's laughter had a different meaning. Indeed Sarah does not appear +to have been by any means a blameless character. Her conduct towards +Hagar showed us that she was a woman capable of generous impulses but +not of the strain of continued magnanimous conduct. She was capable of +yielding her wifely rights on the impulse of the brilliant scheme that +had struck her, but like many other persons who can begin a magnanimous +or generous course of conduct, she could not follow it up to the end, +but failed disgracefully in her conduct towards her rival. So now again +she betrays characteristic weakness. When the strangers came to +Abraham's tent, and announced that she was to become a mother, she +smiled in superior, self-assured, woman's wisdom. When the promise +threatened no longer to hover over her household as a mere sublime and +exalting idea which serves its purpose if it keep them in mind that God +has spoken to them, but to take place now among the actualities of daily +occurrence, she hails this announcement with a laugh of total +incredulity. Whatever she had made of God's word, she had not thought it +was really and veritably to come to pass; she smiled at the simplicity +which could speak of such an unheard-of thing. + +This is true to human nature. It reminds you how you have dealt with +God's promises,--nay, with God's commandments--when they offered to make +room for themselves in the everyday life of which you are masters, +every detail of which you have arranged, seeming to know absolutely the +laws and principles on which your particular line of life must be +carried on. Have you never smiled at the simplicity which could set +about making actual, about carrying out in practical life, in society, +in work, in business, those thoughts, feelings and purposes, which God's +promises beget? Sarah did not laugh outright, but smiled behind the +Lord; she did not mock Him to His face, but let the compassionate +expression pass over her face with which we listen to the glowing hopes +of the young enthusiast who does not know the world. Have we not often +put aside God's voice precisely thus; saying within us, We know what +kind of things can be done by us and others and what need not be +attempted; we know what kind of frailties in social intercourse we must +put up with, and not seek to amend; what kind of practices it is vain to +think of abolishing; we know what use to make of God's promise and what +use not to make of it; how far to trust it, and how far to give greater +weight to our knowledge of the world and our natural prudence and sense? +Does not our faith, like Sarah's, vary in proportion as the promise to +be believed is unpractical? If the promise seems wholly to concern +future things, we cordially and devoutly assent; but if we are asked to +believe that God intends within the year to do so-and-so, if we are +asked to believe that the result of God's promise will be found taking a +substantial place among the results of our own efforts--then the +derisive smile of Sarah forms on our face. + +To look at the crowds of persons professing religion, one would suppose +nothing was commoner than faith. There is nothing rarer. Devoutness is +common; righteousness of life is common; a contempt for every kind of +fraud and underhand practice is common; a highminded disregard for this +world's gains and glories is common; an abhorrence of sensuality and an +earnest thirst for perfection are common--but faith? Will the Son of man +when He comes find it on earth? May not the messengers of God yet say, +Who hath believed our report? Why, the great majority of Christian +people have never been near enough to spiritual things to know whether +they are or are not, they have never narrowly weighed spiritual issues +and trembled as they watched the uncertain balance, they say they +believe God and a future of happiness because they really do not know +what they are talking about--they have not measured the magnitude of +these things. Faith is not a blind and careless assent to matters of +indifference, faith is not a state of mental suspense with a hope that +things may turn out to be as the Bible says. Faith is the firm +persuasion that these things are so. And he who at once knows the +magnitude of these things and believes that they are so, must be filled +with a joy that makes him independent of the world, with an enthusiasm +which must seem to the world like insanity. It is quite a different +world in which the man of faith lives. + + + + +XIV. + +_ABRAHAM'S INTERCESSION FOR SODOM._ + +GENESIS xviii. + + +The scene with which this chapter opens is one familiar to the observer +of nomad life in the East. During the scorching heat and glaring light +of noon, while the birds seek the densest foliage and the wild animals +lie panting in the thicket and everything is still and silent as +midnight, Abraham sits in his tent door under the spreading oak of +Mamre. Listless, languid, and dreamy as he is, he is at once aroused +into brightest wakefulness by the sudden apparition of three strangers. +Remarkable as their appearance no doubt must have been, it would seem +that Abraham did not recognise the rank of his visitors; it was, as the +writer to the Hebrews says, "unawares" that he entertained angels. But +when he saw them stand as if inviting invitation to rest, he treated +them as hospitality required him to treat any wayfarers. He sprang to +his feet, ran and bowed himself to the ground, and begged them to rest +and eat with him. With the extraordinary, and as it seems to our colder +nature extravagant courtesy of an Oriental, he rates at the very lowest +the comforts he can supply; it is only a little water he can give to +wash their feet, a morsel of bread to help them on their way, but they +will do him a kindness if they accept these small attentions at his +hands. He gives, however, much more than he offered, seeks out the +fatted calf and serves while his guests sit and eat. The whole scene is +primitive and Oriental, and "presents a perfect picture of the manner in +which a modern Bedawee Sheykh receives travellers arriving at his +encampment;" the hasty baking of bread, the celebration of a guest's +arrival by the killing of animal food not on other occasions used even +by large flock-masters; the meal spread in the open air, the black tents +of the encampment stretching back among the oaks of Mamre, every +available space filled with sheep, asses, camels,--the whole is one of +those clear pictures which only the simplicity of primitive life can +produce. + +Not only, however, as a suitable and pretty introduction which may +ensure our reading the subsequent narrative is it recorded how +hospitably Abraham received these three. Later writers saw in it a +picture of the beauty and reward of hospitality. It is very true, +indeed, that the circumstances of a wandering pastoral life are +peculiarly favourable to the cultivation of this grace. Travellers being +the only bringers of tidings are greeted from a selfish desire to hear +news as well as from better motives. Life in tents, too, of necessity +makes men freer in their manners. They have no door to lock, no inner +rooms to retire to, their life is spent outside, and their character +naturally inclines to frankness and freedom from the suspicions, fears, +and restraints of city life. Especially is hospitality accounted the +indispensable virtue, and a breach of it as culpable as a breach of the +sixth commandment, because to refuse hospitality is in many regions +equivalent to subjecting a wayfarer to dangers and hardships under +which he is almost certain to succumb. + + "This tent is mine," said Yussouf, "but no more + Than it is God's; come in, and be at peace; + Freely shalt thou partake of all my store, + As I of His Who buildeth over these + Our tents His glorious roof of night and day, + And at Whose door none ever yet heard Nay." + +Still we are of course bound to import into our life all the suggestions +of kindly conduct which any other style of living gives us. And the +writer to the Hebrews pointedly refers to this scene and says, "Let us +not be forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have +entertained angels unawares." And often in quite a prosaic and +unquestionable manner does it become apparent to a host, that the guest +he has been entertaining has been sent by God, an angel indeed +ministering to his salvation, renewing in him thoughts that had been +dying out, filling his home with brightness and life like the smile of +God's own face, calling out kindly feelings, provoking to love and to +good works, effectually helping him onwards and making one more stage of +his life endurable and even blessed. And it is not to be wondered at +that our Lord Himself should have continually inculcated this same +grace; for in His whole life and by His most painful experience were men +being tested as to who among them would take the stranger in. He who +became man for a little that He might for ever consecrate the dwelling +of Abraham and leave a blessing in his household, has now become man for +evermore, that we may learn to walk carefully and reverentially through +a life whose circumstances and conditions, whose little socialities and +duties, and whose great trials and strains He found fit for Himself for +service to the Father. This tabernacle of our human body has by His +presence been transformed from a tent to a temple, and this world and +all its ways that He approved, admired, and walked in, is holy ground. +But as He came to Abraham trusting to his hospitality, not sending +before him a legion of angels to awe the patriarch but coming in the +guise of an ordinary wayfarer; so did He come to His own and make His +entrance among us, claiming only the consideration which He claims for +the least of His people, and granting to whoever gave Him _that_ the +discovery of His Divine nature. Had there been ordinary hospitality in +Bethlehem that night before the taxing, then a woman in Mary's condition +had been cared for and not superciliously thrust among the cattle, and +our race had been delivered from the everlasting reproach of refusing +its God a cradle to be born and sleep His first sleep in, as it refused +Him a bed to die in, and left chance to provide Him a grave in which to +sleep His latest sleep. And still He is coming to us all requiring of us +this grace of hospitality, not only in the case of every one who asks of +us a cup of cold water and whom our Lord Himself will personate at the +last day and say, "_I_ was a stranger and ye took Me in;" but also in +regard to those claims upon our heart's reception which He only in His +own person makes. + +But while we are no doubt justified in gathering such lessons from this +scene, it can scarcely have been for the sake of inculcating hospitality +that these angels visited Abraham. And if we ask, Why did God on this +occasion use this exceptional form of manifesting Himself; why, instead +of approaching Abraham in a vision or in word as had been found +sufficient on former occasions, did He now adopt this method of +becoming Abraham's guest and eating with him?--the only apparent reason +is that He meant this also to be the test applied to Sodom. There too +His angels were to appear as wayfarers, dependent on the hospitality of +the town, and by the people's treatment of these unknown visitors their +moral state was to be detected and judged. The peaceful meal under the +oaks of Mamre, the quiet and confidential walk over the hills in the +afternoon when Abraham in the humble simplicity of a godly soul was +found to be fit company for these three--this scene where the Lord and +His messengers receive a becoming welcome and where they leave only +blessing behind them, is set in telling contrast to their reception in +Sodom, where their coming was the signal for the outburst of a brutality +one blushes to think of, and elicited all the elements of a mere hell +upon earth. + +Lot would fain have been as hospitable as Abraham. Deeper in his nature +than any other consideration was the traditional habit of hospitality. +To this he would have sacrificed everything--the rights of strangers +were to him truly inviolable. Lot was a man who could as little see +strangers without inviting them to his house as Abraham could. He would +have treated them handsomely as his uncle; and what he could do he did. +But Lot had by his choice of a dwelling made it impossible he should +afford safe and agreeable lodging to any visitor. He did his best, and +it was not his reception of the angels that sealed Sodom's doom, and yet +what shame he must have felt that he had put himself in circumstances in +which his chief virtue could not be practised. So do men tie their own +hands and cripple themselves so that even the good they would take +pleasure in doing is either wholly impossible or turns to evil. + +In divulging to Abraham His purpose in visiting Sodom, it is enounced +here that God acted on a principle which seems afterwards to have become +almost proverbial. Surely the Lord will do nothing but He revealeth His +secret unto His servants the prophets. There are indeed two grounds +stated for making known to Abraham this catastrophe. The reason that we +should naturally expect, viz. that he might go on and warn Lot is not +one of them. Why then make any announcement to Abraham if the +catastrophe cannot be averted, and if Abraham is to turn back to his own +encampment? The first reason is: "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing +which I do? _Seeing that Abraham_ shall surely become a great and mighty +nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him." In +other words, Abraham has been made the depository of a blessing for all +nations, and account must therefore be given to him when any people is +summarily removed beyond the possibility of receiving this blessing. If +a man has got a grant for the emancipation of the slaves in a certain +district, and is informed on landing to put this grant in force that +fifty slaves are to be executed that day, he has certainly a right to +know and he will inevitably desire to know that this execution is to be, +and why it is to be. When an officer goes to negotiate an exchange of +prisoners, if two of the number cannot be exchanged, but are to be shot, +he must be informed of this and account of the matter must be given him. +Abraham often brooding on God's promise, living indeed upon it, must +have felt a vague sympathy with all men, and a sympathy not at all +vague, but most powerful and practical with the men in the Jordan valley +whom he had rescued from Chedorlaomer. If he was to be a blessing to any +nation it must surely be to those who were within an afternoon's walk of +his encampment and among whom his nephew had taken up his abode. +Suppose he had not been told, but had risen next morning and seen the +dense cloud of smoke overhanging the doomed cities, might he not with +some justice have complained that although God had spoken to him the +previous day, not one word of this great catastrophe had been breathed +to him. + +The second reason is expressed in the nineteenth verse; God had chosen +Abraham that he might command his children and his household after him +to keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment that the Lord +might fulfil His promise to Abraham. That is to say, as it was only by +obedience and righteousness that Abraham and his seed were to continue +in God's favour, it was fair that they should be encouraged to do so by +seeing the fruits of unrighteousness. So that as the Dead Sea lay +throughout their whole history on their borders reminding them of the +wages of sin, they might never fail rightly to interpret its meaning, +and in every great catastrophe read the lesson "except ye repent ye +shall all likewise perish." They could never attribute to chance this +predicted judgment. And in point of fact frequent and solemn reference +was made to this standing monument of the fruit of sin. + +As yet there was no moral law proclaimed by any external authority. +Abraham had to discover what justice and goodness were from the dictates +of his own conscience and from his observation upon men and things. But +he was at all events persuaded that only so long as he and his sought +honestly to live in what they considered to be righteousness would they +enjoy God's favour. And they read in the destruction of Sodom a clear +intimation that certain forms of wickedness were detestable to God. + +The earnestness with which Abraham intercedes for the cities of the +plain reveals a new side of his character. One could understand a strong +desire on his part that Lot should be rescued, and no doubt the +preservation of Lot formed one of his strongest motives to intercede, +yet Lot is never named, and it is, I think, plain that he had more than +the safety of Lot in view. He prayed that the city might be spared, not +that the righteous might be delivered out of its ruin. Probably he had a +lively interest in the people he had rescued from captivity, and felt a +kind of protectorate over them as he sometimes looked down on them from +the hills near his own tents. He pleads for them as he had fought for +them, with generosity, boldness and perseverance; and it was his +boldness and unselfishness in fighting for them that gave him boldness +in praying for them. + +There has come into vogue in this country a kind of intercession which +is the exact reverse of this of Abraham--an obtuse, mechanical +intercession about whose efficacy one may cherish a reasonable +suspicion. The Bible and common sense bid us pray with the Spirit and +with the _understanding_; but at some meetings for prayer you are asked +to pray for people you do not know and have no real interest in. You are +not told even their names, so that if an answer is sent you could not +identify the answer, nor is any clue given you by which if God should +propose to use you for their help you could know where the help was to +be applied. For all you know the slip of paper handed in among a score +of others may misrepresent the circumstances; and even supposing it does +not, what likeness to the effectual fervent prayer of an anxious man has +the petition that is once read in your hearing and at once and for ever +blotted from your mind by a dozen others of the same kind. Not so did +Abraham pray: he prayed for those he knew and had fought for; and I see +no warrant for expecting that our prayers will be heard for persons +whose good we seek in no other way than prayer, in none of those ways +which in all other matters our conduct proves we judge more effectual +than prayer. When Lot was carried captive Abraham did not think it +enough to put a petition for him in his evening prayer. He went and +_did_ the needful thing, so that now when there is nothing else he can +do but pray, he intercedes, as few of us can without self-reproach or +feeling that had we only done our part there might now be no need of +prayer. What confidence can a parent have in praying for a son who is +going to a country where vice abounds, if he has done little or nothing +to infix in his boy's mind a love of virtue? In some cases the very +persons who pray for others are themselves the obstacles preventing the +answer. Were we to ask ourselves how much we are prepared to do for +those for whom we pray, we should come to a more adequate estimate of +the fervency and sincerity of our prayers. + +The element in Abraham's intercession that jars on the reader is the +trading temper that strives always to get the best possible terms. +Abraham seems to think God can be beaten down and induced to make +smaller and smaller demands. No doubt this style of prayer was suggested +to Abraham by the statement on God's part that He was going to Sodom to +see if its iniquity was so great as it was reported; that is, to number, +as it were, the righteous men in it. Abraham seizes upon this and asks +if He would not spare it if fifty were found in it. But Abraham knowing +Sodom as he did could not have supposed this number would be found. +Finding, then, that God meets him so far, he goes on step by step +getting larger in his demands, until when he comes to ten he feels that +to go farther would be intolerably presumptuous. Along with this +audacious beating down of God, there is a genuine and profound reverence +and humility which at each renewal of the petition dictate some such +expression as: "I who am but dust and ashes," "Let not my Lord be +angry." + +It is remarkable too that, throughout, it is for justice Abraham pleads, +and for justice of a limited and imperfect kind. He proceeds on the +assumption that the town will be judged as a town, and either wholly +saved or wholly destroyed. He has no idea of individual discrimination +being made, those only suffering who had sinned. And yet it is this +principle of discrimination on which God ultimately proceeds, rescuing +Lot. Yet is not this intercession the history of what every one who +prays passes through, beginning with the idea that God is to be won over +to more liberal views and a more munificent intention, and ending with +the discovery that God gives what we should count it shameless audacity +to ask? We begin to pray, + + "As if ourselves were better certainly + Than what we come to--Maker and High Priest" + +and we leave off praying assured that the whole is to be managed by a +righteousness and love and wisdom, which we cannot plan for, which any +love or desire of ours would only limit the action of, and which must be +left to work out its own purposes in its own marvellous ways. We begin, +feeling that we have to beat down a reluctant God and that we can guide +the mind of God to some better thing than He intends: when the answer +comes we recognise that what we set as the limit of our expectation God +has far over-stepped, and that our prayer has done little more than show +our inadequate conception of God's mercy. + +Not only in this respect but throughout this chapter there is betrayed +an inadequate conception of God. The language is adapted to the use of +men who are as yet unable to conceive of one Infinite, Eternal Spirit. +They think of Him as one who needs to come down and institute an inquiry +into the state of Sodom, if He is to know with accuracy the moral +condition of its inhabitants. We can freely use the same language, but +we put into it a meaning that the words do not literally bear: Abraham +and his contemporaries used and accepted the words in their literal +sense. And yet the man who had ideas of God in some respects so +rudimentary was God's Friend, received singular tokens of His favour, +found His whole life illuminated with His presence, and was used as the +point of contact between heaven and earth, so that if you desire the +first lessons in the knowledge of God which will in time grow into full +information, it is to the tent of Abraham, you must go. This surely is +encouraging; for who is not conscious of much difficulty in thinking +rightly of God? Who does not feel that precisely here, where the light +should be brightest, clouds and darkness seem to gather? It may indeed +be said that what was excusable in Abraham is inexcusable in us; that we +have that day, that full noon of Christ to which he could only, out of +the dusky dawn, look forward. But after all may not a man with some +justice say: Give me an afternoon with God, such as Abraham had; give me +the opportunity of converse with a God submitting Himself to question +and answer, to those means and instruments of ascertaining truth which I +daily employ in other matters, and I will ask no more? Christ has given +us entrance into the final stage of our knowledge of God, teaching us +that God is a Spirit and that we cannot see the Father; that Christ +Himself left earth and withdrew from the bodily eye that we might rely +more upon spiritual modes of apprehension and think of God as a Spirit. +But we are not at all times able to receive this teaching, we are +children still and fall back with longing for the times when God walked +and spoke with man. And this being so, we are encouraged by the +experience of Abraham. We shall not be disowned by God though we do not +know Him perfectly. We can but begin where we are, not pretending that +that is clear and certain to us which in fact is not so, but freely +dealing with God according to the light we have, hoping that we too, +like Abraham, shall see the day of Christ and be glad; shall one day +stand in the full light of ascertained and eternal truth, knowing as we +are known. + +In conclusion, we shall find when we read the following chapter, and +especially the prayer of Lot that he might not be driven to the wild +mountain district, but might occupy the little town of Zoar which was +saved for his sake--we shall find, that much light is reflected on this +prayer of Abraham. Without trenching on what may be more fitly spoken of +afterwards, it may now be observed that the difference between Lot and +Abraham, as between man and man generally, comes out nowhere more +strikingly than in their prayers. Abraham had never prayed for himself +with a tithe of the persistent earnestness with which he prays for +Sodom--a town which was much indebted to him, but towards which for +more reasons than one a smaller man would have borne a grudge. Lot, on +the other hand, much indebted to Sodom, identified indeed with it, one +of its leading citizens, connected by marriage with its inhabitants, is +in no agony about its destruction, and has indeed but one prayer to +offer, and that is, that when all his fellow-townsmen are destroyed, he +may be comfortably provided for. While the men he has bargained and +feasted with, the men he has made money out of and married his daughters +to, are in the agonies of an appalling catastrophe and so near that the +smoke of their torment sweeps across his retreat, he is so disengaged +from regrets and compassion that he can nicely weigh the comparative +comfort and advantage of city and rural life. One would have thought +better of the man if he had declined the angelic rescue and resolved to +stand by those in death whose society he had so coveted in life. And it +is significant that while the generous, large-hearted, devout pleading +of Abraham is in vain, the miserable, timorous, selfish petition of Lot +is heard and answered. It would seem as if sometimes God were hopeless +of men, and threw to them in contempt the gifts they crave, giving them +the poor stations in this life their ambition is set upon, because He +sees they have made themselves incapable of enduring hardness, and so +quelling their lower nature. An answered prayer is not always a +blessing, sometimes it is a doom: "He sent them meat to the full: but +while their meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon +them and slew the fattest of them." + +Probably had Lot felt any inclination to pray for his townsmen he would +have seen that for him to do so would be unseemly. His circumstances, +his long association with the Sodomites, and his accommodation of +himself to their ways had both eaten the soul out of him and set him on +quite a different footing towards God from that occupied by Abraham. A +man cannot on a sudden emergency lift himself out of the circumstances +in which he has been rooted, nor peel off his character as if it were +only skin deep. Abraham had been living an unworldly life in which +intercourse with God was a familiar employment. His prayer was but the +seasonable flower of his life, nourished to all its beauty by the +habitual nutriment of past years. Lot in his need could only utter a +peevish, pitiful, childish cry. He had aimed all his life at being +comfortable, he could not now wish anything more than to be comfortable. +"Stand out of my sunshine," was all he could say, when he held by the +hand the plenipotentiary of heaven, and when the roar of the conflict of +moral good and evil was filling his ears--a decent man, a righteous man, +but the world had eaten out his heart till he had nothing to keep him in +sympathy with heaven. + +Such is the state to which men in our society, as in Sodom, are brought +by risking their spiritual life to make the most of this world. + + + + +XV. + +_DESTRUCTION OF THE CITIES OF THE PLAIN._ + +GENESIS xix. + + +While Abraham was pleading with the Lord the angels were pursuing their +way to Sodom. And in doing so they apparently observed the laws of those +human forms which they had assumed. They did not spread swift wings and +alight early in the afternoon at the gates of the city; but taking the +usual route, they descended from the hills which separated Abraham's +encampment from the plain of the Jordan, and as the sun was setting +reached their destination. In the deep recess which is found at either +side of the gateway of an Eastern city, Lot had taken his accustomed +seat. Wearied and vexed with the din of the revellers in the street, and +oppressed with the sultry doom-laden atmosphere, he was looking out +towards the cool and peaceful hills, purple with the sinking sun behind +them, and letting his thoughts first follow and then outrun his eye; he +was now picturing and longing for the unseen tents of Abraham, and +almost hearing the cattle lowing round at evening and all the old sounds +his youth had made familiar. + +He is recalled to the actual present by the footfall of the two men, and +little knowing the significance of his act, invites them to spend the +night under his roof. It has been observed that the historian seems to +intend to bring out the quietness and the ordinary appearance of the +entire circumstances. All goes on as usual. There is nothing in the +setting sun to say that for the last time it has shone on these rich +meadows, or that in twelve hours its rising will be dimmed by the smoke +of the burning cities. The ministers of so appalling a justice as was +here displayed enter the city as ordinary travellers. When a crisis +comes, men do not suddenly acquire an intelligence and insight they have +not habitually cultivated. They cannot suddenly put forth an energy nor +exhibit an apt helpfulness which only character can give. When the test +comes, we stand or fall not according to what we would wish to be and +now see the necessity of being, but according to what former +self-discipline or self-indulgence has made us. + +How then shall this angelic commission of enquiry proceed? Shall it call +together the elders of Sodom--or shall it take Lot outside the city and +cross-examine him, setting down names and dates and seeking to come to a +fair judgment. Not at all--there is a much surer way of detecting +character than by any process of examination by question and answer. To +each of us God says: + + "Since by its _fruit_ a tree is judged, + Show me thy fruit, the _latest act_ of thine! + For in the _last_ is summed the first, and all,-- + What thy life last put heart and soul into, + There shall I taste thy product." + +It is thus these angels proceed. They do not startle the inhabitants of +Sodom into any abnormal virtue nor present opportunity for any unwonted +iniquity. They give them opportunity to act in their usual way. Nothing +could well be more ordinary than the entrance to the city of two +strangers at sunset. There is nothing in this to excite, to throw men +off their guard, to overbalance the daily habit, or give exaggerated +expression to some special feature of character. It is thus we are all +judged--by the insignificant circumstances in which we act without +reflection, without conscious remembrance of an impending judgment, with +heart and soul and full enjoyment. + +First Lot is judged. Lot's character is a singularly mixed one. With all +his selfishness, he was hospitable and public-spirited. Lover of good +living, as undoubtedly he was, his courage and strength of character are +yet unmistakable. His sitting at the gate in the evening to offer +hospitality may fairly be taken as an indication of his desire to screen +the wickedness of his townsmen, and also to shield the stranger from +their brutality. From the style in which the mob addressed him, it is +obvious that he had made himself offensive by interfering to prevent +wrong-doing. He was nicknamed "the Censor," and his eye was felt to +carry condemnation. It is true there is no evidence that his opposition +had been of the slightest avail. How could it avail with men who knew +perfectly well that with all his denunciation of their wicked ways, he +preferred their money-making company to the desolation of the hills, +where he would be vexed with no filthy conversation, but would also find +no markets? Still it is to Lot's credit that in such a city, with none +to observe, none to applaud, and none to second him, he should have been +able to preserve his own purity of life and steadily to resist +wrong-doing. It would be cynical to say that he cultivated austerity and +renounced popular vices as a salve to a conscience wounded by his own +greed. + +That he had the courage which lies at the root of strength of character +became apparent as the last dark night of Sodom wore on. To go out among +a profligate, lawless mob, wild with passion and infuriated by +opposition--to go out and shut the door behind him--was an act of true +courage. His confidence in the influence he had gained in the town +cannot have blinded him to the temper of the raging crowd at his door. +To defend his unknown guests he put himself in a position in which men +have frequently lost life. + +In the first few hours of his last night in Sodom, there is much that is +admirable and pathetic in Lot's conduct. But when we have said that he +was bold and that he hated other men's sins, we have exhausted the more +attractive side of his character. The inhuman collectedness of mind with +which, in the midst of a tremendous public calamity, he could scheme for +his own private well-being is the key to his whole character. He had no +feeling. He was cold-blooded, calculating, keenly alive to his own +interest, with all his wits about him to reap some gain to himself out +of every disaster; the kind of man out of whom wreckers are made, who +can with gusto strip gold rings off the fingers of doomed corpses; out +of whom are made the villains who can rifle the pockets of their dead +comrades on a battlefield, or the politicians who can still ride on the +top of the wave that hurls their country on the rocks. When Abraham gave +him his choice of a grazing ground, no rush of feeling, no sense of +gratitude, prevented him from making the most of the opportunity. When +his house was assailed, he had coolness, when he went out to the mob, to +shut the door behind him that those within might not hear his bargain. +When the angel, one might almost say, was flurried by the impending and +terrible destruction, and was hurrying him away, he was calm enough to +take in at a glance the whole situation and on the spot make provision +for himself. There was no need to tell him not to look back as his wife +did: no deep emotion would overmaster him, no unconquerable longing to +see the last of his dear friends in Sodom would make him lose one second +of his time. Even the loss of his wife was not a matter of such +importance as to make him forget himself and stand to mourn. In every +recorded act of his life appears this same unpleasant characteristic. + +Between Lot and Judas there is an instructive similarity. Both had +sufficient discernment and decision of character to commit themselves to +the life of faith, abandoning their original residence and ways of life. +Both came to a shameful end, because the motive even of the sacrifices +they made was self-interest. Neither would have had so dark a career had +he more justly estimated his own character and capabilities, and not +attempted a life for which he was unfit. They both put themselves into a +false position; than which nothing tends more rapidly to deteriorate +character. Lot was in a doubly false position, because in Sodom as well +as in Abraham's shifting camp he was out of place. He voluntarily bound +himself to men he could not love. One side of his nature was paralysed; +and that the side which in him especially required development. It is +the influence of home life, of kindly surroundings, of friendships, of +congenial employment, of everything which evokes the free expression of +what is best in us; it is this which is a chief factor in the +development of every man. But instead of the genial and fertilising +influence of worthy friendships, and ennobling love, Lot had to pretend +good-will where he felt none, and deceit and coldness grew upon him in +place of charity. Besides, a man in a false position in life, out of +which he can by any sacrifice deliver himself, is never at peace with +God until he does deliver himself. And any attempt to live a righteous +life with an evil conscience is foredoomed to failure. + +And if it still be felt that Lot was punished with extreme severity, and +that if every man who chose a good grazing ground or a position in life +which was likely to advance his fortune were thereby doomed to end his +days in a cave and under the darkest moral brand, society would be quite +disintegrated, it must be remembered, that in order to advance his +interests in life, Lot sacrificed much that a man is bound by all means +to cherish; and further, it must be said that our destinies are thus +determined. The whole iniquity and final consequences of our disposition +are not laid before us in the mass; but to give the rein to any evil +disposition is to yield control of our own life and commit ourselves to +guidance which cannot result in good, and is of a nature to result in +utter shame and wretchedness. + +Turning from the rescued to the destroyed, we recognise how sufficient a +test of their moral condition the presence of the angels was. The +inhabitants of Sodom quickly afford evidence that they are ripe for +judgment. They do nothing worse than their habitual conduct led them to +do. It is not for this one crime they are punished; its enormity is only +the legible instance which of itself convicts them. They are not aware +of the frightful nature of the crime they seek to commit. They fancy it +is but a renewal of their constant practice. They rush headlong on +destruction and do not know it. How can it be otherwise? If a man _will +not_ take warning, if he will persist in sin, then the day comes when he +is betrayed into iniquity the frightful nature of which he did not +perceive, but which is the natural result of the life he has led. He +goes on and will not give up his sin till at last the final damning act +is committed which seals his doom. Character tends to express itself in +one perfectly representative act. The habitual passion, whatever it is, +is always alive and seeking expression. Sometimes one consideration +represses it, sometimes another; but these considerations are not +constant, while the passion is, and must therefore one day find its +opportunity--its opportunity not for that moderate, guarded, disguised +expression which passes without notice, but for the full utterance of +its very essence. So it was here, the whole city, small and great, young +and old, from every quarter came together unanimous and eager in +prosecuting the vilest wickedness. No further investigation or proof was +needed: it has indeed passed into a proverb: "they _declare_ their sin +as Sodom." + +To punish by a special commission of enquiry is quite unusual in God's +government. Nations are punished for immorality or for vicious +administration of law or for neglect of sanitary principles by the +operation of natural laws. That is to say, there is a distinctly +traceable connection between the crime and its punishment; the one being +the natural cause of the other. That nations should be weakened, +depopulated, and ultimately sink into insignificance, is the natural +result of a development of the military spirit of a country and the love +of glory. That a population should be decimated by cholera or small-pox +is the inevitable result of neglecting intelligible laws of health. It +seems to me absurd to put this destruction of Sodom in the same +category. The descent of meteoric stones from the sky is not the natural +result of immorality. The vices of these cities have disastrous national +results which are quite legibly written in some races existing in the +present day. We have here to do not with what is natural but with what +is miraculous. Of course it is open to any one to say, "It was merely +accidental--it was a mere coincidence that a storm of lightning so +violent as to set fire to the bituminous soil should rage in the valley, +while on the hills a mile or two off all was serene; it was a mere +coincidence that meteoric stones or some instrument of conflagration +should set on fire just these cities, not only one of them but four of +them, and no more." And certainly were there nothing more to go upon +than the fact of their destruction, this coincidence, however +extraordinary, must still be admitted as wholly natural, and having no +relation to the character of the people destroyed. It might be set down +as pure accident, and be classed with storms at sea, or volcanic +eruptions, which are due to physical causes and have no relation to the +moral character of those involved, but indiscriminately destroy all who +happen to be present. + +But we have to account not only for the fact of the destruction but for +its prediction both to Abraham and to Lot. Surely it is only reasonable +to allow that such prediction was supernatural; and the prediction being +so, it is also reasonable to accept the account of the event given by +the predicters of it, and understand it not as an ordinary physical +catastrophe, but as an event contrived with a view to the moral +character of those concerned, and intended as an infliction of +punishment for moral offences. And before we object to a style of +dealing with nations so different from anything we now detect, we must +be sure that a quite different style of dealing was not at that time +required. If there is an intelligent training of the world, it must +follow the same law which requires that a parent deal in one way with +his boy of ten and in another with his adult son. + +Of Lot's wife the end is recorded in a curt and summary fashion. "His +wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt." The +angel, knowing how closely on the heels of the fugitives the storm would +press, had urgently enjoined haste, saying, "Look not behind thee, +neither stay thou in all the plain." Rapid in its pursuit as a prairie +fire, it was only the swift who could escape it. To pause was to be +lost. The command, "Look not behind thee" was not given because the +scene was too awful to behold for what men can endure, men may behold, +and Abraham looked upon it from the hill above. It was given simply from +the necessity of the case and from no less practical and more arbitrary +reason. Accordingly when the command was neglected, the consequence was +felt. Why the infatuated woman looked back one can only conjecture. The +woful sounds behind her, the roar of the flame and of Jordan driven +back, the crash of falling houses and the last forlorn cry of the doomed +cities, all the confused and terrific din that filled her ear, may well +have paralysed her and almost compelled her to turn. But the use our +Lord makes of her example shows us that He ascribed her turning to a +different motive. He uses her as a warning to those who seek to save out +of the destruction more than they have time to save, and so lose all. +"He which shall be on the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him +not come down to take it away; and he that is in the field, let him +likewise not return back. Remember Lot's wife." It would seem, then, as +if our Lord ascribed her tragic fate to her reluctance to abandon her +household stuff. She was a wife after Lot's own heart, who in the midst +of danger and disaster had an eye to her possessions. The smell of fire, +the hot blast in her hair, the choking smoke of blazing bitumen, +suggested to her only the thought of her own house decorations, her +hangings, and ornaments, and stores. She felt keenly the hardship of +leaving so much wealth to be the mere food of fire. The thought of such +intolerable waste made her more breathless with indignation than her +rapid flight. Involuntarily as she looks at the bleak, stony mountains +before her, she thinks of the rich plain behind; she turns for one last +look, to see if it is impossible to return, impossible to save anything +from the wreck. The one look transfixes her, rivets her with dismay and +horror. Nothing she looked for can be seen; all is changed in wildest +confusion. Unable to move, she is overtaken and involved in the +sulphurous smoke, the bitter salts rise out of the earth and stifle her +and encrust around her and build her tomb where she stands. + +Lot's wife by her death proclaims that if we crave to make the best of +both worlds, we shall probably lose both. Her disposition is not rare +and exceptional as the pillar of salt which was its monument. She is not +the only woman whose heart is so fixedly set upon her household +possessions that she cannot listen to the angel-voices that would guide +her. Are there none but Lot's wife who show that to them there is +nothing so important, nothing else indeed to live for at all, but the +management of a house and the accumulation of possessions? If all who +are of the same mind as Lot's wife shared her fate the world would +present as strange a spectacle as the Dead Sea presents at this day. For +radically it was her divided mind which was her ruin. She had good +impulses, she saw what she ought to do, but she did not do it with a +mind made up. Other things divided her thoughts and diverted her +efforts. What else is it ruins half the people who suppose themselves +well on the way of life? The world is in their heart; they cannot pursue +with undivided mind the promptings of a better wisdom. Their heart is +with their treasure, and their treasure is really not in spiritual +excellence, not in purity of character, not in the keen bracing air of +the silent mountains where God is known, but in the comforts and gains +of the luxurious plain behind. + +We are to remember Lot's wife that we may bear in mind how possible it +is that persons who promise well and make great efforts and bid fair to +reach a place of safety may be overtaken by destruction. We can perhaps +tell of exhausting effort, we may have outstripped many in practical +repentance, but all this may only be petrified by present carelessness +into a monument recording how nearly a man may be saved and yet be +destroyed. "Have ye suffered all these things in vain, if it be yet in +vain?" "Ye have run well, what now hinders you?" The question always is, +not, what have you done, but what are you now doing? Up to the site of +the pillar, Lot's wife had done as well as Lot, had kept pace with the +angels; but her failure at that point destroyed her. + +The same urgency may not be felt by all; but it should be felt by all to +whose conscience it has been distinctly intimated that they have become +involved in a state of matters which is ruinous. If you are conscious +that in your life there are practices which may very well issue in moral +disaster, an angel has taken you by the hand and bid you flee. For you +to delay is madness. Yet this is what people will do. Sagacious men of +the world, even when they see the probability of disaster, cannot bear +to come out with loss. They will always wait a little longer to see if +they cannot rescue something more, and so start on a fresh course with +less inconvenience. They will not understand that it is better to live +bare and stripped with a good conscience and high moral achievement, +than in abundance with self-contempt. What they have, always seems more +to them than what they are. + + + + +XVI. + +_SACRIFICE OF ISAAC._ + +GENESIS xxii. + + +The sacrifice of Isaac was the supreme act of Abraham's life. The faith +which had been schooled by so singular an experience and by so many +minor trials was here perfected and exhibited as perfect. The strength +which he had been slowly gathering during a long and trying life was +here required and used. This is the act which shines like a star out of +those dark ages, and has served for many storm-tossed souls over whom +God's billows have gone, as a mark by which they could still shape their +course when all else was dark. The devotedness which made the sacrifice, +the trust in God that endured when even such a sacrifice was demanded, +the justification of this trust by the event, and the affectionate +fatherly acknowledgment with which God gloried in the man's loyalty and +strength of character--all so legibly written here--come home to every +heart in the time of its need. Abraham has here shown the way to the +highest reach of human devotedness and to the heartiest submission to +the Divine will in the most heart-rending circumstances. Men and women +living our modern life are brought into situations which seem as +torturing and overwhelming as those of Abraham, and all who are in such +conditions find, in his loyal trust in God, sympathetic and effectual +aid. + +In order to understand God's part in this incident and to remove the +suspicion that God imposed upon Abraham as a duty what was really a +crime, or that He was playing with the most sacred feelings of His +servant, there are one or two facts which must not be left out of +consideration. In the first place, Abraham did not think it wrong to +sacrifice his son. His own conscience did not clash with God's command. +On the contrary, it was through his own conscience God's will impressed +itself upon him. No man of Abraham's character and intelligence could +suppose that any word of God could make that right which was in itself +wrong, or would allow the voice of conscience to be drowned by some +mysterious voice from without. If Abraham had supposed that in all +circumstances it was a crime to take his son's life, he could not have +listened to any voice that bade him commit this crime. The man who in +our day should put his child to death and plead that he had a Divine +warrant for it would either be hanged or confined as insane. No miracle +would be accepted as a guarantee for the Divine dictation of such an +act. No voice from heaven would be listened to for a moment, if it +contradicted the voice of the universal conscience of mankind. But in +Abraham's day the universal conscience had only approbation to express +for such a deed as this. Not only had the father absolute power over the +son, so that he might do with him what he pleased; but this particular +mode of disposing of a son would be considered singular only as being +beyond the reach of ordinary virtue. Abraham was familiar with the idea +that the most exalted form of religious worship was the sacrifice of the +first-born. He felt, in common with godly men in every age, that to +offer to God cheap sacrifices while we retain for ourselves what is +truly precious, is a kind of worship that betrays our low estimate of +God rather than expresses true devotion. He may have been conscious that +in losing Ishmael he had felt resentment against God for depriving him +of so loved a possession; he may have seen Canaanite fathers offering +their children to gods he knew to be utterly unworthy of any sacrifice; +and this may have rankled in his mind until he felt shut up to offer his +all to God in the person of his son, his only son, Isaac. At all events, +however it became his conviction that God desired him to offer his son, +this was a sacrifice which was in no respect forbidden by his own +conscience. + +But although not wrong in Abraham's judgment, this sacrifice was wrong +in the eye of God; how then can we justify God's command that He should +make it? We justify it precisely on that ground which lies patent on the +face of the narrative--God meant Abraham to make the sacrifice in +spirit, not in the outward act; He meant to write deeply on the Jewish +mind the fundamental lesson regarding sacrifice, that it is in the +spirit and will all true sacrifice is made. God intended what actually +happened, that Abraham's sacrifice should be complete and that human +sacrifice should receive a fatal blow. So far from introducing into +Abraham's mind erroneous ideas about sacrifice, this incident finally +dispelled from his mind such ideas and permanently fixed in his mind the +conviction that the sacrifice God seeks is the devotion of the living +soul not the consumption of a dead body. God met him on the platform of +knowledge and of morality to which he had attained, and by requiring him +to sacrifice his son taught him and all his descendants in what sense +alone such sacrifice can be acceptable. God meant Abraham to sacrifice +his son, but not in the coarse material sense. God meant him to yield +the lad truly to Him; to arrive at the consciousness that Isaac more +truly belonged to God than to him, his father. It was needful that +Abraham and Isaac should be in perfect harmony with the Divine will. +Only by being really and absolutely in God's hand could they, or can any +one, reach the whole and full good designed for them by God. + +How old Isaac was at the time of this sacrifice there is no means of +accurately ascertaining. He was probably in the vigour of early manhood. +He was able to take his share in the work of cutting wood for the burnt +offering and carrying the faggots a considerable distance. It was +necessary too that this sacrifice should be made on Isaac's part not +with the timorous shrinking or ignorant boldness of a boy, but with the +full comprehension and deliberate consent of maturer years. It is +probable that Abraham was already preparing, if not to yield to Isaac +the family headship, yet to introduce him to a share in the +responsibilities he had so long borne alone. From the touching +confidence in one another which this incident exhibits, a light is +reflected on the fond intercourse of former years. Isaac was at that +time of life when a son is closest to a father, mature but not +independent; when all that a father can do has been done, but while as +yet the son has not passed away into a life of his own. + +And Isaac was no ordinary son. The man of business who has encouraged +and solaced himself in his toil by the hope that his son will reap the +fruit of it and make his old age easy and honoured, but who outlives +his son and sees the effort of his life go for nothing; the proprietor +who bears an ancient name and sees his heir die--these are familiar +objects of pathetic interest, and no heart is so hard as to refuse a +tear of sympathy when brought into view of such heart-withering +bereavements. But in Abraham all fatherly feelings had been evoked and +strengthened and deepened by a quite peculiar experience. By a special +and most effectual discipline he had been separated from the objects +which ordinarily divide men's attention and eke out their contentment in +life, and his whole hopes had been compelled to centre in his son. It +was not the perpetuation of a name nor the transmission of a well-known +and valuable property; it was not even the gratification of the most +justifiable and tender of human affections, that was crushed and +thwarted in Abraham by this command; but it was also and especially that +hope which had been aroused and fostered in him by extraordinary +providences and which concerned, as he believed, not himself alone but +all men. + +Manifestly no harder task could have been set to Abraham, than that +which was imposed on him by the command, "Take now thy son, thine only +son, Isaac, whom thou lovest," this son of thine in whom all the +promises are yea and amen to thee, this son for whose sake thou gavest +up home and kindred, and banished thy firstborn Ishmael, this son whom +thou lovest, and offer him for a burnt-offering. This son, Abraham might +have said, whom I have been taught to cherish, putting aside all other +affections that I might love him above all, I am now with my own hand to +slay, to slay with all the terrible niceties and formalities of +sacrifice _and with all the love and adoration of sacrifice_. I am with +my own hand to destroy all that makes life valuable to me, and as I do +so I am to love and worship Him who commands this sacrifice. I am to go +to Isaac, whom I have taught to look forward to the fairest happiest +life, and I am to contradict all I ever told him and tell him now that +he has only grown to maturity that he might be cut down in the flush and +hope of opening manhood. What can Abraham have thought? Possibly the +thought would occur that God was now recalling the great gift He had +made. There is always enough conscience of sin in the purest human heart +to engender self-reproach and fear on the faintest occasion; and when so +signal a token of God's displeasure as this was sent, Abraham may well +have believed himself to have been unwittingly guilty of some great +crime against God, or have now thought with bitterness of the languid +devotion he had been offering Him. I have in sacrificing a lamb been as +if I had been cutting off a dog's neck, profane and thoughtless in my +worship, and now God is solemnising me indeed. I have in thought or +desire kept back the prime of my flock, and God is now teaching me that +a man may not rob God. Who could have been surprised if in this horror +of great darkness the mind of Abraham had become unhinged? Who could +wonder if he had slain _himself_ to make the loss of Isaac impossible? +Who could wonder if he had sullenly ignored the command, waited for +further light, or rejected an alliance with God which involved such +lamentable conditions? Nothing that could befall him in consequence of +disobedience, he might have supposed, could exceed in pain the agony of +obedience. And it is always easier to endure the pain inflicted upon us +by circumstances than to do with our own hand and free will what we know +will involve us in suffering. It is not mere resignation but active +obedience that was required of Abraham. His was not the passive +resignation of the man out of whose reach death or disaster has swept +his dearest treasures, and who is helped to resignation by the +consciousness that no murmuring can bring them back--his was the far +more difficult active resignation, which has still in possession all +that it prizes, and may withhold these treasures if it pleases, but is +called by a higher voice than that of self-pleasing to sacrifice them +all. + +But though Abraham was the chief, he was not the sole actor in this +trying scene. To Isaac this was the memorable day of his life, and +quiescent and passive as his character seems to have been, it cannot but +have been stirred and strained now in every fibre of it. Abraham could +not find it in his heart to disclose to his son the object of the +journey; even to the last he kept him unconscious of the part he was +himself to play. Two long days' journey, days of intense inward +commotion to Abraham, they went northward. On the third day the servants +were left, and father and son went on alone, unaccompanied and +unwitnessed. "So they went," as the narrative twice over says, "both of +them together," but with minds how differently filled; the father's +heart torn with anguish, and distracted by a thousand thoughts, the +son's mind disengaged, occupied only with the new scenes and with +passing fancies. Nowhere in the narrative does the completeness of the +mastery Abraham had gained over his natural feelings appear more +strikingly than in the calmness with which he answers Isaac's question. +As they approach the place of sacrifice Isaac observes the silent and +awe-struck demeanour of his father, and fears that it may have been +through absence of mind he has neglected to bring the lamb. With a +gentle reverence he ventures to attract Abraham's attention: "My +father;" and he said, "Here am I, my son." And he said, "Behold the fire +and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" It is one of +those moments when only the strongest heart can bear up calmly and when +only the humblest faith has the right word to say. "My son, the Lord +will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering." + +Not much longer could the terrible truth be hidden from Isaac. With what +feelings must he have seen the agonised face of his father as he turned +to bind him and as he learned that he must prepare not to sacrifice but +to be sacrificed. Here then was the end of those great hopes on which +his youth had been fed. What could such contradiction mean? Was he to +submit even to his father in such a matter? Why should he not +expostulate, resist, flee? Such ideas seem to have found short +entertainment in the mind of Isaac. Trained by long experience to trust +his father, he obeys without complaint or murmur. Still it cannot cease +to be matter of admiration and astonishment that a young man should have +been able on so brief a notice, through so shocking a way, and with so +startling a reversal of his expectations, to forego all right to choose +for himself, and yield himself implicitly to what he believed to be +God's will. By a faith so absolute Isaac became indeed the heir of +Abraham. When he laid himself on the altar, trusting his father and his +God, he came of age as the true seed of Abraham and entered on the +inheritance, making God his God. At that supreme moment he made himself +over to God, he put himself at God's disposal; if his death was to be +helpful in fulfilling God's purpose he was willing to die. It was God's +will that must be done, not his. He knew that God could not err, could +not harm His people; he was ignorant of the design which his death could +fulfil, but he felt sure that his sacrifice was not asked in vain. He +had familiarised himself with the thought that he belonged to God; that +he was on earth for God's purposes not for his own; so that now when he +was suddenly summoned to lay himself formally and finally on God's +altar, he did not hesitate to do so. He had learned that there are +possessions more worth preserving than life itself, that + + "Manhood is the one immortal thing + Beneath Time's changeful sky"-- + +he had learned that "length of days is knowing when to die." + +No one who has measured the strain that such sacrifice puts upon human +nature can withhold his tribute of cordial admiration for so rare a +devotedness, and no one can fail to see that by this sacrifice Isaac +became truly the heir of Abraham. And not only Isaac, but every man +attains his majority by sacrifice. Only by losing our life do we begin +to live. Only by yielding ourselves truly and unreservedly to God's +purpose do we enter the true life of men. The giving up of self, the +abandonment of an isolated life, the bringing of ourselves into +connection with God, with the Supreme and with the whole, this is the +second birth. To reach that full stream of life which is moved by God's +will and which is the true life of men, we must so give ourselves up to +God, that each of His commandments, each of His providences, all by +which He comes into connection with us, has its due effect upon us. If +we only seek from God help to carry out our own conception of life, if +we only desire His power to aid us in making of this life what we have +resolved it shall be, we are far indeed from Isaac's conception of God +and of life. But if we desire that God fulfil in us, and through us His +own conception of what our life should be, the only means of attaining +this desire is to put ourselves fairly into God's hand, unflinchingly to +do what we believe to be His will irrespective of present darkness and +pain and privation. He who thus bids an honest farewell to earth and +lets himself be bound and laid upon God's altar, is conscious that in +renouncing himself he has won God and become His heir. + +Have you thus given yourselves to God? I do not ask if your sacrifice +has been perfect, nor whether you do not ever seek great things still +for yourselves; but do you know what it is thus to yield yourself to +God, to put God first, yourself second or nowhere? Are you even +occasionally quite willing to sink your own interests, your own +prospects, your own native tastes, to have your own worldly hopes +delayed or blighted, your future darkened? Have you even brought your +intellect to bear upon this first law of human life, and determined for +yourself whether it is the case or not that man's life, in order to be +profitable, joyful, and abiding, must be lived in God? Do you recognise +that human life is not for the individual's good, but for the common +good, and that only in God can each man find his place and his work? All +that we give up to Him we have in an ampler form. The very affections +which we are called to sacrifice are purified and deepened rather than +lost. When Abraham resigned his son to God and received him back, their +love took on a new delicacy and tenderness. They were more than ever to +one another after this interference of God. And He meant it to be so. +Where our affections are thwarted or where our hopes are blasted, it is +not our injury, but our good, that is meant, a fineness and purity, an +eternal significance and depth, are imparted to affections that are +annealed by passing through the fire of trial. + +Not till the last moment did God interpose with the gladdening words, +"Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him; for +now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, +thine only son, from Me." The significance of this was so obvious that +it passed into a proverb: "In the mount of the Lord it shall be +provided." It was there, and not at any earlier point, Abraham saw the +provision that had been made for an offering. Up to the moment when he +lifted the knife over all he lived for, it was not seen that other +provision was made. Up to the moment when it was indubitable that both +he and Isaac were obedient unto death, and when in will and feeling they +had sacrificed themselves, no substitute was visible, but no sooner was +the sacrifice complete in spirit than God's provision was disclosed. It +was the spirit of sacrifice, not the blood of Isaac, that God desired. +It was the noble generosity of Abraham that God delighted in, not the +fatherly grief that would have followed the actual death of Isaac. It +was the heroic submission of father and son that God saw with delight, +rejoicing that men were found capable of the utmost of heroism, of +patient and unflinching adherence to duty. At any point short of the +consummation, interposition would have come too soon, and would have +prevented this educative and elevating display of the capacity of men +for the utmost that life can require of them. Had the provision of God +been made known one minute before the hand of Abraham was raised to +strike, it would have remained doubtful whether in the critical moment +one or other of the parties might not have failed. But when the +sacrifice was complete, when already the bitterness of death was past, +when all the agonizing conflict was over, the anguish of the father +mastered, and the dismay of the son subdued to perfect conformity with +the supreme will, then the full reward of victorious conflict was given, +and God's meaning flashed through the darkness, and His provision was +seen. + +This is the universal law. We find God's provision only on the mount of +sacrifice, not at any stage short of this, but only there. We must go +the whole way in faith; what lies before us as duty, we must do; often +in darkness and utter misery, seeing no possibility of escape or relief, +we must climb the hill where we are to abandon all that has given joy +and hope to our life; and not before the sacrifice has been actually +made can we enter into the heaven of victory God provides. You may be +called to sacrifice your youth, your hopes of a career, your affections, +that you may uphold and soothe the lingering days of one to whom you are +naturally bound. Or your whole life may have centred in an affection +which circumstances demand you shall abandon; you may have to sacrifice +your natural tastes and give up almost everything you once set your +heart on; and while to others the years bring brightness and variety and +scope, to you they may be bringing only monotonous fulfilment of insipid +and uncongenial tasks. You may be in circumstances which tempt you to +say, Does God see the inextricable difficulty I am in? Does He estimate +the pain I must suffer if immediate relief do not come? Is obedience to +Him only to involve me in misery from which other men are exempt? You +may even say that although a substitute was found for Isaac, no +substitute has been found for the sacrifice you have had to make, but +you have been compelled actually to lose what was dear to you as life +itself. But when the character has been fully tried, when the utmost +good to character has been accomplished, and when delay of relief would +only increase misery, then relief comes. Still the law holds good, that +as soon as you in spirit yield to God's will, and with a quiet +submissiveness consent to the loss or pain inflicted upon you, in that +hour your whole attitude to your circumstances is transformed, you find +rest and assured hope. Two things are certain: that, however painful +your condition is, God's intention is not to injure, but to advance you, +and that hopeful submission is wiser, nobler, and every way better than +murmuring and resentment. + +Finally, these words, "The Lord will provide," which Abraham uttered in +that exalted frame of mind which is near to the prophetic ecstasy, have +been the burden sung by every sincere and thoughtful worshipper as he +ascended the hill of God to seek forgiveness of his sin, the burden +which the Lord's worshipping congregation kept on its tongue through all +the ages, till at length, as the angel of the Lord had opened the eyes +of Abraham to see the ram provided, the voice of the Baptist "crying in +the wilderness" to a fainting and well-nigh despairing few turned their +eye to God's great provision with the final announcement, "Behold the +Lamb of God." Let us accept this as a motto which we may apply, not only +in all temporal straits, when we can see no escape from loss and misery, +but also in all spiritual emergency, when sin seems a burden too great +for us to bear, and when we seem to lie under the uplifted knife of +God's judgment. Let us remember that God's desire is not that we suffer +pain, but that we learn obedience, that we be brought to that true and +thorough confidence in Him which may fit us to fulfil His loving +purposes. Let us, above all, remember that we cannot know the grace of +God, cannot experience the abundant provision He has made for weak and +sinful men, until we have climbed the mount of sacrifice and are able to +commit ourselves wholly to Him. Not by attacking our manifold enemies +one by one, nor by attempting the great work of sanctification +piecemeal, shall we ever make much growth or progress, but by giving +ourselves up wholly to God and by becoming willing to live in Him and as +His. + + + + +XVII. + +_ISHMAEL AND ISAAC._ + +GEN. xxi., xxii. + + "Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a + freewoman. * * * Which things are an allegory."--GALATIANS iv. 22. + + "Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his + son."--GENESIS xxii. 10. + + +In the birth of Isaac, Abraham at length sees the long-delayed +fulfilment of the promise. But his trials are by no means over. He has +himself introduced into his family the seeds of discord and disturbance, +and speedily the fruit is borne. Ishmael, at the birth of Isaac, was a +lad of fourteen years, and, reckoning from Eastern customs, he must have +been over sixteen when the feast was made in honour of the weaned child. +Certainly he was quite old enough to understand the important and not +very welcome alteration in his prospects which the birth of this new son +effected. He had been brought up to count himself the heir of all the +wealth and influence of Abraham. There was no alienation of feeling +between father and son: no shadow had flitted over the bright prospect +of the boy as he grew up; when suddenly and unexpectedly there was +interposed between him and his expectation the effectual barrier of this +child of Sarah's. The importance of this child to the family was in due +course indicated in many ways offensive to Ishmael; and when the feast +was made, his spleen could no longer be repressed. This weaning was the +first step in the direction of an independent existence, and this would +be the point of the feast in celebration. The child was no longer a mere +part of the mother, but an individual, a member of the family. The hopes +of the parents were carried forward to the time when he should be quite +independent of them. + +But in all this there was great food for the ridicule of a thoughtless +lad. It was precisely the kind of thing which could easily be mocked +without any great expenditure of wit by a boy of Ishmael's age. The too +visible pride of the aged mother, the incongruity of maternal duties +with ninety years, the concentration of attention and honours on so +small an object,--all this was, doubtless, a temptation to a boy who had +probably at no time too much reverence. But the words and gestures which +others might have disregarded as childish frolic, or, at worst, as the +unseemly and ill-natured impertinence of a boy who knew no better, stung +Sarah, and left a poison in her blood that infuriated her. "Cast out +that bondwoman and her son," she demanded of Abraham. Evidently she +feared the rivalry of this second household of Abraham, and was resolved +it should come to an end. The mocking of Ishmael is but the violent +concussion that at last produces the explosion, for which material has +long been laid in train. She had seen on Abraham's part a clinging to +Ishmael, which she was unable to appreciate. And though her harsh +decision was nothing more than the dictate of maternal jealousy, it did +prevent things from running on as they were until even a more painful +family quarrel must have been the issue. + +The act of expulsion was itself unaccountably harsh. There was nothing +to prevent Abraham sending the boy and his mother under an escort to +some safe place; nothing to prevent him from giving the lad some share +of his possessions sufficient to provide for him. Nothing of this kind +was done. The woman and the boy were simply put to the door; and this, +although Ishmael had for years been counted Abraham's heir, and though +he was a member of the covenant made with Abraham. There may have been +some law giving Sarah absolute power over her maid; but if any law gave +her power to do what was now done, it was a thoroughly barbarous one, +and she was a barbarous woman who used it. + +It is one of those painful cases in which one poor creature, clothed +with a little brief authority, stretches it to the utmost in vindictive +maltreatment of another. Sarah happened to be mistress, and, instead of +using her position to make those under her happy, she used it for her +own convenience, for the gratification of her own spite, and to make +those beneath her conscious of her power by their suffering. She +happened to be a mother, and instead of bringing her into sympathy with +all women and their children, this concentrated her affection with a +fierce jealousy on her own child. She breathed freely when Hagar and +Ishmael were fairly out of sight. A smile of satisfied malice betrayed +her bitter spirit. No thought of the sufferings to which she had +committed a woman who had served her well for years, who had yielded +everything to her will, and who had no other natural protector but her, +no glimpses of Abraham's saddened face, visited her with any relentings. +It mattered not to her what came of the woman and the boy to whom she +really owed a more loving and careful regard than to any except Abraham +and Isaac. It is a story often repeated. One who has been a member of +the household for many years is at last dismissed at the dictate of some +petty pique or spite as remorselessly and inhumanly as a piece of old +furniture might be parted with. Some thoroughly good servant, who has +made sacrifices to forward his employer's interest, is at last, through +no offence of his own, found to be in his employer's way, and at once +all old services are forgotten, all old ties broken, and the authority +of the employer, legal but inhuman, is exercised. It is often those who +can least defend themselves who are thus treated; no resistance is +possible, and also, alas! the party is too weak to face the wilderness +on which she is thrown out, and if any cares to follow her history, we +may find her at the last gasp under a bush. + +Still, both for Abraham and for Ishmael it was better this severance +should take place. It was grievous to Abraham; and Sarah saw that for +this very reason it was necessary. Ishmael was his first-born, and for +many years had received the whole of his parental affection: and, +looking on the little Isaac, he might feel the desirableness of keeping +another son in reserve, lest this strangely-given child might as +strangely pass away. Coming to him in a way so unusual, and having +perhaps in his appearance some indication of his peculiar birth, he +might seem scarcely fit for the rough life Abraham himself had led. On +the other hand, it was plain that in Ishmael were the very qualities +which Isaac was already showing that he lacked. Already Abraham was +observing that with all his insolence and turbulence there was a natural +force and independence of character which might come to be most useful +in the patriarchal household. The man who had pursued and routed the +allied kings could not but be drawn to a youth who already gave promise +of capacity for similar enterprises--and this youth his own son. But can +Abraham have failed to let his fancy picture the deeds this lad might +one day do at the head of his armed slaves? And may he not have dreamt +of a glory in the land not altogether such as the promise of God +encouraged him to look for, but such as the tribes around would +acknowledge and fear? All the hopes Abraham had of Ishmael had gained +firm hold of his mind before Isaac was born; and before Isaac grew up, +Ishmael must have taken the most influential place in the house and +plans of Abraham. His mind would thus have received a strong bias +towards conquest and forcible modes of advance. He might have been led +to neglect, and, perhaps, finally despise, the unostentatious blessings +of heaven. + +If, then, Abraham was to become the founder, not of one new warlike +power in addition to the already too numerous warlike powers of the +East, but of a religion which should finally develop into the most +elevating and purifying influence among men, it is obvious that Ishmael +was not at all a desirable heir. Whatever pain it gave to Abraham to +part with him, separation in some form had become necessary. It was +impossible that the father should continue to enjoy the filial affection +of Ishmael, his lively talk, and warm enthusiasm, and adventurous +exploits, and at the same time concentrate his hope and his care on +Isaac. He had, therefore, to give up, with something of the sorrow and +self-control he afterwards underwent in connection with the sacrifice of +Isaac, the lad whose bright face had for so many years shone in all his +paths. And in some such way are we often called to part with prospects +which have wrought themselves very deep into our spirit, and which, +indeed, just because they are very promising and seductive, have become +dangerous to us, upsetting the balance of our life, and throwing into +the shade objects and purposes which ought to be outstanding. And when +we are thus required to give up what we were looking to for comfort, for +applause, and for profit, the voice of God in its first admonition +sometimes seems to us little better than the jealousy of a woman. Like +Sarah's demand, that none should share with her son, does the +requirement seem which indicates to us that we must set nothing on a +level with God's direct gifts to us. We refuse to see why we may not +have all the pleasures and enjoyments, all the display and brilliance +that the world can give. We feel as if we were needlessly restricted. +But this instance shows us that when circumstances compel us to give up +something of this kind which we have been cherishing, room is given for +a better thing than itself to grow. + +For Ishmael himself, too, wronged as he was in the mode of his +expulsion, it was yet far better that he should go. Isaac _was_ the true +heir. No jeering allusions to his late birth or to his appearance could +alter that fact. And to a temper like Ishmael's it was impossible to +occupy a subordinate, dependent position. All he required to call out +his latent powers was to be thrown thus on his own resources. The daring +and high spirit and quickness to take offence and use violence, which +would have wrought untold mischief in a pastoral camp, were the very +qualities which found fit exercise in the desert, and seemed there only +in keeping with the life he had to lead. And his hard experience at +first would at his age do him no harm, but good only. To be compelled to +face life single-handed at the age of sixteen is by no means a fate to +be pitied. It was the making of Ishmael, and is the making of many a lad +in every generation. + +But the two fugitives are soon reminded that, though expelled from +Abraham's tents and protection, they are not expelled from his God. +Ishmael finds it true that when father and mother forsake him, the Lord +takes him up. At the very outset of his desert life he is made conscious +that God is still his God, mindful of his wants, responsive to his cry +of distress. It was not through Ishmael the promised seed was to come, +but the descendants of Ishmael had every inducement to retain faith in +the God of Abraham, who listened to their father's cry. The fact of +being excluded from certain privileges did not involve that they were to +be excluded from all privileges. God still "heard the voice of the lad, +and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven." + +It is this voice of God to Hagar that so speedily, and apparently once +for all, lifts her out of despair to cheerful hope. It would appear as +if her despair had been needless; at least from the words addressed to +her, "What aileth thee, Hagar?" it would appear as if she might herself +have found the water that was close at hand, if only she had been +disposed to look for it. But she had lost heart, and perhaps with her +despair was mingled some resentment, not only at Sarah, but at the whole +Hebrew connection, including the God of the Hebrews, who had before +encouraged her. Here was the end of the magnificent promise which that +God had made her before her child was born--a helpless human form +gasping its life away without a drop of water to moisten the parched +tongue and bring light to the glazing eyes, and with no easier couch +than the burning sand. Was it for this, the bitterest drop that, apart +from sin, can be given to any parent to drink, she had been brought from +Egypt and led through all her past? Had her hopes been nursed by means +so extraordinary only that they might be so bitterly blighted? Thus she +leapt to her conclusions, and judged that because her skin of water had +failed God had failed her too. No one can blame her, with her boy dying +before her, and herself helpless to relieve one pang of his suffering. +Hitherto in the well-furnished tents of Abraham she had been able to +respond to his slightest desire. Thirst he had never known, save as the +relish to some boyish adventure. But now, when his eyes appeal to her in +dying anguish, she can but turn away in helpless despair. She cannot +relieve his simplest want. Not for her own fate has she any tears, but +to see her pride, her life and joy, perishing thus miserably, is more +than she can bear. + +No one can blame, but every one may learn from her. When angry +resentment and unbelieving despair fill the mind, we may perish of +thirst in the midst of springs. When God's promises produce no faith, +but seem to us so much waste paper, we are necessarily in danger of +missing their fulfilment. When we ascribe to God the harshness and +wickedness of those who represent Him in the world, we commit moral +suicide. So far from the promises given to Hagar being now at the point +of extinction, this was the first considerable step towards their +fulfilment. When Ishmael turned his back on the familiar tents, and +flung his last gibe at Sarah, he was really setting out to a far richer +inheritance, so far as this world goes, than ever fell to Isaac and his +sons. + +But the chief use Paul makes of this entire episode in the history is to +see in it an allegory, a kind of picture made up of real persons and +events, representing the impossibility of law and gospel living +harmoniously together, the incompatibility of a spirit of service with a +spirit of sonship. Hagar, he says, is in this picture the likeness of +the law given from Sinai, which gendereth to bondage. Hagar and her son, +that is to say, stand for the law and the kind of righteousness produced +by the law,--not superficially a bad kind; on the contrary, a +righteousness with much dash and brilliance and strong manly force about +it, but at the root defective, faulty in its origin, springing from the +slavish spirit. And first Paul bids us notice how the free-born is +persecuted and mocked by the slave-born, that is, how the children of +God who are trying to live by love and faith in Christ are put to shame +and made uneasy by the law. They believe they are God's dear children, +that they are loved by Him, and may go out and in freely in His house as +their own home, using all that is His with the freedom of His heirs; but +the law mocks them, frightens them, tells them _it_ is God's first-born, +law lying far back in the dimness of eternity, coeval with God Himself. +It tells them they are puny and weak, scarcely out of their mother's +arms, tottering, lisping creatures, doing much mischief, but none of the +housework, at best only getting some little thing to pretend to work at. +In contrast to their feeble, soft, unskilled weakness, it sets before +them a finely-moulded, athletic form, becoming disciplined to all work, +and able to take a place among the serviceable and able-bodied. But with +all this there is in that puny babe a life begun which will grow and +make it the true heir, dwelling in the house and possessing what it has +not toiled for, while the vigorous, likely-looking lad must go into the +wilderness and make a possession for himself with his own bow and spear. + +Now, of course, righteousness of life and character, or perfect manhood, +is the end at which all that we call salvation aims, and that which can +give us the purest, ripest character is salvation for us; that which can +make us, for all purposes, most serviceable and strong. And when we are +confronted with persons who might speak of service we cannot render, of +an upright, unfaltering carriage we cannot assume, of a general human +worthiness we can make no pretension to, we are justly perturbed, and +should regain our equanimity only under the influence of the most +undoubted truth and fact. If we can honestly say in our hearts, +"Although we can show no such work done, and no such masculine growth, +yet we have a life in us which is of God, and will grow;" if we are sure +that we have the spirit of God's children, a spirit of love and +dutifulness, we may take comfort from this incident. We may remind +ourselves that it is not he who has at the present moment the best +appearance who always abides in the father's home, but he who is by +birth the heir. Have we or have we not the spirit of the Son? not +feeling that we must every evening make good our claim to another +night's lodging by showing the task we have accomplished, but being +conscious that the interests in which we are called to work are our own +interests, that we are heirs in the father's house, so that all we do +for the house is really done for ourselves. Do we go out and in with +God, feeling no need of His commands, our own eye seeing where help is +required, and our own desires being wholly directed towards that which +engages all His attention and work? + +For Paul would have each of us apply, allegorically, the words, Cast out +the bondwoman and her son, that is, cast out the legal mode of earning a +standing in God's house, and with this legal mode cast out all the +self-seeking, the servile fear of God, the self-righteousness, and the +hard-heartedness it engenders. Cast out wholly from yourself the spirit +of the slave, and cherish the spirit of the son and heir. The slave-born +may seem for a while to have a firm footing in the father's house, but +it cannot last. The temper and tastes of Ishmael are radically different +from those of Abraham, and when the slave-born becomes mature, the wild +Egyptian strain will appear in his character. Moreover, he looks upon +the goods of Abraham as plunder; he cannot rid himself of the feeling of +an alien, and this would, at length, show itself in a want of frankness +with Abraham--slowly, but surely, the confidence between them would be +worn out. Nothing but being a child of God, being born of the Spirit, +can give the feeling of intimacy, confidence, unity of interest, which +constitutes true religion. All we do as slaves goes for nothing; that is +to say, all we do, not because we see the good of it, but because we are +commanded; not because we have any liking for the thing done, but +because we wish to be paid for it. The day is coming when we shall +attain our majority, when it will be said to us by God, Now, do whatever +you like, whatever you have a mind to; no surveillance, no commands are +now needed; I put all into your own hand. What, in these circumstances, +should we straightway do? Should we, for the love of the thing, carry on +the same work to which God's commands had driven us; should we, if left +absolutely in charge, find nothing more attractive than just to +prosecute that idea of life and the world set before us by Christ? Or, +should we see that we had merely been keeping ourselves in check for a +while, biding our time, untamed as Ishmael, craving the rewards but not +the life of the children of God? The most serious of all questions +these--questions that determine the issues of our whole life, that +determine whether our home is to be where all the best interests of men +and the highest blessings of God have their seat, or in the pathless +desert where life is an aimless wandering, dissociated from all the +forward movements of men. + +The distinction between the servile spirit and the spirit of sonship +being thus radical, it could be by no mere formality, or exhibition of +his legal title, that Isaac became the heir of God's heritage. His +sacrifice on Moriah was the requisite condition of his succession to +Abraham's place; it was the only suitable celebration of his majority. +Abraham himself had been able to enter into covenant with God only by +sacrifice; and sacrifice not of a dead and external kind, but vivified +by an actual surrender of himself to God, and by so true a perception of +God's holiness and requirements, that he was in a horror of great +darkness. By no other process can any of his heirs succeed to the +inheritance. A true resignation of self, in whatever outward form this +resignation may appear, is required that we may become one with God in +His holy purposes and in His eternal blessedness. There could be no +doubt that Abraham had found a true heir, when Isaac laid himself on the +altar and steadied his heart to receive the knife. Dearer to God, and of +immeasurably greater value than any service, was this surrender of +himself into the hand of his Father and his God. In this was promise of +all service and all loving fellowship. "Precious in the sight of the +Lord is the death of His saints. O Lord, truly I am Thy servant; I am +Thy servant, the son of Thine handmaid: Thou hast loosed my bonds." + +So incomparable with the most distinguished service did this sacrifice +of Isaac's self appear, that the record of his active life seems to have +had no interest to his contemporaries or successors. There was but this +one thing to say of him. No more seemed needful. The sacrifice was +indeed great, and worthy of commemoration. No act could so conclusively +have shown that Isaac was thoroughly at one with God. He had much to +live for; from his birth there hovered around him interests and hopes of +the most exciting and flattering nature; a new kind of glory such as had +not yet been attained on earth was to be attained, or, at any rate, +approached in him. This glory was certain to be realised, being +guaranteed by God's promise, so that his hopes might launch out in the +boldest confidence and give him the aspect and bearing of a king; while +it was uncertain in the time and manner of its realisation, so that the +most attractive mystery hung around his future. Plainly his was a life +worth entering on and living through; a life fit to engage and absorb a +man's whole desire, interest, and effort; a life such as might well make +a man gird himself and resolve to play the man throughout, that so each +part of it might reveal its secret to him, and that none of its wonder +might be lost. It was a life which, above all others, seemed worth +protecting from all injury and risk, and for which, no doubt, not a few +of the home-born servants in the patriarchal encampment would have +gladly ventured their own. There have, indeed, been few, if any, lives +of which it could so truly be said, The world cannot do without this--at +all hazards and costs this must be cherished. And all this must have +been even more obvious to its owner than to any one else, and must have +begotten in him an unquestioning assurance, that he at least had a +charmed life, and would live and see good days. Yet with whatever shock +the command of God came upon him, there is no word of doubt or +remonstrance or rebellion. He gave his life to Him who had first given +it to him. And thus yielding himself to God, he entered into the +inheritance, and became worthy to stand to all time the representative +heir of God, as Abraham by his faith had become the father of the +faithful. + + + + +XVIII. + +_PURCHASE OF MACHPELAH._ + +GENESIS xxiii. + + +It may be supposed to be a needless observation that our life is greatly +influenced by the fact that it speedily and certainly ends in death. But +it might be interesting, and it would certainly be surprising, to trace +out the various ways in which this fact influences life. Plainly every +human affair would be altered if we lived on here for ever, supposing +that were possible. What the world would be had we no predecessors, no +wisdom but what our own past experience and the genius of one generation +of men could produce, we can scarcely imagine. We can scarcely imagine +what life would be or what the world would be did not one generation +succeed and oust another and were we contemporary with the whole process +of history. It is the grand irreversible and universal law that we give +place and make room for others. The individual passes away, but the +history of the race proceeds. Here on earth in the meantime, and not +elsewhere, the history of the race is being played out, and each having +done his part, however small or however great, passes away. Whether an +individual, even the most gifted and powerful, could continue to be +helpful to the race for thousands of years, supposing his life were +continued, it is needless to inquire. Perhaps as steam has force only +at a certain pressure, so human force requires the condensation of a +brief life to give it elastic energy. But these are idle speculations. +They show us, however, that our life beyond death will be not so much a +prolongation of life as we now know it as an entire change in the form +of our existence; and they show us also that our little piece of the +world's work must be quickly done if it is to be done at all, and that +it will not be done at all unless we take our life seriously and own the +responsibilities we have to ourselves, to our fellows, to our God. + +Death comes sadly to the survivor, even when there is as little +untimeliness as in the case of Sarah; and as Abraham moved towards the +familiar tent the most intimate of his household would stand aloof and +respect his grief. The stillness that struck upon him, instead of the +usual greeting, as he lifted the tent-door; the dead order of all +inside; the one object that lay stark before him and drew him again and +again to look on what grieved him most to see; the chill which ran +through him as his lips touched the cold, stony forehead and gave him +sensible evidence how gone was the spirit from the clay--these are +shocks to the human heart not peculiar to Abraham. But few have been so +strangely bound together as these two were, or have been so manifestly +given to one another by God, or have been forced to so close a mutual +dependence. Not only had they grown up in the same family, and been +together separated from their kindred, and passed through unusual and +difficult circumstances together, but they were made co-heirs of God's +promise in such a manner that neither could enjoy it without the other. +They were knit together, not merely by natural liking and familiarity +of intercourse, but by God's choosing them as the instrument of His work +and the fountain of His salvation. So that in Sarah's death Abraham +doubtless read an intimation that his own work was done, and that his +generation is now out of date and ready to be supplanted. + +Abraham's grief is interrupted by the sad but wholesome necessity which +forces us from the blank desolation of watching by the dead to the +active duties that follow. She whose beauty had captivated two princes +must now be buried out of sight. So Abraham stands up from before his +dead. Such a moment requires the resolute fortitude and manly +self-control which that expression seems intended to suggest. There is +something within us which rebels against the ordinary ongoing of the +world side by side with our great woe; we feel as if either the whole +world must mourn with us, or we must go aside from the world and have +our grief out in private. The bustle of life seems so meaningless and +incongruous to one whom grief has emptied of all relish for it. We seem +to wrong the dead by every return of interest we show in the things of +life which no longer interest _him_. Yet he speaks truly who says:-- + + "When sorrow all our heart would ask, + We need not shun our daily task, + And hide ourselves for calm; + The herbs we seek to heal our woe, + Familiar by our pathway grow, + Our common air is balm." + +We must resume our duties, not as if nothing had happened, not proudly +forgetting death and putting grief aside as if this life did not need +the chastening influence of such realities as we have been engaged +with, or as if its business could not be pursued in an affectionate and +softened spirit, but acknowledging death as real and as humbling and +sobering. + +Abraham then goes forth to seek a grave for Sarah, having already with a +common predilection fixed on the spot where he himself would prefer to +be laid. He goes accordingly to the usual meeting-place or exchange of +these times, the city-gate, where bargains were made, and where +witnesses for their ratification could always be had. Men who are +familiar with Eastern customs rather spoil for us the scene described in +this chapter by assuring us that all these courtesies and large offers +are merely the ordinary forms preliminary to a bargain, and were as +little meant to be literally understood as we mean to be literally +understood when we sign ourselves "your most obedient servant." Abraham +asks the Hittite chiefs to approach Ephron on the subject, because all +bargains of the kind are negotiated through mediators. Ephron's offer of +the cave and field is merely a form. Abraham quite understood that +Ephron only indicated his willingness to deal, and so he urges him to +state his price, which Ephron is not slow to do; and apparently his +price was a handsome one such as he could not have asked from a poorer +man, for he adds, "What are four hundred shekels between wealthy men +like you and me? Without more words let the bargain be closed--bury thy +dead." + +The first landed property, then, of the patriarchs is a grave. In this +tomb were laid Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca; here, too, Jacob +buried Leah, and here Jacob himself desired to be laid after his death, +his last words being, "Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in +the field of Ephron the Hittite." This grave, therefore, becomes the +centre of the land. Where the dust of our fathers is, there is our +country; and as you may often hear aged persons, who are content to die +and have little else to pray for, still express a wish that they may +rest in the old well-remembered churchyard where their kindred lie, and +may thus in the weakness of death find some comfort, and in its +solitariness some companionship from the presence of those who tenderly +sheltered the helplessness of their childhood; so does this place of the +dead become henceforth the centre of attraction for all Abraham's seed +to which still from Egypt their longings and hopes turn, as to the one +magnetic point which, having once been fixed there, binds them ever to +the land. It is this grave which binds them to the land. This laying of +Sarah in the tomb is the real occupation of the land. + +During the lapse of ages, all around this spot has been changed again +and again; but at some remote period, possibly as early as the time of +David, the reverence of the Jews built these tombs round with masonry so +substantial that it still endures. Within the space thus enclosed there +stood for long a Christian church, but since the Mohammedan domination +was established, a mosque has covered the spot. This mosque has been +guarded against Christian intrusion with a jealousy almost as rigid as +that which excludes all unbelievers from approaching Mecca. And though +the Prince of Wales was a few years ago allowed to enter the mosque, he +was not permitted to make any examination of the vaults beneath, where +the original tomb must be. + +It is evident that this narrative of the purchase of Machpelah and the +burial of Sarah was preserved, not so much on account of the personal +interest which Abraham had in these matters, as on account of the +manifest significance they had in connection with the history of his +faith. He had recently heard from his own kindred in Mesopotamia, and it +might very naturally have occurred to him that the proper place to bury +Sarah was in his fatherland. The desire to lie among one's people is a +very strong Eastern sentiment. Even tribes which have no dislike to +emigration make provision that at death their bodies shall be restored +to their own country. The Chinese notoriously do so. Abraham, therefore, +could hardly have expressed his faith in a stronger form than by +purchasing a burying-ground for himself in Canaan. It was equivalent to +saying in the most emphatic form that he believed this country would +remain in perpetuity the country of his children and people. He had as +yet given no such pledge as this was, that he had irrevocably abandoned +his fatherland. He had bought no other landed property; he had built no +house. He shifted his encampment from place to place as convenience +dictated, and there was nothing to hinder him from returning at any time +to his old country. But now he fixed himself down; he said, as plainly +as acts can say, that his mind was made up that this was to be in all +time coming his land; this was no mere right of pasture rented for the +season, no mere waste land he might occupy with his tents till its owner +wished to reclaim it; it was no estate he could put into the market +whenever trade should become dull and he might wish to realise or to +leave the country; but it was a kind of property which he could not sell +and could not abandon. + +Again, his determination to hold it in perpetuity is evident not only +from the nature of the property, but also from the formal purchase and +conveyance of it--the complete and precise terms in which the +transaction is completed. The narrative is careful to remind us again +and again that the whole transaction was negotiated in the audience of +the people of the land, of all those who went in at the gate, that the +sale was thoroughly approved and witnessed by competent authorities. The +precise subjects made over to Abraham are also detailed with all the +accuracy of a legal document--"the field of Ephron, which was in +Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field and the cave which was +therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the +borders round about, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession in the +presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of +his city." Abraham had no doubt of the friendliness of such men as Aner, +Eshcol, and Mamre, his ancient allies, but he was also aware that the +best way to maintain friendly relations was to leave no loophole by +which difference of opinion or disagreement might enter. Let the thing +be in black and white, so that there may be no misunderstanding as to +terms, no expectations doomed to be unfulfilled, no encroachments which +must cause resentment, if not retaliation. Law probably does more to +prevent quarrels than to heal them. As statesmen and historians tell us +that the best way to secure peace is to be prepared for war, so legal +documents seem no doubt harsh and unfriendly, but really are more +effective in maintaining peace and friendliness than vague promises and +benevolent intentions. In arranging affairs and engagements one is +always tempted to say, Never mind about the money, see how the thing +turns out and we can settle that by-and-bye; or, in looking at a will, +one is tempted to ask, of what strength is Christian feeling--not to say +family affection--if all these hard-and-fast lines need to be drawn +round the little bit of property which each is to have? But experience +shows that this is false delicacy, and that kindliness and charity may +be as fully and far more safely expressed in definite and legal terms +than in loose promises or mere understandings. + +Again, Abraham's idea in purchasing this sepulchre is brought out by the +circumstance that he would not accept the offer of the children of Heth +to use one of their sepulchres. This was not pride of blood or any +feeling of that sort, but the right feeling that what God had promised +as His own peculiar gift must not seem to be given by men. Possibly no +great harm might have come of it if Abraham had accepted the gift of a +mere cave, or a shelf in some other man's burying-ground; but Abraham +could not bear to think that any captious person should ever be able to +say that the inheritance promised by God was really the gift of a +Hittite. + +Similar captiousness appears not only in the experience of the +individual Christian, but also in the treatment religion gets from the +world. It is quite apparent, that is to say, that the world counts +itself the real proprietor here, and Christianity a stranger fortunately +or unfortunately thrown upon its shores and upon _its mercy_. One cannot +miss noticing the patronising way of the world towards the Church and +all that is connected with it, as if it alone could give it those things +needful for its prosperity--and especially willing is it to come forward +in the Hittite fashion and offer to the sojourner a sepulchre where it +may be decently buried, and as a dead thing lie out of the way. + +But thoughts of a still wider reach were no doubt suggested to Abraham +by this purchase. Often must he have brooded on the sacrifice of Isaac, +seeking to exhaust its meaning. Many a talk in the dusk must his son and +he have had about that most strange experience. And no doubt the one +thing that seemed always certain about it was, that it is through death +a man truly becomes the heir of God; and here again in this purchase of +a tomb for Sarah it is the same fact that stares him in the face. He +becomes a proprietor when death enters his family; he himself, he feels, +is likely to have no more than this burial-acre of possession of his +land; it is only by dying he enters on actual possession. Till then he +is but a tenant, not a proprietor; as he says to the children of Heth, +he is but a stranger and a sojourner among them, but at death he will +take up his permanent dwelling in their midst. Was this not to suggest +to him that there might be a deeper meaning underlying this, and that +possibly it was only by death he could enter fully into all that God +intended he should receive? No doubt in the first instance it was a +severe trial to his faith to find that even at his wife's death he had +acquired no firmer foothold in the land. No doubt it was the very +triumph of his faith that though he himself had never had a settled, +permanent residence in the land, but had dwelt in tents, moving about +from place to place, just as he had done the first year of his entrance +upon it, yet he died in the unalterable persuasion that the land was +his, and that it would one day be filled with his descendants. It was +the triumph of his faith that he believed in the performance of the +promise as he had originally understood it; that he believed in the gift +of the actual visible land. But it is difficult to believe that he did +not come to the persuasion that God's friendship was more than any +single thing He promised; difficult to suppose he did not feel +something of what our Lord expressed in the words that God is the God of +the living, not of the dead; that those who are His enter by death into +some deeper and richer experience of His love. + +Such is the interpretation put upon Abraham's attitude of mind by the +writer, who of all others saw most deeply into the moving principles of +the Old Testament dispensation and the connection between old things and +new--I mean the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews. He says that +persons who act as Abraham did declare plainly that they seek a country; +and if on finding they did not get the country in which they sojourned +they thought the promise had failed, they might, he says, have found +opportunity to return to the country whence they came at first. And why +did they not do so? Because they sought a better, that is, an heavenly +country. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He +hath prepared for them a city; as if He said, God would have been +ashamed of Abraham if he had been content with less, and had not aspired +to something more than he received in the land of Canaan. + +Now how else could Abraham's mind have been so effectually lifted to +this exalted hope as by the disappointment of his original and much +tamer hope? Had he gained possession of the land in the ordinary way of +purchase or conquest, and had he been able to make full use of it for +the purposes of life; had he acquired meadows where his cattle might +graze, towns where his followers might establish themselves, would he +not almost certainly have fallen into the belief that in these pastures +and by his worldly wealth and quiet and prosperity he was already +exhausting God's promise regarding the land? But buying the land for +his dead he is forced to enter upon it from the right side, with the +idea that not by present enjoyment of its fertility is God's promise to +him exhausted. Both in the getting of his heir and in the acquisition of +his land his mind is led to contemplate things beyond the range of +earthly vision and earthly success. He is led to the thought that God +having become his God, this means blessing eternal as God Himself. In +short Abraham came to believe in a life beyond the grave on very much +the same grounds as many people still rely on. They feel that this life +has an unaccountable poverty and meagreness in it. They feel that they +themselves are much larger than the life here allotted to them. They are +out of proportion. It may be said that this is their own fault; they +should make life a larger, richer thing. But that is only apparently +true; the very brevity of life, which no skill of theirs can alter, is +itself a limiting and disappointing condition. Moreover, it seems +unworthy of God as well as of man. As soon as a worthy conception of God +possesses the soul, the idea of immortality forthwith follows it. We +instinctively feel that God can do far more for us than is done in this +life. Our knowledge of Him here is most rudimentary; our connection with +Him obscure and perplexed, and wanting in fulness of result; we seem +scarcely to know whose we are, and scarcely to be reconciled to the +essential conditions of life, or even to God;--we are, in short, in a +very different kind of life from that which we can conceive and desire. +Besides, a serious belief in God, in a personal Spirit, removes at a +touch all difficulties arising from materialism. If God lives and yet +has no senses or bodily appearance, we also may so live; and if His is +the higher state and the more enjoyable state, we need not dread to +experience life as disembodied spirits. + +It is certainly a most acceptable lesson that is read to us here--viz., +that God's promises do not shrivel, but grow solid and expand as we +grasp them. Abraham went out to enter on possession of a few fields a +little richer than his own, and he found an eternal inheritance. +Naturally we think quite the opposite of God's promises; we fancy they +are grandiloquent and magnify things, and that the actual fulfilment +will prove unworthy of the language describing it. But as the woman who +came to touch the hem of Christ's garment with some dubious hope that +thus her body might be healed, found herself thereby linked to Christ +for evermore, so always, if we meet God at any one point and honestly +trust Him for even the smallest gift, He makes that the means of +introducing Himself to us and getting us to understand the value of His +better gifts. And indeed, if this life were all, might not God well be +ashamed to call Himself our God? When He calls Himself our God He bids +us expect to find in Him inexhaustible resources to protect and satisfy +and enrich us. He bids us cherish boldly all innocent and natural +desires, believing that we have in Him one who can gratify every such +desire. But if this life be all, who can say existence has been +perfectly satisfactory--if there be no reversal of what has here gone +wrong, no restoration of what has here been lost, if there be no life in +which conscience and ideas and hopes find their fulfilment and +satisfaction, who can say he is content and could ask no more of God? +Who can say he does not see what more God could do for him than has here +been done? Doubtless there are many happy lives, doubtless there are +lives which carry in them a worthiness and a sacredness which manifest +God's presence, but even such lives only more powerfully suggest a state +in which all lives shall be holy and happy, and in which, freed from +inward uneasiness and shame and sorrow, we shall live unimpeded the +highest life, life as we feel it ought to be. The very joys men have +here experienced suggest to them the desirableness of continued life; +the love they have known can only intensify their yearning for this +perpetual enjoyment; their whole experience of this life has served to +reveal to them the endless possibilities of growth and of activity that +are bound up in human nature; and if death is to end all this, what more +has life been to any of us than a seed-time without a harvest, an +education without any sphere of employment, a vision of good that can +never be ours, a striving after the unattainable? If this is all that +God can give us we must indeed be disappointed in Him. + +But He is disappointed in us if we do not aspire to more than this. In +this sense also He is ashamed to be called our God. He is ashamed to be +known as the God of men who never aspire to higher blessings than +earthly comfort and present prosperity. He is ashamed to be known as +connected with those who think so lightly of His power that they look +for nothing beyond what every man calculates on getting in this world. +God means all present blessings and all blessings of a lower kind to +lure us on to trust Him and seek more and more from Him. In these early +promises of His He says nothing expressly and distinctly of things +eternal. He appeals to the immediate wants and present longings of +men--just as our Lord while on earth drew men to Himself by healing +their diseases. Take, then, any one promise of God, and, however small +it seems at first, it will grow in your hand; you will find always that +you get more than you bargained for, that you cannot take even a little +without going further and receiving all. + + + + +XIX. + +_ISAAC'S MARRIAGE._ + +GENESIS xxiv. + + "Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth + the Lord, she shall be praised."--PROV. xxxi. 30. + + +"When a son has attained the age of twenty years, his father, if able, +should marry him, and then take his hand and say, I have disciplined +thee, and taught thee, and married thee; I now seek refuge with God from +thy mischief in the present world and the next." This Mohammedan +tradition expresses with tolerable accuracy the idea of the Eastern +world, that a father has not discharged his responsibilities towards his +son until he finds a wife for him. Abraham no doubt fully recognised his +duty in this respect, but he had allowed Isaac to pass the usual age. He +was thirty-seven at his mother's death, forty when the events of this +chapter occurred. This delay was occasioned by two causes. The bond +between Isaac and his mother was an unusually strong one; and alongside +of that imperious woman a young wife would have found it even more +difficult than usual to take a becoming place. Besides, where was a wife +to be found? No doubt some of Abraham's Hittite friends would have +considered any daughter of theirs exceptionally fortunate who should +secure so good an alliance. The heir of Abraham was no inconsiderable +person even when measured by Hittite expectations. And it may have taxed +Abraham's sagacity to find excuses for not forming an alliance which +seemed so natural, and which would have secured to him and his heirs a +settled place in the country. This was so obvious, common, easily +accomplished a means of gaining a footing for Isaac among somewhat +dangerous neighbours, that it stands to reason Abraham must often have +weighed its advantages. + +But as often as he weighed the advantages of this solution of his +difficulty, so often did he reject them. He was resolved that the race +should be of pure Hebrew blood. His own experience in connection with +Hagar had given this idea a settled prominence in his mind. And, +accordingly, in his instructions to the servant whom he sent to find a +wife for Isaac, two things were insisted on--1st, that she should not be +a Canaanite; and, 2nd, that on no pretext should Isaac be allowed to +leave the land of promise and visit Mesopotamia. The steward, knowing +something of men and women, foresaw that it was most unlikely that a +young woman would forsake her own land and preconceived hopes and go +away with a stranger to a foreign country. Abraham believes she will be +persuaded. But in any case, he says, one thing must be seen to; Isaac +must on no account be induced to leave the promised land even to visit +Mesopotamia. God will furnish Isaac with a wife without putting him into +circumstances of great temptation, without requiring him to go into +societies in the slightest degree injurious to his faith. In fact, +Abraham refused to do what countless Christian mothers of marriageable +sons and daughters do without compunction. He had an insight into the +real influences that form action and determine careers which many of us +sadly lack. + +And his faith was rewarded. The tidings from his brother's family +arrived in the nick of time. Light, he found, was sown for the upright. +It happened with him as it has doubtless often happened with ourselves, +that though we have been looking forward to a certain time with much +anxiety, unable even to form a plan of action, yet when the time +actually came, things seemed to arrange themselves, and the thing to do +became quite obvious. Abraham was persuaded God would send His angel to +bring the affair to a happy issue. And when we seem drifting towards +some great upturning of our life, or when things seem to come all of a +sudden and in crowds upon us, so that we cannot judge what we should do, +it is an animating thought that another eye than ours is penetrating the +darkness, finding for us a way through all entanglement and making +crooked things straight for us. + +But the patience of Isaac was quite as remarkable as the faith of +Abraham. He was now forty years old, and if, as he had been told, the +great aim of his life, the great service he was to render to the world, +was bound up with the rearing of a family, he might with some reason be +wondering why circumstances were so adverse to the fulfilment of this +vocation. Must he not have been tempted, as his father had been, to take +matters into his own hand? Fathers are perhaps too scrupulous about +telling their sons instructive passages from their own experience; but +when Abraham saw Isaac exercised and discomposed about this matter, he +can scarcely have failed to strengthen his spirit by telling him +something of his own mistakes in life. Abraham must have seen that +everything depended on Isaac's conduct, and that he had a very +difficult part to play. He himself had been supernaturally encouraged to +leave his own land and sojourn in Canaan; on the other hand, by the time +Jacob grew up, the idea of the promised land had become traditional and +fixed; though even Jacob, had he found Laban a better master, might have +permanently renounced his expectations in Canaan. But Isaac enjoyed the +advantages neither of the first nor of the third generation. The coming +into Canaan was not his doing, and he saw how little of the land Abraham +had gained. He was under strong temptation to disbelieve. And when he +measured his condition with that of other young men, he certainly +required unusual self-control. And to every one who would urge, Youth is +passing, and I am not getting what I expected at God's hand; I have not +received that providential leading I was led to expect, nor do I find +that my life is made simpler; it is very well to tell me to wait, but +life is slipping away, and we may wait too long--to every one whose +heart urges such murmurs, Abraham through Isaac would say: But if you +wait for God you get something, some positive good, and not some mere +appearance of good; you at last do get begun, you get into life at the +right door; whereas if you follow some other way than that which you +believe God wishes to lead you in, you get nothing. + +Isaac's continence had its reward. In the suitableness of Rebekah to a +man of his nature, we see the suitableness of all such gifts of God as +are really waited for at His hand. God may keep us longer waiting than +the world does, but He gives us never the wrong thing. Isaac had no idea +of Rebekah's character; he could only yield himself to God's knowledge +of what he needed; and so there came to him, from a country he had +never seen, a help-meet singularly adapted to his own character. One +cannot read of her lively, bustling, almost forward, but obliging and +generous conduct at the well, nor of her prompt, impulsive departure to +an unknown land, without seeing, as no doubt Eliezer very quickly saw, +that this was exactly the woman for Isaac. In this eager, ardent, +active, enterprising spirit, his own retiring and contemplative, if not +sombre disposition found its appropriate relief and stimulus. Hers was a +spirit which might indeed, with so mild a lord, take more of the +management of affairs than was befitting; and when the wear and tear of +life had tamed down the girlish vivacity with which she spoke to Eliezer +at the well, and leapt from the camel to meet her lord, her +active-mindedness does appear in the disagreeable shape of the clever +scheming of the mother of a family. In her sons you see her qualities +exaggerated: from her, Esau derived his activity and open-handedness; +and in Jacob, you find that her self-reliant and unscrupulous management +has become a self-asserting craft which leads him into much trouble, if +it also sometimes gets him out of difficulties. But such as Rebekah was, +she was quite the woman to attract Isaac and supplement his character. + +So in other cases where you find you must leave yourself very much in +God's hand, what He sends you will be found more precisely adapted to +your character than if you chose it for yourself. You find your whole +nature has been considered,--your aims, your hopes, your wants, your +position, whatever in you waits for something unattained. And as in +giving to Isaac the intended mother of the promised seed, God gave him a +woman who fitted in to all the peculiarities of his nature, and was a +comfort and a joy to him in his own life; so we shall always find that +God, in satisfying His own requirements, satisfies at the same time our +wants--that God carries forward His work in the world by the +satisfaction of the best and happiest feelings of our nature, so that it +is not only the result that is blessedness, but blessing is created +along its whole course. + +Abraham's servant, though not very sanguine of success, does all in his +power to earn it. He sets out with an equipment fitted to inspire +respect and confidence. But as he draws nearer and nearer to the city of +Nahor, revolving the delicate nature of his errand, and feeling that +definite action must now be taken, he sees so much room for making an +irreparable mistake that he resolves to share his responsibility with +the God of his master. And the manner in which he avails himself of +God's guidance is remarkable. He does not ask God to guide him to the +house of Bethuel; indeed, there was no occasion to do so, for any child +could have pointed out the house to him. But he was a cautious person, +and he wished to make his own observations on the appearance and conduct +of the younger women of the household, before in any way committing +himself to them. He was free to make these observations at the well; +while he felt it must be very awkward to enter Laban's house with the +possibility of leaving it dissatisfied. At the same time, he felt it was +for God rather than for him to choose a wife for Isaac. So he made an +arrangement by which the interposition of God was provided for. He meant +to make his own selection, guided necessarily by the comparative +attractiveness of the women who came for water, possibly also by some +family likeness to Sarah or Isaac he might expect to see in any women +of Bethuel's house; but knowing the deceitfulness of appearances, he +asked God to confirm and determine his own choice by moving the girl he +should address to give him a certain answer. Having arranged this, +"Behold! Rebekah came out with her pitcher upon her shoulder, and the +damsel was very fair to look upon." In the Bible the beauty of women is +frankly spoken of without prudery or mawkishness as an influence in +human affairs. The beauty of Rebekah at once disposed Eliezer to address +her, and his first impression in her favour was confirmed by the +obliging, cheerful alacrity with which she did very much more than she +was asked, and, indeed, took upon herself, through her kindness of +disposition, a task of some trouble and fatigue. + +It is important to observe then in what sense and to what extent this +capable servant asked a sign. He did not ask for a bare, intrinsically +insignificant sign. He might have done so. He might have proposed as a +test, Let her who stumbles on the first step of the well be the designed +wife of Isaac; or, Let her who comes with a certain-coloured flower in +her hand--or so forth. But the sign he chose was significant, because +dependent on the character of the girl herself; a sign which must reveal +her good-heartedness and readiness to oblige and courteous activity in +the entertainment of strangers--in fact, the outstanding Eastern virtue. +So that he really acted very much as Isaac himself must have done. He +would make no approach to any one whose appearance repelled him; and +when satisfied in this particular, he would test her disposition. And of +course it was these qualities of Rebekah which afterwards caused Isaac +to feel that this was the wife God had designed for him. It was not by +any arbitrary sign that he or any man could come to know who was the +suitable wife for him, but only by the love she aroused within him. God +has given this feeling to direct choice in marriage; and where this is +wanting, nothing else whatever, no matter how astoundingly providential +it seems, ought to persuade a man that such and such a person is +designed to be his wife. + +There are turning points in life at once so momentous in their +consequence, and affording so little material for choice, that one is +much tempted to ask for more than providential leading. Not only among +savages and heathen have omens been sought. Among Christians there has +been manifest a constant disposition to appeal to the lot, or to accept +some arbitrary way of determining which course we should follow. In very +many predicaments we should be greatly relieved were there some one who +could at once deliver us from all hesitation and mental conflict by one +authoritative word. There are, perhaps, few things more frequently and +determinedly wished for, nor regarding which we are so much tempted to +feel that such a thing should be, as some infallible guide before whom +we could lay every difficulty; who would tell us at once what ought to +be done in each case, and whether we ought to continue as we are or make +some change. But only consider for a moment what would be the +consequence of having such a guide. At every important step of your +progress you would, of course, instantly turn to him; as soon as doubt +entered your mind regarding the moral quality of an action, or the +propriety of a course you think of adopting, you would be at your +counsellor. And what would be the consequence? The consequence would be, +that instead of the various circumstances, experiences, and temptations +of this life being a training to you, your conscience would every day +become less able to guide you, and your will less able to decide, until, +instead of being a mature son of God, who has learned to conform his +conscience and will to the will of God, you would be quite imbecile as a +moral creature. What God desires by our training here is, that we become +like to Him; that there be nurtured in us a power to discern between +good and evil; that by giving our own voluntary consent to His +appointments, and that by discovering in various and perplexing +circumstances what is the right thing to do, we may have our own moral +natures as enlightened, strengthened, and fully developed every way as +possible. The object of God in declaring His will to us is not to point +out particular steps, but to bring our wills into conformity with His, +so that whether we err in any particular step or no, we shall still be +near to Him in intention. He does with us as we with children. We do not +always at once relieve them from their little difficulties, but watch +with interest the working of their own conscience regarding the matter, +and will give them no sign till they themselves have decided. + +Evidently, therefore, before we may dare to ask a sign from God, the +case must be a very special one. If you are at present engaged in +something that is to your own conscience doubtful, and if you are not +hiding this from God, but would very willingly, so far as you know your +own mind, do in the matter what He pleases--if no further light is +coming to you, and you feel a growing inclination to put it to God in +this way: "Grant, O Lord, that something may happen by which I may know +Thy mind in this matter"--this is asking from God a kind of help which +He is very ready to give, often leading men to clearer views of duty by +events which happen within their knowledge, and which having no special +significance to persons whose minds are differently occupied, are yet +most instructive to those who are waiting for light on some particular +point. The danger is not here, but in fixing God down to the special +thing which shall happen as a sign between Him and you; which, when it +happens, gives no fresh light on the subject, leaves your mind still +_morally_ undecided, but only binds you, by an arbitrary bargain of your +own, to follow one course rather than another. This matter that you +would so summarily dispose of may be the very thread of your life which +God means to test you by; this state of indecision which you would +evade, God may mean to continue until your moral character grows strong +enough to rise above it to the right decision. + +No one will suppose that Rebekah's readiness to leave her home was due +to mere light-mindedness. Her motives were no doubt mixed. The worldly +position offered to her was good, and there was an attractive spice of +romance about the whole affair which would have its charm. She may also +be credited with some apprehension of the great future of Isaac's +family. In after life she certainly showed a very keen sense of the +value of the blessings peculiar to that household. And, probably above +all, she had an irresistible feeling that this was her destiny. She saw +the hand of God in her selection, and with a more or less conscious +faith in God she passed to her new life. + +Her first meeting with her future husband is not the least picturesque +passage in this most picturesque narrative. Isaac had gone out on that +side of the encampment by which he knew his father's messenger was most +likely to approach. He had gone out "to meditate at even-tide;" his +meditation being necessarily directed and intensified by his attitude of +critical expectancy. + +The evening light, in our country hanging dubiously between the glare of +noon and the darkness of midnight, invites to that condition of mind +which lies between the intense alertness of day and the deep oblivion of +sleep, and which seems the most favourable for the meditation of divine +things. The dusk of evening seems interposed between day and night to +invite us to that reflection which should intervene betwixt our labour +and our rest from labour, that we may leave our work behind us satisfied +that we have done what we could, or, seeing its faultiness, may still +lay us down to sleep with God's forgiveness. It is when the bright +sunlight has gone, and no more reproaches our inactivity, that friends +can enjoy prolonged intercourse, and can best unbosom to one another, as +if the darkness gave opportunity for a tenderness which would be ashamed +to show itself during the twelve hours in which a man shall work. And +all that makes this hour so beloved by the family circle, and so +conducive to friendly intercourse, makes it suitable also for such +intercourse with God as each human soul can attempt. Most of us suppose +we have some little plot of time railed off for God morning and evening, +but how often does it get trodden down by the profane multitude of this +world's cares, and quite occupied by encroaching secular engagements. +But evening is the time when many men are, and when all men ought to be +least hurried; when the mind is placid, but not yet prostrate; when the +body requires rest from its ordinary labour, but is not yet so oppressed +with fatigue as to make devotion a mockery; when the din of this world's +business is silenced, and as a sleeper wakes to consciousness when some +accustomed noise is checked, so the soul now wakes up to the thought of +itself and of God. I know not whether those of us who have the +opportunity have also the resolution to sequester ourselves evening by +evening, as Isaac did; but this I do know, that he who does so will not +fail of his reward, but will very speedily find that his Father who +seeth in secret is manifestly rewarding him. What we all need above all +things is to let the mind _dwell_ on divine things--to be able to sit +down knowing we have so much clear time in which we shall not be +disturbed, and during which we shall think directly under God's eye--to +get quite rid of the feeling of getting through with something, so that +without distraction the soul may take a deliberate survey of its own +matters. And so shall often God's gifts appear on our horizon when we +lift up our eyes, as Isaac "lifted up his eyes and saw the camels +coming" with his bride. + +Twilight, "nature's vesper-bell," or the light shaded at evening by the +hills of Palestine, seems, then, to have called Isaac to a familiar +occupation. This long-continued mourning for his mother, and his lonely +meditation in the fields, are both in harmony with what we know of his +character, and of his experience on Mount Moriah. Retiring and +contemplative, willing to conciliate by concession rather than to assert +and maintain his rights against opposition, glad to yield his own +affairs to the strong guidance of some other hand, tender and deep in +his affections, to him this lonely meditation seems singularly +appropriate. His dwelling, too, was remote, on the edge of the +wilderness, by the well which Hagar had named Lahai-roi. Here he dwelt +as one consecrated to God, feeling little desire to enter deeper into +the world, and preferring the place where the presence of God was least +disturbed by the society of men. But at this time he had come from the +south, and was awaiting at his father's encampment the result of +Eliezer's mission. And one can conceive the thrill of keen expectancy +that shot through him as he saw the female figure alighting from the +camel, the first eager exchange of greetings, and the gladness with +which he brought Rebekah into his mother Sarah's tent and was comforted +after his mother's death. The readiness with which he loved her seems to +be referred in the narrative to the grief he still felt for his mother; +for as a candle is never so easily lit as just after it has been put +out, so the affection of Isaac, still emitting the sad memorial of a +past love, more quickly caught at the new object presented. And thus was +consummated a marriage which shows us how thoroughly interwrought are +the plans of God and the life of man, each fulfilling the other. + +For as the salvation God introduces into the world is a practical, +every-day salvation to deliver us from the sins which this life tempts +us to, so God introduced this salvation by means of the natural +affections and ordinary arrangements of human life. God would have us +recognise in our lives what He shows us in this chapter, that He has +made provision for our wants, and that if we wait upon Him He will bring +us into the enjoyment of all we really need. So that if we are to make +any advance in appropriating to ourselves God's salvation, it can only +be by submitting ourselves implicitly to His providence, and taking care +that in the commonest and most secular actions of our lives we are +having respect to His will with us, and that in those actions in which +our own feelings and desires seem sufficient to guide us, we are having +regard to His controlling wisdom and goodness. We are to find room for +God everywhere in our lives, not feeling embarrassed by the thought of +His claims even in our least constrained hours, but subordinating to His +highest and holiest ends everything that our life contains, and +acknowledging as His gift what may seem to be our own most proper +conquest or earning. + + + + +XX. + +_ESAU AND JACOB._ + +GENESIS xxv. + + "He goeth as an ox goeth to the slaughter, till a dart strike + through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not + that it is for his life."--PROV. vii. 22, 23. + + +The character and career of Isaac would seem to tell us that it is +possible to have too great a father. Isaac was dwarfed and weakened by +growing up under the shadow of Abraham. Of his life there was little to +record, and what was recorded was very much a reproduction of some of +the least glorious passages of his father's career. The digging of wells +for his flocks was among the most notable events in his commonplace +life, and even in this he only re-opened the wells his father had dug. + +In him we see the result of growing up under too strong and dominant an +external influence. The free and healthy play of his own capacities and +will was curbed. The sons of outstanding fathers are much tempted to +follow in the wake of _their_ success, and be too much controlled and +limited by the example therein set to them. There is a great deal to +induce a son to do so; this calling has been successful in his father's +case, what better can he do than follow? Also he may get the use of his +_wells_--those sources his father has opened for the easier or more +abundant maintenance of those dependent on him, the business he has +established, the practice he has made, the connections he has +formed--these are useful if he follows in his father's line of life. But +all this tends, as in Isaac's case, to the stunting of the man himself. +Life is made too easy for him. + +Isaac has been called "the Wordsworth of the Old Testament," but his +meditative disposition seems to have degenerated into mere dreamy +apathy, which, at last, made him the tool of the more active-minded +members of his family, and was also attended by its common accompaniment +of sensuality. It seems also to have brought him to a condition of +almost entire bodily prostration, for a comparison of dates shows that +he must have spent forty or fifty years in blindness and incapacity for +all active duty. Neither can this greatly surprise us, for it is +abundantly open to our own observation that men of the finest spiritual +discernment, and of whose godliness in the main one cannot doubt, are +also frequently the prey of the most childish tastes, and most useless +even to the extent of doing harm in practical matters. They do not see +the evil that is growing in their own family; or, if they see it, they +cannot rouse themselves to check it. + +Isaac's marriage, though so promising in the outset, brought new trial +into his life. Rebekah had to repeat the experience of Sarah. The +intended mother of the promised seed was left for twenty years +childless--to contend with the doubts, surmises, evil proposals, proud +challengings of God, and murmurings, which must undoubtedly have arisen +even in so bright and spirited a heart as Rebekah's. It was thus she was +taught the seriousness of the position she had chosen for herself, and +gradually led to the implicit faith requisite for the discharge of its +responsibilities. Many young persons have a similar experience. They +seem to themselves to have chosen a wrong position, to have made a +thorough mistake in life, and to have brought themselves into +circumstances in which they only retard, or quite prevent, the +prosperity of those with whom they are connected. In proportion as +Rebekah loved Isaac, and entered into his prospects, must she have been +tempted to think she had far better have remained in Padan-aram. It is a +humbling thing to stand in some other person's way; but if it is by no +fault of ours, but in obedience to affection or conscience we are in +this position, we must, in humility and patience, wait upon Providence +as Rebekah did, and resist all morbid despondency. + +This second barrenness in the prospective mother of the promised seed +was as needful to all concerned as the first was; for the people of God, +no more than any others, can learn in one lesson. They must again be +brought to a real dependence on God as the Giver of the heir. The prayer +with which Isaac "entreated" the Lord for his wife "because she was +barren" was a prayer of deeper intensity than he could have uttered had +he merely remembered the story that had been told him of his own birth. +God must be recognised again and again and throughout as the Giver of +life to the promised line. We are all apt to suppose that when once we +have got a thing in train and working we can get on without God. How +often do we pray for the bestowal of a blessing, and forget to pray for +its continuance? How often do we count it enough that God has conferred +some gift, and, not inviting Him to continue His agency, but trusting to +ourselves, we mar His gift in the use? Learn, therefore, that although +God has given you means of working out His salvation, your Rebekah will +be barren without His continued activity. On His own means you must +re-invite His blessing, for without the continuance of His aid you will +make nothing of the most beautiful and appropriate helps He has given +you. + +It was by pain, anxiety, and almost dismay, that Rebekah received +intimation that her prayer was answered. In this she is the type of many +whom God hears. Inward strife, miserable forebodings, deep dejection, +are often the first intimations that God is listening to our prayer and +is beginning to work within us. You have prayed that God would make you +more a blessing to those about you, more useful in your place, more +answerable to His ends: and when your prayer has risen to its highest +point of confidence and expectation, you are thrown into what seems a +worse state than ever, your heart is broken within you, you say, Is this +the answer to my prayer, is this God's blessing; if it be so, why am I +thus? For things that make a man serious, happen when God takes him in +hand, and they that yield themselves to His service will not find that +that service is all honour and enjoyment. Its first steps will often +land us in a position we can make nothing of, and our attempts to aid +others will get us into difficulties with them; and especially will our +desire that Christ be formed in us bring into such lively action the +evil nature that is in us, that we are torn by the conflict, and our +heart lies like the ground of a fierce struggle, seamed and furrowed, +tossed and confused. As soon as there is a movement within us in one +direction, immediately there is an opposing movement: as soon as one of +the natures says, Do this; the other says, Do it not. The better nature +is gaining slightly the upper hand, and by a long, steady strain, seems +to be wearying out the other, when suddenly there is one quick stroke +and the evil nature conquers. And every movement of the parties is with +pain to ourselves; either conscience is wronged, and gives out its cry +of shame, or our natural desires are trodden down, and that also is +pain. And so disconnected and connected are we, so entirely one with +both parties, and yet so able to contemplate both that Rebekah's +distress seems aptly enough to symbolize our own. And whether the symbol +be apt or no, there can be no question that he who enquires of the Lord +as she did, will receive a similar assurance that there are two natures +within him, and that "the elder shall serve the younger," the nature +last formed, and that seems to give least promise of life, shall master +the original, eldest born child of the flesh. + +The children whose birth and destinies were thus predicted, at once gave +evidence of a difference even greater than that which will often strike +one as existing between two brothers, though rarely between twins. The +first was born, all over like a hairy garment, presenting the appearance +of being rolled up in a fur cloak or the skin of an animal--an +appearance which did not pass away in childhood, but so obstinately +adhered to him through life, that an imitation of his hands could be +produced with the hairy skin of a kid. This was by his parents +considered ominous. The want of the hairy covering which the lower +animals have, is one of the signs marking out man as destined for a +higher and more refined life than they; and when their son appeared in +this guise, they could not but fear it prognosticated his sensual, +animal career. So they called him Esau. And so did the younger son from +the first show his nature, catching the heel of his brother, as if he +were striving to be firstborn; and so they called him Jacob, the +heel-catcher or supplanter--as Esau afterwards bitterly observed, a name +which precisely suited his crafty, plotting nature, shown in his twice +over tripping up and overthrowing his elder brother. The name which Esau +handed down to his people was, however, not his original name, but one +derived from the colour of that for which he sold his birthright. It was +in that exclamation of his, "Feed me with that same _red_," that he +disclosed his character. + +So different in appearance at birth, they grew up of very different +character; and as was natural, he who had the quiet nature of his father +was beloved by the mother, and he who had the bold, practical skill of +the mother was clung to by the father. It seems unlikely that Rebekah +was influenced in her affection by anything but natural motives, though +the fact that Jacob was to be the heir must have been much on her mind, +and may have produced the partiality which maternal pride sometimes +begets. But before we condemn Isaac, or think the historian has not +given a full account of his love for Esau, let us ask what we have +noticed about the growth and decay of our own affections. We are ashamed +of Isaac; but have we not also been sometimes ashamed of ourselves on +seeing that our affections are powerfully influenced by the +gratification of tastes almost or quite as low as this of Isaac's? He +who cunningly panders to our taste for applause, he who purveys for us +some sweet morsel of scandal, he who flatters or amuses us, straightway +takes a place in our affections which we do not accord to men of much +finer parts, but who do not so minister to our sordid appetites. + +The character of Jacob is easily understood. It has frequently been +remarked of him that he is thoroughly a Jew, that in him you find the +good and bad features of the Jewish character very prominent and +conspicuous. He has that mingling of craft and endurance which has +enabled his descendants to use for their own ends those who have wronged +and persecuted them. The Jew has, with some justice and some injustice, +been credited with an obstinate and unscrupulous resolution to forward +his own interests, and there can be no question that in this respect +Jacob is the typical Jew--ruthlessly taking advantage of his brother, +watching and waiting till he was sure of his victim; deceiving his blind +father, and robbing him of what he had intended for his favourite son; +outwitting the grasping Laban, and making at least his own out of all +attempts to rob him; unable to meet his brother without stratagem; not +forgetting prudence even when the honour of his family is stained; and +not thrown off his guard even by his true and deep affection for Joseph. +Yet, while one recoils from this craftiness and management, one cannot +but admire the quiet force of character, the indomitable tenacity, and, +above all, the capacity for warm affection and lasting attachments, that +he showed throughout. + +But the quality which chiefly distinguished Jacob from his hunting and +marauding brother was his desire for the friendship of God and +sensibility to spiritual influences. It may have been Jacob's +consciousness of his own meanness that led him to crave connection with +some Being or with some prospect that might ennoble his nature and lift +him above his innate disposition. It is an old, old truth that not many +noble are called; and, seeing quite as plainly as others see their +feebleness and meanness, the ignoble conceive a self-loathing which is +sometimes the beginning of an unquenchable thirst for the high and holy +God. The consciousness of your bad, poor nature may revive within you +day by day, as the remembrance of physical weakness returns to the +invalid with every morning's light; but to what else can God so +effectively appeal when he offers you present fellowship with Himself +and eventual conformity to His own nature? + +It has been pointed out that the weakness in Esau's character which +makes him so striking a contrast to his brother is his inconstancy. + + "That one error + Fills him with faults; makes him run through all the sins." + +Constancy, persistence, dogged tenacity is certainly the striking +feature of Jacob's character. He could wait and bide his time; he could +retain one purpose year after year till it was accomplished. The very +motto of his life was, "I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me." He +watched for Esau's weak moment, and took advantage of it. He served +fourteen years for the woman he loved, and no hardship quenched his +love. Nay, when a whole lifetime intervened, and he lay dying in Egypt, +his constant heart still turned to Rachel, as if he had parted with her +but yesterday. In contrast with this tenacious, constant character +stands Esau, led by impulse, betrayed by appetite, everything by turns +and nothing long. To-day despising his birthright, to-morrow breaking +his heart for its loss; to-day vowing he will murder his brother, +to-morrow falling on his neck and kissing him; a man you cannot reckon +upon, and of too shallow a nature for anything to root itself deeply in. + +The event in which the contrasted characters of the twin brothers were +most decisively shown, so decisively shown that their destinies were +fixed by it, was an incident which, in its external circumstances, was +of the most ordinary and trivial kind. Esau came in hungry from hunting: +from dawn to dusk he had been taxing his strength to the utmost, too +eagerly absorbed to notice either his distance from home or his hunger; +it is only when he begins to return depressed by the ill-luck of the +day, and with nothing now to stimulate him, that he feels faint; and +when at last he reaches his father's tents, and the savoury smell of +Jacob's lentiles greets him, his ravenous appetite becomes an +intolerable craving, and he begs Jacob to give him some of his food. Had +Jacob done so with brotherly feeling there would have been nothing to +record. But Jacob had long been watching for an opportunity to win his +brother's birthright, and though no one could have supposed that an heir +to even a little property would sell it in order to get a meal five +minutes sooner than he could otherwise get it, Jacob had taken his +brother's measure to a nicety, and was confident that present appetite +would in Esau completely extinguish every other thought. + +It is perhaps worth noticing that the birthright in Ishmael's line, the +guardianship of the temple at Mecca, passed from one branch of the +family to another in a precisely similar way. We read that when the +guardianship of the temple and the governorship of the town "fell into +the hands of Abu Gabshan, a weak and silly man, Cosa, one of Mohammed's +ancestors, circumvented him while in a drunken humour, and bought of +him the keys of the temple, and with them the presidency of it, for a +bottle of wine. But Abu Gabshan being gotten out of his drunken fit, +sufficiently repented of his foolish bargain; from whence grew these +proverbs among the Arabs: More vexed with late repentance than Abu +Gabshan; and, More silly than Abu Gabshan--which are usually said of +those who part with a thing of great moment for a small matter." + +Which brother presents the more repulsive spectacle of the two in this +selling of the birthright it is hard to say. Who does not feel contempt +for the great, strong man, declaring he will die if he is required to +wait five minutes till his own supper is prepared; forgetting, in the +craving of his appetite, every consideration of a worthy kind; oblivious +of everything but his hunger and his food; crying, like a great baby, +Feed me with that _red_! So it is always with the man who has fallen +under the power of sensual appetite. He is always going to die if it is +not immediately gratified. He _must_ have his appetite satisfied. No +consideration of consequences can be listened to or thought of; the man +is helpless in the hands of his appetite--it rules and drives him on, +and he is utterly without self-control; nothing but physical compulsion +can restrain him. + +But the treacherous and self-seeking craft of the other brother is as +repulsive; the cold-blooded, calculating spirit that can hold every +appetite in check, that can cleave to one purpose for a life-time, and, +without scruple, take advantage of a twin-brother's weakness. Jacob +knows his brother thoroughly, and all his knowledge he uses to betray +him. He knows he will speedily repent of his bargain, so he makes him +swear he will abide by it. It is a relentless purpose he carries +out--he deliberately and unhesitatingly sacrifices his brother to +himself. + +Still, in two respects, Jacob is the superior man. He can appreciate the +birthright in his father's family, and he has constancy. Esau might be a +pleasant companion, far brighter and more vivacious than Jacob on a +day's hunting; free and open-handed, and not implacable; and yet such +people are not satisfactory friends. Often the most attractive people +have similar inconstancy; they have a superficial vivacity, and +brilliance, and charm, and good-nature, which invite a friendship they +do not deserve. + +Parents frequently make the mistake of Isaac, and think more highly of +the gay, sparkling, but shallow child, than of the child who cannot be +always smiling, but broods over what he conceives to be his wrongs. +Sulkiness is itself not a pleasing feature in a child's character, but +it may only be the childish expression of constancy, and of a depth of +character which is slow to let go any impression made upon it. On the +other hand, frankness and a quick throwing aside of passion and +resentment are pleasing features in a child, but often these are only +the expressions of a fickle character, rapidly changing from sun to +shower like an April day, and not to be trusted for retaining affection +or good impressions any longer than it retains resentment. + +But Esau's despising of his birthright is that which stamps the man and +makes him interesting to each generation. No one can read the simple +account of his reckless act without feeling how justly we are called +upon to "look diligently lest there be among us any profane person as +Esau, who, for one morsel of meat, sold his birthright." Had the +birthright been something to eat, Esau would not have sold it. What an +exhibition of human nature! What an exposure of our childish folly and +the infatuation of appetite! For Esau has company in his fall. We are +all stricken by his shame. We are conscious that if God had made +provision for the flesh we should have listened to Him more readily. +"But what will this birthright profit us?" We do not see the good it +does: were it something to keep us from disease, to give us long unsated +days of pleasure, to bring us the fruits of labour without the weariness +of it, to make money for us, where is the man who would not value +it--where is the man who would lightly give it up? But because it is +only the favour of God that is offered, His endless love, His holiness +made ours, this we will imperil or resign for every idle desire, for +every lust that bids us serve it a little longer. Born the sons of God, +made in His image, introduced to a birthright angels might covet, we yet +prefer to rank with the beasts of the field, and let our souls starve if +only our bodies be well tended and cared for. + +There is in Esau's conduct and after-experience so much to stir serious +thought, that one always feels reluctant to pass from it, and as if much +more ought to be made of it. It reflects so many features of our own +conduct, and so clearly shows us what we are from day to day liable to, +that we would wish to take it with us through life as a perpetual +admonition. Who does not know of those moments of weakness, when we are +fagged with work, and with our physical energy our moral tone has become +relaxed? Who does not know how, in hours of reaction from keen and +exciting engagements, sensual appetite asserts itself, and with what +petulance we inwardly cry, We shall die if we do not get this or that +paltry gratification? We are, for the most part, inconstant as Esau, +full of good resolves to-day, and to-morrow throwing them to the +winds--to-day proud of the arduousness of our calling, and girding +ourselves to self-control and self-denial, to-morrow sinking back to +softness and self-indulgence. Not once as Esau, but again and again we +barter peace of conscience and fellowship with God and the hope of +holiness, for what is, in simple fact, no more than a bowl of pottage. +Even after recognising our weakness and the lowness of our tastes, and +after repenting with self-loathing and misery, some slight pleasure is +enough to upset our steadfast mind, and make us as plastic as clay in +the hand of circumstances. It is with positive dismay one considers the +weakness and blindness of our hours of appetite and passion: how one +goes then like an ox to the slaughter, all unconscious of the pitfalls +that betray and destroy men, and how at any moment we ourselves may +truly sell our birthright. + + + + +XXI. + +_JACOB'S FRAUD._ + +GENESIS xxvii. + + "The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever."--PSALM xxxiii. 11. + + +There are some families whose miserable existence is almost entirely +made up of malicious plottings and counter-plottings, little mischievous +designs, and spiteful triumphs of one member or party in the family over +the other. It is not pleasant to have the veil withdrawn, and to see +that where love and eager self-sacrifice might be expected their places +are occupied by an eager assertion of rights, and a cold, proud, and +always petty and stupid, nursing of some supposed injury. In the story +told us so graphically in this page, we see the family whom God has +blessed sunk to this low level, and betrayed by family jealousies into +unseemly strife on the most sacred ground. Each member of the family +plans his own wicked device, and God by the evil of one defeats the evil +of another, and saves His own purpose to bless the race from being +frittered away and lost. And it is told us in order that, amidst all +this mess of human craft and selfishness, the righteousness and +stability of God's word of promise may be more vividly seen. Let us look +at the sin of each of the parties in order, and the punishment of each. + +In the Epistle to the Hebrews Isaac is commended for his faith in +blessing his sons. It was commendable in him that, in great bodily +weakness, he still believed himself to be the guardian of God's +blessing, and recognised that he had a great inheritance to bequeath to +his sons. But, in unaccountable and inconsistent contempt of God's +expressed purpose, he proposes to hand over this blessing to Esau. Many +things had occurred to fix his attention upon the fact that Esau was not +to be his heir. Esau had sold his birthright, and had married Hittite +women, and his whole conduct was, no doubt, of a piece with this, and +showed that, in his hands, any spiritual inheritance would be both +unsafe and unappreciated. That Isaac had some notion he was doing wrong +in giving to Esau what belonged to God, and what God meant to give to +Jacob, is shown from his precipitation in bestowing the blessing. He has +no feeling that he is authorized by God, and therefore he cannot wait +calmly till God should intimate, by unmistakable signs, that he is near +his end; but, seized with a panic lest his favourite should somehow be +left unblessed, he feels, in his nervous alarm, as if he were at the +point of death, and, though destined to live for forty-three years +longer, he calls Esau that he may hand over to him his dying testament. +How different is the nerve of a man when he knows he is doing God's +will, and when he is but fulfilling his own device. For the same reason, +he has to stimulate his spirit by artificial means. The prophetic +ecstasy is not felt by him; he must be exhilarated by venison and wine, +that, strengthened and revived in body, and having his gratitude aroused +afresh towards Esau, he may bless him with all the greater vigour. The +final stimulus is given when he smells the garments of Esau on Jacob, +and when that fresh earthy smell which so revives us in spring, as if +our life were renewed with the year, and which hangs about one who has +been in the open air, entered into Isaac's blood, and lent him fresh +vigour. + +It is a strange and, in some respects, perplexing spectacle that is here +presented to us--the organ of the Divine blessing represented by a blind +old man, laid on a "couch of skins," stimulated by meat and wine, and +trying to cheat God by bestowing the family blessing on the son of his +own choice to the exclusion of the divinely-appointed heir. Out of such +beginnings had God to educate a people worthy of Himself, and through +such hazards had He to guide the spiritual blessing He designed to +convey to us all. + +Isaac laid a net for his own feet. By his unrighteous and timorous haste +he secured the defeat of his own long-cherished scheme. It was his +hasting to bless Esau which drove Rebekah to checkmate him by winning +the blessing for her favourite. The shock which Isaac felt when Esau +came in and the fraud was discovered is easily understood. The +mortification of the old man must have been extreme when he found that +he had so completely taken himself in. He was reclining in the satisfied +reflection that for once he had overreached his astute Rebekah and her +astute son, and in the comfortable feeling that, at last, he had +accomplished his one remaining desire, when he learns from the exceeding +bitter cry of Esau that he has himself been duped. It was enough to +rouse the anger of the mildest and godliest of men, but Isaac does not +storm and protest--"he trembles exceedingly." He recognises, by a +spiritual insight quite unknown to Esau, that this is God's hand, and +deliberately confirms, with his eyes open, what he had done in +blindness: "I have blessed him: _Yea_, and he shall be blessed." Had he +wished to deny the validity of the blessing, he had ground enough for +doing so. He had not really given it: it had been stolen from him. An +act must be judged by its intention, and he had been far from intending +to bless Jacob. Was he to consider himself bound by what he had done +under a misapprehension? He had given a blessing to one person under the +impression that he was a different person; must not the blessing go to +him for whom it was designed? But Isaac unhesitatingly yielded. + +This clear recognition of God's hand in the matter, and quick submission +to Him, reveals a habit of reflection, and a spiritual thoughtfulness, +which are the good qualities in Isaac's otherwise unsatisfactory +character. Before he finished his answer to Esau, he felt he was a poor +feeble creature in the hand of a true and just God, who had used even +his infirmity and sin to forward righteous and gracious ends. It was his +sudden recognition of the frightful way in which he had been tampering +with God's will, and of the grace with which God had prevented him from +accomplishing a wrong destination of the inheritance, that made Isaac +tremble very exceedingly. + +In this humble acceptance of the disappointment of his life's love and +hope, Isaac shows us the manner in which we ought to bear the +consequences of our wrong-doing. The punishment of our sin often comes +through the persons with whom we have to do, unintentionally on their +part, and yet we are tempted to hate them because they pain and punish +us, father, mother, wife, child, or whoever else. Isaac and Esau were +alike disappointed. Esau only saw the supplanter, and vowed to be +revenged. Isaac saw God in the matter, and trembled. So when Shimei +cursed David, and his loyal retainers would have cut off his head for so +doing, David said, "Let him alone, and let him curse: it may be that the +Lord hath bidden him." We can bear the pain inflicted on us by men when +we see that they are merely the instruments of a divine chastisement. +The persons who thwart us and make our life bitter, the persons who +stand between us and our dearest hopes, the persons whom we are most +disposed to speak angrily and bitterly to, are often thorns planted in +our path by God to keep us on the right way. + +Isaac's sin propagated itself with the rapid multiplication of all sin. +Rebekah overheard what passed between Isaac and Esau, and although she +might have been able to wait until by fair means Jacob received the +blessing, yet when she sees Isaac actually preparing to pass Jacob by +and bless Esau, her fears are so excited that she cannot any longer +quietly leave the matter in God's hand, but must lend her own more +skilful management. It may have crossed her mind that she was justified +in forwarding what she knew to be God's purpose. She saw no other way of +saving God's purpose and Jacob's rights than by her interference. The +emergency might have unnerved many a woman, but Rebekah is equal to the +occasion. She makes the threatened exclusion of Jacob the very means for +at last finally settling the inheritance upon him. She braves the +indignation of Isaac and the rage of Esau, and fearless herself, and +confident of success, she soon quiets the timorous and cautious +objections of Jacob. She knows that for straightforward lying and acting +a part she was sure of good support in Jacob. Luther says, "Had it been +me, I'd have dropped the dish." But Jacob had no such tremors--could +submit his hands and face to the touch of Isaac, and repeat his lie as +often as needful. + +An old man bedridden like Isaac becomes the subject of a number of +little deceptions which may seem, and which may be, very unimportant in +themselves, but which are seen to wear down the reverence due to the +father of a family, and which imperceptibly sap the guileless sincerity +and truthfulness of those who practise them. This overreaching of Isaac +by dressing Jacob in Esau's clothes, might come in naturally as one of +those daily deceptions which Rebekah was accustomed to practise on the +old man whom she kept quite in her own hand, giving him as much or as +little insight into the doings of the family as seemed advisable to her. +It would never occur to her that she was taking God in hand; it would +seem only as if she were making such use of Isaac's infirmity as she was +in the daily practice of doing. + +But to account for an act is not to excuse it. Underlying the conduct of +Rebekah and Jacob was the conviction that they would come better speed +by a little deceit of their own than by suffering God to further them in +His own way--that though God would certainly not practise deception +Himself, He might not object to others doing so--that in this emergency +holiness was a hampering thing which might just for a little be laid +aside that they might be more holy afterwards--that though no doubt in +ordinary circumstances, and as a normal habit, deceit is not to be +commended, yet in cases of difficulty, which call for ready wit, a +prompt seizure, and delicate handling, men must be allowed to secure +their ends in their own way. Their unbelief thus directly produced +immorality--immorality of a very revolting kind, the defrauding of +their relatives, and repulsive also because practised as if on God's +side, or, as we should now say, "in the interests of religion." + +To this day the method of Rebekah and Jacob is largely adopted by +religious persons. It is notorious that persons whose ends are good +frequently become thoroughly unscrupulous about the means they use to +accomplish them. They dare not say in so many words that they may do +evil that good may come, nor do they think it a tenable position in +morals that the end sanctifies the means; and yet their consciousness of +a justifiable and desirable end undoubtedly does blunt their +sensitiveness regarding the legitimacy of the means they employ. For +example, Protestant controversialists, persuaded that vehement +opposition to Popery is good, and filled with the idea of accomplishing +its downfall, are often guilty of gross misrepresentation, because they +do not sufficiently inform themselves of the actual tenets and practices +of the Church of Rome. In all controversy, religious and political, it +is the same. It is always dishonest to circulate reports that you have +no means of authenticating: yet how freely are such reports circulated +to blacken the character of an opponent, and to prove his opinions to be +dangerous. It is always dishonest to condemn opinions we have not +inquired into, merely because of some fancied consequence which these +opinions carry in them: yet how freely are opinions condemned by men who +have never been at the trouble carefully to inquire into their truth. +They do not feel the dishonesty of their position, because they have a +general consciousness that they are on the side of religion, and of what +has generally passed for truth. All keeping back of facts which are +supposed to have an unsettling effect is but a repetition of this sin. +There is no sin more hateful. Under the appearance of serving God, and +maintaining His cause in the world, it insults Him by assuming that if +the whole bare, undisguised truth were spoken, His cause would suffer. + +The fate of all such attempts to manage God's matters by keeping things +dark, and misrepresenting fact, is written for all who care to +understand in the results of this scheme of Rebekah's and Jacob's. They +gained nothing, and they lost a great deal, by their wicked +interference. They gained nothing; for God had promised that the +birthright would be Jacob's, and would have given it him in some way +redounding to his credit and not to his shame. And they lost a great +deal. The mother lost her son; Jacob had to flee for his life, and, for +all we know, Rebekah never saw him more. And Jacob lost all the comforts +of home, and all those possessions his father had accumulated. He had to +flee with nothing but his staff, an outcast to begin the world for +himself. From this first false step onwards to his death, he was pursued +by misfortune, until his own verdict on his life was, "Few and evil have +been the days of the years of my life." + +Thus severely was the sin of Rebekah and Jacob punished. It coloured +their whole after-life with a deep sombre hue. It was marked thus, +because it was a sin by all means to be avoided. It was virtually the +sin of blaming God for forgetting His promise, or of accusing Him of +being unable to perform it: so that they, Rebekah and Jacob, had, +forsooth, to take God's work out of His hands, and show Him how it ought +to be done. The announcement of God's purpose, instead of enabling them +quietly to wait for a blessing they knew to be certain, became in their +unrighteous and impatient hearts actually an inducement to sin. Abraham +was so bold and confident in his faith, at least latterly, that again +and again he refused to take as a gift from men, and on the most +honourable terms, what God had promised to give him: his grandson is so +little sure of God's truth, that he will rather trust his own falsehood; +and what he thinks God may forget to give him, he will steal from his +own father. Some persons have especial need to consider this sin--they +are tempted to play the part of Providence, to intermeddle where they +ought to refrain. Sometimes just a little thing is needed to make +everything go to our liking--the keeping back of one small fact, a +slight variation in the way of stating the matter, is enough--things +want just a little push in the right direction; it is wrong but very +slightly so. And so they are encouraged to close for a moment their eyes +and put to their hand. + +Of all the parties in this transaction none is more to blame than Esau. +He shows now how selfish and untruthful the sensual man really is, and +how worthless is the generosity which is merely of impulse and not +bottomed on principle. While he so furiously and bitterly blamed Jacob +for supplanting him, it might surely have occurred to him that it was +really he who was supplanting Jacob. He had no right, divine or human, +to the inheritance. God had never said that His possession should go to +the oldest, and had in this case said the express opposite. Besides, +inconstant as Esau was, he could scarcely have forgotten the bargain +that so pleased him at the time, and by which he had sold to his younger +brother all title to his father's blessings. Jacob was to blame for +seeking to win his own by craft, but Esau was more to blame for +endeavouring furtively to recover what he knew to be no longer his. His +bitter cry was the cry of a disappointed and enraged child, what Hosea +calls the "howl" of those who seem to seek the Lord, but are really +merely crying out, like animals, for corn and wine. Many that care very +little for God's love will seek His favours; and every wicked wretch who +has in his prosperity spurned God's offers, will, when he sees how he +has cheated himself, turn to God's gifts, though not to God, with a cry. +Esau would now very gladly have given a mess of pottage for the blessing +that secured to its receiver "the dew of heaven, the fatness of the +earth, and plenty of corn and wine." Like many another sinner, he wanted +both to eat his cake and have it. He wanted to spend his youth sowing to +the flesh, and have the harvest which those only can have who have sown +to the spirit. He wished both of two irreconcilable things--both the red +pottage and the birth right. He is a type of those who think very +lightly of spiritual blessings while their appetites are strong, but +afterwards bitterly complain that their whole life is filled with the +results of sowing to the flesh and not to the spirit. + + "We barter life for pottage; sell true bliss + For wealth or power, for pleasure or renown; + Thus, Esau-like, our Father's blessing miss, + Then wash with fruitless tears our faded crown." + +The words of the New Testament, in which it is said that Esau "found no +place for repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears," are +sometimes misunderstood. They do not mean that he sought what we +ordinarily call repentance, a change of mind about the value of the +birthright. He _had_ that; it was this that made him weep. What he +sought now was some means of undoing what he had done, of cancelling +the deed of which he repented. His experience does not tell us that a +man once sinning as Esau sinned becomes a hardened reprobate whom no +good influence can impress or bring to repentance, but it says that the +sin so committed leaves irreparable consequences--that no man can live a +youth of folly and yet find as much in manhood and maturer years as if +he had lived a careful and God-fearing youth. Esau had irrecoverably +lost that which he would now have given all he had to possess; and in +this, I suppose, he represents half the men who pass through this world. +He warns us that it is very possible, by careless yielding to appetite +and passing whim, to entangle ourselves irrecoverably for this life, if +not to weaken and maim ourselves for eternity. At the time, your act may +seem a very small and secular one, a mere bargain in the ordinary +course, a little transaction such as one would enter into carelessly +after the day's work is over, in the quiet of a summer evening or in the +midst of the family circle; or it may seem so necessary that you never +think of its moral qualities, as little as you question whether you are +justified in breathing; but you are warned that if there be in that act +a crushing out of spiritual hopes to make way for the free enjoyment of +the pleasures of sense--if there be a deliberate preference of the good +things of this life to the love of God--if, knowingly, you make light of +spiritual blessings, and count them unreal when weighed against obvious +worldly advantages--then the consequences of that act will in this life +bring to you great discomfort and uneasiness, great loss and vexation, +an agony of remorse, and a life-long repentance. You are warned of this, +and most touchingly, by the moving entreaties, the bitter cries and +tears of Esau. + +But even when our life is spoiled irreparably, a hope remains for our +character and ourselves--not certainly if our misfortunes embitter us, +not if resentment is the chief result of our suffering; but if, subduing +resentment, and taking blame to ourselves instead of trying to fix it on +others, we take revenge upon the real source of our undoing, and +extirpate from our own character the root of bitterness. Painful and +difficult is such schooling. It calls for simplicity, and humility, and +truthfulness--qualities not of frequent occurrence. It calls for abiding +patience; for he who begins thus to sow to the spirit late in life, must +be content with inward fruits, with peace of conscience, increase of +righteousness and humility, and must learn to live without much of what +all men naturally desire. + +While each member of Isaac's family has thus his own plan, and is +striving to fulfil his private intention, the result is, that God's +purpose is fulfilled. In the human agency, such faith in God as existed +was overlaid with misunderstanding and distrust of God. But +notwithstanding the petty and mean devices, the short-sighted slyness, +the blundering unbelief, the profane worldliness of the human parties in +the transaction, the truth and mercy of God still find a way for +themselves. Were matters left in our hands, we should make shipwreck +even of the salvation with which we are provided. We carry into our +dealings with it the same selfishness, and inconstancy, and worldliness +which made it necessary: and had not God patience to bear with, as well +as mercy to invite us; had He not wisdom to govern us in the use of His +grace, as well as wisdom to contrive its first bestowal, we should +perish with the water of life at our lips. + + + + +XXII. + +_JACOB'S FLIGHT AND DREAM._ + +GENESIS xxvii. 41-xxviii. + + "So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before Thee. + Nevertheless I am continually with Thee."--PSALM lxxiii. 22. + + +It is so commonly observed as to be scarcely worth again remarking, that +persons who employ a great deal of craft in the management of their +affairs are invariably entrapped in their own net. Life is so +complicated, and every matter of conduct has so many issues, that no +human brain can possibly foresee every contingency. Rebekah was a clever +woman, and quite competent to outwit men like Isaac and Esau, but she +had in her scheming neglected to take account of Laban, a man true +brother to herself in cunning. She had calculated on Esau's resentment, +and knew it would last only a few days, and this brief period she was +prepared to utilize by sending Jacob out of Esau's reach to her own kith +and kin, from among whom he might get a suitable wife. But she did not +reckon on Laban's making her son serve fourteen years for his wife, nor +upon Jacob's falling so deeply in love with Rachel as to make him +apparently forget his mother. + +In the first part of her scheme she feels herself at home. She is a +woman who knows exactly how much of her mind to disclose, so as +effectually to lead her husband to adopt her view and plan. She did not +bluntly advise Isaac to send Jacob to Padan-aram, but she sowed in his +apprehensive mind fears which she knew would make him send Jacob there; +she suggested the possibility of Jacob's taking a wife of the daughters +of Heth. She felt sure that _Isaac_ did not need to be told where to +send his son to find a suitable wife. So Isaac called Jacob, and said, +Go to Padan-aram, to the house of thy mother's father, and take thee a +wife thence. And he gave him the family blessing--God Almighty give thee +the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee--so +constituting him his heir, the representative of Abraham. + +The effect this had on Esau is very noticeable. He sees, as the +narrative tells us, a great many things, and his dull mind tries to make +some meaning out of all that is passing before him. The historian seems +intentionally to satirise Esau's attempt at reasoning, and the foolish +simplicity of the device he fell upon. He had an idea that Jacob's +obedience in going to seek a wife of another stock than he had connected +himself with would be pleasing to his parents; and perhaps he had an +idea that it would be possible to steal a march upon Jacob in his +absence, and by a more speedily effected obedience to his parents' +desire, win their preference, and perhaps move Isaac to alter his will +and reverse the blessing. Though living in the chosen family, he seems +to have had not the slightest idea that there was any higher will than +his father's being fulfilled in their doings. He does not yet see why he +himself should not be as blessed as Jacob; he cannot grasp at all the +distinction that grace makes; cannot take in the idea that God has +chosen a people to Himself, and that no natural advantage or force or +endowment can set a man among that people, but only God's choice. +Accordingly, he does not see any difference between Ishmael's family and +the chosen family; they are both sprung from Abraham, both are naturally +the same, and the fact that God expressly gave His inheritance past +Ishmael is nothing to Esau--an act of _God_ has no meaning to him. He +merely sees that he has not pleased his parents as well as he might by +his marriage, and his easy and yielding disposition prompts him to +remedy this. + +This is a fine specimen of the hazy views men have of what will bring +them to a level with God's chosen. Through their crass insensibility to +the high righteousness of God, there still does penetrate a perception +that if they are to please Him there are certain means to be used for +doing so. There are, they see, certain occupations and ways pursued by +Christians, and if by themselves adopting these they can please God, +they are quite willing to humour Him in this. Like Esau, they do not see +their way to drop their old connections, but if by making some little +additions to their habits, or forming some new connection, they can +quiet this controversy that has somehow grown up between God and His +children,--though, so far as they see, it is a very unmeaning +controversy,--they will very gladly enter into any little arrangement +for the purpose. We will not, of course, divorce the world, will not +dismiss from our homes and hearts what God hates and means to destroy, +will not accept God's will as our sole and absolute law, but we will so +far meet God's wishes as to add to what we have adopted something that +is almost as good as what God enjoins: we will make any little +alterations which will not quite upset our present ways. Much commoner +than hypocrisy is this dim-sighted, blundering stupidity of the really +profane worldly man, who thinks he can take rank with men whose natures +God has changed, by the mere imitation of some of their ways; who +thinks, that as he cannot without great labour, and without too +seriously endangering his hold on the world, do precisely what God +requires, God may be expected to be satisfied with a something like it. +Are we not aware of endeavouring at times to cloak a sin with some easy +virtue, to adopt some new and apparently good habit, instead of +destroying the sin we know God hates; or to offer to God, and palm upon +our own conscience, a mere imitation of what God is pleased with? Do you +attend Church, do you come and decorously submit to a service? That is +not at all what God enjoins, though it is like it. What He means is, +that you worship Him, which is a quite different employment. Do you +render to God some outward respect, have you adopted some habits in +deference to Him, do you even attempt some private devotion and +discipline of the spirit? Still what He requires is something that goes +much deeper than all that; namely, that you love Him. To conform to one +or two habits of godly people is not what is required of us; but to be +at heart godly. + +As Jacob journeyed northwards, he came, on the second or third evening +of his flight, to the hills of Bethel. As the sun was sinking he found +himself toiling up the rough path which Abraham may have described to +him as looking like a great staircase of rock and crag reaching from +earth to sky. Slabs of rock, piled one upon another, form the whole +hill-side, and to Jacob's eye, accustomed to the rolling pastures of +Beersheba, they would appear almost like a structure built for +superhuman uses, well founded in the valley below, and intended to +reach to unknown heights. Overtaken by darkness on this rugged path, he +readily finds as soft a bed and as good shelter as his shepherd-habits +require, and with his head on a stone and a corner of his dress thrown +over his face to preserve him from the moon, he is soon fast asleep. But +in his dreams the massive staircase is still before his eyes, and it is +no longer himself that is toiling up it as it leads to an unexplored +hill-top above him, but the angels of God are ascending and descending +upon it, and at its top is Jehovah Himself. + +Thus simply does God meet the thoughts of Jacob, and lead him to the +encouragement he needed. What was probably Jacob's state of mind when he +lay down on that hill-side? In the first place, and as he would have +said to any man he chanced to meet, he wondered what he would see when +he got to the top of this hill; and still more, as he may have said to +Rebekah, he wondered what reception he would meet with from Laban, and +whether he would ever again see his father's tents. This vision shows +him that his path leads to God, that it is He who occupies the future; +and, in his dream, a voice comes to him: "I am with thee, and will keep +thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into +this land." He had, no doubt, wondered much whether the blessing of his +father was, after all, so valuable a possession, whether it might not +have been wiser to take a share with Esau than to be driven out homeless +thus. God has never spoken to him; he has heard his father speak of +assurances coming to him from God, but as for him, through all the long +years of his life he has never heard what he could speak of as a voice +of God. But this night these doubts were silenced--there came to his +soul an assurance that never departed from it. He could have affirmed +he heard God saying to him: "I am the Lord God of thy father Abraham, +and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give +it." And lastly, all these thoughts probably centred in one deep +feeling, that he was an outcast, a fugitive from justice. He was glad he +was in so solitary a place, he was glad he was so far from Esau and from +every human eye; and yet--what desolation of spirit accompanied this +feeling: there was no one he could bid good-night to, no one he could +spend the evening hour with in quiet talk; he was a banished man, +whatever fine gloss Rebekah might put upon it, and deep down in his +conscience there was that which told him he was not banished without +cause. Might not God also forsake him--might not God banish him, and +might he not find a curse pursuing him, preventing man or woman from +ever again looking in his face with pleasure? Such fears are met by the +vision. This desolate spot, unvisited by sheep or bird, has become busy +with life, angels thronging the ample staircase. Here, where he thought +himself lonely and outcast, he finds he has come to the very gate of +heaven. His fond mother might, at that hour, have been visiting his +silent tent and shedding ineffectual tears on his abandoned bed, but he +finds himself in the very house of God, cared for by angels. As the +darkness had revealed to him the stars shining overhead, so when the +deceptive glare of waking life was dulled by sleep, he saw the actual +realities which before were hidden. + +No wonder that a vision which so graphically showed the open +communication between earth and heaven should have deeply impressed +itself on Jacob's descendants. What more effectual consolation could any +poor outcast, who felt he had spoiled his life, require than the memory +of this staircase reaching from the pillow of the lonely fugitive from +justice up into the very heart of heaven? How could any most desolate +soul feel quite abandoned so long as the memory retained the vision of +the angels thronging up and down with swift service to the needy? How +could it be even in the darkest hour believed that all hope was gone, +and that men might but curse God and die, when the mind turned to this +bridging of the interval between earth and heaven? + +In the New Testament we meet with an instance of the familiarity with +this vision which true Israelites enjoyed. Our Lord, in addressing +Nathanael, makes use of it in a way that proves this familiarity. Under +his fig-tree, whose broad leaves were used in every Jewish garden as a +screen from observation, and whose branches were trained down so as to +form an open-air oratory, where secret prayer might be indulged in +undisturbed, Nathanael had been declaring to the Father his ways, his +weaknesses, his hopes. And scarcely more astonished was Jacob when he +found himself the object of this angelic ministry on the lonely +hill-side, than was Nathanael when he found how one eye penetrated the +leafy screen, and had read his thoughts and wishes. Apparently he had +been encouraging himself with this vision, for our Lord, reading his +thoughts, says: "Because I said unto thee, When thou wast under the +fig-tree I saw thee, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than +these--thou shalt see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and +descending upon the Son of man." + +This, then, is a vision for us even more than for Jacob. It has its +fulfilment in the times after the Incarnation more manifestly than in +previous times. The true staircase by which heavenly messengers ascend +and descend is the Son of man. It is He who really bridges the interval +between heaven and earth, God and man. In His person these two are +united. You cannot tell whether Christ is more Divine or human, more God +or man--solidly based on earth, as this massive staircase, by His real +humanity, by His thirty-three years' engagement in all human functions +and all experiences of this life, He is yet familiar with eternity, His +name is "He that came down from heaven," and if your eye follows step by +step to the heights of His person, it rests at last on what you +recognise as Divine. His love it is that is wide enough to embrace God +on the one hand, and the lowest sinner on the other. Truly He is the +way, the stair, leading from the lowest depth of earth to the highest +height of heaven. In Him you find a love that embraces you as you are, +in whatever condition, however cast down and defeated, however +embittered and polluted--a love that stoops tenderly to you and +hopefully, and gives you once more a hold upon holiness and life, and in +that very love unfolds to you the highest glory of heaven and of God. + +When this comes home to a man in the hour of his need, it becomes the +most arousing revelation. He springs from the troubled slumber we call +life, and all earth wears a new glory and awe to him. He exclaims with +Jacob, "How dreadful is this place. Surely the Lord is in this place, +and I knew it not." The world that had been so bleak and empty to him, +is filled with a majestic vital presence. Jacob is no longer a mere +fugitive from the results of his own sin, a shepherd in search of +employment, a man setting out in the world to try his fortune; he is the +partner with God in the fulfilment of a Divine purpose. And such is the +change that passes on every man who believes in the Incarnation, who +feels himself to be connected with God by Jesus Christ; he recognises +the Divine intention to uplift his life, and to fill it with new hopes +and purposes. He feels that humanity is consecrated by the entrance of +the Son of God into it: he feels that all human life is holy ground +since the Lord Himself has passed through it. Having once had this +vision of God and man united in Christ, life cannot any more be to him +the poor, dreary, commonplace, wretched round of secular duties and +short-lived joys and terribly punished sins it was before: but it truly +becomes the very gate of heaven; from each part of it he knows there is +a staircase rising to the presence of God, and that out of the region of +pure holiness and justice there flow to him heavenly aids, tender +guidance, and encouragement. + +Do you think the idea of the Incarnation too aerial and speculative to +carry with you for help in rough, practical matters? The Incarnation is +not a mere idea, but a fact as substantial and solidly rooted in life as +anything you have to do with. Even the shadow of it Jacob saw carried in +it so much of what was real that when he was broad awake he trusted it +and acted on it. It was not scattered by the chill of the morning air, +nor by that fixed staring reality which external nature assumes in the +gray dawn as one object after another shows itself in the same spot and +form in which night had fallen upon it. There were no angels visible +when he opened his eyes; the staircase was there, but it was of no +heavenly substance, and if it had any secret to tell, it coldly and +darkly kept it. There was no retreat for the runaway from the poor +common facts of yesterday. The sky seemed as far from earth as it did +yesterday, his track over the hill as lonely, his brother's wrath as +real;--but other things also had become real; and as he looked back from +the top of the hill on the stone he had set up, he felt the words, "I am +with thee in all places whither thou goest," graven on his heart, and +giving him new courage; and he knew that every footfall of his was +making a Bethel, and that as he went he was carrying God through the +world. The bleakest rains that swept across the hills of Bethel could +never wash out of his mind the vision of bright-winged angels, as little +as they could wash off the oil or wear down the stone he had set up. The +brightest glare of this world's heyday of real life could not outshine +and cause them to disappear; and the vision on which we hope is not one +that vanishes at cock-crow, nor is He who connects us with God shy of +human handling, but substantial as ourselves. He offered Himself to +every kind of test, so that those who knew Him for years could say, with +the most absolute confidence, "That which we have heard, which we have +seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have +handled of the Word of Life ... declare we unto you, that ye also may +have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, +and with His Son Jesus Christ." + +Jacob obeyed a good instinct when he set up as a monumental stone that +which had served as his pillow while he dreamt and saw this inspiring +vision. He felt that, vivid as the impression on his mind then was, it +would tend to fade, and he erected this stone that in after days he +might have a witness that would testify to his present assurance. One +great secret in the growth of character is the art of prolonging the +quickening power of right ideas, of perpetuating just and inspiring +impressions. And he who despises the aid of all external helps for the +accomplishment of this object is not likely to succeed. Religion, some +men say, is an inward thing: it does not consist of public worship, +ordinances, and so forth, but it is a state of spirit. Very true; but he +knows little of human nature who fancies a state of spirit can be +maintained without the aid of external reminders, presentations to eye +and ear of central religious truths and facts. We have all of us had +such views of truth, and such corresponding desires and purposes, as +would transform us were they only permanent. But what a night has +settled on our past, how little have we found skill to prolong the +benefit arising from particular events or occasions. Some parts of our +life, indeed, require no monument, there is nothing _there_ we would +ever again think of, if possible; but, alas! these, for the most part, +have erected monuments of their own, to which, as with a sad +fascination, our eyes are ever turning--persons we have injured, or who, +somehow, so remind us of sin, that we shrink from meeting them--places +to which sins of ours have attached a reproachful meaning. And these +natural monuments must be imitated in the life of grace. By fixed hours +of worship, by rules and habits of devotion, by public worship, and +especially by the monumental ordinance of the Lord's Supper, must we +cherish the memory of known truth, and deepen former impressions. + +To the monument Jacob attached a vow, so that when he returned to that +spot the stone might remind him of the dependence on God he now felt, of +the precarious situation he was in when this vision appeared, and of all +the help God had afterwards given him. He seems to have taken up the +meaning of that endless chain of angels ceaselessly coming down full of +blessing, and going up empty of all but desires, requests, aspirations. +And if we are to live with clean conscience and with heart open to God, +we must so live that the messengers who bring God's blessings to us +shall not have an evil report to take back of the manner in which we +have received and spent His bounty. + +This whole incident makes a special appeal to those who are starting in +life. Jacob was no longer a young man, but he was unmarried, and he was +going to seek employment with nothing to begin the world with but his +shepherd's staff, the symbol of his knowledge of a profession. Many must +see in him a very exact reproduction of their own position. They have +left home, and it may be they have left it not altogether with pleasant +memories, and they are now launched on the world for themselves, with +nothing but their staff, their knowledge of some business. The spot they +have reached may seem as desolate as the rock where Jacob lay, their +prospects as doubtful as his. For such an one there is absolutely no +security but that which is given in the vision of Jacob--in the belief +that God will be with you in all places, and that even now on that life +which you are perhaps already wishing to seclude from all holy +influences, the angels of God are descending to bless and restrain you +from sin. Happy the man who, at the outset, can heartily welcome such a +connection of his life with God: unhappy he who welcomes whatever blots +out the thought of heaven, and who separates himself from all that +reminds him of the good influences that throng his path. The desire of +the young heart to see life and know the world is natural and innocent, +but how many fancy that in seeing the lowest and poorest perversions of +life they see life--how many forget that unless they keep their hearts +pure they can never enter into the best and richest and most enduring of +the uses and joys of human life. Even from a selfish motive and the mere +desire to succeed in the world, every one starting in life would do well +to consider whether he really has Jacob's blessing and is making his +vow. And certainly every one who has any honour, who is governed by any +of those sentiments that lead men to noble and worthy actions, will +frankly meet God's offers and joyfully accept a heavenly guidance and a +permanent connection with God. + +Before we dismiss this vision, it may be well to look at one instance of +its fulfilment, that we may understand the manner in which God fulfils +His promises. Jacob's experience in Haran was not so brilliant and +unexceptionable as he might perhaps expect. He did, indeed, at once find +a woman he could love, but he had to purchase her with seven years' +toil, which ultimately became fourteen years. He did not grudge this; +because it was customary, because his affections were strong, and +because he was too independent to send to his father for money to buy a +wife. But the bitterest disappointment awaited him. With the burning +humiliation of one who has been cheated in so cruel a way, he finds +himself married to Leah. He protests, but he cannot insist on his +protest, nor divorce Leah; for, in point of fact, he is conscious that +he is only being paid in his own coin, foiled with his own weapons. In +this veiled bride brought in to him on false pretences, he sees the just +retribution of his own disguise when with the hands of Esau he went in +and received his father's blessing. His mouth is shut by the remembrance +of his own past. But submitting to this chastisement, and recognising +in it not only the craft of his uncle, but the stroke of God, that which +he at first thought of as a cruel curse became a blessing. It was Leah +much more than Rachel that built up the house of Israel. To this +despised wife six of the tribes traced their origin, and among these was +the tribe of Judah. Thus he learned the fruitfulness of God's +retribution--that to be humbled by God is really to be built up, and to +be punished by Him the richest blessing. Through such an experience are +many persons led: when we would embrace the fruit of years of toil God +thrusts into our arms something quite different from our +expectation--something that not only disappoints, but that at first +repels us, reminding us of acts of our own we had striven to forget. Is +it with resentment you still look back on some such experience, when the +reward of years of toil evaded your grasp, and you found yourself bound +to what you would not have worked a day to obtain?--do you find yourself +disheartened and discouraged by the way in which you seem regularly to +miss the fruit of your labour? If so, no doubt it were useless to assure +you that the disappointment may be more fruitful than the hope +fulfilled, but it can scarcely be useless to ask you to consider whether +it is not the fact that in Jacob's case what was thrust upon him _was_ +more fruitful than what he strove to win. + + + + +XXIII. + +_JACOB AT PENIEL._ + +GENESIS xxxii. + + "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you + up."--JAMES iv. 10. + + +Jacob had a double reason for wishing to leave Padan-aram. He believed +in the promise of God to give him Canaan; and he saw that Laban was a +man with whom he could never be on a thoroughly good understanding. He +saw plainly that Laban was resolved to make what he could out of his +skill at as cheap a rate as possible--the characteristic of a selfish, +greedy, ungrateful, and therefore, in the end, ill-served master. Laban +and Esau were the two men who had hitherto chiefly influenced Jacob's +life. But they were very different in character. Esau could never see +that there was any important difference between himself and +Jacob--except that his brother was trickier. Esau was the type of those +who honestly think that there is not much in religion, and that saints +are but white-washed sinners. Laban, on the contrary, is almost +superstitiously impressed by the distinction between God's people and +others. But the chief practical issue of this impression is, not that he +seeks God's friendship for himself, but that he tries to make a +profitable use of God's friends. He seeks to get God's blessing, as it +were, at second-hand. If men could be related to God indirectly, as if +in law and not by blood, that would suit Laban. If God would admit men +to his inheritance on any other terms than being sons in the direct +line, if there were some relationship once removed, a kind of +sons-in-law, so that mere connection with the godly, though not with +God, would win His blessing, this would suit Laban. + +Laban is the man who appreciates the social value of virtue, +truthfulness, fidelity, temperance, godliness, but wishes to enjoy their +fruits without the pain of cultivating the qualities themselves. He is +scrupulous as to the character of those he takes into his employment, +and seeks to connect himself in business with good men. In his domestic +life, he acts on the idea which his experience has suggested to him, +that persons really godly will make his home more peaceful, better +regulated, safer than otherwise it might be. If he holds a position of +authority, he knows how to make use, for the preservation of order and +for the promotion of his own ends, of the voluntary efforts of Christian +societies, of the trustworthiness of Christian officials, and of the +support of the Christian community. But with all this recognition of the +reality and influence of godliness, he never for one moment entertains +the idea of himself becoming a godly man. In all ages there are Labans, +who clearly recognise the utility and worth of a connection with God, +who have been much mixed up with persons in whom that worth was very +conspicuous, and who yet, at the last, "depart and return unto their +place," like Jacob's father-in-law, without having themselves entered +into any affectionate relations with God. + +From Laban, then, Jacob was resolved to escape. And though to escape +with large droves of slow-moving sheep and cattle, as well as with many +women and children, seemed hopeless, the cleverness of Jacob did not +fail him here. He did not get beyond reach of pursuit; he could never +have expected to do so. But he stole away to such a distance from Haran +as made it much easier for him to come to terms with Laban, and much +more difficult for Laban to try any further device for detaining him. + +But, delivered as he was from Laban, he had an even more formidable +person to deal with. As soon as Laban's company disappear on the +northern horizon, Jacob sends messengers south to sound Esau. His +message is so contrived as to beget the idea in Esau's mind that his +younger brother is a person of some importance, and yet is prepared to +show greater deference to himself than formerly. But the answer brought +back by the messengers is the curt and haughty despatch of the man of +war to the man of peace. No notice is taken of Jacob's vaunted wealth. +No proposal of terms as if Esau had an equal to deal with, is carried +back. There is only the startling announcement: "Esau cometh to meet +thee, and four hundred men with him." Jacob at once recognises the +significance of this armed advance on Esau's part. Esau has not +forgotten the wrong he suffered at Jacob's hands, and he means to show +him that he is entirely in his power. + +Therefore was Jacob "greatly afraid and distressed." The joy with which, +a few days ago, he had greeted the host of God, was quite overcast by +the tidings brought him regarding the host of Esau. Things heavenly do +always look so like a mere show; visits of angels seem so delusive and +fleeting; the exhibition of the powers of heaven seems so often but as a +tournament painted on the sky, and so unavailable for the stern +encounters that await us on earth, that one seems, even after the most +impressive of such displays, to be left to fight on alone. No wonder +Jacob is disturbed. His wives and dependants gather round him in dismay; +the children, catching the infectious panic, cower with cries and +weeping about their mothers; the whole camp is rudely shaken out of its +brief truce by the news of this rough Esau, whose impetuosity and +warlike ways they had all heard of and were now to experience. The +accounts of the messengers would no doubt grow in alarming descriptive +detail as they saw how much importance was attached to their words. +Their accounts would also be exaggerated by their own unwarlike nature, +and by the indistinctness with which they had made out the temper of +Esau's followers, and the novelty of the equipments of war they had seen +in his camp. Could we have been surprised had Jacob turned and fled when +thus he was made to picture the troops of Esau sweeping from his grasp +all he had so laboriously earned, and snatching the promised inheritance +from him when in the very act of entering on possession? But though in +fancy he already hears their rude shouts of triumph as they fall upon +his defenceless band, and already sees the merciless horde dividing the +spoil with shouts of derision and coarse triumph, and though all around +him are clamouring to be led into a safe retreat, Jacob sees stretched +before him the land that is his, and resolves that, by God's help, he +shall win it. What he does is not the act of a man rendered incompetent +through fear, but of one who has recovered from the first shock of alarm +and has all his wits about him. He disposes his household and followers +in two companies, so that each might advance with the hope that it might +be the one which should not meet Esau; and having done all that his +circumstances permit, he commends himself to God in prayer. + +After Jacob had prayed to God, a happy thought strikes him, which he at +once puts in execution. Anticipating the experience of Solomon, that "a +brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city," he, in the +style of a skilled tactician, lays siege to Esau's wrath, and directs +against it train after train of gifts, which, like successive battalions +pouring into a breach, might at length quite win his brother. This +disposition of his peaceful battering trains having occupied him till +sunset, he retires to the short rest of a general on the eve of battle. +As soon as he judges that the weaker members of the camp are refreshed +enough to begin their eventful march, he rises and goes from tent to +tent awaking the sleepers, and quickly forming them into their usual +line of march, sends them over the brook in the darkness, and himself is +left alone, not with the depression of a man who waits for the +inevitable, but with the high spirits of intense activity, and with the +return of the old complacent confidence of his own superiority to his +powerful but sluggish-minded brother--a confidence regained now by the +certainty he felt, at least for the time, that Esau's rage could not +blaze through all the relays of gifts he had sent forward. Having in +this spirit seen all his camp across the brook, he himself pauses for a +moment, and looks with interest at the stream before him, and at the +promised land on its southern bank. This stream, too, has an interest +for him as bearing a name like his own--a name that signifies the +"struggler," and was given to the mountain torrent from the pain and +difficulty with which it seemed to find its way through the hills. +Sitting on the bank of the stream, he sees gleaming through the darkness +the foam that it churned as it writhed through the obstructing rocks, or +heard through the night the roar of its torrent as it leapt downwards, +tortuously finding its way towards Jordan; and Jacob says, So will I, +opposed though I be, win my way, by the circuitous routes of craft or by +the impetuous rush of courage, into the land whither that stream is +going. With compressed lips, and step as firm as when, twenty years +before, he left the land, he rises to cross the brook and enter the +land--he rises, and is seized in a grasp that he at once owns as +formidable. But surely this silent close, as of two combatants who at +once recognise one another's strength, this protracted strife, does not +look like the act of a depressed man, but of one whose energies have +been strung to the highest pitch, and who would have borne down the +champion of Esau's host had he at that hour opposed his entrance into +the land which Jacob claimed as his own, and into which, as his glove, +pledging himself to follow, he had thrown all that was dear to him in +the world. It was no common wrestler that would have been safe to meet +him in that mood. + +Why, then, was Jacob thus mysteriously held back while his household +were quietly moving forward in the darkness? What is the meaning, +purpose, and use of this opposition to his entrance? These are obvious +from the state of mind Jacob was in. He was going forward to meet Esau +under the impression that there was no other reason why he should not +inherit the land but only his wrath, and pretty confident that by his +superior talent, his mother-wit, he could make a tool of this stupid, +generous brother of his. And the danger was, that if Jacob's device had +succeeded, he would have been confirmed in these impressions, and have +believed that he had won the land from Esau, with God's help certainly, +but still by his own indomitable pertinacity of purpose and skill in +dealing with men. Now, this was not the state of the case at all. Jacob +had, by his own deceit, become an exile from the land, had been, in +fact, banished for fraud; and though God had confirmed to him the +covenant, and promised to him the land, yet Jacob had apparently never +come to any such thorough sense of his sin and entire incompetency to +win the birthright for himself, as would have made it _possible_ for him +to receive simply as God's gift this land which as God's gift was alone +valuable. Jacob does not yet seem to have taken up the difference +between inheriting a thing as God's gift, and inheriting it as the meed +of his own prowess. To such a man God cannot _give_ the land; Jacob +cannot receive it. He is thinking only of winning it, which is not at +all what God means, and which would, in fact, have annulled all the +covenant, and lowered Jacob and his people to the level simply of other +nations who had to win and keep their territories at their risk, and not +as the blessed of God. If Jacob then is to get the land, he must take it +as a gift, which he is not prepared to do. During the last twenty years +he has got many a lesson which might have taught him to distrust his own +management, and he had, to a certain extent, acknowledged God; but his +Jacob-nature, his subtle, scheming nature, was not so easily made to +stand erect, and still he is for wriggling himself into the promised +land. He is coming back to the land under the impression that God needs +to be managed, that even though we have His promises it requires +dexterity to get them fulfilled, that a man will get into the +inheritance all the readier for knowing what to veil from God and what +to exhibit, when to cleave to His word with great profession of most +humble and absolute reliance on Him, and when to take matters into one's +own hand. Jacob, in short, was about to enter the land as Jacob, the +supplanter, and that would never do; he was going to win the land from +Esau by guile, or as he might; and not to receive it from God. And, +therefore, just as he is going to step into it, there lays hold of him, +not an armed emissary of his brother, but a far more formidable +antagonist--if Jacob will win the land, if it is to be a mere trial of +skill, a wrestling match, it must at least be with the right person. +Jacob is met with his own weapons. He has not chosen war, so no armed +opposition is made; but with the naked force of his own nature, he is +prepared for any man who will hold the land against him; with such +tenacity, toughness, quick presence of mind, elasticity, as nature has +given him, he is confident he can win and hold his own. So the real +proprietor of the land strips himself for the contest, and lets him +feel, by the first hold he takes of him, that if the question be one of +mere strength he shall never enter the land. + +This wrestling therefore was by no means actually or symbolically +prayer. Jacob was not aggressive, nor did he stay behind his company to +spend the night in praying for them. It was God who came and laid hold +on Jacob to prevent him from entering the land in the temper he was in, +and as Jacob. He was to be taught that it was not only Esau's appeased +wrath, or his own skilful smoothing down of his brother's ruffled +temper, that gave him entrance; but that a nameless Being, Who came out +upon him from the darkness, guarded the land, and that by His passport +only could he find entrance. And henceforth, as to every reader of this +history so much more to Jacob's self, the meeting with Esau and the +overcoming of his opposition were quite secondary to and eclipsed by his +meeting and prevailing with this unknown combatant. + +This struggle had, therefore, immense significance for the history of +Jacob. It is, in fact, a concrete representation of the attitude he had +maintained towards God throughout his previous history; and it +constitutes the turning point at which he assumes a new and satisfactory +attitude. Year after year Jacob had still retained confidence in +himself; he had never been thoroughly humbled, but had always felt +himself able to regain the land he had lost by his sin. And in this +struggle he shows this same determination and self-confidence. He +wrestles on indomitably. As Kurtz, whom I follow in his interpretation +of this incident, says, "All along Jacob's life had been the struggle of +a clever and strong, a pertinacious and enduring, a self-confident and +self-sufficient person, who was sure of the result only when he helped +himself--a contest with God, who wished to break his strength and +wisdom, in order to bestow upon him real strength in divine weakness, +and real wisdom in divine folly." All this self-confidence culminates +now, and in one final and sensible struggle, his Jacob-nature, his +natural propensity to wrest what he desires and win what he aims at, +from the most unwilling opponent, does its very utmost and does it in +vain. His steady straining, his dexterous feints, his quick gusts of +vehement assault, make no impression on this combatant and move him not +one foot off his ground. Time after time his crafty nature puts out all +its various resources, now letting his grasp relax and feigning defeat, +and then with gathered strength hurling himself on the stranger, but all +in vain. What Jacob had often surmised during the last twenty years, +what had flashed through him like a sudden gleam of light when he found +himself married to Leah, that he was in the hands of one against whom it +is quite useless to struggle, he now again begins to suspect. And as the +first faint dawn appears, and he begins dimly to make out the face, the +quiet breathing of which he had felt on his own during the contest, the +man with whom he wrestles touches the strongest sinew in Jacob's body, +and the muscle on which the wrestler most depends shrivels at the touch +and reveals to the falling Jacob how utterly futile had been all his +skill and obstinacy, and how quickly the stranger might have thrown and +mastered him. + +All in a moment, as he falls, Jacob sees how it is with him, and Who it +is that has met him thus. As the hard, stiff, corded muscle shrivelled, +so shrivelled his obdurate, persistent self-confidence. And as he is +thrown, yet cleaves with the natural tenacity of a wrestler to his +conqueror; so, utterly humbled before this Mighty One whom now he +recognises and owns, he yet cleaves to Him and entreats His blessing. It +is at this touch, which discovers the Almighty power of Him with whom he +has been contending, that the whole nature of Jacob goes down before +God. He sees how foolish and vain has been his obstinate persistence in +striving to trick God out of His blessing, or wrest it from Him, and now +he owns his utter incapacity to advance one step in this way, he admits +to himself that he is stopped, weakened in the way, thrown on his back, +and can effect nothing, simply nothing, by what he thought would effect +all; and, therefore, he passes from wrestling to praying, and with +tears, as Hosea says, sobs out from the broken heart of the strong man, +"I will not let thee go except thou bless me." In making this transition +from the boldness and persistence of self-confidence to the boldness of +faith and humility, Jacob becomes Israel--the supplanter, being baffled +by his conqueror, rises a Prince. Disarmed of all other weapons, he at +last finds and uses the weapons wherewith God is conquered, and with the +simplicity and guilelessness now of an Israelite indeed, face to face +with God, hanging helpless with his arms around Him, he supplicates the +blessing he could not win. + +Thus, as Abraham had to become God's heir in the simplicity of humble +dependence on God; as Isaac had to lay himself on God's altar with +absolute resignation, and so become the heir of God, so Jacob enters on +the inheritance through the most thorough humbling. Abraham had to give +up all possessions and live on God's promise; Isaac had to give up life +itself; Jacob had to yield his very self, and abandon all dependence on +his own ability. The new name he receives signalizes and interprets this +crisis in his life. He enters his land not as Jacob, but as Israel. The +man who crossed the Jabbok was not the same as he who had cheated Esau +and outwitted Laban and determinedly striven this morning with the +angel. He was Israel, God's prince, entering on the land freely bestowed +on him by an authority none could resist; a man who had learned that in +order to receive from God, one must ask. + +Very significant to Jacob in his after life must have been the lameness +consequent on this night's struggle. He, the wrestler, had to go halting +all his days. He who had carried all his weapons in his own person, in +his intelligent watchful eye and tough right arm, he who had felt +sufficient for all emergencies and a match for all men, had now to limp +along as one who had been worsted and baffled and could not hide his +shame from men. So it sometimes happens that a man never recovers the +severe handling he has received at some turning point in his life. Often +there is never again the same elastic step, the same free and confident +bearing, the same apparent power, the same appearance to our fellow-men +of completeness in our life; but, instead of this, there is a humble +decision which, if it does not walk with so free a gait, yet knows +better what ground it is treading and by what right. To the end some men +bear the marks of the heavy stroke by which God first humbled them. It +came in a sudden shock that broke their health, or in a disappointment +which nothing now given can ever quite obliterate the trace of, or in +circumstances painfully and permanently altered. And the man has to say +with Jacob, I shall never now be what I might have been; I was resolved +to have my own way, and though God in His mercy did not suffer me to +destroy myself, yet to drive me from my purpose He was forced to use a +violence, under the effects of which I go halting all my days, saved and +whole, yet maimed to the end of time. I am not ashamed of the mark, at +least when I think of it as God's signature I am able to glory in it, +but it never fails to remind me of a perverse wilfulness I am ashamed +of. With many men God is forced to such treatment; if any of us are +under it, God forbid we should mistake its meaning and lie prostrate and +despairing in the darkness instead of clinging to Him Who has smitten +and will heal us. + +For the treatment which Jacob received at Peniel must not be set aside +as singular or exceptional. Sometimes God interposes between us and a +greatly-desired possession which we have been counting upon as our right +and as the fair and natural consequence of our past efforts and ways. +The expectation of this possession has indeed determined our movements +and shaped our life for some time past, and it would not only be +assigned to us by men as fairly ours, but God also has Himself seemed to +encourage us to win it. Yet when it is now within sight, and when we are +rising to pass the little stream which seems alone to separate us from +it, we are arrested by a strong, an irresistible hand. The reason is, +that God wishes us to be in such a state of mind that we shall receive +it as His gift, so that it becomes ours by an indefeasible title. + +Similarly, when advancing to a spiritual possession, such checks are not +without their use. Many men look with longing to what is eternal and +spiritual, and they resolve to win this inheritance. And this resolve +they often make as if its accomplishment depended solely on their own +endurance. They leave almost wholly out of account that the possibility +of their entering the state they long for is not decided by their +readiness to pass through any ordeal, spiritual or physical, which may +be required of them, but by God's willingness to give it. They act as if +by taking advantage of God's promises, and by passing through certain +states of mind and prescribed duties, they could, irrespective of God's +present attitude towards them and constant love, win eternal happiness. +In the life of such persons there must therefore come a time when their +own spiritual energy seems all to collapse in that painful, utter way +in which, when the body is exhausted, the muscles are suddenly found to +be cramped and heavy and no longer responsive to the will. They are made +to feel that a spiritual dislocation has taken place, and that their +eagerness to enter life everlasting no longer stirs the active energies +of the soul. + +In that hour the man learns the most valuable truth he can learn, that +it is God Who is wishing to save him, not he who must wrest a blessing +from an unwilling God. Instead of any longer looking on himself as +against the world, he takes his place as one who has the whole energy of +God's will at his back, to give him rightful entrance into all +blessedness. So long as Jacob was in doubt whether it was not some kind +of man that was opposing him, he wrestled on; and our foolish ways of +dealing with God terminate, when we recognise that He is not such an one +as ourselves. We naturally act as if God had some pleasure in thwarting +us--as if we could, and even ought to, maintain a kind of contest with +God. We deal with Him as if He were opposed to our best purposes and +grudged to advance us in all good, and as if He needed to be propitiated +by penitence and cajoled by forced feelings and sanctimonious demeanour. +We act as if we could make more way were God not in our way, as if our +best prospects began in our own conception and we had to win God over to +our views. If God is unwilling, then there is an end: no device nor +force will get us past Him. If He is willing, why all this unworthy +dealing with Him, as if the whole idea and accomplishment of salvation +did not proceed from Him? + + + + +XXIV. + +_JACOB'S RETURN._ + +GENESIS xxxv. + + "As for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of + Canaan in the way."--GEN. xlviii. 7. + + +The words of the Wrestler at the brook Jabbok, "Let me go, for the day +breaketh," express the truth that spiritual things will not submit +themselves to sensible tests. When we seek to let the full daylight, by +which we discern other objects, stream upon them, they elude our grasp. +When we fancy we are on the verge of having our doubts for ever +scattered, and our suppositions changed into certainties, the very +approach of clear knowledge and demonstration seems to drive those +sensitive spiritual presences into darkness. As Pascal remarked, and +remarked as the mouth-piece of all souls that have earnestly sought for +God, the world only gives us indications of the presence of a God Who +conceals Himself. It is, indeed, one of the most mysterious +characteristics of our life in this world, that the great Existence +which originates and embraces all other Beings, should Himself be so +silent and concealed: that there should be need of subtle arguments to +prove His existence, and that no argument ever conceived has been found +sufficiently cogent to convince all men. One is always tempted to say, +how easy to end all doubt, how easy for God so to reveal Himself as to +make unbelief impossible, and give to all men the glad consciousness +that they have a God. + +The reason of this "reserve" of God must lie in the nature of things. +The greatest forces in nature are silent and unobtrusive and +incomprehensible. Without the law of gravitation the universe would rush +into ruin, but who has ever seen this force? Its effects are everywhere +visible, but itself is shrouded in darkness and cannot be comprehended. +So much more must the Infinite Spirit remain unseen and baffling all +comprehension. "No man hath seen God at any time" must ever remain true. +To ask for God's name, therefore, as Jacob did, is a mistake. For almost +every one supposes that when he knows the name of a thing, he knows also +its nature. The giving of a name, therefore, tends to discourage +enquiry, and to beget an unfounded satisfaction as if, when we know what +a thing is called, we know what it is. The craving, therefore, which we +all feel in common with Jacob--to have all mystery swept from between us +and God, and to see Him face to face, so that we may know Him as we know +our friends--is a craving which cannot be satisfied. You cannot ever +know God as He is. Your mind cannot comprehend a Being who is pure +Spirit, inhabiting no body, present with you here but present also +hundreds of millions of miles away, related to time and to space and to +matter in ways utterly impossible for you to comprehend. + +What is possible, God has done. He has made Himself known in Christ. We +are assured, on testimony that stands every kind of test, that in Him, +if nowhere else, we find God. And yet even by Christ this same law of +reserve if not concealment was observed. Not only did He forbid men and +devils to proclaim who He was, but when men, weary of their own doubts +and debatings, impatiently challenged him, "If thou be the Christ tell +us plainly," He declined to do so. For really men must grow to the +knowledge of Him. Even a human face cannot be known by once or twice +seeing it; the practised artist often misses the expression best loved +by the intimate friend, or by the relative whose own nature interprets +to him the face in which he sees himself reflected. Much more can the +child of God only attain to the knowledge of his Father's face by first +of all _being_ a child of God, and then by gradually growing up into His +likeness. + +But though God's operation is in darkness the results of it are in the +light. "As Jacob passed over Peniel, the _sun rose_ upon him, and he +halted upon his thigh." As Jacob's company halted when they missed him, +and as many anxious eyes were turned back into the darkness, they were +unable still to see him; and even when the darkness began to scatter, +and they saw dimly and far off a human figure, the sharpest eyes among +them declare it cannot be Jacob, for the gait and walk, which alone they +can judge by at that distance and in that light, are not his. But when +at last the first ray of sunlight streams on him from over the hills of +Gilead, all doubt is at an end; it _is_ Jacob, but halting on his thigh. +And he himself finds it is not a strain which the walking of a few paces +will ease, nor a night cramp which will pass off, nor a mere dream which +would vanish in broad day, but a real permanent lameness which he must +explain to his company. Has he missed a step on the bank in the +darkness, or stumbled or slipped on the slippery stones of the ford? It +is a far more real thing to him than any such accident. So, however +others may discredit the results of a work on the soul which they have +not seen--however they may say of the first and most obvious results, +"This is but a sickness of soul which the rising sun will dispel; a +feigned peculiarity of walk which will be forgotten in the bustle of the +day's work"--it is not so, but every contact with real life makes it +more obvious that when God touches a man the result is real. And as +Jacob's household and children in all generations counted that sinew +which shrank sacred, and would not eat of it, so surely should we be +reverential towards God's work in the soul of our neighbour, and respect +even those peculiarities which are often the most obvious first-fruits +of conversion, and which make it difficult for us to walk in the same +comfort with these persons, and keep step with them as easily as once we +did. A reluctance to live like other good people, an inability to share +their innocent amusements, a distaste for the very duties of this life, +a harsh or reserved bearing towards unconverted persons, an awkwardness +in speaking of their religious experience, as well as an awkwardness in +applying it to the ordinary circumstances of their life,--these and many +other of the results of God's work on the soul should not be rudely +dealt with, but respected; for though not in themselves either seemly or +beneficial, they are evidence of God's touch. + +After this contest with the angel, the meeting of Jacob with Esau has no +separate significance. Jacob succeeds with his brother because already +he has prevailed with God. He is on a satisfactory footing now with the +Sovereign who alone can bestow the land and judge betwixt him and his +brother. Jacob can no longer suppose that the chief obstacle to his +advance is the resentment of Esau. He has felt and submitted to a +stronger hand than Esau's. Such schooling we all need; and get, if we +will take it. Like Jacob, we have to make our way to our end through +numberless human interferences and worldly obstacles. Some of these we +have to flee from, as Jacob from Laban; others we must meet and +overcome, as our Esaus. Our own sin or mistake has put us under the +power of some whose influence is disastrous; others, though we are not +under their power at all, yet, consciously or unconsciously to +themselves, continually cross our path and thwart us, keep us back and +prevent us from effecting what we desire, and from shaping things about +us according to our own ideas. And there will, from time to time, be +present to our minds obvious ways in which we could defeat the +opposition of these persons, and by which we fancy we could triumph over +them. And what we are here taught is, that we need look for no triumph, +and it is a pity for us if we win a triumph over any human opposition, +however purely secular and unchristian, without first having prevailed +with God in the matter. He comes in between us and all men and things, +and, laying His hand on us, arrests us from further progress till we +have to the very bottom and in every part adjusted the affair with +Him--and then, standing right with Him, we can very easily, or at least +we _can_, get right with all things. And it should be a suggestive and +fruitful thought to the most of us that, in all cases in which we sin +against our brother, God presents Himself as the champion of the wronged +party. One day or other we must meet not the strongest putting of all +those cases in which we have erred as the offended party could himself +put them, but we must meet them as put by the Eternal Advocate of +justice and right, who saw our spirit, our merely selfish calculating, +our base motive, our impure desire, our unrighteous deed. Gladly would +Jacob have met the mightiest of Esau's host in place of this invincible +opponent, and it is this same Mighty One, this same watchful guardian of +right Who threw Himself in Jacob's way, Who has His eye on us, Who has +tracked us through all our years, and Who will certainly one time appear +in our path as the champion of every one we have wronged, of every one +whose soul we have put in jeopardy, of every one to whom we have not +done what God intended we should do, of every one whom we have attempted +merely to make use of; and in stating their case and showing us what +justice and duty would have required of us, He will make us feel, what +we cannot feel till He Himself convinces us, that, in all our dealings +with men, wherein we have wronged them we have wronged Him. + +The narrative now prepares to leave Jacob and make room for Joseph. It +brings him back to Bethel, thereby completing the history of his triumph +over the difficulties with which his life had been so thickly studded. +The interest and much of the significance of a man's life come to an end +when position and success are achieved. The remaining notices of Jacob's +experience are of a sorrowful kind; he lives under a cloud until at the +close the sun shines out again. We have seen him in his youth making +experiments in life; in his prime founding a family and winning his way +by slow and painful steps to his own place in the world; and now he +enters on the last stage of his life, a stage in which signs of breaking +up appear almost as soon as he attains his aim and place in life. + +After all that had happened to Jacob, we should have expected him to +make for Bethel as rapidly as his unwieldy company could be moved +forwards. But the pastures that had charmed the eye of his grandfather +captivated Jacob as well. He bought land at Shechem, and appeared +willing to settle there. The vows which he had uttered with such fervour +when his future was precarious are apparently quite forgotten, or more +probably neglected, now that danger seems past. To go to Bethel involved +the abandonment of admirable pastures, and the introduction of new +religious views and habits into his family life. A man who has large +possessions, difficult and precarious relations to sustain with the +world, and a household unmanageable from its size, and from the variety +of dispositions included in it, requires great independence and +determination to carry out domestic reform on religious grounds. Even a +slight change in our habits is often delayed because we are shy of +exposing to observation fresh and deep convictions on religious +subjects. Besides, we forget our fears and our vows when the time of +hardship passes away; and that which, as young men, we considered almost +hopeless, we at length accept as our right, and omit all remembrance and +gratitude. A spiritual experience that is separated from your present by +twenty years of active life, by a foreign residence, by marriage, by the +growing up of a family around you, by other and fresher spiritual +experiences, is apt to be very indistinctly remembered. The obligations +you then felt and owned have been overlaid and buried in the lapse of +years. And so it comes that a low tone is introduced into your life, and +your homes cease to be model homes. + +Out of this condition Jacob was roughly awakened. Sinning by +unfaithfulness and softness towards his family, he is, according to the +usual law, punished by family disaster of the most painful kind. The +conduct of Simeon and Levi was apparently due quite as much to family +pride and religious fanaticism as to brotherly love or any high moral +view. In them first we see how the true religion, when held by coarse +and ungodly men, becomes the root of all evil. We see the first instance +of that fanaticism which so often made the Jews a curse rather than a +blessing to other nations. Indeed, it is but an instance of the +injustice, cruelty, and violence that at all times result where men +suppose that they themselves are raised to quite peculiar privileges and +to a position superior to their fellows, without recognising also that +this position is held by the grace of a holy God and for the good of +their fellows. + +Jacob is now compelled to make a virtue of necessity. He flees to Bethel +to escape the vengeance of the Shechemites. To such serious calamities +do men expose themselves by arguing with conscience and by refusing to +live up to their engagements. How can men be saved from living merely +for sheep-feeding and cattle-breeding and trade and enjoyment? how can +they be saved from gradually expelling from their character all +principle and all high sentiment that conflicts with immediate advantage +and present pleasure, save by such irresistible blows as here compelled +Jacob to shift his camp? He has spiritual perception enough left to see +what is meant. The order is at once issued: "Put away the strange gods +that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments: and let us +arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who +answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which +I went." Thus frankly does he acknowledge his error, and repair, so far +as he can, the evil he has done. Thus decidedly does he press God's +command on those whom he had hitherto encouraged or connived at. Even +from his favourite Rachel he takes her gods and buries them. The fierce +Simeon and Levi, proud of the blood with which they had washed out their +sister's stain, are ordered to cleanse their garments and show some +seemly sorrow, if they can. + +If years go by without any such incident occurring in our life as drives +us to a recognition of our moral laxity and deterioration, and to a +frank and humble return to a closer walk with God, we had need to strive +to awaken ourselves and ascertain whether we are living up to old vows +and are really animated by thoroughly worthy motives. It was when Jacob +came back to the very spot where he had lain on the open hill-side, and +pointed out to his wives and children the stone he had set up to mark +the spot, that he felt humbled as he cast his eye over the flocks and +tents he now owned. And if you can, like Jacob, go back to spots in your +life which were very woful and perplexed, years even when all continued +dreary, dark, and hopeless, when friendlessness and poverty, bereavement +or disease, laid their chilling, crushing hands upon you, times when you +could not see what possible good there was for you in the world; and if +now all this is solved, and your condition is in the most striking +contrast to what you can remember, it becomes you to make acknowledgment +to God such as you may have made to your friends, such acknowledgment as +makes it plain that you are touched by His kindness. The acknowledgment +Jacob made was sensible and honest. He put away the gods which had +divided the worship of his family. In our life there is probably that +which constantly tends to usurp an undue place in our regard; something +which gives us more pleasure than the thought of God, or from which we +really expect a more palpable benefit than we expect from God, and +which, therefore, we cultivate with far greater assiduity. How easily, +if we really wish to be on a clear footing with God, can we discover +what things should be cast revengefully from us, buried and stamped upon +and numbered with the things of the past. Are there not in your life any +objects for the sake of which you sacrifice that nearness to God, and +that sure hold of Him you once enjoyed? Are you not conscious of any +pursuits, or hopes, or pleasures, or employments which practically have +the effect of making you indifferent to spiritual advancement, and which +make you shy of Bethel--shy of all that sets clear before you your +indebtedness to God, and your own past vows and resolves? + +"But," continues the narrative, "_but_ Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died;" +that is, although Jacob and his house were now living in the fear of +God, that did not exempt them from the ordinary distresses of family +life. And among these, one that falls on us with a chastening and mild +sadness all its own, occurs when there passes from the family one of its +oldest members, and one who has by the delicate tact of love gained +influence over all, and has by the common consent become the arbiter and +mediator, the confidant and counsellor of the family. They, indeed, are +the true salt of the earth whose own peace is so deep and abiding, and +whose purity is so thorough and energetic, that into their ear we can +disburden the troubled heart or the guilty conscience, as the wildest +brook disturbs not and the most polluted fouls not the settled depths +of the all-cleansing ocean. Such must Deborah have been, for the oak +under which she was buried was afterwards known as "the oak of weeping." +Specially must Jacob himself have mourned the death of her whose face +was the oldest in his remembrance, and with whom his mother and his +happy early days were associated. Very dear to Jacob, as to most men, +were those who had been connected with and could tell him of his +parents, and remind him of his early years. Deborah, by treating him +still as a little boy, perhaps the only one who now called him by the +pet name of childhood, gave him the pleasantest relief from the cares of +manhood and the obsequious deportment of the other members of his +household towards him. So that when she went a great blank was made to +him: no longer was the wise and happy old face seen in her tent door to +greet him of an evening; no longer could he take refuge in the +peacefulness of her old age from the troubles of his lot: she being +gone, a whole generation was gone, and a new stage of life was entered +on. + +But a heavier blow, the heaviest that death could inflict, soon fell +upon him. She who had been as God's gift and smile to him since ever he +had left Bethel at the first is taken from him now that he is restored +to God's house. The number of his sons is completed, and the mother is +removed. Suddenly and unexpectedly the blow fell, as they were +journeying and fearing no ill. Notwithstanding the confident and +cheering, though ambiguous, assurances of those about her, she had that +clear knowledge of her own state which, without contradicting, simply +put aside such assurances, and, as her soul was departing, feebly named +her son Benoni, Son of my sorrow. She felt keenly what was, to a nature +like hers, the very anguish of disappointment. She was never to feel the +little creature stirring in her arms with personal human life, nor see +him growing up to manhood as the son of his father's right hand. It was +this sad death of Rachel's which made her the typical mother in Israel. +It was not an unclouded, merely prosperous life which could fitly have +foreshadowed the lives of those by whom the promised seed was to come; +and least of all of the virgin to whom it was said, "A sword shall +pierce through thine own soul also." It was the wail of Rachel that +poetical minds among the Jews heard from time to time mourning their +national disasters--"Rachel weeping" for her children, when by captivity +they were separated from their mother country, or when, by the sword of +Herod, the mothers of Bethlehem were bereaved of their babes. But it was +also observed that that which brought this anguish on the mothers of +Bethlehem was the birth there of the last Son of Israel, the blossom of +this long-growing plant, suddenly born after a long and barren period, +the son of Israel's right hand. + +Still another death is registered in this chapter. It took place twelve +years after Joseph went into Egypt, but is set down here for +convenience. Esau and Jacob are, for the last time, brought together +over their dead father--and for the last time, as they see that family +likeness which comes out so strikingly in the face of the dead, do they +feel drawn with brotherly affection to greet one another as sons of one +father. In the dead Isaac, too, they find an object of veneration more +impressive than they had found in the living father: the infirmities of +age are exchanged for the mystery and majesty of death; the man has +passed out of reach of pity, of contempt; the shrill, uncontrolled +treble is no longer heard, there are no weak, plaintive movements, no +childishness; but a solemn, august silence, a silence that seems to bid +on-lookers be still and refrain from disturbing the first communings of +the departed spirit with things unseen. + +The tenderness of these two brothers towards one another and towards +their father was probably quickened by remorse when they met at his +deathbed. They could not, perhaps, think that they had hastened his end +by causing him anxieties which age has not strength to throw off; but +they could not miss the reflection that the life now closed and finally +sealed up might have been a much brighter life had they acted the part +of dutiful, loving sons. Scarcely can one of our number pass from among +us without leaving in our minds some self-reproach that we were not more +kindly towards him, and that now he is beyond our kindness; that our +opportunity for being brotherly towards _him_ is for ever gone. And when +we have very manifestly erred in this respect, perhaps there are among +all the stings of a guilty conscience few more bitterly piercing than +this. Many a son who has stood unmoved by the tears of a living +mother--his mother by whom he lives, who has cherished him as her own +soul, who has forgiven and forgiven and forgiven him, who has toiled and +prayed, and watched for him--though he has hardened himself against her +looks of imploring love and turned carelessly from her entreaties and +burst through all the fond cords and snares by which she has sought to +keep him, has yet broken down before the calm, unsolicitous, resting +face of the dead. Hitherto he has not listened to her pleadings, and now +she pleads no more. Hitherto she has heard no word of pure love from +him, and now she hears no more. Hitherto he has done nothing for her of +all that a son may do, and now there is nothing he can do. All the +goodness of her life gathers up and stands out at once, and the time for +gratitude is past. He sees suddenly, as by the withdrawal of a veil, all +that that worn body has passed through for him, and all the goodness +these features have expressed, and now they can never light up with +joyful acceptance of his love and duty. Such grief as this finds its one +alleviation in the knowledge that we may follow those who have gone +before us; that we may yet make reparation. And when we think how many +we have let pass without those frank, human, kindly offices we might +have rendered, the knowledge that we also shall be gathered to our +people comes in as very cheering. It is a grateful thought that there is +a place where we shall be able to live rightly, where selfishness will +not intrude and spoil all, but will leave us free to be to our neighbour +all that we ought to be and all that we would be. + + + + +XXV. + +_JOSEPH'S DREAMS._ + +GENESIS xxxvii. + + "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee."--PSALM lxxvi. 10. + + +The migration of Israel from Canaan to Egypt was a step of prime +importance in the history. Great difficulties surrounded it, and very +extraordinary means were used to bring it about. The preparatory steps +occupied about twenty years, and nearly a fourth of the Book of Genesis +is devoted to this period. This migration was a new idea. So little was +it the result of an accidental dearth, or of any of those unforeseen +calamities which cause families to emigrate from our own country, that +God had forewarned Abraham himself that it must be. But only when it was +becoming matter of actual experience and of history did God make known +the precise object to be accomplished by it. This He makes known to +Jacob as he passes from Canaan; and as, in abandoning the land he had so +painfully won, his heart sinks, he is sustained by the assurance, "Fear +not to go down into Egypt; I will there make thee a great nation." + +The meaning of the step and the suitableness of the time and of the +place to which Israel migrated, are apparent. For more than two hundred +years now had Abraham and his descendants been wandering as pilgrims, +and as yet there were no signs of God's promise being kept to them. That +promise had been of a land and of a seed. Great fecundity had been +promised to the race; but instead of that there had been a remarkable +and perplexing barrenness, so that after two centuries one tent could +contain the whole male population. In Jacob's time the population began +to increase, but just in proportion as this part of the promise showed +signs of fulfilment did the other part seem precarious. For, in +proportion to their increase, the family became hostile to the +Canaanites, and how should they ever get past that critical point in +their history at which they would be strong enough to excite the +suspicion, jealousy, and hatred of the indigenous tribes, and yet not +strong enough to defend themselves against this enmity? Their presence +was tolerated, just as our countrymen tolerated the presence of French +refugees, on the score of their impotence to do harm. They were placed +in a quite anomalous position; a single family who had continued for two +hundred years in a land which they could only seem in jest to call +theirs, dwelling as guests amid the natives, maintaining peculiar forms +of worship and customs. Collision with the inhabitants seemed +unavoidable as soon as their real character and pretensions oozed out, +and as soon as it seemed at all likely that they really proposed to +become owners and masters in the land. And, in case of such collision, +what could be the result, but that which has ever followed where a few +score men, brave enough to be cut down where they stood, have been +exposed to mass after mass of fierce and blood-thirsty barbarians? A +small number of men have often made good their entrance into lands where +the inhabitants greatly outnumbered them, but these have commonly been +highly disciplined troops, as in the case of the handful of Spaniards +who seized Mexico and Peru; or they have been backed by a power which +could aid with vast resources, as when the Romans held this country, or +when the English lad in India left his pen on his desk and headed his +few resolute countrymen, and held his own against unnumbered millions. +It may be argued that if even Abraham with his own household swept +Canaan clear of invaders, it might now have been possible for his +grandson to do as much with increased means at his disposal. But, not to +mention that every man has not the native genius for command and +military enterprise which Abraham had, it must be taken into account +that a force which is quite sufficient for a marauding expedition or a +night attack, is inadequate for the exigencies of a campaign of several +years' duration. The war which Jacob must have waged, had hostilities +been opened, must have been a war of extermination, and such a war must +have desolated the house of Israel if victorious, and, more probably by +far, would have quite annihilated it. + +It is to obviate these dangers, and to secure that Israel grow without +let or hindrance, that Jacob's household is removed to a land where +protection and seclusion would at once be secured to them. In the land +of Goshen, secured from molestation partly by the influence of Joseph, +but much more by the caste-prejudices of the Egyptians, and their hatred +of all foreigners, and shepherds in particular, they enjoyed such +prosperity and attained so rapidly the magnitude of a nation that some, +forgetful alike of the promise of God and of the natural advantages of +Israel's position, have refused to credit the accounts given us of the +increase in their population. In a land so roomy, so fertile, and so +secluded as that in which they were now settled, they had every +advantage for making the transition from a family to a nation. Here they +were preserved from all temptation to mingle with neighbours of a +different race, and so lose their special place as a people called out +by God to stand alone. The Egyptians would have scorned the marriages +which the Canaanites passionately solicited. Here the very contempt in +which they were held proved to be their most valuable bulwark. And if +Christians have any of the wisdom of the serpent, they will often find +in the contempt or exclusiveness of worldly men a convenient barrier, +preventing them, indeed, from enjoying some privileges, but at the same +time enabling them, without molestation, to pursue their own way. I +believe young people especially feel put about by the deprivations which +they have to suffer in order to save their religious scruples; they are +shut off from what their friends and associates enjoy, and they perceive +that they are not so well liked as they would be had they less desire to +live by conscience and by God's will. They feel ostracized, banished, +frowned upon, laid under disabilities; but all this has its +compensations: it forms for them a kind of Goshen where they may worship +and increase, it runs a fence around them which keeps them apart from +much that tempts and from much that enfeebles. + +The residence of Israel in Egypt served another important purpose. By +contact with the most civilised people of antiquity they emerged from +the semi-barbarous condition in which they had previously been living. +Going into Egypt mere shepherds, as Jacob somewhat plaintively and +deprecatingly says to Pharaoh; not even possessed, so far as we know, of +the fundamental arts on which civilisation rests, unable to record in +writing the revelations God made, or to read them if recorded; having +the most rudimentary ideas of law and justice, and having nothing to +keep them together and give them form and strength, save the one idea +that God meant to confer on them great distinction; they were +transferred into a land where government had been so long established +and law had come to be so thoroughly administered that life and property +were as safe as among ourselves to-day, where science had made such +advances that even the weather-beaten and time-stained relics of it seem +to point to regions into which even the bold enterprise of modern +investigation has not penetrated, and where all the arts needful for +life were in familiar use, and even some practised which modern times +have as yet been unable to recover. To no better school could the +barbarous sons of Bilhah and Zilpah have been sent; to no more fitting +discipline could the lawless spirits of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi have +been subjected. In Egypt, where human life was sacred, where truth was +worshipped as a deity, and where law was invested with the sanctity +which belonged to what was supposed to have descended from heaven, they +were brought under influences similar to those which ancient Rome +exerted over conquered races. + +The unwitting pioneer of this great movement was a man in all respects +fitted to initiate it happily. In Joseph we meet a type of character +rare in any race, and which, though occasionally reproduced in Jewish +history, we should certainly not have expected to meet with at so early +a period. For what chiefly strikes one in Joseph is a combination of +grace and power, which is commonly looked upon as the peculiar result +of civilising influences, knowledge of history, familiarity with foreign +races, and hereditary dignity. In David we find a similar flexibility +and grace of character, and a similar personal superiority. We find the +same bright and humorous disposition helping him to play the man in +adverse circumstances; but we miss in David Joseph's self-control and +incorruptible purity, as we also miss something of his capacity for +difficult affairs of state. In Daniel this latter capacity is abundantly +present, and a facility equal to Joseph's in dealing with foreigners, +and there is also a certain grace or nobility in the Jewish Vizier; but +Joseph had a surplus of power which enabled him to be cheerful and alert +in doleful circumstances, which Daniel would certainly have borne +manfully but probably in a sterner and more passive mood. Joseph, +indeed, seemed to inherit and happily combine the highest qualities of +his ancestors. He had Abraham's dignity and capacity, Isaac's purity and +power of self-devotion, Jacob's cleverness and buoyancy and tenacity. +From his mother's family he had personal beauty, humour, and management. + +A young man of such capabilities could not long remain insensible to his +own powers or indifferent to his own destiny. Indeed, the conduct of his +father and brothers towards him must have made him self-conscious, even +though he had been wholly innocent of introspection. The force of the +impression he produced on his family may be measured by the circumstance +that the princely dress given him by his father did not excite his +brothers' ridicule but their envy and hatred. In this dress there was a +manifest suitableness to his person, and this excited them to a keen +resentment of the distinction. So too they felt that his dreams were +not the mere whimsicalities of a lively fancy, but were possessed of a +verisimilitude which gave them importance. In short, the dress and the +dreams were insufferably exasperating to the brothers, because they +proclaimed and marked in a definite way the feeling of Joseph's +superiority which had already been vaguely rankling in their +consciousness. And it is creditable to Joseph that this superiority +should first have emerged in connection with a point of conduct. It was +in moral stature that the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah felt that they were +outgrown by the stripling whom they carried with them as their drudge. +Neither are we obliged to suppose that Joseph was a gratuitous +tale-bearer, or that when he carried their evil report to his father he +was actuated by a prudish, censorious, or in any way unworthy spirit. +That he very well knew how to hold his tongue no man ever gave more +adequate proof; but he that understands that there is a time to keep +silence necessarily sees also that there is a time to speak. And no one +can tell what torture that pure young soul may have endured in the +remote pastures, when left alone to withstand day after day the outrage +of these coarse and unscrupulous men. An elder brother, if he will, can +more effectually guard the innocence of a younger brother than any other +relative can, but he can also inflict a more exquisite torture. + +Joseph, then, could not but come to think of his future and of his +destiny in this family. That his father should make a pet of him rather +than of Benjamin, he would refer to the circumstance that he was the +oldest son of the wife of his choice, of her whom first he had loved, +and who had no rival while he lived. To so charming a companion as +Joseph must always have been, Jacob would naturally impart all the +traditions and hopes of the family. In him he found a sympathetic and +appreciative listener, who wiled him on to endless narrative, and whose +imaginativeness quickened his own hopes and made the future seem grander +and the world more wide. And what Jacob had to tell could fall into no +kindlier soil than the opening mind of Joseph. No hint was lost, every +promise was interpreted by some waiting aspiration. And thus, like every +youth of capacity, he came to have his day-dreams. These day-dreams, +though derided by those who cannot see the Cæsar in the careless +trifler, and though often awkward and even offensive in their +expression, are not always the mere discontented cravings of youthful +vanity, but are frequently instinctive gropings towards the position +which the nature is fitted to fill. "Our wishes," it has been said, "are +the forefeeling of our capabilities;" and certainly where there is any +special gift or genius in a man, the wish of his youth is predictive of +the attainment of manhood. Whims, no doubt, there are, passing phases +through which natural growth carries us, flutterings of the needle when +too near some powerful influence; yet amidst all variations the true +direction will be discernible and ultimately will be dominant. And it is +a great art to discover what we are fit for, so that we may settle down +to our own work, or patiently wait for our own place, without enviously +striving to rob every other man of his crown and so losing our own. It +is an art that saves us much fretting and disappointment and waste of +time, to understand early in life what it is we can accomplish, and what +precisely we mean to be at; "to recognise in our personal gifts or +station, in the circumstances and complications of our life, in our +relations to others, or to the world--the will of God teaching us what +we are, and for what we ought to live." How much of life often is gone +before its possessor sees the use he can put it to, and ceases to beat +the air! How much of life is an ill-considered but passionate striving +after what can never be attained, or a vain imitation of persons who +have quite different talents and opportunities from ourselves, and who +are therefore set to quite another work than ours. + +It was because Joseph's dreams embodied his waking ambition that they +were of importance. Dreams become significant when they are the +concentrated essence of the main stream of the waking thoughts, and +picturesquely exhibit the tendency of the character. "In a dream," says +Elihu, "in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in +slumberings upon the bed; then He openeth the ears of men, and sealeth +their instruction, that He may withdraw man from his purpose." This is +precisely the use of dreams: our tendencies, unbridled by reason and +fact, run on to results; the purposes which the business and other good +influences of the day have kept down act themselves out in our dreams, +and we see the character unimpeded by social checks, and as it would be +were it unmodified by the restraints and efforts and external +considerations of our conscious hours. Our vanity, our pride, our +malice, our impurity, our deceit, our every evil passion, has free play, +and shows us its finished result, and in so vivid and true though +caricatured a form that we are startled and withdrawn from our purpose. +The evil thought we have suffered to creep about our heart seems in our +dreams to become a deed, and we wake in horror and thank God we can yet +refrain. Thus the poor woman, who in utter destitution was beginning to +find her child a burden, dreamt she had drowned it, and woke in horror +at the fancied sound of the plunge--woke to clasp her little one to her +breast with the thrill of a grateful affection that never again gave +way. So that while no man is so foolish as to expect instruction from +every dream any more than from every thought that visits his waking +mind, yet every one who has been accumulating some knowledge of himself +is aware that he has drawn a large part of this from his unconscious +hours. As the naturalist would know but a small part of the animal +kingdom by studying the creatures that show themselves in the daylight, +so there are moles and bats of the spirit that exhibit themselves most +freely in the darkness; and there are jungles and waste places in the +character which, if you look on them only in the sunshine, may seem safe +and lovely, but which at night show themselves to be full of all +loathsome and savage beasts. + +With the simplicity of a guileless mind, and with the natural proneness +of members of one family to tell in the morning the dreams they have +had, Joseph tells to the rest what seems to himself interesting, if not +very suggestive. Possibly he thought very little of his dream till he +saw how much importance his brothers attached to it. Possibly there +might be discernible in his tone and look some mixture of youthful +arrogance. And in his relation of the second dream, there was +discernible at least a confidence that it would be realised, which was +peculiarly intolerable to his brothers, and to his father seemed a +dangerous symptom that called for rebuke. And yet "his father observed +the saying;" as a parent has sometimes occasion to check his child, and +yet, having done so, feels that that does not end the matter; that his +boy and he are in somewhat different spheres, so that while he was +certainly justified in punishing such and such a manifestation of his +character, there is yet something behind that he does not quite +understand, and for which possibly punishment may not be exactly the +suitable award. + +We fall into Jacob's mistake when we refuse to acknowledge as genuine +and God-inspired any religious experience which we ourselves have not +passed through, and which appears in a guise that is not only +unfamiliar, but that is in some particulars objectionable. Up to the +measure of our own religious experience, we recognise as genuine, and +sympathise with, the parallel experience of others; but when they rise +above us and get beyond us, we begin to speak of them as visionaries, +enthusiasts, dreamers. We content ourselves with pointing again and +again to the blots in their manner, and refuse to read the future +through the ideas they add to our knowledge. But the future necessarily +lies, not in the definite and finished attainment, but in the indefinite +and hazy and dream-like germs that have yet growth in them. The future +is not with Jacob, the rebuker, but with the dreaming, and, possibly, +somewhat offensive Joseph. It was certainly a new element Joseph +introduced into the experience of God's people. He saw, obscurely +indeed, but with sufficient clearness to make him thoughtful, that the +man whom God chooses and makes a blessing to others is so far advanced +above his fellows that they lean upon him and pay him homage as if he +were in the place of God to them. He saw that his higher powers were to +be used for his brethren, and that the high destiny he somehow felt to +be his was to be won by doing service so essential that his family +would bow before him and give themselves into his hand. He saw this, as +every man whose love keeps pace with his talent sees it, and he so far +anticipated the dignity of Him who, in the deepest self-sacrifice, +assumed a position and asserted claims which enraged His brethren and +made even His believing mother marvel. Joseph knew that the welfare of +his family rested not with the Esau-like good-nature of Reuben, still +less with the fanatical ferocity of Simeon and Levi, not with the +servile patience of Issachar, nor with the natural force and dignity of +Judah, but with some deeper qualities which, if he himself did not yet +possess, he at least valued and aspired to. + +Whatever Joseph thought of the path by which he was to reach the high +dignity which his dreams foreshadowed, he was soon to learn that the +path was neither easy nor short. Each man thinks that, for himself at +least, an exceptional path will be broken out, and that without +difficulties and humiliations he will inherit the kingdom. But it cannot +be so. And as the first step a lad takes towards the attainment of his +position often involves him in trouble and covers him with confusion, +and does so even although he ultimately finds that it was the only path +by which he could have reached his goal; so, that which was really the +first step towards Joseph's high destiny, no doubt seemed to him most +calamitous and fatal. It certainly did so to his brothers, who thought +that they were effectually and for ever putting an end to Joseph's +pretensions. "Behold, this dreamer cometh; come now therefore, and let +us slay him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams." They +were, however, so far turned from their purpose by Reuben as to put him +in a pit, meaning to leave him to die; and, doubtless, they thought +themselves lenient in doing so. The less violent the death inflicted, +the less of murder seems to be in it; so that he who slowly kills the +body by only wounding the affections often counts himself no murderer at +all, because he strikes no blood-shedding blow, and can deceive himself +into the idea that it is the working of his victim's own spirit that is +doing the damage. + +The tank into which Joseph's brethren cast him was apparently one of +those huge reservoirs excavated by shepherds in the East, that they may +have a supply of water for their flocks in the end of the dry season, +when the running waters fail them. Being so narrow at the mouth that +they can be covered by a single stone, they gradually widen and form a +large subterranean room; and the facility they thus afford for the +confinement of prisoners was from the first too obvious not to be +commonly taken advantage of. In such a place was Joseph left to die: +under the ground, sinking in mire, his flesh creeping at the touch of +unseen slimy creatures, in darkness, alone; that is to say, in a species +of confinement which tames the most reckless and maddens the best +balanced spirits, which shakes the nerve of the calmest, and has +sometimes left the blankness of idiocy in masculine understandings. A +few wild cries that ring painfully round his prison show him he need +expect no help from without; a few wild and desperate beatings round the +shelving walls of rock show him there is no possibility of escape; he +covers his face, or casts himself on the floor of his dungeon to escape +within himself, but only to find this also in vain, and to rise and +renew efforts he knows to be fruitless. Here, then, is what has come of +his fine dreams. With shame he now remembers the beaming confidence +with which he had related them; with bitterness he thinks of the bright +life above him, from which these few feet cut him so absolutely off, and +of the quick termination that has been put to all his hopes. + +Into such tanks do young persons especially get cast; finding themselves +suddenly dropped out of the lively scenery and bright sunshine in which +they have been living, down into roomy graves where they seem left to +die at leisure. They had conceived a way of being useful in the world; +they had found an aim or a hope; they had, like Joseph, discerned their +place and were making towards it, when suddenly they seem to be thrown +out and are left to learn that the world can do very well without them, +that the sun and moon and the eleven stars do not drop from their +courses or make wail because of their sad condition. High aims and +commendable purposes are not so easily fulfilled as they fancied. The +faculty and desire in them to be of service are not recognised. Men do +not make room for them, and God seems to disregard the hopes He has +excited in them. The little attempt at living they have made seems only +to have got themselves and others into trouble. They begin to think it a +mistake their being in the world at all; they curse the day of their +birth. Others are enjoying this life, and seem to be making something of +it, having found work that suits and develops them; but, for their own +part, they cannot get fitted into life at any point, and are excluded +from the onward movement of the world. They are again and again flung +back, until they fear they are not to see the fulfilment of any one +bright dream that has ever visited them, and that they are never, never +at all, to live out the life it is in them to live, or find light and +scope for maturing those germs of the rich human nature that they feel +within them. + +All this is in the way to attainment. This or that check, this long +burial for years, does not come upon you merely because stoppage and +hindrance have been useful to others, but because your advancement lies +through these experiences. Young persons naturally feel strongly that +life is all before them, that this life is, in the first place, their +concern, and that God must be proved sufficient for this life, able to +bring them to their ideal. And the first lesson they have to learn is, +that mere youthful confidence and energy are not the qualities that +overcome the world. They have to learn that humility, and the ambition +that seeks great things, but not for ourselves, are the qualities really +indispensable. But do men become humble by being told to become so, or +by knowing they ought to be so? God must make us humble by the actual +experience we meet with in our ordinary life. Joseph, no doubt, knew +very well, what his aged grandfather must often have told him, that a +man must die before he begins to live. But what could an ambitious, +happy youth make of this, till he was thrown into the pit and left +there? as truly passing through the bitterness of death as Isaac had +passed through it, and as keenly feeling the pain of severance from the +light of life. Then, no doubt, he thought of Isaac, and of Isaac's God, +till between himself and the impenetrable dungeon-walls the everlasting +arms seemed to interpose, and through the darkness of his death-like +solitude the face of Jacob's God appeared to beam upon him, and he came +to feel what we must, by some extremity, all be made to feel, that it +was not in this world's life but in God he lived, that nothing could +befall him which God did not will, and that what God had for him to do, +God would enable him to do. + +The heartless barbarity with which the brethren of Joseph sat down to +eat and drink the very dainties he had brought them from his father, +while they left him, as they thought, to starve, has been regarded by +all later generations as the height of hard-hearted indifference. Amos, +at a loss to describe the recklessness of his own generation, falls back +upon this incident, and cries woe upon those "that drink wine in bowls, +and anoint themselves with the chief ointment, but they are not grieved +for the affliction of Joseph." We reflect, if we do not substantially +reproduce, their sin when we are filled with animosity against those who +usher in some higher kind of life, effort, or worship, than we ourselves +as yet desire or are fit for, and which, therefore, reflects shame on +our incapacity; and when we would fain, without using violence, get rid +of such persons. There are often schemes set on foot by better men than +ourselves, against which somehow our spirit rises, yet which, did we +consider, we should at the most say with the cautious Gamaliel, Let us +beware of doing anything to hinder this, let us see whether, perchance, +it be not of God. Sometimes there are in families individuals who do not +get the encouragement in well-doing they might expect in a Christian +family, but are rather frowned upon and hindered by the other members of +it, because they seem to be inaugurating a higher style of religion than +the family is used to, and to be reflecting from their own conduct a +condemnation of what has hitherto been current. + +This treatment, who among us has not extended to Him who in His whole +experience so closely resembles Joseph? So long as Christ is to us +merely, as it were, the pet of the family, the innocent, guileless, +loving Being on whom we can heap pretty epithets, and in whom we find +play for our best affections, to whom it is easier to show ourselves +affectionate and well-disposed than to the brothers who mingle with us +in all our pursuits; so long as He remains to us as a child whose +demands it is a relaxation to fulfil, we fancy that we are giving Him +our hearts, and that He, if any, has our love. But when He declares to +us His dreams, and claims to be our Lord, to whom with most absolute +homage we must bow, who has a right to rule and means to rule over us, +who will have His will done by us and not our own, then the love we +fancied seems to pass into something like aversion. His purposes we +would fain believe to be the idle fancies of a dreamer which He Himself +does not expect us to pay much heed to. And if we do not resent the +absolute surrender of ourselves to Him which He demands, if the bowing +down of our fullest sheaves and brightest glory to Him is too little +understood by us to be resented; if we think such dreams are not to come +true, and that He does not mean much by demanding our homage, and +therefore do not resent the demand; yet possibly we can remember with +shame how we have "anointed ourselves with the chief ointment," lain +listlessly enjoying some of those luxuries which our Brother has brought +us from the Father's house, and yet let Himself and His cause be buried +out of sight--enjoyed the good name of Christian, the pleasant social +refinements of a Christian land, even the peace of conscience which the +knowledge of the Christian's God produces, and yet turned away from the +deeper emotions which His personal entreaties stir, and from those +self-sacrificing efforts which His cause requires if it is to prosper. + +There are, too, unstable Reubens still, whom something always draws +aside, and who are ever out of the way when most needed; who, like him, +are on the other side of the hill when Christ's cause is being betrayed; +who still count their own private business that which must be done, and +God's work that which may be done--work for themselves necessary, and +God's work only voluntary and in the second place. And there are also +those who, though they would be honestly shocked to be charged with +murdering Christ's cause, can yet leave it to perish. + + + + +XXVI. + +_JOSEPH IN PRISON._ + +GENESIS xxxix. + + "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, + he shall receive the crown of life."--JAMES i. 12. + + +Dramatists and novelists who make it their business to give accurate +representations of human life, proceed upon the understanding that there +is a plot in it, and that if you take the beginning or middle without +the end, you must fail to comprehend these prior parts. And a plot is +pronounced good in proportion as, without violating truth to nature, it +brings the leading characters into situations of extreme danger or +distress, from which there seems no possible exit, and in which the +characters themselves may have fullest opportunity to display and ripen +their individual excellences. A life is judged poor and without +significance, certainly unworthy of any longer record than a monumental +epitaph may contain, if there be in it no critical passages, no +emergencies when all anticipation of the next step is baffled, or when +ruin seems certain. Though it has been brought to a successful issue, +yet, to make it worthy of our consideration, it must have been brought +to this issue through hazard, through opposition, contrary to many +expectations that were plausibly entertained at the several stages of +its career All men, in short, are agreed that the value of a human life +consists very much in the hazards and conflicts through which it is +carried; and yet we resent God's dealing with us when it comes to be our +turn to play the hero, and by patient endurance and righteous endeavour +to bring our lives to a successful issue. How flat and tame would this +narrative have read had Joseph by easy steps come to the dignity he at +last reached through a series of misadventures that called out and +ripened all that was manly and strong and tender in his character. And +take out of your own life all your difficulties, all that ever pained, +agitated, depressed you, all that disappointed or postponed your +expectations, all that suddenly called upon you to act in trying +situations, all that thoroughly put you to the proof--take all this +away, and what do you leave, but a blank insipid life that not even +yourself can see any interest in? + +And when we speak of Joseph's life as typical, we mean that it +illustrates on a great scale and in picturesque and memorable situations +principles which are obscurely operative in our own experience. It +pleases the fancy to trace the incidental analogies between the life of +Joseph and that of our Lord. As our Lord, so Joseph was the beloved of +his father, sent by him to visit his brethren, and see after their +well-being, seized and sold by them to strangers, and thus raised to be +their Saviour and the Saviour of the world. Joseph in prison pronouncing +the doom of one of his fellow-prisoners and the exaltation of the other, +suggests the scene on Calvary where the one fellow-sufferer was taken, +the other left. Joseph's contemporaries had of course no idea that his +life foreshadowed the life of the Redeemer, yet they must have seen, or +ought to have seen, that the deepest humiliation is often the path to +the highest exaltation, that the deliverer sent by God to save a people +may come in the guise of a slave, and that false accusations, +imprisonment, years of suffering, do not make it impossible nor even +unlikely that he who endures all these may be God's chosen Son. + +In Joseph's being lifted out of the pit only to pass into slavery, many +a man of Joseph's years has seen a picture of what has happened to +himself. From a position in which they have been as if buried alive, +young men not uncommonly emerge into a position preferable certainly to +that out of which they have been brought, but in which they are +compelled to work beyond their strength, and _that_ for some superior in +whom they have no special interest. Grinding toil, and often cruel +insult, are their portion; and no necklace heavy with tokens of honour +that afterwards may be allotted them can ever quite hide the scars made +by the iron collar of the slave. One need not pity them over much, for +they are young and have a whole life-time of energy and power of +resistance in their spirit. And yet they will often call themselves +slaves, and complain that all the fruit of their labour passes over to +others and away from themselves, and all prospect of the fulfilment of +their former dreams is quite cut off. That which haunts their heart by +day and by night, that which they seem destined and fit for, they never +get time nor liberty to work out and attain. They are never viewed as +proprietors of themselves, who may possibly have interests of their own +and hopes of their own. + +In Joseph's case there were many aggravations of the soreness of such a +condition. He had not one friend in the country. He had no knowledge of +the language, no knowledge of any trade that could make him valuable in +Egypt--nothing, in short, but his own manhood and his faith in God. His +introduction to Egypt was of the most dispiriting kind. What could he +expect from strangers, if his own brothers had found him so obnoxious? +Now when a man is thus galled and stung by injury, and has learned how +little he can depend upon finding good faith and common justice in the +world, his character will show itself in the attitude he assumes towards +men and towards life generally. A weak nature, when it finds itself thus +deceived and injured, will sullenly surrender all expectation of good, +and will vent its spleen on the world by angry denunciations of the +heartless and ungrateful ways of men. A proud nature will gather itself +up from every blow, and determinedly work its way to an adequate +revenge. A mean nature will accept its fate, and while it indulges in +cynical and spiteful observations on human life, will greedily accept +the paltriest rewards it can secure. But the supreme healthiness of +Joseph's nature resists all the infectious influences that emanate from +the world around him, and preserves him from every kind of morbid +attitude towards the world and life. So easily did he throw off all vain +regrets and stifle all vindictive and morbid feelings, so readily did he +adjust himself to and so heartily enter into life as it presented itself +to him, that he speedily rose to be overseer in the house of Potiphar. +His capacity for business, his genial power of devoting himself to other +men's interests, his clear integrity, were such, that this officer of +Pharaoh's could find no more trustworthy servant in all Egypt--"he left +all that he had in Joseph's hand: and he knew not ought he had, save the +bread which he did eat." + +Thus Joseph passed safely through a critical period of his life--the +period during which men assume the attitude towards life and their +fellow-men which they commonly retain throughout. Too often we accept +the weapons with which the world challenges us, and seek to force our +way by means little more commendable than the injustice and coldness we +ourselves resent. Joseph gives the first great evidence of moral +strength by rising superior to this temptation, to which almost all men +in one degree or other succumb. You can hear him saying, deep down in +his heart and almost unconsciously to himself: If the world is full of +hatred, there is all the more need that at least one man should forgive +and love; if men's hearts are black with selfishness, ambition, and +lust, all the more reason for me to be pure and to do my best for all +whom my service can reach; if cruelty, lying, and fraud meet me at every +step, all the more am I called to conquer these by integrity and +guilelessness. + +His capacity, then, and power of governing others, were no longer dreams +of his own, but qualities with which he was accredited by those who +judged dispassionately and from the bare actual results. But this +recognition and promotion brought with it serious temptation. So capable +a person was he that a year or two had brought him to the highest post +he could expect as a slave. His advancement, therefore, only brought his +actual attainment into more painful contrast with the attainment of his +dreams. As this sense of disappointment becomes more familiar to his +heart, and threatens, under the monotonous routine of his household +work, to deepen into a habit, there suddenly opens to him a new and +unthought-of path to high position. An intrigue with Potiphar's wife +might lead to the very advancement he sought. It might lift him out of +the condition of a slave. It may have been known to him that other men +had not scrupled so to promote their own interests. Besides, Joseph was +young, and a nature like his, lively and sympathetic, must have felt +deeply that in his position he was not likely to meet such a woman as +could command his cordial love. That the temptation was in any degree to +the sensual side of his nature there is no evidence whatever. For all +that the narrative says, Potiphar's wife may not have been attractive in +person. She _may_ have been; and as she used persistently, "day by day," +every art and wile by which she could lure Joseph to her mind, in some +of his moods and under such circumstances as she would study to arrange +he may have felt even this element of the temptation. But it is too +little observed, and especially by young men who have most need to +observe it, that in such temptations it is not only what is sensual that +needs to be guarded against, but also two much deeper-lying +tendencies--the craving for loving recognition, and the desire to +respond to the feminine love for admiration and devotion. The latter +tendency may not seem dangerous, but I am sure that if an analysis could +be made of the broken hearts and shame-crushed lives around us, it would +be found that a large proportion of misery is due to a kind of +uncontrolled and mistaken chivalry. Men of masculine make are prone to +show their regard for women. This regard, when genuine and manly, will +show itself in purity of sympathy and respectful attention. But when +this regard is debased by a desire to please and ingratiate oneself, men +are precipitated into the unseemly expressions of a spurious manhood. +The other craving--the craving for love--acts also in a somewhat latent +way. It is this craving which drives men to seek to satisfy themselves +with the expressions of love, as if thus they could secure love itself. +They do not distinguish between the two; they do not recognise that what +they most deeply desire is love, rather than the expression of it; and +they awake to find that precisely in so far as they have accepted the +expression without the sentiment, in so far have they put love itself +beyond their reach. + +This temptation was, in Joseph's case, aggravated by his being in a +foreign country, unrestrained by the expectations of his own family, or +by the eye of those he loved. He had, however, that which restrained +him, and made the sin seem to him an impossible wickedness, the thought +of which he could not, for a moment, entertain. "Behold, my master +wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that +he hath to my hand; there is none greater in this house than I; neither +hath he kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife: +how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" Gratitude +to the man who had pitied him in the slave market, and shown a generous +confidence in a comparative stranger, was, with Joseph, a stronger +sentiment than any that Potiphar's wife could stir in him. One can well +believe it. We know what enthusiastic devotedness a young man of any +worth delights to give to his superior who has treated him with justice, +generosity, and confidence; who himself occupies a station of importance +in public life; and who, by a dignified graciousness of demeanour, can +make even the slave feel that he too is a man, and that through his +slave's dress his proper manhood and worth are recognised. There are few +stronger sentiments than the enthusiasm or quiet fidelity that can thus +be kindled, and the influence such a superior wields over the young +mind is paramount. To disregard the rights of his master seemed to +Joseph a great wickedness and sin against God. The treachery of the sin +strikes him; his native discernment of the true rights of every party in +the case cannot, for a moment, be hoodwinked. He is not a man who can, +even in the excitement of temptation, overlook the consequences his sin +may have on others. Not unsteadied by the flattering solicitations of +one so much above him in rank, nor sullied by the contagion of her +vehement passion; neither afraid to incur the resentment of one who so +regarded him, nor kindled to any impure desire by contact with her +blazing lust; neither scrupling thoroughly to disappoint her in himself, +nor to make her feel her own great guilt, he flung from him the strong +inducements that seemed to net him round and entangle him as his garment +did, and tore himself, shocked and grieved, from the beseeching hand of +his temptress. + +The incident is related not because it was the most violent temptation +to which Joseph was ever exposed, but because it formed a necessary link +in the chain of circumstances that brought him before Pharaoh. And +however strong this temptation may have been, more men would be found +who could thus have spoken to Potiphar's wife than who could have kept +silence when accused by Potiphar. For his purity you will find his +equal, one among a thousand; for his mercy scarcely one. For there is +nothing more intensely trying than to live under false and painful +accusations, which totally misrepresent and damage your character; which +effectually bar your advancement, and which yet you have it in your +power to disprove. Joseph, feeling his indebtedness to Potiphar, +contents himself with the simple averment that he himself is innocent. +The word is on his tongue that can put a very different face on the +matter, but rather than utter that word, Joseph will suffer the stroke +that otherwise must fall on his master's honour; will pass from his high +place and office of trust, through the jeering or possibly +compassionating slaves, branded as one who has betrayed the frankest +confidence, and is fitter for the dungeon than the stewardship of +Potiphar. He is content to lie under the cruel suspicion that he had in +the foulest way wronged the man whom most he should have regarded, and +whom in point of fact he did enthusiastically serve. There was one man +in Egypt whose good-will he prized, and this man now scorned and +condemned him, and this for the very act by which Joseph had proved most +faithful and deserving. + +And even after a long imprisonment, when he had now no reputation to +maintain, and when such a little bit of court scandal as he could have +retailed would have been highly palatable and possibly useful to some of +those polished ruffians and adventurers who made their dungeon ring with +questionable tales, and with whom the free and levelling intercourse of +prison life had put him on the most familiar footing, and when they +twitted and taunted him with his supposed crime, and gave him the prison +sobriquet that would most pungently embody his villainy and failure, and +when it might plausibly have been pleaded by himself that such a woman +should be exposed, Joseph uttered no word of recrimination, but quietly +endured, knowing that God's providence could allow him to be merciful; +protesting, when needful, that he himself was innocent, but seeking to +entangle no one else in his misfortune. + +It is this that has made the world seem so terrible a place to +many--that the innocent must so often suffer for the guilty, and that, +without appeal, the pure and loving must lie in chains and bitterness, +while the wicked live and see good days. It is this that has made men +most despairingly question whether there be indeed a God in heaven Who +knows who the real culprit is, and yet suffers a terrible doom slowly to +close around the innocent; Who sees where the guilt lies, and yet moves +no finger nor speaks the word that would bring justice to light, shaming +the secure triumph of the wrongdoer, and saving the bleeding spirit from +its agony. It was this that came as the last stroke of the passion of +our Lord, that He was numbered among the transgressors; it was this that +caused or materially increased the feeling that God had deserted Him; +and it was this that wrung from Him the cry which once was wrung from +David, and may well have been wrung from Joseph, when, cast into the +dungeon as a mean and treacherous villain, whose freedom was the peril +of domestic peace and honour, he found himself again helpless and +forlorn, regarded now not as a mere worthless lad, but as a criminal of +the lowest type. And as there always recur cases in which exculpation is +impossible just in proportion as the party accused is possessed of +honourable feeling, and where silent acceptance of doom is the result +not of convicted guilt, but of the very triumph of self-sacrifice, we +must beware of over-suspicion and injustice. There is nothing in which +we are more frequently mistaken than in our suspicions and harsh +judgments of others. + +"But the Lord was with Joseph, and allowed him mercy, and gave him +favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison." As in Potiphar's +house, so in the king's house of detention, Joseph's fidelity and +serviceableness made him seem indispensable, and by sheer force of +character he occupied the place rather of governor than of prisoner. The +discerning men he had to do with, accustomed to deal with criminals and +suspects of all shades, very quickly perceived that in Joseph's case +justice was at fault, and that he was a mere scape-goat. Well might +Potiphar's wife, like Pilate's, have had warning dreams regarding the +innocent person who was being condemned; and probably Potiphar himself +had suspicion enough of the true state of matters to prevent him from +going to extremities with Joseph, and so to imprison him more out of +deference to the opinion of his household, and for the sake of +appearances, than because Joseph alone was the object of his anger. At +any rate, such was the vitality of Joseph's confidence in God, and such +was the light-heartedness that sprang from his integrity of conscience, +that he was free from all absorbing anxiety about himself, and had +leisure to amuse and help his fellow-prisoners, so that such promotion +as a gaol could afford he won, from a dungeon to a chain, from a chain +to his word of honour. Thus even in the unlatticed dungeon the sun and +moon look in upon him and bow to him; and while his sheaf seems at its +poorest, all rust and mildew, the sheaves of his masters do homage. + +After the arrival of two such notable criminals as the chief butler and +baker of Pharaoh--the chamberlain and steward of the royal +household--Joseph, if sometimes pensive, must yet have had sufficient +entertainment at times in conversing with men who stood by the king, and +were familiar with the statesmen, courtiers, and military men who +frequented the house of Potiphar. He had now ample opportunity for +acquiring information which afterwards stood him in good stead, for +apprehending the character of Pharaoh, and for making himself +acquainted with many details of his government, and with the general +condition of the people. Officials in disgrace would be found much more +accessible and much more communicative of important information than +officials in court favour could have been to one in Joseph's position. + +It is not surprising that three nights before Pharaoh's birthday these +functionaries of the court should have recalled in sleep such scenes as +that day was wont to bring round, nor that they should vividly have seen +the parts they themselves used to play in the festival. Neither is it +surprising that they should have had very anxious thoughts regarding +their own fate on a day which was chosen for deciding the fate of +political or courtly offenders. But it is remarkable that they having +dreamed these dreams Joseph should have been found willing to interpret +them. One desires some evidence of Joseph's attitude towards God during +this period when God's attitude towards him might seem doubtful, and +especially one would like to know what Joseph by this time thought of +his juvenile dreams, and whether in the prison his face wore the same +beaming confidence in his own future which had smitten the hearts of his +brothers with impatient envy of the dreamer. We seek some evidence, and +here we find it. Joseph's willingness to interpret the dreams of his +fellow-prisoners proves that he still believed in his own, that among +his other qualities he had this characteristic also of a steadfast and +profound soul, that he "reverenced as a man the dreams of his youth." +Had he not done so, and had he not yet hoped that somehow God would +bring truth out of them, he would surely have said: Don't you believe in +dreams; they will only get you into difficulties. He would have said +what some of us could dictate from our own thoughts: I won't meddle +with dreams any more; I am not so young as I once was; doctrines and +principles that served for fervent romantic youth seem puerile now, when +I have learned what human life actually is; I can't ask this man, who +knows the world and has held the cup for Pharaoh, and is aware what a +practical shape the king's anger takes, to cherish hopes similar to +those which often seem so remote and doubtful to myself. My religion has +brought me into trouble: it has lost me my situation, it has kept me +poor, it has made me despised, it has debarred me from enjoyment. Can I +ask this man to trust to inward whisperings which seem to have so misled +me? No, no; let every man bear his own burden. If he wishes to become +religious, let not me bear the responsibility. If he will dream, let him +find some other interpreter. + +This casual conversation, then, with his fellow-prisoners was for Joseph +one of those perilous moments when a man holds his fate in his hand, and +yet does not know that he is specially on trial, but has for his +guidance and safe-conduct through the hazard only the ordinary +safeguards and lights by the aid of which he is framing his daily life. +A man cannot be forewarned of trial, if the trial is to be a fair test +of his habitual life. He must not be called to the lists by the herald's +trumpet warning him to mind his seat and grasp his weapon; but must be +suddenly set upon if his habit of steadiness and balance is to be +tested, and the warrior-instinct to which the right weapon is ever at +hand. As Joseph, going the round of his morning duty and spreading what +might stir the appetite of these dainty courtiers, noted the gloom on +their faces, had he not been of a nature to take upon himself the +sorrows of others, he might have been glad to escape from their +presence, fearful lest he should be infected by their depression, or +should become an object on which they might vent their ill-humour. But +he was girt with a healthy cheerfulness that could bear more than his +own burden; and his pondering of his own experience made him sensitive +to all that affected the destinies of other men. + +Thus Joseph in becoming the interpreter of the dreams of other men +became the fulfiller of his own. Had he made light of the dreams of his +fellow-prisoners because he had already made light of his own, he would, +for aught we can see, have died in the dungeon. And, indeed, what hope +is left for a man, and what deliverance is possible, when he makes light +of his own most sacred experience, and doubts whether after all there +was any Divine voice in that part of his life which once he felt to be +full of significance? Sadness, cynical worldliness, irritability, sour +and isolating selfishness, rapid deterioration in every part of the +character--these are the results which follow our repudiation of past +experience and denial of truth that once animated and purified us; when, +at least, this repudiation and denial are not themselves the results of +our advance to a higher, more animating, and more purifying truth. We +cannot but leave behind us many "childish things," beliefs that we now +recognise as mere superstitions, hopes and fears which do not move the +maturer mind; we cannot but seek always to be stripping ourselves of +modes of thinking which have served their purpose and are out of date, +but we do so only for the sake of attaining freer movement in all +serviceable and righteous conduct, and more adequate covering for the +permanent weaknesses of our own nature--"not for that we would be +unclothed, but clothed upon," that truth partial and dawning may be +swallowed up in the perfect light of noon. And when a supposed advance +in the knowledge of things spiritual robs us of all that sustains true +spiritual life in us, and begets an angry contempt of our own past +experience and a proud scorning of the dreams that agitate other men; +when it ministers not at all to the growth in us of what is tender and +pure and loving and progressive, but hardens us to a sullen or coarsely +riotous or coldly calculating character, we cannot but question whether +it is not a delusion rather than a truth that has taken possession of +us. + +If it is fanciful, it is yet almost inevitable, to compare Joseph at +this stage of his career to the great Interpreter who stands between God +and us, and makes all His signs intelligible. Those Egyptians could not +forbear honouring Joseph, who was able to solve to them the mysteries on +the borders of which the Egyptian mind continually hovered, and which it +symbolized by its mysterious sphinxes, its strange chambers of imagery, +its unapproachable divinities. And we bow before the Lord Jesus Christ, +because He can read our fate and unriddle all our dim anticipations of +good and evil, and make intelligible to us the visions of our own +hearts. There is that in us, as in these men, from which a skilled eye +could already read our destiny. In the eye of One who sees the end from +the beginning, and can distinguish between the determining influences of +character and the insignificant manifestations of a passing mood, we are +already designed to our eternal places. And it is in Christ alone your +future is explained. You cannot understand your future without taking +Him into your confidence. You go forward blindly to meet you know not +what, unless you listen to His interpretation of the vague presentiments +that visit you. Without Him what can we make of those suspicions of a +future judgment, or of those yearnings after God, that hang about our +hearts? Without Him what can we make of the idea and hope of a better +life than we are now living, or of the strange persuasion that all will +yet be well--a persuasion that seems so groundless, and which yet will +not be shaken off, but finds its explanation in Christ? The excess of +side light that falls across our path from the present seems only to +make the future more obscure and doubtful, and from Him alone do we +receive any interpretation of ourselves that even seems to be +satisfying. Our fellow-prisoners are often seen to be so absorbed in +their own affairs that it is vain to seek light from them; but He, with +patient, self-forgetting friendliness, is ever disengaged, and even +elicits, by the kindly and interrogating attitude He takes towards us, +the utterance of all our woes and perplexities. And it is because He has +had dreams Himself that He has become so skilled an interpreter of ours. +It is because in His own life He had His mind hard pressed for a +solution of those very problems which baffle us, because He had for +Himself to adjust God's promise to the ordinary and apparently casual +and untoward incidents of a human life, and because He had to wait long +before it became quite clear how one Scripture after another was to be +fulfilled by a course of simple confiding obedience--it is because of +this experience of His own, that He can now enter into and rightly guide +to its goal every longing we cherish. + + + + +XXVII. + +_PHARAOH'S DREAMS._ + +GENESIS xli. + + "Thus saith the Lord, that frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and + maketh diviners mad; that confirmeth the word of His servant, and + performeth the counsel of His messengers: that saith of Cyrus, He is + My shepherd, and shall perform all My pleasure."--ISA. xliv. 25, 28. + + +The preceding act in this great drama--the act comprising the scenes of +Joseph's temptation, unjust imprisonment, and interpretation of his +fellow-prisoners' dreams--was written for the sake of explaining how +Joseph came to be introduced to Pharaoh. Other friendships may have been +formed in the prison, and other threads may have been spun which went to +make up the life of Joseph, but this only is pursued. For a time, +however, there seemed very little prospect that this would prove to be +the thread on which his destiny hung. Joseph made a touching appeal to +the Chief Butler: "yet did not the Chief Butler remember Joseph, but +forgat him." You can see him in the joy of his release affectionately +pressing Joseph's hand as the king's messengers knocked off his fetters. +You can see him assuring Joseph, by his farewell look, that he might +trust him; mistaking mere elation at his own release for warmth of +feeling towards Joseph, though perhaps even already feeling just the +slightest touch of awkwardness at being seen on such intimate terms +with a Hebrew slave. How could he, when in the palace of Pharaoh and +decorated with the insignia of his office and surrounded by courtiers, +break through the formal etiquette of the place? What with the pleasant +congratulations of old friends, and the accumulation of business since +he had been imprisoned, and the excitement of restoration from so low +and hopeless to so high and busy a position, the promise to Joseph is +obliterated from his mind. If it once or twice recurs to his memory, he +persuades himself he is waiting for a good opening to mention Joseph. It +would perhaps be unwarrantable to say that he admits the idea that he is +in no way indebted to Joseph, since all that Joseph had done was to +interpret, but by no means to determine, his fate. + +The analogy which we could not help seeing between Joseph's relation to +his fellow-prisoners, and our Lord's relation to us, pursues us here. +For does not the bond between us and Him seem often very slender, when +once we have received from Him the knowledge of the King's good-will, +and find ourselves set in a place of security? Is not Christ with many a +mere stepping-stone for their own advancement, and of interest only so +long as they are in anxiety about their own fate? Their regard for Him +seems abruptly to terminate as soon as they are ushered to freer air. +Brought for a while into contact with Him, the very peace and prosperity +which that intercourse has introduced them to become opiates to dull +their memory and their gratitude. They have received all they at present +desire, they have no more dreams, their life has become so plain and +simple and glad that they need no interpreter. They seem to regard Him +no more than an official is regarded who is set to discharge to all +comers some duty for which he is paid; who mingles no love with his +work, and from whom they would receive the same benefits whether he had +any personal interest in them or no. But there is no Christianity where +there is no loving remembrance of Christ. If your contact with Him has +not made Him your Friend whom you can by no possibility forget, you have +missed the best result of your introduction to Him. It makes one think +meanly of the Chief Butler that such a personality as Joseph's had not +more deeply impressed him--that everything he heard and saw among the +courtiers did not make him say to himself: There is a friend of mine, in +prison hard by, that for beauty, wisdom, and vivacity would more than +match the finest of you all. And it says very little for us if we can +have known anything of Christ without seeing that in Him we have what is +nowhere else, and without finding that He has become the necessity of +our life to whom we turn at every point. + +But, as things turned out, it was perhaps as well for Joseph that his +promising friend did forget him. For, supposing the Chief Butler had +overcome his natural reluctance to increase his own indebtedness to +Pharaoh by interceding for a friend, supposing he had been willing to +risk the friendship of the Captain of the Guard by interfering in so +delicate a matter, and supposing Pharaoh had been willing to listen to +him, what would have been the result? Probably that Joseph would have +been sold away to the quarries, for certainly he could not have been +restored to Potiphar's house; or, at the most, he might have received +his liberty, and a free pass out of Egypt. That is to say, he would have +obtained liberty to return to sheep-shearing and cattle-dealing and +checkmating his brother's plots. In any probable case his career would +have tended rather towards obscurity than towards the fulfilment of his +dreams. + +There seems equal reason to congratulate Joseph on his friend's +forgetfulness, when we consider its probable effects, not on his career, +but on his character. When he was left in prison after so sudden and +exciting an incursion of the outer world as the king's messengers would +make, his mind must have run chiefly in two lines of thought. Naturally +he would feel some envy of the man who was being restored; and when day +after day passed and more than the former monotony of prison routine +palled on his spirit; when he found how completely he was forgotten, and +how friendless and lone a creature he was in that strange land where +things had gone so mysteriously against him; when he saw before him no +other fate than that which he had seen befall so many a slave thrown +into a dungeon at his master's pleasure and never more heard of, he must +have been sorely tempted to hate the whole world, and especially those +brethren who had been the beginning of all his misfortunes. Had there +been any selfishness in solution in Joseph's character, this is the +point at which it would have quickly crystallized into permanent forms. +For nothing more certainly elicits and confirms selfishness than bad +treatment. But from his conduct on his release, we see clearly enough +that through all this trying time his heroism was not only that of the +strong man who vows that though the whole world is against him the day +will come when the world shall have need of him, but of the saint of God +in whom suffering and injustice leave no bitterness against his fellows, +nor even provoke one slightest morbid utterance. + +But another process must have been going on in Joseph's mind at the +same time. He must have felt that it was a very serious thing that he +had been called upon to do in interpreting God's will to his +fellow-prisoners. No doubt he fell into it quite naturally and aptly, +because it was liker his proper vocation, and more of his character +could come out in it than in anything he had yet done. Still, to be +mixed up thus with matters of life and death concerning other people, +and to have men of practical ability and experience and high position +listening to him as to an oracle, and to find that in very truth a great +power was committed to him, was calculated to have _some_ considerable +result one way or other on Joseph. And these two years of unrelieved and +sobering obscurity cannot but be considered most opportune. For one of +two things is apt to follow the world's first recognition of a man's +gifts. He is either induced to pander to the world's wonder and become +artificial and strained in all he does, so losing the spontaneity and +naturalness and sincerity which characterise the best work; or he is +awed and steadied. And whether the one or the other result follow, will +depend very much on the other things that are happening to him. In +Joseph's case it was probably well that after having made proof of his +powers he was left in such circumstances as would not only give him time +for reflection, but also give a humble and believing turn to his +reflections. He was not at once exalted to the priestly caste, nor +enrolled among the wise men, nor put in any position in which he would +have been under constant temptation to display and trifle with his +power; and so he was led to the conviction that deeper even than the joy +of receiving the recognition and gratitude of men was the abiding +satisfaction of having done the thing God had given him to do. + +These two years, then, during which Joseph's active mind must +necessarily have been forced to provide food for itself, and have been +thrown back upon his past experience, seem to have been of eminent +service in maturing his character. The self-possessed dignity and ease +of command which appear in him from the moment when he is ushered into +Pharaoh's presence have their roots in these two years of silence. As +the bones of a strong man are slowly, imperceptibly knit, and gradually +take the shape and texture they retain throughout; so during these years +there was silently and secretly consolidating a character of almost +unparalleled calmness and power. One has no words to express how +tantalizing it must have been to Joseph to see this Egyptian have his +dreams so gladly and speedily fulfilled, while he himself, who had so +long waited on the true God, was left waiting still, and now so utterly +unbefriended that there seemed no possible way of ever again connecting +himself with the world outside the prison walls. Being pressed thus for +an answer to the question, What does God mean to make of my life? he was +brought to see and to hold as the most important truth for him, that the +first concern is, that God's purposes be accomplished; the second, that +his own dreams be fulfilled. He was enabled, as we shall see in the +sequel, to put God truly in the first place, and to see that by +forwarding the interests of other men, even though they were but +light-minded chief butlers at a foreign court, he might be as +serviceably furthering the purposes of God, as if he were forwarding his +own interests. He was compelled to seek for some principle that would +sustain and guide him in the midst of much disappointment and +perplexity, and he found it in the conviction that the essential thing +to be accomplished in this world, and to which every man must lay his +shoulder, is God's purpose. Let that go on, and all else that should go +on will go on. And he further saw that he best fulfils God's purpose +who, without anxiety and impatience, does the duty of the day, and gives +himself without stint to the "charities that soothe and heal and bless." + +His perception of the breadth of God's purpose, and his profound and +sympathetic and active submission to it, were qualities too rare not to +be called into influential exercise. After two years he is suddenly +summoned to become God's interpreter to Pharaoh. The Egyptian king was +in the unhappy though not uncommon position of having a revelation from +God which he could not read, intimations and presentiments he could not +interpret. To one man is given the revelation, to another the +interpretation. The official dignity of the king is respected, and to +him is given the revelation which concerns the welfare of the whole +people. But to read God's meaning in a revelation requires a spiritual +intelligence trained to sympathy with His purposes, and such a spirit +was found in Joseph alone. + +The dreams of Pharaoh were thoroughly Egyptian. The marvel is, that a +symbolism so familiar to the Egyptian eye should not have been easily +legible to even the most slenderly gifted of Pharaoh's wise men. "In my +dream," says the king, "behold, I stood upon the bank of the river: and, +behold, there came up out of the river seven kine," and so on. Every +land or city is proud of its river, but none has such cause to be so as +Egypt of its Nile. The country is accurately as well as poetically +called "the gift of Nile." Out of the river do really come good or bad +years, fat or lean kine. Wholly dependent on its annual rise and +overflow for the irrigating and enriching of the soil, the people +worship it and love it, and at the season of its overflow give way to +the most rapturous expressions of joy. The cow also was reverenced as +the symbol of the earth's productive power. If then, as Joseph avers, +God wished to show to Pharaoh that seven years of plenty were +approaching, this announcement could hardly have been made plainer in +the language of dreams than by showing to Pharaoh seven well-favoured +kine coming up out of the bountiful river to feed on the meadow made +richly green by its waters. If the king had been sacrificing to the +river, such a sight, familiar as it was to the dwellers by the Nile, +might well have been accepted by him as a promise of plenty in the land. +But what agitated Pharaoh, and gave him the shuddering presentiment of +evil which accompanies some dreams, was the sequel. "Behold, seven other +kine came up after them, poor and very ill-favoured and lean-fleshed, +such as I never saw in all the land of Egypt for badness: and the lean +and the ill-favoured kine did eat up the first seven fat kine: and when +they had eaten them up it could not be known that they had eaten them; +but they were still ill-favoured, as at the beginning,"--a picture which +to the inspired dream-reader represented seven years of famine so +grievous, that the preceding plenty should be swallowed up and not be +known. A similar image occurred to a writer who, in describing a more +recent famine in the same land, says: "The year presented itself as a +monster whose wrath must annihilate all the resources of life and all +the means of subsistence." + +It tells in favour of the court magicians and wise men that not one of +them offered an interpretation of dreams to which it would certainly not +have been difficult to attach some tolerably feasible interpretation. +Probably these men were as yet sincere devotees of astrology and occult +science, and not the mere jugglers and charlatans their successors seem +to have become. When men cannot make out the purpose of God regarding +the future of the race, it is not wonderful that they should endeavour +to catch the faintest, most broken echo of His voice to the world, +wherever they can find it. Now there is a wide region, a borderland +between the two worlds of spirit and of matter, in which are found a +great many mysterious phenomena which cannot be explained by any known +laws of nature, and through which men fancy they get nearer to the +spiritual world. There are many singular and startling appearances, +coincidences, forebodings, premonitions which men have always been +attracted towards, and which they have considered as open ways of +communication between God and man. There are dreams, visions, strange +apprehensions, freaks of memory, and other mental phenomena, which, when +all classed together, assorted, and skilfully applied to the reading of +the future, once formed quite a science by itself. When men have no word +from God to depend upon, no knowledge at all of where either the race or +individuals are going to, they will eagerly grasp at anything that even +seems to shed a ray of light on their future. We for the most part make +light of that whole category of phenomena, because we have a more sure +word of prophecy by which, as with a light in a dark place, we can tell +where our next step should be, and what the end shall be. But invariably +in heathen countries, where no guiding Spirit of God was believed in, +and where the absence of His revealed will left numberless points of +duty doubtful and all the future dark, there existed in lieu of this a +class of persons who, under one name or other, undertook to satisfy the +craving of men to see into the future, to forewarn them of danger, and +advise them regarding matters of conduct and affairs of state. + +At various points of the history of God's revelation these professors of +occult science appear. In each case a profound impression is made by the +superior wisdom or power displayed by the "wise men" of God. But in +reading the accounts we have of these collisions between the wisdom of +God and that of the magicians, a slight feeling of uneasiness sometimes +enters the mind. You may feel that these wonders of Joseph, Moses, and +Daniel have a romantic air about them, and you feel, perhaps, a slight +scruple in granting that God would lend Himself to such +displays--displays so completely out of date in our day. But we are to +consider not only that there is nothing of the kind more certain than +that dreams do sometimes even now impart most significant warning to +men; but, also, that the time in which Joseph lived was the childhood of +the world, when God had neither spoken much to men, nor could speak +much, because as yet they had not learned His language, but were only +being slowly taught it by signs suited to their capacity. If these men +were to receive any knowledge beyond what their own unaided efforts +could attain, they must be taught in a language they understood. They +could not be dealt with as if they had already attained a knowledge and +a capacity which could only be theirs many centuries after; they must be +dealt with by signs and wonders which had perhaps little moral teaching +in them, but yet gave evidence of God's nearness and power such as they +could and did understand. God thus stretched out His hand to men in the +darkness, and let them feel His strength before they could look on His +face and understand His nature. + +It is the existence at the court of Pharaoh of this highly respected +class of dream-interpreters and wise men, which lends significance to +the conduct of Joseph when summoned into the royal presence. Such wisdom +as he displayed in reading Pharaoh's visions was looked upon as +attainable by means within the reach of any man who had sufficient +faculty for the science. And the first idea in the minds of the +courtiers would probably have been, had Joseph not solemnly protested +against it, that he was an adept where they were apprentices and +bunglers, and that his success was due purely to professional skill. +This was of course perfectly well known to Joseph, who for a number of +years had been familiar with the ideas prevalent at the court of +Pharaoh; and he might have argued that there could be no great harm in +at least effecting his deliverance from an unjust imprisonment by +allowing Pharaoh to suppose that it was to him he was indebted for the +interpretation of his dreams. But his first word to Pharaoh is a +self-renouncing exclamation: "Not in me: _God_ shall give Pharaoh an +answer of peace." Two years had elapsed since anything had occurred +which looked the least like the fulfilment of his own dreams, or gave +him any hope of release from prison; and now, when measuring himself +with these courtiers and feeling able to take his place with the best of +them, getting again a breath of free air and feeling once more the charm +of life, and having an opening set before his young ambition, being so +suddenly transferred from a place where his very existence seemed to be +forgotten to a place where Pharaoh himself and all his court eyed him +with the intensest interest and anxiety, it is significant that he +should appear regardless of his own fate, but jealously careful of the +glory of God. Considering how jealous men commonly are of their own +reputation, and how impatiently eager to receive all the credit that is +due to them for their own share in any good that is doing, and +considering of what essential importance it seemed that Joseph should +seize this opportunity of providing for his own safety and advancement, +and should use this as the tide in his affairs that led to fortune, his +words and bearing before Pharaoh undoubtedly disclose a deeply +in-wrought fidelity to God, and a magnanimous patience regarding his own +personal interests. + +For it is extremely unlikely that in proposing to Pharaoh to set a man +over this important business of collecting corn to last through the +years of famine, it presented itself to Joseph as a conceivable result +that he should be the person appointed--he a Hebrew, a slave, a +prisoner, cleaned but for the nonce, could not suppose that Pharaoh +would pass over all those tried officers and ministers of state around +him and fix upon a youth who was wholly untried, and who might, by his +different race and religion, prove obnoxious to the people. Joseph may +have expected to make interest enough with Pharaoh to secure his +freedom, and possibly some subordinate berth where he could hopefully +begin the world again; but his only allusion to himself is of a +depreciatory kind, while his reference to God is marked with a profound +conviction that this is God's doing, and that to Him is due whatever is +due. Well may the Hebrew race be proud of those men like Joseph and +Daniel, who stood in the presence of foreign monarchs in a spirit of +perfect fidelity to God, commanding the respect of all, and clothed with +the dignity and simplicity which that fidelity imparted. It matters not +to Joseph that there may perhaps be none in that land who can appreciate +his fidelity to God or understand his motive. It matters not what he may +lose by it, or what he could gain by falling in with the notions of +those around him. He himself knows the real state of the case, and will +not act untruly to his God, even though for years he seems to have been +forgotten by Him. With Daniel he says in spirit, "Let thy gifts be to +thyself, and give thy rewards to another. As for me, this secret is not +revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but that +the interpretation may be known to the king, and that thou mayest know +the thoughts of thine heart. He that revealeth secrets maketh known to +thee what shall come to pass." There is something particularly noble and +worthy of admiration in a man thus standing alone and maintaining the +fullest allegiance to God, without ostentation, and with a quiet dignity +and naturalness that show he has a great fund of strength behind. + +That we do not misjudge Joseph's character or ascribe to him qualities +which were invisible to his contemporaries, is apparent from the +circumstance that Pharaoh and his advisers, with little or no +hesitation, agreed that to no man could they more safely entrust their +country in this emergency. The mere personal charm of Joseph might have +won over those experienced advisers of the crown to make compensation +for his imprisonment by an unusually handsome reward, but no mere +attractiveness of person and manner, nor even the unquestionable +guilelessness of his bearing, could have induced them to put such an +affair as this into his hands. Plainly they were impressed with Joseph; +almost supernaturally impressed, and felt God through him. He stood +before them as one mysteriously appearing in their emergency, sent out +of unthought-of quarters to warn and save them. Happily there was as yet +no jealousy of the God of the Hebrews, nor any exclusiveness on the part +of the chosen people: Pharaoh and Joseph alike felt that there was one +God over all and through all. And it was Joseph's self-abnegating +sympathy with the purposes of this Supreme God that made him a +transparent medium, so that in his presence the Egyptians felt +themselves in the presence of God. It is so always. Influence in the +long run belongs to those who rid their minds of all private aims, and +get close to the great centre in which all the race meets and is cared +for. Men feel themselves safe with the unselfish, with persons in whom +they meet principle, justice, truth, love, God. We are unattractive, +useless, uninfluential, just because we are still childishly craving a +private and selfish good. We know that a life which does not pour itself +freely into the common stream of public good is lost in dry and sterile +sands. We know that a life spent upon self is contemptible, barren, +empty, yet how slowly do we come to the attitude of Joseph, who watched +for the fulfilment of God's purposes, and found his happiness in +forwarding what God designed for the people. + + + + +XXVIII. + +_JOSEPH'S ADMINISTRATION._ + +GEN. xli. 37-57, and xlvii. 13-26. + + "He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance: To + bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators + wisdom."--PSALM. cv. 21, 22. + + +"Many a monument consecrated to the memory of some nobleman gone to his +long home, who during life had held high rank at the court of Pharaoh, +is decorated with the simple but laudatory inscription, 'His ancestors +were unknown people'"--so we are told by our most accurate informant +regarding Egyptian affairs. Indeed, the tales we read of adventurers in +the East, and the histories which recount how some dynasties have been +founded, are sufficient evidence that, in other countries besides Egypt, +sudden elevation from the lowest to the highest rank is not so unusual +as amongst ourselves. Historians have recently made out that in one +period of the history of Egypt there are traces of a kind of Semitic +mania, a strong leaning towards Syrian and Arabian customs, phrases, and +persons. Such manias have occurred in most countries. There was a period +in the history of Rome when everything that had a Greek flavour was +admired; an Anglo-mania once affected a portion of the French +population, and reciprocally, French manners and ideas have at times +found a welcome among ourselves. It is also clear that for a time Lower +Egypt was under the dominion of foreign rulers who were in race more +nearly allied to Joseph than to the native population. But there is no +need that so complicated a question as the exact date of this foreign +domination be debated here, for there was that in Joseph's bearing which +would have commended him to any sagacious monarch. Not only did the +court accept him as a messenger from God, but they could not fail to +recognise substantial and serviceable human qualities alongside of what +was mysterious in him. The ready apprehension with which he appreciated +the magnitude of the danger, the clear-sighted promptitude with which he +met it, the resource and quiet capacity with which he handled a matter +involving the entire condition of Egypt, showed them that they were in +the presence of a true statesman. No doubt the confidence with which he +described the best method of dealing with the emergency was the +confidence of one who was convinced he was speaking for God. This was +the great distinction they perceived between Joseph and ordinary +dream-interpreters. It was not guesswork with him. The same distinction +is always apparent between revelation and speculation. Revelation speaks +with authority; speculation gropes its way, and when wisest is most +diffident. At the same time Pharaoh was perfectly right in his +inference: "Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so +discreet and wise as thou art." He believed that God had chosen him to +deal with this matter because he was wise in heart, and he believed his +wisdom would remain because God had chosen him. + +At length, then, Joseph saw the fulfilment of his dreams within his +reach. The coat of many colours with which his father had paid a +tribute to the princely person and ways of the boy, was now replaced by +the robe of state and the heavy gold necklace which marked him out as +second to Pharaoh. Whatever nerve and self-command and humble dependence +on God his varied experience had wrought in him were all needed when +Pharaoh took his hand and placed his own ring on it, thus transferring +all his authority to him, and when turning from the king he received the +acclamations of the court and the people, bowed to by his old masters, +and acknowledged the superior of all the dignitaries and potentates of +Egypt. Only once besides, so far as the Egyptian inscriptions have yet +been deciphered, does it appear that any subject was raised to be Regent +or Viceroy with similar powers. Joseph is, as far as possible, +naturalised as an Egyptian. He receives a name easier of pronunciation +than his own, at least to Egyptian tongues--Zaphnath-Paaneah, which, +however, was perhaps only an official title meaning "Governor of the +district of the place of life," the name by which one of the Egyptian +counties or states was known. The king crowned his liberality and +completed the process of naturalisation by providing him with a wife, +Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah, priest of On. This city was not far +from Avaris or Haouar, where Joseph's Pharaoh, Ra-apepi II., at this +time resided. The worship of the sun-god, Ra, had its centre at On (or +Heliopolis, as it was called by the Greeks), and the priests of On took +precedence of all Egyptian priests. Joseph was thus connected with one +of the most influential families in the land, and if he had any scruples +about marrying into an idolatrous family, they were too insignificant to +influence his conduct, or leave any trace in the narrative. + +His attitude towards God and his own family was disclosed in the names +which he gave to his children. In giving names which had a meaning at +all, and not merely a taking sound, he showed that he understood, as +well he might, that every human life has a significance and expresses +some principle or fact. And in giving names which recorded his +acknowledgment of God's goodness, he showed that prosperity had as +little influence as adversity to move him from his allegiance to the God +of his fathers. His first son he called Manasseh, _Making to forget_, +"for God," said he, "hath made me forget all my toil and all my father's +house"--not as if he were now so abundantly satisfied in Egypt that the +thought of his father's house was blotted from his mind, but only that +in this child the keen longings he had felt for kindred and home were +somewhat alleviated. He again found an object for his strong family +affection. The void in his heart he had so long felt was filled by the +little babe. A new home was begun around him. But this new affection +would not weaken, though it would alter the character of, his love for +his father and brethren. The birth of this child would really be a new +tie to the land from which he had been stolen. For, however ready men +are to spend their own life in foreign service, you see them wishing +that their children should spend their days among the scenes with which +their own childhood was familiar. + +In the naming of his second son Ephraim he recognises that God had made +him fruitful in the most unlikely way. He does not leave it to us to +interpret his life, but records what he himself saw in it. It has been +said: "To get at the truth of any history is good; but a man's own +history--when he reads that truly, ... and knows what he is about and +has been about, it is a Bible to him." And now that Joseph, from the +height he had reached, could look back on the way by which he had been +led to it, he cordially approved of all that God had done. There was no +resentment, no murmuring. He would often find himself looking back and +thinking, Had I found my brothers where I thought they were, had the pit +not been on the caravan-road, had the merchants not come up so +opportunely, had I not been sold at all or to some other master, had I +not been imprisoned, or had I been put in another ward--had any one of +the many slender links in the chain of my career been absent, how +different might my present state have been. How plainly I now see that +all those sad mishaps that crushed my hopes and tortured my spirit were +steps in the only conceivable path to my present position. + +Many a man has added his signature to this acknowledgment of Joseph's, +and confessed a providence guiding his life and working out good for him +through injuries and sorrows, as well as through honours, marriages, +births. As in the heat of summer it is difficult to recall the sensation +of winter's bitter cold, so the fruitless and barren periods of a man's +life are sometimes quite obliterated from his memory. God has it in His +power to raise a man higher above the level of ordinary happiness than +ever he has sunk below it; and as winter and spring-time, when the seed +is sown, are stormy and bleak and gusty, so in human life seed-time is +not bright as summer nor cheerful as autumn; and yet it is then, when +all the earth lies bare and will yield us nothing, that the precious +seed is sown: and when we confidently commit our labour or patience of +to-day to God, the land of our affliction, now bare and desolate, will +certainly wave for us, as it has waved for others, with rich produce +whitened to the harvest. + +There is no doubt then that Joseph had learned to recognise the +providence of God as a most important factor in his life. And the man +who does so, gains for his character all the strength and resolution +that come with a capacity for waiting. He saw, most legibly written on +his own life, that God is never in a hurry. And for the resolute +adherence to his seven-years' policy such a belief was most necessary. +Nothing, indeed, is said of opposition or incredulity on the part of the +Egyptians. But was there ever a policy of such magnitude carried out in +any country without opposition or without evilly-disposed persons using +it as a weapon against its promoter? No doubt during these years he had +need of all the personal determination as well as of all the official +authority he possessed. And if, on the whole, remarkable success +attended his efforts, we must ascribe this partly to the unchallengeable +justice of his arrangements, and partly to the impression of commanding +genius Joseph seems everywhere to have made. As with his father and +brethren he was felt to be superior, as in Potiphar's house he was +quickly recognised, as in the prison no prison-garb or slave-brand could +disguise him, as in the court his superiority was instinctively felt, so +in his administration the people seem to have believed in him. + +And if, on the whole and in general, Joseph was reckoned a wise and +equitable ruler, and even adored as a kind of saviour of the world, it +would be idle in us to canvass the wisdom of his administration. When we +have not sufficient historical material to apprehend the full +significance of any policy, it is safe to accept the judgment of men who +not only knew the facts, but were themselves so deeply involved in them +that they would certainly have felt and expressed discontent had there +been ground for doing so. The policy of Joseph was simply to economize +during the seven years of abundance to such an extent that provision +might be made against the seven years of famine. He calculated that +one-fifth of the produce of years so extraordinarily plenteous would +serve for the seven scarce years. This fifth he seems to have bought in +the king's name from the people, buying it, no doubt, at the cheap rates +of abundant years. When the years of famine came, the people were +referred to Joseph; and, till their money was gone, he sold corn to +them, probably not at famine prices. Next he acquired their cattle, and +finally, in exchange for food, they yielded to him both their lands and +their persons. So that the result of the whole was, that the people who +would otherwise have perished were preserved, and in return for this +preservation they paid a tax or rent on their farm-lands to the amount +of one-fifth of their produce. The people ceased to be proprietors of +their own farms, but they were not slaves with no interest in the soil, +but tenants sitting at easy rents--a fair enough exchange for being +preserved in life. This kind of taxation is eminently fair in principle, +securing, as it does, that the wealth of the king and government shall +vary with the prosperity of the whole land. The chief difficulty that +has always been experienced in working it, has arisen from the necessity +of leaving a good deal of discretionary power in the hands of the +collectors, who have generally been found not slow to abuse this power. + +The only semblance of despotism in Joseph's policy is found in the +curious circumstance that he interfered with the people's choice of +residence, and shifted them from one end of the land to another. This +may have been necessary not only as a kind of seal on the deed by which +the lands were conveyed to the king, and as a significant sign to them +that they were mere tenants, but also Joseph probably saw that for the +interests of the country, if not of agricultural prosperity, this +shifting had become necessary for the breaking up of illegal +associations, nests of sedition, and sectional prejudices and enmities +which were endangering the community.[1] Modern experience supplies us +with instances in which, by such a policy, a country might be +regenerated and a seven years' famine hailed as a blessing if, without +famishing the people, it put them unconditionally into the hands of an +able, bold, and beneficent ruler. And this was a policy which could be +much better devised and executed by a foreigner than by a native. + +Egypt's indebtedness to Joseph was, in fact, two-fold. In the first +place he succeeded in doing what many strong governments have failed to +do: he enabled a large population to survive a long and severe famine. +Even with all modern facilities for transport and for making the +abundance of remote countries available for times of scarcity, it has +not always been found possible to save our own fellow-subjects from +starvation. In a prolonged famine which occurred in Egypt during the +middle ages, the inhabitants, reduced to the unnatural habits which are +the most painful feature of such times, not only ate their own dead, but +kidnapped the living on the streets of Cairo and consumed them in +secret. One of the most touching memorials of the famine with which +Joseph had to deal is found in a sepulchral inscription in Arabia. A +flood of rain laid bare a tomb in which lay a woman having on her person +a profusion of jewels which represented a very large value. At her head +stood a coffer filled with treasure, and a tablet with this inscription: +"In Thy name, O God, the God of Himyar, I, Tayar, the daughter of Dzu +Shefar, sent my steward to Joseph, and he delaying to return to me, I +sent my handmaid with a measure of silver to bring me back a measure of +flour; and not being able to procure it, I sent her with a measure of +gold; and not being able to procure it, I sent her with a measure of +pearls; and not being able to procure it, I commanded them to be ground; +and finding no profit in them, I am shut up here." If this inscription +is genuine--and there seems no reason to call it in question--it shows +that there is no exaggeration in the statement of our narrator that the +famine was very grievous in other lands as well as in Egypt. And, +whether genuine or not, one cannot but admire the grim humour of the +starving woman getting herself buried in the jewels which had suddenly +dropped to less than the value of a loaf of bread. + +But besides being indebted to Joseph for their preservation, the +Egyptians owed to him an extension of their influence; for, as all the +lands round about became dependent on Egypt for provision, they must +have contracted a respect for the Egyptian administration. They must +also have added greatly to Egypt's wealth and during those years of +constant traffic many commercial connections must have been formed which +in future years would be of untold value to Egypt. But above all, the +permanent alterations made by Joseph on their tenure of land, and on +their places of abode, may have convinced the most sagacious of the +Egyptians that it was well for them that their money had failed, and +that they had been compelled to yield themselves unconditionally into +the hands of this remarkable ruler. It is the mark of a competent +statesman that he makes temporary distress the occasion for permanent +benefit; and from the confidence Joseph won with the people, there seems +every reason to believe that the permanent alterations he introduced +were considered as beneficial as certainly they were bold. + +And for our own spiritual uses it is this point which seems chiefly +important. In Joseph is illustrated the principle that, in order to the +attainment of certain blessings, unconditional submission to God's +delegate is required. If we miss this, we miss a large part of what his +history exhibits, and it becomes a mere pretty story. The prominent idea +in his dreams was that he was to be worshipped by his brethren. In his +exaltation by Pharaoh, the absolute authority given to him is again +conspicuous: "Without thee shall no man lift up hand or foot in all the +land of Egypt." And still the same autocracy appears in the fact that +not one Egyptian who was helpful to him in this matter is mentioned; and +no one has received such exclusive possession of a considerable part of +Scripture, so personal and outstanding a place. All this leaves upon the +mind the impression that Joseph becomes a benefactor, and in his degree +a saviour, to men by becoming their absolute master. When this was +hinted in his dreams at first his brothers fiercely resented it. But +when they were put to the push by famine, both they and the Egyptians +recognised that he was appointed by God to be their saviour, while at +the same time they markedly and consciously submitted themselves to him. +Men may always be expected to recognise that he who can save them alive +in famine has a right to order the bounds of their habitation; and also +that in the hands of one who, from disinterested motives, has saved +them, they are likely to be quite as safe as in their own. And if we are +all quite sure of this, that men of great political sagacity can +regulate our affairs with tenfold the judgment and success that we +ourselves could achieve, we cannot wonder that in matters still higher, +and for which we are notoriously incompetent, there should be One into +whose hands it is well to commit ourselves--One whose judgment is not +warped by the prejudices which blind all mere natives of this world, but +who, separate from sinners yet naturalised among us, can both detect and +rectify everything in our condition which is less than perfect. If there +are certainly many cases in which explanations are out of the question, +and in which the governed, if they are wise, will yield themselves to a +trusted authority, and leave it to time and results to justify his +measures, any one, I think, who anxiously considers our spiritual +condition must see that here too obedience is for us the greater part of +wisdom, and that, after all speculation and efforts at sufficing +investigation, we can still do no better than yield ourselves absolutely +to Jesus Christ. He alone understands our whole position; He alone +speaks with the authority that commands confidence, because it is felt +to be the authority of the truth. We feel the present pressure of +famine; we have discernment enough, some of us, to know we are in +danger, but we cannot penetrate deeply either into the cause or the +possible consequences of our present state. But Christ--if we may +continue the figure--legislates with a breadth of administrative +capacity which includes not only our present distress but our future +condition, and, with the boldness of one who is master of the whole +case, requires that we put ourselves wholly into His hand. He takes the +responsibility of all the changes we make in obedience to Him, and +proposes so to relieve us that the relief shall be permanent, and that +the very emergency which has thrown us upon His help shall be the +occasion of our transference not merely out of the present evil, but +into the best possible form of human life. + +From this chapter, then, in the history of Joseph, we may reasonably +take occasion to remind ourselves, first, that in all things pertaining +to God unconditional submission to Christ is necessarily required of us. +Apart from Christ we cannot tell what are the necessary elements of a +permanently happy state; nor, indeed, even whether there is any such +state awaiting us. There is a great deal of truth in what is urged by +unbelievers to the effect that spiritual matters are in great measure +beyond our cognizance, and that many of our religious phrases are but, +as it were, thrown out in the direction of a truth but do not perfectly +represent it. No doubt we are in a provisional state, in which we are +not in direct contact with the absolute truth, nor in a final attitude +of mind towards it; and certain representations of things given in the +Word of God may seem to us not to cover the whole truth. But this only +compels the conclusion that for us Christ is the way, the truth, and the +life. To probe existence to the bottom is plainly not in our power. To +say precisely what God is, and how we are to carry ourselves towards +Him, is possible only to him who has been with God and is God. To submit +to the Spirit of Christ, and to live under those influences and views +which formed His life, is the only method that promises deliverance from +that moral condition which makes spiritual vision impossible. + +We may remind ourselves, secondly, that this submission to Christ should +be consistently adhered to in connection with those outward occurrences +in our life which give us opportunity of enlarging our spiritual +capacity. There can be little doubt that there would be presented to +Joseph many a plan for the better administration of this whole matter, +and many a petition from individuals craving exemption from the +seemingly arbitrary and certainly painful and troublesome edict +regulating change of residence. Many a man would think himself much +wiser than the minister of Pharaoh in whom was the Spirit of God. When +we act in a similar manner, and take upon us to specify with precision +the changes we should like to see in our condition, and the methods by +which these changes might best be accomplished, we commonly manifest our +own incompetence. The changes which the strong hand of Providence +enforces, the dislocation which our life suffers from some irresistible +blow, the necessity laid upon us to begin life again and on apparently +disadvantageous terms, are naturally resented; but these things being +certainly the result of some unguardedness, improvidence, or weakness in +our past state, are necessarily the means most appropriate for +disclosing to us these elements of calamity and for securing our +permanent welfare. We rebel against such perilous and sweeping +revolutions as the basing of our life on a new foundation demands; we +would disregard the appointments of Providence if we could; but both +our voluntary consent to the authority of Christ and the impossibility +of resisting His providential arrangements, prevent us from refusing to +fall in with them, however needless and tyrannical they seem, and +however little we perceive that they are intended to accomplish our +permanent well-being. And it is in after years, when the pain of +severance from old friends and habits is healed, and when the discomfort +of adapting ourselves to a new kind of life is replaced by peaceful and +docile resignation to new conditions, that we reach the clear perception +that the changes we resented have in point of fact rendered harmless the +seeds of fresh disaster, and rescued us from the results of long bad +government. He who has most keenly felt the hardship of being diverted +from his original course in life, will in after life tell you that had +he been allowed to hold his own land, and remain his own master in his +old loved abode, he would have lapsed into a condition from which no +worthy harvest could be expected. If a man only wishes that his own +conceptions of prosperity be realised, then let him keep his land in his +own hand and work his material irrespective of God's demands; for +certainly if he yields himself to God, his own ideas of prosperity will +not be realised. But if he suspects that God may have a more liberal +conception of prosperity and may understand better than he what is +eternally beneficial, let him commit himself and all his material of +prosperity without doubting into God's hand, and let him greedily obey +all God's precepts; for in neglecting one of these, he so far neglects +and misses what God would have him enter into. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] "It happened very often that the inhabitants of one district +threatened an attack on the occupants of another on account of some +dispute about divine or human questions. The hostile feelings of the +opponents not unfrequently broke out into a hard struggle, and it +required the whole armed power of the king to extinguish at its first +outburst the flaming torch of war, kindled by domineering chiefs of +nomes or ambitious priests."--Brugsch, _History of Egypt_, i. 16. + + + + +XXIX. + +_VISITS OF JOSEPH'S BRETHREN._ + +GEN. xlii.-xliv. + + "Fear not: for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought + evil against me; but God meant it unto good."--GEN. 1. 19, 20. + + +The purpose of God to bring Israel into Egypt was accomplished by the +unconscious agency of Joseph's natural affection for his kindred. +Tenderness towards home is usually increased by residence in a foreign +land; for absence, like a little death, sheds a halo round those +separated from us. But Joseph could not as yet either re-visit his old +home or invite his father's family into Egypt. Even, indeed, when his +brothers first appeared before him, he seems to have had no immediate +intention of inviting them as a family to settle in the country of his +adoption, or even to visit it. If he had cherished any such purpose or +desire he might have sent down wagons at once, as he at last did, to +bring his father's household out of Canaan. Why, then, did he proceed so +cautiously? Whence this mystery, and disguise, and circuitous compassing +of his end? What intervened between the first and last visit of his +brethren to make it seem advisable to disclose himself and invite them? +Manifestly there had intervened enough to give Joseph insight into the +state of mind his brethren were in, enough to satisfy him they were not +the men they had been, and that it was safe to ask them and would be +pleasant to have them with him in Egypt. Fully alive to the elements of +disorder and violence that once existed among them, and having had no +opportunity of ascertaining whether they were now altered, there was no +course open but that which he adopted of endeavouring in some unobserved +way to discover whether twenty years had wrought any change in them. + +For effecting this object he fell on the expedient of imprisoning them, +on pretence of their being spies. This served the double purpose of +detaining them until he should have made up his mind as to the best +means of dealing with them, and of securing their retention under his +eye until some display of character might sufficiently certify him of +their state of mind. Possibly he adopted this expedient also because it +was likely deeply to move them, so that they might be expected to +exhibit not such superficial feelings as might have been elicited had he +set them down to a banquet and entered into conversation with them over +their wine, but such as men are surprised to find in themselves, and +know nothing of in their lighter hours. Joseph was, of course, well +aware that in the analysis of character the most potent elements are +only brought into clear view when the test of severe trouble is applied, +and when men are thrown out of all conventional modes of thinking and +speaking. + +The display of character which Joseph awaited he speedily obtained. For +so new an experience to these free dwellers in tents as imprisonment +under grim Egyptian guards worked wonders in them. Men who have +experienced such treatment aver that nothing more effectually tames and +breaks the spirit: it is not the being confined for a definite time +with the certainty of release in the end, but the being shut up at the +caprice of another on a false and absurd accusation; the being cooped up +at the will of a stranger in a foreign country, uncertain and hopeless +of release. To Joseph's brethren so sudden and great a calamity seemed +explicable only on the theory that it was retribution for the great +crime of their life. The uneasy feeling which each of them had hidden in +his own conscience, and which the lapse of twenty years had not +materially alleviated, finds expression: "And they said one to another, +We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish +of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is +this distress come upon us." The similarity of their position to that in +which they had placed their brother stimulates and assists their +conscience. Joseph, in the anguish of his soul, had protested his +innocence, but they had not listened; and now their own protestations +are treated as idle wind by this Egyptian. Their own feelings, +representing to them what they had caused Joseph to suffer, stir a +keener sense of their guilt than they seem ever before to have reached. +Under this new light they see their sin more clearly, and are humbled by +the distress into which it has brought them. + +When Joseph sees this, his heart warms to them. He may not yet be quite +sure of them. A prison-repentance is perhaps scarcely to be trusted. He +sees they would for the moment deal differently with him had they the +opportunity, and would welcome no one more heartily than himself, whose +coming among them had once so exasperated them. Himself keen in his +affections, he is deeply moved, and his eyes fill with tears as he +witnesses their emotion and grief on his account. Fain would he relieve +them from their remorse and apprehension--why, then, does he forbear? +Why does he not at this juncture disclose himself? It has been +satisfactorily proved that his brethren counted their sale of him the +great crime of their life. Their imprisonment has elicited evidence that +that crime had taken in their conscience the capital place, the place +which a man finds some one sin or series of sins will take, to follow +him with its appropriate curse, and hang over his future like a cloud--a +sin of which he thinks when any strange thing happens to him, and to +which he traces all disaster--a sin so iniquitous that it seems capable +of producing any results however grievous, and to which he has so given +himself that his life seems to be concentrated there, and he cannot but +connect with it all the greater ills that happen to him. Was not this, +then, security enough that they would never again perpetrate a crime of +like atrocity? Every man who has almost at all observed the history of +sin in himself, will say that most certainly it was quite insufficient +security against their ever again doing the like. Evidence that a man is +conscious of his sin, and, while suffering from its consequences, feels +deeply its guilt, is not evidence that his character is altered. + +And because we believe men so much more readily than God, and think that +they do not require, for form's sake, such needless pledges of a changed +character as God seems to demand, it is worth observing that Joseph, +moved as he was even to tears, felt that common prudence forbade him to +commit himself to his brethren without further evidence of their +disposition. They had distinctly acknowledged their guilt, and in his +hearing had admitted that the great calamity that had befallen them was +no more than they deserved; yet Joseph, judging merely as an +intelligent man who had worldly interests depending on his judgment, +could not discern enough here to justify him in supposing that his +brethren were changed men. And it might sometimes serve to expose the +insufficiency of our repentance were clear-seeing men the judges of it, +and did they express their opinion of its trustworthiness. We may think +that God is needlessly exacting when He requires evidence not only of a +changed mind about past sin, but also of such a mind being now in us as +will preserve us from future sin; but the truth is, that no man whose +common worldly interests were at stake would commit himself to us on any +less evidence. God, then, meaning to bring the house of Israel into +Egypt in order to make progress in the Divine education He was giving to +them, could not introduce them into that land in a state of mind which +would negative all the discipline they were there to receive. + +These men then had to give evidence that they not only saw, and in some +sense repented of, their sin, but also that they had got rid of the evil +passion which had led to it. This is what God means by repentance. Our +sins are in general not so microscopic that it requires very keen +spiritual discernment to perceive them. But to be quite aware of our +sin, and to acknowledge it, is not to repent of it. Everything falls +short of thorough repentance which does not prevent us from committing +the sin anew. We do not so much desire to be accurately informed about +our past sins, and to get right views of our past selves; we wish to be +no longer sinners, we wish to pass through some process by which we may +be separated from that in us which has led us into sin. Such a process +there is, for these men passed through it. + +The test which revealed the thoroughness of his brothers' repentance was +unintentionally applied by Joseph. When he hid his cup in Benjamin's +sack, all that he intended was to furnish a pretext for detaining +Benjamin, and so gratifying his own affection. But, to his astonishment, +his trick effected far more than he intended; for the brothers, +recognising now their brotherhood, circled round Benjamin, and, to a +man, resolved to go back with him to Egypt. We cannot argue from this +that Joseph had misapprehended the state of mind in which his brothers +were, and in his judgment of them had been either too timorous or too +severe; nor need we suppose that he was hampered by his relations to +Pharaoh, and therefore unwilling to connect himself too closely with men +of whom he might be safer to be rid; because it was this very peril of +Benjamin's that matured their brotherly affection. They themselves could +not have anticipated that they would make such a sacrifice for Benjamin. +But throughout their dealings with this mysterious Egyptian, they felt +themselves under a spell, and were being gradually, though perhaps +unconsciously, softened, and in order to complete the change passing +upon them, they but required some such incident as this of Benjamin's +arrest. This incident seemed by some strange fatality to threaten them +with a renewed perpetration of the very crime they had committed against +Rachel's other son. It threatened to force them to become again the +instrument of bereaving their father of his darling child, and bringing +about that very calamity which they had pledged themselves should never +happen. It was an incident, therefore, which, more than any other, was +likely to call out their family love. + +The scene lives in every one's memory. They were going gladly back to +their own country with corn enough for their children, proud of their +entertainment by the lord of Egypt; anticipating their father's +exultation when he heard how generously they had been treated and when +he saw Benjamin safely restored, feeling that in bringing him back they +almost compensated for having bereaved him of Joseph. Simeon is +revelling in the free air that blew from Canaan and brought with it the +scents of his native land, and breaks into the old songs that the strait +confinement of his prison had so long silenced--all of them together +rejoicing in a scarcely hoped-for success; when suddenly, ere the first +elation is spent, they are startled to see the hasty approach of the +Egyptian messenger, and to hear the stern summons that brought them to a +halt, and boded all ill. The few words of the just Egyptian, and his +calm, explicit judgment, "Ye have done evil in so doing," pierce them +like a keen blade--that they should be suspected of robbing one who had +dealt so generously with them; that all Israel should be put to shame in +the sight of the stranger! But they begin to feel relief as one brother +after another steps forward with the boldness of innocence; and as sack +after sack is emptied, shaken, and flung aside, they already eye the +steward with the bright air of triumph; when, as the very last sack is +emptied, and as all breathlessly stand round, amid the quick rustle of +the corn, the sharp rattle of metal strikes on their ear, and the gleam +of silver dazzles their eyes as the cup rolls out in the sunshine. This, +then, is the brother of whom their father was so careful that he dared +not suffer him out of his sight! This is the precious youth whose life +was of more value than the lives of all the brethren, and to keep whom a +few months longer in his father's sight Simeon had been left to rot in a +dungeon! This is how he repays the anxiety of the family and their love, +and this is how he repays the extraordinary favour of Joseph! By one +rash childish act had this fondled youth, to all appearance, brought +upon the house of Israel irretrievable disgrace, if not complete +extinction. Had these men been of their old temper, their knives had +very speedily proved that their contempt for the deed was as great as +the Egyptian's; by violence towards Benjamin they might have cleared +themselves of all suspicion of complicity; or, at the best, they might +have considered themselves to be acting in a fair and even lenient +manner if they had surrendered the culprit to the steward, and once +again carried back to their father a tale of blood. But they were under +the spell of their old sin. In all disaster, however innocent they now +were, they saw the retribution of their old iniquity; they seem scarcely +to consider whether Benjamin was innocent or guilty, but as humbled, +God-smitten men, "they rent their clothes, and laded every man his ass, +and returned to the city." + +Thus Joseph in seeking to gain _one_ brother found eleven--for now there +could be no doubt that they were very different men from those brethren +who had so heartlessly sold into slavery their father's favourite--men +now with really brotherly feelings, by penitence and regard for their +father so wrought together into one family, that this calamity, intended +to fall only on one of their number, did in falling on him fall on them +all. So far from wishing now to rid themselves of Rachel's son and their +father's favourite, who had been put by their father in so prominent a +place in his affection, they will not even give him up to suffer what +seemed the just punishment of his theft, do not even reproach him with +having brought them all into disgrace and difficulty, but, as humbled +men who knew they had greater sins of their own to answer for, went +quietly back to Egypt, determined to see their younger brother through +his misfortune or to share his bondage with him. Had these men not been +thoroughly changed, thoroughly convinced that at all costs upright +dealing and brotherly love should continue; had they not possessed that +first and last of Christian virtues, love to their brother, then nothing +could so certainly have revealed their want of it as this apparent theft +of Benjamin's. It seemed in itself a very likely thing that a lad +accustomed to plain modes of life, and whose character it was to "ravin +as a wolf," should, when suddenly introduced to the gorgeous Egyptian +banqueting-house with all its sumptuous furnishings, have coveted some +choice specimen of Egyptian art, to carry home to his father as proof +that he could not only bring himself back in safety, but scorned to come +back from any expedition empty-handed. It was not unlikely either that, +with his mother's own superstition, he might have conceived the bold +design of robbing this Egyptian, so mysterious and so powerful, +according to his brothers' account, and of breaking that spell which he +had thrown over them; he may thus have conceived the idea of achieving +for himself a reputation in the family, and of once for all redeeming +himself from the somewhat undignified, and to one of his spirit somewhat +uncongenial, position of the youngest of a family. If, as is possible, +he had let any such idea ooze out in talking with his brethren as they +went down to Egypt, and only abandoned it on their indignant and urgent +remonstrance, then when the cup, Joseph's chief treasure according to +his own account, was discovered in Benjamin's sack, the case must have +looked sadly against him even in the eyes of his brethren. No +protestations of innocence in a particular instance avail much when the +character and general habits of the accused point to guilt. It is quite +possible, therefore, that the brethren, though willing to believe +Benjamin, were yet not so thoroughly convinced of his innocence as they +would have desired. The fact that they themselves had found their money +returned in their sacks, made for Benjamin; yet in most cases, +especially where circumstances corroborate it, an accusation even +against the innocent takes immediate hold and cannot be summarily and at +once got rid of. + +Thus was proof given that the house of Israel was now in truth one +family. The men who, on very slight instigation, had without compunction +sold Joseph to a life of slavery, cannot now find it in their heart to +abandon a brother who, to all appearance, was worthy of no better life +than that of a slave, and who had brought them all into disgrace and +danger. Judah had no doubt pledged himself to bring the lad back without +scathe to his father, but he had done so without contemplating the +possibility of Benjamin becoming amenable to Egyptian law. And no one +can read the speech of Judah--one of the most pathetic on record--in +which he replies to Joseph's judgment that Benjamin alone should remain +in Egypt, without perceiving that he speaks not as one who merely seeks +to redeem a pledge, but as a good son and a good brother. He speaks, +too, as the mouth-piece of the rest, and as he had taken the lead in +Joseph's sale, so he does not shrink from standing forward and +accepting the heavy responsibility which may now light upon the man who +represents these brethren. His former faults are redeemed by the +courage, one may say heroism, he now shows. And as he spoke, so the rest +felt. They could not bring themselves to inflict a new sorrow on their +aged father; neither could they bear to leave their young brother in the +hands of strangers. The passions which had alienated them from one +another, and had threatened to break up the family, are subdued. There +is now discernible a common feeling that binds them together, and a +common object for which they willingly sacrifice themselves. They are, +therefore, now prepared to pass into that higher school to which God +called them in Egypt. It mattered little what strong and equitable laws +they found in the land of their adoption, if they had no taste for +upright living; it mattered little what thorough national organization +they would be brought into contact with in Egypt, if in point of fact +they owned no common brotherhood, and were willing rather to live as +units and every man for himself than for any common interest. But now +they were prepared, open to teaching, and docile. + +To complete our apprehension of the state of mind into which the +brethren were brought by Joseph's treatment of them, we must take into +account the assurance he gave them, when he made himself known to them, +that it was not they but God who had sent him into Egypt, and that God +had done this for the purpose of preserving the whole house of Israel. +At first sight this might seem to be an injudicious speech, calculated +to make the brethren think lightly of their guilt, and to remove the +just impressions they now entertained of the unbrotherliness of their +conduct to Joseph. And it might have been an injudicious speech to +impenitent men; but no further view of sin can lighten its heinousness +to a really penitent sinner. Prove to him that his sin has become the +means of untold good, and you only humble him the more, and more deeply +convince him that while he was recklessly gratifying himself and +sacrificing others for his own pleasure, God has been mindful of others, +and, pardoning him, has blessed them. God does not need our sins to work +out His good intentions, but we give Him little other material; and the +discovery that through our evil purposes and injurious deeds God has +worked out His beneficent will, is certainly not calculated to make us +think more lightly of our sin or more highly of ourselves. + +Joseph in thus addressing his brethren did, in fact, but add to their +feelings the tenderness that is in all religious conviction, and that +springs out of the consciousness that in all our sin there has been with +us a holy and loving Father, mindful of His children. This is the final +stage of penitence. The knowledge that God has prevented our sin from +doing the harm it might have done, does relieve the bitterness and +despair with which we view our life, but at the same time it strengthens +the most effectual bulwark between us and sin--love to a holy, +over-ruling God. This, therefore, may always be safely said to +penitents: Out of your worst sin God can bring good to yourself or to +others, and good of an apparently necessary kind; but good of a +permanent kind can result from your sin only when you have truly +repented of it, and sincerely wish you had never done it. Once this +repentance is really wrought in you, then, though your life can never be +the same as it might have been had you not sinned, it may be, in some +respects, a more richly developed life, a life fuller of humility and +love. You can never have what you sold for your sin; but the poverty +your sin has brought may excite within you thoughts and energies more +valuable than what you have lost, as these men lost a brother but found +a Saviour. The wickedness that has often made you bow your head and +mourn in secret, and which is in itself unutterable shame and loss, may, +in God's hand, become food against the day of famine. You cannot ever +have the enjoyments which are possible only to those whose conscience is +laden with no evil remembrances, and whose nature, uncontracted and +unwithered by familiarity with sin, can give itself to enjoyment with +the abandonment and fearlessness reserved for the innocent. No more at +all will you have that fineness of feeling which only ignorance of evil +can preserve; no more that high and great conscientiousness which, once +broken, is never repaired; no more that respect from other men which for +ever and instinctively departs from those who have lost self-respect. +But you may have a more intelligent sympathy with other men and a keener +pity for them; the experience you have gathered too late to save +yourself may put it in your power to be of essential service to others. +You cannot win your way back to the happy, useful, evenly-developed life +of the comparatively innocent, but the life of the true-hearted penitent +is yet open to you. Every beat of your heart now may be as if it +throbbed against a poisoned dagger, every duty may shame you, every day +bring weariness and new humiliation, but let no pain or discouragement +avail to defraud you of the good fruits of true reconciliation to God +and submission to His lifelong discipline. See that you lose not both +lives, the life of the comparatively innocent and the life of the truly +penitent. + + + + +XXX. + +_THE RECONCILIATION._ + +GEN. xlv. + + "By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the + children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his + bones."--HEB. xi. 22. + + +It is generally by some circumstance or event which perplexes, troubles, +or gladdens us, that new thoughts regarding conduct are presented to us, +and new impulses communicated to our life. And the circumstances through +which Joseph's brethren passed during the famine not only subdued and +softened them to a genuine family feeling, but elicited in Joseph +himself a more tender affection for them than he seems at first to have +cherished. For the first time since his entrance into Egypt did he feel, +when Judah spoke so touchingly and effectively, that the family of +Israel was one; and that he himself would be reprehensible did he make +further breaches in it by carrying out his intention of detaining +Benjamin. Moved by Judah's pathetic appeal, and yielding to the generous +impulse of the moment, and being led by a right state of feeling to a +right judgment regarding duty, he claimed his brethren as brethren, and +proposed that the whole family be brought into Egypt. + +The scene in which the sacred writer describes the reconciliation of +Joseph and his brothers is one of the most touching on record;--the long +estrangement so happily terminated; the caution, the doubts, the +hesitation on Joseph's part, swept away at last by the resistless tide +of long pent-up emotion; the surprise and perplexity of the brethren as +they dared now to lift their eyes and scrutinize the face of the +governor, and discerned the lighter complexion of the Hebrew, the +features of the family of Jacob, the expression of their own brother; +the anxiety with which they wait to know how he means to repay their +crime, and the relief with which they hear that he bears them no +ill-will--everything, in short, conduces to render this recognition of +the brethren interesting and affecting. That Joseph, who had controlled +his feeling in many a trying situation, should now have "wept aloud," +needs no explanation. Tears always express a mingled feeling; at least +the tears of a man do. They may express grief, but it is grief with some +remorse in it, or it is grief passing into resignation. They may express +joy, but it is joy born of long sorrow, the joy of deliverance, joy that +can now afford to let the heart weep out the fears it has been holding +down. It is as with a kind of breaking of the heart, and apparent +unmanning of the man, that the human soul takes possession of its +greatest treasures; unexpected success and unmerited joy humble a man; +and as laughter expresses the surprise of the intellect, so tears +express the amazement of the soul when it is stormed suddenly by a great +joy. Joseph had been hardening himself to lead a solitary life in Egypt, +and it is with all this strong self-sufficiency breaking down within him +that he eyes his brethren. It is his love for them making its way +through all his ability to do without them, and sweeping away as a +flood the bulwarks he had built round his heart,--it is this that breaks +him down before them, a man conquered by his own love, and unable to +control it. It compels him to make himself known, and to possess himself +of its objects, those unconscious brethren. It is a signal instance of +the law by which love brings all the best and holiest beings into +contact with their inferiors, and, in a sense, puts them in their power, +and thus eternally provides that the superiority of those that are high +in the scale of being shall ever be at the service of those who in +themselves are not so richly endowed. The higher any being is, the more +love is in him: that is to say, the higher he is, the more surely is he +bound to all who are beneath him. If God is highest of all, it is +because there is in Him sufficiency for all His creatures, and love to +make it universally available. + +It is one of our most familiar intellectual pleasures to see in the +experience of others, or to read, a lucid and moving account of emotions +identical with those which have once been our own. In reading an account +of what others have passed through, our pleasure is derived mainly from +two sources--either from our being brought, by sympathy with them and in +imagination, into circumstances we ourselves have never been placed in, +and thus artificially enlarging our sphere of life, and adding to our +experience feelings which could not have been derived from anything we +ourselves have met with; or, from our living over again, by means of +their experience, a part of our life which had great interest and +meaning to us. It may be excusable, therefore, if we divert this +narrative from its original historical significance, and use it as the +mirror in which we may see reflected an important passage or crisis in +our own spiritual history. For though some may find in it little that +reflects their own experience, others cannot fail to be reminded of +feelings with which they were very familiar when first they were +introduced to Christ, and acknowledged by Him. + +1. The modes in which our Lord makes Himself known to men are various as +their lives and characters. But frequently the forerunning choice of a +sinner by Christ is discovered in such gradual and ill-understood +dealings as Joseph used with those brethren. It is the closing of a net +around them. They do not see what is driving them forward, nor whither +they are being driven; they are anxious and ill at ease; and not +comprehending what ails them, they make only ineffectual efforts for +deliverance. There is no recognition of the hand that is guiding all +this circuitous and mysterious preparatory work, nor of the eye that +affectionately watches their perplexity, nor are they aware of any +friendly ear that catches each sigh in which they seem hopelessly to +resign themselves to the relentless past from which they cannot escape. +They feel that they are left alone to make what they can now of the life +they have chosen and made for themselves; that there is floating behind +and around them a cloud bearing the very essence exhaled from their +past, and ready to burst over them; a phantom that is yet real, and that +belongs both to the spiritual and material world, and can follow them in +either. They seem to be doomed men--men who are never at all to get +disentangled from their old sin. + +If any one is in this baffled and heartless condition, fearing even good +lest it turn to evil in his hand; afraid to take the money that lies in +his sack's mouth, because he feels there is a snare in it; if any one is +sensible that life has become unmanageable in his hands, and that he is +being drawn on by an unseen power which he does not understand, then let +him consider in the scene before us how such a condition ends or may +end. It took many months of doubt, and fear, and mystery to bring those +brethren to such a state of mind as made it advisable for Joseph to +disclose himself, to scatter the mystery, and relieve them of the +unaccountable uneasiness that possessed their minds. And your perplexity +will not be allowed to last longer than it is needful. But it is often +needful that we should first learn that in sinning we have introduced +into our life a baffling, perplexing element, have brought our life into +connection with inscrutable laws which we cannot control, and which we +feel may at any moment destroy us utterly. It is not from carelessness +on Christ's part that His people are not always and from the first +rejoicing in the assurance and appreciation of His love. It is His +carefulness which lays a restraining hand on the ardour of His +affection. We see that this burst of tears on Joseph's part was genuine, +we have no suspicion that he was feigning an emotion he did not feel; we +believe that his affection at last could not be restrained, that he was +fairly overcome,--can we not trust Christ for as genuine a love, and +believe that His emotion is as deep? We are, in a word, reminded by this +scene, that there is always in Christ a greater love seeking the +friendship of the sinner than there is in the sinner seeking for Christ. +The search of the sinner for Christ is always a dubious, hesitating, +uncertain groping; while on Christ's part there is a clear-seeing, +affectionate solicitude which lays joyful surprises along the sinner's +path, and enjoys by anticipation the gladness and repose which are +prepared for him in the final recognition and reconcilement. + +2. In finding their brother again, those sons of Jacob found also their +own better selves which they had long lost. They had been living in a +lie, unable to look the past in the face, and so becoming more and more +false. Trying to leave their sin behind them, they always found it +rising in the path before them, and again they had to resort to some new +mode of laying this uneasy ghost. They turned away from it, busied +themselves among other people, refused to think of it, assumed all kinds +of disguise, professed to themselves that they had done no great wrong; +but nothing gave them deliverance--there was their old sin quietly +waiting for them in their tent door when they went home of an evening, +laying its hand on their shoulder in the most unlooked-for places, and +whispering in their ear at the most unwelcome seasons. A great part of +their mental energy had been spent in deleting this mark from their +memory, and yet day by day it resumed its supreme place in their life, +holding them under arrest as they secretly felt, and keeping them +reserved to judgment. + +So, too, do many of us live as if yet we had not found the life eternal, +the kind of life that we can always go on with--rather as those who are +but making the best of a life which can never be very valuable, nor ever +perfect. There seem voices calling us back, assuring us we must yet +retrace our steps, that there are passages in our past with which we are +not done, that there is an inevitable humiliation and penitence awaiting +us. It is through that we can alone get back to the good we once saw and +hoped for; there were right desires and resolves in us once, views of a +well-spent life which have been forgotten and pressed out of +remembrance, but all these rise again in the presence of Christ. +Reconciled to Him and claimed by Him, all hope is renewed within us. If +He makes Himself known to us, if He claims connection with us, have we +not here the promise of all good? If He, after careful scrutiny, after +full consideration of all the circumstances, bids us claim as our +brother Him to whom all power and glory are given, ought not this to +quicken within us everything that is hopeful, and ought it not to +strengthen us for all frank acknowledgment of the past and true +humiliation on account of it? + +3. A third suggestion is made by this narrative. Joseph commanded from +his presence all who might be merely curious spectators of his burst of +feeling, and might, themselves unmoved, criticise this new feature of +the governor's character. In all love there is a similar reserve. The +true friend of Christ, the man who is profoundly conscious that between +himself and Christ there is a bond unique and eternal, longs for a time +when he may enjoy greater liberty in uttering what he feels towards his +Lord and Redeemer, and when, too, Christ Himself shall by telling and +sufficient signs put it for ever beyond doubt that this love is more +than responded to. Words sufficiently impassioned have indeed been put +into our lips by men of profound spiritual feeling, but the feeling +continually weighs upon us that some more palpable mutual recognition is +desirable between persons so vitally and peculiarly knit together as +Christ and the Christian are. Such recognition, indubitable and +reciprocal, must one day take place. And when Christ Himself shall have +taken the initiative, and shall have caused us to understand that we are +verily the objects of His love, and shall have given such expression to +His knowledge of us as we cannot now receive, we on our part shall be +able to reciprocate, or at least to accept, this greatest of +possessions, the brotherly love of the Son of God. Meanwhile this +passage in Joseph's history may remind us that behind all sternness of +expression there may pulsate a tenderness that needs thus to disguise +itself; and that to those who have not yet recognised Christ, He is +better than He seems. Those brethren no doubt wonder now that even +twenty years' alienation should have so blinded them. The relaxation of +the expression from the sternness of an Egyptian governor to the +fondness of family love, the voice heard now in the familiar mother +tongue, reveal the brother; and they who have shrunk from Christ as if +He were a cold official, and who have never lifted their eyes to +scrutinize His face, are reminded that He can so make Himself known to +them that not all the wealth of Egypt would purchase from them one of +the assurances they have received from Him. + +The same warm tide of feeling which carried away all that separated +Joseph from his brethren bore him on also to the decision to invite his +father's entire household into Egypt. We are reminded that the history +of Joseph in Egypt is an episode, and that Jacob is still the head of +the house, maintaining its dignity and guiding its movements. The +notices we get of him in this latter part of his history are very +characteristic. The indomitable toughness of his youth remained with him +in his old age. He was one of those old men who maintain their vigour to +the end, the energy of whose age seems to shame and overtax the prime of +common men; whose minds are still the clearest, their advice the safest, +their word waited for, their perception of the actual state of affairs +always in advance of their juniors, more modern and fully abreast of the +times in their ideas than the latest born of their children. Such an +old age we recognise in Jacob's half-scornful chiding of the +helplessness of his sons even after they had heard that there was corn +in Egypt. "Why look ye one upon another? Behold! I have heard that there +is corn in Egypt; get ye down thither and buy for us from thence." +Jacob, the man who had wrestled through life and bent all things to his +will, cannot put up with the helpless dejection of this troop of strong +men, who have no wit to devise an escape for themselves, and no +resolution to enforce upon the others any device that may occur to them. +Waiting still like children for some one else to help them, having +strength to endure but no strength to undertake the responsibility of +advising in an emergency, they are roused by their father, who has been +eyeing this condition of theirs with some curiosity and with some +contempt, and now breaks in upon it with his "Why look ye one upon +another?" It is the old Jacob, full of resources, prompt and +imperturbable, equal to every turn of fortune, and never knowing how to +yield. + +Even more clearly do we see the vigour of Jacob's old age when he comes +in contact with Joseph. For many years Joseph had been accustomed to +command; he had unusual natural sagacity and a special gift of insight +from God, but he seems a child in comparison with Jacob. When he brings +his two sons to get their grandfather's blessing, Jacob sees what Joseph +has no inkling of, and peremptorily declines to follow the advice of his +wise son. With all Joseph's sagacity there were points in which his +blind father saw more clearly than he. Joseph, who could teach the +Egyptian senators wisdom, standing thus at a loss even to understand his +father, and suggesting in his ignorance futile corrections, is a picture +of the incapacity of natural affection to rise to the wisdom of God's +love, and of the finest natural discernment to anticipate God's purposes +or supply the place of a lifelong experience. + +Jacob's warm-heartedness has also survived the chills and shocks of a +long lifetime. He clings now to Benjamin as once he clung to Joseph. And +as he had wrought for Rachel fourteen years, and the love he bare to her +made them seem but a few days, so for twenty years now had he remembered +Joseph who had inherited this love, and he shows by his frequent +reference to him that he was keeping his word and going down to the +grave mourning for his son. To such a man it must have been a severe +trial indeed to be left alone in his tents, deprived of all his twelve +sons; and we hear his old faith in God steadying the voice that yet +trembles with emotion as he says, "If I be bereaved of my children, I am +bereaved." It was a trial not, indeed, so painful as that of Abraham +when he lifted the knife over the life of his only son; but it was so +similar to it as inevitably to suggest it to the mind. Jacob also had to +yield up all his children, and to feel, as he sat solitary in his tent, +how utterly dependent upon God he was for their restoration; that it was +not he but God alone who could build the house of Israel. + +The anxiety with which he gazed evening after evening towards the +setting sun, to descry the returning caravan, was at last relieved. But +his joy was not altogether unalloyed. His sons brought with them a +summons to shift the patriarchal encampment into Egypt--a summons which +evidently nothing would have induced Jacob to respond to had it not come +from his long-lost Joseph, and had it not thus received what he felt to +be a divine sanction. The extreme reluctance which Jacob showed to the +journey, we must be careful to refer to its true source. The Asiatics, +and especially shepherd tribes, move easily. One who thoroughly knows +the East says: "The Oriental is not afraid to go far, if he has not to +cross the sea; for, once uprooted, distance makes little difference to +him. He has no furniture to carry, for, except a carpet and a few brass +pans, he uses none. He has no trouble about meals, for he is content +with parched grain, which his wife can cook anywhere, or dried dates, or +dried flesh, or anything obtainable which will keep. He is, on a march, +careless where he sleeps, provided his family are around him--in a +stable, under a porch, in the open air. He never changes his clothes at +night, and he is profoundly indifferent to everything that the Western +man understands by 'comfort.'" But there was in Jacob's case a +peculiarity. He was called upon to abandon, for an indefinite period, +the land which God had given him as the heir of His promise. With very +great toil and not a little danger had Jacob won his way back to Canaan +from Mesopotamia; on his return he had spent the best years of his life, +and now he was resting there in his old age, having seen his children's +children, and expecting nothing but a peaceful departure to his fathers. +But suddenly the wagons of Pharaoh stand at his tent-door, and while the +parched and bare pastures bid him go to the plenty of Egypt, to which +the voice of his long-lost son invites him, he hears a summons which, +however trying, he cannot disregard. + +Such an experience is perpetually reproduced. Many are they who having +at length received from God some long-expected good are quickly summoned +to relinquish it again. And while the waiting for what seems +indispensable to us is trying, it is tenfold more so to have to part +with it when at last obtained, and obtained at the cost of much besides. +That particular arrangement of our worldly circumstances which we have +long sought, we are almost immediately thrown out of. That position in +life, or that object of desire, which God Himself seems in many ways to +have encouraged us to seek, is taken from us almost as soon as we have +tasted its sweetness. The cup is dashed from our lips at the very moment +when our thirst was to be fully slaked. In such distressing +circumstances we cannot _see_ the end God is aiming at; but of this we +may be certain, that He does not wantonly annoy, or relish our +discomfiture, and that when we are compelled to resign what is partial, +it is that we may one day enjoy what is complete, and that if for the +present we have to forego much comfort and delight, this is only an +absolutely necessary step towards our permanent establishment in all +that can bless and prosper us. + +It is this state of feeling which explains the words of Jacob when +introduced to Pharaoh. A recent writer, who spent some years on the +banks of the Nile and on its waters, and who mixed freely with the +inhabitants of Egypt, says: "Old Jacob's speech to Pharaoh really made +me laugh, because it is so exactly like what a Fellah says to a Pacha, +'Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been,' Jacob being a +most prosperous man, but it is manners to say all that." But Eastern +manners need scarcely be called in to explain a sentiment which we find +repeated by one who is generally esteemed the most self-sufficing of +Europeans. "I have ever been esteemed," Goethe says, "one of Fortune's +chiefest favourites; nor will I complain or find fault with the course +my life has taken. Yet, truly, there has been nothing but toil and +care; and I may say that, in all my seventy-five years, I have never +had a month of genuine comfort. It has been the perpetual rolling of a +stone, which I have always had to raise anew." Jacob's life had been +almost ceaseless disquiet and disappointment. A man who had fled his +country, who had been cheated into a marriage, who had been compelled by +his own relative to live like a slave, who was only by flight able to +save himself from a perpetual injustice, whose sons made his life +bitter,--one of them by the foulest outrage a father could suffer, two +of them by making him, as he himself said, to stink in the nostrils of +the inhabitants of the land he was trying to settle in, and all of them +by conspiring to deprive him of the child he most dearly loved--a man +who at last, when he seemed to have had experience of every form of +human calamity, was compelled by famine to relinquish the land for the +sake of which he had endured all and spent all, might surely be forgiven +a little plaintiveness in looking back upon his past. The wonder is to +find Jacob to the end unbroken, dignified, and clear-seeing, capable and +commanding, loving and full of faith. + +Cordial as the reconciliation between Joseph and his brethren seemed, it +was not as thorough as might have been desired. So long, indeed, as +Jacob lived, all went well; but "when Joseph's brethren saw that their +father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will +certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him." No wonder +Joseph wept when he received their message. He wept because he saw that +he was still misunderstood and distrusted by his brethren; because he +felt, too, that had they been more generous men themselves, they would +more easily have believed in his forgiveness; and because his pity was +stirred for these men, who recognised that they were so completely in +the power of their younger brother. Joseph had passed through severe +conflicts of feeling about them, had been at great expense both of +emotion and of outward good on their account, had risked his position in +order to be able to serve them, and here is his reward! They supposed he +had been but biding his time, that his apparent forgetfulness of their +injury had been the crafty restraint of a deep-seated resentment; or, at +best, that he had been unconsciously influenced by regard for his +father, and now, when that influence was removed, the helpless condition +of his brethren might tempt him to retaliate. This exhibition of a +craven and suspicious spirit is unexpected, and must have been +profoundly saddening to Joseph. Yet here, as elsewhere, he is +magnanimous. Pity for them turns his thoughts from the injustice done to +himself. He comforts them, and speaks kindly to them, saying, Fear ye +not; I will nourish you and your little ones. + +Many painful thoughts must have been suggested to Joseph by this +conduct. If, after all he had done for his brethren, they had not yet +learned to love him, but met his kindness with suspicion, was it not +probable that underneath his apparent popularity with the Egyptians +there might lie envy, or the cold acknowledgment that falls far short of +love? This sudden disclosure of the real feeling of his brethren towards +him must necessarily have made him uneasy about his other friendships. +Did every one merely make use of him, and did no one give him pure love +for his own sake? The people he had saved from famine, was there one of +them that regarded him with anything resembling personal affection? +Distrust seemed to pursue Joseph from first to last. First his own +family misunderstood and persecuted him. Then his Egyptian master had +returned his devoted service with suspicion and imprisonment. And now +again, after sufficient time for testing his character might seem to +have elapsed, he was still looked upon with distrust by those who of all +others had best reason to believe in him. But though Joseph had through +all his life been thus conversant with suspicion, cruelty, falsehood, +ingratitude, and blindness, though he seemed doomed to be always +misread, and to have his best deeds made the ground of accusation +against him, he remained not merely unsoured, but equally ready as ever +to be of service to all. The finest natures may be disconcerted and +deadened by universal distrust; characters not naturally unamiable are +sometimes embittered by suspicion; and persons who are in the main +high-minded do stoop, when stung by such treatment, to rail at the +world, or to question all generous emotion, steadfast friendship, or +unimpeachable integrity. In Joseph there is nothing of this. If ever man +had a right to complain of being unappreciated, it was he; if ever man +was tempted to give up making sacrifices for his relatives, it was he. +But through all this he bore himself with manly generosity, with simple +and persistent faith, with a dignified respect for himself and for other +men. In the ingratitude and injustice he had to endure, he only found +opportunity for a deeper unselfishness, a more God-like forbearance. And +that such may be the outcome of the sorest parts of human experience we +have one day or other need to remember. When our good is evil spoken of, +our motives suspected, our most sincere sacrifices scrutinized by an +ignorant and malicious spirit, our most substantial and well-judged acts +of kindness received with suspicion, and the love that is in them quite +rejected, it is then we have opportunity to show that to us belongs the +Christian temper that can pardon till seventy times seven, and that can +persist in loving where love meets no response, and benefits provoke no +gratitude. + +How Joseph spent the years which succeeded the famine we have no means +of knowing; but the closing act of his life seemed to the narrator so +significant as to be worthy of record. "Joseph said unto his brethren, I +die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto +the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And Joseph +took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit +you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence." The Egyptians must have +chiefly been struck by the simplicity of character which this request +betokened. To the great benefactors of our country, the highest award is +reserved to be given after death. So long as a man lives, some rude +stroke of fortune or some disastrous error of his own may blast his +fame; but when his bones are laid with those who have served their +country best, a seal is set on his life, and a sentence pronounced which +the revision of posterity rarely revokes. Such honours were customary +among the Egyptians; it is from their tombs that their history can now +be written. And to none were such honours more accessible than to +Joseph. But after a life in the service of the state he retains the +simplicity of the Hebrew lad. With the magnanimity of a great and pure +soul, he passed uncontaminated through the flatteries and temptations of +court-life; and, like Moses, "esteemed the reproach of Christ greater +riches than the treasures of Egypt." He has not indulged in any +affectation of simplicity, nor has he, in the pride that apes humility, +declined the ordinary honours due to a man in his position. He wears +the badges of office, the robe and the gold necklace, but these things +do not reach his spirit. He has lived in a region in which such honours +make no deep impression; and in his death he shows where his heart has +been. The small voice of God, spoken centuries ago to his forefathers, +deafens him to the loud acclaim with which the people do him homage. + +By later generations this dying request of Joseph's was looked upon as +one of the most remarkable instances of faith. For many years there had +been no new revelation. The rising generations that had seen no man with +whom God had spoken, were little interested in the land which was said +to be theirs, but which they very well knew was infested by fierce +tribes who, on at least one occasion during this period, inflicted +disastrous defeat on one of the boldest of their own tribes. They were, +besides, extremely attached to the country of their adoption; they +luxuriated in its fertile meadows and teeming gardens, which kept them +supplied at little cost of labour with delicacies unknown on the hills +of Canaan. This oath, therefore, which Joseph made them swear, may have +revived the drooping hopes of the small remnant who had any of his own +spirit. They saw that he, their most sagacious man, lived and died in +full assurance that God would visit His people. And through all the +terrible bondage they were destined to suffer, the bones of Joseph, or +rather his embalmed body, stood as the most eloquent advocate of God's +faithfulness, ceaselessly reminding the despondent generations of the +oath which God would yet enable them to fulfil. As often as they felt +inclined to give up all hope and the last surviving Israelitish +peculiarity, there was the unburied coffin remonstrating; Joseph still, +even when dead, refusing to let his dust mingle with Egyptian earth. + +And thus, as Joseph had been their pioneer who broke out a way for them +into Egypt, so did he continue to hold open the gate and point the way +back to Canaan. The brethren had sold him into this foreign land, +meaning to bury him for ever; he retaliated by requiring that the tribes +should restore him to the land from which he had been expelled. Few men +have opportunity of showing so noble a revenge; fewer still, having the +opportunity, would so have used it. Jacob had been carried up to Canaan +as soon as he was dead: Joseph declines this exceptional treatment, and +prefers to share the fortunes of his brethren, and will then only enter +on the promised land when all his people can go with him. As in life, so +in death, he took a large view of things, and had no feeling that the +world ended in him. His career had taught him to consider national +interests; and now, on his death-bed, it is from the point of view of +his people that he looks at the future. + +Several passages in the life of Joseph have shown us that where the +Spirit of Christ is present, many parts of the conduct will suggest, if +they do not actually resemble, acts in the life of Christ. The attitude +towards the future in which Joseph sets his people as he leaves them, +can scarcely fail to suggest the attitude which Christians are called to +assume. The prospect which the Hebrews had of fulfilling their oath grew +increasingly faint, but the difficulties in the way of its performance +must only have made them more clearly see that they depended on God for +entrance on the promised inheritance. And so may the difficulty of our +duties as Christ's followers measure for us the amount of grace God has +provided for us. The commands that make you sensible of your weakness, +and bring to light more clearly than ever how unfit for good you are, +are witnesses to you that God will visit you and enable you to fulfil +the oath He has required you to take. The children of Israel could not +suppose that a man so wise as Joseph had ended his life with a childish +folly, when he made them swear this oath, and could not but renew their +hope that the day would come when his wisdom would be justified by their +ability to discharge it. Neither ought it to be beyond our belief that, +in requiring from us such and such conduct, our Lord has kept in view +our actual condition and its possibilities, and that His commands are +our best guide towards a state of permanent felicity. He that aims +always at the performance of the oath he has taken, will assuredly find +that God will not stultify Himself by failing to support him. + + + + +XXXI. + +_THE BLESSINGS OF THE TRIBES._ + +GENESIS xlviii. and xlix. + + +Jacob's blessing of his sons marks the close of the patriarchal +dispensation. Henceforth the channel of God's blessing to man does not +consist of one person only, but of a people or nation. It is still _one +seed_, as Paul reminds us, a unit that God will bless, but this unit is +now no longer a single person--as Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob--but one +people, composed of several parts, and yet one whole; equally +representative of Christ, as the patriarchs were, and of equal effect +every way in receiving God's blessing and handing it down until Christ +came. The Old Testament Church, quite as truly as the New, formed one +whole with Christ. Apart from Him it had no meaning, and would have had +no existence. It was the promised seed, always growing more and more to +its perfect development in Christ. As the promise was kept to Abraham +when Isaac was born, and as Isaac was truly the promised seed--in so far +as he was a part of the series that led on to Christ, and was given in +fulfilment of the promise that promised Christ to the world--so all +through the history of Israel we must bear in mind that in them God is +fulfilling this same promise, and that they are the promised seed in so +far as they are one with Christ. And this interprets to us all those +passages of the prophets regarding which men have disputed whether they +are to be applied to Israel or to Christ: passages in which God +addresses Israel in such words as, "Behold My servant," "Mine elect," +and so forth, and in the interpretation of which it has been thought +sufficient proof that they do not apply to Christ, to prove that they do +apply to Israel; whereas, on the principle just laid down, it might much +more safely be argued that because they apply to Israel, therefore they +apply to Christ. And it is at this point--where Israel distributes among +his sons the blessing which heretofore had all lodged in himself--that +we see the first multiplication of Christ's representatives; the +mediation going on no longer through individuals, but through a nation; +and where individuals are still chosen by God, as commonly they are, for +the conveyance of God's communications to earth, these individuals, +whether priests or prophets, are themselves but the official +representatives of the nation. + +As the patriarchal dispensation ceases, it secures to the tribes all the +blessing it has itself contained. Every father desires to leave to his +sons whatever he has himself found helpful, but as they gather round his +dying bed, or as he sits setting his house in order, and considering +what portion is appropriate for each, he recognises that to some of them +it is quite useless to bequeath the most valuable parts of his property, +while in others he discerns a capacity which promises the improvement of +all that is entrusted to it. And from the earliest times the various +characters of the tribes were destined to modify the blessing conveyed +to them by their father. The blessing of Israel is now distributed, and +each receives what each can take; and while in some of the individual +tribes there may seem to be very little of blessing at all, yet, taken +together, they form a picture of the common outstanding features of +human nature, and of that nature as acted upon by God's blessing, and +forming together one body or Church. A peculiar interest attaches to the +history of some nations, and is not altogether absent from our own, from +the precision with which we can trace the character of families, +descending often with the same unmistakable lineaments from father to +son for many generations.[2] One knows at once to what families to look +for restless and turbulent spirits, ready for conspiracy and revolution; +and one knows also where to seek steady and faithful loyalty, +public-spiritedness, or native ability. And in Israel's national +character there was room for the great distinguishing features of the +tribes, and to show the richness and variety with which the promise of +God could fulfil itself wherever it was received. The distinguishing +features which Jacob depicts in the blessings of his sons are +necessarily veiled under the poetic figures of prophecy, and spoken of +as they would reveal themselves in worldly matters; but these features +were found in all the generations of the tribes, and displayed +themselves in things spiritual also. For a man has not two characters, +but one; and what he is in the world, that he is in his religion. In our +own country, it is seen how the forms of worship, and even the doctrines +believed, and certainly the modes of religious thought and feeling, +depend on the natural character, and the natural character on the local +situation of the respective sections of the community. No doubt in a +country like ours, where men so constantly migrate from place to place, +and where one common literature tends to mould us all to the same way of +thinking, you do get men of all kinds in every place; yet even among +ourselves the character of a place is generally still visible, and +predominates over all that mingles with it. Much more must this +character have been retained in a country where each man could trace his +ancestry up to the father of the tribe, and cultivated with pride the +family characteristics, and had but little intercourse, either literary +or personal, with other minds and other manners. As we know by dialect +and by the manners of the people when we pass into a new country, so +must the Israelite have known by the eye and ear when he had crossed the +county frontier, when he was conversing with a Benjamite, and when with +a descendant of Judah. We are not therefore to suppose that any of these +utterances of Jacob are mere geographical predictions, or that they +depict characteristics which might appear in civil life, but not in +religion and the Church, or that they would die out with the first +generation. + +In these blessings, therefore, we have the history of the Church in its +most interesting form. In these sons gathered round him, the patriarch +sees his own nature reflected piece by piece, and he sees also the +general outline of all that must be produced by such natures as these +men have. The whole destiny of Israel is here in germ, and the spirit of +prophecy in Jacob sees and declares it. It has often been remarked[3] +that as a man draws near to death, he seems to see many things in a much +clearer light, and especially gets glimpses into the future, which are +hidden from others. + + "The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed, + Lets in new light through chinks that time hath made." + +Being nearer to eternity, he instinctively measures things by its +standard, and thus comes nearer a just valuation of all things before +his mind, and can better distinguish reality from appearance. Jacob has +studied these sons of his for fifty years, and has had his acute +perception of character painfully enough called to exercise itself on +them. He has all his life long had a liking for analysing men's inner +life, knowing that, when he understands that, he can better use them for +his own ends; and these sons of his own have cost him thought enough +over and above that sometimes penetrating interest which a father will +take in the growth of a son's character; and now he knows them +thoroughly, understands their temptations, their weaknesses, their +capabilities, and, as a wise head of a house, can, with delicate and +unnoticed skill, balance the one against the other, ward off awkward +collisions, and prevent the evil from destroying the good. This +knowledge of Jacob prepares him for being the intelligent agent by whom +God predicts in outline the future of His Church. + +One cannot but admire, too, the faith which enables Jacob to apportion +to his sons the blessings of a land which had not been much of a +resting-place to himself, and regarding the occupation of which his sons +might have put to him some very difficult questions. And we admire this +dignified faith the more on reflecting that it has often been very +grievously lacking in our own case--that we have felt almost ashamed of +having so little of a present tangible kind to offer, and of being +obliged to speak only of invisible and future blessings; to set a +spiritual consolation over against a worldly grief; to point a man +whose fortunes are ruined to an eternal inheritance; or to speak to one +who knows himself quite in the power of sin of a remedy which has often +seemed illusory to ourselves. Some of us have got so little comfort or +strength from religion ourselves, that we have no heart to offer it to +others; and most of us have a feeling that we should seem to trifle were +we to offer invisible aid against very visible calamity. At least we +feel that we are doing a daring thing in making such an offer, and can +scarce get over the desire that we had something to speak of which sight +could appreciate, and which did not require the exercise of faith. Again +and again the wish rises within us that to the sick man we could bring +health as well as the promise of forgiveness, and that to the poor we +could grant an earthly, while we make known a heavenly, inheritance. One +who has experienced these scruples, and known how hard it is to get rid +of them, will know also how to honour the faith of Jacob, by which he +assumes the right to bless Pharaoh--though he is himself a mere +sojourner by sufferance in Pharaoh's land, and living on his bounty--and +by which he gathers his children round him and portions out to them a +land which seemed to have been most barren to himself, and which now +seemed quite beyond his reach. The enjoyments of it, which he himself +had not very deeply tasted, he yet knew were real; and if there were a +look of scepticism, or of scorn, on the face of any one of his sons; if +the unbelief of any received the prophetic utterances as the ravings of +delirium, or the fancies of an imbecile and worn-out mind going back to +the scenes of its youth, in Jacob himself there was so simple and +unsuspecting a faith in God's promise, that he dealt with the land as if +it were the only portion worth bequeathing to his sons, as if every +Canaanite were already cast out of it, and as if he knew his sons could +never be tempted by the wealth of Egypt to turn with contempt from the +land of promise. And if we would attain to this boldness of his, and be +able to speak of spiritual and future blessings as very substantial and +valuable, we must ourselves learn to make much of God's promise, and +leave no taint of unbelief in our reception of it. + +And often we are rebuked by finding that when we do offer things +spiritual, even those who are wrapped in earthly comforts appreciate and +accept the better gifts. So it was in Joseph's case. No doubt the +highest posts in Egypt were open to his sons; they might have been +naturalised, as he himself had been, and, throwing in their lot with the +land of their adoption, might have turned to their advantage the rank +their father held, and the reputation he had earned. But Joseph turns +from this attractive prospect, brings them to his father, and hands them +over to the despised shepherd-life of Israel. One need scarcely point +out how great a sacrifice this was on Joseph's part. So universally +acknowledged and legitimate a desire is it to pass to one's children the +honour achieved by a life of exertion, that states have no higher +rewards to confer on their most useful servants than a title which their +descendants may wear. But Joseph would not suffer his children to risk +the loss of their share in God's peculiar blessing, not for the most +promising openings in life, or the highest civil honours. If the +thoroughly open identification of them with the shepherds, and their +profession of a belief in a distant inheritance, which must have made +them appear madmen in the eyes of the Egyptians, if this was to cut +them off from worldly advancement, Joseph was not careful of this, for +resolved he was that, at any cost, they should be among God's people. +And his faith received its reward; the two tribes that sprang from him +received about as large a portion of the promised land as fell to the +lot of all the other tribes put together. + +You will observe that Ephraim and Manasseh were adopted as sons of +Jacob. Jacob tells Joseph, "They shall be mine," not my grandsons, but +as Reuben and Simeon. No other sons whom Joseph might have were to be +received into this honour, but these two were to take their place on a +level with their uncles as heads of tribes, so that Joseph is +represented through the whole history by the two populous and powerful +tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. No greater honour could have been put on +Joseph, nor any more distinct and lasting recognition made of the +indebtedness of his family to him, and of how he had been as a father +bringing new life to his brethren, than this, that his sons should be +raised to the rank of heads of tribes, on a level with the immediate +sons of Jacob. And no higher honour could have been put on the two lads +themselves than that they should thus be treated as if they were their +father Joseph--as if they had his worth and his rank. He is merged in +them, and all that he has earned is, throughout the history, to be +found, not in his own name, but in theirs. It all proceeds from him; but +his enjoyment is found in their enjoyment, his worth acknowledged in +their fruitfulness. Thus did God familiarise the Jewish mind through its +whole history with the idea, if they chose to think and have ideas, of +adoption, and of an adoption of a peculiar kind, of an adoption where +already there was an heir who, by this adoption, has his name and worth +merged in the persons now received into his place. Ephraim and Manasseh +were not received alongside of Joseph, but each received what Joseph +himself might have had, and Joseph's name as a tribe was henceforth only +to be found in these two. This idea was fixed in such a way, that for +centuries it was steeping into the minds of men, so that they might not +be astonished if God should in some other case, say the case of His own +Son, adopt men into the rank He held, and let His estimate of the worth +of His Son, and the honour He puts upon Him, be seen in the adopted. +This being so, we need not be alarmed if men tell us that imputation is +a mere legal fiction, or human invention; a legal fiction it may be, but +in the case before us it was the never-disputed foundation of very +substantial blessings to Ephraim and Manasseh; and we plead for nothing +more than that God would act with us as here He did act with these two, +that He would make us His direct heirs, make us His own sons, and give +us what He who presents us to Him to receive His blessing did earn, and +merits at the Father's hand. + +We meet with these crossed hands of blessing frequently in Scripture; +the younger son blessed above the elder--as was needful, lest grace +should become confounded with nature, and the belief gradually grow up +in men's minds that natural effects could never be overcome by grace, +and that in every respect grace waited upon nature. And these crossed +hands we meet still; for how often does God quite reverse _our_ order, +and bless most that about which we had less concern, and seem to put a +slight on that which has engrossed our best affection. It is so, often +in precisely the way in which Joseph found it so; the son whose youth +is most anxiously cared for, to whom the interests of the younger +members of the family are sacrificed, and who is commended to God +continually to receive His right-hand blessing, this son seems neither +to receive nor to dispense much blessing; but the younger, less thought +of, left to work his own way, is favoured by God, and becomes the +comfort and support of his parents when the elder has failed of his +duty. And in the case of much that we hold dear, the same rule is seen; +a pursuit we wish to be successful in we can make little of, and are +thrown back from continually, while something else into which we have +thrown ourselves almost accidentally prospers in our hand and blesses +us. Again and again, for years together, we put forward some cherished +desire to God's right hand, and are displeased, like Joseph, that still +the hand of greater blessing should pass to some other thing. Does God +not know what is oldest with us, what has been longest at our hearts, +and is dearest to us? Certainly He does: "I know it, My son, I know it," +He answers to all our expostulations. It is not because He does not +understand or regard your predilections, your natural and excusable +preferences, that He sometimes refuses to gratify your whole desire, and +pours upon you blessings of a kind somewhat different from these you +most earnestly covet. He will give you the whole that Christ hath +merited; but for the application and distribution of that grace and +blessing you must be content to trust Him. You may be at a loss to know +why He does no more to deliver you from some sin, or why He does not +make you more successful in your efforts to aid others, or why, while He +so liberally prospers you in one part of your condition, you get so much +less in another that is far nearer your heart; but God does what He +will with His own, and if you do not find in one point the whole +blessing and prosperity you think should flow from such a Mediator as +you have, you may only conclude that what is lacking there will +elsewhere be found more wisely bestowed. And is it not a perpetual +encouragement to us that God does not merely crown what nature has +successfully begun, that it is not the likely and the naturally good +that are most blessed, but that God hath chosen the foolish things of +the world to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world to +confound the things that are mighty; and base things of the world and +things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are +not, to bring to nought things that are? + +In Reuben, the first-born, conscience must have been sadly at war with +hope as he looked at the blind, but expressive, face of his father. He +may have hoped that his sin had not been severely thought of by his +father, or that the father's pride in his first-born would prompt him to +hide, though it could not make him forget it. Probably the gross offence +had not been made known to the family. At least, the words "he went up" +may be understood as addressed in explanation to the brethren. It may +indeed have been that the blind old man, forcibly recalling the +long-past transgression, is here uttering a mournful, regretful +soliloquy, rather than addressing any one. It may be that these words +were uttered to himself as he went back upon the one deed that had +disclosed to him his son's real character, and rudely hurled to the +ground all the hopes he had built up for his first-born. Yet there is no +reason to suppose, on the other hand, that the sin had been previously +known or alluded to in the family. Reuben's hasty, passionate nature +could not understand that if Jacob had felt that sin of his deeply, he +should not have shown his resentment; he had stunned his father with the +heavy blow, and because he did not cry out and strike him in return, he +thought him little hurt. So do shallow natures tremble for a night after +their sin, and when they find that the sun rises and men greet them as +cordially as before, and that no hand lays hold on them from the past, +they think little more of their sin--do not understand that fatal calm +that precedes the storm. Had the memory of Reuben's sin survived in +Jacob's mind all the sad events that had since happened, and all the +stirring incidents of the emigration and the new life in Egypt? Could +his father at the last hour, and after so many thronged years, and +before his brethren, recall the old sin? He is relieved and confirmed in +his confidence by the first words of Jacob, words ascribing to him his +natural position, a certain conspicuous dignity too, and power such as +one may often see produced in men by occupying positions of authority, +though in their own character there be weakness. But all the excellence +that Jacob ascribes to Reuben serves only to embitter the doom +pronounced upon him. Men seem often to expect that a future can be +_given_ to them irrespective of what they themselves are, that a series +of blessings and events might be prepared for them, and made over to +them; whereas every man's future must be made by himself, and is already +in great part formed by the past. It was a vain expectation of Reuben to +expect that he, the impetuous, unstable, superficial son, could have the +future of a deep, and earnest, and dutiful nature, or that his children +should derive no taint from their parent, but be as the children of +Joseph. No man's future need be altogether a doom to him, for God may +bless to him the evil fruit his life has borne; but certainly no man +need look for a future which has no relation to his own character. His +future will always be made up of _his_ deeds, _his_ feelings, and the +circumstances which _his_ desires have brought him into. + +The future of Reuben was of a negative, blank kind--"Thou shalt _not_ +excel;" his unstable character must empty it of all great success. And +to many a heart since have these words struck a chill, for to many they +are as a mirror suddenly held up before them. They see themselves when +they look on the tossing sea, rising and pointing to the heavens with +much noise, but only to sink back again to the same everlasting level. +Men of brilliant parts and great capacity are continually seen to be +lost to society by instability of purpose. Would they only pursue one +direction, and concentrate their energies on one subject, they might +become true heirs of promise, blessed and blessing; but they seem to +lose relish for every pursuit on the first taste of success--all their +energy seems to have boiled over and evaporated in the first glow, and +sinks as the water that has just been noisily boiling when the fire is +withdrawn from under it. No impression made upon them is permanent: like +water, they are plastic, easily impressible, but utterly incapable of +retaining an impression; and therefore, like water, they have a downward +tendency, or at the best are but retained in their place by pressure +from without, and have no eternal power of growth. And the misery of +this character is often increased by the _desire_ to excel which +commonly accompanies instability. It is generally this very desire which +prompts a man to hurry from one aim to another, to give up one path to +excellence when he sees that other men are making way upon another: +having no internal convictions of his own, he is guided mostly by the +successes of other men, the most dangerous of all guides. So that such a +man has all the bitterness of an eager desire doomed never to be +satisfied. Conscious to himself of capacity for something, feeling in +him the excellency of power, and having that "excellency of dignity," or +graceful and princely refinement, which the knowledge of many things, +and intercourse with many kinds of people, have imparted to him, he +feels all the more that pervading weakness, that greedy, lustful craving +for all kinds of priority, and for enjoying all the various advantages +which other men severally enjoy, which will not let him finally choose +and adhere to his own line of things, but distracts him by a thousand +purposes which ever defeat one another.[4] + +The sin of the next oldest sons was also remembered against them, and +remembered apparently for the same reason--because the character was +expressed in it. The massacre of the Shechemites was not an accidental +outrage that any other of the sons of Jacob might equally have +perpetrated, but the most glaring of a number of expressions of a fierce +and cruel disposition in these two men. In Jacob's prediction of their +future, he seems to shrink with horror from his own progeny--like her +who dreamt she would give birth to a firebrand. He sees the possibility +of the direst results flowing from such a temper, and, under God, +provides against these by scattering the tribes, and thus weakening +their power for evil. They had been banded together so as the more +easily and securely to accomplish their murderous purposes. "Simeon and +Levi are brethren"--showing a close affinity, and seeking one another's +society and aid, but it is for bad purposes; and therefore they must be +divided in Jacob and scattered in Israel. This was accomplished by the +tribe of Levi being distributed over all the other tribes as the +ministers of religion. The fiery zeal, the bold independence, and the +pride of being a distinct people, which had been displayed in the +slaughter of the Shechemites, might be toned down and turned to good +account when the sword was taken out of their hand. Qualities such as +these, which produce the most disastrous results when fit instruments +can be found, and when men of like disposition are suffered to band +themselves together, may, when found in the individual and kept in check +by circumstances and dissimilar dispositions, be highly beneficial. + +In the sin, Levi seems to have been the moving spirit, Simeon the +abetting tool, and in the punishment, it is the more dangerous tribe +that is scattered, so that the other is left companionless. In the +blessings of Moses, the tribe of Simeon is passed over in silence; and +that the tribe of Levi should have been so used for God's immediate +service stands as evidence that punishments, however severe and +desolating, even threatening something bordering on extinction, may yet +become blessings to God's people. The sword of murder was displaced in +Levi's hand by the knife of sacrifice; their fierce revenge against +sinners was converted into hostility against sin; their apparent zeal +for the forms of their religion was consecrated to the service of the +tabernacle and temple; their fanatical pride, which prompted them to +treat all other people as the offscouring of the earth, was informed by +a better spirit, and used for the upbuilding and instruction of the +people of Israel. In order to understand why this tribe, of all others, +should have been chosen for the service of the sanctuary and for the +instruction of the people, we must not only recognise how their being +scattered in punishment of their sin over all the land fitted them to be +the educators of the nation and the representatives of all the tribes, +but also we must consider that the sin itself which Levi had committed +broke the one command which men had up till this time received from the +mouth of God; no law had as yet been published but that which had been +given to Noah and his sons regarding bloodshed, and which was given in +circumstances so appalling, and with sanctions so emphatic, that it +might ever have rung in men's ears, and stayed the hand of the murderer. +In saying, "At the hand of every man's brother will I require the life +of man," God had shown that human life was to be counted sacred. He +Himself had swept the race from the face of the earth, but adding this +command immediately after, He showed all the more forcibly that +punishment was His own prerogative, and that none but those appointed by +Him might shed blood--"Vengeance is Mine, saith the Lord." To take +private revenge, as Levi did, was to take the sword out of God's hand, +and to say that God was not careful enough of justice, and but a poor +guardian of right and wrong in the world; and to destroy human life in +the wanton and cruel manner in which Levi had destroyed the Shechemites, +and to do it under colour and by the aid of religious zeal, was to God +the most hateful of sins. But none can know the hatefulness of a sin so +distinctly as he who has fallen into it, and is enduring the punishment +of it penitently and graciously, and therefore Levi was of all others +the best fitted to be entrusted with those sacrificial symbols which set +forth the value of all human life, and especially of the life of God's +own Son. Very humbling must it have been for the Levite who remembered +the history of his tribe to be used by God as the hand of His justice on +the victims that were brought in substitution for that which was so +precious in the sight of God. + +The blessing of Judah is at once the most important and the most +difficult to interpret in the series. There is enough in the history of +Judah himself, and there is enough in the subsequent history of the +tribe, to justify the ascription to him of all lion-like qualities--a +kingly fearlessness, confidence, power, and success; in action a +rapidity of movement and might that make him irresistible, and in repose +a majestic dignity of bearing. As the serpent is the cognisance of Dan, +the wolf of Benjamin, the hind of Naphtali, so is the lion of the tribe +of Judah. He scorns to gain his end by a serpentine craft, and is +himself easily taken in; he does not ravin like a wolf, merely +plundering for the sake of booty, but gives freely and generously, even +to the sacrifice of his own person: nor has he the mere graceful and +ineffective swiftness of the hind, but the rushing onset of the lion--a +character which, more than any other, men reverence and admire--"Judah, +_thou_ art he whom thy brethren shall praise"--and a character which, +more than any other, fits a man to take the lead and rule. If there were +to be kings in Israel, there could be little doubt from which tribe they +could best be chosen; a wolf of the tribe of Benjamin, like Saul, not +only hung on the rear of retreating Philistines and spoiled them, but +made a prey of his own people, and it is in David we find the true king, +the man who more than any other satisfies men's ideal of the prince to +whom they will pay homage;--falling indeed into grievous error and sin, +like his forefather, but, like him also, right at heart, so generous and +self-sacrificing that men served him with the most devoted loyalty, and +were willing rather to dwell in caves with him than in palaces with any +other. + +The kingly supremacy of Judah was here spoken of in words which have +been the subject of as prolonged and violent contention as any others in +the Word of God. "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a +lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come." These words are very +generally understood to mean that Judah's supremacy would continue until +it culminated or flowered into the personal reign of Shiloh; in other +words, that Judah's sovereignty was to be perpetuated in the person of +Jesus Christ. So that this prediction is but the first whisper of that +which was afterwards so distinctly declared, that David's seed should +sit on the throne for ever and ever. It was not accomplished in the +letter, any more than the promise to David was; the tribe of Judah +cannot in any intelligible sense be said to have had rulers of her own +up to the coming of Christ, or for some centuries previous to that date. +For those who would quickly judge God and His promise by what they could +see in their own day, there was enough to provoke them to challenge God +for forgetting His promise. But in due time _the_ King of men, He to +whom all nations have gathered, did spring from this tribe; and need it +be said that the very fact of His appearance proved that the supremacy +had not departed from Judah? This prediction, then, partook of the +character of very many of the Old Testament prophecies; there was +sufficient fulfilment in the letter to seal, as it were, the promise, +and give men a token that it was being accomplished, and yet so +mysterious a falling short, as to cause men to look beyond the literal +fulfilment, on which alone their hopes had at first rested, to some far +higher and more perfect spiritual fulfilment. + +But not only has it been objected that the sceptre departed from Judah +long before Christ came, and that therefore the word Shiloh cannot refer +to Him, but also it has been truly said that wherever else the word +occurs it is the name of a town--that town, viz., where the ark for a +long time was stationed, and from which the allotment of territory was +made to the various tribes; and the prediction has been supposed to mean +that Judah should be the leading tribe till the land was entered. Many +objections to this naturally occur, and need not be stated. But it comes +to be an inquiry of some interest, How much information regarding a +personal Messiah did the brethren receive from this prophecy? A question +very difficult indeed to answer. The word Shiloh means "peace-making," +and if they understood this as a proper name, they must have thought of +a person such as Isaiah designates as the Prince of Peace--a name it was +similar to that wherewith David called his son Solomon, in the +expectation that the results of his own lifetime of disorder and battle +would be reaped by his successor in a peaceful and prosperous reign. It +can scarcely be thought likely, indeed, that this single term "Shiloh," +which might be applied to many things besides a person, should give to +the sons of Jacob any distinct idea of a personal Deliverer; but it +might be sufficient to keep before their eyes, and specially before the +tribe of Judah, that the aim and consummation of all lawgiving and +ruling was peace. And there was certainly contained in this blessing an +assurance that the purpose of Judah would not be accomplished, and +therefore that the existence of Judah as a tribe would not terminate, +until peace had been through its means brought into the world: thus was +the assurance given, that the productive power of Judah should not fail +until out of that tribe there had sprung that which should give peace. + +But to us who have seen the prediction accomplished, it plainly enough +points to _the_ Lion of the tribe of Judah, who in His own person +combined all kingly qualities. In Him we are taught by this prediction +to discover once more the single Person who stands out on the page of +this world's history as satisfying men's ideal of what their King should +be, and of how the race should be represented;--the One who without any +rival stands in the mind's eye as that for which the best hopes of men +were waiting, still feeling that the race could do more than it had +done, and never satisfied but in Him. + +Zebulun, the sixth and last of Leah's sons, was so called because said +Leah, "Now will my husband _dwell with me_" (such being the meaning of +the name), "for I have borne him six sons." All that is predicted +regarding this tribe is that his _dwelling_ should be by the sea, and +near the Ph[oe]nician city Zidon. This is not to be taken as a strict +geographical definition of the tract of country occupied by Zebulun, as +we see when we compare it with the lot assigned to it and marked out in +the Book of Joshua; but though the border of the tribe did not reach to +Zidon, and though it can only have been a mere tongue of land belonging +to it that ran down to the Mediterranean shore, yet the situation +ascribed to it is true to its character as a tribe that had commercial +relations with the Ph[oe]nicians, and was of a decidedly mercantile +turn. We find this same feature indicated in the blessing of Moses: +"Rejoice, Zebulun, in thy _going out_, and Issachar in thy +tents"--Zebulun having the enterprise of a seafaring community, and +Issachar the quiet bucolic contentment of an agricultural or pastoral +population: Zebulun always restlessly eager for emigration or commerce, +for _going out_ of one kind or other; Issachar satisfied to live and die +in his own tents. It is still, therefore, character rather than +geographical position that is here spoken of--though it is a trait of +character that is peculiarly dependent on geographical position: we, for +example, because islanders, having become the maritime power and the +merchants of the world; not being shut off from other nations by the +encompassing sea, but finding paths by it equally in all directions +ready provided for every kind of traffic. + +Zebulun, then, was to represent the commerce of Israel, its _outgoing_ +tendency; was to supply a means of communication and bond of connection +with the world outside, so that through it might be conveyed to the +nations what was saving in Israel, and that what Israel needed from +other lands might also find entrance. In the Church also, this is a +needful quality: for our well-being there must ever exist among us those +who are not afraid to launch on the wide and pathless sea of opinion; +those in whose ears its waves have from their childhood sounded with a +fascinating invitation, and who at last, as if possessed by some spirit +of unrest, loose from the firm earth, and go in quest of lands not yet +discovered, or are impelled to see for themselves what till now they +have believed on the testimony of others. It is not for all men to quit +the shore, and risk themselves in the miseries and disasters of so +comfortless and hazardous a life; but happy the people which possesses, +from one generation to another, men who must see with their own eyes, +and to whose restless nature the discomforts and dangers of an unsettled +life have a charm. It is not the instability of Reuben that we have in +these men, but the irrepressible longing of the born seaman, who _must_ +lift the misty veil of the horizon and penetrate its mystery. And we are +not to condemn, even when we know we should not imitate, men who cannot +rest satisfied with the ground on which we stand, but venture into +regions of speculation, of religious thought which we have never +trodden, and may deem hazardous. The nourishment we receive is not all +native-grown; there are views of truth which may very profitably be +imported from strange and distant lands; and there is no land, no +province of thought, from which we may not derive what may +advantageously be mixed with our own ideas; no direction in which a +speculative mind can go in which it may not find something which may +give a fresh zest to what we already use, or be a real addition to our +knowledge. No doubt men who refuse to confine themselves to one way of +viewing truth--men who venture to go close to persons of very different +opinions from their own, who determine for themselves to prove all +things, who have no very special love for what they were native to and +originally taught, who show rather a taste for strange and new +opinions--these persons live a life of great hazard, and in the end are +generally, like men who have been much at sea, unsettled; they have not +fixed opinions, and are in themselves, as individual men, +unsatisfactory and unsatisfied; but still they have done good to the +community, by bringing to us ideas and knowledge which otherwise we +could not have obtained. Such men God gives us to widen our views; to +prevent us from thinking that we have the best of everything; to bring +us to acknowledge that others, who perhaps in the main are not so +favoured as ourselves, are yet possessed of some things we ourselves +would be the better of. And though these men must themselves necessarily +hang loosely, scarcely attached very firmly to any part of the Church, +like a seafaring population, and often even with a border running very +close to heathenism, yet let us own that the Church has need of +such--that without them the different sections of the Church would know +too little of one another, and too little of the facts of this world's +life. And as the seafaring population of a country might be expected to +show less interest in the soil of their native land than others, and yet +we know that in point of fact we are dependent on no class of our +population so much for leal patriotism, and for the defence of our +country, so one has observed that the Church also must make similar use +of her Zebuluns--of men who, by their very habit of restlessly +considering all views of truth which are alien to our own ways of +thinking, have become familiar with, and better able to defend us +against, the error that mingles with these views. + +Issachar receives from his father a character which few would be proud +of or would envy, but which many are very content to bear. As the strong +ass that has its stall and its provender provided can afford to let the +free beasts of the forest vaunt their liberty, so there is a very +numerous class of men who have no care to assert their dignity as human +beings, or to agitate regarding their rights as citizens, so long as +their obscurity and servitude provide them with physical comforts, and +leave them free of heavy responsibilities. They prefer a life of ease +and plenty to a life of hardship and glory. They are not lazy nor idle, +but are quite willing to use their strength so long as they are not +overdriven out of their sleekness. They have neither ambition nor +enterprise, and willingly bow their shoulders to bear, and become the +servants of those who will free them from the anxiety of planning and +managing, and give them a fair and regular remuneration for their +labour. This is not a noble nature, but in a world in which ambition so +frequently runs through a thorny and difficult path to a disappointing +and shameful end, this disposition has much to say in its own defence. +It will often accredit itself with unchallengeable common sense, and +will maintain that it alone enjoys life and gets the good of it. They +will tell you they are the only true utilitarians, that to be one's own +master only brings cares, and that the degradation of servitude is only +an idea; that _really_ servants are quite as well off as masters. Look +at them: the one is as a strong, powerful, well-cared-for animal, his +work but a pleasant exercise to him, and when it is over never following +him into his rest; he eats the good of the land, and has what all seem +to be in vain striving for, rest and contentment: the other, the master, +has indeed his position, but that only multiplies his duties; he has +wealth, but that proverbially only increases his cares and the mouths +that are to consume it; it is _he_ who has the air of a bondsman, and +never, meet him when you may, seems wholly at ease and free from care. + +Yet, after all that can be said in favour of the bargain an Issachar +makes, and however he may be satisfied to rest, and in a quiet, peaceful +way enjoy life, men feel that at the best there is something despicable +about such a character. He gives his labour and is fed, he pays his +tribute and is protected; but men feel that they ought to meet the +dangers, responsibilities, and difficulties of life in their own +persons, and at first hand, and not buy themselves off so from the +burden of individual self-control and responsibility. The animal +enjoyment of this life and its physical comforts may be a very good +ingredient in a national character: it might be well for Israel to have +this patient, docile mass of strength in its midst: it may be well for +our country that there are among us not only men eager for the highest +honours and posts, but a great multitude of men perhaps equally +serviceable and capable, but whose desires never rise beyond the +ordinary social comforts; the contentedness of such, even though +reprehensible, tempers or balances the ambition of the others, and when +it comes into personal contact rebukes its feverishness. They, as well +as the other parts of society, have amidst their error a truth--the +truth that the ideal world in which ambition, and hope, and imagination +live is not everything; that the material has also a reality, and that +though hope does bless mankind, yet attainment is also something, even +though it be a little. Yet this truth is not the whole truth, and is +only useful as an ingredient, as a part, not as the whole; and when we +fall from any high ideal of human life which we have formed, and begin +to find comfort and rest in the mere physical good things of this world, +we may well despise ourselves. There is a pleasantness still in the land +that appeals to us all; a luxury in observing the risks and struggles +of others while ourselves secure and at rest; a desire to make life +easy, and to shirk the responsibility and toil that public-spiritedness +entails. Yet of what tribe has the Church more cause to complain than of +those persons who seem to imagine that they have done enough when they +have joined the Church and received their own inheritance to enjoy; who +are alive to no emergency, nor awake to the need of others; who have no +idea at all of their being a part of the community, for which, as well +as for themselves, there are duties to discharge; who couch, like the +ass of Issachar, in their comfort without one generous impulse to make +common cause against the common evils and foes of the Church, and are +unvisited by a single compunction that while they lie there, submitting +to whatever fate sends, there are kindred tribes of their own being +oppressed and spoiled? + +There seems to have been an improvement in this tribe, an infusion of +some new life into it. In the time of Deborah, indeed, it is with a note +of surprise that, while celebrating the victory of Israel, she names +even Issachar as having been roused to action, and as having helped in +the common cause--"the princes of Issachar were with Deborah, _even_ +Issachar;" but we find them again in the days of David wiping out their +reproach, and standing by him manfully. And there an apparently new +character is given to them--"the children of Issachar, which were men +that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do." +This quite accords, however, with the kind of practical philosophy which +we have seen to be imbedded in Issachar's character. Men they were not +distracted by high thoughts and ambitions, but who judged things +according to their substantial value to themselves; and who were, +therefore, in a position to give much good advice on practical +matters--advice which would always have a tendency to trend too much +towards mere utilitarianism and worldliness, and to partake rather of +crafty politic diplomacy than of far-seeing statesmanship, yet +trustworthy for a certain class of subjects. And here, too, they +represent the same class in the Church, already alluded to; for one +often finds that men who will not interrupt their own comfort, and who +have a kind of stolid indifference as to what comes of the good of the +Church, have yet also much shrewd practical wisdom; and were these men, +instead of spending their sagacity in cynical denunciation of what the +Church does, to throw themselves into the cause of the Church, and +heartily advise her what she _ought_ to do, and help in the doing of it, +their observation of human affairs, and political understanding of the +times, would be turned to good account, instead of being a reproach. + +Next came the eldest son of Rachel's handmaid, and the eldest son of +Leah's handmaid, Dan and Gad. Dan's name, meaning "judge," is the +starting point of the prediction--"Dan shall judge his people." This +word "judge" we are perhaps somewhat apt to misapprehend; it means +rather to defend than to sit in judgment on; it refers to a judgment +passed between one's own people and their foes, and an execution of such +judgment in the deliverance of the people and the destruction of the +foe. We are familiar with this meaning of the word by the constant +reference in the Old Testament to God's _judging_ His people; this being +always a cause of joy as their sure deliverance from their enemies. So +also it is used of those men who, when Israel had no king, rose from +time to time as the champions of the people, to lead them against the +foe, and who are therefore familiarly called "The Judges." From the +tribe of Dan the most conspicuous of these arose, Samson, namely, and it +is probably mainly with reference to this fact that Jacob so +emphatically predicts of _this_ tribe, "Dan shall judge his people." And +notice the appended clause (as reflecting shame on the sluggish +Issachar), "as one of the tribes of Israel," recognising always that his +strength was not for himself alone, but for his country; that he was not +an isolated people who had to concern himself only with his own affairs, +but _one_ of the tribes of Israel. The manner, too, in which Dan was to +do this was singularly descriptive of the facts subsequently evolved. +Dan was a very small and insignificant tribe, whose lot originally lay +close to the Philistines on the southern border of the land. It might +seem to be no obstacle whatever to the invading Philistines as they +passed to the richer portion of Judah, but this little tribe, through +Samson, smote these terrors of the Israelites with so sore and alarming +a destruction as to cripple them for years and make them harmless. We +see, therefore, how aptly Jacob compares them to the venomous snake that +lurks in the road and bites the horses' heels; the dust-coloured adder +that a man treads on before he is aware, and whose poisonous stroke is +more deadly than the foe he is looking for in front. And especially +significant did the imagery appear to the Jews, with whom this poisonous +adder was indigenous, but to whom the horse was the symbol of foreign +armament and invasion. The whole tribe of Dan, too, seems to have +partaken of that "grim humour" with which Samson saw his foes walk time +after time into the traps he set for them, and give themselves an easy +prey to him--a humour which comes out with singular piquancy in the +narrative given in the Book of Judges of one of the forays of this +tribe, in which they carried off Micah's priest and even his gods. + +But why, in the full flow of his eloquent description of the varied +virtues of his sons, does the patriarch suddenly check himself, lie back +on his pillows, and quietly say, "I have waited for Thy salvation, O +God"? Does he feel his strength leave him so that he cannot go on to +bless the rest of his sons, and has but time to yield his own spirit to +God? Are we here to interpolate one of those scenes we are all fated to +witness when some eagerly watched breath seems altogether to fail before +the last words have been uttered, when those who have been standing +apart, through sorrow and reverence, quickly gather round the bed to +catch the last look, and when the dying man again collects himself and +finishes his work? Probably Jacob, having, as it were, projected himself +forward into those stirring and warlike times he has been speaking of, +so realises the danger of his people, and the futility even of such help +as Dan's when God does not help, that, as if from the midst of doubtful +war, he cries, as with a battle cry, "I have waited for Thy salvation, O +God." His longing for victory and blessing to his sons far overshot the +deliverance from Philistines accomplished by Samson. That deliverance he +thankfully accepts and joyfully predicts, but in the spirit of an +Israelite indeed, and a genuine child of the promise, he remains +unsatisfied, and sees in all such deliverance only the pledge of God's +coming nearer and nearer to His people, bringing with Him _His_ eternal +salvation. In Dan, therefore, we have not the catholic spirit of +Zebulun, nor the practical, though sluggish, temper of Issachar; but we +are guided rather to the disposition which ought to be maintained +through all Christian life, and which, with special care, needs to be +cherished in Church-life--a disposition to accept with gratitude all +success and triumph, but still to aim through all at that highest +victory which God alone can accomplish for His people. It is to be the +battle-cry with which every Christian and every Church is to preserve +itself, not merely against external foes, but against the far more +disastrous influence of self-confidence, pride, and glorying in +man--"For _Thy_ salvation, O God, do we wait." + +Gad also is a tribe whose history is to be warlike, his very name +signifying a marauding, guerilla troop; and his history was to +illustrate the victories which God's people gain by tenacious, watchful, +ever-renewed warfare. The Church has often prospered by her Dan-like +insignificance; the world not troubling itself to make war upon her. But +oftener Gad is a better representative of the mode in which her +successes are gained. We find that the men of Gad were among the most +valuable of David's warriors, when his necessity evoked all the various +skill and energy of Israel. "Of the Gadites," we read, "there separated +themselves unto David into the hold of the wilderness men of might, and +men of war fit for the battle, that could handle shield and buckler, +whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as the roes +upon the mountains: one of the least of them was better than an hundred, +and the greatest mightier than a thousand." And there is something +particularly inspiriting to the individual Christian in finding this +pronounced as part of the blessing of God's people--"a troop shall +overcome him, _but he shall_ overcome at the last." It is this that +enables us to persevere--that we have God's assurance that present +discomfiture does not doom us to final defeat. If you be among the +children of promise, among those that gather round God to catch His +blessing, you shall overcome at the last. You may now feel as if +assaulted by treacherous, murderous foes, irregular troops, that betake +themselves to every cruel deceit, and are ruthless in spoiling you; you +may be assailed by so many and strange temptations that you are +bewildered and cannot lift a hand to resist, scarce seeing where your +danger comes from; you may be buffeted by messengers of Satan, +distracted by a sudden and tumultuous incursion of a crowd of cares so +that you are moved away from the old habits of your life amid which you +seem to stand safely; your heart may seem to be the rendezvous of all +ungodly and wicked thoughts, you may feel trodden under foot and overrun +by sin, but, with the blessing of God, you shall overcome at the last. +Only cultivate that dogged pertinacity of Gad, which has no thought of +ultimate defeat, but rallies cheerfully and resolutely after every +discomfiture. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] Merivale's _Romans under the Empire_, vi. 261. + +[3] Plato, _Repub._ i. 5, etc. + +[4] The subsequent history of the tribe shows that the character of its +father was transmitted. "No judge, no prophet, not one of the tribe of +Reuben, is mentioned." (_Vide_ Smith's Dictionary, _Reuben_.) + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Expositor's Bible: The Book of +Genesis, by Marcus Dods + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE: GENESIS *** + +***** This file should be named 39395-8.txt or 39395-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/3/9/39395/ + +Produced by Colin Bell, Nigel Blower and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Genesis + +Author: Marcus Dods + +Editor: W. Robertson Nicoll + +Release Date: April 7, 2012 [EBook #39395] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE: GENESIS *** + + + + +Produced by Colin Bell, Nigel Blower and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="notes"> +<p>This e-text includes characters that will only display in UTF-8 (Unicode) +file encoding, including âcurly quotesâ and the Å ligature. If any of these +characters do not display properly, you may have an incompatible browser or +unavailable fonts. First, make sure that the browserâs âcharacter setâ or +âfile encodingâ is set to Unicode (UTF-8). You may also need to change your +browserâs default font.</p> + +<p>A few minor typographical errors have been silently corrected. +Some inconsistent hyphenation has been retained.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i"></a></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii"></a></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p> + +<h1><span class="titlesmaller">THE BOOK</span><br /> +<span class="titlesmaller"><span class="titlesmaller">OF</span></span><br /> +GENESIS.</h1> + +<p class="center gaptop"><span class="titlesmaller">BY</span><br /> +<span class="titlebigger">MARCUS DODS, D.D.,</span><br /> +<span class="titlesmaller">AUTHOR OF âISRAELâS IRON AGE,â âTHE PARABLES OF OUR LORD,â<br /> +âTHE PRAYER THAT TEACHES TO PRAY,â ETC.</span> +</p> + +<p class="center gaptop">NEW YORK:<br /> +<span class="titlebigger">A. C. ARMSTRONG AND SON</span><br /> +714, BROADWAY.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv"></a></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<table summary="Contents"> +<tr> +<th class="conpgh"> </th> +<th class="conpgh">PAGE</th> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp confst" colspan="2">CHAPTER I.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">THE CREATION</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER II.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">THE FALL</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_15">15</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER III.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">CAIN AND ABEL</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER IV.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">CAINâS LINE, AND ENOCH</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_42">42</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER V.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">THE FLOOD</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_55">55</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER VI.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">NOAHâS FALL</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_68">68</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER VII.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">THE CALL OF ABRAHAM</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span> +CHAPTER VIII.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">ABRAM IN EGYPT</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_96">96</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER IX.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">LOTâS SEPARATION FROM ABRAM</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER X.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">ABRAMâS RESCUE OF LOT</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_121">121</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XI.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">COVENANT WITH ABRAM</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_134">134</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XII.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">BIRTH OF ISHMAEL</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_147">147</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIII.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">THE COVENANT SEALED</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_159">159</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIV.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">ABRAHAMâS INTERCESSION FOR SODOM</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_172">172</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XV.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">DESTRUCTION OF THE CITIES OF THE PLAIN</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_186">186</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XVI.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">SACRIFICE OF ISAAC</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_198">198</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span> +CHAPTER XVII.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">ISHMAEL AND ISAAC</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_212">212</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XVIII.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">PURCHASE OF MACHPELAH</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_226">226</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIX.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">ISAACâS MARRIAGE</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_240">240</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XX.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">ESAU AND JACOB</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_254">254</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXI.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">JACOBâS FRAUD</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_267">267</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXII.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">JACOBâS FLIGHT AND DREAM</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_279">279</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXIII.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">JACOB AT PENIEL</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_293">293</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXIV.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">JACOBâS RETURN</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_307">307</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXV.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">JOSEPHâS DREAMS</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_321">321</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span> +CHAPTER XXVI.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">JOSEPH IN PRISON</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_339">339</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXVII.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">PHARAOHâS DREAMS</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_355">355</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXVIII.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">JOSEPHâS ADMINISTRATION</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_369">369</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXIX.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">VISITS OF JOSEPHâS BRETHREN</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_383">383</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXX.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">THE RECONCILIATION</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_396">396</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXXI.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht">THE BLESSINGS OF THE TRIBES</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_415">415</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I.</h2> + +<h3>THE CREATION.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> i. and ii.</h4> + +<p>If any one is in search of accurate information regarding the age of +this earth, or its relation to the sun, moon, and stars, or regarding +the order in which plants and animals have appeared upon it, he is +referred to recent text-books in astronomy, geology, and palÊontology. +No one for a moment dreams of referring a serious student of these +subjects to the Bible as a source of information. It is not the object +of the writers of Scripture to impart physical instruction or to enlarge +the bounds of scientific knowledge. But if any one wishes to know what +connection the world has with God, if he seeks to trace back all that +now is to the very fountain-head of life, if he desires to discover some +unifying principle, some illuminating purpose in the history of this +earth, then we confidently refer him to these and the subsequent +chapters of Scripture as his safest, and indeed his only, guide to the +information he seeks. Every writing must be judged by the object the +writer has in view. If the object of the writer of these chapters was to +convey physical information, then certainly it is imperfectly fulfilled. +But if his object was to give an intelligible account of Godâs +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> +relation to the world and to man, then it must be owned that he has been +successful in the highest degree.</p> + +<p>It is therefore unreasonable to allow our reverence for this writing to +be lessened because it does not anticipate the discoveries of physical +science; or to repudiate its authority in its own department of truth +because it does not give us information which it formed no part of the +writerâs object to give. As well might we deny to Shakespeare a masterly +knowledge of human life, because his dramas are blotted by historical +anachronisms. That the compiler of this book of Genesis did not aim at +scientific accuracy in speaking of physical details is obvious, not +merely from the general scope and purpose of the Biblical writers, but +especially from this, that in these first two chapters of his book he +lays side by side two accounts of manâs creation which no ingenuity can +reconcile. These two accounts, glaringly incompatible in details, but +absolutely harmonious in their leading ideas, at once warn the reader +that the writerâs aim is rather to convey certain ideas regarding manâs +spiritual history and his connection with God, than to describe the +process of creation. He does describe the process of creation, but he +describes it only for the sake of the ideas regarding manâs relation to +God and Godâs relation to the world which he can thereby convey. Indeed +what we mean by scientific knowledge was not in all the thoughts of the +people for whom this book was written. The subject of creation, of the +beginning of man upon earth, was not approached from that side at all; +and if we are to understand what is here written we must burst the +trammels of our own modes of thought and read these chapters not as a chronological, astronomical, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> +geological, biological statement, but as a +moral or spiritual conception.</p> + +<p>It will, however, be said, and with much appearance of justice, that +although the first object of the writer was not to convey scientific +information, yet he might have been expected to be accurate in the +information he did advance regarding the physical universe. This is an +enormous assumption to make on <i>à priori</i> grounds, but it is an +assumption worth seriously considering because it brings into view a +real and important difficulty which every reader of Genesis must face. +It brings into view the twofold character of this account of creation. +On the one hand it is irreconcilable with the teachings of science. On +the other hand it is in striking contrast to the other cosmogonies which +have been handed down from pre-scientific ages. These are the two patent +features of this record of creation and both require to be accounted +for. Either feature alone would be easily accounted for; but the two +co-existing in the same document are more baffling. We have to account +at once for a want of perfect coincidence with the teachings of science, +and for a singular freedom from those errors which disfigure all other +primitive accounts of the creation of the world. The one feature of the +document is as patent as the other and presses equally for explanation.</p> + +<p>Now many persons cut the knot by simply denying that both these features +exist. There is no disagreement with science, they say. I speak for many +careful enquirers when I say that this cannot serve as a solution of the +difficulty. I think it is to be freely admitted that, from whatever +cause and however justifiably, the account of creation here given is not +in strict and detailed accordance with the teaching of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> +science. All attempts to force its statements into such accord are futile and +mischievous. They are futile because they do not convince independent +enquirers, but only those who are unduly anxious to be convinced. And +they are mischievous because they unduly prolong the strife between +Scripture and science, putting the question on a false issue. And above +all, they are to be condemned because they do violence to Scripture, +foster a style of interpretation by which the text is forced to say +whatever the interpreter desires, and prevent us from recognising the +real nature of these sacred writings. The Bible needs no defence such as +false constructions of its language bring to its aid. They are its worst +friends who distort its words that they may yield a meaning more in +accordance with scientific truth. If, for example, the word âdayâ in +these chapters, does not mean a period of twenty-four hours, the +interpretation of Scripture is hopeless. Indeed if we are to bring these +chapters into any comparison at all with science, we find at once +various discrepancies. Of a creation of sun, moon, and stars, subsequent +to the creation of this earth, science can have but one thing to say. Of +the existence of fruit trees prior to the existence of the sun, science +knows nothing. But for a candid and unsophisticated reader without a +special theory to maintain, details are needless.</p> + +<p>Accepting this chapter then as it stands, and believing that only by +looking at the Bible as it actually is can we hope to understand Godâs +method of revealing Himself, we at once perceive that ignorance of some +departments of truth does not disqualify a man for knowing and imparting +truth about God. In order to be a medium of revelation a man does not need to be in advance of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> +his age in secular learning. Intimate communion with God, a spirit trained to discern spiritual things, a +perfect understanding of and zeal for Godâs purpose, these are qualities +quite independent of a knowledge of the discoveries of science. The +enlightenment which enables men to apprehend God and spiritual truth, +has no necessary connection with scientific attainments. Davidâs +confidence in God and his declarations of His faithfulness are none the +less valuable, because he was ignorant of a very great deal which every +school-boy now knows. Had inspired men introduced into their writings +information which anticipated the discoveries of science, their state of +mind would be inconceivable, and revelation would be a source of +confusion. Godâs methods are harmonious with one another, and as He has +given men natural faculties to acquire scientific knowledge and +historical information, He did not stultify this gift by imparting such +knowledge in a miraculous and unintelligible manner. There is no +evidence that inspired men were in advance of their age in the knowledge +of physical facts and laws. And plainly, had they been supernaturally +instructed in physical knowledge they would so far have been +unintelligible to those to whom they spoke. Had the writer of this book +mingled with his teaching regarding God, an explicit and exact account +of how this world came into existenceâhad he spoken of millions of +years instead of speaking of daysâin all probability he would have been +discredited, and what he had to say about God would have been rejected +along with his premature science. But speaking from the point of view of +his contemporaries, and accepting the current ideas regarding the +formation of the world, he attached to these the views regarding Godâs connection with the world which +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> +are most necessary to be believed. What +he had learned of Godâs unity and creative power and connection with +man, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, he imparts to his +contemporaries through the vehicle of an account of creation they could +all understand. It is not in his knowledge of physical facts that he is +elevated above his contemporaries, but in his knowledge of Godâs +connection with all physical facts. No doubt, on the other hand, his +knowledge of God reacts upon the entire contents of his mind and saves +him from presenting such accounts of creation as have been common among +polytheists. He presents an account purified by his conception of what +was worthy of the supreme God he worshipped. His idea of God has given +dignity and simplicity to all he says about creation, and there is an +elevation and majesty about the whole conception, which we recognise as +the reflex of his conception of God.</p> + +<p>Here then instead of anything to discompose us or to excite unbelief, we +recognise one great law or principle on which God proceeds in making +Himself known to men. This has been called the Law of Accommodation. It +is the law which requires that the condition and capacity of those to +whom the revelation is made must be considered. If you wish to instruct +a child, you must speak in language the child can understand. If you +wish to elevate a savage, you must do it by degrees, accommodating +yourself to his condition, and winking at much ignorance while you +instil elementary knowledge. You must found all you teach on what is +already understood by your pupil, and through that you must convey +further knowledge and train his faculties to higher capacity. So was it +with Godâs revelation. The Jews were children who had to be +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> +trained with what Paul somewhat contemptuously calls âweak and beggarly +elements,â the A B C of morals and religion. Not even in morals could +the absolute truth be enforced. Accommodation had to be practised even +here. Polygamy was allowed as a concession to their immature stage of +development: and practices in war and in domestic law were permitted or +enjoined which were inconsistent with absolute morality. Indeed the +whole Jewish system was an adaptation to an immature state. The dwelling +of God in the Temple as a man in his house, the propitiating of God with +sacrifice as of an Eastern king with gifts; this was a teaching by +picture, a teaching which had as much resemblance to the truth and as +much mixture of truth as they were able then to receive. No doubt this +teaching did actually mislead them in some of their ideas; but it kept +them on the whole in a right attitude towards God, and prepared them for +growing up to a fuller discernment of the truth.</p> + +<p>Much more was this law observed in regard to such matters as are dealt +with in these chapters. It was impossible that in their ignorance of the +rudiments of scientific knowledge, the early Hebrews should understand +an absolutely accurate account of how the world came into being; and if +they could have understood it, it would have been useless, dissevered as +it must have been from the steps of knowledge by which men have since +arrived at it. Children ask us questions in answer to which we do not +tell them the exact full truth, because we know they cannot possibly +understand it. All that we can do is to give them some provisional +answer which conveys to them some information they can understand, and +which keeps them in a right state of mind, although this information +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> +often seems absurd enough when compared with the actual facts and truth +of the matter. And if some solemn pedant accused us of supplying the +child with false information, we would simply tell him he knew nothing +about children. Accurate information on these matters will infallibly +come to the child when he grows up; what is wanted meanwhile is to give +him information which will help to form his conduct without gravely +misleading him as to facts. Similarly, if any one tells me he cannot +accept these chapters as inspired by God, because they do not convey +scientifically accurate information regarding this earth, I can only say +that he has yet to learn the first principles of revelation, and that he +misunderstands the conditions on which all instruction must be given.</p> + +<p>My belief then is, that in these chapters we have the ideas regarding +the origin of the world and of man which were naturally attainable in +the country where they were first composed, but with those important +modifications which a monotheistic belief necessarily suggested. So far +as merely physical knowledge went, there is probably little here that +was new to the contemporaries of the writer; but this already familiar +knowledge was used by him as the vehicle for conveying his faith in the +unity, love and wisdom of God the creator. He laid a firm foundation for +the history of Godâs relation to man. This was his object, and this he +accomplished. The Bible is the book to which we turn for information +regarding the history of Godâs revelation of Himself, and of His will +towards men; and in these chapters we have the suitable introduction to +this history. No changes in our knowledge of physical truth can at all +affect the teaching of these chapters. What they teach regarding the relation of man to God +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> +is independent of the physical details in which +this teaching is embodied, and can as easily be attached to the most +modern statement of the physical origin of the world and of man.</p> + +<p>What then are the truths taught us in these chapters? The first is that +there has been a creation, that things now existing have not just grown +of themselves, but have been called into being by a presiding +intelligence and an originating will. No attempt to account for the +existence of the world in any other way has been successful. A great +deal has in this generation been added to our knowledge of the +efficiency of material causes to produce what we see around us; but when +we ask what gives harmony to these material causes, and what guides them +to the production of certain ends, and what originally produced them, +the answer must still be, not matter but intelligence and purpose. The +best informed and most penetrating minds of our time affirm this. John +Stuart Mill says: âIt must be allowed that in the present state of our +knowledge the adaptations in nature afford a large balance of +probability in favour of creation by intelligence.â Professor Tyndall +adds his testimony and says: âI have noticed during years of +self-observation that it is not in hours of clearness and vigour that +[the doctrine of material atheism] commends itself to my mindâthat in +the hours of stronger and healthier thought it ever dissolves and +disappears, as offering no solution of the mystery in which we dwell and +of which we form a part.â</p> + +<p>There is indeed a prevalent suspicion, that in presence of the +discoveries made by evolutionists the argument from design is no longer +tenable. Evolution shows us that the correspondence of the structure of animals, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +with their modes of life, has been generated by the nature of +the case; and it is concluded that a blind mechanical necessity and not +an intelligent design rules all. But the discovery of the process by +which the presently existing living forms have been evolved, and the +perception that this process is governed by laws which have always been +operating, do not make intelligence and design at all less necessary, +but rather more so. As Professor Huxley himself says: âThe teleological +and mechanical views of nature are not necessarily exclusive. The +teleologist can always defy the evolutionist to disprove that the +primordial molecular arrangement was not intended to evolve the +phenomena of the universe.â Evolution, in short, by disclosing to us the +marvellous power and accuracy of natural law, compels us more +emphatically than ever to refer all law to a supreme, originating +intelligence.</p> + +<p>This then is the first lesson of the Bible; that at the root and origin +of all this vast material universe, before whose laws we are crushed as +the moth, there abides a living conscious Spirit, who wills and knows +and fashions all things. The belief of this changes for us the whole +face of nature, and instead of a chill, impersonal world of forces to +which no appeal can be made, and in which matter is supreme, gives us +the home of a Father. If you are yourself but a particle of a huge and +unconscious universeâa particle which, like a flake of foam, or a drop +of rain, or a gnat, or a beetle, lasts its brief space and then yields +up its substance to be moulded into some new creature; if there is no +power that understands you and sympathizes with you and makes provision +for your instincts, your aspirations, your capabilities; if man is +himself the highest intelligence, and if all things are the purposeless result +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> +of physical forces; if, in short, there is no God, no +consciousness at the beginning as at the end of all things, then nothing +can be more melancholy than our position. Our higher desires which seem +to separate us so immeasurably from the brutes, we have, only that they +may be cut down by the keen edge of time, and wither in barren +disappointment; our reason we have, only to enable us to see and measure +the brevity of our span, and so live our little day, not joyously as the +unforeseeing beasts, but shadowed by the hastening gloom of anticipated, +inevitable and everlasting night; our faculty for worshipping and for +striving to serve and to resemble the perfect living One, that faculty +which seems to be the thing of greatest promise and of finest quality in +us, and to which is certainly due the largest part of what is admirable +and profitable in human history, is the most mocking and foolishest of +all our parts. But, God be thanked, He has revealed himself to us; has +given us in the harmonious and progressive movement of all around us, +sufficient indication that, even in the material world, intelligence and +purpose reign; an indication which becomes immensely clearer as we pass +into the world of man; and which, in presence of the person and life of +Christ attains the brightness of a conviction which illuminates all +besides.</p> + +<p>The other great truth which this writer teaches is, that man was the +chief work of God, for whose sake all else was brought into being. The +work of creation was not finished till he appeared: all else was +preparatory to this final product. That man is the crown and lord of +this earth is obvious. Man instinctively assumes that all else has been +made for him, and freely acts upon this assumption. But when our eyes +are lifted from this little ball on which we are set and to which +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +we are confined, and when we scan such other parts of the universe as are +within our ken, a keen sense of littleness oppresses us; our earth is +after all so minute and apparently inconsiderable a point when compared +with the vast suns and planets that stretch system on system into +illimitable space. When we read even the rudiments of what astronomers +have discovered regarding the inconceivable vastness of the universe, +the huge dimensions of the heavenly bodies, and the grand scale on which +everything is framed, we find rising to our lips, and with tenfold +reason, the words of David: âWhen I consider Thy heavens, the work of +Thy fingers; the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained; what is +man that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that Thou visitest +him?â Is it conceivable that on this scarcely discernible speck in the +vastness of the universe, should be played out the chiefest act in the +history of God? Is it credible that He whose care it is to uphold this +illimitable universe, should be free to think of the wants and woes of +the insignificant creatures who quickly spend their little lives in this +inconsiderable earth?</p> + +<p>But reason seems all on the side of Genesis. God must not be considered +as sitting apart in a remote position of general superintendence, but as +present with all that is. And to Him who maintains these systems in +their respective relations and orbits, it can be no burden to relieve +the needs of individuals. To think of ourselves as too insignificant to +be attended to is to derogate from Godâs true majesty and to +misunderstand His relation to the world. But it is also to misapprehend +the real value of spirit as compared with matter. Man is dear to God +because he is like Him. Vast and glorious as it is, the sun cannot think Godâs thoughts; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +can fulfil but cannot intelligently sympathize with +Godâs purpose. Man, alone among Godâs works, can enter into and approve +of Godâs purpose in the world and can intelligently fulfil it. Without +man the whole material universe would have been dark and unintelligible, +mechanical and apparently without any sufficient purpose. Matter, +however fearfully and wonderfully wrought, is but the platform and +material in which spirit, intelligence and will, may fulfil themselves +and find development. Man is incommensurable with the rest of the +universe. He is of a different kind and by his moral nature is more akin +to God than to His works.</p> + +<p>Here the beginning and the end of Godâs revelation join hands and throw +light on one another. The nature of man was that in which God was at +last to give His crowning revelation, and for that no preparation could +seem extravagant. Fascinating and full of marvel as is the history of +the past which science discloses to us; full as these slow-moving +millions of years are in evidences of the exhaustless wealth of nature, +and mysterious as the delay appears, all that expenditure of resources +is eclipsed and all the delay justified when the whole work is crowned +by the Incarnation, for in it we see that all that slow process was the +preparation of a nature in which God could manifest Himself as a Person +to persons. This is seen to be an end worthy of all that is contained in +the physical history of the world: this gives completeness to the whole +and makes it a unity. No higher, other end need be sought, none could be +conceived. It is this which seems worthy of those tremendous and subtle +forces which have been set at work in the physical world, this which +justifies the long lapse of ages filled with wonders unobserved, and teeming with ever new life; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +this above all which justifies these latter +ages in which all physical marvels have been outdone by the tragical +history of man upon earth. Remove the Incarnation and all remains dark, +purposeless, unintelligible: grant the Incarnation, believe that in +Jesus Christ the Supreme manifested Himself personally, and light is +shed upon all that has been and is.</p> + +<p>Light is shed on the individual life. Are you living as if you were the +product of blind mechanical laws, and as if there were no object worthy +of your life and of all the force you can throw into your life? Consider +the Incarnation of the Creator, and ask yourself if sufficient object is +not given to you in His call that you be conformed to His image and +become the intelligent executor of His purposes? Is life not worth +having even on these terms? The man that can still sit down and bemoan +himself as if there were no meaning in existence, or lounge languidly +through life as if there were no zest or urgency in living, or try to +satisfy himself with fleshly comforts, has surely need to turn to the +opening page of Revelation and learn that God saw sufficient object in +the life of man, enough to compensate for millions of ages of +preparation. If it is possible that you should share in the character +and destiny of Christ, can a healthy ambition crave anything more or +higher? If the future is to be as momentous in results as the past has +certainly been filled with preparation, have you no caring to share in +these results? Believe that there is a purpose in things; that in +Christ, the revelation of God, you can see what that purpose is, and +that by wholly uniting yourself to Him and allowing yourself to be +penetrated by His Spirit you can participate with Him in the working out +of that purpose.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II.</h2> + +<h3>THE FALL.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> iii.</h4> + +<p>Profound as the teaching of this narrative is, its meaning does not lie +on the surface. Literal interpretation will reach a measure of its +significance, but plainly there is more here than appears in the letter. +When we read that the serpent was more subtile than any beast of the +field which the Lord God had made, and that he tempted the woman, we at +once perceive that it is not with the outer husk of the story we are to +concern ourselves, but with the kernel. The narrative throughout speaks +of nothing but the brute serpent; not a word is said of the devil, not +the slightest hint is given that the machinations of a fallen angel are +signified. The serpent is compared to the other beasts of the field, +showing that it is the brute serpent that is spoken of. The curse is +pronounced on the beast, not on a fallen spirit summoned for the purpose +before the Supreme; and not in terms which could apply to a fallen +spirit, but in terms that are applicable only to the serpent that +crawls. Yet every reader feels that this is not the whole mystery of the +fall of man: moral evil cannot be accounted for by referring it to a +brute source. No one, I suppose, believes that the whole tribe of +serpents crawl as a punishment of an offence +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> +committed by one of their number, or that the whole iniquity and sorrow of the world are due to an +actual serpent. Plainly this is merely a pictorial representation +intended to convey some general impressions and ideas. Vitally important +truths underlie the narrative and are bodied forth by it; but the way to +reach these truths is not to adhere too rigidly to the literal meaning, +but to catch the general impression which it seems fitted to make.</p> + +<p>No doubt this opens the door to a great variety of interpretation. No +two men will attach to it precisely the same meaning. One says, the +serpent is a symbol for Satan, but Adam and Eve are historical persons. +Another says, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is a figure, +but the driving out from the garden is real. Another maintains that the +whole is a picture, putting in a visible, intelligible shape certain +vitally important truths regarding the history of our race. So that +every man is left very much to his own judgment, to read the narrative +candidly and in such light from other sources as he has, and let it make +its own impression upon him. This would be a sad result if the object of +the Bible were to bring us all to a rigid uniformity of belief in all +matters; but the object of the Bible is not that, but the far higher +object of furnishing all varieties of men with sufficient light to lead +them to God. And this being so, variety of interpretation in details is +not to be lamented. The very purpose of such representations as are here +given is to suit all stages of mental and spiritual advancement. Let the +child read it and he will learn what will live in his mind and influence +him all his life. Let the devout man who has ranged through all science +and history and philosophy come back to this narrative, and he feels that he has here +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> +the essential truth regarding the beginnings of manâs +tragical career upon earth.</p> + +<p>We should, in my opinion, be labouring under a misapprehension if we +supposed that none even of the earliest readers of this account saw the +deeper meaning of it. When men who felt the misery of sin and lifted up +their hearts to God for deliverance, read the words addressed to the +serpent, âI will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy +seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his +heelââis it reasonable to suppose that such men would take these words +in their literal sense, and satisfy themselves with the assurance that +serpents, though dangerous, would be kept under, and would find in the +words no assurance of that very thing they themselves were all their +lifetime striving after, deliverance from the evil thing which lay at +the root of all sin? No doubt some would accept the story in its literal +meaning,âshallow and careless men whose own spiritual experience never +urged them to see any spiritual significance in the words would do so; +but even those who saw least in the story, and put a very shallow +interpretation on its details, could scarcely fail to see its main +teaching.</p> + +<p>The reader of this perennially fresh story is first of all struck with +the account given of manâs primitive condition. Coming to this narrative +with our minds coloured by the fancies of poets and philosophers, we are +almost startled by the check which the plain and sober statements of +this account give to an unpruned fancy. We have to read the words again +and again to make sure we have not omitted something which gives support +to those glowing descriptions of manâs primitive condition. Certainly he is described as innocent +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +and at peace with God, and in this respect no +terms can exaggerate his happiness. But in other respects the language +of the Bible is surprisingly moderate. Man is represented as living on +fruit, and as going unclothed, and, so far as appears, without any +artificial shelter either from the heat of the sun or the cold of night. +None of the arts were as yet known. All working of metals had yet to be +discovered, so that his tools must have been of the rudest possible +description; and the arts, such as music, which adorn life and make +leisure enjoyable, were also still in the future.</p> + +<p>But the most significant elements in manâs primitive condition are +represented by the two trees of the garden; by trees, because with +plants alone he had to do. In the centre of the garden stood the tree of +life, the fruit of which bestowed immortality. Man was therefore +naturally mortal, though apparently with a capacity for immortality. How +this capacity would have actually carried man on to immortality had he +not sinned, it is vain to conjecture. The mystical nature of the tree of +life is fully recognised in the New Testament, by our Lord, when He +says: âTo him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, +which is in the midst of the Paradise of God;â and by John, when he +describes the new Jerusalem: âIn the midst of the street of it, and on +either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve +manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of +the tree were for the healing of the nations.â Both these +representations are intended to convey, in a striking and pictorial +form, the promise of life everlasting.</p> + +<p>And as of the tree of life which stands in the Paradise of the future it +is said âBlessed are they that do His +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +commandments, that they may have +right to the tree of life;â so in Eden manâs immortality was suspended +on the condition of obedience. And the trial of manâs obedience is +imaged in the other tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. +From the child-like innocence in which man originally was, he was to +pass forward into the condition of moral manhood, which consists not in +mere innocence, but in innocence maintained in presence of temptation. +The savage is innocent of many of the crimes of civilized men because he +has no opportunity to commit them; the child is innocent of some of the +vices of manhood because he has no temptation to them. But this +innocence is the result of circumstance, not of character; and if savage +or child is to become a mature moral being he must be tried by altered +circumstances, by temptation and opportunity. To carry man forward to +this higher stage trial is necessary, and this trial is indicated by the +tree of knowledge. The fruit of this tree is prohibited, to indicate +that it is only in presence of what is forbidden man can be morally +tested, and that it is only by self-command and obedience to law, and +not by the mere following of instincts, that man can attain to moral +maturity. The prohibition is that which makes him recognise a +distinction between good and evil. He is put in a position in which good +is not the only thing he can do; an alternative is present to his mind, +and the choice of good in preference to evil is made possible to him. In +presence of this tree child-like innocence was no longer possible. The +self-determination of manhood was constantly required. Conscience, +hitherto latent, was now evoked and took its place as manâs supreme +faculty.</p> + +<p>It is in vain to think of exhausting this narrative. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +We can, at the most, only remark upon some of the most salient points.</p> + +<p>(1) Temptation comes like a serpent; like the most subtile beast of the +field; like that one creature which is said to exert a fascinating +influence on its victims, fastening them with its glittering eye, +stealing upon them by its noiseless, low and unseen approach, perplexing +them by its wide circling folds, seeming to come upon them from all +sides at once, and armed not like the other beasts with one weapon of +offenceâhorn, or hoof, or teethâbut capable of crushing its victim +with every part of its sinuous length. It lies apparently dead for +months together, but when roused it can, as the naturalist tells us, +âoutclimb the monkey, outswim the fish, outleap the zebra, outwrestle +the athlete, and crush the tiger.â How naturally in describing +temptation do we borrow language from the aspect and movements of this +creature. It does not need to hunt down its victims by long continued +pursuit, its victims come and put themselves within its reach. Unseen, +temptation lies by our path, and before we have time to think we are +fascinated and bewildered, its coils rapidly gather round us and its +stroke flashes poison through our blood. Against sin, when once it has +wreathed itself around us, we seem helpless to contend; the very powers +with which we could resist are benumbed or pinned useless to our +sideâour foe seems all round us, and to extricate one part is but to +become entangled in another. As the serpent finds its way everywhere, +over every fence or barrier, into every corner and recess, so it is +impossible to keep temptation out of the life; it appears where least we +expect it and when we think ourselves secure.</p> + +<p>(2) Temptation succeeds at first by exciting our +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> +curiosity. It is a wise saying that âour great security against sin lies in being shocked +at it. Eve gazed and reflected when she should have fled.â The serpent +created an interest, excited her curiosity about this forbidden fruit. +And as this excited curiosity lies near the beginning of sin in the +race, so does it in the individual. I suppose if you trace back the +mystery of iniquity in your own life and seek to track it to its source, +you will find it to have originated in this craving to taste evil. No +man originally meant to become the sinner he has become. He only +intended, like Eve, to taste. It was a voyage of discovery he meant to +make; he did not think to get nipped and frozen up and never more return +from the outer cold and darkness. He wished before finally giving +himself to virtue, to see the real value of the other alternative.</p> + +<p>This dangerous craving has many elements in it. There is in it the +instinctive drawing towards what is mysterious. One veiled figure in an +assembly will attract more scrutiny than the most admired beauty. An +appearance in the heavens that no one can account for will nightly draw +more eyes than the most wonderful sunset. To lift veils, to penetrate +disguises, to unravel complicated plots, to solve mysteries, this is +always inviting to the human mind. The tale which used to thrill us in +childhood, of the one locked room, the one forbidden key, bears in it a +truth for men as well as for children. What is hidden must, we conclude, +have some interest for usâelse why hide it from us? What is forbidden +must have some important bearing upon us. Else why forbid it? Things +which are indifferent to us are left in our way, obvious, and without +concealment. But as action has been taken regarding the things that are forbidden, action in view +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +of our relation to them, it is natural to us +to desire to know what these things are and how they affect us.</p> + +<p>There is added to this in young persons, a sense of incompleteness. They +wish to be grown up. Few boys wish to be always boys. They long for the +signs of manhood, and seek to possess that knowledge of life and its +ways which they very much identify with manhood. But too commonly they +mistake the path to manhood. They feel as if they had a wider range of +liberty and were more thoroughly men when they transgress the limits +assigned by conscience. They feel as if there were a new and brighter +world outside that which is fenced round by strict morality, and they +tremble with excitement on its borders. It is a fatal delusion. Only by +choosing the good in presence of the evil are true manhood and real +maturity gained. True manliness consists mainly in self control, in a +patient waiting upon nature and Godâs law and when youth impatiently +breaks through the protecting fence of Godâs law, and seeks growth by +knowing evil, it misses that very advancement it seeks, and cheats +itself out of the manhood it apes.</p> + +<p>(3) Through this craving for an enlarged experience unbelief in Godâs +goodness finds entrance. In the presence of forbidden pleasure we are +tempted to feel as if God were grudging us enjoyment. The very arguments +of the serpent occur to our mind. No harm will come of our indulging; +the prohibition is needless, unreasonable and unkind; it is not based on +any genuine desire for our welfare. This fence that shuts us out from +knowing good and evil is erected by a timorous asceticism, by a +ridiculous misconception of what truly enlarges human nature; it shuts +us into a poor narrow life. And thus suspicions of Godâs perfect wisdom and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +goodness find entrance; we begin to think we know better than He +what is good for us, and can contrive a richer, happier life than He has +provided for us. Our loyalty to Him is loosened, and already we have +lost hold of His strength and are launched on the current that leads to +sin, misery, and shame. When we find ourselves saying Yes, where God has +said No; when we see desirable things where God has said there is death; +when we allow distrust of Him to rankle in our mind, when we chafe +against the restrictions under which we live and seek liberty by +breaking down the fence instead of by delighting in God, we are on the +highway to all evil.</p> + +<p>(4) If we know our own history we cannot be surprised to read that one +taste of evil ruined our first parents. It is so always. The one taste +alters our attitude towards God and conscience and life. It is a +veritable Circeâs cup. The actual experience of sin is like the one +taste of alcohol to a reclaimed drunkard, like the first taste of blood +to a young tiger, it calls out the latent devil and creates a new nature +within us. At one brush it wipes out all the peace, and joy, and +self-respect, and boldness of innocence, and numbers us among the +transgressors, among the shame-faced, and self-despising, and hopeless. +It leaves us possessed with unhappy thoughts which lead us away from +what is bright, and honourable, and good, and like the letting out of +water it seems to have tapped a spring of evil within us. It is but one +step, but it is like the step over a precipice or down the shaft of a +mine; it cannot be taken back, it commits to an altogether different +state of things.</p> + +<p>(5) The first result of sin is shame. The form in which the knowledge of good and evil comes to us is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +the knowing we are naked, the consciousness that we are stripped of all that made us walk unabashed +before God and men. The promise of the serpent while broken in the sense +is fulfilled to the ear; the eyes of Adam and Eve were opened and they +knew that they were naked. Self-reflection begins, and the first +movement of conscience produces shame. Had they resisted temptation, +conscience would have been born but not in self-condemnation. Like +children they had hitherto been conscious only of what was external to +themselves, but now their consciousness of a power to choose good and +evil is awakened and its first exercise is accompanied with shame. They +feel that in themselves they are faulty, that they are not in themselves +complete; that though created by God, they are not fit for His eye. The +lower animals wear no clothes because they have no knowledge of good and +evil; children feel no need of covering because as yet +self-consciousness is latent, and their conduct is determined for them; +those who are re-made in the image of God and glorified as Christ is, +cannot be thought of as clothed, for in them there is no sense of sin. +But Adamâs clothing himself and hiding himself were the helpless +attempts of a guilty conscience to evade the judgment of truth.</p> + +<p>(6) But when Adam found he was no longer fit for Godâs eye, God provided +a covering which might enable him again to live in His presence without +dismay. Man had exhausted his own ingenuity and resources, and exhausted +them without finding relief to his shame. If his shame was to be +effectually removed, God must do it. And the clothing in coats of skins +indicates the restoration of man, not indeed to pristine innocence, but +to peace with God. Adam felt that God did not wish to banish him +lastingly from His presence, nor to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> +see him always a trembling and confused penitent. The self-respect and progressiveness, the reverence +for law and order and God, which came in with clothes, and which we +associate with the civilised races, were accepted as tokens that God was +desirous to co-operate with man, to forward and further him in all good.</p> + +<p>It is also to be remarked that the clothing which God provided was in +itself different from what man had thought of. Adam took leaves from an +inanimate, unfeeling tree; God deprived an animal of life, that the +shame of His creature might be relieved. This was the last thing Adam +would have thought of doing. To us life is cheap and death familiar, but +Adam recognised death as the punishment of sin. Death was to early man a +sign of Godâs anger. And he had to learn that sin could be covered not +by a bunch of leaves snatched from a bush as he passed by and that would +grow again next year, but only by pain and blood. Sin cannot be atoned +for by any mechanical action nor without expenditure of feeling. +Suffering must ever follow wrong-doing. From the first sin to the last, +the track of the sinner is marked with blood. Once we have sinned we +cannot regain permanent peace of conscience save through pain, and this +not only pain of our own. The first hint of this was given as soon as +conscience was aroused in man. It was made apparent that sin was a real +and deep evil, and that by no easy and cheap process could the sinner be +restored. The same lesson has been written on millions of consciences +since. Men have found that their sin reaches beyond their own life and +person, that it inflicts injury and involves disturbance and distress, +that it changes utterly our relation to life and to God, and that we +cannot rise above its consequences save by the intervention of God Himself, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +by an intervention which tells us of the sorrow He suffers on +our account.</p> + +<p>For the chief point is that it is God who relieves manâs shame. Until we +are certified that God desires our peace of mind we cannot be at peace. +The cross of Christ is the permanent witness to this desire on Godâs +part. No one can read what Christ has done for us without feeling sure +that for himself there is a way back to God from all sinâthat it is +Godâs desire that his sin should be covered, his iniquity forgiven. Too +often that which seems of prime importance to God seems of very slight +importance to us. To have our life founded solidly in harmony with the +Supreme, seems often to excite no desire within us. It is about sin we +find man first dealing with God, and until you have satisfied God and +yourself regarding this prime and fundamental matter of your own +transgression and wrong-doing you look in vain for any deep and lasting +growth and satisfaction. Have you no reason to be ashamed before God? +Have you loved Him in any proportion to His worthiness to be loved? Have +you cordially and habitually fallen in with His will? Have you zealously +done His work in the world? Have you fallen short of no good He intended +you should do and gave you opportunity to do? Is there no reason for +shame on your part before God? Has His desire to cover sin no +application to you? Can you not understand His meaning when He comes to +you with offers of pardon and acts of oblivion? Surely the candid mind, +the clear-judging conscience can be at no loss to explain Godâs +solicitous concern for the sinner; and must humbly own that even that +unfathomable Divine emotion which is exhibited in the cross of Christ, +is no exaggerated and theatrical demonstration, but the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +actual carrying through of what was really needed for the restoration of the sinner. Do +not live as if the cross of Christ had never been, or as if you had +never sinned and had no connection with it. Strive to learn what it +means; strive to deal fairly with it and fairly with your own +transgressions and with your present actual relation to God and His will.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III.</h2> + +<h3>CAIN AND ABEL.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> iv.</h4> + +<p>It is not the purpose of this narrator to write the history of the +world. It is not his purpose to write even the history of mankind. His +object is to write the history of redemption. Starting from the broad +fact of manâs alienation from God, he means to trace that element in +human history which results in the perfect re-union of God and man. The +key-note has been struck in the promise already given that the seed of +the woman should prevail over the seed of the serpent, that the effects +of manâs voluntary dissociation from God should be removed. It is the +fulfilment of this promise which is traced by this writer. He steadily +pursues that one line of history which runs directly towards this +fulfilment; turning aside now and again to pursue, to a greater or less +distance, diverging lines, but always returning to the grand highway on +which the promise travels. His method is first to dispose of collateral +matter and then to proceed with his main theme. As here, he first +disposes of the line of Cain and then returns to Seth through whom the +line of promise is maintained.</p> + +<p>The first thing we have to do with outside the garden is deathâthe +curse of sin speedily manifests itself in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +its most terrible form. But the sinner executes it himself. The first death is a murder. As if to +show that all death is a wrong inflicted on us and proceeds not from God +but from sin, it is inflicted by sin and by the hand of man. Man becomes +his own executioner, and takes part with Satan, the murderer from the +beginning. But certainly the first feeling produced by these events must +have been one of bitter disappointment, as if the promise were to be +lost in the curse.</p> + +<p>The story of Cain and Abel was to all appearance told in order to point +out that from the very first men have been divided into two great +classes, viewed in connection with Godâs promise and presence in the +world. Always there have been those who believed in Godâs love and +waited for it, and those who believed more in their own force and +energy. Always there have been the humble and self-diffident who hoped +in God, and the proud and self-reliant who felt themselves equal to all +the occasions of life. And this story of Cain and Abel and the +succeeding generations does not conceal the fact, that for the purposes +of this world there has been visible an element of weakness in the godly +line, and that it is to the self-reliant and God-defying energy of the +descendants of Cain that we owe much of the external civilisation of the +world. While the descendants of Seth pass away and leave only this +record, that they âwalked with God,â there are found among Cainâs +descendants, builders of cities, inventors of tools and weapons, music +and poetry and the beginnings of culture.</p> + +<p>These two opposed lines are in the first instance represented by Cain +and Abel. With each child that comes into the world some fresh hope is +brought; and the name of Cain points to the expectation of his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +parents that in him a fresh start would be made. Alas! as the boy grew they saw +how vain such expectation was and how truly their nature had passed into +his, and how no imparted experience of theirs, taught him from without, +could countervail the strong propensities to evil which impelled him +from within. They experienced that bitterest punishment which parents +undergo, when they see their own defects and infirmities and evil +passions repeated in their children and leading them astray as they once +led themselves; when in those who are to perpetuate their name and +remembrance on earth they see evidence that their faults also will be +perpetuated; when in those whom they chiefly love they have a mirror +ceaselessly held up to them forcing them to remember the follies and +sins of their own youth. Certainly in the proud, self-willed, sullen +Cain no redemption was to be found.</p> + +<p>Both sons own the necessity of labour. Man is no longer in the primitive +condition, in which he had only to stretch out his hand when hungry, and +satisfy his appetite. There are still some regions of the earth in which +the trees shower fruit, nutritious and easily preserved, on men who shun +labour. Were this the case throughout the world, the whole of life would +be changed. Had we been created self-sufficing or in such conditions as +involved no necessity of toil, nothing would be as it now is. It is the +need of labour that implies occasional starvation and frequent poverty, +and gives occasion to charity. It is the need of labour which involves +commerce and thereby sows the seed of greed, worldliness, ambition, +drudgery. The ultimate physical wants of men, food and clothes, are the +motive of the greater part of all human activity. Trace to their causes +the various industries of men, the wars, the great social +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +movements, all that constitutes history, and you find that the bulk of all that is +done upon earth is done because men must have food and wish to have it +as good and with as little labour as possible. The broad facts of human +life are in many respects humiliating.</p> + +<p>The disposition of men is consequently shown in the occupations they +choose and the idea of life they carry into them. Some, like Abel, +choose peaceful callings that draw out feeling and sympathy; others +prefer pursuits which are stirring and active. Cain chose the tillage of +the ground, partly no doubt from the necessity of the case, but probably +also with the feeling that he could subdue nature to his own purposes +notwithstanding the curse that lay upon it. Do we not all sometimes feel +a desire to take the world as it is, curse and all, and make the most of +it; to face its disease with human skill, its disturbing and destructive +elements with human forethought and courage, its sterility and +stubbornness with human energy and patience? What is stimulating men +still to all discovery and invention, to forewarn seamen of coming +storms, to break a precarious passage for commerce through eternal ice +or through malarious swamps, to make life at all points easier and more +secure? Is it not the energy which opposition excites? We know that it +will be hard work; we expect to have thorns and thistles everywhere, but +let us see whether this may not after all be a thoroughly happy world, +whether we cannot cultivate the curse altogether out of it. This is +indeed the very work God has given man to doâto subdue the earth and +make the desert blossom as the rose. God is with us in this work, and he +who believes in Godâs purpose and strives to reclaim nature and compel +it to some better products than it naturally yields, is doing Godâs +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +work in the world. The misery is that so many do it in the spirit of +Cain, in a spirit of self-confident or sullen alienation from God, +willing to endure all hardship but unable to lay themselves at Godâs +feet with every capacity for work and every field He has given them to +till for Him and in a spirit of humble love to co-operate with Him. To +this spirit of godless energy, of merely selfish or worldly ambition and +enterprise, the world owes not only much of its poverty and many of its +greatest disasters, but also the greater part of its present advantages +in external civilisation. But from this spirit can never arise the +meekness, the patience, the tenderness, the charity which sweeten the +life of society and are more to be desired than gold; from this spirit +and all its achievements the natural outcome is the proud, vindictive, +self-glorifying war-song of a Lamech.</p> + +<p>The incompatibility of the two lines and the persecuting spirit of the +godless are set forth by the after history of Cain and Abel. The one +line is represented in Cain, who with all his energy and indomitable +courage, is depicted as of a dark, morose, suspicious, jealous, violent +temper; a man born under the shadow of the fall. Abel is described in +contrast as guileless and sunny, free from harshness and resentment. +What was in Cain was shown by what came out of him, murder. The reason +of the rejection of his offering was his own evil condition of heart. +âIf thou doest well, shalt not thou also be accepted;â implying that he +was not accepted because he was not doing well. His offering was a mere +form; he complied with the fashion of the family; but in spirit he was +alienated from God, cherishing thoughts which the rejection of his +offering brings to a head. He may have seen that the younger +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +son won more of the parentsâ affection, that his company was more welcome. +Jealousy had been produced, that deep jealousy of the humble and godly +which proud men of the world cannot help betraying and which has so very +often in the worldâs history produced persecution.</p> + +<p>This cannot be considered too weak a motive to carry so enormous a +crime. Even in a highly civilised age we find an English statesman +saying: âPique is one of the strongest motives in the human mind. Fear +is strong but transient. Interest is more lasting, perhaps, and steady, +but weaker; I will ever back pique against them both. It is the spur the +devil rides the noblest tempers with, and will do more work with them in +a week, than with other poor jades in a twelve-month.â And the age of +Cain and Abel was an age in which impulse and action lay close together, +and in which jealousy is notoriously strong. To this motive John +ascribes the act: âWherefore slew he him? Because his own works were +evil, and his brotherâs righteous.â</p> + +<p>We have now learned better how to disguise our feelings; and we are +compelled to control them better; but now and again we meet with a +deep-seated hatred of goodness which might give rise to almost any +crime. Few of us can say that for our own part we have extinguished +within us the spirit that disparages and depreciates and fixes the +charge of hypocrisy or refers good actions to interested motives, +searches out failings and watches for haltings and is glad when a blot +is found. Few are filled with unalloyed grief when the man who has borne +an extraordinary reputation turns out to be just like the rest of us. +Many of us have a true delight in goodness and humble ourselves before it +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> +when we see it, and yet we know also what it is to be exasperated by +the presence of superiority. I have seen a schoolboy interrupt his +brotherâs prayers, and gird at him for his piety, and strive to draw him +into sin, and do the devilâs work with zest and diligence. And where +goodness is manifestly in the minority how constantly does it excite +hatred that pours itself out in sneers and ridicule and ignorant +calumny.</p> + +<p>But this narrative significantly refers this early quarrel to religion. +There is no bitterness to compare with that which worldly men who +profess religion, feel towards those who cultivate a spiritual religion. +They can never really grasp the distinction between external worship and +real godliness. They make their offerings, they attend to the rites of +the religion to which they belong and are beside themselves with +indignation if any person or event suggests to them that they might have +saved themselves all their trouble, because these do not at all +constitute religion. They uphold the Church, they admire and praise her +beautiful services, they use strong but meaningless language about +infidelity, and yet when brought in contact with spirituality and +assured that regeneration and penitent humility are required above all +else in the kingdom of God, they betray an utter inability to comprehend +the very rudiments of the Christian religion. Abel has always to go to +the wall because he is always the weaker party, always in the minority. +Spiritual religion, from the very nature of the case, must always be in +the minority; and must be prepared to suffer loss, calumny, and +violence, at the hands of the worldly religious, who have contrived for +themselves a worship that calls for no humiliation before God and no +complete surrender of heart and will to Him. Cain is the type of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +ignorant religious, of the unregenerate man who thinks he merits Godâs +favour as much as any one else; and Cainâs conduct is the type of the +treatment which the Christ-like and intelligent godly are always likely +to receive at such hands.</p> + +<p>We never know where we may be led by jealousy and malice. One of the +striking features of this incident is the rapidity with which small sins +generate great ones. When Cain went in the joy of harvest and offered +his first fruits no thought could be further from his mind than murder. +It may have come as suddenly on himself as on the unsuspecting Abel, but +the germ was in him. Great sins are not so sudden as they seem. +Familiarity with evil thought ripens us for evil action; and a moment of +passion, an hourâs loss of self-control, a tempting occasion, may hurry +us into irremediable evil. And even though this does not happen, +envious, uncharitable, and malicious thoughts make our offerings as +distasteful as Cainâs. He that loveth not his brother knoweth not God. +First be reconciled to thy brother, says our Lord, and then come and +offer thy gift.</p> + +<p>Other truths are incidentally taught in this narrative.</p> + +<p>(1) The acceptance of the offering depends on the acceptance of the +offerer. God had respect to Abel and his offeringâthe man first and +then the offering. God looks through the offering to the state of soul +from which it proceeds; or even, as the words would indicate, sees the +soul first and judges and treats the offering according to the inward +disposition. God does not judge of what you are by what you say to Him +or do for Him, but He judges what you say to Him and do for Him by what +you are. âBy <i>faith</i>â says a New Testament writer, âAbel offered a more acceptable +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +sacrifice than Cain.â He had the faith which enabled him to +believe that God is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently +seek Him. His attitude towards God was sound; his life was a diligent +seeking to please God; and from all such persons God gladly receives +acknowledgment. When the offering is the true expression of the soulâs +gratitude, love, devotedness, then it is acceptable. When it is a merely +external offering, that rather veils than expresses the real feeling; +when it is not vivified and rendered significant by any spiritual act on +the part of the worshipper, it is plainly of no effect.</p> + +<p>What is true of all sacrifices is true of the sacrifice of Christ. It +remains invalid and of none effect to those who do not through it yield +themselves to God. Sacrifices were intended to be the embodiment and +expression of a state of feeling towards God, of a submission or +offering of menâs selves to God; of a return to that right relation +which ought ever to subsist between creature and Creator. Christâs +sacrifice is valid for us when it is that outward thing which best +expresses our feeling towards God and through which we offer or yield +ourselves to God. His sacrifice is the open door through which God +freely admits all who aim at a consecration and obedience like to His. +It is valid for us when through it we sacrifice ourselves. Whatever His +sacrifice expresses we desire to take and use as the only satisfactory +expression of our own aims and desires. Did Christ perfectly submit to +and fulfil the will of God? So would we. Did He acknowledge the infinite +evil of sin and patiently bear its penalties, still loving the Holy and +Righteous God? So would we endure all chastening, and still resist unto blood striving against sin. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p> + +<p>(2) Again, we here find a very sharp and clear statement of the welcome +truth, that continuance in sin is never a necessity, that God points the +way out of sin, and that from the first He has been on manâs side and +has done all that could be done to keep men from sinning. Observe how He +expostulates with Cain. Take note of the plain, explicit fairness of the +words in which He expostulates with himâinstance, as it is, of how +absolutely in the right God always is, and how abundantly He can justify +all His dealings with us. God says as it were to Cain; Come now: and let +us reason together. All God wants of any man is to be reasonable; to +look at the facts of the case. âIf thou doest well, shalt thou not (as +well as Abel) be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the +door,â that is, if thou doest not well, the sin is not Abelâs nor any +oneâs but thine own, and therefore anger at another is not the proper +remedy, but anger at yourself, and repentance.</p> + +<p>No language could more forcibly exhibit the unreasonableness of not +meeting God with penitent and humble acknowledgment. God has fully met +our case, and has satisfied all its demands, has set Himself to serve us +and laid Himself out to save us pain and misery, and has so entirely +succeeded in making salvation and blessedness possible to us, that if we +continue in sin we must trample not only upon Godâs love and our own +reason, but on the very means of salvation. State your case at the +worst, bring forward every reason why your countenance should be fallen +as Cainâs and why your face should lower with the gloom of eternal +despairâsay that you have as clear evidence as Cain had that your +offerings are displeasing to God, and that while others are accepted you +receive no token from Him,âin answer to all your arguments, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> +these words addressed to Cain rise up. If not accepted already you have the +means of being so. If you do well to be hardened in sin it is not +because it is necessary, nor because God desires it. If you are to +continue in sin you must put aside His hand. It can only be <i>sin</i> which +causes you either to despair of salvation or keeps you any way separate +from Godâthere is no other thing worse than sin, and for sin there is +an offering provided. You have not fallen into some lower grade of +beings than that which is designated sinners, and it is sinners that God +in His mercy hems in with this inevitable dilemma He presented to Cain.</p> + +<p>If, therefore, you continue at war with God it is not because you must +not do otherwise: if you go forward to any new thought, plan, or action +unpardoned; if acceptance of Godâs forgiveness and entrance into a state +of reconciliation with Him be not your first action, then you must +thrust aside His counsel, backed though it is with every utterance of +your own reason. Some of us may be this day or this week in as critical +a position as Cain, having as truly as he the making or marring of our +future in our hands, seeing clearly the right course, and all that is +good, humble, penitent and wise in us urging us to follow that course, +but our pride and self-will holding us back. How often do men thus +barter a future of blessing for some mean gratification of temper or +lust or pride; how often by a reckless, almost listless and indifferent +continuance in sin do they let themselves be carried on to a future as +woful as Cainâs; how often when God expostulates with them do they make +no answer and take no action, as if there were nothing to be gained by +listening to Godâas if it were a matter of no importance what +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> +future I go toâas if in the whole eternity that lies in reserve there were +nothing worth making a choice aboutânothing about which it is worth my +while to rouse the whole energy of which I am capable, and to make, by +Godâs grace, the determination which shall alter my whole futureâto +choose for myself and assert myself.</p> + +<p>(3) The writer to the Hebrews makes a very striking use of this event. +He borrows from it language in which to magnify the efficacy of Christâs +sacrifice, and affirms that the blood of Christ speaketh better things, +or, as it must rather be rendered, crieth louder than the blood of Abel. +Abelâs blood, we see, cried for vengeance, for evil things for Cain, +called God to make inquisition for blood, and so pled as to secure the +banishment of the murderer. The Arabs have a belief that over the grave +of a murdered man his spirit hovers in the form of a bird that cries +âGive me drink, give me drink,â and only ceases when the blood of the +murderer is shed. Cainâs conscience told him the same thing; there was +no criminal law threatening death to the murderer, but he felt that men +would kill him if they could. He heard the blood of Abel crying from the +earth. The blood of Christ also cries to God, but cries not for +vengeance but for pardon. And as surely as the one cry was heard and +answered in very substantial results; so surely does the other cry call +down from heaven its proper and beneficent effects. It is as if the +earth would not receive and cover the blood of Christ, but ever exposes +it before God and cries to Him to be faithful and just to forgive us our +sins. This blood cries louder than the other. If God could not overlook +the blood of one of His servants, but adjudged to it its proper consequences, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +neither is it possible that He should overlook the blood +of His Son and not give to it its proper result.</p> + +<p>If then you feel in your conscience that you are as guilty as Cain, and +if sins clamour around you which are as dangerous as his, and which cry +out for judgment upon you, accept the assurance that the blood of Christ +has a yet louder cry for mercy. If you had been Abelâs murderer, would +you have been justly afraid of Godâs anger? Be as sure of Godâs mercy +now. If you had stood over his lifeless body and seen the earth refusing +to cover his blood, if you felt the stain of it crimson on your +conscience and if by night you started from your sleep striving vainly +to wash it from your hands, if by every token you felt yourself exposed +to a just punishment, your fear would be just and reasonable were +nothing else revealed to you. But there is another blood equally +indelible, equally clamorous. In it you have in reality what is +elsewhere pretended in fable, that the blood of the murdered man will +not wash out, but through every cleansing oozes up again a dark stain on +the oaken floor. This blood can really not be washed out, it cannot be +covered up and hid from Godâs eye, its voice cannot be stifled, and its +cry is all for mercy.</p> + +<p>With how different a meaning then comes now to us this question of +Godâs: âWhere is thy brother?â Our Brother also is slain. Him Whom God +sent among us to reverse the curse, to lighten the burden of this life, +to be the loving member of the family on Whom each leans for help and +looks to for counsel and comfortâHim Who was by His goodness to be as +the dayspring from on high in our darkness, we found <i>too</i> good for our +endurance and dealt with as Cain dealt with his more righteous brother. But He Whom we +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> +slew God has raised again to give repentance and +remission of sins, and assures us that His blood cleanseth from all sin. +To every one therefore He repeats this question, âWhere is thy brother?â +He repeats it to every one who is living with a conscience stained with +sin; to every one that knows remorse and walks with the hanging head of +shame; to every one whose whole life is saddened by the consciousness +that all is not settled between God and himself; to every one who is +sinning recklessly as if Christâs blood had never been shed for sin; and +to every one who, though seeking to be at peace with God, is troubled +and downcastâto all God says, âWhere is thy brother?â tenderly +reminding us of the absolute satisfaction for sin that has been made, +and of the hope towards God we have through the blood of His Son.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV.</h2> + +<h3>CAINâS LINE, AND ENOCH.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> iv. 12â24.</h4> + +<p>âMy punishment is greater than I can bear,â so felt Cain as soon as his +passion had spent itself and the consequences of his wickedness became +apparentâand so feels every one who finds he has now to live in the +presence of the irrevocable deed he has done. It seems too heavy a +penalty to endure for the one hour of passion; and yet as little as Cain +could rouse the dead Abel so little can we revive the past we have +destroyed. Thoughtlessness has set in motion agencies we are powerless +to control; the whole world is changed to us. One can fancy Cain turning +to see if his victim gave no sign of life, striving to reanimate the +dead body, calling the familiar name, but only to see with growing +dismay that the one blow had finished all with which that name was +associated, and that he had made himself a new world. So are we drawn +back and back in thought to that which has for ever changed life to us, +striving to see if there is no possibility of altering the past, but +only to find we might quite as well try to raise the dead. No voice +responds to our cries of grief and dismay and too late repentance. All +life now seems but a reaping of the consequences of the past. We have put ourselves in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> +every respect at a disadvantage. The earth seems +cursed so that we are hampered in our employments and cannot make as +much of them as we would had we been innocent. We have got out of right +relations to our fellow-men and cannot feel the same to them as we ought +to feel; and the face of God is hid from us, so that now and again as +time after time our hopes are blighted, our life darkened and disturbed +by the obvious results of our own past deeds, we are tempted to cry out +with Cain: âMy punishment is greater than I can bear.â</p> + +<p>Yet Cainâs punishment was less than he expected. He was not put to death +as he would have been at any later period of the worldâs history, but +was banished. And even this punishment was lightened by his having a +token from God, that he would not be put to death by any zealous avenger +of Abel. He would experience the hardships of a man entering unexplored +territory, but to an enterprising spirit this would not be without its +charms. As the fresh beauties of the worldâs youth were disclosed to him +and by their bright and peaceful friendliness allayed the bitterness of +his spirit, and as the mysteries and dangers of the new regions excited +him and called his thoughts from the past, some of the old delight in +life may have been recovered by him. Probably in many a lonely hour the +recollection of his crime would return and with it all the horrors of a +remorse which would drive rest and peace from his soul, and render him +the most wretched of men. But busied as he was with his new enterprises, +there is little doubt that he would find it, as it is still found, not +impossible to banish such dreary thoughts and live in the measure of +contentment which many enjoy who are as far from God as Cain.</p> + +<p>It is not difficult to detect the spirit he carried with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> +him, and the tone he gave to his line of the race. The facts recorded are few but +significant. He begat a son, he built a city; and he gave to both the +name Enoch, that is âinitiation,â or âbeginning,â as if he were saying +in his heart, âWhat so great harm after all in cutting short one line in +Abel? I can begin another and find a new starting point for the race. I +am driven forth cursed as a vagabond, but a vagabond I will not be; I +will make for myself a settled abode, and I will fence it round with +knife-blade thorns so that no man will be able to assault me.â</p> + +<p>In this settling of Cain, however, we see not any symptom of his ceasing +to be a vagabond, but the surest evidence that now he was content to be +a fugitive from God and had cut himself off from hope. His heart had +found rest and had found it apart from God. <i>Here</i>, in this city he +would make a fresh beginning for himself and for men. Here he abandoned +all clinging memories of former things, of his old home and of the God +there worshipped. He had wisdom enough not to call his city by his own +name, and so invite men to consider his former career or trace back +anything to his old life. He cut it all off from him; his crime, his God +also, all that was in it was to be no more to him and his comrades. He +would make a clean start, and that men might be led to expect a great +future he called his city, Enoch, a Beginning.</p> + +<p>But it is one thing to forgive ourselves, another thing to have Godâs +forgiveness. It is one thing to reconcile ourselves to the curse that +runs through our life, another thing to be reconciled to God and so +defeat the curse. It is sometimes, though by no means always, possible +to escape some of the consequences of sin: we can change our front so as to lessen the breadth of life +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +that is exposed to them, or we can +accustom and harden ourselves to a very second-rate kind of life. We can +teach ourselves to live without much love in our homes or in our +connections with those outside; we can learn to be satisfied if we can +pay our way and make the time pass and be outwardly like other people; +we can build a little city, and be content to be on no very friendly +terms with any but the select few inside the trench, and actually be +quite satisfied if we can <i>defend ourselves against</i> the rest of men; we +can forget the one commandment, that we should love one another. We can +all find much in the world to comfort, to lull, to soothe sorrowful but +wholesome remembrances; much to aid us in an easy treatment of the +curse; much to shed superficial brightness on a life darkened and +debased by sin, much to hush up the sad echoes that mutter from the dark +mountains of vanity we have left behind us, much that assures us we have +nothing to do but forget our old sins and busily occupy ourselves with +new duties. But no David will say, nor will any man of true spiritual +discernment say, âBlessed is the man whose transgression is +<i>forgotten</i>;â but only, âBlessed is the man whose transgression is +forgiven.â By all means make a fresh start, a new beginning, but let it +be in your own broken heart, in a spirit humble and contrite, frankly +acknowledging your guilt and finding rest and settlement for your soul +in reconciliation with God.</p> + +<p>It is in the family of Lamech the characteristics of Cainâs line are +most distinctly seen, and the significance of their tendencies becomes +apparent. As Cain had set himself to cultivate the curse out of the +world, so have his children derived from him the self-reliant hardiness +and hardihood which are resolute to make of this world +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> +as bright and happy a home as may be. They make it their task to subdue the world and +compel it to yield them a life in which they can delight. They are so +far successful that in a few generations they have formed a home in +which all the essentials of civilized life are foundâthe arts are +cultivated and female society is appreciated.</p> + +<p>Of his three sons, Jabalâor âIncreaseââwas âthe father of such as +dwell in tents and of such as have cattle.â He had originality enough to +step beyond all traditional habits and to invent a new mode of life. +Hitherto men had been tied to one spot by their fixed habitations, or +found shelter when overtaken by storm in caves or trees. To Jabal the +idea first occurs, I can carry my house about with me and regulate its +movements and not it mine. I need not return every night this long weary +way from the pastures, but may go wherever grass is green and streams +run cool. He and his comrades would thus become aware of the vast +resources of other lands, and would unconsciously lay the foundations +both of commerce and of wars of conquest. For both in ancient and more +modern times the most formidable armies have been those vast moving +shepherd races bred outside the borders of civilization and flooding as +with an irresistible tide the territories of more settled and less hardy +tribes.</p> + +<p>Jubal again was, as his name denotes, the reputed father of all such as +handle the harp and the organ, stringed and wind instruments. The stops +of the reed or flute and the divisions of the string being once +discovered, all else necessarily followed. The twanging of a bow-string +in a musical ear was enough to give the suggestion to an observant mind; +the varying notes of the birds; the winds expressing at one time +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +unbridled fury and at another a breathing benediction, could not fail to +move and stir the susceptible spirit. The spontaneous though untuned +singing of children, that follows no mere melody made by another to +express <i>his</i> joy, but is the instinctive expression of their own joy, +could not but give however meagrely the first rudiments of music. But +here was the man who first made a piece of wood help him; who out of the +commonest material of the physical world found for himself a means of +expressing the most impalpable moods of his spirit. Once the idea was +caught that matter inanimate as well as animate was manâs servant and +could do his finest work for him, Jabal and his brother Jubal would make +rapid work between them. If the rude matter of the world could <i>sing</i> +for them, what might it not do for them? They would see that there was a +precision in machine-work which manâs hand could not rivalâa regularity +which no nervous throb could throw out and no feeling interrupt, and yet +at the same time when they found how these rude instruments responded to +every finest shade of feeling, and how all external nature seemed able +to express what was in man, must it not have been the birth of poetry as +well as of music? Jubal in short originates what we now compendiously +describe as the Fine Arts.</p> + +<p>The third brother again may be taken as the originator of the Useful +Artsâthough not exclusivelyâfor being the instructor of every +artificer in brass and iron, having something of his brotherâs genius +for invention and more than his brotherâs handiness and practical +faculty for embodying his ideas in material forms, he must have promoted +all arts which require tools for their culture. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p> + +<p>Thus among these three brothers we find distributed the various kinds of +genius and faculty which ever since have enriched the world. Here in +germ was really all that the world can do. The great lines in which +individual and social activity have since run were then laid down.</p> + +<p>This notable family circle was completed by Naamah, the sister of +Tubal-Cain. The strength of female influence began to be felt +contemporaneously with the cultivation of the arts. Very early in the +worldâs history it was perceived that although debarred from the rougher +activities of life, women have an empire of their own. Men have the +making of civilisation, but women have the making of men. It is they who +form the character of the individual and give its tone to the society in +which they live. It is natural to men to consider the feelings and +tastes of women and to adapt their manners and conversation to them; and +it is for women to exercise worthily the sway they thus possess. +Practically and to a large extent women settle what subjects shall be +spoken of, and in what tone, trifling or serious; and each ought +therefore to recognise her own burden of responsibility, and see to it +that the deference paid to her shall not lower him who pays it, and that +the respect shown to her shall help him who shows it to respect what is +pure and true, charitable, just, and worthy. Let women show that it is +worldly trifling or slanderous malignity or empty tittle-tattle that +delights them, then they act the part of Eve and tempt to sin; let them +show that they prize most highly the mirth that is innocent and the +conversation that is elevating and helpful, and while they win +admiration for themselves they win it also for what is healthy and +purifying. No woman can renounce her influence; helpful +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> +or hurtful she certainly is and must be in proportion as she is pleasing and +attractive.</p> + +<p>Thus early did it appear how much of what is admirable and serviceable +clung to human nature apart from any recognition of God. The worldly +life was then what it is now, a life not wholly and obviously polluted +by excess, nor destroyed by violence, but displaying features which +appeal to our sensibilities and provoke applause; a life of manifold +beauty, of great power and resource, of abundant promise. There is +abundant material in the world for beautifying and elevating human life, +and this material may be used and is used by men who acknowledge neither +its origin in God nor the ends He would serve by it. The interests of +men may be advanced and the best work of the world done by three +distinct classes of menâby those who work as Godâs children in thorough +sympathy with His purposes; by those who do not know God but who are +humble in heart and would sympathise with Godâs purposes, did they +become acquainted with them; and by those who are proud and self-willed, +positively alienated from God, and who do the worldâs work for their own +ends. And so far as the external work goes the last-named class of men +may be most efficient. In mental endowment, social and political wisdom, +scientific aptitude, and all that tends to substantial utility, it is +quite possible they may excel the godly, for ânot many noble, not many +wise are called.â But we have nothing to measure permanent success by, +save conformity with Godâs will; and we have nothing by which we can +estimate how character will endure and how deeply it is rooted save +conformity with the nature of God. If a man believes in God, in one +Supreme Who rules and orders all things for just, holy and wise +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> +ends; if he is in sympathy with the nature and will of God and finds his +truest satisfaction in forwarding the purposes of God, then you have a +guarantee for this manâs continuance in good and for his ultimate +success.</p> + +<p>The precarious nature of all godless civilisation and the real tendency +of self-sufficing pride are shown in Lamech.</p> + +<p>It is in Lamech the tendency culminates and in him the issue of all this +brilliant but godless life is seen. Therefore though he is the father, +the historian speaks of him <i>after</i> his children. In his one recorded +utterance his character leaps to view definite and completeâa character +of boundless force, self-reliance and godlessness. It is a little +uncertain whether he means that he has actually slain a man, or whether +he is putting a hypothetical caseâthe character of his speech is the +same whichever view is taken.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">âI have slain,â he says, or suppose I slay, âa man for wounding me,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">A young man for hurting me:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But if Cain shall be avenged seven-foldâthen Lamech seventy and seven-fold.â<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>That is, I take vengeance for myself with those good weapons my son has +forged for me. He has furnished me with a means of defence many times +more effectual than Godâs avenging of Cain. This is the climax of the +self-sufficiency to which the line of Cain has been tending. Cain +besought Godâs protection; he needed God for at least one purpose, this +one thread bound him yet to God. Lamech has no need of God for any +purpose; what his sons can make and his own right hand do is enough for +him. This is what comes of finding enough in the world without Godâa +boastful, self-sufficient man, dangerous to society, the incarnation +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +of the pride of life. In the long run separation from God becomes isolation +from man and cruel self-sufficiency.</p> + +<p>The line of Seth is followed from father to son, for the sake of showing +that the promise of a seed which should be victorious over evil was +being fulfilled. Apparently it is also meant that during this uneventful +period long ages elapsed. Nothing can be told of these old world people +but that they lived and died, leaving behind them heirs to transmit the +promise.</p> + +<p>Only once is the monotony broken; but this in so striking a manner as to +rescue us from the idea that the historian is mechanically copying a +barren list of names. For in the seventh generation, contemporaneous +with the culmination of Cainâs line in the family of Lamech, we come +upon the simple but anything but mechanical statement: âEnoch walked +with God and he was not; for God took him.â The phrase is full of +meaning. Enoch walked with God because he was His friend and liked His +company, because he was going in the same direction as God, and had no +desire for anything but what lay in Godâs path. We walk with God when He +is in all our thoughts; not because we consciously think of Him at all +times, but because He is naturally suggested to us by all we think of; +as when any person or plan or idea has become important to us, no matter +what we think of, our thought is always found recurring to this +favourite object, so with the godly man everything has a connection with +God and must be ruled by that connection. When some change in his +circumstances is thought of, he has first of all to determine how the +proposed change will affect his connection with Godâwill his conscience +be equally clear, will he be able to live on the same friendly terms with God +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> +and so forth. When he falls into sin he cannot rest till he +has resumed his place at Godâs side and walks again with Him. This is +the general nature of walking with God; it is a persistent endeavour to +hold all our life open to Godâs inspection and in conformity to His +will; a readiness to give up what we find does cause any +misunderstanding between us and God; a feeling of loneliness if we have +not some satisfaction in our efforts at holding fellowship with God, a +cold and desolate feeling when we are conscious of doing something that +displeases Him. This walking with God necessarily tells on the whole +life and character. As you instinctively avoid subjects which you know +will jar upon the feelings of your friend, as you naturally endeavour to +suit yourself to your company, so when the consciousness of Godâs +presence begins to have some weight with you, you are found +instinctively endeavouring to please Him, repressing the thoughts you +know He disapproves, and endeavouring to educate such dispositions as +reflect His own nature.</p> + +<p>It is easy then to understand how we may practically walk with Godâit +is to open to Him all our purposes and hopes, to seek His judgment on +our scheme of life and idea of happinessâit is to be on thoroughly +friendly terms with God. Why then do any not walk with God? Because they +seek what is wrong. You would walk with Him if the same idea of good +possessed you as possesses Him; if you were as ready as He to make no +deflexion from the straight path. Is not the very crown of life depicted +in the testimony given to Enoch, that âhe pleased Godâ? Cannot you take +your way through life with a resolute and joyous spirit if you are +conscious that you please Him Who judges not by appearances, not by your manners, but +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> +by your real state, by your actual character and the +eternal promise it bears? Things were not made easy to Enoch. In evil +days, with much to mislead him, with everything to oppose him, he had by +faith and diligent seeking, as the Epistle to the Hebrews says, to +cleave to the path on which God walked, often left in darkness, often +thrown off the track, often listening but unable to hear the footfall of +God or to hear his own name called upon, receiving no sign but still +diligently seeking the God he knew would lead him only to good. Be it +yours to give such diligence. Do not accept it as a thing fixed that you +are to be one of the graceless and ungodly, always feeble, always +vacillating, always without a character, always in doubt about your +state, and whether life might not be some other and better thing to you.</p> + +<p>âEnoch was not, for God took him.â Suddenly his place on earth was empty +and men drew their own conclusions. He had been known as the Friend of +God, where could he be but in Godâs dwelling-place? No sickness had +slowly worn him to the grave, no mark of decay had been visible in his +unabated vigour. His departure was a favour conferred and as such men +recognised it. âGod has taken him,â they said, and their thoughts +followed upward, and essayed to conceive the finished bliss of the man +whom God has taken away where blessing may be more fully conferred. His +age corresponded to our thirty-three, the age when the world has usually +got fair hold of a man, when a man has found his place in life and means +to live and see good days. The awkward, unfamiliar ways of youth that +keep him outside of much of life are past, and the satiety of age is not +yet reached; a man has begun to learn there is something he can do, and has +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +not yet learned how little. It is an age at which it is most +painful to relinquish life, but it was at this age God took him away, +and men knew it was in kindness. Others had begun to gather round him, +and depend upon him, hopes were resting in him, great things were +expected of him, life was strong in him. But let life dress itself in +its most attractive guise, let it shine on a man with its most +fascinating smile, let him be happy at home and the pleasing centre of a +pleasing circle of friends, let him be in that bright summer of life +when a man begins to fear he is too prosperous and happy, and yet there +is for man a better thing than all this, a thing so immeasurably and +independently superior to it that all this may be taken away and yet the +man be far more blessed. If God would confer His highest favours, He +must take a man out of all this and bring him closer to Himself.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V.</h2> + +<h3>THE FLOOD.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> v.âix.</h4> + +<p>The first great event which indelibly impressed itself on the memory of +the primeval world was the Flood. There is every reason to believe that +this catastrophe was co-extensive with the human population of the +world. In every branch of the human family traditions of the event are +found. These traditions need not be recited, though some of them bear a +remarkable likeness to the Biblical story, while others are very +beautiful in their construction, and significant in individual points. +Local floods happening at various times in different countries could not +have given birth to the minute coincidences found in these traditions, +such as the sending out of the birds, and the number of persons saved. +But we have as yet no material for calculating how far human population +had spread from the original centre. It might apparently be argued that +it could not have spread to the sea-coast, or that at any rate no ships +had as yet been built large enough to weather a severe storm; for a +thoroughly nautical population could have had little difficulty in +surviving such a catastrophe as is here described. But all that can be +affirmed is that there is no evidence that the waters extended beyond +the inhabited part of the earth; and from certain details +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +of the narrative, this part of the earth may be identified as the great plain +of the Euphrates and Tigris.</p> + +<p>Some of the expressions used in the narrative might indeed lead us to +suppose that the writer understood the catastrophe to have extended over +the whole globe; but expressions of similar largeness elsewhere occur in +passages where their meaning must be restricted. Probably the most +convincing evidence of the limited extent of the Flood is furnished by +the animals of Australia. The animals that abound in that island are +different from those found in other parts of the world, but are similar +to the species which are found fossilized in the island itself, and +which therefore must have inhabited these same regions long anterior to +the Flood. If then the Flood extended to Australia and destroyed all +animal life there, what are we compelled to suppose as the order of +events? We must suppose that the creatures, visited by some presentiment +of what was to happen many months after, selected specimens of their +number, and that these specimens by some unknown and quite inconceivable +means crossed thousands of miles of sea, found their way through all +kinds of perils from unaccustomed climate, food, and beasts of prey; +singled out Noah by some inscrutable instinct, and surrendered +themselves to his keeping. And after the year in the ark expired, they +turned their faces homewards, leaving behind them no progeny, again +preserving themselves intact, and transporting themselves by some +unknown means to their island home. This, if the Deluge was universal, +must have been going on with thousands of animals from all parts of the +globe; and not only were these animals a stupendous miracle in +themselves, but wherever they went they were the occasion of miracle in others, all the beasts of prey +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> +refraining from their natural food. The +fact is, the thing will not bear stating.</p> + +<p>But it is not the physical but the moral aspects of the Flood with which +we have here to do. And, first, this narrator explains its cause. He +ascribes it to the abnormal wickedness of the antediluvians. To describe +the demoralised condition of society before the Flood, the strongest +language is used. âGod saw that the wickedness of man was great,â +monstrous in acts of violence, and in habitual courses and established +usages. âEvery imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil +continually,ââthere was no mixture of good, no relentings, no +repentances, no visitings of compunction, no hesitations and debatings. +It was a world of men fierce and energetic, violent and lawless, in +perpetual war and turmoil; in which if a man sought to live a righteous +life, he had to conceive it of his own mind and to follow it out unaided +and without the countenance of any.</p> + +<p>This abnormal wickedness again is accounted for by the abnormal +marriages from which the leaders of these ages sprang. Everything seemed +abnormal, huge, inhuman. As there are laid bare to the eye of the +geologist in those archaic times vast forms bearing a likeness to forms +we are now familiar with, but of gigantic proportions and wallowing in +dim, mist-covered regions; so to the eye of the historian there loom +through the obscurity colossal forms perpetrating deeds of more than +human savagery, and strength, and daring; heroes that seem formed in a +different mould from common men.</p> + +<p>However we interpret the narrative, its significance for us is plain. +There is nothing prudish in the Bible. It speaks with a manly frankness of the beauty of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> +women and its ensnaring power. The Mosaic law was +stringent against intermarriage with idolatresses, and still in the New +Testament something more than an echo of the old denunciation of such +marriages is heard. Those who were most concerned about preserving a +pure morality and a high tone in society were keenly alive to the +dangers that threatened from this quarter. It is a permanent danger to +character because it is to a permanent element in human nature that the +temptation appeals. To many in every generation, perhaps to the +majority, this is the most dangerous form in which worldliness presents +itself; and to resist this the most painful test of principle. With +natures keenly sensitive to beauty and superficial attractiveness, some +are called upon to make their choice between a conscientious cleaving to +God and an attachment to that which in the form is perfect but at heart +is defective, depraved, godless. Where there is great outward attraction +a man fights against the growing sense of inward uncongeniality, and +persuades himself he is too scrupulous and uncharitable, or that he is a +bad reader of character. There may be an undercurrent of warning; he may +be sensible that his whole nature is not satisfied and it may seem to +him ominous that what is best within him does not flourish in his new +attachment, but rather what is inferior, if not what is worst. But all +such omens and warnings are disregarded and stifled by some such silly +thought as that consideration and calculation are out of place in such +matters. And what is the result? The result is the same as it ever was. +Instead of the ungodly rising to the level of the godly, he sinks to +hers. The worldly style, the amusements, the fashions once distasteful +to him, but allowed for her sake, become familiar, and at last wholly displace the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> +old and godly ways, the arrangements that left room for +acknowledging God in the family; and there is one household less as a +point of resistance to the incursion of an ungodly tone in society, one +deserter more added to the already too crowded ranks of the ungodly, and +the life-time if not the eternity of one soul embittered. Not without a +consideration of the temptations that do actually lead men astray did +the law enjoin: âThou shalt not make a covenant with the inhabitants of +the land, nor take of their daughters unto thy sons.â</p> + +<p>It seems like a truism to say that a greater amount of unhappiness has +been produced by mismanagement, folly, and wickedness in the relation +subsisting between men and women than by any other cause. God has given +us the capacity of love to regulate this relation and be our safe guide +in all matters connected with it. But frequently, from one cause or +another, the government and direction of this relation are taken out of +the hands of love and put into the thoroughly incompetent hands of +convenience, or fancy, or selfish lust. A marriage contracted from any +such motive is sure to bring unhappiness of a long-continued, wearing +and often heart-breaking kind. Such a marriage is often the form in +which retribution comes for youthful selfishness and youthful +licentiousness. You cannot cheat nature. Just in so far as you allow +yourself to be ruled in youth by a selfish love of pleasure, in so far +do you incapacitate yourself for love. You sacrifice what is genuine and +satisfying, because provided by nature, to what is spurious, +unsatisfying, and shameful. You cannot afterwards, unless by a long and +bitter discipline, restore the capacity of warm and pure love in your +heart. Every indulgence in which true love is absent is another blow +given to the faculty of love within youâyou +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +make yourself in that capacity decrepit, paralyzed, dead. You have lost, you have killed the +faculty that should be your guide in all these matters, and so you are +at last precipitated without this guidance into a marriage formed from +some other motive, formed therefore against nature, and in which you are +the everlasting victim of natureâs relentless justice. Remember that you +cannot have both things, a youth of loveless pleasure and a loving +marriageâyou must make your choice. For as surely as genuine love kills +all evil desire; so surely does evil desire kill the very capacity of +love, and blind utterly its wretched victim to the qualities that ought +to excite love.</p> + +<p>The language used of God in relation to this universal corruption +strikes every one as remarkable. âIt repented the Lord that He had made +man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart.â This is what is +usually termed anthropomorphism, <i>i.e.</i> the presenting of God in terms +applicable only to man; it is an instance of the same mode of speaking +as is used when we speak of Godâs hand or eye or heart. These +expressions are not absolutely true, but they are useful and convey to +us a meaning which could scarcely otherwise be expressed. Some persons +think that the use of these expressions proves that in early times God +was thought of as wearing a body and as being very like ourselves in His +inward nature. And even in our day we have been ridiculed for speaking +of God as a magnified man. Now in the first place the use of such +expressions does not prove that even the earliest worshippers of God +believed Him to have eyes and hands and a body. <i>We</i> freely use the same +expressions though we have no such belief. We use them because our +language is formed for human uses and on a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> +human level, and we have no capacity to frame a better. And in the second place, though not +absolutely true they do help us towards the truth. We are told that it +degrades God to think of Him as hearing prayer and accepting praise; +nay, that to think of Him as a Person at all, is to degrade Him. We +ought to think of Him as the Absolutely Unknowable. But which degrades +God most, and which exalts Him most? If we find that it is impossible to +worship an absolutely unknowable, if we find that practically such an +idea is a mere nonentity to us, and that we cannot in point of fact pay +any homage or show any consideration to such an empty abstraction, is +not this really to lower God? And if we find that when we think of Him +as a Person, and ascribe to Him all human virtue in an infinite degree, +we can rejoice in Him and worship Him with true adoration, is not this +to exalt Him? While we call Him our Father we know that this title is +inadequate, while we speak of God as planning and decreeing we know that +we are merely making shift to express what is inexpressible by usâwe +know that our thoughts of Him are never adequate and that to think of +Him at all is to lower Him, is to think of Him inadequately; but when +the practical alternative is such as it is, we find we do well to think +of Him with the highest personal attributes we can conceive. For to +refuse to ascribe such attributes to Him because this is degrading Him, +is to empty our minds of any idea of Him which can stimulate either to +worship or to duty. If by ridding our minds of all anthropomorphic ideas +and refusing to think of God as feeling, thinking, acting as men do, we +could thereby get to a really higher conception of Him, a conception +which would practically make us worship Him more devotedly +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> +and serve Him more faithfully, then by all means let us do so. But if the result +of refusing to think of Him as in many ways like ourselves, is that we +cease to think of Him at all or only as a dead impersonal force, then +this certainly is not to reach a higher but a lower conception of Him. +And until we see our way to some truly higher conception than that which +we have of a Personal God, we had better be content with it.</p> + +<p>In short, we do well to be humble, and considering that we know very +little about existence of any kind, and least of all about Godâs, and +that our God has been presented to us in human form, we do well to +accept Christ as our God, to worship, love, and serve Him, finding Him +sufficient for all our wants of this life, and leaving it to other times +to get the solution of anything that is not made plain to us in Him. +This is one boon that the science and philosophy of our day have +unintentionally conferred upon us. They have laboured to make us feel +how remote and inaccessible God is, how little we can know Him, how +truly He is past finding out; they have laboured to make us feel how +intangible and invisible and incomprehensible God is, but the result of +this is that we turn with all the stronger longing to Him who is the +Image of the Invisible God, and on whom a voice has fallen from the +excellent glory, âThis is My beloved Son, hear Him.â</p> + +<p>The Flood itself we need not attempt to describe. It has been remarked +that though the narrative is vivid and forcible, it is entirely wanting +in that sort of description which in a modern historian or poet would +have occupied the largest space. âWe see nothing of the death-struggle; +we hear not the cry of despair; we are not called upon to witness the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +frantic agony of husband and wife, and parent and child, as they fled in +terror before the rising waters. Nor is a word said of the sadness of +the one righteous man, who, safe himself, looked upon the destruction +which he could not avert.â The Chaldean tradition which is the most +closely allied to the Biblical account is not so reticent. Tears are +shed in heaven over the catastrophe, and even consternation affected its +inhabitants, while within the ark itself the Chaldean Noah says, âWhen +the storm came to an end and the terrible water-spout ceased, I opened +the window and the light smote upon my face. I looked at the sea +attentively observing, and the whole of humanity had returned to mud, +like seaweed the corpses floated. I was seized with sadness; I sat down +and wept and my tears fell upon my face.â</p> + +<p>There can be little question that this is a true description of Noahâs +feeling. And the sense of desolation and constraint would rather +increase in Noahâs mind than diminish. Month after month elapsed; he was +coming daily nearer the end of his food, and yet the waters were +unabated. He did not know how long he was to be kept in this dark, +disagreeable place. He was left to do his daily work without any +supernatural signs to help him against his natural anxieties. The +floating of the ark and all that went on in it had no mark of Godâs hand +upon it. He was indeed <i>safe</i> while others had been destroyed. But of +what good was this safety to be? Was he ever to get out of this +prison-house? To what straits was he to be first reduced? So it is often +with ourselves. We are left to fulfil Godâs will without any sensible +tokens to set over against natural difficulties, painful and pinching +circumstances, ill health, low spirits, failure of favourite projects +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +and old hopesâso that at last we come to think that perhaps safety is +all we are to have in Christ, a mere exemption from suffering of one +kind purchased by the endurance of much suffering of another kind; that +we are to be thankful for pardon on any terms; and escaping with our +<i>life</i>, must be content though it be bare. Why, how often does a +Christian wonder whether, after all, he has chosen a life that he can +endure, whether the monotony and the restraints of the Christian life +are not inconsistent with true enjoyment?</p> + +<p>This strife between the felt restriction of the Christian life and the +natural craving for abundant life, for entrance into all that the world +can show us, and experience of all forms of enjoymentâthis strife goes +on unceasingly in the heart of many of us as it goes on from age to age +in the world. Which is the true view of life, which is the view to guide +<i>us</i> in choosing and refusing the enjoyments and pursuits that are +presented to us? Are we to believe that the ideal man for this life is +he who has tasted all culture and delight, who believes in nature, +recognising no fall and seeking for no redemption, and makes enjoyment +his end; or he who sees that all enjoyment is deceptive till man is set +right morally, and who spends himself on this, knowing that blood and +misery must come before peace and rest, and crowned as our King and +Leader, not with a garland of roses, but with the crown of Him Who is +greatest of all, because servant of allâto Whom the most sunken is not +repulsive, and Who will not abandon the most hopeless? This comes to be +very much the question, whether this life is final or +preparatory?âwhether, therefore, our work in it should be to check +lower propensities and develop and train all that is best in character, +so as to be fit for highest life and enjoyment +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> +in a world to comeâor should take ourselves as we find ourselves, and delight in this present +world? whether this is a placid eternal state, in which things are very +much as they should be, and in which therefore we can live freely and +enjoy freely; or whether it is a disordered, initial condition in which +our main task should be to do a little towards putting things on a +better rail and getting at least the germ and small beginnings of future +good planted in one another? So that in the midst of all felt +restriction, there is the highest hope, that one day we shall go forth +from the narrow precincts of our ark, and step out into the free bright +sunshine, in a world where there is nothing to offend, and that the time +of our deprivation will seem to have been well spent indeed, if it has +left within us a capacity permanently to enjoy love, holiness, justice, +and all that is delighted in by God Himself.</p> + +<p>The use made of this event in the New Testament is remarkable. It is +compared by Peter to baptism, and both are viewed as illustrations of +salvation by destruction. The eight souls, he says, who were in the ark, +âwere saved by water.â The water which destroyed the rest saved them. +When there seemed little hope of the godly line being able to withstand +the influence of the ungodly, the Flood came and left Noahâs family in a +new world, with freedom to order all things according to their own +ideas. In this Peter sees some analogy to baptism. In baptism, the +penitent who believes in the efficacy of Christâs blood to purge away +sin, lets his defilement be washed away and rises new and clean to the +life Christ gives. In Christ the sinner finds shelter for himself and +destruction for his sins. It is Godâs wrath against sin that saves us by +destroying our sins; just as it was the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +Flood which devastated the world, that at the same time, and thereby, saved Noah and his family.</p> + +<p>In this event, too, we see the completeness of Godâs work. Often we feel +reluctant to surrender our sinful habits to so final a destruction as is +implied in being one with Christ. The expense at which holiness is to be +bought seems almost too great. So much that has given us pleasure must +be parted with; so many old ties sundered, a condition of holiness +presents an aspect of dreariness and hopelessness; like the world after +the flood, not a moving thing on the surface of the earth, everything +levelled, prostrate, and washed even with the ground; here the corpse of +a man, there the carcase of a beast; here mighty forest timber swept +prone like the rushes on the banks of a flooded stream, and there a city +without inhabitants, everything dank, dismal and repellent. But this is +only one aspect of the work; the beginning, necessary if the work is to +be thorough. If any part of the sinful life remain it will spring up to +mar what God means to introduce us to. Only that is to be preserved +which we can take with us into our ark. Only that is to pass on into our +life which we can retain while we are in true connection with Christ, +and which we think can help us to live as His friends, and to serve Him +zealously.</p> + +<p>This event then gives us some measure by which we can know how much God +will do to maintain holiness upon earth. In this catastrophe every one +who strives after godliness may find encouragement, seeing in it the +Divine earnestness of God for good and against evil. There is only one +other event in history that so conspicuously shows that holiness among +men is the object for which God will sacrifice everything else. There is no need now of any further +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +demonstration of Godâs purpose in this world +and His zeal for carrying it out. And may it not be expected of us His +children, that we stand in presence of the cross until our cold and +frivolous hearts catch something of the earnestness, the âresisting unto +blood striving against sin,â which is exhibited there? The Flood has not +been forgotten by almost any people under heaven, but its moral result +is <i>nil</i>. But he whose memory is haunted by a dying Redeemer, by the +thought of One Whose love found its most appropriate and practical +result in dying for him, <i>is</i> prevented from much sin, and finds in that +love the spring of eternal hope, that which his soul in the deep privacy +of his most sacred thoughts can feed upon with joy, that which he builds +himself round and broods over as his inalienable possession.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI.</h2> + +<h3>NOAHâS FALL.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> ix. 20â27.</h4> + +<p>Noah in the ark was in a position of present safety but of much anxiety. +No sign of any special protection on Godâs part was given. The waters +seem to stand at their highest level still; and probably the risk of the +arkâs grounding on some impracticable peak, or precipitous hill-side, +would seem as great a danger as the water itself. Five months had +elapsed, and though the rain had ceased the sky was heavy and +threatening, and every day now was worth many measures of corn in the +coming harvest. A reflection of the anxiety within the ark is seen in +the expression, âAnd God remembered Noah.â It was needful to say so, for +there was as yet no outward sign of this.</p> + +<p>To such anxieties all are subject who have availed themselves of the +salvation God provides. At the first there is an easy faith in Godâs +aid; there are many signs of His presence; the subjects in whom +salvation operates have no disposition or temptation to doubt that God +is with them and is working for them. But this initial stage is +succeeded by a very different state of things. We seem to be left to ourselves +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> +to cope with the world and all its difficulties and +temptations in our own strength. Much as we crave some sign that God +remembers us, no sign is given. We no longer receive the same urgent +impulses to holiness of life; we have no longer the same freshness in +devotion as if speaking to a God at hand. There is nothing which of +itself and without reasoning about it says to us, Here is Godâs hand +upon me.</p> + +<p>In fact, the great part of our life has to be spent under these +conditions, and we need to hold some well-ascertained principle +regarding Godâs dealings, if our faith is to survive. And here in Godâs +treatment of Noah we see that God may as certainly be working for us +when not working directly upon us, as when His presence is palpable. His +absence from us is as needful as His presence. The clouds are as +requisite for our salvation as the sunny sky. When therefore we find +that salvation from sin is a much slower and more anxious matter than we +once expected it to be, we are not to suppose that God is not hearing +our prayers. When Noah day by day cried to God for relief, and yet night +after night found himself âcribbâd, cabinâd, and confined,â with no sign +from God but such as faith could apprehend, depend upon it he had very +different feelings from those with which he first stepped into the ark. +And when we are left to one monotonous rut of duty and to an unchanging +and dry form of devotion, when we are called to learn to live by faith +not by sight, to learn that Godâs purposes with us are spiritual, and +that slow and difficult growth in self-command and holiness is the best +proof that He hears our prayers, we must strive to believe that this +also is a needful part of our salvation; and we must especially be on +our guard against supposing that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +as God has ceased to disclose Himself +to us, and so to make faith easy, we may cease to disclose ourselves to +Him.</p> + +<p>For this is the natural and very frequent result of such an experience. +Discouraged by the obscurity of Godâs ways and the difficulty of +believing when the mind is not sustained by success or by new thoughts +or manifest tokens of Godâs presence, we naturally cease to look for any +clear signs of Godâs concernment about our state, and rest from all +anxious craving to know Godâs will about us. To this temptation the +majority of Christian people yield, and allow themselves to become +indifferent to spiritual truth and increasingly interested in the +non-mysterious facts of the present world, attending to present duties +in a mechanical way, seeing that their families have enough to eat and +that all in their little ark are provided for. But to this temptation +Noah did not yield. Though to all appearance abandoned by God, he did +what he could to ascertain what was beyond his immediate sight and +present experience. He sent out his raven and his dove. Not satisfied +with his first enquiry by the raven, which could flit from one piece of +floating garbage to another, he sent out the dove, and continued to do +so at intervals of seven days.</p> + +<p>Noah sent out the raven first, probably because it had been the most +companionable bird and seemed the wisest, preferable to âthe silly +dove;â but it never came back with Godâs message. And so has one often +found that an enquiry into Godâs will, the examination, for example, of +some portion of Scripture, undertaken with a prospect of success and +with good human helps, has failed, and has failed in this peculiar +ravenlike way; the enquiry has settled down on some worthless +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> +point, on some rotting carcase, on some subject of passing interest or worldly +learning, and brings back no message of God to us. On the other hand, +the continued use, Sabbath after Sabbath, of Godâs appointed means, and +the patient waiting for some message of God to come to us through what +seems a most unlikely messenger, will often be rewarded. It may be but a +single leaf plucked off that we get, but enough to convince us that God +has been mindful of our need, and is preparing for us a habitable world.</p> + +<p>Many a man is like the raven, feeding himself on the destruction of +others, satisfied with knowing how God has dealt with others. He thinks +he has done his part when he has found out who has been sinning and what +has been the result. But the dove will not settle on any such +resting-place, and is dissatisfied until for herself she can pluck off +some token that Godâs anger is turned away and that now there is peace +on earth. And if only you wait Godâs time and renew your endeavours to +find such tokens, some assurance will be given you, some green and +growing thing, some living part, however small, of the new creation +which will certify you of your hope.</p> + +<p>On the first day of the first month, New Yearâs day, Noah removed the +covering of the ark, which seems to have stranded on the Armenian +tableland, and looked out upon the new world. He cannot but have felt +his responsibility, as a kind of second Adam. And many questionings must +have arisen in his mind regarding the relation of the new to the old. +Was there to be any connection with the old world at all, or was all to +begin afresh? Were the promises, the traditions, the events, the +genealogies of the old world of any significance +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +now? The Flood distinctly marked the going out of one order of things and the +establishment of another. Manâs career and development, or what we call +history, had not before the Flood attained its goal. If this development +was not to be broken short off, and if Godâs purpose in creation was to +be fulfilled, then the world must still go on. Some worlds may perhaps +die young, as individuals die young. Others endure through hair-breadth +escapes and constant dangers, find their way like our planet through +showers of fire, and pass without collision the orbits of huge bodies, +carrying with them always, as our world does, the materials of their +destruction within themselves. But catastrophes do not cut short, but +evolve Godâs purposes. The Flood came that Godâs purpose might be +fulfilled. The course of nature was interrupted, the arrangements of +social and domestic life were overturned, all the works of men were +swept away that this purpose might be fulfilled. It was expedient that +one generation should die for all generations; and this generation +having been taken out of the way, fresh provision is made for the +co-operation of man with God. On manâs part there is an emphatic +acknowledgment of God by sacrifice; on Godâs part there is a renewed +grant to man of the world and its fulness, a renewed assurance of His +favour.</p> + +<p>This covenant with Noah was on the plane of nature. It is manâs natural +life in the world which is the subject of it. The sacredness of life is +its great lesson. Men might well wonder whether God did not hold life +cheap. In the old world violence had prevailed. But while Lamechâs sword +may have slain its thousands, God had in the Flood slain tens of +thousands. The covenant, therefore, directs that human life must be +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> +reverenced. The primal blessing is renewed. Men are to multiply and +replenish the earth; and the slaughter of a man was to be reckoned a +capital crime; and the maintenance of life was guaranteed by a special +clause, securing the regularity of the seasons. If, then, you ask, Was +this just a beginning again where Adam began? Did God just wipe out man +as a boy wipes his slate clean, when he finds his calculation is turning +out wrong? Had all these generations learned nothing; had the world not +grown at all since its birth?âthe answer is, it had grown, and in two +most important respects,âit had come to the knowledge of the uniformity +of nature, and the necessity of human law. This great departure from the +uniformity of nature brought into strong relief its normal uniformity, +and gave men their first lesson in the recognition of a God who governs +by fixed laws. And they learned also from the Flood that wickedness must +not be allowed to grow unchecked and attain dimensions which nothing +short of a flood can cope with.</p> + +<p>Fit symbol of this covenant was the rainbow. Seeming to unite heaven and +earth, it pictured to those primitive people the friendliness existing +between God and man. Many nations have looked upon it as not merely one +of the most beautiful and striking objects in nature, but as the +messenger of heaven to men. And arching over the whole horizon, it +exhibits the all-embracing universality of the promise. They accepted it +as a sign that God has no pleasure in destruction, that He does not give +way to moods, that He does not always chide, that if weeping may endure +for a night joy is sure to follow. If any one is under a cloud, leading +a joyless, hopeless, heartless life, if any one has much apparent reason to suppose that God has given +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> +him up to catastrophe, and lets things +run as they may, there is some satisfaction in reading this natural +emblem and recognising that without the cloud, nay, without the cloud +breaking into heavy sweeping rains, there cannot be the bow, and that no +cloud of Godâs sending is permanent, but will one day give place to +unclouded joy. Let the prayer of David be yours, âI know, O Lord, that +Thy judgments are right, and that Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted +me. Let, I pray Thee, Thy merciful kindness be for my comfort according +to Thy word unto Thy servant.â</p> + +<p>It may be felt that the matters about which God spoke to Noah were +barely religious, certainly not spiritual. But to take God as our God in +any one particular is to take Him as our God for all. If we can eat our +daily bread as given to us by our Father in heaven, then we are heirs of +the righteousness which is by faith. It is because we wait for some +wonderful and out-of-the-way proofs that God is keeping faith with us +that we so much lack a real and living faith. If you think of God only +in connection with some spiritual difficulty, or if you are waiting for +some critical spiritual experience about which you may deal with +God,âif you are not transacting with Him about your daily work, about +your temporal wants and difficulties, about your friendships and your +tastes, about that which makes up the bulk of your thought, feeling, and +action, then you have yet to learn what living with God means. You have +yet to learn that God the Infinite Creator of all is present in all your +life. We are not in advance of Noah, but behind him, if we cannot speak +to God about common things.</p> + +<p>Besides, the relation of man to God was sufficiently +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +determined by this covenant. When any man in that age began to ask himself the question +which all men in all ages ask, How shall I win the favour of God? it +must, or it might, at once have struck him, Why, God has already +favoured me and has bound Himself to me by express and solemn pledges. +And radically this is all that any one needs to know. It is not a change +in Godâs attitude towards you that is required. What is required is that +you believe what is actually the case, that the Holy God loves you +already and is already seeking to bless you by making you like Himself. +Believe that, and let the faith of it sink more and more deeply into +your spirit, and you will find that you are saved from your sin.</p> + +<p>What remains to be told of Noah is full of moral significance. Rare +indeed is a <i>wholly</i> good man; and happy indeed is he who throughout his +youth, his manhood, and his age lets principle govern all his actions. +The righteous and rescued Noah lying drunk on his tent-floor is a +sorrowful spectacle. God had given him the earth, and this was the use +he made of the gift; melancholy presage of the fashion of his posterity. +He had God to help him to bear his responsibilities, to refresh and +gladden him; but he preferred the fruit of his vineyard. Can the most +sacred or impressive memories secure a man against sin? Noah had the +memory of a race drowned for sin and of a year in solitude with God. Can +the dignity and weight of responsibility steady a man? This man knew +that to him God had declared His purpose and that he only could carry it +forward to fulfilment. In that heavy helpless figure, fallen insensible +in his tent, is as significant a warning as in the Flood.</p> + +<p>Noahâs sin brings before us two facts about sin. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +First, that the smaller temptations are often the most effectual. The man who is +invulnerable on the field of battle amidst declared and strong enemies +falls an easy prey to the assassin in his own home. When all the world +was against him, Noah was able to face single-handed both scorn and +violence, but in the midst of his vineyard, among his own people who +understood him and needed no preaching or proof of his virtue, he +relaxed.</p> + +<p>He was no longer in circumstances so difficult as to force him to watch +and pray, as to drive him to Godâs side. The temptations Noah had before +known were mainly from without; he now learnt that those from within are +more serious. Many of us find it comparatively easy to carry clean hands +before the public, or to demean ourselves with tolerable seemliness in +circumstances where the temptation may be very strong but is also very +patent; but how careless are we often in our domestic life, and how +little strain do we put upon ourselves in the company of those whom we +can trust. What petulance and irritability, what angry and slanderous +words, what sensuality and indolence could our own homes witness to! +Noah is not the only man who has walked uprightly and kept his garment +unspotted from the world so long as the eye of man was on him, but who +has lain uncovered on his own tent-floor.</p> + +<p>Secondly, we see here how a man may fall into new forms of sin, and are +reminded especially of one of the most distressing facts to be observed +in the world, viz., that men in their prime and even in their old age +are sometimes overtaken in sins of sensuality from which hitherto they +have kept themselves pure. We are very ready to think we know the full extent of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> +wickedness to which we may go; that by certain sins <i>we</i> +shall never be much tempted. And in some of our predictions we may be +correct; our temperament or our circumstances may absolutely preclude +some sins from mastering us. Yet who has made but a slight alteration in +his circumstances, added a little to his business, made some new family +arrangements, or changed his residence, without being astonished to find +how many new sources of evil seem to have been opened within him? While +therefore you rejoice over sins defeated, beware of thinking your work +is nearly done. Especially let those of us who have for years been +fighting mainly against one sin beware of thinking that if only <i>that</i> +were defeated we should be free from sin. As a man who has long suffered +from one bodily disease congratulates himself that at least he knows +what he may expect in the way of pain, and will not suffer as some other +man he has heard of does suffer; whereas though one disease may kill +others, yet some diseases only prepare the body for the assault of worse +ailments than themselves, and the constitution at last breaks up under a +combination of ills that make the sufferer a pity to his friends and a +perplexity to his physicians. And so is it in the spirit; you cannot say +that because you are so consumed by one infirmity, others can find no +room in you. In short, there is nothing that can secure us against the +unspeakable calamity of falling into new sins, except the direction +given by our Lord, âWatch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.â +There <i>is need</i> of watching, else this precept had never been uttered; +too many things absolutely needful for us to do have to be enjoined upon +us to leave any room for the injunction of precepts that are +unnecessary, and he who is not watching has no security that he shall not +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +sin so as to be a scandal to his friends and a shame to himself.</p> + +<p>Noahâs sin brought to light the character of his three sonsâthe coarse +irreverence of Ham, the dignified delicacy and honour of Shem and +Japheth. The bearing of men towards the sins of others is always a +touchstone of character. The full exposure of sin where good is expected +to come of the exposure and when it is done with sorrow and with shame +is one thing, and the exposure of sin to create a laugh and merely to +amuse is another. They are the true descendants of Ham, whether their +faces be black or white, and whether they go with no clothes or with +clothes that are the product of much thought and anxiety, who find +pleasure in the mere contemplation of deeds of shame, in real life, on +the boards of the theatre, in daily journals, or in works of fiction. +Extremes meet, and the savage grossness of Ham is found in many who +count themselves the last and finest product of culture. It is found +also in the harder and narrower set of modern investigators, who glory +in exposing the scientific weakness of our forefathers, and make a jest +of the mistakes of men to whom they owe much of their freedom, and whose +shoe latchet they are not worthy to tie, so far as the deeper moral +qualities go.</p> + +<p>But neither is religious society free from this same sin. The faults and +mistakes and sins of others are talked over, possibly with some show of +regret, but with, as we know, very little real shame and sadness, for +these feelings prompt us, not to talk them over in companies where no +good can be done in the way of remedy, but to cover them as these +sorrowing sons of Noah, with averted eye and humbled head. Charity is +the prime grace enjoined upon us and charity <i>covers</i> a multitude +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> +of sins. And whatever excuses for exposing others we may make, however we +may say it is only a love of truth and fair play that makes us drag to +light the infirmities of a man whom others are praising, we may be very +sure that if all <i>evil</i> motives were absent this kind of evil speaking +would cease among us. But there is a malignity in sin that leaves its +bitter root in us all, and causes us to be glad when those whom we have +been regarding as our superiors are reduced to our poor level. And there +is a cowardliness in sin which cannot bear to be alone, and eagerly +hails every symptom of others being in the same condemnation.</p> + +<p>Before exposing another, think first whether your own conduct could bear +a similar treatment, whether you have never done the thing you desire to +conceal, said the thing you would blush to hear repeated, or thought the +thought you could not bear another to read. And if you be a Christian, +does it not become you to remember what you yourself have learnt of the +slipperiness of this worldâs ways, of your liability to fall, of your +sudden exposure to sin from some physical disorder, or some slight +mistake which greatly extenuates your sin, but which you could not plead +before another? And do you know nothing of the difficulty of conquering +one sin that is rooted in your constitution, and the strife that goes on +in a manâs own soul and in secret though he show little immediate fruit +of it in his life before men? Surely it becomes us to give a man credit +for much good resolution and much sore self-denial and endeavour, even +when he fails and sins still, because such we know to be our own case, +and if we disbelieve in others until they can walk with perfect +rectitude, if we condemn them for one or two flaws and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> +blemishes, we shall be tempted to show the same want of charity towards ourselves, and +fall at length into that miserable and hopeless condition that believes +in no regenerating spirit nor in any holiness attainable by us.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII.</h2> + +<h3>THE CALL OF ABRAHAM.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xi. 27âxii. 5.</h4> + +<p>With Abraham there opens a new chapter in the history of the race; a +chapter of the profoundest significance. The consequences of Abrahamâs +movements and beliefs have been limitless and enduring. All succeeding +time has been influenced by him. And yet there is in his life a +remarkable simplicity, and an entire absence of such events as impress +contemporaries. Among all the forgotten millions of his own time he +stands alone a recognisable and memorable figure. But around his figure +there gathers no throng of armed followers; with his name, no vast +territorial dominion, no new legislation, not even any work of +literature or art is associated. The significance of his life was not +military, nor legislative, nor literary, but religious. To him must be +carried back the belief in one God. We find him born and brought up +among idolaters; and although it is certain there were others besides +himself who here and there upon earth had dimly arrived at the same +belief as he, yet it is certainly from him the Monotheistic belief has +been diffused. Since his day the world has never been without its +explicit advocacy. It is his belief in the true God, in a God who manifested His existence and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +His nature by responding to this belief, +it is this belief and the place he gave it as the regulating principle +of all his movements and thoughts, that have given him his everlasting +influence.</p> + +<p>With Abraham there is also introduced the first step in a new method +adopted by God in the training of men. The dispersion of men and the +divergence of their languages are now seen to have been the necessary +preliminary to this new step in the education of the worldâthe fencing +round of one people till they should learn to know God and understand +and exemplify His government. It is true, God reveals Himself to all men +and governs all; but by selecting one race with special adaptations, and +by giving to it a special training, God might more securely and more +rapidly reveal Himself to all. Each nation has certain characteristics, +a national character which grows by seclusion from the influences which +are forming other races. There is a certain mental and moral +individuality stamped upon every separate people. Nothing is more +certainly retained; nothing more certainly handed down from generation +to generation. It would therefore be a good practical means of +conserving and deepening the knowledge of God, if it were made the +national interest of a people to preserve it, and if it were closely +identified with the national characteristics. This was the method +adopted by God. He meant to combine allegiance to Himself with national +advantages, and spiritual with national character, and separation in +belief with a distinctly outlined and defensible territory.</p> + +<p>This method, in common with all Divine methods, was in strict keeping +with the natural evolution of history. The migration of Abraham occurred in the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> +epoch of migrations. But although for centuries before Abraham +new nations had been forming, none of them had belief in God as its +formative principle. Wave upon wave of warriors, shepherds, colonists +have left the prolific plains of Mesopotamia. Swarm after swarm has left +that busy hive, pushing one another further and further west and east, +but all have been urged by natural impulses, by hunger, commerce, love +of adventure and conquest. By natural likings and dislikings, by policy, +and by dint of force the multitudinous tribes of men were finding their +places in the world, the weaker being driven to the hills, and being +schooled there by hard living till their descendants came down and +conquered their conquerors. All this went on without regard to any very +high motives. As it was with the Goths who invaded Italy for her wealth, +as it is now with those who people America and Africa because there is +land or room enough, so it was then. But at last God selects one man and +says, â<i>I</i> will make of thee a great nation.â The origin of this nation +is not facile love of change nor lust of territory, but belief in God. +Without this belief this people had not been. No other account can be +given of its origin. Abraham is himself already the member of a tribe, +well-off and likely to be well-off; he has no large family to provide +for, but he is separated from his kindred and country, and led out to be +himself a new beginning, and this because, as he himself throughout his +life said, he heard Godâs call and responded to it.</p> + +<p>The city which claims the distinction of being Abrahamâs birthplace, or +at least of giving its name to the district where he was born, is now +represented by a few mounds of ruins rising out of the flat marshy +ground on the western bank of the Euphrates, not far +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +above the point where it joins its waters to those of the Tigris and glides on to the +Persian gulf. In the time of Abraham, Ur was the capital city which gave +its name to one of the most populous and fertile regions of the earth. +The whole land of Accad which ran up from the sea-coast to Upper +Mesopotamia (or Shinar) seems to have been known as Ur-ma, the land of +Ur. This land was of no great extent, being little if at all larger than +Scotland, but it was the richest of Asia. The high civilisation which +this land enjoyed even in the time of Abraham has been disclosed in the +abundant and multifarious Babylonian remains which have recently been +brought to light.</p> + +<p>What induced Terah to abandon so prosperous a land can only be +conjectured. It is possible that the idolatrous customs of the +inhabitants may have had something to do with his movements. For while +the ancient Babylonian records reveal a civilisation surprisingly +advanced, and a social order in some respects admirable, they also make +disclosures regarding the worship of the gods which must shock even +those who are familiar with the immoralities frequently fostered by +heathen religions. The city of Ur was not only the capital, it was the +holy city of the Chaldeans. In its northern quarter rose high above the +surrounding buildings the successive stages of the temple of the +moon-god, culminating in a platform on which the priests could both +accurately observe the motions of the stars and hold their night-watches +in honour of their god. In the courts of this temple might be heard +breaking the silence of midnight, one of those magnificent hymns, still +preserved, in which idolatry is seen in its most attractive dress, and +in which the Lord of Ur is invoked in terms not unworthy of the living God. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> +But in these same temple-courts Abraham may have seen the +firstborn led to the altar, the fruit of the body sacrificed to atone +for the sin of the soul; and here too he must have seen other sights +even more shocking and repulsive. Here he was no doubt taught that +strangely mixed religion which clung for generations to some members of +his family. Certainly he was taught in common with the whole community +to rest on the seventh day; as he was trained to look to the stars with +reverence and to the moon as something more than the light which was set +to rule the night.</p> + +<p>Possibly then Terah may have been induced to move northwards by a desire +to shake himself free from customs he disapproved. The Hebrews +themselves seem always to have considered that his migration had a +religious motive. âThis people,â says one of their old writings, âis +descended from the Chaldeans, and they sojourned heretofore in +Mesopotamia because they would not follow the gods of their fathers +which were in the land of Chaldea. For they left the way of their +ancestors and worshipped the God of heaven, the God whom they knew; so +they cast them out from the face of their gods, and they fled into +Mesopotamia and sojourned there many days. Then their God commanded them +to depart from the place where they sojourned and to go into the land of +Canaan.â But if this is a true account of the origin of the movement +northwards, it must have been Abraham rather than his father who was the +moving spirit of it; for it is certainly Abraham and not Terah who +stands as the significant figure inaugurating the new era.</p> + +<p>If doubt rests on the moving cause of the migration from Ur, none rests +on that which prompted Abraham to leave Charran and journey towards Canaan. He +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +did so in obedience to what he believed to be a Divine +command, and in faith on what he understood to be a Divine promise. How +he became aware that a Divine command thus lay upon him we do not know. +Nothing could persuade him that he was not commanded. Day by day he +heard in his soul what he recognised as a Divine voice, saying: âGet +thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy fatherâs +house, unto a land that I will show thee!â This was Godâs first +revelation of Himself to Abraham. Up to this time Abraham to all +appearance had no knowledge of any God but the deities worshipped by his +fathers in Chaldea. Now, he finds within himself impulses which he +cannot resist and which he is conscious he ought not to resist. He +believes it to be his duty to adopt a course which may look foolish and +which he can justify only by saying that his conscience bids him. He +recognises, apparently for the first time, that through his conscience +there speaks to him a God Who is supreme. In dependence on this God he +gathered his possessions together and departed.</p> + +<p>So far, one may be tempted to say, no very unusual faith was required. +Many a poor girl has followed a weakly brother or a dissipated father to +Australia or the wild west of America; many a lad has gone to the deadly +west coast of Africa with no such prospects as Abraham. For Abraham had +the double prospect which makes migration desirable. Assure the colonist +that he will find land and have strong sons to till and hold and leave +it to, and you give him all the motive he requires. These were the +promises made to Abrahamâa land and a seed. Neither was there at this +period much difficulty in believing that both promises would be +fulfilled. The land he no doubt expected to find +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +in some unoccupied territory. And as regards the children, he had not yet faced the +condition that only through Sarah was this part of the promise to be +fulfilled.</p> + +<p>But the peculiarity in Abrahamâs abandonment of present certainties for +the sake of a future and unseen good is, that it was prompted not by +family affection or greed or an adventurous disposition, but by faith in +a God Whom no one but himself recognised. It was the first step in a +life-long adherence to an Invisible, Spiritual Supreme. It was that +first step which committed him to life-long dependence upon and +intercourse with One Who had authority to regulate his movements and +power to bless him. From this time forth all that he sought in life was +the fulfilment of Godâs promise. He staked his future upon Godâs +existence and faithfulness. Had Abraham abandoned Charran at the command +of a widely ruling monarch who promised him ample compensation, no +record would have been made of so ordinary a transaction. But this was +an entirely new thing and well worth recording, that a man should leave +country and kindred and seek an unknown land under the impression that +thus he was obeying the command of the unseen God. While others +worshipped sun, moon, and stars, and recognised the Divine in their +brilliance and power, in their exaltation above earth and control of +earth and its life, Abraham saw that there was something greater than +the order of nature and more worthy of worship, even the still small +voice that spoke within his own conscience of right and wrong in human +conduct, and that told him how his own life must be ordered. While all +around him were bowing down to the heavenly host and sacrificing to them the highest things in human +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> +nature, he heard a voice falling from these +shining ministers of Godâs will, which said to him, âSee thou do it not, +for we are thy fellow-servants; worship thou God!â This was the triumph +of the spiritual over the material; the acknowledgment that in God there +is something greater than can be found in nature; that man finds his +true affinity not in the things that are seen but in the unseen Spirit +that is over all. It is this that gives to the figure of Abraham its +simple grandeur and its permanent significance.</p> + +<p>Under the simple statement âThe Lord said unto Abram, Get thee out of +thy country,â there are probably hidden years of questioning and +meditation. Godâs revelation of Himself to Abram in all probability did +not take the determinate form of articulate command without having +passed through many preliminary stages of surmise and doubt and mental +conflict. But once assured that God is calling him, Abraham responds +quickly and resolutely. The revelation has come to a mind in which it +will not be lost. As one of the few theologians who have paid attention +to the method of revelation has said: âA Divine revelation does not +dispense with a certain character and certain qualities of mind in the +person who is the instrument of it. A man who throws off the chains of +authority and association must be a man of extraordinary independence +and strength of mind, although he does so in obedience to a Divine +revelation; because no miracle, no sign or wonder which accompanies a +revelation can by its simple stroke force human nature from the innate +hold of custom and the adhesion to and fear of established opinion; can +enable it to confront the frowns of men, and take up truth opposed to +general prejudice, except there is in the man himself, who is the recipient +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> +of the revelation, a certain strength of mind and +independence which concurs with the Divine intention.â</p> + +<p>That Abrahamâs faith triumphed over exceptional difficulties and enabled +him to do what no other motive would have been strong enough to +accomplish, there is therefore no call to assert. During his after-life +his faith was severely tried, but the mere abandonment of his country in +the hope of gaining a better was the ordinary motive of his day. It was +the <i>ground</i> of this hope, the belief in God, which made Abrahamâs +conduct original and fruitful. That sufficient inducement was presented +to him is only to say that God is reasonable. There is always sufficient +inducement to obey God; because life is reasonable. No man was ever +commanded or required to do anything which it was not for his advantage +to do. Sin is a mistake. But so weak are we, so liable to be moved by +the things present to us and by the desire for immediate gratification, +that it never ceases to be wonderful and admirable when a sense of duty +enables a man to forego present advantage and to believe that present +loss is the needful preliminary of eternal gain.</p> + +<p>Abrahamâs faith is chosen by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews as +an apt illustration of his definition of Faith, that it is âthe +substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.â One +property of faith is that it gives to things future and which are as yet +only hoped for all the reality of actual present existence. Future +things may be said to have no existence for those who do not believe in +them. They are not taken into account. Men do not shape their conduct +with any reference to them. But when a man believes in certain events +that are to be, this faith of his lends to these future things the reality, the âsubstanceâ which +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +things actually existing in the present +have. They have the same weight with him, the same influence upon his +conduct.</p> + +<p>Without some power to realize the future and to take account of what is +to be as well as of what already is, we could not carry on the common +affairs of life. And success in life very greatly depends on foresight, +or the power to see clearly what is to be and give it due weight. The +man who has no foresight makes his plans, but being unable to apprehend +the future his plans are disconcerted. Indeed it is one of the most +valuable gifts a man can have, to be able to say with tolerable accuracy +what is to happen and what is not; to be able to sift rumours, common +talk, popular impressions, probabilities, chances, and to be able to +feel sure what the future will really be; to be able to weigh the +character and commercial prospects of the men he deals with, so as to +see what must be the issue of their operations and whom he may trust. +Many of our most serious mistakes in life arise from our inability to +imagine the consequences of our actions and to forefeel how these +consequences will affect us.</p> + +<p>Now faith largely supplies the want of this imaginative foresight. It +lends substance to things future. It believes the account given of the +future by a trustworthy authority. In many ordinary matters all men are +dependent on the testimony of others for their knowledge of the result +of certain operations. The astronomer, the physiologist, the navigator, +each has his department within which his predictions are accepted as +authoritative. But for what is beyond the ken of science no faith in our +fellow-men avails. Feeling that if there is a life beyond the grave, it +must have important bearings on the present, we have yet no +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> +data by which to calculate what will then be, or only data so difficult to use +that our calculations are but guesswork. But faith accepts the testimony +of God as unhesitatingly as that of man and gives reality to the future +He describes and promises. It believes that the life God calls us to is +a better life, and it enters upon it. It believes that there is a world +to come in which all things are new and all things eternal; and, so +believing, it cannot but feel less anxious to cling to this worldâs +goods. That which embitters all loss and deepens sorrow is the feeling +that this world is all; but faith makes eternity as real as time and +gives substantial existence to that new and limitless future in which we +shall have time to forget the sorrows and live past the losses of this +present world.</p> + +<p>The radical elements of greatness are identical from age to age, and the +primal duties which no good man can evade do not vary as the world grows +older. What we admire in Abraham we feel to be incumbent on ourselves. +Indeed the uniform call of Christ to all His followers is even in form +almost identical with that which stirred Abraham, and made him the +father of the faithful. âFollow Me,â says our Lord, âand every one that +forsaketh houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or +wife, or children, or lands, for My nameâs sake, shall receive an +hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.â And there is something +perennially edifying in the spectacle of a man who believes that God has +a place and a use for him in the world, and who puts himself at Godâs +disposal; who enters upon life refusing to be bound by the circumstances +of his upbringing, by the expectations of his friends, by prevailing +customs, by prospect of gain and advancement among men; and resolved to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> +listen to the highest voice of all, to discover what God has for him to +do upon earth and where he is likely to find most of God; who virtually +and with deepest sincerity says, Let God choose my destination: I have +good land here, but if God wishes me elsewhere, elsewhere I go: who, in +one word, believes in the call of God to himself, who admits it into the +springs of his conduct, and recognises that for him also the highest +life his conscience can suggest is the only life he can live, no matter +how cumbrous and troublesome and expensive be the changes involved in +entering it. Let the spectacle take hold of your imaginationâthe +spectacle of a man believing that there is something more akin to +himself and higher than the material life and the great laws that govern +it, and going calmly and hopefully forward into the unknown, because he +knows that God is with him, that in God is our true life, that man +liveth not by bread only, but by every word that cometh out of the mouth +of God.</p> + +<p>Even thus then may we bring our faith to a true and reliable test. All +men who have a confident expectation of future good make sacrifices or +run risks to obtain it. Mercantile life proceeds on the understanding +that such ventures are reasonable and will always be made. Men might if +they liked spend their money on present pleasure, but they rarely do so. +They prefer to put it into concerns or transactions from which they +expect to reap large returns. They have faith and as a necessary +consequence they make ventures. So did these Hebrewsâthey ran a great +risk, they gave up the sole means of livelihood they had any experience +of and entered what they knew to be a bare desert, because they believed +in the land that lay beyond and in Godâs promise. What then has your +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> +faith done? What have you ventured that you would not have ventured but +for Godâs promise? Suppose Christâs promise failed, in what would you be +the losers? Of course you would lose what you call your hope of +heavenâbut what would you find you had lost in this world? When a +merchantâs ships are wrecked or when his investment turns out bad, he +loses not only the gain he hoped for, but the means he risked. Suppose +then Christ were declared bankrupt, unable to fulfil your expectations, +would you really find that you had ventured so much upon His promise +that you are deeply involved in His bankruptcy, and are much worse off +in this world and now than you would otherwise have been? Or may I not +use the words of one of the most cautious and charitable of men, and +say, âI really fear, when we come to examine, it will be found that +there is nothing we resolve, nothing we do, nothing we do not do, +nothing we avoid, nothing we choose, nothing we give up, nothing we +pursue, which we should not resolve, and do, and not do, and avoid, and +choose, and give up, and pursue, if Christ had not died and heaven were +not promised us.â If this be the caseâif you would be neither much +better nor much worse though Christianity were a fableâif you have in +nothing become poorer in this world that your reward in heaven may be +greater, if you have made no investments and run no risks, then really +the natural inference is that your faith in the future inheritance is +small. Barnabas sold his Cyprus property because he believed heaven was +his, and his bit of land suddenly became a small consideration; useful +only in so far as he could with the mammon of unrighteousness make +himself a mansion in heaven. Paul gave up his prospects of advancement +in the nation, of which he would +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +of course as certainly have become the +leader and first man as he took that position in the Church, and plainly +tells us that having made so large a venture on Christâs word, he would +if this word failed be a great loser, of all men most miserable because +he had risked his all <i>in this life</i> on it. People sometimes take +offence at Paulâs plain way of speaking of the sacrifices he had made, +and of Peterâs plain way of saying âwe have left all and followed Thee, +what shall we have therefore?â but when people have made sacrifices they +know it and can specify them, and a faith that makes no sacrifices is no +good either in this worldâs affairs or in religion. Self-consciousness +may not be a very good thing: but self-deception is a worse.</p> + +<p>Here as elsewhere a clear hope sprang from faith. Recognising God, +Abraham knew that there was for men a great future. He looked forward to +a time when all men should believe as he did, and in him all families of +the earth be blessed. No doubt in these early days when all men were on +the move and striving to make a name and a place for themselves, an +onward look might be common. But the far-reaching extent, the certainty, +and the definiteness of Abrahamâs view of the future were unexampled. +There far back in the hazy dawn he stood while the morning mists hid the +horizon from every other eye, and he alone discerns what is to be. One +clear voice and one only rings out in unfaltering tones and from amidst +the babel of voices that utter either amazing follies or misdirected +yearnings, gives the one true forecast and directionâthe one living +word which has separated itself from and survived all the +prognostications of Chaldean sooth-sayers and priests of Ur, because it +has never ceased to give life to men. It has created for itself a channel +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> +and you can trace it through the centuries by the living green +of its banks and the life it gives as it goes. For this hope of Abraham +has been fulfilled; the creed and its accompanying blessing which that +day lived in the heart of one man only has brought blessing to all the families of the earth.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII.</h2> + +<h3>ABRAM IN EGYPT.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xii. 6â20.</h4> + +<p>Abram still journeying southward and not as yet knowing where his +shifting camp was finally to be pitched, came at last to what may be +called the heart of Palestine, the rich district of Shechem. Here stood +the oak of Moreh, a well-known landmark and favourite meeting-place. In +after years every meadow in this plain was owned and occupied, every +vineyard on the slopes of Ebal fenced off, every square yard specified +in some title-deed. But as yet the country seems not to have been +densely populated. There was room for a caravan like Abramâs to move +freely through the country, liberty for a far-stretching encampment such +as his to occupy the lovely vale that lies between Ebal and Gerizim. As +he rested here and enjoyed the abundant pasture, or as he viewed the +land from one of the neighbouring hills, the Lord appeared to him and +made him aware that this was the land designed for him. Here accordingly +under the spreading oak round whose boughs had often clung the smoke of +idolatrous sacrifice, Abram erects an altar to the living God in devout +acceptance of the gift, taking possession as it were of the land jointly +for God and for himself. Little harm will come of worldly possessions so taken and so held. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p> + +<p>As Abram traversed the land, wondering what were the limits of his +inheritance, it may have seemed far too large for his household. Soon he +experiences a difficulty of quite the opposite kind; he is unable to +find in it sustenance for his followers. Any notion that Godâs +friendship would raise him above the touch of such troubles as were +incident to the times, places, and circumstances in which his life was +to be spent, is quickly dispelled. The children of God are not exempt +from any of the common calamities; they are only expected and aided to +be calmer and wiser in their endurance and use of them. That we suffer +the same hardships as all other men is no proof that we are not +eternally associated with God, and ought never to persuade us our faith +has been in vain.</p> + +<p>Abram, as he looked at the bare, brown, cracked pastures and at the dry +watercourses filled only with stones, thought of the ever-fresh plains +of Mesopotamia, the lovely gardens of Damascus, the rich pasturage of +the northern borders of Canaan; but he knew enough of his own heart to +make him very careful lest these remembrances should make him turn back. +No doubt he had come to the promised land expecting it to be the real +Utopia, the Paradise which had haunted his thoughts as he lay among the +hills of Ur watching his flocks under the brilliant midnight sky. No +doubt he expected that here all would be easy and bright, peaceful and +luxurious. His first experience is of famine. He has to look on his herd +melting away, his favourite cattle losing their appearance, his servants +murmuring and obliged to scatter. In his dreams he must have night after +night seen the old country, the green breadth of the land that Euphrates +watered, the heavy headed corn bending before the warm airs of his native land; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +but morning by morning he wakes to the same anxieties, to +the sad reality of parched and burnt-up pastures, shepherds hanging +about with gloomy looks, his own heart distressed and failing. He was +also a stranger here who could not look for the help an old resident +might have counted on. It was probably years since God had made any sign +to him. Was the promised land worth having after all? Might he not be +better off among his old friends in Charran? Should he not brave their +ridicule and return? He will not so much as make it possible to return. +He will not even for temporary relief go north towards his old country, +but will go to Egypt, where he cannot stay, and from which he must +return to Canaan.</p> + +<p>Here, then, is a man who plainly believes that Godâs promise cannot +fail; that God will magnify His promise, and that it above all else is +worth waiting for. He believes that the man who seeks without flinching +and through all disappointment and bareness to do Godâs will, shall one +day have an abundantly satisfying reward, and that meanwhile association +with God in carrying forward His abiding purposes with men is more for a +man to live upon than the cattle upon a thousand hills. And thus famine +rendered to Abram no small service if it quickened within him the +consciousness that the call of God was not to ease and prosperity, to +land-owning and cattle-breeding, but to be Godâs agent on earth for the +fulfilment of remote but magnificent purposes. His life might seem to be +down among the commonplace vicissitudes, pasture might fail, and his +well-stocked camp melt away, but out of his mind there could not fade +the future God had revealed to him. If it had been his ambition to give +his name to a tribe and be known as a wide-ruling chief, that ambition is now eclipsed by +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> +his desire to be a step towards the fulfilment of +that real end for which the whole world is. The belief that God has +called him to do His work has lifted him above concern about personal +matters; life has taken a new meaning in his eyes by its connection with +the Eternal.</p> + +<p>The extraordinary country to which Abram betook himself, and which was +destined to exercise so profound an influence on his descendants, had +even at this early date attained a high degree of civilisation. The +origin of this civilisation is shrouded in obscurity, as the source of +the great river to which the country owes its prosperity for many +centuries kept the secret of its birth. As yet scholars are unable to +tell us with certainty what Pharaoh was on the throne when Abram went +down into Egypt. The monuments have preserved the effigies of two +distinct types of rulers; the one simple, kindly, sensible, stately, +handsome, fearless, as of men long accustomed to the throne. These are +the faces of the native Egyptian rulers. The other type of face is heavy +and massive, proud and strong but full of care, with neither the +handsome features nor the look of kindliness and culture which belong to +the other. These are the faces of the famous Shepherd kings who held +Egypt in subjection, probably at the very time when Abram was in the +land.</p> + +<p>For our purposes it matters little whether Abramâs visit occurred while +the country was under native or under foreign rule, for long before the +Shepherd kings entered Egypt it enjoyed a complete and stable +civilisation. Whatever dynasty Abram found on the throne, he certainly +found among the people a more refined social life than he had seen in +his native city, a much purer religion, and a much more highly developed +moral code. He must have kept himself entirely aloof from +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +Egyptian society if he failed to discover that they believed in a judgment after +death, and that this judgment proceeded upon a severe moral code. Before +admission into the Egyptian heaven the deceased must swear that âhe has +not stolen nor slain any one intentionally; that he has not allowed his +devotions to be seen; that he has not been guilty of hypocrisy or lying; +that he has not calumniated any one nor fallen into drunkenness or +adultery; that he has not turned away his ear from the words of truth; +that he has been no idle talker; that he has not slighted the king or +his father.â To a man in Abramâs state of mind the Egyptian creed and +customs must have conveyed many valuable suggestions.</p> + +<p>But virtuous as in many respects the Egyptians were, Abramâs fears as he +approached their country were by no means groundless. The event proved +that whatever Sarahâs age and appearance at this time were, his fears +were something more than the fruit of a husbandâs partiality. Possibly +he may have heard the ugly story which has recently been deciphered from +an old papyrus, and which tells how one of the Pharaohs, acting on the +advice of his princes, sent armed men to fetch a beautiful woman and +make away with her husband. But knowing the risk he ran, why did he go? +He contemplated the possibility of Sarahâs being taken from him; but, if +this should happen, what became of the promised seed? We cannot suppose +that, driven by famine from the promised land, he had lost all hope +regarding the fulfilment of the other part of the promise. Probably his +idea was that some of the great men might take a fancy to Sarah, and +that he would so temporise with them and ask for her such large gifts as +would hold them off for a while until he could +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> +provide for his people and get clear out of the land. It had not occurred to him that she might +be taken to the palace. Whatever his idea of the probable course of +events was, his proposal to guide them by disguising his true +relationship to Sarah was unjustifiable. And his feelings during these +weeks in Egypt must have been far from enviable as he learned that of +all virtues the Egyptians set greatest store by truth, and that lying +was the vice they held in greatest abhorrence.</p> + +<p>Here then was the whole promise and purpose of God in a most precarious +position; the land abandoned, the mother of the promised seed in a harem +through whose guards no force on earth could penetrate. Abram could do +nothing but go helplessly about, thinking what a fool he had been, and +wishing himself well back among the parched hills of Bethel. Suddenly +there is a panic in the royal household; and Pharaoh is made aware that +he was on the brink of what he himself considered a great sin. Besides +effecting its immediate purpose, this visitation might have taught +Pharaoh that a man cannot safely sin within limits prescribed by +himself. He had not intended such evil as he found himself just saved +from committing. But had he lived with perfect purity, this liability to +fall into transgression, shocking to himself, could not have existed. +Many sins of most painful consequence we commit, not of deliberate +purpose, but because our previous life has been careless and lacking in +moral tone. We are mistaken if we suppose that we can sin within a +certain safe circle and never go beyond it.</p> + +<p>By this intervention on Godâs part Abram was saved from the consequences +of his own scheme, but he was not saved from the indignant rebuke of the +Egyptian monarch. This rebuke indeed did not prevent him +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> +from a repetition of the same conduct in another country, conduct which was met +with similar indignation: âWhat have I offended thee, that thou hast +brought on me and on my kingdom this great sin? Thou hast done deeds +unto me that ought not to be done. What sawest thou that thou hast done +this thing?â This rebuke did not seem to sink deeply into the conscience +of Abramâs descendants, for the Jewish history is full of instances in +which leading men do not shrink from manÅuvre, deceit and lying. Yet +it is impossible to suppose that Abramâs conception of God was not +vastly enlarged by this incident, and this especially in two +particulars.</p> + +<p>(1) Abram must have received a new impression regarding Godâs truth. It +would seem that as yet he had no very clear idea of Godâs holiness. He +had the idea of God which Mohammedans entertain, and past which they +seem unable to get. He conceived of God as the Supreme Ruler; he had a +firm belief in the unity of God and probably a hatred of idolatry and a +profound contempt for idolaters. He believed that this Supreme God could +always and easily accomplish His will, and that the voice that inwardly +guided him was the voice of God. His own character had not yet been +deepened and dignified by prolonged intercourse with God and by close +observation of His actual ways; and so as yet he knows little of what +constitutes the true glory of God.</p> + +<p>For learning that truth is an essential attribute of God he could not +have gone to a better school than Egypt. His own reliance on Godâs +promise might have been expected to produce in him a high esteem for +truth and a clear recognition of its essential place in the Divine +character. Apparently it had only partially had this effect. The +heathen, therefore, must teach him. Had not Abram seen the look of indignation and injury +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +on the face of Pharaoh, he might have left the +land feeling that his scheme had succeeded admirably. But as he went at +the head of his vastly increased household, the envy of many who saw his +long train of camels and cattle, he would have given up all could he +have blotted from his mindâs eye the reproachful face of Pharaoh and +nipped out this entire episode from his life. He was humbled both by his +falseness and his foolishness. He had told a lie, and told it when truth +would have served him better. For the very precaution he took in passing +off Sarai as his sister was precisely what encouraged Pharaoh to take +her, and produced the whole misadventure. It was the heathen monarch who +taught the father of the faithful his first lesson in Godâs holiness.</p> + +<p>What he so painfully learned we must all learn, that God does not need +lying for the attainment of His ends, and that double-dealing is always +short-sighted and the proper precursor of shame. Frequently men are +tempted like Abram to seek a God-protected and God-prospered life by +conduct that is not thoroughly straightforward. Some of us who statedly +ask God to bless our endeavours, and who have no doubt that God approves +the ends we seek to accomplish, do yet adopt such means of attaining our +ends as not even men with any high sense of honour would countenance. To +save ourselves from trouble, inconvenience, or danger, we are tempted to +evasions and shifts which are not free from guilt. The more one sees of +life, the higher value does he set on truth. Let lying be called by +whatever flattering title men pleaseâlet it pass for diplomacy, +smartness, self-defence, policy, or civilityâit remains the device of +the coward, the absolute bar to free and healthy intercourse, a vice +which diffuses itself through the whole +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> +character and makes growth impossible. Trade and commerce are always hampered and retarded, and +often overwhelmed in disaster, by the determined and deliberate +doubleness of those who engage in them; charity is minimised and +withheld from its proper objects by the suspiciousness engendered in us +by the almost universal falseness of men; and the habit of making things +seem to others what they are not, reacts upon the man himself and makes +it difficult for him to feel the abiding effective reality of anything +he has to do with or even of his own soul. If then we are to know the +living and true God we must ourselves be true, transparent, and living +in the light as He is the Light. If we are to reach His ends we must +adopt His means and abjure all crafty contrivances of our own. If we are +to be His heirs and partners in the work of the world, we must first be +His children, and show that we have attained our majority by manifesting +an indubitable resemblance to His own clear truth.</p> + +<p>(2) But whether Abram fully learned this lesson or not, there can be +little doubt that at this time he did receive fresh and abiding +impressions of Godâs faithfulness and sufficiency. In Abramâs first +response to Godâs call he exhibited a remarkable independence and +strength of character. His abandonment of home and kindred on account of +a religious faith which he alone possessed, was the act of a man who +relied much more on himself than on others and who had the courage of +his convictions. This qualification for playing a great part in human +affairs he undoubtedly had. But he had also the defects of his +qualities. A weaker man would have shrunk from going into Egypt and +would have preferred to see his flocks dwindle rather than take so +venturesome a step. No such hesitations could trammel +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> +Abramâs movements. He felt himself equal to all occasions. That part of his +character which was reproduced in his grandson Jacob, a readiness to +rise to every emergency that called for management and diplomacy, an +aptitude for dealing with men and using them for his purposesâthis came +to the front now! To all the timorous suggestions of his household he +had one reply: Leave it all to me; I will bring you through. So he +entered Egypt confident that single-handed he could cope with their +Pharaohs, priests, magicians, guards, judges, warriors; and find his way +through the finely-meshed net that held and examined every person and +action in the land.</p> + +<p>He left Egypt in a much more healthy state of mind, practically +convinced of his own inability to work his way to the happiness God had +promised him, and equally convinced of Godâs faithfulness and power to +bring him through all the embarrassments and disasters into which his +own folly and sin might bring him. His own confidence and management had +placed Godâs promise in a position of extreme hazard; and without the +intervention of God Abram saw that he could neither recover the mother +of the promised seed nor return to the land of promise. Abram is put to +shame even in the eyes of his household slaves; and with what burning +shame must he have stood before Sarai and Pharaoh, and received back his +wife from him whose wickedness he had feared, but who so far from +meaning to sin as Abram suspected, was indignant that Abram should have +made it even possible. He returned to Canaan humbled and very little +disposed to feel confident in his own powers of managing in emergencies; +but quite assured that God might at all times be relied on. He was convinced that God was not +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +depending upon him, but he upon God. He saw +that God did not trust to his cleverness and craft, no, nor even to his +willingness to do and endure Godâs will, but that He was trusting in +Himself, and that by His faithfulness to His own promise, by His +watchfulness and providence, He would bring Abram through all the +entanglements caused by his own poor ideas of the best way to work out +Godâs ends and attain to His blessing. He saw, in a word, that the +future of the world lay not with Abram but with God.</p> + +<p>This certainly was a great and needful step in the knowledge of God. +Thus early and thus unmistakably was man taught in how profound and +comprehensive a sense God is his Saviour. Commonly it takes a man a long +time to learn that it is God who is saving him, but one day he learns +it. He learns that it is not his own faith but Godâs faithfulness that +saves him. He perceives that he needs God throughout, from first to +last; not only to make him offers, but to enable him to accept them; not +only to incline him to accept them to-day, but to maintain within him at +all times this same inclination. He learns that God not only makes him a +promise and leaves him to find his own way to what is promised; but that +He is with him always, disentangling him day by day from the results of +his own folly and securing for him not only possible but actual +blessedness.</p> + +<p>Few discoveries are so welcome and gladdening to the soul. Few give us +the same sense of Godâs nearness and sovereignty; few make us feel so +deeply the dignity and importance of our own salvation and career. This +is Godâs affair; a matter in which are involved not merely our personal +interests, but Godâs responsibility and purposes. God calls us to be His, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> +and He does not send us a-warring on our own charges, but +throughout furnishes us with <i>everything</i> we need. When we go down to +Egypt, when we quite diverge from the path that leads to the promised +land and worldly straits tempt us to turn our back upon Godâs altar and +seek relief by our own arrangements and devices, when we forget for a +while how God has identified our interests with His own and tacitly +abjure the vows we have silently registered before Him, even then He +follows us and watches over us and lays His hand upon us and bids us +back. And this only is our hope. Not in any determination of our own to +cleave to Him and to live in faith on His promise can we trust. If we +have this determination, let us cherish it, for this is Godâs present +means of leading us onwards. But should this determination fail, the +shame with which you recognise your want of steadfastness may prove a +stronger bond to hold you to Him than the bold confidence with which +to-day you view the future. The waywardness, the foolishness, the +obstinate depravity that cause you to despair, God will conquer. With +untiring patience, with all-foreseeing love, He stands by you and will +bring you through. His gifts and calling are without repentance.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX.</h2> + +<h3>LOTâS SEPARATION FROM ABRAM.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xiii.</h4> + +<p>Abram left Egypt thinking meanly of himself, highly of God. This humble +frame of mind is disclosed in the route he chooses; he went straight +back âunto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, unto the +altar which he had made there at the first.â With a childlike simplicity +he seems to own that his visit to Egypt had been a mistake. He had gone +there supposing that he was thrown upon his own resources, and that in +order to keep himself and his dependants alive he must have recourse to +craft and dishonesty. By retracing his steps and returning to the altar +at Bethel, he seems to acknowledge that he should have remained there +through the famine in dependence on God.</p> + +<p>Whoever has attempted a similar practical repentance, visible to his own +household and affecting their place of abode or daily occupations, will +know how to estimate the candour and courage of Abram. To own that some +distinctly marked portion of our life, upon which we entered with great +confidence in our own wisdom and capacity, has come to nothing and has +betrayed us into reprehensible conduct, is mortifying indeed. To admit +that we have erred and to repair +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> +our error by returning to our old way +and practice, is what few of us have the courage to do. If we have +entered on some branch of business or gone into some attractive +speculation, or if we have altered our demeanour towards some friend, +and if we are finding that we are thereby tempted to doubleness, to +equivocation, to injustice, our only hope lies in a candid and +straightforward repentance, in a manly and open return to the state of +things that existed in happier days and which we should never have +abandoned. Sometimes we are aware that a blight began to fall on our +spiritual life from a particular date, and we can easily and distinctly +trace an unhealthy habit of spirit to a well-marked passage in our +outward career; but we shrink from the sacrifice and shame involved in a +thoroughgoing restoration of the old state of things. We are always so +ready to fancy we have done enough, if we get one heartfelt word of +confession uttered; so ready, if we merely turn our faces towards God, +to think our restoration complete. Let us make a point of getting +through mere beginnings of repentance, mere intention to recover Godâs +favour and a sound condition of life, and let us return and return till +we bow at Godâs very altar again, and know that His hand is laid upon us +in blessing as at the first.</p> + +<p>Out of Egypt Abram brought vastly increased wealth. Each time he +encamped, quite a town of black tents quickly rose round the spot where +his fixed spear gave the signal for halting. And along with him there +journeyed his nephew, apparently of almost equal, or at least +considerable wealth; not dependent on Abram, nor even a partner with +him, for âLot also had flocks and herds and tents.â So rapidly was their +substance increasing that no sooner did they become stationary +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> +than they found that the land was not able to furnish them with sufficient +pasture. The Canaanite and the Perizzite would not allow them unlimited +pasture in the neighbourhood of Bethel; and as the inevitable result of +this the rival shepherds, eager to secure the best pasture for their own +flocks and the best wells for their own cattle and camels, came to high +words and probably to blows about their respective rights.</p> + +<p>To both Abram and Lot it must have occurred that this competition +between relatives was unseemly, and that some arrangement must be come +to. And when at last some unusually blunt quarrel took place in presence +of the chiefs, Abram divulges to Lot the scheme which had suggested +itself to him. This state of things, he says, must come to an end; it is +unseemly, unwise, and unrighteous. And as they walk on out of the circle +of tents to discuss the matter without interruption, they come to a +rising ground where the wide prospect brings them naturally to a pause. +Abram looking north and south and seeing with the trained eye of a large +flock-master that there was abundant pasture for both, turns to Lot with +a final proposal: âIs not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, +I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to +the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the +left.â</p> + +<p>Thus early did wealth produce quarrelling among relatives. The men who +had shared one anotherâs fortunes while comparatively poor, no sooner +become wealthy than they have to separate. Abram prevented quarrel by +separation. âLet us,â he says, âcome to an understanding. And rather +than be separate in heart, let us be separate in habitation.â It is +always a sorrowful time in family history when it comes to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> +this, that those who have had a common purse and have not been careful to know what +exactly is theirs and what belongs to the other members of the family, +have at last to make a division and to be as precise and documentary as +if dealing with strangers. It is always painful to be compelled to own +that law can be more trusted than love, and that legal forms are a surer +barrier against quarrelling than brotherly kindness. It is a confession +we are sometimes compelled to make, but never without a mixture of +regret and shame.</p> + +<p>As yet the character of Lot has not been exhibited, and we can only +calculate from the relation he bears to Abram what his answer to the +proposal will probably be. We know that Abram has been the making of his +nephew, and that the land belongs to Abram; and we should expect that in +common decency Lot would set aside the generous offer of his uncle and +demand that he only should determine the matter. âIt is not for me to +make choice in a land which is wholly yours. My future does not carry in +it the import of yours. It is a small matter what kind of subsistence I +secure or where I find it. Choose for yourself, and allot to me what is +right.â We see here what a safeguard of happiness in life right feeling +is. To be in right and pleasant relations with the persons around us +will save us from error and sin even when conscience and judgment give +no certain decision. The heart which feels gratitude is beyond the need +of being schooled and compelled to do justly. To the man who is +affectionately disposed it is superfluous to insist upon the rights of +other persons. The instinct which tells a man what is due to others and +makes him sensitive to their wrongs will preserve him from many an +ignominious action which would degrade his whole life. But such +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +instinct was awanting in Lot. His character though in some respects +admirable had none of the generosity of Abramâs in it. He had allowed +himself on countless previous occasions to take advantage of Abramâs +unselfishness. Generosity is not always infectious; often it encourages +selfishness in child, relative, or neighbour. And so Lot instead of +rivalling, traded on his uncleâs magnanimity; and chose him all the +plains of Jordan because in his eye it was the richest part of the land.</p> + +<p>This choice of Sodom as a dwelling-place was the great mistake of Lotâs +life. He is the type of that very large class of men who have but one +rule for determining them at the turning points of life. He was swayed +solely by the consideration of worldly advantage. He has nothing deep, +nothing high in him. He recognises no duty to Abram, no gratitude, no +modesty; he has no perception of spiritual relations, no sense that God +should have something to say in the partition of the land. Lot may be +acquitted of a good deal which at first sight one is prompted to lay to +his charge, but he cannot be acquitted of showing an eagerness to better +himself, regardless of all considerations but the promise of wealth +afforded by the fertility of the Jordan valley. He saw a quick though +dangerous road to wealth. There seemed a certainty of success in his +earthly calling, a risk only of moral disaster. He shut his eyes to the +risk that he might grasp the wealth; and so doing, ruined both himself +and his family.</p> + +<p>The situation is one which is ceaselessly repeated. To men in business +or in the cultivation of literature or art, or in one of the +professions, there are presented opportunities of attaining a better +position by cultivating the friendship or identifying oneself with the +practice of men whose society is not in itself desirable. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> +Society is made up of little circles, each of which has its own monopoly of some +social or commercial or political advantage, and its own characteristic +tone and enjoyments and customs. And if a man will not join one of these +circles and accommodate himself to the mode of carrying on business and +to the style of living it has identified with itself, he must forego the +advantages which entrance to that circle would secure for him. As +clearly as Lot saw that the well-watered plain stretching away under the +sunshine was the right place to exercise his vocation as a flock-master, +so do we see that associated with such and such persons and recognised +as one of them, we shall be able more effectively than in any other +position to use whatever natural gifts we have, and win the recognition +and the profit these gifts seem to warrant. There is but one drawback. +âThe men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly.â +There is a tone you do not like; you hesitate to identify yourself with +men who live solely and with cynical frankness only for gain; whose +every sentence betrays the contemptible narrowness of soul to which +worldliness condemns men; who live for money and who glory in their +shame.</p> + +<p>The very nature of the world in which we live makes such temptation +universal. And to yield is common and fatal. We persuade ourselves we +need not enter into close relations with the persons we propose to have +business connections with. Lot would have been horrified, that day he +made his choice, had it been told him his daughters would marry men of +Sodom. But the swimmer who ventures into the outer circle of the +whirlpool finds that his own resolve not to go further presents a very +weak resistance to the waterâs inevitable +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> +suction. We fancy perhaps that to refuse the companionship of any class of men is pharisaic; that +we have no business to condemn the attitude towards the Church, or the +morality, or the style of living adopted by any class of men among us. +This is the mere cant of liberalism. We do not condemn persons who +suffer from smallpox, but a smallpox hospital would be about the last +place we should choose for a residence. Or possibly we imagine we shall +be able to carry some better influences into the society we enter. A +vain imagination; the motive for choosing the society has already sapped +our power for good.</p> + +<p>Many of the errors of worldly men only reveal their most disastrous +consequences in the second generation. Like some virulent diseases they +have a period of incubation. Lotâs family grew up in a very different +atmosphere from that which had nourished his own youth in Abramâs tents. +An adult and robust Englishman can withstand the climate of India; but +his children who are born in it cannot. And the position in society +which has been gained in middle life by the carefully and hardily +trained child of a God-fearing household, may not very visibly damage +his own character, but may yet be absolutely fatal to the morality of +his children. Lot may have persuaded himself he chose the dangerous +prosperity of Sodom mainly for the sake of his children; but in point of +fact he had better have seen them die of starvation in the most barren +and parched desolation. And the parent who disregards conscience and +chooses wealth or position, fancying that thus he benefits his children, +will find to his life-long sorrow that he has entangled them in +unimagined temptations.</p> + +<p>But the man who makes Lotâs choice not only does +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> +a great injury to his children, but cuts himself off from all that is best in life. We are +safe to say that after leaving Abramâs tents Lot never again enjoyed +unconstrainedly happy days. The men born and brought up in Sodom were +possibly happy after their kind and in their fashion; but Lot was not. +His soul was daily vexed. Many a time while hearing the talk of the men +his daughters had married, must Lot have gone out with a sore heart, and +looked to the distant hills that hid the tents of Abram, and longed for +an hour of the company he used to enjoy. And the society to which you +are tempted to join yourself may not be unhappy, but you can take no +surer means of beclouding, embittering, and ruining your whole life than +by joining it. You cannot forget the thoughts you once had, the +friendships you once delighted in, the hopes that shed brightness +through all your life. You cannot blot out the ideal that once you +cherished as the most animating element of your life. Every day there +will be that rising in your mind which is in the sharpest contrast to +the thoughts of those with whom you are associated. You will despise +them for their shallow, worldly ideas and ways; but you will despise +yourself still more, being conscious that what they are through +ignorance and upbringing, you are in virtue of your own foolish and mean +choice. There is that in you which rebels against the superficial and +external measure by which they judge things, and yet you have +deliberately chosen these as your associates, and can only think with +heart-broken regret of the high thoughts that once visited you and the +hopes you have now no means of fulfilling. Your life is taken out of +your own hands; you find yourself in bondage to the circumstances you have chosen; and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +you are learning in bitterness, disappointment, and +shame, that indeed âa manâs life consisteth not in the abundance of the +things which he possesseth.â To determine your life solely by the +prospect of worldly success is to risk the loss of the best things in +life. To sacrifice friendship or conscience to success in your calling +is to sacrifice what is best to what is lowest, and to blind yourself to +the highest human happiness. For happily the essential elements of the +highest happiness are as open to the poor as to the rich, to the +unsuccessful as to the successfulâlove of wife and children, congenial +and educating friendships, the knowledge of what the best men have done +and the wisest men have said; the pleasure and impulse, the sentiments +and beliefs which result from our knowledge of the heroic deeds done +from year to year among men; the enlivening influence of examples that +tell on all men alike, young and old, rich and poor; the insight and +strength of character that are won in the hard wrestle with life; the +growing consciousness that God is in human life, that He is ours and +that we are Hisâthese things and all that makes human life of value are +universal as air and sunshine, but must be missed by those who make the +world their object.</p> + +<p>Though in point of fact Lot cut himself off by his choice from direct +participation in the special inheritance to which Abram was called by +God, it might perhaps be too much to say that his choice of the valley +of Jordan was an explicit renunciation of the special blessedness of +those who find their joy in responding to Godâs call and doing His work +in the world. It might also be extravagant to say that his choice of the +richest land was prompted by the feeling that he was not included in the promise to Abram, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> +might as well make the most of his present +opportunities. But it is certain that Abramâs generosity to Lot arose +out of his sense that in God he himself had abundant possession. In +Egypt he had learned that in order to secure all that is worth having a +man need never resort to duplicity, trickery, bold lying. He now learns +that in order to enter on his own God-provided lot, he need shut no +other man out of his. He is taught that to acknowledge amply the rights +of other men is the surest road to the enjoyment of his own rights. He +is taught that there is room in Godâs plan for every man to follow his +most generous impulses and the highest views of life that visit him.</p> + +<p>It was Abramâs simple belief that Godâs promise was meant and was +substantial, that made him indifferent as to what Lot might choose. His +faith was judged in this scene, and was proved to be sound. This man +whose very calling it was to own this land, could freely allow Lot to +choose the best of it. Why? Because he has learned that it is not by any +plan of his own he is to come into possession; that God Who promised is +to give him the land in His own way, and that his part is to act +uprightly, mercifully, like God. Wherever there is faith, the same +results will appear. He who believes that God is pledged to provide for +him cannot be greedy, anxious, covetous; can only be liberal, even +magnanimous. Any one can thus test his own faith. If he does not find +that what God promises weighs substantially when put in the scales with +gold; if he does not find that the accomplishment of Godâs purpose with +him in the world is to him the most valuable thing, and actually compels +him to think lightly of worldly position and ordinary success; if he +does not find that in point of fact the gains which content a man +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> +of the world shrivel and lose interest, he may feel tolerably certain he +has no faith and is not counting as certain what God has promised.</p> + +<p>It is commonly observed that wealth pursues the men who part with it +most freely. Abram had this experience. No sooner had he allowed Lot to +choose his portion than God gave him assurance that the whole would be +his. It is âthe meekâ who âinherit the earth.â Not only have they, in +their very losses and while suffering wrong at the hands of their +fellows, a purer joy than those who wrong them; but they know themselves +heirs of God with the certainty of enjoying all His possessions that can +avail for their advantage. Declining to devote themselves as living +sacrifices to business they hold their soul at leisure for what brings +truest happiness, for friendship, for knowledge, for charity. Even in +this life they may be said to inherit the earth, for all its richest +fruits are theirsâthe ground may belong to other men, but the beauty of +the landscape is theirs without burdenâand ever and anon they hear such +words as were now uttered to Abram. They alone are inclined or able to +receive renewed assurances that God is mindful of His promise and will +abundantly bless them. It is they who are in no haste to be rich, and +are content to abide in the retired hill-country where they can freely +assemble round Godâs altar, it is they who seek first the kingdom of God +and make sure of that, whatever else they put in hazard, to whom Godâs +encouragements come. You wonder at the certainty with which others speak +of hearing Godâs voice and that so seldom you have the joy of knowing +that God is directing and encouraging you. Why should you wonder, if you +very well know that your attention is directed mainly to the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> +world, that your heart trembles and thrills with all the fluctuations of your +earthly hopes, that you wait for news and listen to every hint that can +affect your position in life? Can you wonder that an ear trained to be +so sensitive to the near earthly sounds, should quite have lost the +range of heavenly voices?</p> + +<p>Of the assurance here given him Abram was probably much in need when Lot +had withdrawn with his flocks and servants. When the warmth of feeling +cooled and allowed the somewhat unpleasant facts of the case to press +upon his mind; and when he heard his shepherds murmuring that after all +the strife they had maintained for their masterâs rights, he should have +weakly yielded these to Lot; and when he reflected, as now he inevitably +would reflect, how selfish and ungrateful Lot had shown himself to be, +he must have been tempted to think he had possibly made a mistake in +dealing so generously with such a man. This reflection on himself might +naturally grow into a reflection upon God, Who might have been expected +so to order matters as to give the best country to the best man. All +such reflections are precluded by the renewed grant he now receives of +the whole land.</p> + +<p>It is always as difficult to govern our heart wisely after as before +making a sacrifice. It is as difficult to keep the will decided as to +make the original decision; and it is more difficult to think +affectionately of those for whom the sacrifice has been made, when the +change in their condition and our own is actually accomplished. There is +a natural reaction after a generous action which is not always +sufficiently resisted. And when we see that those who refuse to make any +sacrifices are more prosperous and less ruffled in spirit than ourselves we are tempted to take +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> +matters into our own hand, and, without waiting +upon God, to use the worldâs quick ways. At such times we find how +difficult it is to hold an advanced position, and how much unbelief +mingles with the sincerest faith, and what vile dregs of selfishness +sully the clearest generosity; we find our need of God and of those +encouragements and assistances He can impart to the soul. Happy are we +if we receive them and are enabled thereby to be constant in the good we +have begun; for all sacrifice is good begun. And as Abram saw, when the +cities of the plain were destroyed, how kindly God had guided him; so +when our history is complete, we shall have no inclination to grumble at +any passage of our life which we entered by generosity and faith in God, +but shall see how tenderly God has held us back from much that our soul +has been ardently desiring, and which we thought would be the making of us.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X.</h2> + +<h3>ABRAMâS RESCUE OF LOT.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xiv.</h4> + +<p>This chapter evidently incorporates a contemporary account of the events +recorded. So antique a document was it even when it found its place in +this book, that the editor had to modernize some of its expressions that +it might be intelligible. The places mentioned were no longer known by +the names here preservedâBela, the vale of Siddim, En-mishpat, the +valley of Shaveh, all these names were unknown even to the persons who +dwelt in the places once so designated. It can scarcely have been Abram +who wrote down the narrative, for he himself is spoken of as Abram the +Hebrew, the man born beyond the Euphrates, which is a way of speaking of +himself no one would naturally adopt. From the clear outline given of +the route followed by the expedition of Chedorlaomer, it might be +supposed that some old staff-secretary had reported on the campaign. +However that may be, the discoveries of the last two or three years have +shed light on the outlandish names that have stood for four thousand +years in this document, and on the relations subsisting between Elam and +Palestine.</p> + +<p>On the bricks now preserved in our own British Museum the very names we read in this chapter can +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> +be traced, in the slightly altered form which +is always given to a name when pronounced by different races. +Chedorlaomer is the Hebrew transliteration of Kudur Lagamar; Lagamar was +the name of one of the Chaldean deities, and the whole name means +Lagamarâs son, evidently a name of dignity adopted by the king of Elam. +Elam comprehended the broad and rich plains to the east of the lower +course of the Tigris, together with the mountain range (8,000 to 10,000 +feet high) that bounds them. Elam was always able to maintain its own +against Assyria and Babylonia, and at this time it evidently exercised +some kind of supremacy not only over these neighbouring powers, but as +far west as the valley of the Jordan. The importance of keeping open the +valley of the Jordan is obvious to every one who has interest enough in +the subject to look at a map. That valley was the main route for trading +caravans and for military expeditions between the Euphrates and Egypt. +Whoever held that valley might prove a most formidable annoyance and +indeed an absolute interruption to commercial or political relations +between Egypt and Elam, or the Eastern powers. Sometimes it might serve +the purpose of East and West to have a neutral power between them, as +became afterwards clear in the history of Israel, but oftener it was the +ambition of either Egypt or of the East to hold Canaan in subjection. A +rebellion therefore of these chiefs occupying the vale of Siddim was +sufficiently important to bring the king of Elam from his distant +capital, attaching to his army as he came, his tributaries Amraphel king +of Shinar or northern Chaldea, Arioch king of a district on the east of +the Euphrates, and finally Tidal, or rather Tur-gal <i>i.e.</i> the great +chief, who ruled over the nations or tribes to the north of Babylonia. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p> + +<p>Susa, the capital of Elam, lies almost on the same parallel as the vale +of Siddim, but between them lie many hundred miles of impracticable +desert. Chedorlaomer and his army followed therefore much the same route +as Terah in his emigration, first going north-west up the Euphrates and +then crossing it probably at Carchemish, or above it, and coming +southward towards Canaan. But the country to the east of the Jordan and +the Dead Sea was occupied by warlike and marauding tribes who would have +liked nothing better than to swoop down on a rich booty-laden Eastern +army. With the sagacity of an old soldier therefore, Chedorlaomer makes +it his first business to sweep this rough ground, and so cripple the +tribes in his passage southwards, that when he swept round the lower end +of the Dead Sea and up the Jordan valley he should have nothing to fear +at least on his right flank. The tribe that first felt his sword was +that of the Rephaim, or giants. Their stronghold was Ashteroth Karnaim, +or Ashteroth of the two horns, a town dedicated to the goddess Astarte +whose symbol was the crescent or two-horned moon. The Zuzims and the +Emims, âa people great and many and tall,â as we read in Deuteronomy, +next fell before the invading host. The Horites, <i>i.e.</i> cave-dwellers or +troglodytes, would scarcely hold Chedorlaomer long, though from their +hilly fastnesses they might do him some damage. Passing through their +mountains he came upon the great road between the Dead Sea and the +Elanitic gulfâbut he crossed this road and still held westward till he +reached the edge of what is roughly known as the Desert of Sinai. Here, +says the narrative (ver. 7), they returned, that is, this was their +furthest point south and west, and here they turned and made for the +vale of Siddim, smiting the Amalekites and the Amorites on their route. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span></p> + +<p>This is the only part of the armyâs route that is at all obscure. The +last place they are spoken of as touching before reaching the vale of +Siddim is Hazezon-Tamar, or as it was afterwards and is still called +Engedi. Now Engedi lies on the western shore of the Dead Sea about half +way up from south to north. It lies on a very steep, indeed artificially +made, pass and is a place of much greater importance on that account +than its size would make it. The road between Moab and Palestine runs by +the western margin of the Dead Sea up to this point, but beyond this +point the shore is impracticable, and the only road is through the +Engedi pass on to the higher ground above. If the army chose this route +then they were compelled to force this pass; if on the other hand they +preferred during their whole march from Kadesh to keep away west of the +Dead Sea on the higher ground, then they would only detail a company to +pounce upon Engedi, as the main army passed behind and above. In either +case the main body must have been if not actually within sight of, yet +only a few miles from, the encampment of Abram.</p> + +<p>At length as they dropped down through the practicable passes into the +vale of Siddim their grand object became apparent, and the kings of the +five allied towns, probably warned by the hill-tribes weeks before, drew +out to meet them. But it is not easy to check an army in full career, +and the wells of bitumen, which those who knew the ground might have +turned to good purpose against the foreigners, actually hindered the +home troops and became a trap to them. The rout was complete. No second +stand or rally was attempted. The towns were sacked, the fields swept, +and so swift were the movements of the invaders that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> +although Abram was barely twenty miles off, and no doubt started for the rescue of Lot the +hour he got the news, he did not overtake the army, laden as it was with +spoil and retarded by prisoners and wounded, until they had reached the +sources of Jordan.</p> + +<p>But well-conceived and brilliantly executed as this campaign had been, +the experienced warrior had failed to take account of the most +formidable opponent he would have to reckon with. Those that escaped +from the slaughter at Sodom took to the hills, and either knowing they +would find shelter with Abram or more probably blindly running on, found +themselves at nightfall within sight of the encampment at Hebron. There +is no delay on Abramâs part; he hastily calls out his men, each +snatching his bow, his sword, and his spear, and slinging over his +shoulders a few daysâ provision. The neighbouring Amorite chiefs Aner, +Mamre and Eshcol join them, probably with a troop each, and before many +hours are lost they are down the passes and in hot pursuit. Not however +till they had traversed a hundred and twenty miles or more do they +overtake the Eastern army. But at Dan, at the very springs of the +Jordan, they find them, and making a night attack throw them into utter +confusion and pursue them as far as Hobah, a village near Damascus, that +retains to this day the same name.</p> + +<p>One is naturally curious to see how Abram will conduct himself in +circumstances so unaccustomed. From leading a quiet pastoral life he +suddenly becomes the most important man in the country, a man who can +make himself felt from the Nile to the Tigris. From a herd he becomes a +hero. But, notoriously, power tries a man, and, as one has often seen +persons make very glaring mistakes in such altered circumstances +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> +and alter their characters and beliefs to suit and take advantage of the new +material and opportunities presented to them, we are interested in +seeing how a man whose one rule of action has hitherto been faith in a +promise given him by God, will pass through such a trial. Can a +spiritual quality like faith be of much service in rough campaigning and +when the man of faith is mixed up with persons of doubtful character and +unscrupulous conduct, and brought into contact with considerable +political powers? Can we trace to Abramâs faith any part of his action +at this time? No sooner is the question put than we see that his faith +in Godâs promise was precisely that which gave him balance and dignity, +courage and generosity in dealing with the three prominent persons in +the narrative. He could afford to be forgiving and generous to his grand +competitor Lot, precisely because he felt sure God would deal generously +with himself. He could afford to acknowledge Melchizedek and any other +authority that might appear, as his superior, and he would not take +advantage, even when at the head of his men eager for more fighting, of +the peaceful king who came out to propitiate him, because he knew that +God would give him his land without wronging other people. And he +scorned the wages of the king of Sodom, holding himself to be no +mercenary captain, nor indebted to any one but God. In a word, you see +faith producing all that is of importance in his conduct at this time.</p> + +<p>Lot is the person who of all others might have been expected to be +forward in his expressions of gratitude to Abramânot a word of his is +recorded. Ashamed he cannot but have been, for if Abram said not a word +of reproach, there would be plenty of Lotâs old friends among Abramâs +men who could not lose so good an +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> +opportunity of twitting him about the +good choice he had made. And considering how humiliating it would have +been for him to go back with Abram and abandon the district of his +adoption, we can scarcely wonder that he should have gone quietly back +to Sodom, well as he must by this time have known the nature of the +risks he ran there. For, after all, this warning was not very loud. The +same thing, or a similar thing, might have happened had he remained with +Abram. The warning was unobtrusive as the warnings in life mostly are; +audible to the ear that has been accustomed to listen to the still small +voice of conscience, inaudible to the ear that is trained to hear quite +other voices. God does not set angels and flaming swords in every manâs +path. The little whisper that no one hears but ourselves only and that +says quite quietly that we are continuing in a wrong course, is as +certain an indication that we are in danger, as if God were to proclaim +our case from heaven with thunder or the voice of an archangel. And when +a man has persistently refused to listen to conscience it ceases to +speak, and he loses the power to discern between good and evil and is +left wholly without a guide. He may be running straight to destruction +and he does not know it. You cannot live under two principles of action, +regard to worldly interest and regard to conscience. You can train +yourself to great acuteness in perceiving and following out what is for +your worldly advantage, or you can train yourself to great acuteness of +conscience; but you must make your choice, for in proportion as you gain +sensitiveness in the one direction you lose it in the other. If your eye +is <i>single</i> your whole body is full of light; but if the light that is +in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span></p> + +<p>Melchizedek is generally recognised as the most mysterious and +unaccountable of historical personages; appearing here in the Kingâs +Vale no one knows whence, and disappearing no one knows whither, but +coming with his hands full of substantial gifts for the wearied +household of Abram, and the captive women that were with him. Of each of +the patriarchs we can tell the paternity; the date of his birth, and the +date of his death; but this man stands with none to claim him, he forms +no part of any series of links by which the oldest and the present times +are connected. Though possessed of the knowledge of the Most High God, +his name is not found in any of those genealogies which show us how that +knowledge passed from father to son. Of all the other great men whose +history is recorded a careful genealogy is given; but here the writer +breaks his rule, and breaks it where, had there not been substantial +reason, he would most certainly have adhered to it. For here is the +greatest man of the time, a man before whom Abram the father of the +faithful, the honoured of all nations, bowed and paid tithes; and yet he +appears and passes away likest to a vision of the night. Perhaps even in +his own time there was none that could point to the chamber where first +he was cradled, nor show the tent round which first he played in his +boyhood, nor hoard up a single relic of the early years of the man that +had risen to be the first man upon earth in those days. So that the +Apostle speaks of him as a very type of all that is mysterious and +abrupt in appearance and disappearance, âwithout father, without mother, +without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life,â and +as he significantly adds, âmade like unto the Son of God.â For as +Melchizedek stands thus on the page of history, so our Lord in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> +realityâas the one has no recorded pedigree, and holds an office +beginning and ending in his own person, so our Lord, though born of a +woman, stands separate from sinners and quite out of the ordinary line +of generations, and exercises an office which he received hereditarily +from none, and which he could commit to no successor. As the one stands +apparently disconnected from all before and after him, so the Other in +point of fact did thus suddenly emerge from eternity, a problem to all +who saw Him; owning the authority of earthly parents, yet claiming an +antiquity greater than Abramâs; appearing suddenly to the captivity led +captive, with His hands full of gifts, and His lips dropping words of +blessing.</p> + +<p>Melchizedek is the one personage on earth whom Abram recognises as his +spiritual superior. Abram accepts his blessing and pays him tithes; +apparently as priest of the Most High God; so that in paying to him, +Abram is giving the tenth of his spoils to God. This is not any mere +courtesy of private persons. It was done in presence of various parties +of jealously watchful retainers. Men of rank and office and position +<i>consider</i> how they should act to one another and who should take +precedence. And Abram did deliberately and with a perfect perception of +what he was doing, whatever he now did. Manifestly therefore Godâs +revelation of Himself was not as yet confined to the one line running +from Abram to Christ. Here was a man of whom we really do not know +whether he was a Canaanite, a son of Ham or a son of Shem; yet Abram +recognises him as having knowledge of the true God, and even bows to him +as his spiritual superior in office if not in experience. This shows us +how little jealousy Abram had of others being favoured by God, how little he thought +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> +<i>his</i> connection with God would be less secure if +other men enjoyed a similar connection, and how heartily he welcomed +those who with different rites and different prospects yet worshipped +the living God. It shows us also how apt we are to limit Godâs ways of +working; and how little we understand of the connections He has with +those who are not situated as we ourselves are. Here while all our +attention is concentrated on Abram as carrying the whole spiritual hope +of the world, there emerges from an obscure Canaanite valley a man +nearer to God than Abram is. From how many unthought-of places such men +may at any time come out upon us, we really can never tell.</p> + +<p>Again Melchizedek is evidently a title, not a nameâthe word means King +of Righteousness, or Righteous King. It may have been a title adopted by +a line of kings, or it may have been peculiar to this one man. But these +old Canaanites, if Canaanites they were, had got hold of a great +principle when they gave this title to the king of their city of Salem +or Peace. They perceived that it was the righteousness, the justice, of +their king that could best uphold their peaceful city. They saw that the +right king for them was a man not grinding his neighbours by war and +taxes, not overriding the rights of others and seeking always +enlargement of his own dominion; nor a merely merciful man, inclined to +treat sin lightly and leaning always to laxity; but the man they would +choose to give them peace was the righteous man who might sometimes seem +overscrupulous, sometimes over-stern, who would sometimes be called +romantic and sometimes fanatical, but through all whose dealings it +would be obvious that justice to all parties was the aim in view. Some +of them might not be good enough to love a ruler who +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> +made no more of their special interest than he did of others, but all would possibly +have wit enough to see that only by justice could they have peace. It is +the reflex of Godâs government in which righteousness is the foundation +of peace, a righteousness unflinching and invariable, promulgating holy +laws and exacting punishment from all who break them. It is this that +gives us hope of eternal peace, that we know God has not left out of +account facts that must yet be reckoned with, nor merely lulled the +unquiet forebodings of conscience, but has let every righteous law and +principle find full scope, has done righteously in offering us pardon so +that nothing can ever turn up to deprive us of our peace. And it is +quite in vain that any individual holds before his mind the prospect of +peace, <i>i.e.</i> of permanent satisfaction, so long as he is not seeking it +by righteousness. In so far as he is keeping his conscience from +interfering, in so far is he making it impossible to himself to enter +into the condition for the sake of which he is keeping conscience from +regulating his conduct.</p> + +<p>Lastly, Abramâs refusal of the king of Sodomâs offers is significant. +Naturally enough, and probably in accordance with well-established +usage, the king proposes that Abram should receive the rescued goods and +the spoil of the invading army. But Abram knew men, and knew that +although now Sodom was eager to show that he felt himself indebted to +Abram, the time would come when he would point to this occasion as +laying the foundation of Abramâs fortune. When a man rises in the world +every one will tell you of the share he had in raising him, and will +convey the impression that but for assistance rendered by the speaker he +would not have been what he now is. Abram knows that he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> +is destined to rise, and knows also by Whose help he is to rise. He intends to receive +all from God; and therefore not a thread from Sodom. He puts his refusal +in the form adopted by the man whose mind is made up beyond revisal. He +has âvowedâ it. He had anticipated such offers and had considered their +bearing on his relations to God and man; and taking advantage of the +unembarrassed season in which the offer was as yet only a possibility, +he had resolved that when it was actually made he would refuse it, no +matter what advantages it seemed to offer. So should we in our better +seasons and when we know we are viewing things healthily, +conscientiously, and righteously, determine what our conduct is to be, +and if possible so commit ourselves to it that when the right frame is +passed we cannot draw back from the right conduct. Abram had done so, +and however tempting the spoils of the Eastern kings were, they did not +move him. His vow had been made to the Possessor of heaven and earth, in +Whose hand were riches beyond the gifts of Sodom.</p> + +<p>Here again it is the man of faith that appears. He shows a noble +jealousy of Godâs prerogative to bless him. He will not give men +occasion to say that any earthly monarch has enriched him. It shall be +made plain that it is on God he is depending. In all men of faith there +will be something of this spirit. They cannot fail so to frame their +life as to let it come clearly out that for happiness, for success, for +comfort, for joy, they are in the main depending on God. That this +cannot be done in the complex life of modern society, no one will +venture to say in presence of this incident. Could we more easily have +shown our reliance upon God in the hurry of a sudden foray, in the turmoil and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> +intense action of a midnight attack and hand to hand +conflict, in the excitement and elation of a triumphal progress, the +kings of the country vying with one another to do us honour and the +rescued captives lauding our valour and generosity? No one fails to see +what it was that balanced Abram in this intoxicating march. No one asks +what enabled him, while leading his armed followers flushed with success +through a land weakened by recent dismay and disaster, to restrain them +and himself from claiming the whole land as his. No one asks what gave +him moral perception to see that the opportunity given him of winning +the land by the sword was a temptation not a guiding providence. To +every reader it is obvious that his dependence on God was his safeguard +and his light. God would bring him by fair and honourable means to his +own. There was no need of violence, no need of receiving help from +doubtful allies. This is true nobility; and this, faith always produces. +But it must be a faith like Abramâs; not a quick and superficial growth, +but a deeply-rooted principle. For against all temptations this only is +our sure defence, that already our hearts are so filled with Godâs +promise that other offers find no craving in us, no empty dissatisfied +spot on which they can settle. To such faith God responds by the +elevating and strengthening assurance, âI am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.â</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI.</h2> + +<h3>COVENANT WITH ABRAM.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xv.</h4> + +<p>Of the nine Divine manifestations made during Abramâs life this is the +fifth. At Ur, at Kharran, at the oak of Moreh, at the encampment between +Bethel and Ai, and now at Mamre, he received guidance and encouragement +from God. Different terms are used regarding these manifestations. +Sometimes it is said âThe Lord appeared unto him;â here for the first +time in the course of Godâs revelation occurs that expression which +afterwards became normal, âThe word of the Lord came unto Abram.â +Throughout the subsequent history this word of the Lord continues to +come, often at long intervals, but always meeting the occasion and needs +of His people and joining itself on to what had already been declared, +until at last the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, giving thus to +all men assurance of the nearness and profound sympathy of their God. To +repeat this revelation is impossible. A repetition of it would be a +denial of its reality. For a second life on earth is allowed to no man; +and were our Lord to live a second human life it were proof He was no +true man, but an anomalous, unaccountable, uninstructive, appearance or +simulacrum of a man.</p> + +<p>But though these revelations of God are finished, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +though complete knowledge of God is given in Christ, God comes to the individual still +through the Spirit Whose office it is to take of the things of Christ +and show them to us. And in doing so the law is observed which we see +illustrated here. God comes to a man with further encouragement and +light for a new step when he has conscientiously used the light he +already has. The temper that âseeks for a signâ and expects that some +astounding Providence should be sent to make us religious is by no means +obsolete. Many seem to expect that before they act on the knowledge they +have, they will receive more. They put off giving themselves to the +service of God under some kind of impression that some striking event or +much more distinct knowledge is required to give them a decided turn to +a religious life. In so doing they invert Godâs order. It is when we +have conscientiously followed such light as we have, and faithfully done +all that we know to be right, that God gives us further light. It was +immediately on the back of faithful action that Abram received new help +to his faith.</p> + +<p>The time was seasonable for other reasons. Never did Abram feel more in +need of such assurance. He had been successful in his midnight attack +and had scattered the force from beyond Euphrates, but he knew the +temper of these Eastern monarchs well enough to be aware that there was +nothing they hailed with greater pleasure than a pretext for extending +their conquests and adding to their territory. To Abram it must have +appeared certain that the next campaigning season would see his country +invaded and his little encampment swept away by the Eastern host. Most +appropriate, therefore, are the words: âFear not, Abram: I am thy shield.â +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span></p> + +<p>But another train of thoughts occupied Abramâs mind perhaps even more +unceasingly at this time. After busy engagement comes dulness; after +triumph, flatness and sadness. I have pursued kings, got myself a great +name, led captivity captive. Men are speaking of me in Sodom, and +finding that in me they have a useful and important ally. But what is +all this to my purpose? Am I any nearer my inheritance? I have got all +that men might think I needed; they may be unable to understand why now, +of all times, I should seem heartless; but, O Lord, Thou knowest how +empty these things seem to me, and what wilt Thou give me? Abram could +not understand why he was kept so long waiting. The child given when he +was a hundred years old might equally have been given twenty-five years +before, when he first came to the land of Canaan. All Abramâs servants +had their children, there was no lack of young men born in his +encampment. He could not leave his tent without hearing the shouts of +other menâs children, and having them cling to his garmentsâbut âto me +Thou hast given no seed; and lo! one born in mine house, a slave, is +mine heir.â</p> + +<p>Thus it often is that while a man is receiving much of what is generally +valued in the world, the one thing he himself most prizes is beyond his +reach. He has his hope irremovably fixed on something which he feels +would complete his life and make him a thoroughly happy man; there is +one thing which, above all else, would be a right and helpful blessing +to him. He speaks of it to God. For years it has framed a petition for +itself when no other desire could make itself heard. Back and back to +this his heart comes, unable to find rest in anything so long as this is withheld. He +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> +cannot help feeling that it is God who is keeping it from +him. He is tempted to say, âWhat is the use of all else to me, why give +me things Thou knowest I care little for, and reserve the one thing on +which my happiness depends?â As Abram might have said; âWhy make me a +great name in the land, when there is no one to keep it alive in menâs +memories; why increase my possessions when there is none to inherit but +a stranger?â</p> + +<p>Is there then any resulting benefit to character in this so common +experience of delayed expectations? In Abramâs case there certainly was. +It was in these years he was drawn close enough to God to hear Him say, +â<i>I</i> am thy exceeding great reward.â He learned in the multitude of his +debatings about Godâs promise and the delay of its fulfilment, that God +was more than all His gifts. He had started as a mere hopeful colonist +and founder of a family; these twenty-five years of disappointment made +him the friend of God and the Father of the Faithful. Slowly do we also +pass from delight in Godâs gifts to delight in Himself, and often by a +similar experience. From what have you received truest and deepest +pleasure in life? Is it not from your friendships? Not from what your +friends have given you or done for you; rather from what you have done +for them; but chiefly from your affectionate intercourse. You, being +persons, must find your truest joy in persons, in personal love, +personal goodness and wisdom. But friendship has its crown in the +friendship of God. The man who knows God as his friend and is more +certain of Godâs goodness and wisdom and steadfastness than he can be of +the worth of the man he has loved and trusted and delighted in from his +boyhood, the man who is always accompanied by a latent +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> +sense of Godâs observation and love, is truly living in the peace of God that passeth +understanding. This raises him above the touch of worldly losses and +restores him in all distresses, even to the surprise of observers; his +language is, âThere may be many that will say, Who will show us any +good? Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us. <i>Thou</i> +hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and +their wine increased.â</p> + +<p>But evidently there was still another feeling in Abramâs heart at this +particular point in his career. He could not bear to think he was to +miss that very thing which God had promised him. The keen yearning for +an heir which Godâs promise had stirred in him was not lost sight of in +the great saying, â<i>I</i> am thy exceeding great reward.â When he was +journeying back to his encampment not a shoestring richer than he left, +and while he heard his men, disappointed of booty, murmuring that he +should be so scrupulous, he cannot but have felt some soreness that he +should be set before his little world as a man who had the enjoyment +neither of this worldâs rewards nor of God. And here must have come the +strong temptation that comes to every man: Might it not be as well to +take what he could get, to enjoy what was put fairly within his reach, +instead of waiting for what seemed so uncertain as Godâs gift? It is +painful to be exposed to the observation of others or to our own +observation, as persons who, on the one hand, refuse to seek happiness +in the worldâs way, and yet are not finding it in God. You have possibly +with some magnanimity rejected a tempting offer because there were +conditions attached to which conscience could not reconcile itself; but +you find that you are in consequence suffering greater +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> +privations than you expected and that no providential intervention seems to be made to +reward your conscientiousness. Or you suddenly become aware that though +you have for years refused to be mirthful or influential or successful +or comfortable in the worldâs way and on the worldâs terms, you are yet +getting no substitute for what you refuse. You will not join the worldâs +mirth, but then you are morose and have no joy of any kind. You will not +use means you disapprove of for influencing men, but neither have you +the influence of a strong Christian character. In fact by giving up the +world you seem to have contracted and weakened instead of enlarging and +deepening your life.</p> + +<p>In such a condition we can but imitate Abram and cast ourselves more +resolutely on God. If you find it most weary and painful to deny +yourself in these special ways which have fallen to be your experience, +you can but utter your complaint to God, assured that in Him you will +find consideration. He knows why He has called you, why He has given you +strength to abandon worldly hopes; He appreciates your adherence to Him +and He will renew your faith and hope. If day by day you are saying, +âLead Thou me on,â if you say, âWhat wilt Thou give me?â not in +complaint but in lively expectation, encouragement enough will be yours.</p> + +<p>The means by which Abramâs faith was renewed were appropriate. He has +been seeing in the tumult and violence and disappointment of the world +much to suggest the thought that Godâs promise could never work itself +out in the face of the rude realities around him. So God leads him out +and points him to the stars, each one called by his name, and thus reminds the ChaldÊan +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> +who had so often gazed at and studied them in +their silent steady courses, that his God has designs of infinite sweep +and comprehension; that throughout all space His worlds obey His will +and all harmoniously play their part in the execution of His vast +design; that we and all our affairs are in a strong hand, but moving in +orbits so immense that small portions of them do not show us their +direction and may seem to be out of course. Abram is led out alone with +the mighty God, and to every saved soul there comes such a crisis when +before Godâs majesty we stand awed and humbled, all complaints hushed, +and indeed our personal interests disappear or become so merged in Godâs +purposes that we think only of Him; our mistakes and wrong-doing are +seen now not so much as bringing misery upon ourselves as interrupting +and perverting His purposes, and His word comes home to our hearts as +stable and satisfying.</p> + +<p>It was in this condition that Abram believed God, and He counted it to +him for righteousness. Probably if we read this without Paulâs +commentary on it in the fourth of Romans, we should suppose it meant no +more than that Abramâs faith, exercised as it was in trying +circumstances, met with Godâs cordial approval. The faith or belief here +spoken of was a resolute renewal of the feeling which had brought him +out of ChaldÊa. He put himself fairly and finally into Godâs hand to be +blessed in Godâs way and in Godâs time, and this act of resignation, +this resolve that he would not force his own way in the world but would +wait upon God, was looked upon by God as deserving the name of +righteousness, just as much as honesty and integrity in his conduct with +Lot or with his servants. Paul begs us to notice that an act of faith accepting Godâs favour is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> +a very different thing from a work done for +the sake of winning Godâs favour. Godâs favour is always a matter of +grace, it is favour conferred on the undeserving; it is never a matter +of debt, it is never favour conferred because it has been won. To put +this beyond doubt he appeals to this righteousness of Abramâs. How, he +asks, did Abram achieve righteousness? Not by observing ordinances and +commandments; for there were none to observe; but by trusting God, by +believing that already without any working or winning of his, God loved +him and designed blessedness for him, in short by referring his prospect +of happiness and usefulness wholly to God and not at all to himself. +This is the essential quality of the godly; and having this, Abram had +that root which produced all actual righteousness and likeness to God.</p> + +<p>It is sufficiently obvious in such a life as Abramâs why faith is the +one thing needful. Faith is required because it is only when a man +believes Godâs promise and rests in His love that he can co-operate with +God in severing himself from iniquitous prospects and in so living for +spiritual ends as to enter the life and the blessedness God calls him +to. The boy who does not believe his father, when he comes to him in the +midst of his play and tells him he has something for him which will +please him still better, suffers the penalty of unbelief by losing what +his father would have given him. All missing of true enjoyment and +blessedness results from unbelief in Godâs promise. Men do not walk in +Godâs ways because they do not believe in Godâs ends. They do not +believe that spiritual ends are as substantial and desirable as those +that are physical.</p> + +<p>Abramâs faith is easily recognised, because not only had he not wrought +for the blessing God promised him, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> +but it was impossible for him even +to see how it could be achieved. That which God promised was apparently +quite beyond the reach of human power. It serves then as an admirable +illustration of the essence of faith; and Paul uses it as such. It is +not because faith is the root of all actual righteousness that Paul +describes it as âimputed for righteousness.â It is because faith at once +gives a man possession of what no amount of working could ever achieve. +God now offers in Christ righteousness, that is to say, justification, +the forgiveness of sins and acceptance with God with all the fruits of +this acceptance, the indwelling Divine Spirit and life everlasting. He +offers this freely as he offered to Abram what Abram could never have +won for himself. And all that we are asked to do is to accept it. This +is all we are asked to do in order to our becoming the forgiven and +accepted children of God. After becoming so, there of course remains an +infinite amount of service to be rendered, of work to be done, of +self-discipline to be undergone. But in answer to the awakened sinnerâs +enquiry, âWhat must I do to be saved,â Paul replies, âYou are to <i>do</i> +nothing; nothing you can do can win Godâs favour, because that favour is +already yours; nothing you can do can achieve the rectification of your +present condition, but Christ has achieved it. Believe that God is with +you and that Christ can deliver you and commit yourself cordially to the +life you are called to, hopeful that what is promised will be +fulfilled.â</p> + +<p>Abramâs faith cordial as it was, yet was not independent of some +sensible sign to maintain it. The sign given was twofold: the smoking +furnace and a prediction of the sojourn of Abramâs posterity in Egypt. +The symbols were similar to those by which on other +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> +occasions the presence of God was represented. Fire, cleansing, consuming, and +unapproachable, seemed to be the natural emblem of Godâs holiness. In +the present instance it was especially suitable, because the +manifestation was made after sundown and when no other could have been +seen. The cutting up of the carcases and passing between the pieces was +one of the customary forms of contract. It was one of the many devices +men have fallen upon to make sure of one anotherâs word. That God should +condescend to adopt these modes of pledging Himself to men is +significant testimony to His love; a love so resolved on accomplishing +the good of men that it resents no slowness of faith and accommodates +itself to unworthy suspicions. It makes itself as obvious and pledges +itself with as strong guarantees to men as if it were the love of a +mortal whose feelings might change and who had not clearly foreseen all +consequences and issues.</p> + +<p>The prediction of the long sojourn of Abramâs posterity in Egypt was not +only helpful to those who had to endure the Egyptian bondage, but also +to Abram himself. He no doubt felt the temptation, from which at no time +the Church has been free, to consider himself the favourite of heaven +before whose interests all other interests must bow. He is here taught +that other menâs rights must be respected as well as his, and that not +one hour before absolute justice requires it, shall the land of the +Amorites be given to his posterity. And that man is considerably past +the rudimentary knowledge of God who understands that every act of God +springs from justice and not from caprice, and that no creature upon +earth is sooner or later unjustly dealt with, by the Supreme Ruler. In +the life of Abram it becomes visible, how, by living with God +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> +and watching for every expression of His will, a manâs knowledge of the +Divine nature enlarges; and it is also interesting to observe that +shortly after this he grounds all his pleading for Sodom on the truth he +had learned here: âShall not the Judge of <i>all the earth</i> do right?â</p> + +<p>The announcement that a long interval must elapse before the promise was +fulfilled must no doubt have been a shock to Abram; and yet it was +sobering and educative. It is a great step we take when we come clearly +to understand that God has a great deal to do with us before we can +fully inherit the promise. For Godâs promise, so far from making +everything in the future easy and bright, is that which above all else +discloses how stern a reality life is; how severe and thorough that +discipline must be which makes us capable of achieving Godâs purposes +with us. A horror of great darkness may well fall upon the man who +enters into covenant with God, who binds himself to that Being whom no +pain nor sacrifice can turn aside from the pursuance of aims once +approved. When we look forward and consider the losses, the privations, +the self-denials, the delays, the pains, the keen and real discipline, +the lowliness of the life to which fellowship with God leads men, +darkness and gloom and smoke darken our prospect and discourage us; but +the smoke is that which arises from a purifying fire that purges away +all that prevents us from living spiritually, a darkness very different +from that which settles over the life which amidst much present +brightness carries in it the consciousness that its course is downwards, +that the blows it suffers are deadening, that its sun is steadily +nearing its setting and that everlasting night awaits it.</p> + +<p>But over all other feelings this solemn transacting +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> +with God must have produced in Abram a humble ecstasy of confidence. The wonderful mercy +and kindness of God in thus binding Himself to a weak and sinful man +cannot but have given him new thoughts of God and new thoughts of +himself. With fresh elevation of mind and superiority to ordinary +difficulties and temptations would he return to his tent that night. In +how different a perspective would all things stand to him now that the +Infinite God had come so near to him. Things which yesterday fretted or +terrified him seemed now remote: matters which had occupied his thought +he did not now notice or remember. He was now the Friend of God, taken +up into a new world of thoughts and hopes; hiding in his heart the +treasure of Godâs covenant, brooding over the infinite significance and +hopefulness of his position as Godâs ally.</p> + +<p>For indeed this was a most extraordinary and a most encouraging event. +The Infinite God drew near to Abram and made a contract with him. God as +it were said to him, I wish you to count upon Me, to make sure of Me: I +therefore pledge Myself by these accustomed forms to be your Friend.</p> + +<p>But it was not as an isolated person, nor for his own private interests +alone that Abram was thus dealt with by God. It was as a medium of +universal blessing that he was taken into covenant with God. The +kindness of God which he experienced was merely an intimation of the +kindness all men would experience. The laying aside of unapproachable +dignity and entrance into covenant with a man was the proclamation of +His readiness to be helpful to all and to bring Himself within reach of +all. That you may have a God at hand He thus brought Himself down to men +and human ways, that your life may not be vain and useless, dark +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> +and misguided, and that you may find that you have a part in a well-ordered +universe in which a holy God cares for all and makes His strength and +wisdom available for all. Do not allow these intimations of His mercy to +go for nothing but use them as intended for your guidance and encouragement.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII.</h2> + +<h3>BIRTH OF ISHMAEL.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xvi.</h4> + +<p>In this unpretending chapter we have laid bare to us the origin of one +of the most striking facts in the history of religion: namely, that from +the one person of Abram have sprung Christianity and that religion which +has been and still is its most formidable rival and enemy, +Mohammedanism. To Ishmael, the son of Abram, the Arab tribes are proud +to trace their pedigree. Through him they claim Abram as their father, +and affirm that they are his truest representatives, the sons of his +first-born. In Mohammed, the Arabian, they see the fulfilment of the +blessing of Abram, and they have succeeded in persuading a large part of +the world to believe along with them. Little did Sarah think when she +persuaded Abram to take Hagar that she was originating a rivalry which +has run with keenest animosity through all ages and which oceans of +blood have not quenched. The domestic rivalry and petty womanish spites +and resentments so candidly depicted in this chapter, have actually +thrown on the world from that day to this one of its darkest and least +hopeful shadows. The blood of our own countrymen, it may be of our own +kindred, will yet flow in this unappeasable quarrel. So great a matter does a little +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> +fire kindle. So lasting and disastrous are the issues of +even slight divergences from pure simplicity.</p> + +<p>It is instructive to observe how long this matter of obtaining an heir +for Abram occupies the stage of sacred history and in how many aspects +it is shown. The stage is rapidly cleared of whatever else might +naturally have invited attention, and interest is concentrated on the +heir that is to be. The risks run by the appointed mother, the doubts of +the father, the surrender now of the motherâs rights,âall this is +trivial if it concerned only one household, important only when you view +it as significant for the race. It was thus men were taught thoughtfully +to brood upon the future and to believe that, though Divine, blessing +and salvation would spring from earth: man was to co-operate with God, +to recognise himself as capable of uniting with God in the highest of +all purposes. At the same time, this long and continually deferred +expectation of Abram was the simple means adopted by God to convince men +once for all that the promised seed is not of nature but of grace, that +it is God who sends all effectual and determining blessing, and that we +must learn to adapt ourselves to His ways and wait upon Him.</p> + +<p>The first man, then, whose religious experience and growth are recorded +for us at any length, has this one thing to learn, to trust Godâs word +and wait for it. In this everything is included. But gradually it +appears to us all that this is the great difficulty, to wait; to let God +take His own time to bless us. It is hard to believe in Godâs perfect +love and care when we are receiving no present comfort or peace; hard to +believe we shall indeed be sanctified when we seem to be abandoned to +sinful habit; hard to pass all through life with some pain, or some crushing trouble, or some +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> +harassing anxiety, or some unsatisfied +craving. It is easy to start with faith, most trying to endure patiently +to the end. It is thus God educates His children. Compelled to wait for +some crowning gift, we cannot but study Godâs ways. It is thus we are +forced to look below the surface of life to its hidden meanings and to +construe Godâs dealings with ourselves apart from the experience of +other men. It is thus we are taught actually to loosen our hold of +things temporal and to lay hold on what is spiritual and real. He who +leaves himself in Godâs hand will one day declare that the pains and +sorrows he suffered were trifling in comparison with what he has won +from them.</p> + +<p>But Sarah could not wait. She seems to have fixed ten years as the +period during which she would wait; but at the expiry of this term she +considered herself justified in helping forward Godâs tardy providence +by steps of her own. One cannot severely blame her. When our hearts are +set upon some definite blessing, things seem to move too slowly and we +can scarcely refrain from urging them on without too scrupulously +enquiring into the character of our methods. We are willing to wait for +a certain time, but beyond that we must take the matter into our own +hand. This incident shows, what all life shows, that whatever be the +boon you seek, you do yourself an injury if you cease to seek it in the +best possible form and manner, and decline upon some lower thing which +you can secure by some easy stratagem of your own.</p> + +<p>The device suggested by Sarah was so common that the wonder is that it +had not long before been tried. Jealousy or instinctive reluctance may +have prevented her from putting it in force. She might no doubt have +understood that God, always working out His purposes +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> +in consistency with all that is most honourable and pure in human conduct, requires of +no one to swerve a hairâs breadth from the highest ideal of what a human +life should be, and that just in proportion as we seek the best gifts +and the most upright and pure path to them does God find it easy to +bless us. But in her case it was difficult to continue in this belief; +and at length she resolved to adopt the easy and obvious means of +obtaining an heir. It was unbelieving and foolish, but not more so than +our adoption of practices common in our day and in our business which we +know are not the best, but which we nevertheless make use of to obtain +our ends because the most righteous means possible do not seem workable +in our circumstances. Are you not conscious that you have sometimes used +a means of effecting your purpose, which you would shrink from using +habitually, but which you do not scruple to use to tide you over a +difficulty, an extraordinary device for an extraordinary emergency, a +Hagar brought in for a season to serve a purpose, not a Sarah accepted +from God and cherished as an eternal helpmeet. It is against this we are +here warned. From a Hagar can at the best spring only an Ishmael, while +in order to obtain the blessing God intends we must betake ourselves to +Godâs barren-looking means.</p> + +<p>The evil consequences of Sarahâs scheme were apparent first of all in +the tool she made use of. Agur the son of Jakeh says: âFor three things +the earth is disquieted, and for four which it cannot bear. For a +servant when he reigneth, and a fool when he is filled with meat; for an +odious woman when she is married, and an handmaid that is heir to her +mistress.â Naturally this half-heathen girl, when she found that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> +her son would probably inherit all Abramâs possessions, forgot herself, and +looked down on her present, nominal mistress. A flood of new fancies +possessed her vacant mind and her whole demeanour becomes insulting to +Sarah. The slave-girl could not be expected to sympathize with the +purpose which Abram and Sarah had in view when they made use of her. +They had calculated on finding only the unquestioning, mechanical +obedience of the slave, even while raising her practically to the +dignity of a wife. They had fancied that even to the deepest feelings of +her womanâs heart, even in maternal hopes, she would be plastic in their +hands, their mere passive instrument. But they have entirely +miscalculated. The slave has feelings as quick and tender as their own, +a life and a destiny as tenaciously clung to as their God-appointed +destiny. Instead of simplifying their life they have merely added to it +another source of complexity and annoyance. It is the common fate of all +who use others to satisfy their own desires and purposes. The +instruments they use are never so soulless and passive as it is wished. +If persons cannot serve you without deteriorating in their own +character, you have no right to ask them to serve you. To use human +beings as if they were soulless machines is to neglect radical laws and +to inflict the most serious injury on our fellow-men. Mistresses who do +not treat their servants with consideration, recognising that they are +as truly women as themselves, with all a womanâs hopes and feelings, and +with a life of their own to live, are committing a grievous wrong, and +evil will come of it.</p> + +<p>In such an emergency as now arose in Abramâs household, character shows +itself clearly. Sarahâs vexation at the success of her own scheme, her recrimination +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> +and appeal for strange justice, her unjustifiable +treatment of Hagar, Abramâs Bedouin disregard of the jealousies of the +womenâs tent, his Gallio-like repudiation of judgment in such quarrels, +his regretful vexation and shame that through such follies, mistakes, +and wranglings, God had to find a channel for His promise to flowâall +this discloses the painful ferment into which Abramâs household was +thrown. Sarahâs attempt to rid herself with a high hand of the +consequences of her scheme was signally unsuccessful. In the same +inconsiderate spirit in which she had put Hagar in her place, she now +forces her to flee, and fancies that she has now rid herself and her +household of all the disagreeable consequences of her experiment. She is +grievously mistaken. The slave comes back upon her hands, and comes back +with the promise of a son who should be a continual trouble to all about +him. All through Ishmaelâs boyhood Abram and Sarah had painfully to reap +the fruits of what they had sown. We only make matters worse when we +endeavour by injustice and harshness to crush out the consequences of +wrong-doing. The difficulties into which sin has brought us can only be +effectually overcome by sincere contrition and humiliation. It is not +all in a moment nor by one happy stroke you can rectify the sin or +mistake of a moment. If by your wise devices you have begotten young +Ishmaels, if something is every day grieving you and saying to you, +âThis comes of your careless inconsiderate conduct in the past,â then +see that in your vexation there is real penitence and not a mere +indignant resentment against circumstances or against other people, and +see that you are not actually continuing the fault which first gave +birth to your present sorrow and entanglement. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span></p> + +<p>When Hagar fled from her mistress she naturally took the way to her old +country. Instinctively her feet carried her to the land of her birth. +And as she crossed the desert country where Palestine, Egypt and Arabia +meet, she halted by a fountain, spent with her flight and awed by the +solitude and stillness of the desert. Her proud spirit is broken and +tamed, the fond memories of her adopted home and all its customs and +ways and familiar faces and occupations, overtake her when she pauses +and her heart reacts from the first excitement of hasty purpose and +reckless execution. To whom could she go in Egypt? Was there one there +who would remember the little slave girl or who would care to show her a +kindness? Has she not acted madly in fleeing from her only protectors? +The desolation around her depicts her own condition. No motion stirs as +far as her eye can reach, no bird flies, no leaf trembles, no cloud +floats over the scorching sun, no sound breaks the death-like quiet; she +feels as if in a tomb, severed from all life, forgotten of all. Her +spirit is breaking under this sense of desolation, when suddenly her +heart stands still as she hears a voice utter her own name âHagar, +Saraiâs maid.â As readily as every other person when God speaks to them, +does Hagar recognise Who it is who has followed her into this blank +solitude. In her circumstances to hear the voice of God left no room for +disobedience. The voice of God made audible through the actual +circumstances of our daily life acquires a force and an authority we +never attached to it otherwise.</p> + +<p>Probably, too, Hagar would have gone back to Abramâs tents at the +bidding of a less authoritative voice than this. Already she was +softening and repenting. She but needed some one to say, âGo back.â +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> +You may often make it easier for a proud man to do a right thing by giving +him a timely word. Frequently men stand in the position of Hagar, +knowing the course they ought to adopt and yet hesitating to adopt it +until it is made easy to them by a wise and friendly word.</p> + +<p>In the promise of a son which was here given to Hagar and the prediction +concerning his destiny, while there was enough to teach both her and +Abram that he was not to be the heir of the promise, there was also much +to gratify a motherâs pride and be to Hagar a source of continual +satisfaction. The son was to bear a name which should commemorate Godâs +remembrance of her in her desolation. As often as she murmured it over +the babe or called it to the child or uttered it in sharp remonstrance +to the refractory boy, she was still reminded that she had a helper in +God who had heard and would hear her. The prediction regarding the child +has been strikingly fulfilled in his descendants; the three +characteristics by which they are distinguished being precisely those +here mentioned. âHe will be a wild man,â literally, âa wild ass among +men,â reminding us of the description of this animal in Job: âWhose +house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwelling. He +scorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth he the crying of +the driver. The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth +after every green thing.â Like the zebra that cannot be domesticated, +the Arab scorns the comforts of civilized life, and adheres to the +primitive dress, food, and mode of life, delighting in the sensation of +freedom, scouring the deserts, sufficient with his horse and spear for +every emergency. His hand also is against every man, looking on all as his natural enemies or as his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> +natural prey; in continual feud of tribe +against tribe and of the whole race against all of different blood and +different customs. And yet he âdwells in the presence of his brethren;â +though so warlike a temper would bode his destruction and has certainly +destroyed other races, this Ishmaelite stock continues in its own lands +with an uninterrupted history. In the words of an authoritative writer: +âThey have roved like the moving sands of their deserts; but their race +has been rooted while the individual wandered. That race has neither +been dissipated by conquest, nor lost by migration, nor confounded with +the blood of other countries. They have continued to dwell in the +presence of all their brethren, a distinct nation, wearing upon the +whole the same features and aspects which prophecy first impressed upon +them.â</p> + +<p>What struck Hagar most about this interview was Godâs presence with her +in this remote solitude. She awakened to the consciousness that duty, +hope, God, are ubiquitous, universal, carried in the human breast, not +confined to any place. Her hopes, her haughtiness, her sorrows, her +flight, were all known. The feeling possessed her which was afterwards +expressed by the Psalmist: âThou knowest my down-sitting, and mine +uprising, Thou understandest my thoughts afar off. Thou compassest my +path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. Thou +tellest my wanderings; put Thou my tears in Thy bottle; are they not in +Thy book?â Even here where I thought to have escaped every eye, have I +been following and at length found Him that seeth me. As truly and even +more perceptibly than in Abramâs tents, God is with her here in the +desert. To evade duty, to leave responsibility behind us, is impossible. In all places we are +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> +Godâs children, bound to accept the +responsibilities of our nature. In all places God is with us, not only +to point out our duty but to give us the feeling that in adhering to +duty we adhere to Him, and that it is because He values us that He +presses duty upon us. With Him is no respect of persons; the servant is +in his sight as vivid a personality as the mistress, and God appears not +to the overbearing mistress but to the overborne servant.</p> + +<p>Happy they who when God has thus met them and sent them back on their +own footsteps, a long and weary return, have still been so filled with a +sense of Godâs love in caring for them through all their errors, that +they obey and return. All round about His people does God encamp, all +round about His flock does the faithful Shepherd watch and drive back +upon the fold each wanderer. Not only to those who are consciously +seeking Him does God reveal Himself, but often to us at the very +farthest point of our wandering, at our extremity, when another dayâs +journey would land us in a region from which there is no return. When +our regrets for the past become intolerably poignant and bitter; when we +see a waste of years behind us barren as the sand of the desert, with +nothing done but what should but cannot be undone; when the heart is +stupefied with the sense of its madness and of the irretrievable loss it +has sustained, or when we look to the future and are persuaded little +can grow up in it out of such a past, when we see that all that would +have prepared us for it has been lightly thrown aside or spent +recklessly for nought, when our hearts fail us, this is God besetting us +behind and before. And may He grant us strength to pray, âShow me Thy +ways, O Lord, teach me Thy paths. Lead me in Thy truth and teach me: +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> +for Thou art the God of my salvation; on Thee do I wait all the day.â</p> + +<p>The quiet glow of hopefulness with which Hagar returned to Abramâs +encampment should possess the spirit of every one of us. Hagarâs +prospects were not in all respects inviting. She knew the kind of +treatment she was likely to receive at the hands of Sarah. She was to be +a bondwoman still. But God had persuaded her of His care and had given +her a hope large enough to fill her heart. That hope was to be fulfilled +by a return to the home she had fled from, by a humbling and painful +experience. There is no person for whom God has not similar +encouragement. Frequently persons forget that God is in their life, +fulfilling His purposes. They flee from what is painful; they lose their +bearings in life and know not which way to turn; they do not fancy there +is help for them in God. Yet God is with them; by these very +circumstances that reduce them to desolateness and despair He leads them +to hope in Him. Each one of us has a place in His purpose; and that +place we shall find not by fleeing from what is distressing but by +submitting ourselves cheerfully to what He appoints. Godâs purpose is +real, and life is real, meant to accomplish not our present passing +pleasure, but lasting good in conformity with Godâs purpose. Be sure +that when you are bidden back to duties that seem those of a slave, you +are bidden to them by God, Whose purposes are worthy of Himself and +Whose purposes include you and all that concerns you.</p> + +<p>There are, I think, few truths more animating than this which is here +taught us, that God has a purpose with each of us; that however +insignificant we seem, however friendless, however hardly used, however +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> +ousted even from our natural place in this worldâs households, God has a +place for us; that however we lose our way in life we are not lost from +His eye; that even when we do not think of choosing Him He in His +Divine, all-embracing love chooses us, and throws about us bonds from +which we cannot escape. Of Hagar many were complacently thinking it was +no great matter if she were lost, and some might consider themselves +righteous because they said she deserved whatever mishap might befall +her. But not so God. Of some of us, it may be, others may think no great +blank would be made by our loss; but Godâs compassion and care and +purpose comprehend the least worthy. The very hairs of your head are all +numbered by Him. Nothing is so trivial and insignificant as to escape +His attention, nothing so intractable that He cannot use it for good. +Trust in Him, obey Him, and your life will yet be useful and happy.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII.</h2> + +<h3>THE COVENANT SEALED.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xvii.</h4> + +<p>According to the dates here given fourteen years had passed since Abram +had received any intimation of Godâs will regarding him. Since the +covenant had been made some twenty years before, no direct communication +had been received; and no message of any kind since Ishmaelâs birth. It +need not, therefore, surprise us that we are often allowed to remain for +years in a state of suspense, uncertain about the future, feeling that +we need more light and yet unable to find it. All truth is not +discovered in a day, and if that on which we are to found for eternity +take us twenty years or a lifeâs experience to settle it in its place, +why should we on this account be overborne with discouragement? They who +love the truth and can as little abstain from seeking it as the artist +can abstain from admiring what is lovely, will assuredly have their +reward. To be expectant yet not impatient, unsatisfied yet not +unbelieving, to hold mind and heart open, assured that light is sown for +the upright and that all that is has lessons for the teachable, this is +our proper attitude.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">Think you, âmid all this mighty sum<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of things for ever speaking,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That nothing of itself will come,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But we must still be seeking?<br /></span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> +We appreciate the significance of a revelation in proportion as we +understand the state of mind to which it is made. Abramâs state of mind +is disclosed in the exclamation: âOh, that Ishmael might live before +Thee!â He had learned to love the bold, brilliant, domineering boy. He +saw how the men liked to serve him and how proud they were of the young +chief. No doubt his wild intractable ways often made his father anxious. +Sarah was there to point out and exaggerate all his faults and to +prognosticate mischief. But there he was, in actual flesh and blood, +full of life and interest in everything, daily getting deeper into the +affections of Abram, who allowed and could not but allow his own life to +revolve very much around the dashing, attractive lad. So that the +reminder that he was not the promised heir was not entirely welcome. +When he was told that the heir of promise was to be Sarahâs child, he +could not repress the somewhat peevish exclamation: âOh, that Ishmael +might serve Thy turn!â Why call me off again from this actual attainment +to the vague, shadowy, non-existent heir of promise, who surely can +never have the brightness of eye and force of limb and lordly ways of +this Ishmael? Would that what already exists in actual substance before +the eye might satisfy Thee and fulfil Thine intention and supersede the +necessity of further waiting! Must I again loosen my hold, and part with +my chief attainment? Must I cut my moorings and launch again upon this +ocean of faith with a horizon always receding and that seems absolutely +boundless?</p> + +<p>We are familiar with this state of mind. We wish God would leave us +alone. We have found a very attractive substitute for what He promises, +and we resent being reminded that our substitute is not, after +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> +all, the veritable, eternal, best possession. It satisfies our taste, our +intellect, our ambition; it sets us on a level with other men and gives +us a place in the world; but now and again we feel a void it does not +fill. We have attained comfortable circumstances, success in our +profession, our life has in it that which attracts applause and sheds a +brilliance over it; and we do not like being told that this is not all. +Our feeling is Oh, that this might do! that this might be accepted as +perfect attainment! it satisfies me (all but a little bit); might it not +satisfy God? Why summon me again away from domestic happiness, +intellectual enjoyment, agreeable occupations, to what really seems so +unattainable as perfect fellowship with God in the fulfilment of His +promise? Why spend all my life in waiting and seeking for high spiritual +things when I have so much with which I can be moderately satisfied? For +our complaint often is not that God gives so little but that He offers +too much, more than we care to have: that He never will let us be +content with anything short of what perfectly fulfils His perfect love +and purpose.</p> + +<p>This being Abramâs state of mind, he is aroused from it by the words: âI +am the Almighty God; walk before Me and be thou perfect.â I am the +Almighty God, able to fulfil your highest hopes and accomplish for you +the brightest ideal that ever My words set before you. There is no need +of paring down the promise till it square with human probabilities, no +need of relinquishing one hope it has begotten, no need of adopting some +interpretation of it which may make it seem easier to fulfil, and no +need of striving to fulfil it in any second-rate way. All possibility +lies in this: I am the Almighty God. Walk before Me and be thou perfect, +therefore. Do not train your eye to earthly distances +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> +and earthly magnitudes and limit your hope accordingly, but live in the presence of +the Almighty God. Do not defer the advices of conscience and of your +purest aspirations to some other possible world; do not settle down at +the low level of godless nature and of the men around you; do not give +way to what you yourself know to be weakness and evidence of defeat; do +not let self-indulgence take the place of My commandments, indolence +supplant resolution and the likelihoods of human calculation obliterate +the hopes stirred by the Divine call: Be thou perfect. Is not this a +summons that comes appropriately to every man? Whatever be our +contentment, our attainments, our possessions, a new light is shed upon +our condition when we measure it by Godâs idea and Godâs resources. Is +my life Godâs ideal? Does that which satisfies me satisfy Him?</p> + +<p>The purpose of Godâs present appearance to Abram was to renew the +covenant, and this He does in terms so explicit, so pregnant, so +magnificent that Abram must have seen more distinctly than ever that he +was called to play a very special part in Godâs providence. That kings +should spring from him, a mere pastoral nomad in an alien country, could +not suggest itself to Abram as a likely thing to happen. Indeed, though +a line of kings or two lines of kings did spring from him through Isaac, +the terms of the prediction seem scarcely exhausted by that fulfilment. +And accordingly Paul without hesitation or reserve transfers this +prediction to a spiritual region, and is at pains to show that the many +nations of whom Abram was to be the father, were not those who inherited +his blood, his natural appearance, his language and earthly inheritance, +but those who inherited his spiritual qualities and the heritage in God +to which his faith gave him entrance. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> +And he argues that no difference +of race or disadvantages of worldly position can prevent any man from +serving himself heir to Abram, because the seed, to whom as well as to +Abram the promise was made, was Christ, and in Christ there is neither +Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free, but all are one.</p> + +<p>In connection then with this covenant in which God promised that He +would be a God to Abram and to his seed, two points of interest to us +emerge. First that Christ is Abramâs heir. In His use of Godâs promise +we see its full significance. In His life-long appropriation of God we +see what God meant when He said, âI will be a God to thee and to thy +seed.â We find our Lord from the first living as one who felt His life +encompassed by God, embraced and comprehended in that higher life which +God lives through all and in all. His life was all and whole a life in +God. He recognised what it is to have a God, one Whose will is supreme +and unerringly good, Whose love is constant and eternal, Who is the +first and the last, beyond Whom and from under Whom we can never pass. +He moved about in the world in so perfectly harmonious a correspondence +with God, so merging Himself in God and His purpose and with so +unhesitating a reliance upon Him, that He seemed and was but a +manifestation of God, Godâs will embodied, Godâs child, God expressing +Himself in human nature. He showed us once for all the blessedness of +true dependence, fidelity and faith. He showed us how that simple +promise âI will be a God to thee,â received in faith, lifts the human +life into fellowship with all that is hopeful and inspiring, with all +that is purifying, with all that is real and abiding.</p> + +<p>But a second point is, that Jesus was the heir of Abram not merely +because He was his descendant, a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> +Jew with all the advantages of the +Jew, but because, like Abram, He was full of faith. God was the +atmosphere of His life. But He claimed God not because He was Jewish, +but because He was human. Through the Jews God had made Himself known, +but it was to what was human not to what was Jewish He appealed. And it +was as Son of man not as son of Israel or of Adam that Jesus responded +to God and lived with Him as His God. Not by specially Jewish rites did +Jesus approach and rest in God, but by what is universal and human, by +prayer to the Father, by loving obedience, by faith and submission. And +thus we too may be joint-heirs with Christ and possess God. And if we +think of ourselves as left to struggle with natural defects amidst +irreversible natural laws; if we begin to pray very heartlessly, as if +He who once listened were now asleep or could do nothing; if our life +seems profitless, purposeless, and all unhinged; then let us look back +to this sure promise of God, that He will be our God: our God, for, if +Christâs God, then ours, for if we be Christâs then are we Abramâs seed +and heirs according to the promise. How few in any given day are living +on this promise: how few attach reality to Godâs continuous revelation +of Himself, the reality in this worldâs transitory history: how few can +believe in the nearness and observance and love of God, how few can +strenuously seek to be holy or understand where abiding happiness is to +be found; for all these things are here. Yet who knocks at this door? +Who makes, as Christ made, his life a unity with God, undismayed, +unmurmuring, unreluctant, neither fearful of God nor disobedient, but +diligent, earnest, jubilant, because God has said, âI will be thy God.â +Do you believe these things and can you forbear to use them? Do you +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> +believe that it is open to you, whosoever you are, to have the Eternal +and Supreme God for your God, that He may use all His Divine nature in +your behalf; have you conceived what it is that God means when He +extends to you this offer, and can you decline to accept it, can you do +otherwise than cherish it and seek to find more and more in it every day +you live?</p> + +<p>Two seals were at this time affixed to the covenant: the one for Abram +himself, the other for every one who shared with him in his blessings of +the covenant. The first consisted in the change of his own name to +Abraham, âthe father of a multitude,â and of his wifeâs to Sarah, +âprincessâ or âqueen,â because she was now announced as the destined +mother of kings. And however Abraham would be annoyed to see the hardly +suppressed smile on the ironical faces of his men as he boldly commanded +them to call him by a name whose verification seemed so grievously to +lag; and however indignant and pained he may have been to hear the young +Ishmael jeering Sarah with her new name, and lending to it every tone of +mockery and using it with insolent frequency, yet Abraham knew that +these names were not given to deceive; and probably as the name of +Abraham has become one of the best known names on earth, so to himself +did it quickly acquire a preciousness as Godâs voice abiding with him, +Godâs promise renewed to him through every man that addressed him, until +at length the child of promise lying on his knees took up its first +syllable and called him âAbba.â</p> + +<p>This seal was special to Abraham and Sarah, the other was public. All +who desired to partake with Abraham in the security, hope, and happiness +of having God as their God, were to submit to circumcision. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> +This sign was to determine who were included in the covenant. By this outward mark +encouragement and assurance of faith were to be quickened in the heart +of all Abrahamâs descendants.</p> + +<p>The mark chosen was significant. It was indeed not distinctive in its +outward form; so little so that at this day no fewer than one hundred +and fifty millions of the race make use of the same rite for one purpose +or other. All the descendants of Ishmael of course continue it, but also +all who have their religion, that is, all Mohammedans; but besides +these, some tribes in South America, some in Australia, some in the +South Sea Islands, and a large number of Kaffir tribes. The ancient +Egyptians certainly practised it, and it has been suggested that Abraham +may have become acquainted with the practice during his sojourn in +Egypt. It is however uncertain whether the practice in Egypt runs back +to so early a time. If it were an established Egyptian usage, then of +course Hagar would demand for her boy at the usual age the rite which +she had always associated with entrance on a new stage of life. But even +supposing this was the case, the rite was none the less available for +the new use to which it was now put. The rainbow existed before the +Flood; bread and wine existed before the night of the Lordâs Supper; +baptisms of various kinds were practised before the days of the +Apostles. And for this very reason, when God desired a natural emblem of +the stability of the seasons He chose a striking feature of nature on +which men were already accustomed to look with pleasure and hope; when +He desired symbols of the body and blood of the Redeemer He took those +articles which already had a meaning as the most efficacious human +nutriment; when He desired to represent to the eye +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> +the renunciation of the old life and the birth to a new life which we have by union with +Christ, He took that rite which was already known as the badge of +discipleship; and when He desired to impress men by symbol with the +impurity of nature and with our dependence on God for the production of +all acceptable life, He chose that rite which, whether used before or +not, did most strikingly represent this.</p> + +<p>With the significance of circumcision to other men who practise it, we +have here nothing to do. It is as the chief sacrament of the old +covenant, by which God meant to aid all succeeding generations of +Hebrews in believing that God was their God. And this particular mark +was given, rather than any other, that they might recognise and ever +remember that human nature was unable to generate its own Saviour, that +in man there is a native impurity which must be laid aside when he comes +into fellowship with the Holy God. And these circumcised races, although +in many respects as unspiritual as others, have yet in general perceived +that God is different from nature, a Holy Being to Whom we cannot attain +by any mere adherence to nature, but only by the aid He Himself extends +to us in ways for which nature makes no provision. The lesson of +circumcision is an old one and rudely expressed, but it is vital; and no +abhorrence of the circumcised for the uncircumcised too strongly, +however unjustly, emphasizes the distinction that actually subsists +between those who believe in nature and those who believe in God.</p> + +<p>The lesson is old, but the circumcision of the heart to which the +outward mark pointed, is ever required. That is the true seal of our +fellowship with God; the earnest of the Spirit which gives promise of eternal +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> +union with the Holy One; the relentings, the shame, the +softening of heart, the adoration and reverence for the holiness of God, +the thirst for Him, the joy in His goodness, these are the first fruits +of the Spirit, which lead on to our calling God Father, and feeling that +to be alone with Him is our happiness. It is this putting aside of our +natural confidence in nature and absorption in nature, and this turning +to God as our confidence and our life, which constitutes the true +circumcision of the heart.</p> + +<p>Believing as Abraham was, he could not forbear smiling when God said +that Sarah would be the mother of the promised seed. This incredulity of +Abraham was so significant that it was commemorated in the name of +Isaac, the laugher. This heir was typical of all Godâs best gifts, at +first reckoned impossible, at last filling the heart with gladness. The +smile of incredulity became the laughter of joy when the child was born +and Sarah said, âGod hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will +laugh with me.â It is they who expect things so incongruous and so +impossible to nature unaided that they smile even while they believe, +who will one day find their hopes fulfilled and their hearts running +over with joyful laughter. If your heart is fixed only on what you can +accomplish for yourself, no great joy can ever be yours. But frame your +actual hopes in accordance with the promise of God, expect holiness, +fulness of joy, animating partnership with God in the highest matters, +the resurrection of the dead, the life everlasting, and one day you will +say, âGod hath made me to laugh.â But Abraham prostrating himself to +hide a smile is the symbol of our common attitude. We profess to believe +in a God of unspeakable power and goodness, but even while we +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> +do so we find it impossible to attach a sense of reality to His promises. They +are kindly, well-intentioned words, but are apparently spoken in neglect +of solid, obstinate facts. How hard is it for us to learn that God is +the great reality, and that the reality of all else may be measured by +its relation to Him.</p> + +<p>Sarahâs laughter had a different meaning. Indeed Sarah does not appear +to have been by any means a blameless character. Her conduct towards +Hagar showed us that she was a woman capable of generous impulses but +not of the strain of continued magnanimous conduct. She was capable of +yielding her wifely rights on the impulse of the brilliant scheme that +had struck her, but like many other persons who can begin a magnanimous +or generous course of conduct, she could not follow it up to the end, +but failed disgracefully in her conduct towards her rival. So now again +she betrays characteristic weakness. When the strangers came to +Abrahamâs tent, and announced that she was to become a mother, she +smiled in superior, self-assured, womanâs wisdom. When the promise +threatened no longer to hover over her household as a mere sublime and +exalting idea which serves its purpose if it keep them in mind that God +has spoken to them, but to take place now among the actualities of daily +occurrence, she hails this announcement with a laugh of total +incredulity. Whatever she had made of Godâs word, she had not thought it +was really and veritably to come to pass; she smiled at the simplicity +which could speak of such an unheard-of thing.</p> + +<p>This is true to human nature. It reminds you how you have dealt with +Godâs promises,ânay, with Godâs commandmentsâwhen they offered to make +room for themselves in the everyday life of which you are +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> +masters, every detail of which you have arranged, seeming to know absolutely the +laws and principles on which your particular line of life must be +carried on. Have you never smiled at the simplicity which could set +about making actual, about carrying out in practical life, in society, +in work, in business, those thoughts, feelings and purposes, which Godâs +promises beget? Sarah did not laugh outright, but smiled behind the +Lord; she did not mock Him to His face, but let the compassionate +expression pass over her face with which we listen to the glowing hopes +of the young enthusiast who does not know the world. Have we not often +put aside Godâs voice precisely thus; saying within us, We know what +kind of things can be done by us and others and what need not be +attempted; we know what kind of frailties in social intercourse we must +put up with, and not seek to amend; what kind of practices it is vain to +think of abolishing; we know what use to make of Godâs promise and what +use not to make of it; how far to trust it, and how far to give greater +weight to our knowledge of the world and our natural prudence and sense? +Does not our faith, like Sarahâs, vary in proportion as the promise to +be believed is unpractical? If the promise seems wholly to concern +future things, we cordially and devoutly assent; but if we are asked to +believe that God intends within the year to do so-and-so, if we are +asked to believe that the result of Godâs promise will be found taking a +substantial place among the results of our own effortsâthen the +derisive smile of Sarah forms on our face.</p> + +<p>To look at the crowds of persons professing religion, one would suppose +nothing was commoner than faith. There is nothing rarer. Devoutness is common; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> +righteousness of life is common; a contempt for every kind of +fraud and underhand practice is common; a highminded disregard for this +worldâs gains and glories is common; an abhorrence of sensuality and an +earnest thirst for perfection are commonâbut faith? Will the Son of man +when He comes find it on earth? May not the messengers of God yet say, +Who hath believed our report? Why, the great majority of Christian +people have never been near enough to spiritual things to know whether +they are or are not, they have never narrowly weighed spiritual issues +and trembled as they watched the uncertain balance, they say they +believe God and a future of happiness because they really do not know +what they are talking aboutâthey have not measured the magnitude of +these things. Faith is not a blind and careless assent to matters of +indifference, faith is not a state of mental suspense with a hope that +things may turn out to be as the Bible says. Faith is the firm +persuasion that these things are so. And he who at once knows the +magnitude of these things and believes that they are so, must be filled +with a joy that makes him independent of the world, with an enthusiasm +which must seem to the world like insanity. It is quite a different +world in which the man of faith lives.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV.</h2> + +<h3>ABRAHAMâS INTERCESSION FOR SODOM.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xviii.</h4> + +<p>The scene with which this chapter opens is one familiar to the observer +of nomad life in the East. During the scorching heat and glaring light +of noon, while the birds seek the densest foliage and the wild animals +lie panting in the thicket and everything is still and silent as +midnight, Abraham sits in his tent door under the spreading oak of +Mamre. Listless, languid, and dreamy as he is, he is at once aroused +into brightest wakefulness by the sudden apparition of three strangers. +Remarkable as their appearance no doubt must have been, it would seem +that Abraham did not recognise the rank of his visitors; it was, as the +writer to the Hebrews says, âunawaresâ that he entertained angels. But +when he saw them stand as if inviting invitation to rest, he treated +them as hospitality required him to treat any wayfarers. He sprang to +his feet, ran and bowed himself to the ground, and begged them to rest +and eat with him. With the extraordinary, and as it seems to our colder +nature extravagant courtesy of an Oriental, he rates at the very lowest +the comforts he can supply; it is only a little water he can give to +wash their feet, a morsel of bread to help them on their way, but they +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> +will do him a kindness if they accept these small attentions at his +hands. He gives, however, much more than he offered, seeks out the +fatted calf and serves while his guests sit and eat. The whole scene is +primitive and Oriental, and âpresents a perfect picture of the manner in +which a modern Bedawee Sheykh receives travellers arriving at his +encampment;â the hasty baking of bread, the celebration of a guestâs +arrival by the killing of animal food not on other occasions used even +by large flock-masters; the meal spread in the open air, the black tents +of the encampment stretching back among the oaks of Mamre, every +available space filled with sheep, asses, camels,âthe whole is one of +those clear pictures which only the simplicity of primitive life can +produce.</p> + +<p>Not only, however, as a suitable and pretty introduction which may +ensure our reading the subsequent narrative is it recorded how +hospitably Abraham received these three. Later writers saw in it a +picture of the beauty and reward of hospitality. It is very true, +indeed, that the circumstances of a wandering pastoral life are +peculiarly favourable to the cultivation of this grace. Travellers being +the only bringers of tidings are greeted from a selfish desire to hear +news as well as from better motives. Life in tents, too, of necessity +makes men freer in their manners. They have no door to lock, no inner +rooms to retire to, their life is spent outside, and their character +naturally inclines to frankness and freedom from the suspicions, fears, +and restraints of city life. Especially is hospitality accounted the +indispensable virtue, and a breach of it as culpable as a breach of the +sixth commandment, because to refuse hospitality is in many regions +equivalent to subjecting a wayfarer to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> +dangers and hardships under which he is almost certain to succumb.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">âThis tent is mine,â said Yussouf, âbut no more<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than it is Godâs; come in, and be at peace;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Freely shalt thou partake of all my store,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As I of His Who buildeth over these<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our tents His glorious roof of night and day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And at Whose door none ever yet heard Nay.â<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>Still we are of course bound to import into our life all the suggestions +of kindly conduct which any other style of living gives us. And the +writer to the Hebrews pointedly refers to this scene and says, âLet us +not be forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have +entertained angels unawares.â And often in quite a prosaic and +unquestionable manner does it become apparent to a host, that the guest +he has been entertaining has been sent by God, an angel indeed +ministering to his salvation, renewing in him thoughts that had been +dying out, filling his home with brightness and life like the smile of +Godâs own face, calling out kindly feelings, provoking to love and to +good works, effectually helping him onwards and making one more stage of +his life endurable and even blessed. And it is not to be wondered at +that our Lord Himself should have continually inculcated this same +grace; for in His whole life and by His most painful experience were men +being tested as to who among them would take the stranger in. He who +became man for a little that He might for ever consecrate the dwelling +of Abraham and leave a blessing in his household, has now become man for +evermore, that we may learn to walk carefully and reverentially through +a life whose circumstances and conditions, whose little socialities and +duties, and whose great trials and strains He found +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> +fit for Himself for service to the Father. This tabernacle of our human body has by His +presence been transformed from a tent to a temple, and this world and +all its ways that He approved, admired, and walked in, is holy ground. +But as He came to Abraham trusting to his hospitality, not sending +before him a legion of angels to awe the patriarch but coming in the +guise of an ordinary wayfarer; so did He come to His own and make His +entrance among us, claiming only the consideration which He claims for +the least of His people, and granting to whoever gave Him <i>that</i> the +discovery of His Divine nature. Had there been ordinary hospitality in +Bethlehem that night before the taxing, then a woman in Maryâs condition +had been cared for and not superciliously thrust among the cattle, and +our race had been delivered from the everlasting reproach of refusing +its God a cradle to be born and sleep His first sleep in, as it refused +Him a bed to die in, and left chance to provide Him a grave in which to +sleep His latest sleep. And still He is coming to us all requiring of us +this grace of hospitality, not only in the case of every one who asks of +us a cup of cold water and whom our Lord Himself will personate at the +last day and say, â<i>I</i> was a stranger and ye took Me in;â but also in +regard to those claims upon our heartâs reception which He only in His +own person makes.</p> + +<p>But while we are no doubt justified in gathering such lessons from this +scene, it can scarcely have been for the sake of inculcating hospitality +that these angels visited Abraham. And if we ask, Why did God on this +occasion use this exceptional form of manifesting Himself; why, instead +of approaching Abraham in a vision or in word as had been found +sufficient on former occasions, did He now adopt this method of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> +becoming Abrahamâs guest and eating with him?âthe only apparent reason +is that He meant this also to be the test applied to Sodom. There too +His angels were to appear as wayfarers, dependent on the hospitality of +the town, and by the peopleâs treatment of these unknown visitors their +moral state was to be detected and judged. The peaceful meal under the +oaks of Mamre, the quiet and confidential walk over the hills in the +afternoon when Abraham in the humble simplicity of a godly soul was +found to be fit company for these threeâthis scene where the Lord and +His messengers receive a becoming welcome and where they leave only +blessing behind them, is set in telling contrast to their reception in +Sodom, where their coming was the signal for the outburst of a brutality +one blushes to think of, and elicited all the elements of a mere hell +upon earth.</p> + +<p>Lot would fain have been as hospitable as Abraham. Deeper in his nature +than any other consideration was the traditional habit of hospitality. +To this he would have sacrificed everythingâthe rights of strangers +were to him truly inviolable. Lot was a man who could as little see +strangers without inviting them to his house as Abraham could. He would +have treated them handsomely as his uncle; and what he could do he did. +But Lot had by his choice of a dwelling made it impossible he should +afford safe and agreeable lodging to any visitor. He did his best, and +it was not his reception of the angels that sealed Sodomâs doom, and yet +what shame he must have felt that he had put himself in circumstances in +which his chief virtue could not be practised. So do men tie their own +hands and cripple themselves so that even the good they would take +pleasure in doing is either wholly impossible or turns to evil.</p> + +<p>In divulging to Abraham His purpose in visiting +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> +Sodom, it is enounced here that God acted on a principle which seems afterwards to have become +almost proverbial. Surely the Lord will do nothing but He revealeth His +secret unto His servants the prophets. There are indeed two grounds +stated for making known to Abraham this catastrophe. The reason that we +should naturally expect, viz. that he might go on and warn Lot is not +one of them. Why then make any announcement to Abraham if the +catastrophe cannot be averted, and if Abraham is to turn back to his own +encampment? The first reason is: âShall I hide from Abraham that thing +which I do? <i>Seeing that Abraham</i> shall surely become a great and mighty +nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.â In +other words, Abraham has been made the depository of a blessing for all +nations, and account must therefore be given to him when any people is +summarily removed beyond the possibility of receiving this blessing. If +a man has got a grant for the emancipation of the slaves in a certain +district, and is informed on landing to put this grant in force that +fifty slaves are to be executed that day, he has certainly a right to +know and he will inevitably desire to know that this execution is to be, +and why it is to be. When an officer goes to negotiate an exchange of +prisoners, if two of the number cannot be exchanged, but are to be shot, +he must be informed of this and account of the matter must be given him. +Abraham often brooding on Godâs promise, living indeed upon it, must +have felt a vague sympathy with all men, and a sympathy not at all +vague, but most powerful and practical with the men in the Jordan valley +whom he had rescued from Chedorlaomer. If he was to be a blessing to any +nation it must surely be to those who were within an afternoonâs walk of his encampment +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> +and among whom his nephew had taken up his abode. +Suppose he had not been told, but had risen next morning and seen the +dense cloud of smoke overhanging the doomed cities, might he not with +some justice have complained that although God had spoken to him the +previous day, not one word of this great catastrophe had been breathed +to him.</p> + +<p>The second reason is expressed in the nineteenth verse; God had chosen +Abraham that he might command his children and his household after him +to keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment that the Lord +might fulfil His promise to Abraham. That is to say, as it was only by +obedience and righteousness that Abraham and his seed were to continue +in Godâs favour, it was fair that they should be encouraged to do so by +seeing the fruits of unrighteousness. So that as the Dead Sea lay +throughout their whole history on their borders reminding them of the +wages of sin, they might never fail rightly to interpret its meaning, +and in every great catastrophe read the lesson âexcept ye repent ye +shall all likewise perish.â They could never attribute to chance this +predicted judgment. And in point of fact frequent and solemn reference +was made to this standing monument of the fruit of sin.</p> + +<p>As yet there was no moral law proclaimed by any external authority. +Abraham had to discover what justice and goodness were from the dictates +of his own conscience and from his observation upon men and things. But +he was at all events persuaded that only so long as he and his sought +honestly to live in what they considered to be righteousness would they +enjoy Godâs favour. And they read in the destruction of Sodom a clear +intimation that certain forms of wickedness were detestable to God. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span></p> + +<p>The earnestness with which Abraham intercedes for the cities of the +plain reveals a new side of his character. One could understand a strong +desire on his part that Lot should be rescued, and no doubt the +preservation of Lot formed one of his strongest motives to intercede, +yet Lot is never named, and it is, I think, plain that he had more than +the safety of Lot in view. He prayed that the city might be spared, not +that the righteous might be delivered out of its ruin. Probably he had a +lively interest in the people he had rescued from captivity, and felt a +kind of protectorate over them as he sometimes looked down on them from +the hills near his own tents. He pleads for them as he had fought for +them, with generosity, boldness and perseverance; and it was his +boldness and unselfishness in fighting for them that gave him boldness +in praying for them.</p> + +<p>There has come into vogue in this country a kind of intercession which +is the exact reverse of this of Abrahamâan obtuse, mechanical +intercession about whose efficacy one may cherish a reasonable +suspicion. The Bible and common sense bid us pray with the Spirit and +with the <i>understanding</i>; but at some meetings for prayer you are asked +to pray for people you do not know and have no real interest in. You are +not told even their names, so that if an answer is sent you could not +identify the answer, nor is any clue given you by which if God should +propose to use you for their help you could know where the help was to +be applied. For all you know the slip of paper handed in among a score +of others may misrepresent the circumstances; and even supposing it does +not, what likeness to the effectual fervent prayer of an anxious man has +the petition that is once read in your hearing and at once and for ever +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> +blotted from your mind by a dozen others of the same kind. Not so did +Abraham pray: he prayed for those he knew and had fought for; and I see +no warrant for expecting that our prayers will be heard for persons +whose good we seek in no other way than prayer, in none of those ways +which in all other matters our conduct proves we judge more effectual +than prayer. When Lot was carried captive Abraham did not think it +enough to put a petition for him in his evening prayer. He went and +<i>did</i> the needful thing, so that now when there is nothing else he can +do but pray, he intercedes, as few of us can without self-reproach or +feeling that had we only done our part there might now be no need of +prayer. What confidence can a parent have in praying for a son who is +going to a country where vice abounds, if he has done little or nothing +to infix in his boyâs mind a love of virtue? In some cases the very +persons who pray for others are themselves the obstacles preventing the +answer. Were we to ask ourselves how much we are prepared to do for +those for whom we pray, we should come to a more adequate estimate of +the fervency and sincerity of our prayers.</p> + +<p>The element in Abrahamâs intercession that jars on the reader is the +trading temper that strives always to get the best possible terms. +Abraham seems to think God can be beaten down and induced to make +smaller and smaller demands. No doubt this style of prayer was suggested +to Abraham by the statement on Godâs part that He was going to Sodom to +see if its iniquity was so great as it was reported; that is, to number, +as it were, the righteous men in it. Abraham seizes upon this and asks +if He would not spare it if fifty were found in it. But Abraham knowing +Sodom as he did could not have supposed this number would be +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> +found. Finding, then, that God meets him so far, he goes on step by step +getting larger in his demands, until when he comes to ten he feels that +to go farther would be intolerably presumptuous. Along with this +audacious beating down of God, there is a genuine and profound reverence +and humility which at each renewal of the petition dictate some such +expression as: âI who am but dust and ashes,â âLet not my Lord be +angry.â</p> + +<p>It is remarkable too that, throughout, it is for justice Abraham pleads, +and for justice of a limited and imperfect kind. He proceeds on the +assumption that the town will be judged as a town, and either wholly +saved or wholly destroyed. He has no idea of individual discrimination +being made, those only suffering who had sinned. And yet it is this +principle of discrimination on which God ultimately proceeds, rescuing +Lot. Yet is not this intercession the history of what every one who +prays passes through, beginning with the idea that God is to be won over +to more liberal views and a more munificent intention, and ending with +the discovery that God gives what we should count it shameless audacity +to ask? We begin to pray,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">âAs if ourselves were better certainly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than what we come toâMaker and High Priestâ<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>and we leave off praying assured that the whole is to be managed by a +righteousness and love and wisdom, which we cannot plan for, which any +love or desire of ours would only limit the action of, and which must be +left to work out its own purposes in its own marvellous ways. We begin, +feeling that we have to beat down a reluctant God and that we can guide the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> +mind of God to some better thing than He intends: when the answer +comes we recognise that what we set as the limit of our expectation God +has far over-stepped, and that our prayer has done little more than show +our inadequate conception of Godâs mercy.</p> + +<p>Not only in this respect but throughout this chapter there is betrayed +an inadequate conception of God. The language is adapted to the use of +men who are as yet unable to conceive of one Infinite, Eternal Spirit. +They think of Him as one who needs to come down and institute an inquiry +into the state of Sodom, if He is to know with accuracy the moral +condition of its inhabitants. We can freely use the same language, but +we put into it a meaning that the words do not literally bear: Abraham +and his contemporaries used and accepted the words in their literal +sense. And yet the man who had ideas of God in some respects so +rudimentary was Godâs Friend, received singular tokens of His favour, +found His whole life illuminated with His presence, and was used as the +point of contact between heaven and earth, so that if you desire the +first lessons in the knowledge of God which will in time grow into full +information, it is to the tent of Abraham, you must go. This surely is +encouraging; for who is not conscious of much difficulty in thinking +rightly of God? Who does not feel that precisely here, where the light +should be brightest, clouds and darkness seem to gather? It may indeed +be said that what was excusable in Abraham is inexcusable in us; that we +have that day, that full noon of Christ to which he could only, out of +the dusky dawn, look forward. But after all may not a man with some +justice say: Give me an afternoon with God, such as Abraham had; give me +the opportunity of converse with a God submitting Himself to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> +question and answer, to those means and instruments of ascertaining truth which I +daily employ in other matters, and I will ask no more? Christ has given +us entrance into the final stage of our knowledge of God, teaching us +that God is a Spirit and that we cannot see the Father; that Christ +Himself left earth and withdrew from the bodily eye that we might rely +more upon spiritual modes of apprehension and think of God as a Spirit. +But we are not at all times able to receive this teaching, we are +children still and fall back with longing for the times when God walked +and spoke with man. And this being so, we are encouraged by the +experience of Abraham. We shall not be disowned by God though we do not +know Him perfectly. We can but begin where we are, not pretending that +that is clear and certain to us which in fact is not so, but freely +dealing with God according to the light we have, hoping that we too, +like Abraham, shall see the day of Christ and be glad; shall one day +stand in the full light of ascertained and eternal truth, knowing as we +are known.</p> + +<p>In conclusion, we shall find when we read the following chapter, and +especially the prayer of Lot that he might not be driven to the wild +mountain district, but might occupy the little town of Zoar which was +saved for his sakeâwe shall find, that much light is reflected on this +prayer of Abraham. Without trenching on what may be more fitly spoken of +afterwards, it may now be observed that the difference between Lot and +Abraham, as between man and man generally, comes out nowhere more +strikingly than in their prayers. Abraham had never prayed for himself +with a tithe of the persistent earnestness with which he prays for +Sodomâa town which was much indebted to him, but towards which +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> +for more reasons than one a smaller man would have borne a grudge. Lot, on +the other hand, much indebted to Sodom, identified indeed with it, one +of its leading citizens, connected by marriage with its inhabitants, is +in no agony about its destruction, and has indeed but one prayer to +offer, and that is, that when all his fellow-townsmen are destroyed, he +may be comfortably provided for. While the men he has bargained and +feasted with, the men he has made money out of and married his daughters +to, are in the agonies of an appalling catastrophe and so near that the +smoke of their torment sweeps across his retreat, he is so disengaged +from regrets and compassion that he can nicely weigh the comparative +comfort and advantage of city and rural life. One would have thought +better of the man if he had declined the angelic rescue and resolved to +stand by those in death whose society he had so coveted in life. And it +is significant that while the generous, large-hearted, devout pleading +of Abraham is in vain, the miserable, timorous, selfish petition of Lot +is heard and answered. It would seem as if sometimes God were hopeless +of men, and threw to them in contempt the gifts they crave, giving them +the poor stations in this life their ambition is set upon, because He +sees they have made themselves incapable of enduring hardness, and so +quelling their lower nature. An answered prayer is not always a +blessing, sometimes it is a doom: âHe sent them meat to the full: but +while their meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon +them and slew the fattest of them.â</p> + +<p>Probably had Lot felt any inclination to pray for his townsmen he would +have seen that for him to do so would be unseemly. His circumstances, +his long association with the Sodomites, and his accommodation +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> +of himself to their ways had both eaten the soul out of him and set him on +quite a different footing towards God from that occupied by Abraham. A +man cannot on a sudden emergency lift himself out of the circumstances +in which he has been rooted, nor peel off his character as if it were +only skin deep. Abraham had been living an unworldly life in which +intercourse with God was a familiar employment. His prayer was but the +seasonable flower of his life, nourished to all its beauty by the +habitual nutriment of past years. Lot in his need could only utter a +peevish, pitiful, childish cry. He had aimed all his life at being +comfortable, he could not now wish anything more than to be comfortable. +âStand out of my sunshine,â was all he could say, when he held by the +hand the plenipotentiary of heaven, and when the roar of the conflict of +moral good and evil was filling his earsâa decent man, a righteous man, +but the world had eaten out his heart till he had nothing to keep him in +sympathy with heaven.</p> + +<p>Such is the state to which men in our society, as in Sodom, are brought +by risking their spiritual life to make the most of this world.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="XV" id="XV"></a>XV.</h2> + +<h3>DESTRUCTION OF THE CITIES OF THE PLAIN.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xix.</h4> + +<p>While Abraham was pleading with the Lord the angels were pursuing their +way to Sodom. And in doing so they apparently observed the laws of those +human forms which they had assumed. They did not spread swift wings and +alight early in the afternoon at the gates of the city; but taking the +usual route, they descended from the hills which separated Abrahamâs +encampment from the plain of the Jordan, and as the sun was setting +reached their destination. In the deep recess which is found at either +side of the gateway of an Eastern city, Lot had taken his accustomed +seat. Wearied and vexed with the din of the revellers in the street, and +oppressed with the sultry doom-laden atmosphere, he was looking out +towards the cool and peaceful hills, purple with the sinking sun behind +them, and letting his thoughts first follow and then outrun his eye; he +was now picturing and longing for the unseen tents of Abraham, and +almost hearing the cattle lowing round at evening and all the old sounds +his youth had made familiar.</p> + +<p>He is recalled to the actual present by the footfall of the two men, and +little knowing the significance of his act, invites them to spend the night under his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> +roof. It has been observed that the historian seems to +intend to bring out the quietness and the ordinary appearance of the +entire circumstances. All goes on as usual. There is nothing in the +setting sun to say that for the last time it has shone on these rich +meadows, or that in twelve hours its rising will be dimmed by the smoke +of the burning cities. The ministers of so appalling a justice as was +here displayed enter the city as ordinary travellers. When a crisis +comes, men do not suddenly acquire an intelligence and insight they have +not habitually cultivated. They cannot suddenly put forth an energy nor +exhibit an apt helpfulness which only character can give. When the test +comes, we stand or fall not according to what we would wish to be and +now see the necessity of being, but according to what former +self-discipline or self-indulgence has made us.</p> + +<p>How then shall this angelic commission of enquiry proceed? Shall it call +together the elders of Sodomâor shall it take Lot outside the city and +cross-examine him, setting down names and dates and seeking to come to a +fair judgment. Not at allâthere is a much surer way of detecting +character than by any process of examination by question and answer. To +each of us God says:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">âSince by its <i>fruit</i> a tree is judged,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Show me thy fruit, the <i>latest act</i> of thine!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For in the <i>last</i> is summed the first, and all,â<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What thy life last put heart and soul into,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There shall I taste thy product.â<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>It is thus these angels proceed. They do not startle the inhabitants of +Sodom into any abnormal virtue nor present opportunity for any unwonted +iniquity. They give them opportunity to act in their usual way. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> +Nothing could well be more ordinary than the entrance to the city of two +strangers at sunset. There is nothing in this to excite, to throw men +off their guard, to overbalance the daily habit, or give exaggerated +expression to some special feature of character. It is thus we are all +judgedâby the insignificant circumstances in which we act without +reflection, without conscious remembrance of an impending judgment, with +heart and soul and full enjoyment.</p> + +<p>First Lot is judged. Lotâs character is a singularly mixed one. With all +his selfishness, he was hospitable and public-spirited. Lover of good +living, as undoubtedly he was, his courage and strength of character are +yet unmistakable. His sitting at the gate in the evening to offer +hospitality may fairly be taken as an indication of his desire to screen +the wickedness of his townsmen, and also to shield the stranger from +their brutality. From the style in which the mob addressed him, it is +obvious that he had made himself offensive by interfering to prevent +wrong-doing. He was nicknamed âthe Censor,â and his eye was felt to +carry condemnation. It is true there is no evidence that his opposition +had been of the slightest avail. How could it avail with men who knew +perfectly well that with all his denunciation of their wicked ways, he +preferred their money-making company to the desolation of the hills, +where he would be vexed with no filthy conversation, but would also find +no markets? Still it is to Lotâs credit that in such a city, with none +to observe, none to applaud, and none to second him, he should have been +able to preserve his own purity of life and steadily to resist +wrong-doing. It would be cynical to say that he cultivated austerity and +renounced popular vices as a salve to a conscience wounded by his own greed. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span></p> + +<p>That he had the courage which lies at the root of strength of character +became apparent as the last dark night of Sodom wore on. To go out among +a profligate, lawless mob, wild with passion and infuriated by +oppositionâto go out and shut the door behind himâwas an act of true +courage. His confidence in the influence he had gained in the town +cannot have blinded him to the temper of the raging crowd at his door. +To defend his unknown guests he put himself in a position in which men +have frequently lost life.</p> + +<p>In the first few hours of his last night in Sodom, there is much that is +admirable and pathetic in Lotâs conduct. But when we have said that he +was bold and that he hated other menâs sins, we have exhausted the more +attractive side of his character. The inhuman collectedness of mind with +which, in the midst of a tremendous public calamity, he could scheme for +his own private well-being is the key to his whole character. He had no +feeling. He was cold-blooded, calculating, keenly alive to his own +interest, with all his wits about him to reap some gain to himself out +of every disaster; the kind of man out of whom wreckers are made, who +can with gusto strip gold rings off the fingers of doomed corpses; out +of whom are made the villains who can rifle the pockets of their dead +comrades on a battlefield, or the politicians who can still ride on the +top of the wave that hurls their country on the rocks. When Abraham gave +him his choice of a grazing ground, no rush of feeling, no sense of +gratitude, prevented him from making the most of the opportunity. When +his house was assailed, he had coolness, when he went out to the mob, to +shut the door behind him that those within might not hear his bargain. +When the angel, one might almost say, was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> +flurried by the impending and terrible destruction, and was hurrying him away, he was calm enough to +take in at a glance the whole situation and on the spot make provision +for himself. There was no need to tell him not to look back as his wife +did: no deep emotion would overmaster him, no unconquerable longing to +see the last of his dear friends in Sodom would make him lose one second +of his time. Even the loss of his wife was not a matter of such +importance as to make him forget himself and stand to mourn. In every +recorded act of his life appears this same unpleasant characteristic.</p> + +<p>Between Lot and Judas there is an instructive similarity. Both had +sufficient discernment and decision of character to commit themselves to +the life of faith, abandoning their original residence and ways of life. +Both came to a shameful end, because the motive even of the sacrifices +they made was self-interest. Neither would have had so dark a career had +he more justly estimated his own character and capabilities, and not +attempted a life for which he was unfit. They both put themselves into a +false position; than which nothing tends more rapidly to deteriorate +character. Lot was in a doubly false position, because in Sodom as well +as in Abrahamâs shifting camp he was out of place. He voluntarily bound +himself to men he could not love. One side of his nature was paralysed; +and that the side which in him especially required development. It is +the influence of home life, of kindly surroundings, of friendships, of +congenial employment, of everything which evokes the free expression of +what is best in us; it is this which is a chief factor in the +development of every man. But instead of the genial and fertilising +influence of worthy friendships, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> +ennobling love, Lot had to pretend +good-will where he felt none, and deceit and coldness grew upon him in +place of charity. Besides, a man in a false position in life, out of +which he can by any sacrifice deliver himself, is never at peace with +God until he does deliver himself. And any attempt to live a righteous +life with an evil conscience is foredoomed to failure.</p> + +<p>And if it still be felt that Lot was punished with extreme severity, and +that if every man who chose a good grazing ground or a position in life +which was likely to advance his fortune were thereby doomed to end his +days in a cave and under the darkest moral brand, society would be quite +disintegrated, it must be remembered, that in order to advance his +interests in life, Lot sacrificed much that a man is bound by all means +to cherish; and further, it must be said that our destinies are thus +determined. The whole iniquity and final consequences of our disposition +are not laid before us in the mass; but to give the rein to any evil +disposition is to yield control of our own life and commit ourselves to +guidance which cannot result in good, and is of a nature to result in +utter shame and wretchedness.</p> + +<p>Turning from the rescued to the destroyed, we recognise how sufficient a +test of their moral condition the presence of the angels was. The +inhabitants of Sodom quickly afford evidence that they are ripe for +judgment. They do nothing worse than their habitual conduct led them to +do. It is not for this one crime they are punished; its enormity is only +the legible instance which of itself convicts them. They are not aware +of the frightful nature of the crime they seek to commit. They fancy it +is but a renewal of their constant practice. They rush headlong on destruction and do not +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> +know it. How can it be otherwise? If a man <i>will +not</i> take warning, if he will persist in sin, then the day comes when he +is betrayed into iniquity the frightful nature of which he did not +perceive, but which is the natural result of the life he has led. He +goes on and will not give up his sin till at last the final damning act +is committed which seals his doom. Character tends to express itself in +one perfectly representative act. The habitual passion, whatever it is, +is always alive and seeking expression. Sometimes one consideration +represses it, sometimes another; but these considerations are not +constant, while the passion is, and must therefore one day find its +opportunityâits opportunity not for that moderate, guarded, disguised +expression which passes without notice, but for the full utterance of +its very essence. So it was here, the whole city, small and great, young +and old, from every quarter came together unanimous and eager in +prosecuting the vilest wickedness. No further investigation or proof was +needed: it has indeed passed into a proverb: âthey <i>declare</i> their sin +as Sodom.â</p> + +<p>To punish by a special commission of enquiry is quite unusual in Godâs +government. Nations are punished for immorality or for vicious +administration of law or for neglect of sanitary principles by the +operation of natural laws. That is to say, there is a distinctly +traceable connection between the crime and its punishment; the one being +the natural cause of the other. That nations should be weakened, +depopulated, and ultimately sink into insignificance, is the natural +result of a development of the military spirit of a country and the love +of glory. That a population should be decimated by cholera or small-pox +is the inevitable result of neglecting intelligible laws of health. It seems to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> +me absurd to put this destruction of Sodom in the same +category. The descent of meteoric stones from the sky is not the natural +result of immorality. The vices of these cities have disastrous national +results which are quite legibly written in some races existing in the +present day. We have here to do not with what is natural but with what +is miraculous. Of course it is open to any one to say, âIt was merely +accidentalâit was a mere coincidence that a storm of lightning so +violent as to set fire to the bituminous soil should rage in the valley, +while on the hills a mile or two off all was serene; it was a mere +coincidence that meteoric stones or some instrument of conflagration +should set on fire just these cities, not only one of them but four of +them, and no more.â And certainly were there nothing more to go upon +than the fact of their destruction, this coincidence, however +extraordinary, must still be admitted as wholly natural, and having no +relation to the character of the people destroyed. It might be set down +as pure accident, and be classed with storms at sea, or volcanic +eruptions, which are due to physical causes and have no relation to the +moral character of those involved, but indiscriminately destroy all who +happen to be present.</p> + +<p>But we have to account not only for the fact of the destruction but for +its prediction both to Abraham and to Lot. Surely it is only reasonable +to allow that such prediction was supernatural; and the prediction being +so, it is also reasonable to accept the account of the event given by +the predicters of it, and understand it not as an ordinary physical +catastrophe, but as an event contrived with a view to the moral +character of those concerned, and intended as an infliction of +punishment for moral offences. And before we object to a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> +style of dealing with nations so different from anything we now detect, we must +be sure that a quite different style of dealing was not at that time +required. If there is an intelligent training of the world, it must +follow the same law which requires that a parent deal in one way with +his boy of ten and in another with his adult son.</p> + +<p>Of Lotâs wife the end is recorded in a curt and summary fashion. âHis +wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.â The +angel, knowing how closely on the heels of the fugitives the storm would +press, had urgently enjoined haste, saying, âLook not behind thee, +neither stay thou in all the plain.â Rapid in its pursuit as a prairie +fire, it was only the swift who could escape it. To pause was to be +lost. The command, âLook not behind theeâ was not given because the +scene was too awful to behold for what men can endure, men may behold, +and Abraham looked upon it from the hill above. It was given simply from +the necessity of the case and from no less practical and more arbitrary +reason. Accordingly when the command was neglected, the consequence was +felt. Why the infatuated woman looked back one can only conjecture. The +woful sounds behind her, the roar of the flame and of Jordan driven +back, the crash of falling houses and the last forlorn cry of the doomed +cities, all the confused and terrific din that filled her ear, may well +have paralysed her and almost compelled her to turn. But the use our +Lord makes of her example shows us that He ascribed her turning to a +different motive. He uses her as a warning to those who seek to save out +of the destruction more than they have time to save, and so lose all. +âHe which shall be on the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> +not come down to take it away; and he that is in the field, let him +likewise not return back. Remember Lotâs wife.â It would seem, then, as +if our Lord ascribed her tragic fate to her reluctance to abandon her +household stuff. She was a wife after Lotâs own heart, who in the midst +of danger and disaster had an eye to her possessions. The smell of fire, +the hot blast in her hair, the choking smoke of blazing bitumen, +suggested to her only the thought of her own house decorations, her +hangings, and ornaments, and stores. She felt keenly the hardship of +leaving so much wealth to be the mere food of fire. The thought of such +intolerable waste made her more breathless with indignation than her +rapid flight. Involuntarily as she looks at the bleak, stony mountains +before her, she thinks of the rich plain behind; she turns for one last +look, to see if it is impossible to return, impossible to save anything +from the wreck. The one look transfixes her, rivets her with dismay and +horror. Nothing she looked for can be seen; all is changed in wildest +confusion. Unable to move, she is overtaken and involved in the +sulphurous smoke, the bitter salts rise out of the earth and stifle her +and encrust around her and build her tomb where she stands.</p> + +<p>Lotâs wife by her death proclaims that if we crave to make the best of +both worlds, we shall probably lose both. Her disposition is not rare +and exceptional as the pillar of salt which was its monument. She is not +the only woman whose heart is so fixedly set upon her household +possessions that she cannot listen to the angel-voices that would guide +her. Are there none but Lotâs wife who show that to them there is +nothing so important, nothing else indeed to live for at all, but the +management of a house and the accumulation of possessions? +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> +If all who are of the same mind as Lotâs wife shared her fate the world would +present as strange a spectacle as the Dead Sea presents at this day. For +radically it was her divided mind which was her ruin. She had good +impulses, she saw what she ought to do, but she did not do it with a +mind made up. Other things divided her thoughts and diverted her +efforts. What else is it ruins half the people who suppose themselves +well on the way of life? The world is in their heart; they cannot pursue +with undivided mind the promptings of a better wisdom. Their heart is +with their treasure, and their treasure is really not in spiritual +excellence, not in purity of character, not in the keen bracing air of +the silent mountains where God is known, but in the comforts and gains +of the luxurious plain behind.</p> + +<p>We are to remember Lotâs wife that we may bear in mind how possible it +is that persons who promise well and make great efforts and bid fair to +reach a place of safety may be overtaken by destruction. We can perhaps +tell of exhausting effort, we may have outstripped many in practical +repentance, but all this may only be petrified by present carelessness +into a monument recording how nearly a man may be saved and yet be +destroyed. âHave ye suffered all these things in vain, if it be yet in +vain?â âYe have run well, what now hinders you?â The question always is, +not, what have you done, but what are you now doing? Up to the site of +the pillar, Lotâs wife had done as well as Lot, had kept pace with the +angels; but her failure at that point destroyed her.</p> + +<p>The same urgency may not be felt by all; but it should be felt by all to +whose conscience it has been distinctly intimated that they have become involved in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> +a state of matters which is ruinous. If you are conscious +that in your life there are practices which may very well issue in moral +disaster, an angel has taken you by the hand and bid you flee. For you +to delay is madness. Yet this is what people will do. Sagacious men of +the world, even when they see the probability of disaster, cannot bear +to come out with loss. They will always wait a little longer to see if +they cannot rescue something more, and so start on a fresh course with +less inconvenience. They will not understand that it is better to live +bare and stripped with a good conscience and high moral achievement, +than in abundance with self-contempt. What they have, always seems more to them than what they are.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a>XVI.</h2> + +<h3>SACRIFICE OF ISAAC.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xxii.</h4> + +<p>The sacrifice of Isaac was the supreme act of Abrahamâs life. The faith +which had been schooled by so singular an experience and by so many +minor trials was here perfected and exhibited as perfect. The strength +which he had been slowly gathering during a long and trying life was +here required and used. This is the act which shines like a star out of +those dark ages, and has served for many storm-tossed souls over whom +Godâs billows have gone, as a mark by which they could still shape their +course when all else was dark. The devotedness which made the sacrifice, +the trust in God that endured when even such a sacrifice was demanded, +the justification of this trust by the event, and the affectionate +fatherly acknowledgment with which God gloried in the manâs loyalty and +strength of characterâall so legibly written hereâcome home to every +heart in the time of its need. Abraham has here shown the way to the +highest reach of human devotedness and to the heartiest submission to +the Divine will in the most heart-rending circumstances. Men and women +living our modern life are brought into situations which seem as +torturing and overwhelming as those of Abraham, and all who are +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> +in such conditions find, in his loyal trust in God, sympathetic and effectual +aid.</p> + +<p>In order to understand Godâs part in this incident and to remove the +suspicion that God imposed upon Abraham as a duty what was really a +crime, or that He was playing with the most sacred feelings of His +servant, there are one or two facts which must not be left out of +consideration. In the first place, Abraham did not think it wrong to +sacrifice his son. His own conscience did not clash with Godâs command. +On the contrary, it was through his own conscience Godâs will impressed +itself upon him. No man of Abrahamâs character and intelligence could +suppose that any word of God could make that right which was in itself +wrong, or would allow the voice of conscience to be drowned by some +mysterious voice from without. If Abraham had supposed that in all +circumstances it was a crime to take his sonâs life, he could not have +listened to any voice that bade him commit this crime. The man who in +our day should put his child to death and plead that he had a Divine +warrant for it would either be hanged or confined as insane. No miracle +would be accepted as a guarantee for the Divine dictation of such an +act. No voice from heaven would be listened to for a moment, if it +contradicted the voice of the universal conscience of mankind. But in +Abrahamâs day the universal conscience had only approbation to express +for such a deed as this. Not only had the father absolute power over the +son, so that he might do with him what he pleased; but this particular +mode of disposing of a son would be considered singular only as being +beyond the reach of ordinary virtue. Abraham was familiar with the idea +that the most exalted form of religious worship was the sacrifice of the first-born. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> +He felt, in common with godly men in every age, that to +offer to God cheap sacrifices while we retain for ourselves what is +truly precious, is a kind of worship that betrays our low estimate of +God rather than expresses true devotion. He may have been conscious that +in losing Ishmael he had felt resentment against God for depriving him +of so loved a possession; he may have seen Canaanite fathers offering +their children to gods he knew to be utterly unworthy of any sacrifice; +and this may have rankled in his mind until he felt shut up to offer his +all to God in the person of his son, his only son, Isaac. At all events, +however it became his conviction that God desired him to offer his son, +this was a sacrifice which was in no respect forbidden by his own +conscience.</p> + +<p>But although not wrong in Abrahamâs judgment, this sacrifice was wrong +in the eye of God; how then can we justify Godâs command that He should +make it? We justify it precisely on that ground which lies patent on the +face of the narrativeâGod meant Abraham to make the sacrifice in +spirit, not in the outward act; He meant to write deeply on the Jewish +mind the fundamental lesson regarding sacrifice, that it is in the +spirit and will all true sacrifice is made. God intended what actually +happened, that Abrahamâs sacrifice should be complete and that human +sacrifice should receive a fatal blow. So far from introducing into +Abrahamâs mind erroneous ideas about sacrifice, this incident finally +dispelled from his mind such ideas and permanently fixed in his mind the +conviction that the sacrifice God seeks is the devotion of the living +soul not the consumption of a dead body. God met him on the platform of +knowledge and of morality to which he had attained, and by requiring him to sacrifice his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> +son taught him and all his descendants in what sense +alone such sacrifice can be acceptable. God meant Abraham to sacrifice +his son, but not in the coarse material sense. God meant him to yield +the lad truly to Him; to arrive at the consciousness that Isaac more +truly belonged to God than to him, his father. It was needful that +Abraham and Isaac should be in perfect harmony with the Divine will. +Only by being really and absolutely in Godâs hand could they, or can any +one, reach the whole and full good designed for them by God.</p> + +<p>How old Isaac was at the time of this sacrifice there is no means of +accurately ascertaining. He was probably in the vigour of early manhood. +He was able to take his share in the work of cutting wood for the burnt +offering and carrying the faggots a considerable distance. It was +necessary too that this sacrifice should be made on Isaacâs part not +with the timorous shrinking or ignorant boldness of a boy, but with the +full comprehension and deliberate consent of maturer years. It is +probable that Abraham was already preparing, if not to yield to Isaac +the family headship, yet to introduce him to a share in the +responsibilities he had so long borne alone. From the touching +confidence in one another which this incident exhibits, a light is +reflected on the fond intercourse of former years. Isaac was at that +time of life when a son is closest to a father, mature but not +independent; when all that a father can do has been done, but while as +yet the son has not passed away into a life of his own.</p> + +<p>And Isaac was no ordinary son. The man of business who has encouraged +and solaced himself in his toil by the hope that his son will reap the +fruit of it and make his old age easy and honoured, but who +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> +outlives his son and sees the effort of his life go for nothing; the proprietor +who bears an ancient name and sees his heir dieâthese are familiar +objects of pathetic interest, and no heart is so hard as to refuse a +tear of sympathy when brought into view of such heart-withering +bereavements. But in Abraham all fatherly feelings had been evoked and +strengthened and deepened by a quite peculiar experience. By a special +and most effectual discipline he had been separated from the objects +which ordinarily divide menâs attention and eke out their contentment in +life, and his whole hopes had been compelled to centre in his son. It +was not the perpetuation of a name nor the transmission of a well-known +and valuable property; it was not even the gratification of the most +justifiable and tender of human affections, that was crushed and +thwarted in Abraham by this command; but it was also and especially that +hope which had been aroused and fostered in him by extraordinary +providences and which concerned, as he believed, not himself alone but +all men.</p> + +<p>Manifestly no harder task could have been set to Abraham, than that +which was imposed on him by the command, âTake now thy son, thine only +son, Isaac, whom thou lovest,â this son of thine in whom all the +promises are yea and amen to thee, this son for whose sake thou gavest +up home and kindred, and banished thy firstborn Ishmael, this son whom +thou lovest, and offer him for a burnt-offering. This son, Abraham might +have said, whom I have been taught to cherish, putting aside all other +affections that I might love him above all, I am now with my own hand to +slay, to slay with all the terrible niceties and formalities of +sacrifice <i>and with all the love and adoration of sacrifice</i>. I am with +my own hand to destroy all that makes life valuable +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> +to me, and as I do so I am to love and worship Him who commands this sacrifice. I am to go +to Isaac, whom I have taught to look forward to the fairest happiest +life, and I am to contradict all I ever told him and tell him now that +he has only grown to maturity that he might be cut down in the flush and +hope of opening manhood. What can Abraham have thought? Possibly the +thought would occur that God was now recalling the great gift He had +made. There is always enough conscience of sin in the purest human heart +to engender self-reproach and fear on the faintest occasion; and when so +signal a token of Godâs displeasure as this was sent, Abraham may well +have believed himself to have been unwittingly guilty of some great +crime against God, or have now thought with bitterness of the languid +devotion he had been offering Him. I have in sacrificing a lamb been as +if I had been cutting off a dogâs neck, profane and thoughtless in my +worship, and now God is solemnising me indeed. I have in thought or +desire kept back the prime of my flock, and God is now teaching me that +a man may not rob God. Who could have been surprised if in this horror +of great darkness the mind of Abraham had become unhinged? Who could +wonder if he had slain <i>himself</i> to make the loss of Isaac impossible? +Who could wonder if he had sullenly ignored the command, waited for +further light, or rejected an alliance with God which involved such +lamentable conditions? Nothing that could befall him in consequence of +disobedience, he might have supposed, could exceed in pain the agony of +obedience. And it is always easier to endure the pain inflicted upon us +by circumstances than to do with our own hand and free will what we know will involve us in suffering. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> +It is not mere resignation but active +obedience that was required of Abraham. His was not the passive +resignation of the man out of whose reach death or disaster has swept +his dearest treasures, and who is helped to resignation by the +consciousness that no murmuring can bring them backâhis was the far +more difficult active resignation, which has still in possession all +that it prizes, and may withhold these treasures if it pleases, but is +called by a higher voice than that of self-pleasing to sacrifice them +all.</p> + +<p>But though Abraham was the chief, he was not the sole actor in this +trying scene. To Isaac this was the memorable day of his life, and +quiescent and passive as his character seems to have been, it cannot but +have been stirred and strained now in every fibre of it. Abraham could +not find it in his heart to disclose to his son the object of the +journey; even to the last he kept him unconscious of the part he was +himself to play. Two long daysâ journey, days of intense inward +commotion to Abraham, they went northward. On the third day the servants +were left, and father and son went on alone, unaccompanied and +unwitnessed. âSo they went,â as the narrative twice over says, âboth of +them together,â but with minds how differently filled; the fatherâs +heart torn with anguish, and distracted by a thousand thoughts, the +sonâs mind disengaged, occupied only with the new scenes and with +passing fancies. Nowhere in the narrative does the completeness of the +mastery Abraham had gained over his natural feelings appear more +strikingly than in the calmness with which he answers Isaacâs question. +As they approach the place of sacrifice Isaac observes the silent and +awe-struck demeanour of his father, and fears that it may have been through absence of mind he has +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> +neglected to bring the lamb. With a +gentle reverence he ventures to attract Abrahamâs attention: âMy +father;â and he said, âHere am I, my son.â And he said, âBehold the fire +and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?â It is one of +those moments when only the strongest heart can bear up calmly and when +only the humblest faith has the right word to say. âMy son, the Lord +will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering.â</p> + +<p>Not much longer could the terrible truth be hidden from Isaac. With what +feelings must he have seen the agonised face of his father as he turned +to bind him and as he learned that he must prepare not to sacrifice but +to be sacrificed. Here then was the end of those great hopes on which +his youth had been fed. What could such contradiction mean? Was he to +submit even to his father in such a matter? Why should he not +expostulate, resist, flee? Such ideas seem to have found short +entertainment in the mind of Isaac. Trained by long experience to trust +his father, he obeys without complaint or murmur. Still it cannot cease +to be matter of admiration and astonishment that a young man should have +been able on so brief a notice, through so shocking a way, and with so +startling a reversal of his expectations, to forego all right to choose +for himself, and yield himself implicitly to what he believed to be +Godâs will. By a faith so absolute Isaac became indeed the heir of +Abraham. When he laid himself on the altar, trusting his father and his +God, he came of age as the true seed of Abraham and entered on the +inheritance, making God his God. At that supreme moment he made himself +over to God, he put himself at Godâs disposal; if his death was to be +helpful in fulfilling Godâs purpose he was willing to die. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> +It was Godâs will that must be done, not his. He knew that God could not err, could +not harm His people; he was ignorant of the design which his death could +fulfil, but he felt sure that his sacrifice was not asked in vain. He +had familiarised himself with the thought that he belonged to God; that +he was on earth for Godâs purposes not for his own; so that now when he +was suddenly summoned to lay himself formally and finally on Godâs +altar, he did not hesitate to do so. He had learned that there are +possessions more worth preserving than life itself, that</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">âManhood is the one immortal thing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beneath Timeâs changeful skyââ<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>he had learned that âlength of days is knowing when to die.â</p> + +<p>No one who has measured the strain that such sacrifice puts upon human +nature can withhold his tribute of cordial admiration for so rare a +devotedness, and no one can fail to see that by this sacrifice Isaac +became truly the heir of Abraham. And not only Isaac, but every man +attains his majority by sacrifice. Only by losing our life do we begin +to live. Only by yielding ourselves truly and unreservedly to Godâs +purpose do we enter the true life of men. The giving up of self, the +abandonment of an isolated life, the bringing of ourselves into +connection with God, with the Supreme and with the whole, this is the +second birth. To reach that full stream of life which is moved by Godâs +will and which is the true life of men, we must so give ourselves up to +God, that each of His commandments, each of His providences, all by +which He comes into connection with us, has its due effect upon us. If +we only seek from God help to carry out our own conception +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> +of life, if we only desire His power to aid us in making of this life what we have +resolved it shall be, we are far indeed from Isaacâs conception of God +and of life. But if we desire that God fulfil in us, and through us His +own conception of what our life should be, the only means of attaining +this desire is to put ourselves fairly into Godâs hand, unflinchingly to +do what we believe to be His will irrespective of present darkness and +pain and privation. He who thus bids an honest farewell to earth and +lets himself be bound and laid upon Godâs altar, is conscious that in +renouncing himself he has won God and become His heir.</p> + +<p>Have you thus given yourselves to God? I do not ask if your sacrifice +has been perfect, nor whether you do not ever seek great things still +for yourselves; but do you know what it is thus to yield yourself to +God, to put God first, yourself second or nowhere? Are you even +occasionally quite willing to sink your own interests, your own +prospects, your own native tastes, to have your own worldly hopes +delayed or blighted, your future darkened? Have you even brought your +intellect to bear upon this first law of human life, and determined for +yourself whether it is the case or not that manâs life, in order to be +profitable, joyful, and abiding, must be lived in God? Do you recognise +that human life is not for the individualâs good, but for the common +good, and that only in God can each man find his place and his work? All +that we give up to Him we have in an ampler form. The very affections +which we are called to sacrifice are purified and deepened rather than +lost. When Abraham resigned his son to God and received him back, their +love took on a new delicacy and tenderness. They were more than ever to +one another after this interference of God. And He +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> +meant it to be so. Where our affections are thwarted or where our hopes are blasted, it is +not our injury, but our good, that is meant, a fineness and purity, an +eternal significance and depth, are imparted to affections that are +annealed by passing through the fire of trial.</p> + +<p>Not till the last moment did God interpose with the gladdening words, +âLay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him; for +now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, +thine only son, from Me.â The significance of this was so obvious that +it passed into a proverb: âIn the mount of the Lord it shall be +provided.â It was there, and not at any earlier point, Abraham saw the +provision that had been made for an offering. Up to the moment when he +lifted the knife over all he lived for, it was not seen that other +provision was made. Up to the moment when it was indubitable that both +he and Isaac were obedient unto death, and when in will and feeling they +had sacrificed themselves, no substitute was visible, but no sooner was +the sacrifice complete in spirit than Godâs provision was disclosed. It +was the spirit of sacrifice, not the blood of Isaac, that God desired. +It was the noble generosity of Abraham that God delighted in, not the +fatherly grief that would have followed the actual death of Isaac. It +was the heroic submission of father and son that God saw with delight, +rejoicing that men were found capable of the utmost of heroism, of +patient and unflinching adherence to duty. At any point short of the +consummation, interposition would have come too soon, and would have +prevented this educative and elevating display of the capacity of men +for the utmost that life can require of them. Had the provision of God +been made known one minute before the hand of Abraham was raised to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> +strike, it would have remained doubtful whether in the critical moment +one or other of the parties might not have failed. But when the +sacrifice was complete, when already the bitterness of death was past, +when all the agonizing conflict was over, the anguish of the father +mastered, and the dismay of the son subdued to perfect conformity with +the supreme will, then the full reward of victorious conflict was given, +and Godâs meaning flashed through the darkness, and His provision was +seen.</p> + +<p>This is the universal law. We find Godâs provision only on the mount of +sacrifice, not at any stage short of this, but only there. We must go +the whole way in faith; what lies before us as duty, we must do; often +in darkness and utter misery, seeing no possibility of escape or relief, +we must climb the hill where we are to abandon all that has given joy +and hope to our life; and not before the sacrifice has been actually +made can we enter into the heaven of victory God provides. You may be +called to sacrifice your youth, your hopes of a career, your affections, +that you may uphold and soothe the lingering days of one to whom you are +naturally bound. Or your whole life may have centred in an affection +which circumstances demand you shall abandon; you may have to sacrifice +your natural tastes and give up almost everything you once set your +heart on; and while to others the years bring brightness and variety and +scope, to you they may be bringing only monotonous fulfilment of insipid +and uncongenial tasks. You may be in circumstances which tempt you to +say, Does God see the inextricable difficulty I am in? Does He estimate +the pain I must suffer if immediate relief do not come? Is obedience to +Him only to involve me in misery from which other men are exempt? You may +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> +even say that although a substitute was found for Isaac, no +substitute has been found for the sacrifice you have had to make, but +you have been compelled actually to lose what was dear to you as life +itself. But when the character has been fully tried, when the utmost +good to character has been accomplished, and when delay of relief would +only increase misery, then relief comes. Still the law holds good, that +as soon as you in spirit yield to Godâs will, and with a quiet +submissiveness consent to the loss or pain inflicted upon you, in that +hour your whole attitude to your circumstances is transformed, you find +rest and assured hope. Two things are certain: that, however painful +your condition is, Godâs intention is not to injure, but to advance you, +and that hopeful submission is wiser, nobler, and every way better than +murmuring and resentment.</p> + +<p>Finally, these words, âThe Lord will provide,â which Abraham uttered in +that exalted frame of mind which is near to the prophetic ecstasy, have +been the burden sung by every sincere and thoughtful worshipper as he +ascended the hill of God to seek forgiveness of his sin, the burden +which the Lordâs worshipping congregation kept on its tongue through all +the ages, till at length, as the angel of the Lord had opened the eyes +of Abraham to see the ram provided, the voice of the Baptist âcrying in +the wildernessâ to a fainting and well-nigh despairing few turned their +eye to Godâs great provision with the final announcement, âBehold the +Lamb of God.â Let us accept this as a motto which we may apply, not only +in all temporal straits, when we can see no escape from loss and misery, +but also in all spiritual emergency, when sin seems a burden too great +for us to bear, and when we seem to lie under the uplifted knife of +Godâs judgment. Let us remember that Godâs +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> +desire is not that we suffer pain, but that we learn obedience, that we be brought to that true and +thorough confidence in Him which may fit us to fulfil His loving +purposes. Let us, above all, remember that we cannot know the grace of +God, cannot experience the abundant provision He has made for weak and +sinful men, until we have climbed the mount of sacrifice and are able to +commit ourselves wholly to Him. Not by attacking our manifold enemies +one by one, nor by attempting the great work of sanctification +piecemeal, shall we ever make much growth or progress, but by giving +ourselves up wholly to God and by becoming willing to live in Him and as His.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="XVII" id="XVII"></a>XVII.</h2> + +<h3>ISHMAEL AND ISAAC.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Gen.</span> xxi., xxii.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>âAbraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a +freewoman. * * * Which things are an allegory.ââ<span class="smcap">Galatians</span> iv. 22.</p> + +<p>âAbraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his +son.ââ<span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xxii. 10.</p></div> + +<p>In the birth of Isaac, Abraham at length sees the long-delayed +fulfilment of the promise. But his trials are by no means over. He has +himself introduced into his family the seeds of discord and disturbance, +and speedily the fruit is borne. Ishmael, at the birth of Isaac, was a +lad of fourteen years, and, reckoning from Eastern customs, he must have +been over sixteen when the feast was made in honour of the weaned child. +Certainly he was quite old enough to understand the important and not +very welcome alteration in his prospects which the birth of this new son +effected. He had been brought up to count himself the heir of all the +wealth and influence of Abraham. There was no alienation of feeling +between father and son: no shadow had flitted over the bright prospect +of the boy as he grew up; when suddenly and unexpectedly there was +interposed between him and his expectation the effectual barrier of this +child of Sarahâs. The importance of this child to the family was in due +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> +course indicated in many ways offensive to Ishmael; and when the feast +was made, his spleen could no longer be repressed. This weaning was the +first step in the direction of an independent existence, and this would +be the point of the feast in celebration. The child was no longer a mere +part of the mother, but an individual, a member of the family. The hopes +of the parents were carried forward to the time when he should be quite +independent of them.</p> + +<p>But in all this there was great food for the ridicule of a thoughtless +lad. It was precisely the kind of thing which could easily be mocked +without any great expenditure of wit by a boy of Ishmaelâs age. The too +visible pride of the aged mother, the incongruity of maternal duties +with ninety years, the concentration of attention and honours on so +small an object,âall this was, doubtless, a temptation to a boy who had +probably at no time too much reverence. But the words and gestures which +others might have disregarded as childish frolic, or, at worst, as the +unseemly and ill-natured impertinence of a boy who knew no better, stung +Sarah, and left a poison in her blood that infuriated her. âCast out +that bondwoman and her son,â she demanded of Abraham. Evidently she +feared the rivalry of this second household of Abraham, and was resolved +it should come to an end. The mocking of Ishmael is but the violent +concussion that at last produces the explosion, for which material has +long been laid in train. She had seen on Abrahamâs part a clinging to +Ishmael, which she was unable to appreciate. And though her harsh +decision was nothing more than the dictate of maternal jealousy, it did +prevent things from running on as they were until even a more painful +family quarrel must have been the issue. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span></p> + +<p>The act of expulsion was itself unaccountably harsh. There was nothing +to prevent Abraham sending the boy and his mother under an escort to +some safe place; nothing to prevent him from giving the lad some share +of his possessions sufficient to provide for him. Nothing of this kind +was done. The woman and the boy were simply put to the door; and this, +although Ishmael had for years been counted Abrahamâs heir, and though +he was a member of the covenant made with Abraham. There may have been +some law giving Sarah absolute power over her maid; but if any law gave +her power to do what was now done, it was a thoroughly barbarous one, +and she was a barbarous woman who used it.</p> + +<p>It is one of those painful cases in which one poor creature, clothed +with a little brief authority, stretches it to the utmost in vindictive +maltreatment of another. Sarah happened to be mistress, and, instead of +using her position to make those under her happy, she used it for her +own convenience, for the gratification of her own spite, and to make +those beneath her conscious of her power by their suffering. She +happened to be a mother, and instead of bringing her into sympathy with +all women and their children, this concentrated her affection with a +fierce jealousy on her own child. She breathed freely when Hagar and +Ishmael were fairly out of sight. A smile of satisfied malice betrayed +her bitter spirit. No thought of the sufferings to which she had +committed a woman who had served her well for years, who had yielded +everything to her will, and who had no other natural protector but her, +no glimpses of Abrahamâs saddened face, visited her with any relentings. +It mattered not to her what came of the woman and the boy to whom she really owed a more +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> +loving and careful regard than to any except Abraham +and Isaac. It is a story often repeated. One who has been a member of +the household for many years is at last dismissed at the dictate of some +petty pique or spite as remorselessly and inhumanly as a piece of old +furniture might be parted with. Some thoroughly good servant, who has +made sacrifices to forward his employerâs interest, is at last, through +no offence of his own, found to be in his employerâs way, and at once +all old services are forgotten, all old ties broken, and the authority +of the employer, legal but inhuman, is exercised. It is often those who +can least defend themselves who are thus treated; no resistance is +possible, and also, alas! the party is too weak to face the wilderness +on which she is thrown out, and if any cares to follow her history, we +may find her at the last gasp under a bush.</p> + +<p>Still, both for Abraham and for Ishmael it was better this severance +should take place. It was grievous to Abraham; and Sarah saw that for +this very reason it was necessary. Ishmael was his first-born, and for +many years had received the whole of his parental affection: and, +looking on the little Isaac, he might feel the desirableness of keeping +another son in reserve, lest this strangely-given child might as +strangely pass away. Coming to him in a way so unusual, and having +perhaps in his appearance some indication of his peculiar birth, he +might seem scarcely fit for the rough life Abraham himself had led. On +the other hand, it was plain that in Ishmael were the very qualities +which Isaac was already showing that he lacked. Already Abraham was +observing that with all his insolence and turbulence there was a natural +force and independence of character which might come to be most useful in the patriarchal +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> +household. The man who had pursued and routed the +allied kings could not but be drawn to a youth who already gave promise +of capacity for similar enterprisesâand this youth his own son. But can +Abraham have failed to let his fancy picture the deeds this lad might +one day do at the head of his armed slaves? And may he not have dreamt +of a glory in the land not altogether such as the promise of God +encouraged him to look for, but such as the tribes around would +acknowledge and fear? All the hopes Abraham had of Ishmael had gained +firm hold of his mind before Isaac was born; and before Isaac grew up, +Ishmael must have taken the most influential place in the house and +plans of Abraham. His mind would thus have received a strong bias +towards conquest and forcible modes of advance. He might have been led +to neglect, and, perhaps, finally despise, the unostentatious blessings +of heaven.</p> + +<p>If, then, Abraham was to become the founder, not of one new warlike +power in addition to the already too numerous warlike powers of the +East, but of a religion which should finally develop into the most +elevating and purifying influence among men, it is obvious that Ishmael +was not at all a desirable heir. Whatever pain it gave to Abraham to +part with him, separation in some form had become necessary. It was +impossible that the father should continue to enjoy the filial affection +of Ishmael, his lively talk, and warm enthusiasm, and adventurous +exploits, and at the same time concentrate his hope and his care on +Isaac. He had, therefore, to give up, with something of the sorrow and +self-control he afterwards underwent in connection with the sacrifice of +Isaac, the lad whose bright face had for so many years shone in all his +paths. And in some such way are we often called to part with prospects +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> +which have wrought themselves very deep into our spirit, and which, +indeed, just because they are very promising and seductive, have become +dangerous to us, upsetting the balance of our life, and throwing into +the shade objects and purposes which ought to be outstanding. And when +we are thus required to give up what we were looking to for comfort, for +applause, and for profit, the voice of God in its first admonition +sometimes seems to us little better than the jealousy of a woman. Like +Sarahâs demand, that none should share with her son, does the +requirement seem which indicates to us that we must set nothing on a +level with Godâs direct gifts to us. We refuse to see why we may not +have all the pleasures and enjoyments, all the display and brilliance +that the world can give. We feel as if we were needlessly restricted. +But this instance shows us that when circumstances compel us to give up +something of this kind which we have been cherishing, room is given for +a better thing than itself to grow.</p> + +<p>For Ishmael himself, too, wronged as he was in the mode of his +expulsion, it was yet far better that he should go. Isaac <i>was</i> the true +heir. No jeering allusions to his late birth or to his appearance could +alter that fact. And to a temper like Ishmaelâs it was impossible to +occupy a subordinate, dependent position. All he required to call out +his latent powers was to be thrown thus on his own resources. The daring +and high spirit and quickness to take offence and use violence, which +would have wrought untold mischief in a pastoral camp, were the very +qualities which found fit exercise in the desert, and seemed there only +in keeping with the life he had to lead. And his hard experience at +first would at his age do him no harm, but good only. To be compelled to face life single-handed +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> +at the age of sixteen is by no means a fate to +be pitied. It was the making of Ishmael, and is the making of many a lad +in every generation.</p> + +<p>But the two fugitives are soon reminded that, though expelled from +Abrahamâs tents and protection, they are not expelled from his God. +Ishmael finds it true that when father and mother forsake him, the Lord +takes him up. At the very outset of his desert life he is made conscious +that God is still his God, mindful of his wants, responsive to his cry +of distress. It was not through Ishmael the promised seed was to come, +but the descendants of Ishmael had every inducement to retain faith in +the God of Abraham, who listened to their fatherâs cry. The fact of +being excluded from certain privileges did not involve that they were to +be excluded from all privileges. God still âheard the voice of the lad, +and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven.â</p> + +<p>It is this voice of God to Hagar that so speedily, and apparently once +for all, lifts her out of despair to cheerful hope. It would appear as +if her despair had been needless; at least from the words addressed to +her, âWhat aileth thee, Hagar?â it would appear as if she might herself +have found the water that was close at hand, if only she had been +disposed to look for it. But she had lost heart, and perhaps with her +despair was mingled some resentment, not only at Sarah, but at the whole +Hebrew connection, including the God of the Hebrews, who had before +encouraged her. Here was the end of the magnificent promise which that +God had made her before her child was bornâa helpless human form +gasping its life away without a drop of water to moisten the parched +tongue and bring light to the glazing eyes, and with no easier +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> +couch than the burning sand. Was it for this, the bitterest drop that, apart +from sin, can be given to any parent to drink, she had been brought from +Egypt and led through all her past? Had her hopes been nursed by means +so extraordinary only that they might be so bitterly blighted? Thus she +leapt to her conclusions, and judged that because her skin of water had +failed God had failed her too. No one can blame her, with her boy dying +before her, and herself helpless to relieve one pang of his suffering. +Hitherto in the well-furnished tents of Abraham she had been able to +respond to his slightest desire. Thirst he had never known, save as the +relish to some boyish adventure. But now, when his eyes appeal to her in +dying anguish, she can but turn away in helpless despair. She cannot +relieve his simplest want. Not for her own fate has she any tears, but +to see her pride, her life and joy, perishing thus miserably, is more +than she can bear.</p> + +<p>No one can blame, but every one may learn from her. When angry +resentment and unbelieving despair fill the mind, we may perish of +thirst in the midst of springs. When Godâs promises produce no faith, +but seem to us so much waste paper, we are necessarily in danger of +missing their fulfilment. When we ascribe to God the harshness and +wickedness of those who represent Him in the world, we commit moral +suicide. So far from the promises given to Hagar being now at the point +of extinction, this was the first considerable step towards their +fulfilment. When Ishmael turned his back on the familiar tents, and +flung his last gibe at Sarah, he was really setting out to a far richer +inheritance, so far as this world goes, than ever fell to Isaac and his sons. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span></p> + +<p>But the chief use Paul makes of this entire episode in the history is to +see in it an allegory, a kind of picture made up of real persons and +events, representing the impossibility of law and gospel living +harmoniously together, the incompatibility of a spirit of service with a +spirit of sonship. Hagar, he says, is in this picture the likeness of +the law given from Sinai, which gendereth to bondage. Hagar and her son, +that is to say, stand for the law and the kind of righteousness produced +by the law,ânot superficially a bad kind; on the contrary, a +righteousness with much dash and brilliance and strong manly force about +it, but at the root defective, faulty in its origin, springing from the +slavish spirit. And first Paul bids us notice how the free-born is +persecuted and mocked by the slave-born, that is, how the children of +God who are trying to live by love and faith in Christ are put to shame +and made uneasy by the law. They believe they are Godâs dear children, +that they are loved by Him, and may go out and in freely in His house as +their own home, using all that is His with the freedom of His heirs; but +the law mocks them, frightens them, tells them <i>it</i> is Godâs first-born, +law lying far back in the dimness of eternity, coeval with God Himself. +It tells them they are puny and weak, scarcely out of their motherâs +arms, tottering, lisping creatures, doing much mischief, but none of the +housework, at best only getting some little thing to pretend to work at. +In contrast to their feeble, soft, unskilled weakness, it sets before +them a finely-moulded, athletic form, becoming disciplined to all work, +and able to take a place among the serviceable and able-bodied. But with +all this there is in that puny babe a life begun which will grow and +make it the true heir, dwelling in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> +the house and possessing what it has +not toiled for, while the vigorous, likely-looking lad must go into the +wilderness and make a possession for himself with his own bow and spear.</p> + +<p>Now, of course, righteousness of life and character, or perfect manhood, +is the end at which all that we call salvation aims, and that which can +give us the purest, ripest character is salvation for us; that which can +make us, for all purposes, most serviceable and strong. And when we are +confronted with persons who might speak of service we cannot render, of +an upright, unfaltering carriage we cannot assume, of a general human +worthiness we can make no pretension to, we are justly perturbed, and +should regain our equanimity only under the influence of the most +undoubted truth and fact. If we can honestly say in our hearts, +âAlthough we can show no such work done, and no such masculine growth, +yet we have a life in us which is of God, and will grow;â if we are sure +that we have the spirit of Godâs children, a spirit of love and +dutifulness, we may take comfort from this incident. We may remind +ourselves that it is not he who has at the present moment the best +appearance who always abides in the fatherâs home, but he who is by +birth the heir. Have we or have we not the spirit of the Son? not +feeling that we must every evening make good our claim to another +nightâs lodging by showing the task we have accomplished, but being +conscious that the interests in which we are called to work are our own +interests, that we are heirs in the fatherâs house, so that all we do +for the house is really done for ourselves. Do we go out and in with +God, feeling no need of His commands, our own eye seeing where help is +required, and our own desires being +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> +wholly directed towards that which +engages all His attention and work?</p> + +<p>For Paul would have each of us apply, allegorically, the words, Cast out +the bondwoman and her son, that is, cast out the legal mode of earning a +standing in Godâs house, and with this legal mode cast out all the +self-seeking, the servile fear of God, the self-righteousness, and the +hard-heartedness it engenders. Cast out wholly from yourself the spirit +of the slave, and cherish the spirit of the son and heir. The slave-born +may seem for a while to have a firm footing in the fatherâs house, but +it cannot last. The temper and tastes of Ishmael are radically different +from those of Abraham, and when the slave-born becomes mature, the wild +Egyptian strain will appear in his character. Moreover, he looks upon +the goods of Abraham as plunder; he cannot rid himself of the feeling of +an alien, and this would, at length, show itself in a want of frankness +with Abrahamâslowly, but surely, the confidence between them would be +worn out. Nothing but being a child of God, being born of the Spirit, +can give the feeling of intimacy, confidence, unity of interest, which +constitutes true religion. All we do as slaves goes for nothing; that is +to say, all we do, not because we see the good of it, but because we are +commanded; not because we have any liking for the thing done, but +because we wish to be paid for it. The day is coming when we shall +attain our majority, when it will be said to us by God, Now, do whatever +you like, whatever you have a mind to; no surveillance, no commands are +now needed; I put all into your own hand. What, in these circumstances, +should we straightway do? Should we, for the love of the thing, carry on +the same work to which Godâs commands had driven us; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> +should we, if left absolutely in charge, find nothing more attractive than just to +prosecute that idea of life and the world set before us by Christ? Or, +should we see that we had merely been keeping ourselves in check for a +while, biding our time, untamed as Ishmael, craving the rewards but not +the life of the children of God? The most serious of all questions +theseâquestions that determine the issues of our whole life, that +determine whether our home is to be where all the best interests of men +and the highest blessings of God have their seat, or in the pathless +desert where life is an aimless wandering, dissociated from all the +forward movements of men.</p> + +<p>The distinction between the servile spirit and the spirit of sonship +being thus radical, it could be by no mere formality, or exhibition of +his legal title, that Isaac became the heir of Godâs heritage. His +sacrifice on Moriah was the requisite condition of his succession to +Abrahamâs place; it was the only suitable celebration of his majority. +Abraham himself had been able to enter into covenant with God only by +sacrifice; and sacrifice not of a dead and external kind, but vivified +by an actual surrender of himself to God, and by so true a perception of +Godâs holiness and requirements, that he was in a horror of great +darkness. By no other process can any of his heirs succeed to the +inheritance. A true resignation of self, in whatever outward form this +resignation may appear, is required that we may become one with God in +His holy purposes and in His eternal blessedness. There could be no +doubt that Abraham had found a true heir, when Isaac laid himself on the +altar and steadied his heart to receive the knife. Dearer to God, and of +immeasurably greater value than any service, was this surrender of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> +himself into the hand of his Father and his God. In this was promise of +all service and all loving fellowship. âPrecious in the sight of the +Lord is the death of His saints. O Lord, truly I am Thy servant; I am +Thy servant, the son of Thine handmaid: Thou hast loosed my bonds.â</p> + +<p>So incomparable with the most distinguished service did this sacrifice +of Isaacâs self appear, that the record of his active life seems to have +had no interest to his contemporaries or successors. There was but this +one thing to say of him. No more seemed needful. The sacrifice was +indeed great, and worthy of commemoration. No act could so conclusively +have shown that Isaac was thoroughly at one with God. He had much to +live for; from his birth there hovered around him interests and hopes of +the most exciting and flattering nature; a new kind of glory such as had +not yet been attained on earth was to be attained, or, at any rate, +approached in him. This glory was certain to be realised, being +guaranteed by Godâs promise, so that his hopes might launch out in the +boldest confidence and give him the aspect and bearing of a king; while +it was uncertain in the time and manner of its realisation, so that the +most attractive mystery hung around his future. Plainly his was a life +worth entering on and living through; a life fit to engage and absorb a +manâs whole desire, interest, and effort; a life such as might well make +a man gird himself and resolve to play the man throughout, that so each +part of it might reveal its secret to him, and that none of its wonder +might be lost. It was a life which, above all others, seemed worth +protecting from all injury and risk, and for which, no doubt, not a few +of the home-born servants in the patriarchal encampment would +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> +have gladly ventured their own. There have, indeed, been few, if any, lives +of which it could so truly be said, The world cannot do without thisâat +all hazards and costs this must be cherished. And all this must have +been even more obvious to its owner than to any one else, and must have +begotten in him an unquestioning assurance, that he at least had a +charmed life, and would live and see good days. Yet with whatever shock +the command of God came upon him, there is no word of doubt or +remonstrance or rebellion. He gave his life to Him who had first given +it to him. And thus yielding himself to God, he entered into the +inheritance, and became worthy to stand to all time the representative +heir of God, as Abraham by his faith had become the father of the faithful.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="XVIII" id="XVIII"></a>XVIII.</h2> + +<h3>PURCHASE OF MACHPELAH.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xxiii.</h4> + +<p>It may be supposed to be a needless observation that our life is greatly +influenced by the fact that it speedily and certainly ends in death. But +it might be interesting, and it would certainly be surprising, to trace +out the various ways in which this fact influences life. Plainly every +human affair would be altered if we lived on here for ever, supposing +that were possible. What the world would be had we no predecessors, no +wisdom but what our own past experience and the genius of one generation +of men could produce, we can scarcely imagine. We can scarcely imagine +what life would be or what the world would be did not one generation +succeed and oust another and were we contemporary with the whole process +of history. It is the grand irreversible and universal law that we give +place and make room for others. The individual passes away, but the +history of the race proceeds. Here on earth in the meantime, and not +elsewhere, the history of the race is being played out, and each having +done his part, however small or however great, passes away. Whether an +individual, even the most gifted and powerful, could continue to be +helpful to the race for thousands of years, supposing his life were continued, it is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> +needless to inquire. Perhaps as steam has force only +at a certain pressure, so human force requires the condensation of a +brief life to give it elastic energy. But these are idle speculations. +They show us, however, that our life beyond death will be not so much a +prolongation of life as we now know it as an entire change in the form +of our existence; and they show us also that our little piece of the +worldâs work must be quickly done if it is to be done at all, and that +it will not be done at all unless we take our life seriously and own the +responsibilities we have to ourselves, to our fellows, to our God.</p> + +<p>Death comes sadly to the survivor, even when there is as little +untimeliness as in the case of Sarah; and as Abraham moved towards the +familiar tent the most intimate of his household would stand aloof and +respect his grief. The stillness that struck upon him, instead of the +usual greeting, as he lifted the tent-door; the dead order of all +inside; the one object that lay stark before him and drew him again and +again to look on what grieved him most to see; the chill which ran +through him as his lips touched the cold, stony forehead and gave him +sensible evidence how gone was the spirit from the clayâthese are +shocks to the human heart not peculiar to Abraham. But few have been so +strangely bound together as these two were, or have been so manifestly +given to one another by God, or have been forced to so close a mutual +dependence. Not only had they grown up in the same family, and been +together separated from their kindred, and passed through unusual and +difficult circumstances together, but they were made co-heirs of Godâs +promise in such a manner that neither could enjoy it without the other. +They were knit together, not merely by natural liking and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> +familiarity of intercourse, but by Godâs choosing them as the instrument of His work +and the fountain of His salvation. So that in Sarahâs death Abraham +doubtless read an intimation that his own work was done, and that his +generation is now out of date and ready to be supplanted.</p> + +<p>Abrahamâs grief is interrupted by the sad but wholesome necessity which +forces us from the blank desolation of watching by the dead to the +active duties that follow. She whose beauty had captivated two princes +must now be buried out of sight. So Abraham stands up from before his +dead. Such a moment requires the resolute fortitude and manly +self-control which that expression seems intended to suggest. There is +something within us which rebels against the ordinary ongoing of the +world side by side with our great woe; we feel as if either the whole +world must mourn with us, or we must go aside from the world and have +our grief out in private. The bustle of life seems so meaningless and +incongruous to one whom grief has emptied of all relish for it. We seem +to wrong the dead by every return of interest we show in the things of +life which no longer interest <i>him</i>. Yet he speaks truly who says:â</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">âWhen sorrow all our heart would ask,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We need not shun our daily task,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And hide ourselves for calm;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The herbs we seek to heal our woe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Familiar by our pathway grow,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Our common air is balm.â<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>We must resume our duties, not as if nothing had happened, not proudly +forgetting death and putting grief aside as if this life did not need +the chastening influence of such realities as we have been engaged +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> +with, or as if its business could not be pursued in an affectionate and +softened spirit, but acknowledging death as real and as humbling and +sobering.</p> + +<p>Abraham then goes forth to seek a grave for Sarah, having already with a +common predilection fixed on the spot where he himself would prefer to +be laid. He goes accordingly to the usual meeting-place or exchange of +these times, the city-gate, where bargains were made, and where +witnesses for their ratification could always be had. Men who are +familiar with Eastern customs rather spoil for us the scene described in +this chapter by assuring us that all these courtesies and large offers +are merely the ordinary forms preliminary to a bargain, and were as +little meant to be literally understood as we mean to be literally +understood when we sign ourselves âyour most obedient servant.â Abraham +asks the Hittite chiefs to approach Ephron on the subject, because all +bargains of the kind are negotiated through mediators. Ephronâs offer of +the cave and field is merely a form. Abraham quite understood that +Ephron only indicated his willingness to deal, and so he urges him to +state his price, which Ephron is not slow to do; and apparently his +price was a handsome one such as he could not have asked from a poorer +man, for he adds, âWhat are four hundred shekels between wealthy men +like you and me? Without more words let the bargain be closedâbury thy +dead.â</p> + +<p>The first landed property, then, of the patriarchs is a grave. In this +tomb were laid Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca; here, too, Jacob +buried Leah, and here Jacob himself desired to be laid after his death, +his last words being, âBury me with my fathers in the cave that is in +the field of Ephron the Hittite.â This grave, therefore, becomes the centre of the land. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> +Where the dust of our fathers is, there is our +country; and as you may often hear aged persons, who are content to die +and have little else to pray for, still express a wish that they may +rest in the old well-remembered churchyard where their kindred lie, and +may thus in the weakness of death find some comfort, and in its +solitariness some companionship from the presence of those who tenderly +sheltered the helplessness of their childhood; so does this place of the +dead become henceforth the centre of attraction for all Abrahamâs seed +to which still from Egypt their longings and hopes turn, as to the one +magnetic point which, having once been fixed there, binds them ever to +the land. It is this grave which binds them to the land. This laying of +Sarah in the tomb is the real occupation of the land.</p> + +<p>During the lapse of ages, all around this spot has been changed again +and again; but at some remote period, possibly as early as the time of +David, the reverence of the Jews built these tombs round with masonry so +substantial that it still endures. Within the space thus enclosed there +stood for long a Christian church, but since the Mohammedan domination +was established, a mosque has covered the spot. This mosque has been +guarded against Christian intrusion with a jealousy almost as rigid as +that which excludes all unbelievers from approaching Mecca. And though +the Prince of Wales was a few years ago allowed to enter the mosque, he +was not permitted to make any examination of the vaults beneath, where +the original tomb must be.</p> + +<p>It is evident that this narrative of the purchase of Machpelah and the +burial of Sarah was preserved, not so much on account of the personal +interest which Abraham had in these matters, as on account of the manifest +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> +significance they had in connection with the history of his +faith. He had recently heard from his own kindred in Mesopotamia, and it +might very naturally have occurred to him that the proper place to bury +Sarah was in his fatherland. The desire to lie among oneâs people is a +very strong Eastern sentiment. Even tribes which have no dislike to +emigration make provision that at death their bodies shall be restored +to their own country. The Chinese notoriously do so. Abraham, therefore, +could hardly have expressed his faith in a stronger form than by +purchasing a burying-ground for himself in Canaan. It was equivalent to +saying in the most emphatic form that he believed this country would +remain in perpetuity the country of his children and people. He had as +yet given no such pledge as this was, that he had irrevocably abandoned +his fatherland. He had bought no other landed property; he had built no +house. He shifted his encampment from place to place as convenience +dictated, and there was nothing to hinder him from returning at any time +to his old country. But now he fixed himself down; he said, as plainly +as acts can say, that his mind was made up that this was to be in all +time coming his land; this was no mere right of pasture rented for the +season, no mere waste land he might occupy with his tents till its owner +wished to reclaim it; it was no estate he could put into the market +whenever trade should become dull and he might wish to realise or to +leave the country; but it was a kind of property which he could not sell +and could not abandon.</p> + +<p>Again, his determination to hold it in perpetuity is evident not only +from the nature of the property, but also from the formal purchase and +conveyance of itâthe complete and precise terms in which the transaction is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> +completed. The narrative is careful to remind us again +and again that the whole transaction was negotiated in the audience of +the people of the land, of all those who went in at the gate, that the +sale was thoroughly approved and witnessed by competent authorities. The +precise subjects made over to Abraham are also detailed with all the +accuracy of a legal documentââthe field of Ephron, which was in +Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field and the cave which was +therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the +borders round about, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession in the +presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of +his city.â Abraham had no doubt of the friendliness of such men as Aner, +Eshcol, and Mamre, his ancient allies, but he was also aware that the +best way to maintain friendly relations was to leave no loophole by +which difference of opinion or disagreement might enter. Let the thing +be in black and white, so that there may be no misunderstanding as to +terms, no expectations doomed to be unfulfilled, no encroachments which +must cause resentment, if not retaliation. Law probably does more to +prevent quarrels than to heal them. As statesmen and historians tell us +that the best way to secure peace is to be prepared for war, so legal +documents seem no doubt harsh and unfriendly, but really are more +effective in maintaining peace and friendliness than vague promises and +benevolent intentions. In arranging affairs and engagements one is +always tempted to say, Never mind about the money, see how the thing +turns out and we can settle that by-and-bye; or, in looking at a will, +one is tempted to ask, of what strength is Christian feelingânot to say +family affectionâif all these hard-and-fast lines need to be drawn round the little bit of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> +property which each is to have? But experience +shows that this is false delicacy, and that kindliness and charity may +be as fully and far more safely expressed in definite and legal terms +than in loose promises or mere understandings.</p> + +<p>Again, Abrahamâs idea in purchasing this sepulchre is brought out by the +circumstance that he would not accept the offer of the children of Heth +to use one of their sepulchres. This was not pride of blood or any +feeling of that sort, but the right feeling that what God had promised +as His own peculiar gift must not seem to be given by men. Possibly no +great harm might have come of it if Abraham had accepted the gift of a +mere cave, or a shelf in some other manâs burying-ground; but Abraham +could not bear to think that any captious person should ever be able to +say that the inheritance promised by God was really the gift of a +Hittite.</p> + +<p>Similar captiousness appears not only in the experience of the +individual Christian, but also in the treatment religion gets from the +world. It is quite apparent, that is to say, that the world counts +itself the real proprietor here, and Christianity a stranger fortunately +or unfortunately thrown upon its shores and upon <i>its mercy</i>. One cannot +miss noticing the patronising way of the world towards the Church and +all that is connected with it, as if it alone could give it those things +needful for its prosperityâand especially willing is it to come forward +in the Hittite fashion and offer to the sojourner a sepulchre where it +may be decently buried, and as a dead thing lie out of the way.</p> + +<p>But thoughts of a still wider reach were no doubt suggested to Abraham by this purchase. Often must +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> +he have brooded on the sacrifice of Isaac, +seeking to exhaust its meaning. Many a talk in the dusk must his son and +he have had about that most strange experience. And no doubt the one +thing that seemed always certain about it was, that it is through death +a man truly becomes the heir of God; and here again in this purchase of +a tomb for Sarah it is the same fact that stares him in the face. He +becomes a proprietor when death enters his family; he himself, he feels, +is likely to have no more than this burial-acre of possession of his +land; it is only by dying he enters on actual possession. Till then he +is but a tenant, not a proprietor; as he says to the children of Heth, +he is but a stranger and a sojourner among them, but at death he will +take up his permanent dwelling in their midst. Was this not to suggest +to him that there might be a deeper meaning underlying this, and that +possibly it was only by death he could enter fully into all that God +intended he should receive? No doubt in the first instance it was a +severe trial to his faith to find that even at his wifeâs death he had +acquired no firmer foothold in the land. No doubt it was the very +triumph of his faith that though he himself had never had a settled, +permanent residence in the land, but had dwelt in tents, moving about +from place to place, just as he had done the first year of his entrance +upon it, yet he died in the unalterable persuasion that the land was +his, and that it would one day be filled with his descendants. It was +the triumph of his faith that he believed in the performance of the +promise as he had originally understood it; that he believed in the gift +of the actual visible land. But it is difficult to believe that he did +not come to the persuasion that Godâs friendship was more than any single thing He promised; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> +difficult to suppose he did not feel +something of what our Lord expressed in the words that God is the God of +the living, not of the dead; that those who are His enter by death into +some deeper and richer experience of His love.</p> + +<p>Such is the interpretation put upon Abrahamâs attitude of mind by the +writer, who of all others saw most deeply into the moving principles of +the Old Testament dispensation and the connection between old things and +newâI mean the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews. He says that +persons who act as Abraham did declare plainly that they seek a country; +and if on finding they did not get the country in which they sojourned +they thought the promise had failed, they might, he says, have found +opportunity to return to the country whence they came at first. And why +did they not do so? Because they sought a better, that is, an heavenly +country. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He +hath prepared for them a city; as if He said, God would have been +ashamed of Abraham if he had been content with less, and had not aspired +to something more than he received in the land of Canaan.</p> + +<p>Now how else could Abrahamâs mind have been so effectually lifted to +this exalted hope as by the disappointment of his original and much +tamer hope? Had he gained possession of the land in the ordinary way of +purchase or conquest, and had he been able to make full use of it for +the purposes of life; had he acquired meadows where his cattle might +graze, towns where his followers might establish themselves, would he +not almost certainly have fallen into the belief that in these pastures +and by his worldly wealth and quiet and prosperity he was already exhausting Godâs promise +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> +regarding the land? But buying the land for +his dead he is forced to enter upon it from the right side, with the +idea that not by present enjoyment of its fertility is Godâs promise to +him exhausted. Both in the getting of his heir and in the acquisition of +his land his mind is led to contemplate things beyond the range of +earthly vision and earthly success. He is led to the thought that God +having become his God, this means blessing eternal as God Himself. In +short Abraham came to believe in a life beyond the grave on very much +the same grounds as many people still rely on. They feel that this life +has an unaccountable poverty and meagreness in it. They feel that they +themselves are much larger than the life here allotted to them. They are +out of proportion. It may be said that this is their own fault; they +should make life a larger, richer thing. But that is only apparently +true; the very brevity of life, which no skill of theirs can alter, is +itself a limiting and disappointing condition. Moreover, it seems +unworthy of God as well as of man. As soon as a worthy conception of God +possesses the soul, the idea of immortality forthwith follows it. We +instinctively feel that God can do far more for us than is done in this +life. Our knowledge of Him here is most rudimentary; our connection with +Him obscure and perplexed, and wanting in fulness of result; we seem +scarcely to know whose we are, and scarcely to be reconciled to the +essential conditions of life, or even to God;âwe are, in short, in a +very different kind of life from that which we can conceive and desire. +Besides, a serious belief in God, in a personal Spirit, removes at a +touch all difficulties arising from materialism. If God lives and yet +has no senses or bodily appearance, we also may so live; and if His is the higher state +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> +and the more enjoyable state, we need not dread to +experience life as disembodied spirits.</p> + +<p>It is certainly a most acceptable lesson that is read to us hereâviz., +that Godâs promises do not shrivel, but grow solid and expand as we +grasp them. Abraham went out to enter on possession of a few fields a +little richer than his own, and he found an eternal inheritance. +Naturally we think quite the opposite of Godâs promises; we fancy they +are grandiloquent and magnify things, and that the actual fulfilment +will prove unworthy of the language describing it. But as the woman who +came to touch the hem of Christâs garment with some dubious hope that +thus her body might be healed, found herself thereby linked to Christ +for evermore, so always, if we meet God at any one point and honestly +trust Him for even the smallest gift, He makes that the means of +introducing Himself to us and getting us to understand the value of His +better gifts. And indeed, if this life were all, might not God well be +ashamed to call Himself our God? When He calls Himself our God He bids +us expect to find in Him inexhaustible resources to protect and satisfy +and enrich us. He bids us cherish boldly all innocent and natural +desires, believing that we have in Him one who can gratify every such +desire. But if this life be all, who can say existence has been +perfectly satisfactoryâif there be no reversal of what has here gone +wrong, no restoration of what has here been lost, if there be no life in +which conscience and ideas and hopes find their fulfilment and +satisfaction, who can say he is content and could ask no more of God? +Who can say he does not see what more God could do for him than has here +been done? Doubtless there are many happy lives, doubtless there are lives which carry in them a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> +worthiness and a sacredness which manifest +Godâs presence, but even such lives only more powerfully suggest a state +in which all lives shall be holy and happy, and in which, freed from +inward uneasiness and shame and sorrow, we shall live unimpeded the +highest life, life as we feel it ought to be. The very joys men have +here experienced suggest to them the desirableness of continued life; +the love they have known can only intensify their yearning for this +perpetual enjoyment; their whole experience of this life has served to +reveal to them the endless possibilities of growth and of activity that +are bound up in human nature; and if death is to end all this, what more +has life been to any of us than a seed-time without a harvest, an +education without any sphere of employment, a vision of good that can +never be ours, a striving after the unattainable? If this is all that +God can give us we must indeed be disappointed in Him.</p> + +<p>But He is disappointed in us if we do not aspire to more than this. In +this sense also He is ashamed to be called our God. He is ashamed to be +known as the God of men who never aspire to higher blessings than +earthly comfort and present prosperity. He is ashamed to be known as +connected with those who think so lightly of His power that they look +for nothing beyond what every man calculates on getting in this world. +God means all present blessings and all blessings of a lower kind to +lure us on to trust Him and seek more and more from Him. In these early +promises of His He says nothing expressly and distinctly of things +eternal. He appeals to the immediate wants and present longings of +menâjust as our Lord while on earth drew men to Himself by healing their diseases. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> +Take, then, any one promise of God, and, however small +it seems at first, it will grow in your hand; you will find always that +you get more than you bargained for, that you cannot take even a little +without going further and receiving all.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="XIX" id="XIX"></a>XIX.</h2> + +<h3>ISAACâS MARRIAGE.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xxiv.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>âFavour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth +the Lord, she shall be praised.ââ<span class="smcap">Prov.</span> xxxi. 30.</p></div> + +<p>âWhen a son has attained the age of twenty years, his father, if able, +should marry him, and then take his hand and say, I have disciplined +thee, and taught thee, and married thee; I now seek refuge with God from +thy mischief in the present world and the next.â This Mohammedan +tradition expresses with tolerable accuracy the idea of the Eastern +world, that a father has not discharged his responsibilities towards his +son until he finds a wife for him. Abraham no doubt fully recognised his +duty in this respect, but he had allowed Isaac to pass the usual age. He +was thirty-seven at his motherâs death, forty when the events of this +chapter occurred. This delay was occasioned by two causes. The bond +between Isaac and his mother was an unusually strong one; and alongside +of that imperious woman a young wife would have found it even more +difficult than usual to take a becoming place. Besides, where was a wife +to be found? No doubt some of Abrahamâs Hittite friends would have +considered any daughter of theirs exceptionally fortunate who should secure so good an alliance. The +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> +heir of Abraham was no inconsiderable +person even when measured by Hittite expectations. And it may have taxed +Abrahamâs sagacity to find excuses for not forming an alliance which +seemed so natural, and which would have secured to him and his heirs a +settled place in the country. This was so obvious, common, easily +accomplished a means of gaining a footing for Isaac among somewhat +dangerous neighbours, that it stands to reason Abraham must often have +weighed its advantages.</p> + +<p>But as often as he weighed the advantages of this solution of his +difficulty, so often did he reject them. He was resolved that the race +should be of pure Hebrew blood. His own experience in connection with +Hagar had given this idea a settled prominence in his mind. And, +accordingly, in his instructions to the servant whom he sent to find a +wife for Isaac, two things were insisted onâ1st, that she should not be +a Canaanite; and, 2nd, that on no pretext should Isaac be allowed to +leave the land of promise and visit Mesopotamia. The steward, knowing +something of men and women, foresaw that it was most unlikely that a +young woman would forsake her own land and preconceived hopes and go +away with a stranger to a foreign country. Abraham believes she will be +persuaded. But in any case, he says, one thing must be seen to; Isaac +must on no account be induced to leave the promised land even to visit +Mesopotamia. God will furnish Isaac with a wife without putting him into +circumstances of great temptation, without requiring him to go into +societies in the slightest degree injurious to his faith. In fact, +Abraham refused to do what countless Christian mothers of marriageable +sons and daughters do without compunction. He had an insight into the real influences +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> +that form action and determine careers which many of us +sadly lack.</p> + +<p>And his faith was rewarded. The tidings from his brotherâs family +arrived in the nick of time. Light, he found, was sown for the upright. +It happened with him as it has doubtless often happened with ourselves, +that though we have been looking forward to a certain time with much +anxiety, unable even to form a plan of action, yet when the time +actually came, things seemed to arrange themselves, and the thing to do +became quite obvious. Abraham was persuaded God would send His angel to +bring the affair to a happy issue. And when we seem drifting towards +some great upturning of our life, or when things seem to come all of a +sudden and in crowds upon us, so that we cannot judge what we should do, +it is an animating thought that another eye than ours is penetrating the +darkness, finding for us a way through all entanglement and making +crooked things straight for us.</p> + +<p>But the patience of Isaac was quite as remarkable as the faith of +Abraham. He was now forty years old, and if, as he had been told, the +great aim of his life, the great service he was to render to the world, +was bound up with the rearing of a family, he might with some reason be +wondering why circumstances were so adverse to the fulfilment of this +vocation. Must he not have been tempted, as his father had been, to take +matters into his own hand? Fathers are perhaps too scrupulous about +telling their sons instructive passages from their own experience; but +when Abraham saw Isaac exercised and discomposed about this matter, he +can scarcely have failed to strengthen his spirit by telling him +something of his own mistakes in life. Abraham must have seen that everything depended on Isaacâs +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> +conduct, and that he had a very difficult part to play. He himself had been supernaturally encouraged to +leave his own land and sojourn in Canaan; on the other hand, by the time +Jacob grew up, the idea of the promised land had become traditional and +fixed; though even Jacob, had he found Laban a better master, might have +permanently renounced his expectations in Canaan. But Isaac enjoyed the +advantages neither of the first nor of the third generation. The coming +into Canaan was not his doing, and he saw how little of the land Abraham +had gained. He was under strong temptation to disbelieve. And when he +measured his condition with that of other young men, he certainly +required unusual self-control. And to every one who would urge, Youth is +passing, and I am not getting what I expected at Godâs hand; I have not +received that providential leading I was led to expect, nor do I find +that my life is made simpler; it is very well to tell me to wait, but +life is slipping away, and we may wait too longâto every one whose +heart urges such murmurs, Abraham through Isaac would say: But if you +wait for God you get something, some positive good, and not some mere +appearance of good; you at last do get begun, you get into life at the +right door; whereas if you follow some other way than that which you +believe God wishes to lead you in, you get nothing.</p> + +<p>Isaacâs continence had its reward. In the suitableness of Rebekah to a +man of his nature, we see the suitableness of all such gifts of God as +are really waited for at His hand. God may keep us longer waiting than +the world does, but He gives us never the wrong thing. Isaac had no idea +of Rebekahâs character; he could only yield himself to Godâs knowledge +of what he needed; and so there came to him, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> +from a country he had never seen, a help-meet singularly adapted to his own character. One +cannot read of her lively, bustling, almost forward, but obliging and +generous conduct at the well, nor of her prompt, impulsive departure to +an unknown land, without seeing, as no doubt Eliezer very quickly saw, +that this was exactly the woman for Isaac. In this eager, ardent, +active, enterprising spirit, his own retiring and contemplative, if not +sombre disposition found its appropriate relief and stimulus. Hers was a +spirit which might indeed, with so mild a lord, take more of the +management of affairs than was befitting; and when the wear and tear of +life had tamed down the girlish vivacity with which she spoke to Eliezer +at the well, and leapt from the camel to meet her lord, her +active-mindedness does appear in the disagreeable shape of the clever +scheming of the mother of a family. In her sons you see her qualities +exaggerated: from her, Esau derived his activity and open-handedness; +and in Jacob, you find that her self-reliant and unscrupulous management +has become a self-asserting craft which leads him into much trouble, if +it also sometimes gets him out of difficulties. But such as Rebekah was, +she was quite the woman to attract Isaac and supplement his character.</p> + +<p>So in other cases where you find you must leave yourself very much in +Godâs hand, what He sends you will be found more precisely adapted to +your character than if you chose it for yourself. You find your whole +nature has been considered,âyour aims, your hopes, your wants, your +position, whatever in you waits for something unattained. And as in +giving to Isaac the intended mother of the promised seed, God gave him a +woman who fitted in to all the peculiarities +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> +of his nature, and was a comfort and a joy to him in his own life; so we shall always find that +God, in satisfying His own requirements, satisfies at the same time our +wantsâthat God carries forward His work in the world by the +satisfaction of the best and happiest feelings of our nature, so that it +is not only the result that is blessedness, but blessing is created +along its whole course.</p> + +<p>Abrahamâs servant, though not very sanguine of success, does all in his +power to earn it. He sets out with an equipment fitted to inspire +respect and confidence. But as he draws nearer and nearer to the city of +Nahor, revolving the delicate nature of his errand, and feeling that +definite action must now be taken, he sees so much room for making an +irreparable mistake that he resolves to share his responsibility with +the God of his master. And the manner in which he avails himself of +Godâs guidance is remarkable. He does not ask God to guide him to the +house of Bethuel; indeed, there was no occasion to do so, for any child +could have pointed out the house to him. But he was a cautious person, +and he wished to make his own observations on the appearance and conduct +of the younger women of the household, before in any way committing +himself to them. He was free to make these observations at the well; +while he felt it must be very awkward to enter Labanâs house with the +possibility of leaving it dissatisfied. At the same time, he felt it was +for God rather than for him to choose a wife for Isaac. So he made an +arrangement by which the interposition of God was provided for. He meant +to make his own selection, guided necessarily by the comparative +attractiveness of the women who came for water, possibly also by some family likeness +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> +to Sarah or Isaac he might expect to see in any women +of Bethuelâs house; but knowing the deceitfulness of appearances, he +asked God to confirm and determine his own choice by moving the girl he +should address to give him a certain answer. Having arranged this, +âBehold! Rebekah came out with her pitcher upon her shoulder, and the +damsel was very fair to look upon.â In the Bible the beauty of women is +frankly spoken of without prudery or mawkishness as an influence in +human affairs. The beauty of Rebekah at once disposed Eliezer to address +her, and his first impression in her favour was confirmed by the +obliging, cheerful alacrity with which she did very much more than she +was asked, and, indeed, took upon herself, through her kindness of +disposition, a task of some trouble and fatigue.</p> + +<p>It is important to observe then in what sense and to what extent this +capable servant asked a sign. He did not ask for a bare, intrinsically +insignificant sign. He might have done so. He might have proposed as a +test, Let her who stumbles on the first step of the well be the designed +wife of Isaac; or, Let her who comes with a certain-coloured flower in +her handâor so forth. But the sign he chose was significant, because +dependent on the character of the girl herself; a sign which must reveal +her good-heartedness and readiness to oblige and courteous activity in +the entertainment of strangersâin fact, the outstanding Eastern virtue. +So that he really acted very much as Isaac himself must have done. He +would make no approach to any one whose appearance repelled him; and +when satisfied in this particular, he would test her disposition. And of +course it was these qualities of Rebekah which afterwards caused Isaac to feel that this was the wife +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> +God had designed for him. It was not by +any arbitrary sign that he or any man could come to know who was the +suitable wife for him, but only by the love she aroused within him. God +has given this feeling to direct choice in marriage; and where this is +wanting, nothing else whatever, no matter how astoundingly providential +it seems, ought to persuade a man that such and such a person is +designed to be his wife.</p> + +<p>There are turning points in life at once so momentous in their +consequence, and affording so little material for choice, that one is +much tempted to ask for more than providential leading. Not only among +savages and heathen have omens been sought. Among Christians there has +been manifest a constant disposition to appeal to the lot, or to accept +some arbitrary way of determining which course we should follow. In very +many predicaments we should be greatly relieved were there some one who +could at once deliver us from all hesitation and mental conflict by one +authoritative word. There are, perhaps, few things more frequently and +determinedly wished for, nor regarding which we are so much tempted to +feel that such a thing should be, as some infallible guide before whom +we could lay every difficulty; who would tell us at once what ought to +be done in each case, and whether we ought to continue as we are or make +some change. But only consider for a moment what would be the +consequence of having such a guide. At every important step of your +progress you would, of course, instantly turn to him; as soon as doubt +entered your mind regarding the moral quality of an action, or the +propriety of a course you think of adopting, you would be at your +counsellor. And what would be the consequence? The consequence would be, +that instead of the various circumstances, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> +experiences, and temptations of this life being a training to you, your conscience would every day +become less able to guide you, and your will less able to decide, until, +instead of being a mature son of God, who has learned to conform his +conscience and will to the will of God, you would be quite imbecile as a +moral creature. What God desires by our training here is, that we become +like to Him; that there be nurtured in us a power to discern between +good and evil; that by giving our own voluntary consent to His +appointments, and that by discovering in various and perplexing +circumstances what is the right thing to do, we may have our own moral +natures as enlightened, strengthened, and fully developed every way as +possible. The object of God in declaring His will to us is not to point +out particular steps, but to bring our wills into conformity with His, +so that whether we err in any particular step or no, we shall still be +near to Him in intention. He does with us as we with children. We do not +always at once relieve them from their little difficulties, but watch +with interest the working of their own conscience regarding the matter, +and will give them no sign till they themselves have decided.</p> + +<p>Evidently, therefore, before we may dare to ask a sign from God, the +case must be a very special one. If you are at present engaged in +something that is to your own conscience doubtful, and if you are not +hiding this from God, but would very willingly, so far as you know your +own mind, do in the matter what He pleasesâif no further light is +coming to you, and you feel a growing inclination to put it to God in +this way: âGrant, O Lord, that something may happen by which I may know +Thy mind in this matterââthis is asking from God a kind of help which He is very ready to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> +give, often leading men to clearer views of duty by +events which happen within their knowledge, and which having no special +significance to persons whose minds are differently occupied, are yet +most instructive to those who are waiting for light on some particular +point. The danger is not here, but in fixing God down to the special +thing which shall happen as a sign between Him and you; which, when it +happens, gives no fresh light on the subject, leaves your mind still +<i>morally</i> undecided, but only binds you, by an arbitrary bargain of your +own, to follow one course rather than another. This matter that you +would so summarily dispose of may be the very thread of your life which +God means to test you by; this state of indecision which you would +evade, God may mean to continue until your moral character grows strong +enough to rise above it to the right decision.</p> + +<p>No one will suppose that Rebekahâs readiness to leave her home was due +to mere light-mindedness. Her motives were no doubt mixed. The worldly +position offered to her was good, and there was an attractive spice of +romance about the whole affair which would have its charm. She may also +be credited with some apprehension of the great future of Isaacâs +family. In after life she certainly showed a very keen sense of the +value of the blessings peculiar to that household. And, probably above +all, she had an irresistible feeling that this was her destiny. She saw +the hand of God in her selection, and with a more or less conscious +faith in God she passed to her new life.</p> + +<p>Her first meeting with her future husband is not the least picturesque +passage in this most picturesque narrative. Isaac had gone out on that +side of the encampment by which he knew his fatherâs messenger was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> +most likely to approach. He had gone out âto meditate at even-tide;â his +meditation being necessarily directed and intensified by his attitude of +critical expectancy.</p> + +<p>The evening light, in our country hanging dubiously between the glare of +noon and the darkness of midnight, invites to that condition of mind +which lies between the intense alertness of day and the deep oblivion of +sleep, and which seems the most favourable for the meditation of divine +things. The dusk of evening seems interposed between day and night to +invite us to that reflection which should intervene betwixt our labour +and our rest from labour, that we may leave our work behind us satisfied +that we have done what we could, or, seeing its faultiness, may still +lay us down to sleep with Godâs forgiveness. It is when the bright +sunlight has gone, and no more reproaches our inactivity, that friends +can enjoy prolonged intercourse, and can best unbosom to one another, as +if the darkness gave opportunity for a tenderness which would be ashamed +to show itself during the twelve hours in which a man shall work. And +all that makes this hour so beloved by the family circle, and so +conducive to friendly intercourse, makes it suitable also for such +intercourse with God as each human soul can attempt. Most of us suppose +we have some little plot of time railed off for God morning and evening, +but how often does it get trodden down by the profane multitude of this +worldâs cares, and quite occupied by encroaching secular engagements. +But evening is the time when many men are, and when all men ought to be +least hurried; when the mind is placid, but not yet prostrate; when the +body requires rest from its ordinary labour, but is not yet so oppressed +with fatigue as to make devotion a mockery; when the din of this worldâs business +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span> +is silenced, and as a sleeper wakes to consciousness when some +accustomed noise is checked, so the soul now wakes up to the thought of +itself and of God. I know not whether those of us who have the +opportunity have also the resolution to sequester ourselves evening by +evening, as Isaac did; but this I do know, that he who does so will not +fail of his reward, but will very speedily find that his Father who +seeth in secret is manifestly rewarding him. What we all need above all +things is to let the mind <i>dwell</i> on divine thingsâto be able to sit +down knowing we have so much clear time in which we shall not be +disturbed, and during which we shall think directly under Godâs eyeâto +get quite rid of the feeling of getting through with something, so that +without distraction the soul may take a deliberate survey of its own +matters. And so shall often Godâs gifts appear on our horizon when we +lift up our eyes, as Isaac âlifted up his eyes and saw the camels +comingâ with his bride.</p> + +<p>Twilight, ânatureâs vesper-bell,â or the light shaded at evening by the +hills of Palestine, seems, then, to have called Isaac to a familiar +occupation. This long-continued mourning for his mother, and his lonely +meditation in the fields, are both in harmony with what we know of his +character, and of his experience on Mount Moriah. Retiring and +contemplative, willing to conciliate by concession rather than to assert +and maintain his rights against opposition, glad to yield his own +affairs to the strong guidance of some other hand, tender and deep in +his affections, to him this lonely meditation seems singularly +appropriate. His dwelling, too, was remote, on the edge of the +wilderness, by the well which Hagar had named Lahai-roi. Here he dwelt +as one consecrated to God, feeling little desire to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span> +enter deeper into the world, and preferring the place where the presence of God was least +disturbed by the society of men. But at this time he had come from the +south, and was awaiting at his fatherâs encampment the result of +Eliezerâs mission. And one can conceive the thrill of keen expectancy +that shot through him as he saw the female figure alighting from the +camel, the first eager exchange of greetings, and the gladness with +which he brought Rebekah into his mother Sarahâs tent and was comforted +after his motherâs death. The readiness with which he loved her seems to +be referred in the narrative to the grief he still felt for his mother; +for as a candle is never so easily lit as just after it has been put +out, so the affection of Isaac, still emitting the sad memorial of a +past love, more quickly caught at the new object presented. And thus was +consummated a marriage which shows us how thoroughly interwrought are +the plans of God and the life of man, each fulfilling the other.</p> + +<p>For as the salvation God introduces into the world is a practical, +every-day salvation to deliver us from the sins which this life tempts +us to, so God introduced this salvation by means of the natural +affections and ordinary arrangements of human life. God would have us +recognise in our lives what He shows us in this chapter, that He has +made provision for our wants, and that if we wait upon Him He will bring +us into the enjoyment of all we really need. So that if we are to make +any advance in appropriating to ourselves Godâs salvation, it can only +be by submitting ourselves implicitly to His providence, and taking care +that in the commonest and most secular actions of our lives we are +having respect to His will with us, and that in those actions in which our own feelings and desires +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span> +seem sufficient to guide us, we are having +regard to His controlling wisdom and goodness. We are to find room for +God everywhere in our lives, not feeling embarrassed by the thought of +His claims even in our least constrained hours, but subordinating to His +highest and holiest ends everything that our life contains, and +acknowledging as His gift what may seem to be our own most proper conquest or earning.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="XX" id="XX"></a>XX.</h2> + +<h3>ESAU AND JACOB.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xxv.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>âHe goeth as an ox goeth to the slaughter, till a dart strike +through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not +that it is for his life.ââ<span class="smcap">Prov.</span> vii. 22, 23.</p></div> + +<p>The character and career of Isaac would seem to tell us that it is +possible to have too great a father. Isaac was dwarfed and weakened by +growing up under the shadow of Abraham. Of his life there was little to +record, and what was recorded was very much a reproduction of some of +the least glorious passages of his fatherâs career. The digging of wells +for his flocks was among the most notable events in his commonplace +life, and even in this he only re-opened the wells his father had dug.</p> + +<p>In him we see the result of growing up under too strong and dominant an +external influence. The free and healthy play of his own capacities and +will was curbed. The sons of outstanding fathers are much tempted to +follow in the wake of <i>their</i> success, and be too much controlled and +limited by the example therein set to them. There is a great deal to +induce a son to do so; this calling has been successful in his fatherâs +case, what better can he do than follow? Also he may get the use of his +<i>wells</i>âthose sources his father has +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> +opened for the easier or more abundant maintenance of those dependent on him, the business he has +established, the practice he has made, the connections he has +formedâthese are useful if he follows in his fatherâs line of life. But +all this tends, as in Isaacâs case, to the stunting of the man himself. +Life is made too easy for him.</p> + +<p>Isaac has been called âthe Wordsworth of the Old Testament,â but his +meditative disposition seems to have degenerated into mere dreamy +apathy, which, at last, made him the tool of the more active-minded +members of his family, and was also attended by its common accompaniment +of sensuality. It seems also to have brought him to a condition of +almost entire bodily prostration, for a comparison of dates shows that +he must have spent forty or fifty years in blindness and incapacity for +all active duty. Neither can this greatly surprise us, for it is +abundantly open to our own observation that men of the finest spiritual +discernment, and of whose godliness in the main one cannot doubt, are +also frequently the prey of the most childish tastes, and most useless +even to the extent of doing harm in practical matters. They do not see +the evil that is growing in their own family; or, if they see it, they +cannot rouse themselves to check it.</p> + +<p>Isaacâs marriage, though so promising in the outset, brought new trial +into his life. Rebekah had to repeat the experience of Sarah. The +intended mother of the promised seed was left for twenty years +childlessâto contend with the doubts, surmises, evil proposals, proud +challengings of God, and murmurings, which must undoubtedly have arisen +even in so bright and spirited a heart as Rebekahâs. It was thus she was +taught the seriousness of the position she had chosen +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> +for herself, and gradually led to the implicit faith requisite for the discharge of its +responsibilities. Many young persons have a similar experience. They +seem to themselves to have chosen a wrong position, to have made a +thorough mistake in life, and to have brought themselves into +circumstances in which they only retard, or quite prevent, the +prosperity of those with whom they are connected. In proportion as +Rebekah loved Isaac, and entered into his prospects, must she have been +tempted to think she had far better have remained in Padan-aram. It is a +humbling thing to stand in some other personâs way; but if it is by no +fault of ours, but in obedience to affection or conscience we are in +this position, we must, in humility and patience, wait upon Providence +as Rebekah did, and resist all morbid despondency.</p> + +<p>This second barrenness in the prospective mother of the promised seed +was as needful to all concerned as the first was; for the people of God, +no more than any others, can learn in one lesson. They must again be +brought to a real dependence on God as the Giver of the heir. The prayer +with which Isaac âentreatedâ the Lord for his wife âbecause she was +barrenâ was a prayer of deeper intensity than he could have uttered had +he merely remembered the story that had been told him of his own birth. +God must be recognised again and again and throughout as the Giver of +life to the promised line. We are all apt to suppose that when once we +have got a thing in train and working we can get on without God. How +often do we pray for the bestowal of a blessing, and forget to pray for +its continuance? How often do we count it enough that God has conferred +some gift, and, not inviting Him to continue His agency, but trusting to ourselves, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span> +we mar His gift in the use? Learn, therefore, that although +God has given you means of working out His salvation, your Rebekah will +be barren without His continued activity. On His own means you must +re-invite His blessing, for without the continuance of His aid you will +make nothing of the most beautiful and appropriate helps He has given +you.</p> + +<p>It was by pain, anxiety, and almost dismay, that Rebekah received +intimation that her prayer was answered. In this she is the type of many +whom God hears. Inward strife, miserable forebodings, deep dejection, +are often the first intimations that God is listening to our prayer and +is beginning to work within us. You have prayed that God would make you +more a blessing to those about you, more useful in your place, more +answerable to His ends: and when your prayer has risen to its highest +point of confidence and expectation, you are thrown into what seems a +worse state than ever, your heart is broken within you, you say, Is this +the answer to my prayer, is this Godâs blessing; if it be so, why am I +thus? For things that make a man serious, happen when God takes him in +hand, and they that yield themselves to His service will not find that +that service is all honour and enjoyment. Its first steps will often +land us in a position we can make nothing of, and our attempts to aid +others will get us into difficulties with them; and especially will our +desire that Christ be formed in us bring into such lively action the +evil nature that is in us, that we are torn by the conflict, and our +heart lies like the ground of a fierce struggle, seamed and furrowed, +tossed and confused. As soon as there is a movement within us in one +direction, immediately there is an opposing movement: as soon as one of the natures +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span> +says, Do this; the other says, Do it not. The better nature +is gaining slightly the upper hand, and by a long, steady strain, seems +to be wearying out the other, when suddenly there is one quick stroke +and the evil nature conquers. And every movement of the parties is with +pain to ourselves; either conscience is wronged, and gives out its cry +of shame, or our natural desires are trodden down, and that also is +pain. And so disconnected and connected are we, so entirely one with +both parties, and yet so able to contemplate both that Rebekahâs +distress seems aptly enough to symbolize our own. And whether the symbol +be apt or no, there can be no question that he who enquires of the Lord +as she did, will receive a similar assurance that there are two natures +within him, and that âthe elder shall serve the younger,â the nature +last formed, and that seems to give least promise of life, shall master +the original, eldest born child of the flesh.</p> + +<p>The children whose birth and destinies were thus predicted, at once gave +evidence of a difference even greater than that which will often strike +one as existing between two brothers, though rarely between twins. The +first was born, all over like a hairy garment, presenting the appearance +of being rolled up in a fur cloak or the skin of an animalâan +appearance which did not pass away in childhood, but so obstinately +adhered to him through life, that an imitation of his hands could be +produced with the hairy skin of a kid. This was by his parents +considered ominous. The want of the hairy covering which the lower +animals have, is one of the signs marking out man as destined for a +higher and more refined life than they; and when their son appeared in this guise, they could not but +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span> +fear it prognosticated his sensual, +animal career. So they called him Esau. And so did the younger son from +the first show his nature, catching the heel of his brother, as if he +were striving to be firstborn; and so they called him Jacob, the +heel-catcher or supplanterâas Esau afterwards bitterly observed, a name +which precisely suited his crafty, plotting nature, shown in his twice +over tripping up and overthrowing his elder brother. The name which Esau +handed down to his people was, however, not his original name, but one +derived from the colour of that for which he sold his birthright. It was +in that exclamation of his, âFeed me with that same <i>red</i>,â that he +disclosed his character.</p> + +<p>So different in appearance at birth, they grew up of very different +character; and as was natural, he who had the quiet nature of his father +was beloved by the mother, and he who had the bold, practical skill of +the mother was clung to by the father. It seems unlikely that Rebekah +was influenced in her affection by anything but natural motives, though +the fact that Jacob was to be the heir must have been much on her mind, +and may have produced the partiality which maternal pride sometimes +begets. But before we condemn Isaac, or think the historian has not +given a full account of his love for Esau, let us ask what we have +noticed about the growth and decay of our own affections. We are ashamed +of Isaac; but have we not also been sometimes ashamed of ourselves on +seeing that our affections are powerfully influenced by the +gratification of tastes almost or quite as low as this of Isaacâs? He +who cunningly panders to our taste for applause, he who purveys for us +some sweet morsel of scandal, he who flatters or amuses us, straightway +takes a place in our affections which we do not accord +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> +to men of much finer parts, but who do not so minister to our sordid appetites.</p> + +<p>The character of Jacob is easily understood. It has frequently been +remarked of him that he is thoroughly a Jew, that in him you find the +good and bad features of the Jewish character very prominent and +conspicuous. He has that mingling of craft and endurance which has +enabled his descendants to use for their own ends those who have wronged +and persecuted them. The Jew has, with some justice and some injustice, +been credited with an obstinate and unscrupulous resolution to forward +his own interests, and there can be no question that in this respect +Jacob is the typical Jewâruthlessly taking advantage of his brother, +watching and waiting till he was sure of his victim; deceiving his blind +father, and robbing him of what he had intended for his favourite son; +outwitting the grasping Laban, and making at least his own out of all +attempts to rob him; unable to meet his brother without stratagem; not +forgetting prudence even when the honour of his family is stained; and +not thrown off his guard even by his true and deep affection for Joseph. +Yet, while one recoils from this craftiness and management, one cannot +but admire the quiet force of character, the indomitable tenacity, and, +above all, the capacity for warm affection and lasting attachments, that +he showed throughout.</p> + +<p>But the quality which chiefly distinguished Jacob from his hunting and +marauding brother was his desire for the friendship of God and +sensibility to spiritual influences. It may have been Jacobâs +consciousness of his own meanness that led him to crave connection with +some Being or with some prospect that might ennoble his nature and lift him above his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span> +innate disposition. It is an old, old truth that not many +noble are called; and, seeing quite as plainly as others see their +feebleness and meanness, the ignoble conceive a self-loathing which is +sometimes the beginning of an unquenchable thirst for the high and holy +God. The consciousness of your bad, poor nature may revive within you +day by day, as the remembrance of physical weakness returns to the +invalid with every morningâs light; but to what else can God so +effectively appeal when he offers you present fellowship with Himself +and eventual conformity to His own nature?</p> + +<p>It has been pointed out that the weakness in Esauâs character which +makes him so striking a contrast to his brother is his inconstancy.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i24">âThat one error<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fills him with faults; makes him run through all the sins.â<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>Constancy, persistence, dogged tenacity is certainly the striking +feature of Jacobâs character. He could wait and bide his time; he could +retain one purpose year after year till it was accomplished. The very +motto of his life was, âI will not let Thee go except Thou bless me.â He +watched for Esauâs weak moment, and took advantage of it. He served +fourteen years for the woman he loved, and no hardship quenched his +love. Nay, when a whole lifetime intervened, and he lay dying in Egypt, +his constant heart still turned to Rachel, as if he had parted with her +but yesterday. In contrast with this tenacious, constant character +stands Esau, led by impulse, betrayed by appetite, everything by turns +and nothing long. To-day despising his birthright, to-morrow breaking +his heart for its loss; to-day vowing he will murder his brother, +to-morrow falling on his neck and kissing him; a man +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span> +you cannot reckon upon, and of too shallow a nature for anything to root itself deeply in.</p> + +<p>The event in which the contrasted characters of the twin brothers were +most decisively shown, so decisively shown that their destinies were +fixed by it, was an incident which, in its external circumstances, was +of the most ordinary and trivial kind. Esau came in hungry from hunting: +from dawn to dusk he had been taxing his strength to the utmost, too +eagerly absorbed to notice either his distance from home or his hunger; +it is only when he begins to return depressed by the ill-luck of the +day, and with nothing now to stimulate him, that he feels faint; and +when at last he reaches his fatherâs tents, and the savoury smell of +Jacobâs lentiles greets him, his ravenous appetite becomes an +intolerable craving, and he begs Jacob to give him some of his food. Had +Jacob done so with brotherly feeling there would have been nothing to +record. But Jacob had long been watching for an opportunity to win his +brotherâs birthright, and though no one could have supposed that an heir +to even a little property would sell it in order to get a meal five +minutes sooner than he could otherwise get it, Jacob had taken his +brotherâs measure to a nicety, and was confident that present appetite +would in Esau completely extinguish every other thought.</p> + +<p>It is perhaps worth noticing that the birthright in Ishmaelâs line, the +guardianship of the temple at Mecca, passed from one branch of the +family to another in a precisely similar way. We read that when the +guardianship of the temple and the governorship of the town âfell into +the hands of Abu Gabshan, a weak and silly man, Cosa, one of Mohammedâs +ancestors, circumvented him while in a drunken humour, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span> +bought of him the keys of the temple, and with them the presidency of it, for a +bottle of wine. But Abu Gabshan being gotten out of his drunken fit, +sufficiently repented of his foolish bargain; from whence grew these +proverbs among the Arabs: More vexed with late repentance than Abu +Gabshan; and, More silly than Abu Gabshanâwhich are usually said of +those who part with a thing of great moment for a small matter.â</p> + +<p>Which brother presents the more repulsive spectacle of the two in this +selling of the birthright it is hard to say. Who does not feel contempt +for the great, strong man, declaring he will die if he is required to +wait five minutes till his own supper is prepared; forgetting, in the +craving of his appetite, every consideration of a worthy kind; oblivious +of everything but his hunger and his food; crying, like a great baby, +Feed me with that <i>red</i>! So it is always with the man who has fallen +under the power of sensual appetite. He is always going to die if it is +not immediately gratified. He <i>must</i> have his appetite satisfied. No +consideration of consequences can be listened to or thought of; the man +is helpless in the hands of his appetiteâit rules and drives him on, +and he is utterly without self-control; nothing but physical compulsion +can restrain him.</p> + +<p>But the treacherous and self-seeking craft of the other brother is as +repulsive; the cold-blooded, calculating spirit that can hold every +appetite in check, that can cleave to one purpose for a life-time, and, +without scruple, take advantage of a twin-brotherâs weakness. Jacob +knows his brother thoroughly, and all his knowledge he uses to betray +him. He knows he will speedily repent of his bargain, so he makes him swear he will +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> +abide by it. It is a relentless purpose he carries +outâhe deliberately and unhesitatingly sacrifices his brother to +himself.</p> + +<p>Still, in two respects, Jacob is the superior man. He can appreciate the +birthright in his fatherâs family, and he has constancy. Esau might be a +pleasant companion, far brighter and more vivacious than Jacob on a +dayâs hunting; free and open-handed, and not implacable; and yet such +people are not satisfactory friends. Often the most attractive people +have similar inconstancy; they have a superficial vivacity, and +brilliance, and charm, and good-nature, which invite a friendship they +do not deserve.</p> + +<p>Parents frequently make the mistake of Isaac, and think more highly of +the gay, sparkling, but shallow child, than of the child who cannot be +always smiling, but broods over what he conceives to be his wrongs. +Sulkiness is itself not a pleasing feature in a childâs character, but +it may only be the childish expression of constancy, and of a depth of +character which is slow to let go any impression made upon it. On the +other hand, frankness and a quick throwing aside of passion and +resentment are pleasing features in a child, but often these are only +the expressions of a fickle character, rapidly changing from sun to +shower like an April day, and not to be trusted for retaining affection +or good impressions any longer than it retains resentment.</p> + +<p>But Esauâs despising of his birthright is that which stamps the man and +makes him interesting to each generation. No one can read the simple +account of his reckless act without feeling how justly we are called +upon to âlook diligently lest there be among us any profane person as Esau, who, for one morsel +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span> +of meat, sold his birthright.â Had the +birthright been something to eat, Esau would not have sold it. What an +exhibition of human nature! What an exposure of our childish folly and +the infatuation of appetite! For Esau has company in his fall. We are +all stricken by his shame. We are conscious that if God had made +provision for the flesh we should have listened to Him more readily. +âBut what will this birthright profit us?â We do not see the good it +does: were it something to keep us from disease, to give us long unsated +days of pleasure, to bring us the fruits of labour without the weariness +of it, to make money for us, where is the man who would not value +itâwhere is the man who would lightly give it up? But because it is +only the favour of God that is offered, His endless love, His holiness +made ours, this we will imperil or resign for every idle desire, for +every lust that bids us serve it a little longer. Born the sons of God, +made in His image, introduced to a birthright angels might covet, we yet +prefer to rank with the beasts of the field, and let our souls starve if +only our bodies be well tended and cared for.</p> + +<p>There is in Esauâs conduct and after-experience so much to stir serious +thought, that one always feels reluctant to pass from it, and as if much +more ought to be made of it. It reflects so many features of our own +conduct, and so clearly shows us what we are from day to day liable to, +that we would wish to take it with us through life as a perpetual +admonition. Who does not know of those moments of weakness, when we are +fagged with work, and with our physical energy our moral tone has become +relaxed? Who does not know how, in hours of reaction from keen and +exciting engagements, sensual appetite asserts itself, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span> +and with what petulance we inwardly cry, We shall die if we do not get this or that +paltry gratification? We are, for the most part, inconstant as Esau, +full of good resolves to-day, and to-morrow throwing them to the +windsâto-day proud of the arduousness of our calling, and girding +ourselves to self-control and self-denial, to-morrow sinking back to +softness and self-indulgence. Not once as Esau, but again and again we +barter peace of conscience and fellowship with God and the hope of +holiness, for what is, in simple fact, no more than a bowl of pottage. +Even after recognising our weakness and the lowness of our tastes, and +after repenting with self-loathing and misery, some slight pleasure is +enough to upset our steadfast mind, and make us as plastic as clay in +the hand of circumstances. It is with positive dismay one considers the +weakness and blindness of our hours of appetite and passion: how one +goes then like an ox to the slaughter, all unconscious of the pitfalls +that betray and destroy men, and how at any moment we ourselves may truly sell our birthright.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="XXI" id="XXI"></a>XXI.</h2> + +<h3>JACOBâS FRAUD.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xxvii.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>âThe counsel of the Lord standeth for +ever.ââ<span class="smcap">Psalm</span> xxxiii. 11.</p></div> + +<p>There are some families whose miserable existence is almost entirely +made up of malicious plottings and counter-plottings, little mischievous +designs, and spiteful triumphs of one member or party in the family over +the other. It is not pleasant to have the veil withdrawn, and to see +that where love and eager self-sacrifice might be expected their places +are occupied by an eager assertion of rights, and a cold, proud, and +always petty and stupid, nursing of some supposed injury. In the story +told us so graphically in this page, we see the family whom God has +blessed sunk to this low level, and betrayed by family jealousies into +unseemly strife on the most sacred ground. Each member of the family +plans his own wicked device, and God by the evil of one defeats the evil +of another, and saves His own purpose to bless the race from being +frittered away and lost. And it is told us in order that, amidst all +this mess of human craft and selfishness, the righteousness and +stability of Godâs word of promise may be more vividly seen. Let us look +at the sin of each of the parties in order, and the punishment of each. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the Epistle to the Hebrews Isaac is commended for his faith in +blessing his sons. It was commendable in him that, in great bodily +weakness, he still believed himself to be the guardian of Godâs +blessing, and recognised that he had a great inheritance to bequeath to +his sons. But, in unaccountable and inconsistent contempt of Godâs +expressed purpose, he proposes to hand over this blessing to Esau. Many +things had occurred to fix his attention upon the fact that Esau was not +to be his heir. Esau had sold his birthright, and had married Hittite +women, and his whole conduct was, no doubt, of a piece with this, and +showed that, in his hands, any spiritual inheritance would be both +unsafe and unappreciated. That Isaac had some notion he was doing wrong +in giving to Esau what belonged to God, and what God meant to give to +Jacob, is shown from his precipitation in bestowing the blessing. He has +no feeling that he is authorized by God, and therefore he cannot wait +calmly till God should intimate, by unmistakable signs, that he is near +his end; but, seized with a panic lest his favourite should somehow be +left unblessed, he feels, in his nervous alarm, as if he were at the +point of death, and, though destined to live for forty-three years +longer, he calls Esau that he may hand over to him his dying testament. +How different is the nerve of a man when he knows he is doing Godâs +will, and when he is but fulfilling his own device. For the same reason, +he has to stimulate his spirit by artificial means. The prophetic +ecstasy is not felt by him; he must be exhilarated by venison and wine, +that, strengthened and revived in body, and having his gratitude aroused +afresh towards Esau, he may bless him with all the greater vigour. The final stimulus is given when he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span> +smells the garments of Esau on Jacob, +and when that fresh earthy smell which so revives us in spring, as if +our life were renewed with the year, and which hangs about one who has +been in the open air, entered into Isaacâs blood, and lent him fresh +vigour.</p> + +<p>It is a strange and, in some respects, perplexing spectacle that is here +presented to usâthe organ of the Divine blessing represented by a blind +old man, laid on a âcouch of skins,â stimulated by meat and wine, and +trying to cheat God by bestowing the family blessing on the son of his +own choice to the exclusion of the divinely-appointed heir. Out of such +beginnings had God to educate a people worthy of Himself, and through +such hazards had He to guide the spiritual blessing He designed to +convey to us all.</p> + +<p>Isaac laid a net for his own feet. By his unrighteous and timorous haste +he secured the defeat of his own long-cherished scheme. It was his +hasting to bless Esau which drove Rebekah to checkmate him by winning +the blessing for her favourite. The shock which Isaac felt when Esau +came in and the fraud was discovered is easily understood. The +mortification of the old man must have been extreme when he found that +he had so completely taken himself in. He was reclining in the satisfied +reflection that for once he had overreached his astute Rebekah and her +astute son, and in the comfortable feeling that, at last, he had +accomplished his one remaining desire, when he learns from the exceeding +bitter cry of Esau that he has himself been duped. It was enough to +rouse the anger of the mildest and godliest of men, but Isaac does not +storm and protestââhe trembles exceedingly.â He recognises, by a +spiritual insight quite unknown to Esau, that this is Godâs hand, and deliberately +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span> +confirms, with his eyes open, what he had done in +blindness: âI have blessed him: <i>Yea</i>, and he shall be blessed.â Had he +wished to deny the validity of the blessing, he had ground enough for +doing so. He had not really given it: it had been stolen from him. An +act must be judged by its intention, and he had been far from intending +to bless Jacob. Was he to consider himself bound by what he had done +under a misapprehension? He had given a blessing to one person under the +impression that he was a different person; must not the blessing go to +him for whom it was designed? But Isaac unhesitatingly yielded.</p> + +<p>This clear recognition of Godâs hand in the matter, and quick submission +to Him, reveals a habit of reflection, and a spiritual thoughtfulness, +which are the good qualities in Isaacâs otherwise unsatisfactory +character. Before he finished his answer to Esau, he felt he was a poor +feeble creature in the hand of a true and just God, who had used even +his infirmity and sin to forward righteous and gracious ends. It was his +sudden recognition of the frightful way in which he had been tampering +with Godâs will, and of the grace with which God had prevented him from +accomplishing a wrong destination of the inheritance, that made Isaac +tremble very exceedingly.</p> + +<p>In this humble acceptance of the disappointment of his lifeâs love and +hope, Isaac shows us the manner in which we ought to bear the +consequences of our wrong-doing. The punishment of our sin often comes +through the persons with whom we have to do, unintentionally on their +part, and yet we are tempted to hate them because they pain and punish +us, father, mother, wife, child, or whoever else. Isaac and Esau were +alike disappointed. Esau only saw the supplanter, and vowed +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span> +to be revenged. Isaac saw God in the matter, and trembled. So when Shimei +cursed David, and his loyal retainers would have cut off his head for so +doing, David said, âLet him alone, and let him curse: it may be that the +Lord hath bidden him.â We can bear the pain inflicted on us by men when +we see that they are merely the instruments of a divine chastisement. +The persons who thwart us and make our life bitter, the persons who +stand between us and our dearest hopes, the persons whom we are most +disposed to speak angrily and bitterly to, are often thorns planted in +our path by God to keep us on the right way.</p> + +<p>Isaacâs sin propagated itself with the rapid multiplication of all sin. +Rebekah overheard what passed between Isaac and Esau, and although she +might have been able to wait until by fair means Jacob received the +blessing, yet when she sees Isaac actually preparing to pass Jacob by +and bless Esau, her fears are so excited that she cannot any longer +quietly leave the matter in Godâs hand, but must lend her own more +skilful management. It may have crossed her mind that she was justified +in forwarding what she knew to be Godâs purpose. She saw no other way of +saving Godâs purpose and Jacobâs rights than by her interference. The +emergency might have unnerved many a woman, but Rebekah is equal to the +occasion. She makes the threatened exclusion of Jacob the very means for +at last finally settling the inheritance upon him. She braves the +indignation of Isaac and the rage of Esau, and fearless herself, and +confident of success, she soon quiets the timorous and cautious +objections of Jacob. She knows that for straightforward lying and acting +a part she was sure of good support in Jacob. Luther says, âHad it been me, Iâd have dropped the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span> +dish.â But Jacob had no such tremorsâcould +submit his hands and face to the touch of Isaac, and repeat his lie as +often as needful.</p> + +<p>An old man bedridden like Isaac becomes the subject of a number of +little deceptions which may seem, and which may be, very unimportant in +themselves, but which are seen to wear down the reverence due to the +father of a family, and which imperceptibly sap the guileless sincerity +and truthfulness of those who practise them. This overreaching of Isaac +by dressing Jacob in Esauâs clothes, might come in naturally as one of +those daily deceptions which Rebekah was accustomed to practise on the +old man whom she kept quite in her own hand, giving him as much or as +little insight into the doings of the family as seemed advisable to her. +It would never occur to her that she was taking God in hand; it would +seem only as if she were making such use of Isaacâs infirmity as she was +in the daily practice of doing.</p> + +<p>But to account for an act is not to excuse it. Underlying the conduct of +Rebekah and Jacob was the conviction that they would come better speed +by a little deceit of their own than by suffering God to further them in +His own wayâthat though God would certainly not practise deception +Himself, He might not object to others doing soâthat in this emergency +holiness was a hampering thing which might just for a little be laid +aside that they might be more holy afterwardsâthat though no doubt in +ordinary circumstances, and as a normal habit, deceit is not to be +commended, yet in cases of difficulty, which call for ready wit, a +prompt seizure, and delicate handling, men must be allowed to secure +their ends in their own way. Their unbelief thus directly produced +immoralityâimmorality of a very +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span> +revolting kind, the defrauding of +their relatives, and repulsive also because practised as if on Godâs +side, or, as we should now say, âin the interests of religion.â</p> + +<p>To this day the method of Rebekah and Jacob is largely adopted by +religious persons. It is notorious that persons whose ends are good +frequently become thoroughly unscrupulous about the means they use to +accomplish them. They dare not say in so many words that they may do +evil that good may come, nor do they think it a tenable position in +morals that the end sanctifies the means; and yet their consciousness of +a justifiable and desirable end undoubtedly does blunt their +sensitiveness regarding the legitimacy of the means they employ. For +example, Protestant controversialists, persuaded that vehement +opposition to Popery is good, and filled with the idea of accomplishing +its downfall, are often guilty of gross misrepresentation, because they +do not sufficiently inform themselves of the actual tenets and practices +of the Church of Rome. In all controversy, religious and political, it +is the same. It is always dishonest to circulate reports that you have +no means of authenticating: yet how freely are such reports circulated +to blacken the character of an opponent, and to prove his opinions to be +dangerous. It is always dishonest to condemn opinions we have not +inquired into, merely because of some fancied consequence which these +opinions carry in them: yet how freely are opinions condemned by men who +have never been at the trouble carefully to inquire into their truth. +They do not feel the dishonesty of their position, because they have a +general consciousness that they are on the side of religion, and of what +has generally passed for truth. All keeping back of facts which are +supposed to have an unsettling effect +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span> +is but a repetition of this sin. +There is no sin more hateful. Under the appearance of serving God, and +maintaining His cause in the world, it insults Him by assuming that if +the whole bare, undisguised truth were spoken, His cause would suffer.</p> + +<p>The fate of all such attempts to manage Godâs matters by keeping things +dark, and misrepresenting fact, is written for all who care to +understand in the results of this scheme of Rebekahâs and Jacobâs. They +gained nothing, and they lost a great deal, by their wicked +interference. They gained nothing; for God had promised that the +birthright would be Jacobâs, and would have given it him in some way +redounding to his credit and not to his shame. And they lost a great +deal. The mother lost her son; Jacob had to flee for his life, and, for +all we know, Rebekah never saw him more. And Jacob lost all the comforts +of home, and all those possessions his father had accumulated. He had to +flee with nothing but his staff, an outcast to begin the world for +himself. From this first false step onwards to his death, he was pursued +by misfortune, until his own verdict on his life was, âFew and evil have +been the days of the years of my life.â</p> + +<p>Thus severely was the sin of Rebekah and Jacob punished. It coloured +their whole after-life with a deep sombre hue. It was marked thus, +because it was a sin by all means to be avoided. It was virtually the +sin of blaming God for forgetting His promise, or of accusing Him of +being unable to perform it: so that they, Rebekah and Jacob, had, +forsooth, to take Godâs work out of His hands, and show Him how it ought +to be done. The announcement of Godâs purpose, instead of enabling them +quietly to wait for a blessing they knew to be certain, became in their unrighteous and impatient +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span> +hearts actually an inducement to sin. Abraham +was so bold and confident in his faith, at least latterly, that again +and again he refused to take as a gift from men, and on the most +honourable terms, what God had promised to give him: his grandson is so +little sure of Godâs truth, that he will rather trust his own falsehood; +and what he thinks God may forget to give him, he will steal from his +own father. Some persons have especial need to consider this sinâthey +are tempted to play the part of Providence, to intermeddle where they +ought to refrain. Sometimes just a little thing is needed to make +everything go to our likingâthe keeping back of one small fact, a +slight variation in the way of stating the matter, is enoughâthings +want just a little push in the right direction; it is wrong but very +slightly so. And so they are encouraged to close for a moment their eyes +and put to their hand.</p> + +<p>Of all the parties in this transaction none is more to blame than Esau. +He shows now how selfish and untruthful the sensual man really is, and +how worthless is the generosity which is merely of impulse and not +bottomed on principle. While he so furiously and bitterly blamed Jacob +for supplanting him, it might surely have occurred to him that it was +really he who was supplanting Jacob. He had no right, divine or human, +to the inheritance. God had never said that His possession should go to +the oldest, and had in this case said the express opposite. Besides, +inconstant as Esau was, he could scarcely have forgotten the bargain +that so pleased him at the time, and by which he had sold to his younger +brother all title to his fatherâs blessings. Jacob was to blame for +seeking to win his own by craft, but Esau was more to blame for +endeavouring furtively to recover what he knew to be no longer his. His +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span> +bitter cry was the cry of a disappointed and enraged child, what Hosea +calls the âhowlâ of those who seem to seek the Lord, but are really +merely crying out, like animals, for corn and wine. Many that care very +little for Godâs love will seek His favours; and every wicked wretch who +has in his prosperity spurned Godâs offers, will, when he sees how he +has cheated himself, turn to Godâs gifts, though not to God, with a cry. +Esau would now very gladly have given a mess of pottage for the blessing +that secured to its receiver âthe dew of heaven, the fatness of the +earth, and plenty of corn and wine.â Like many another sinner, he wanted +both to eat his cake and have it. He wanted to spend his youth sowing to +the flesh, and have the harvest which those only can have who have sown +to the spirit. He wished both of two irreconcilable thingsâboth the red +pottage and the birth right. He is a type of those who think very +lightly of spiritual blessings while their appetites are strong, but +afterwards bitterly complain that their whole life is filled with the +results of sowing to the flesh and not to the spirit.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">âWe barter life for pottage; sell true bliss<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For wealth or power, for pleasure or renown;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thus, Esau-like, our Fatherâs blessing miss,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Then wash with fruitless tears our faded crown.â<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>The words of the New Testament, in which it is said that Esau âfound no +place for repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears,â are +sometimes misunderstood. They do not mean that he sought what we +ordinarily call repentance, a change of mind about the value of the +birthright. He <i>had</i> that; it was this that made him weep. What he +sought now was some means of undoing what he had done, of cancelling the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span> +deed of which he repented. His experience does not tell us that a +man once sinning as Esau sinned becomes a hardened reprobate whom no +good influence can impress or bring to repentance, but it says that the +sin so committed leaves irreparable consequencesâthat no man can live a +youth of folly and yet find as much in manhood and maturer years as if +he had lived a careful and God-fearing youth. Esau had irrecoverably +lost that which he would now have given all he had to possess; and in +this, I suppose, he represents half the men who pass through this world. +He warns us that it is very possible, by careless yielding to appetite +and passing whim, to entangle ourselves irrecoverably for this life, if +not to weaken and maim ourselves for eternity. At the time, your act may +seem a very small and secular one, a mere bargain in the ordinary +course, a little transaction such as one would enter into carelessly +after the dayâs work is over, in the quiet of a summer evening or in the +midst of the family circle; or it may seem so necessary that you never +think of its moral qualities, as little as you question whether you are +justified in breathing; but you are warned that if there be in that act +a crushing out of spiritual hopes to make way for the free enjoyment of +the pleasures of senseâif there be a deliberate preference of the good +things of this life to the love of Godâif, knowingly, you make light of +spiritual blessings, and count them unreal when weighed against obvious +worldly advantagesâthen the consequences of that act will in this life +bring to you great discomfort and uneasiness, great loss and vexation, +an agony of remorse, and a life-long repentance. You are warned of this, +and most touchingly, by the moving entreaties, the bitter cries and tears of Esau. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span></p> + +<p>But even when our life is spoiled irreparably, a hope remains for our +character and ourselvesânot certainly if our misfortunes embitter us, +not if resentment is the chief result of our suffering; but if, subduing +resentment, and taking blame to ourselves instead of trying to fix it on +others, we take revenge upon the real source of our undoing, and +extirpate from our own character the root of bitterness. Painful and +difficult is such schooling. It calls for simplicity, and humility, and +truthfulnessâqualities not of frequent occurrence. It calls for abiding +patience; for he who begins thus to sow to the spirit late in life, must +be content with inward fruits, with peace of conscience, increase of +righteousness and humility, and must learn to live without much of what +all men naturally desire.</p> + +<p>While each member of Isaacâs family has thus his own plan, and is +striving to fulfil his private intention, the result is, that Godâs +purpose is fulfilled. In the human agency, such faith in God as existed +was overlaid with misunderstanding and distrust of God. But +notwithstanding the petty and mean devices, the short-sighted slyness, +the blundering unbelief, the profane worldliness of the human parties in +the transaction, the truth and mercy of God still find a way for +themselves. Were matters left in our hands, we should make shipwreck +even of the salvation with which we are provided. We carry into our +dealings with it the same selfishness, and inconstancy, and worldliness +which made it necessary: and had not God patience to bear with, as well +as mercy to invite us; had He not wisdom to govern us in the use of His +grace, as well as wisdom to contrive its first bestowal, we should +perish with the water of life at our lips.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="XXII" id="XXII"></a>XXII.</h2> + +<h3>JACOBâS FLIGHT AND DREAM.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xxvii. 41âxxviii.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>âSo foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before Thee. +Nevertheless I am continually with Thee.ââ<span class="smcap">Psalm</span> lxxiii. 22.</p></div> + +<p>It is so commonly observed as to be scarcely worth again remarking, that +persons who employ a great deal of craft in the management of their +affairs are invariably entrapped in their own net. Life is so +complicated, and every matter of conduct has so many issues, that no +human brain can possibly foresee every contingency. Rebekah was a clever +woman, and quite competent to outwit men like Isaac and Esau, but she +had in her scheming neglected to take account of Laban, a man true +brother to herself in cunning. She had calculated on Esauâs resentment, +and knew it would last only a few days, and this brief period she was +prepared to utilize by sending Jacob out of Esauâs reach to her own kith +and kin, from among whom he might get a suitable wife. But she did not +reckon on Labanâs making her son serve fourteen years for his wife, nor +upon Jacobâs falling so deeply in love with Rachel as to make him +apparently forget his mother.</p> + +<p>In the first part of her scheme she feels herself at home. She is a +woman who knows exactly how much of her mind to disclose, so as effectually to lead her +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span> +husband to adopt her view and plan. She did not +bluntly advise Isaac to send Jacob to Padan-aram, but she sowed in his +apprehensive mind fears which she knew would make him send Jacob there; +she suggested the possibility of Jacobâs taking a wife of the daughters +of Heth. She felt sure that <i>Isaac</i> did not need to be told where to +send his son to find a suitable wife. So Isaac called Jacob, and said, +Go to Padan-aram, to the house of thy motherâs father, and take thee a +wife thence. And he gave him the family blessingâGod Almighty give thee +the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with theeâso +constituting him his heir, the representative of Abraham.</p> + +<p>The effect this had on Esau is very noticeable. He sees, as the +narrative tells us, a great many things, and his dull mind tries to make +some meaning out of all that is passing before him. The historian seems +intentionally to satirise Esauâs attempt at reasoning, and the foolish +simplicity of the device he fell upon. He had an idea that Jacobâs +obedience in going to seek a wife of another stock than he had connected +himself with would be pleasing to his parents; and perhaps he had an +idea that it would be possible to steal a march upon Jacob in his +absence, and by a more speedily effected obedience to his parentsâ +desire, win their preference, and perhaps move Isaac to alter his will +and reverse the blessing. Though living in the chosen family, he seems +to have had not the slightest idea that there was any higher will than +his fatherâs being fulfilled in their doings. He does not yet see why he +himself should not be as blessed as Jacob; he cannot grasp at all the +distinction that grace makes; cannot take in the idea that God has +chosen a people to Himself, and that no natural advantage or force or endowment +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span> +can set a man among that people, but only Godâs choice. +Accordingly, he does not see any difference between Ishmaelâs family and +the chosen family; they are both sprung from Abraham, both are naturally +the same, and the fact that God expressly gave His inheritance past +Ishmael is nothing to Esauâan act of <i>God</i> has no meaning to him. He +merely sees that he has not pleased his parents as well as he might by +his marriage, and his easy and yielding disposition prompts him to +remedy this.</p> + +<p>This is a fine specimen of the hazy views men have of what will bring +them to a level with Godâs chosen. Through their crass insensibility to +the high righteousness of God, there still does penetrate a perception +that if they are to please Him there are certain means to be used for +doing so. There are, they see, certain occupations and ways pursued by +Christians, and if by themselves adopting these they can please God, +they are quite willing to humour Him in this. Like Esau, they do not see +their way to drop their old connections, but if by making some little +additions to their habits, or forming some new connection, they can +quiet this controversy that has somehow grown up between God and His +children,âthough, so far as they see, it is a very unmeaning +controversy,âthey will very gladly enter into any little arrangement +for the purpose. We will not, of course, divorce the world, will not +dismiss from our homes and hearts what God hates and means to destroy, +will not accept Godâs will as our sole and absolute law, but we will so +far meet Godâs wishes as to add to what we have adopted something that +is almost as good as what God enjoins: we will make any little +alterations which will not quite upset our present ways. Much commoner than hypocrisy +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span> +is this dim-sighted, blundering stupidity of the really +profane worldly man, who thinks he can take rank with men whose natures +God has changed, by the mere imitation of some of their ways; who +thinks, that as he cannot without great labour, and without too +seriously endangering his hold on the world, do precisely what God +requires, God may be expected to be satisfied with a something like it. +Are we not aware of endeavouring at times to cloak a sin with some easy +virtue, to adopt some new and apparently good habit, instead of +destroying the sin we know God hates; or to offer to God, and palm upon +our own conscience, a mere imitation of what God is pleased with? Do you +attend Church, do you come and decorously submit to a service? That is +not at all what God enjoins, though it is like it. What He means is, +that you worship Him, which is a quite different employment. Do you +render to God some outward respect, have you adopted some habits in +deference to Him, do you even attempt some private devotion and +discipline of the spirit? Still what He requires is something that goes +much deeper than all that; namely, that you love Him. To conform to one +or two habits of godly people is not what is required of us; but to be +at heart godly.</p> + +<p>As Jacob journeyed northwards, he came, on the second or third evening +of his flight, to the hills of Bethel. As the sun was sinking he found +himself toiling up the rough path which Abraham may have described to +him as looking like a great staircase of rock and crag reaching from +earth to sky. Slabs of rock, piled one upon another, form the whole +hill-side, and to Jacobâs eye, accustomed to the rolling pastures of +Beersheba, they would appear almost like a structure built for +superhuman uses, well founded in the valley +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> +below, and intended to reach to unknown heights. Overtaken by darkness on this rugged path, he +readily finds as soft a bed and as good shelter as his shepherd-habits +require, and with his head on a stone and a corner of his dress thrown +over his face to preserve him from the moon, he is soon fast asleep. But +in his dreams the massive staircase is still before his eyes, and it is +no longer himself that is toiling up it as it leads to an unexplored +hill-top above him, but the angels of God are ascending and descending +upon it, and at its top is Jehovah Himself.</p> + +<p>Thus simply does God meet the thoughts of Jacob, and lead him to the +encouragement he needed. What was probably Jacobâs state of mind when he +lay down on that hill-side? In the first place, and as he would have +said to any man he chanced to meet, he wondered what he would see when +he got to the top of this hill; and still more, as he may have said to +Rebekah, he wondered what reception he would meet with from Laban, and +whether he would ever again see his fatherâs tents. This vision shows +him that his path leads to God, that it is He who occupies the future; +and, in his dream, a voice comes to him: âI am with thee, and will keep +thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into +this land.â He had, no doubt, wondered much whether the blessing of his +father was, after all, so valuable a possession, whether it might not +have been wiser to take a share with Esau than to be driven out homeless +thus. God has never spoken to him; he has heard his father speak of +assurances coming to him from God, but as for him, through all the long +years of his life he has never heard what he could speak of as a voice +of God. But this night these doubts were silencedâthere came to his soul an assurance +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span> +that never departed from it. He could have affirmed +he heard God saying to him: âI am the Lord God of thy father Abraham, +and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give +it.â And lastly, all these thoughts probably centred in one deep +feeling, that he was an outcast, a fugitive from justice. He was glad he +was in so solitary a place, he was glad he was so far from Esau and from +every human eye; and yetâwhat desolation of spirit accompanied this +feeling: there was no one he could bid good-night to, no one he could +spend the evening hour with in quiet talk; he was a banished man, +whatever fine gloss Rebekah might put upon it, and deep down in his +conscience there was that which told him he was not banished without +cause. Might not God also forsake himâmight not God banish him, and +might he not find a curse pursuing him, preventing man or woman from +ever again looking in his face with pleasure? Such fears are met by the +vision. This desolate spot, unvisited by sheep or bird, has become busy +with life, angels thronging the ample staircase. Here, where he thought +himself lonely and outcast, he finds he has come to the very gate of +heaven. His fond mother might, at that hour, have been visiting his +silent tent and shedding ineffectual tears on his abandoned bed, but he +finds himself in the very house of God, cared for by angels. As the +darkness had revealed to him the stars shining overhead, so when the +deceptive glare of waking life was dulled by sleep, he saw the actual +realities which before were hidden.</p> + +<p>No wonder that a vision which so graphically showed the open +communication between earth and heaven should have deeply impressed +itself on Jacobâs descendants. What more effectual consolation could any poor +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span> +outcast, who felt he had spoiled his life, require than the memory +of this staircase reaching from the pillow of the lonely fugitive from +justice up into the very heart of heaven? How could any most desolate +soul feel quite abandoned so long as the memory retained the vision of +the angels thronging up and down with swift service to the needy? How +could it be even in the darkest hour believed that all hope was gone, +and that men might but curse God and die, when the mind turned to this +bridging of the interval between earth and heaven?</p> + +<p>In the New Testament we meet with an instance of the familiarity with +this vision which true Israelites enjoyed. Our Lord, in addressing +Nathanael, makes use of it in a way that proves this familiarity. Under +his fig-tree, whose broad leaves were used in every Jewish garden as a +screen from observation, and whose branches were trained down so as to +form an open-air oratory, where secret prayer might be indulged in +undisturbed, Nathanael had been declaring to the Father his ways, his +weaknesses, his hopes. And scarcely more astonished was Jacob when he +found himself the object of this angelic ministry on the lonely +hill-side, than was Nathanael when he found how one eye penetrated the +leafy screen, and had read his thoughts and wishes. Apparently he had +been encouraging himself with this vision, for our Lord, reading his +thoughts, says: âBecause I said unto thee, When thou wast under the +fig-tree I saw thee, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than +theseâthou shalt see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and +descending upon the Son of man.â</p> + +<p>This, then, is a vision for us even more than for Jacob. It has its +fulfilment in the times after the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span> +Incarnation more manifestly than in +previous times. The true staircase by which heavenly messengers ascend +and descend is the Son of man. It is He who really bridges the interval +between heaven and earth, God and man. In His person these two are +united. You cannot tell whether Christ is more Divine or human, more God +or manâsolidly based on earth, as this massive staircase, by His real +humanity, by His thirty-three yearsâ engagement in all human functions +and all experiences of this life, He is yet familiar with eternity, His +name is âHe that came down from heaven,â and if your eye follows step by +step to the heights of His person, it rests at last on what you +recognise as Divine. His love it is that is wide enough to embrace God +on the one hand, and the lowest sinner on the other. Truly He is the +way, the stair, leading from the lowest depth of earth to the highest +height of heaven. In Him you find a love that embraces you as you are, +in whatever condition, however cast down and defeated, however +embittered and pollutedâa love that stoops tenderly to you and +hopefully, and gives you once more a hold upon holiness and life, and in +that very love unfolds to you the highest glory of heaven and of God.</p> + +<p>When this comes home to a man in the hour of his need, it becomes the +most arousing revelation. He springs from the troubled slumber we call +life, and all earth wears a new glory and awe to him. He exclaims with +Jacob, âHow dreadful is this place. Surely the Lord is in this place, +and I knew it not.â The world that had been so bleak and empty to him, +is filled with a majestic vital presence. Jacob is no longer a mere +fugitive from the results of his own sin, a shepherd in search of +employment, a man setting out in the world to try his fortune; he is the partner with God in the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span> +fulfilment of a Divine purpose. And such is the +change that passes on every man who believes in the Incarnation, who +feels himself to be connected with God by Jesus Christ; he recognises +the Divine intention to uplift his life, and to fill it with new hopes +and purposes. He feels that humanity is consecrated by the entrance of +the Son of God into it: he feels that all human life is holy ground +since the Lord Himself has passed through it. Having once had this +vision of God and man united in Christ, life cannot any more be to him +the poor, dreary, commonplace, wretched round of secular duties and +short-lived joys and terribly punished sins it was before: but it truly +becomes the very gate of heaven; from each part of it he knows there is +a staircase rising to the presence of God, and that out of the region of +pure holiness and justice there flow to him heavenly aids, tender +guidance, and encouragement.</p> + +<p>Do you think the idea of the Incarnation too aerial and speculative to +carry with you for help in rough, practical matters? The Incarnation is +not a mere idea, but a fact as substantial and solidly rooted in life as +anything you have to do with. Even the shadow of it Jacob saw carried in +it so much of what was real that when he was broad awake he trusted it +and acted on it. It was not scattered by the chill of the morning air, +nor by that fixed staring reality which external nature assumes in the +gray dawn as one object after another shows itself in the same spot and +form in which night had fallen upon it. There were no angels visible +when he opened his eyes; the staircase was there, but it was of no +heavenly substance, and if it had any secret to tell, it coldly and +darkly kept it. There was no retreat for the runaway from the poor +common facts of yesterday. The sky seemed as far from earth as it +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span> +did yesterday, his track over the hill as lonely, his brotherâs wrath as +real;âbut other things also had become real; and as he looked back from +the top of the hill on the stone he had set up, he felt the words, âI am +with thee in all places whither thou goest,â graven on his heart, and +giving him new courage; and he knew that every footfall of his was +making a Bethel, and that as he went he was carrying God through the +world. The bleakest rains that swept across the hills of Bethel could +never wash out of his mind the vision of bright-winged angels, as little +as they could wash off the oil or wear down the stone he had set up. The +brightest glare of this worldâs heyday of real life could not outshine +and cause them to disappear; and the vision on which we hope is not one +that vanishes at cock-crow, nor is He who connects us with God shy of +human handling, but substantial as ourselves. He offered Himself to +every kind of test, so that those who knew Him for years could say, with +the most absolute confidence, âThat which we have heard, which we have +seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have +handled of the Word of Life ... declare we unto you, that ye also may +have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, +and with His Son Jesus Christ.â</p> + +<p>Jacob obeyed a good instinct when he set up as a monumental stone that +which had served as his pillow while he dreamt and saw this inspiring +vision. He felt that, vivid as the impression on his mind then was, it +would tend to fade, and he erected this stone that in after days he +might have a witness that would testify to his present assurance. One +great secret in the growth of character is the art of prolonging the +quickening power of right ideas, of perpetuating just and inspiring +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span> +impressions. And he who despises the aid of all external helps for the +accomplishment of this object is not likely to succeed. Religion, some +men say, is an inward thing: it does not consist of public worship, +ordinances, and so forth, but it is a state of spirit. Very true; but he +knows little of human nature who fancies a state of spirit can be +maintained without the aid of external reminders, presentations to eye +and ear of central religious truths and facts. We have all of us had +such views of truth, and such corresponding desires and purposes, as +would transform us were they only permanent. But what a night has +settled on our past, how little have we found skill to prolong the +benefit arising from particular events or occasions. Some parts of our +life, indeed, require no monument, there is nothing <i>there</i> we would +ever again think of, if possible; but, alas! these, for the most part, +have erected monuments of their own, to which, as with a sad +fascination, our eyes are ever turningâpersons we have injured, or who, +somehow, so remind us of sin, that we shrink from meeting themâplaces +to which sins of ours have attached a reproachful meaning. And these +natural monuments must be imitated in the life of grace. By fixed hours +of worship, by rules and habits of devotion, by public worship, and +especially by the monumental ordinance of the Lordâs Supper, must we +cherish the memory of known truth, and deepen former impressions.</p> + +<p>To the monument Jacob attached a vow, so that when he returned to that +spot the stone might remind him of the dependence on God he now felt, of +the precarious situation he was in when this vision appeared, and of all +the help God had afterwards given him. He seems to have taken up the meaning of that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span> +endless chain of angels ceaselessly coming down full of +blessing, and going up empty of all but desires, requests, aspirations. +And if we are to live with clean conscience and with heart open to God, +we must so live that the messengers who bring Godâs blessings to us +shall not have an evil report to take back of the manner in which we +have received and spent His bounty.</p> + +<p>This whole incident makes a special appeal to those who are starting in +life. Jacob was no longer a young man, but he was unmarried, and he was +going to seek employment with nothing to begin the world with but his +shepherdâs staff, the symbol of his knowledge of a profession. Many must +see in him a very exact reproduction of their own position. They have +left home, and it may be they have left it not altogether with pleasant +memories, and they are now launched on the world for themselves, with +nothing but their staff, their knowledge of some business. The spot they +have reached may seem as desolate as the rock where Jacob lay, their +prospects as doubtful as his. For such an one there is absolutely no +security but that which is given in the vision of Jacobâin the belief +that God will be with you in all places, and that even now on that life +which you are perhaps already wishing to seclude from all holy +influences, the angels of God are descending to bless and restrain you +from sin. Happy the man who, at the outset, can heartily welcome such a +connection of his life with God: unhappy he who welcomes whatever blots +out the thought of heaven, and who separates himself from all that +reminds him of the good influences that throng his path. The desire of +the young heart to see life and know the world is natural and innocent, +but how many fancy that in seeing the lowest and poorest perversions of life they +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span> +see lifeâhow many forget that unless they keep their hearts +pure they can never enter into the best and richest and most enduring of +the uses and joys of human life. Even from a selfish motive and the mere +desire to succeed in the world, every one starting in life would do well +to consider whether he really has Jacobâs blessing and is making his +vow. And certainly every one who has any honour, who is governed by any +of those sentiments that lead men to noble and worthy actions, will +frankly meet Godâs offers and joyfully accept a heavenly guidance and a +permanent connection with God.</p> + +<p>Before we dismiss this vision, it may be well to look at one instance of +its fulfilment, that we may understand the manner in which God fulfils +His promises. Jacobâs experience in Haran was not so brilliant and +unexceptionable as he might perhaps expect. He did, indeed, at once find +a woman he could love, but he had to purchase her with seven yearsâ +toil, which ultimately became fourteen years. He did not grudge this; +because it was customary, because his affections were strong, and +because he was too independent to send to his father for money to buy a +wife. But the bitterest disappointment awaited him. With the burning +humiliation of one who has been cheated in so cruel a way, he finds +himself married to Leah. He protests, but he cannot insist on his +protest, nor divorce Leah; for, in point of fact, he is conscious that +he is only being paid in his own coin, foiled with his own weapons. In +this veiled bride brought in to him on false pretences, he sees the just +retribution of his own disguise when with the hands of Esau he went in +and received his fatherâs blessing. His mouth is shut by the remembrance +of his own past. But submitting to this chastisement, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span> +and recognising in it not only the craft of his uncle, but the stroke of God, that which +he at first thought of as a cruel curse became a blessing. It was Leah +much more than Rachel that built up the house of Israel. To this +despised wife six of the tribes traced their origin, and among these was +the tribe of Judah. Thus he learned the fruitfulness of Godâs +retributionâthat to be humbled by God is really to be built up, and to +be punished by Him the richest blessing. Through such an experience are +many persons led: when we would embrace the fruit of years of toil God +thrusts into our arms something quite different from our +expectationâsomething that not only disappoints, but that at first +repels us, reminding us of acts of our own we had striven to forget. Is +it with resentment you still look back on some such experience, when the +reward of years of toil evaded your grasp, and you found yourself bound +to what you would not have worked a day to obtain?âdo you find yourself +disheartened and discouraged by the way in which you seem regularly to +miss the fruit of your labour? If so, no doubt it were useless to assure +you that the disappointment may be more fruitful than the hope +fulfilled, but it can scarcely be useless to ask you to consider whether +it is not the fact that in Jacobâs case what was thrust upon him <i>was</i> +more fruitful than what he strove to win.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="XXIII" id="XXIII"></a>XXIII.</h2> + +<h3>JACOB AT PENIEL.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xxxii.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>âHumble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you +up.ââ<span class="smcap">James</span> iv. 10.</p></div> + +<p>Jacob had a double reason for wishing to leave Padan-aram. He believed +in the promise of God to give him Canaan; and he saw that Laban was a +man with whom he could never be on a thoroughly good understanding. He +saw plainly that Laban was resolved to make what he could out of his +skill at as cheap a rate as possibleâthe characteristic of a selfish, +greedy, ungrateful, and therefore, in the end, ill-served master. Laban +and Esau were the two men who had hitherto chiefly influenced Jacobâs +life. But they were very different in character. Esau could never see +that there was any important difference between himself and +Jacobâexcept that his brother was trickier. Esau was the type of those +who honestly think that there is not much in religion, and that saints +are but white-washed sinners. Laban, on the contrary, is almost +superstitiously impressed by the distinction between Godâs people and +others. But the chief practical issue of this impression is, not that he +seeks Godâs friendship for himself, but that he tries to make a +profitable use of Godâs friends. He seeks to get Godâs blessing, as it +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span> +were, at second-hand. If men could be related to God indirectly, as if +in law and not by blood, that would suit Laban. If God would admit men +to his inheritance on any other terms than being sons in the direct +line, if there were some relationship once removed, a kind of +sons-in-law, so that mere connection with the godly, though not with +God, would win His blessing, this would suit Laban.</p> + +<p>Laban is the man who appreciates the social value of virtue, +truthfulness, fidelity, temperance, godliness, but wishes to enjoy their +fruits without the pain of cultivating the qualities themselves. He is +scrupulous as to the character of those he takes into his employment, +and seeks to connect himself in business with good men. In his domestic +life, he acts on the idea which his experience has suggested to him, +that persons really godly will make his home more peaceful, better +regulated, safer than otherwise it might be. If he holds a position of +authority, he knows how to make use, for the preservation of order and +for the promotion of his own ends, of the voluntary efforts of Christian +societies, of the trustworthiness of Christian officials, and of the +support of the Christian community. But with all this recognition of the +reality and influence of godliness, he never for one moment entertains +the idea of himself becoming a godly man. In all ages there are Labans, +who clearly recognise the utility and worth of a connection with God, +who have been much mixed up with persons in whom that worth was very +conspicuous, and who yet, at the last, âdepart and return unto their +place,â like Jacobâs father-in-law, without having themselves entered +into any affectionate relations with God.</p> + +<p>From Laban, then, Jacob was resolved to escape. And though to escape +with large droves of slow-moving +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span> +sheep and cattle, as well as with many +women and children, seemed hopeless, the cleverness of Jacob did not +fail him here. He did not get beyond reach of pursuit; he could never +have expected to do so. But he stole away to such a distance from Haran +as made it much easier for him to come to terms with Laban, and much +more difficult for Laban to try any further device for detaining him.</p> + +<p>But, delivered as he was from Laban, he had an even more formidable +person to deal with. As soon as Labanâs company disappear on the +northern horizon, Jacob sends messengers south to sound Esau. His +message is so contrived as to beget the idea in Esauâs mind that his +younger brother is a person of some importance, and yet is prepared to +show greater deference to himself than formerly. But the answer brought +back by the messengers is the curt and haughty despatch of the man of +war to the man of peace. No notice is taken of Jacobâs vaunted wealth. +No proposal of terms as if Esau had an equal to deal with, is carried +back. There is only the startling announcement: âEsau cometh to meet +thee, and four hundred men with him.â Jacob at once recognises the +significance of this armed advance on Esauâs part. Esau has not +forgotten the wrong he suffered at Jacobâs hands, and he means to show +him that he is entirely in his power.</p> + +<p>Therefore was Jacob âgreatly afraid and distressed.â The joy with which, +a few days ago, he had greeted the host of God, was quite overcast by +the tidings brought him regarding the host of Esau. Things heavenly do +always look so like a mere show; visits of angels seem so delusive and +fleeting; the exhibition of the powers of heaven seems so often but as a +tournament painted on the sky, and so unavailable for the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span> +stern encounters that await us on earth, that one seems, even after the most +impressive of such displays, to be left to fight on alone. No wonder +Jacob is disturbed. His wives and dependants gather round him in dismay; +the children, catching the infectious panic, cower with cries and +weeping about their mothers; the whole camp is rudely shaken out of its +brief truce by the news of this rough Esau, whose impetuosity and +warlike ways they had all heard of and were now to experience. The +accounts of the messengers would no doubt grow in alarming descriptive +detail as they saw how much importance was attached to their words. +Their accounts would also be exaggerated by their own unwarlike nature, +and by the indistinctness with which they had made out the temper of +Esauâs followers, and the novelty of the equipments of war they had seen +in his camp. Could we have been surprised had Jacob turned and fled when +thus he was made to picture the troops of Esau sweeping from his grasp +all he had so laboriously earned, and snatching the promised inheritance +from him when in the very act of entering on possession? But though in +fancy he already hears their rude shouts of triumph as they fall upon +his defenceless band, and already sees the merciless horde dividing the +spoil with shouts of derision and coarse triumph, and though all around +him are clamouring to be led into a safe retreat, Jacob sees stretched +before him the land that is his, and resolves that, by Godâs help, he +shall win it. What he does is not the act of a man rendered incompetent +through fear, but of one who has recovered from the first shock of alarm +and has all his wits about him. He disposes his household and followers +in two companies, so that each might advance with the hope that it might be the one which +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span> +should not meet Esau; and having done all that his +circumstances permit, he commends himself to God in prayer.</p> + +<p>After Jacob had prayed to God, a happy thought strikes him, which he at +once puts in execution. Anticipating the experience of Solomon, that âa +brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city,â he, in the +style of a skilled tactician, lays siege to Esauâs wrath, and directs +against it train after train of gifts, which, like successive battalions +pouring into a breach, might at length quite win his brother. This +disposition of his peaceful battering trains having occupied him till +sunset, he retires to the short rest of a general on the eve of battle. +As soon as he judges that the weaker members of the camp are refreshed +enough to begin their eventful march, he rises and goes from tent to +tent awaking the sleepers, and quickly forming them into their usual +line of march, sends them over the brook in the darkness, and himself is +left alone, not with the depression of a man who waits for the +inevitable, but with the high spirits of intense activity, and with the +return of the old complacent confidence of his own superiority to his +powerful but sluggish-minded brotherâa confidence regained now by the +certainty he felt, at least for the time, that Esauâs rage could not +blaze through all the relays of gifts he had sent forward. Having in +this spirit seen all his camp across the brook, he himself pauses for a +moment, and looks with interest at the stream before him, and at the +promised land on its southern bank. This stream, too, has an interest +for him as bearing a name like his ownâa name that signifies the +âstruggler,â and was given to the mountain torrent from the pain and difficulty with +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span> +which it seemed to find its way through the hills. +Sitting on the bank of the stream, he sees gleaming through the darkness +the foam that it churned as it writhed through the obstructing rocks, or +heard through the night the roar of its torrent as it leapt downwards, +tortuously finding its way towards Jordan; and Jacob says, So will I, +opposed though I be, win my way, by the circuitous routes of craft or by +the impetuous rush of courage, into the land whither that stream is +going. With compressed lips, and step as firm as when, twenty years +before, he left the land, he rises to cross the brook and enter the +landâhe rises, and is seized in a grasp that he at once owns as +formidable. But surely this silent close, as of two combatants who at +once recognise one anotherâs strength, this protracted strife, does not +look like the act of a depressed man, but of one whose energies have +been strung to the highest pitch, and who would have borne down the +champion of Esauâs host had he at that hour opposed his entrance into +the land which Jacob claimed as his own, and into which, as his glove, +pledging himself to follow, he had thrown all that was dear to him in +the world. It was no common wrestler that would have been safe to meet +him in that mood.</p> + +<p>Why, then, was Jacob thus mysteriously held back while his household +were quietly moving forward in the darkness? What is the meaning, +purpose, and use of this opposition to his entrance? These are obvious +from the state of mind Jacob was in. He was going forward to meet Esau +under the impression that there was no other reason why he should not +inherit the land but only his wrath, and pretty confident that by his +superior talent, his mother-wit, he could make +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span> +a tool of this stupid, generous brother of his. And the danger was, that if Jacobâs device had +succeeded, he would have been confirmed in these impressions, and have +believed that he had won the land from Esau, with Godâs help certainly, +but still by his own indomitable pertinacity of purpose and skill in +dealing with men. Now, this was not the state of the case at all. Jacob +had, by his own deceit, become an exile from the land, had been, in +fact, banished for fraud; and though God had confirmed to him the +covenant, and promised to him the land, yet Jacob had apparently never +come to any such thorough sense of his sin and entire incompetency to +win the birthright for himself, as would have made it <i>possible</i> for him +to receive simply as Godâs gift this land which as Godâs gift was alone +valuable. Jacob does not yet seem to have taken up the difference +between inheriting a thing as Godâs gift, and inheriting it as the meed +of his own prowess. To such a man God cannot <i>give</i> the land; Jacob +cannot receive it. He is thinking only of winning it, which is not at +all what God means, and which would, in fact, have annulled all the +covenant, and lowered Jacob and his people to the level simply of other +nations who had to win and keep their territories at their risk, and not +as the blessed of God. If Jacob then is to get the land, he must take it +as a gift, which he is not prepared to do. During the last twenty years +he has got many a lesson which might have taught him to distrust his own +management, and he had, to a certain extent, acknowledged God; but his +Jacob-nature, his subtle, scheming nature, was not so easily made to +stand erect, and still he is for wriggling himself into the promised +land. He is coming back to the land under the impression that God needs to be +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span> +managed, that even though we have His promises it requires +dexterity to get them fulfilled, that a man will get into the +inheritance all the readier for knowing what to veil from God and what +to exhibit, when to cleave to His word with great profession of most +humble and absolute reliance on Him, and when to take matters into oneâs +own hand. Jacob, in short, was about to enter the land as Jacob, the +supplanter, and that would never do; he was going to win the land from +Esau by guile, or as he might; and not to receive it from God. And, +therefore, just as he is going to step into it, there lays hold of him, +not an armed emissary of his brother, but a far more formidable +antagonistâif Jacob will win the land, if it is to be a mere trial of +skill, a wrestling match, it must at least be with the right person. +Jacob is met with his own weapons. He has not chosen war, so no armed +opposition is made; but with the naked force of his own nature, he is +prepared for any man who will hold the land against him; with such +tenacity, toughness, quick presence of mind, elasticity, as nature has +given him, he is confident he can win and hold his own. So the real +proprietor of the land strips himself for the contest, and lets him +feel, by the first hold he takes of him, that if the question be one of +mere strength he shall never enter the land.</p> + +<p>This wrestling therefore was by no means actually or symbolically +prayer. Jacob was not aggressive, nor did he stay behind his company to +spend the night in praying for them. It was God who came and laid hold +on Jacob to prevent him from entering the land in the temper he was in, +and as Jacob. He was to be taught that it was not only Esauâs appeased +wrath, or his own skilful smoothing down of his brotherâs ruffled temper, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span> +that gave him entrance; but that a nameless Being, Who came out +upon him from the darkness, guarded the land, and that by His passport +only could he find entrance. And henceforth, as to every reader of this +history so much more to Jacobâs self, the meeting with Esau and the +overcoming of his opposition were quite secondary to and eclipsed by his +meeting and prevailing with this unknown combatant.</p> + +<p>This struggle had, therefore, immense significance for the history of +Jacob. It is, in fact, a concrete representation of the attitude he had +maintained towards God throughout his previous history; and it +constitutes the turning point at which he assumes a new and satisfactory +attitude. Year after year Jacob had still retained confidence in +himself; he had never been thoroughly humbled, but had always felt +himself able to regain the land he had lost by his sin. And in this +struggle he shows this same determination and self-confidence. He +wrestles on indomitably. As Kurtz, whom I follow in his interpretation +of this incident, says, âAll along Jacobâs life had been the struggle of +a clever and strong, a pertinacious and enduring, a self-confident and +self-sufficient person, who was sure of the result only when he helped +himselfâa contest with God, who wished to break his strength and +wisdom, in order to bestow upon him real strength in divine weakness, +and real wisdom in divine folly.â All this self-confidence culminates +now, and in one final and sensible struggle, his Jacob-nature, his +natural propensity to wrest what he desires and win what he aims at, +from the most unwilling opponent, does its very utmost and does it in +vain. His steady straining, his dexterous feints, his quick gusts of +vehement assault, make no impression on this combatant and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span> +move him not one foot off his ground. Time after time his crafty nature puts out all +its various resources, now letting his grasp relax and feigning defeat, +and then with gathered strength hurling himself on the stranger, but all +in vain. What Jacob had often surmised during the last twenty years, +what had flashed through him like a sudden gleam of light when he found +himself married to Leah, that he was in the hands of one against whom it +is quite useless to struggle, he now again begins to suspect. And as the +first faint dawn appears, and he begins dimly to make out the face, the +quiet breathing of which he had felt on his own during the contest, the +man with whom he wrestles touches the strongest sinew in Jacobâs body, +and the muscle on which the wrestler most depends shrivels at the touch +and reveals to the falling Jacob how utterly futile had been all his +skill and obstinacy, and how quickly the stranger might have thrown and +mastered him.</p> + +<p>All in a moment, as he falls, Jacob sees how it is with him, and Who it +is that has met him thus. As the hard, stiff, corded muscle shrivelled, +so shrivelled his obdurate, persistent self-confidence. And as he is +thrown, yet cleaves with the natural tenacity of a wrestler to his +conqueror; so, utterly humbled before this Mighty One whom now he +recognises and owns, he yet cleaves to Him and entreats His blessing. It +is at this touch, which discovers the Almighty power of Him with whom he +has been contending, that the whole nature of Jacob goes down before +God. He sees how foolish and vain has been his obstinate persistence in +striving to trick God out of His blessing, or wrest it from Him, and now +he owns his utter incapacity to advance one step in this way, he admits +to himself that he is stopped, weakened in the way, thrown on his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span> +back, and can effect nothing, simply nothing, by what he thought would effect +all; and, therefore, he passes from wrestling to praying, and with +tears, as Hosea says, sobs out from the broken heart of the strong man, +âI will not let thee go except thou bless me.â In making this transition +from the boldness and persistence of self-confidence to the boldness of +faith and humility, Jacob becomes Israelâthe supplanter, being baffled +by his conqueror, rises a Prince. Disarmed of all other weapons, he at +last finds and uses the weapons wherewith God is conquered, and with the +simplicity and guilelessness now of an Israelite indeed, face to face +with God, hanging helpless with his arms around Him, he supplicates the +blessing he could not win.</p> + +<p>Thus, as Abraham had to become Godâs heir in the simplicity of humble +dependence on God; as Isaac had to lay himself on Godâs altar with +absolute resignation, and so become the heir of God, so Jacob enters on +the inheritance through the most thorough humbling. Abraham had to give +up all possessions and live on Godâs promise; Isaac had to give up life +itself; Jacob had to yield his very self, and abandon all dependence on +his own ability. The new name he receives signalizes and interprets this +crisis in his life. He enters his land not as Jacob, but as Israel. The +man who crossed the Jabbok was not the same as he who had cheated Esau +and outwitted Laban and determinedly striven this morning with the +angel. He was Israel, Godâs prince, entering on the land freely bestowed +on him by an authority none could resist; a man who had learned that in +order to receive from God, one must ask.</p> + +<p>Very significant to Jacob in his after life must have been the lameness +consequent on this nightâs struggle. He, the wrestler, had to go halting all his days. He +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span> +who had carried all his weapons in his own person, in +his intelligent watchful eye and tough right arm, he who had felt +sufficient for all emergencies and a match for all men, had now to limp +along as one who had been worsted and baffled and could not hide his +shame from men. So it sometimes happens that a man never recovers the +severe handling he has received at some turning point in his life. Often +there is never again the same elastic step, the same free and confident +bearing, the same apparent power, the same appearance to our fellow-men +of completeness in our life; but, instead of this, there is a humble +decision which, if it does not walk with so free a gait, yet knows +better what ground it is treading and by what right. To the end some men +bear the marks of the heavy stroke by which God first humbled them. It +came in a sudden shock that broke their health, or in a disappointment +which nothing now given can ever quite obliterate the trace of, or in +circumstances painfully and permanently altered. And the man has to say +with Jacob, I shall never now be what I might have been; I was resolved +to have my own way, and though God in His mercy did not suffer me to +destroy myself, yet to drive me from my purpose He was forced to use a +violence, under the effects of which I go halting all my days, saved and +whole, yet maimed to the end of time. I am not ashamed of the mark, at +least when I think of it as Godâs signature I am able to glory in it, +but it never fails to remind me of a perverse wilfulness I am ashamed +of. With many men God is forced to such treatment; if any of us are +under it, God forbid we should mistake its meaning and lie prostrate and +despairing in the darkness instead of clinging to Him Who has smitten and will heal us. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span></p> + +<p>For the treatment which Jacob received at Peniel must not be set aside +as singular or exceptional. Sometimes God interposes between us and a +greatly-desired possession which we have been counting upon as our right +and as the fair and natural consequence of our past efforts and ways. +The expectation of this possession has indeed determined our movements +and shaped our life for some time past, and it would not only be +assigned to us by men as fairly ours, but God also has Himself seemed to +encourage us to win it. Yet when it is now within sight, and when we are +rising to pass the little stream which seems alone to separate us from +it, we are arrested by a strong, an irresistible hand. The reason is, +that God wishes us to be in such a state of mind that we shall receive +it as His gift, so that it becomes ours by an indefeasible title.</p> + +<p>Similarly, when advancing to a spiritual possession, such checks are not +without their use. Many men look with longing to what is eternal and +spiritual, and they resolve to win this inheritance. And this resolve +they often make as if its accomplishment depended solely on their own +endurance. They leave almost wholly out of account that the possibility +of their entering the state they long for is not decided by their +readiness to pass through any ordeal, spiritual or physical, which may +be required of them, but by Godâs willingness to give it. They act as if +by taking advantage of Godâs promises, and by passing through certain +states of mind and prescribed duties, they could, irrespective of Godâs +present attitude towards them and constant love, win eternal happiness. +In the life of such persons there must therefore come a time when their +own spiritual energy seems all to collapse in that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span> +painful, utter way in which, when the body is exhausted, the muscles are suddenly found to +be cramped and heavy and no longer responsive to the will. They are made +to feel that a spiritual dislocation has taken place, and that their +eagerness to enter life everlasting no longer stirs the active energies +of the soul.</p> + +<p>In that hour the man learns the most valuable truth he can learn, that +it is God Who is wishing to save him, not he who must wrest a blessing +from an unwilling God. Instead of any longer looking on himself as +against the world, he takes his place as one who has the whole energy of +Godâs will at his back, to give him rightful entrance into all +blessedness. So long as Jacob was in doubt whether it was not some kind +of man that was opposing him, he wrestled on; and our foolish ways of +dealing with God terminate, when we recognise that He is not such an one +as ourselves. We naturally act as if God had some pleasure in thwarting +usâas if we could, and even ought to, maintain a kind of contest with +God. We deal with Him as if He were opposed to our best purposes and +grudged to advance us in all good, and as if He needed to be propitiated +by penitence and cajoled by forced feelings and sanctimonious demeanour. +We act as if we could make more way were God not in our way, as if our +best prospects began in our own conception and we had to win God over to +our views. If God is unwilling, then there is an end: no device nor +force will get us past Him. If He is willing, why all this unworthy +dealing with Him, as if the whole idea and accomplishment of salvation did not proceed from Him?</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="XXIV" id="XXIV"></a>XXIV.</h2> + +<h3>JACOBâS RETURN.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xxxv.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>âAs for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of +Canaan in the way.ââ<span class="smcap">Gen.</span> xlviii. 7.</p></div> + +<p>The words of the Wrestler at the brook Jabbok, âLet me go, for the day +breaketh,â express the truth that spiritual things will not submit +themselves to sensible tests. When we seek to let the full daylight, by +which we discern other objects, stream upon them, they elude our grasp. +When we fancy we are on the verge of having our doubts for ever +scattered, and our suppositions changed into certainties, the very +approach of clear knowledge and demonstration seems to drive those +sensitive spiritual presences into darkness. As Pascal remarked, and +remarked as the mouth-piece of all souls that have earnestly sought for +God, the world only gives us indications of the presence of a God Who +conceals Himself. It is, indeed, one of the most mysterious +characteristics of our life in this world, that the great Existence +which originates and embraces all other Beings, should Himself be so +silent and concealed: that there should be need of subtle arguments to +prove His existence, and that no argument ever conceived has been found +sufficiently cogent to convince all men. One is always tempted +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span> +to say, how easy to end all doubt, how easy for God so to reveal Himself as to +make unbelief impossible, and give to all men the glad consciousness +that they have a God.</p> + +<p>The reason of this âreserveâ of God must lie in the nature of things. +The greatest forces in nature are silent and unobtrusive and +incomprehensible. Without the law of gravitation the universe would rush +into ruin, but who has ever seen this force? Its effects are everywhere +visible, but itself is shrouded in darkness and cannot be comprehended. +So much more must the Infinite Spirit remain unseen and baffling all +comprehension. âNo man hath seen God at any timeâ must ever remain true. +To ask for Godâs name, therefore, as Jacob did, is a mistake. For almost +every one supposes that when he knows the name of a thing, he knows also +its nature. The giving of a name, therefore, tends to discourage +enquiry, and to beget an unfounded satisfaction as if, when we know what +a thing is called, we know what it is. The craving, therefore, which we +all feel in common with Jacobâto have all mystery swept from between us +and God, and to see Him face to face, so that we may know Him as we know +our friendsâis a craving which cannot be satisfied. You cannot ever +know God as He is. Your mind cannot comprehend a Being who is pure +Spirit, inhabiting no body, present with you here but present also +hundreds of millions of miles away, related to time and to space and to +matter in ways utterly impossible for you to comprehend.</p> + +<p>What is possible, God has done. He has made Himself known in Christ. We +are assured, on testimony that stands every kind of test, that in Him, +if nowhere else, we find God. And yet even by Christ +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span> +this same law of reserve if not concealment was observed. Not only did He forbid men and +devils to proclaim who He was, but when men, weary of their own doubts +and debatings, impatiently challenged him, âIf thou be the Christ tell +us plainly,â He declined to do so. For really men must grow to the +knowledge of Him. Even a human face cannot be known by once or twice +seeing it; the practised artist often misses the expression best loved +by the intimate friend, or by the relative whose own nature interprets +to him the face in which he sees himself reflected. Much more can the +child of God only attain to the knowledge of his Fatherâs face by first +of all <i>being</i> a child of God, and then by gradually growing up into His +likeness.</p> + +<p>But though Godâs operation is in darkness the results of it are in the +light. âAs Jacob passed over Peniel, the <i>sun rose</i> upon him, and he +halted upon his thigh.â As Jacobâs company halted when they missed him, +and as many anxious eyes were turned back into the darkness, they were +unable still to see him; and even when the darkness began to scatter, +and they saw dimly and far off a human figure, the sharpest eyes among +them declare it cannot be Jacob, for the gait and walk, which alone they +can judge by at that distance and in that light, are not his. But when +at last the first ray of sunlight streams on him from over the hills of +Gilead, all doubt is at an end; it <i>is</i> Jacob, but halting on his thigh. +And he himself finds it is not a strain which the walking of a few paces +will ease, nor a night cramp which will pass off, nor a mere dream which +would vanish in broad day, but a real permanent lameness which he must +explain to his company. Has he missed a step on the bank in the +darkness, or stumbled or slipped on the slippery stones of the ford? It is a far +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span> +more real thing to him than any such accident. So, however +others may discredit the results of a work on the soul which they have +not seenâhowever they may say of the first and most obvious results, +âThis is but a sickness of soul which the rising sun will dispel; a +feigned peculiarity of walk which will be forgotten in the bustle of the +dayâs workââit is not so, but every contact with real life makes it +more obvious that when God touches a man the result is real. And as +Jacobâs household and children in all generations counted that sinew +which shrank sacred, and would not eat of it, so surely should we be +reverential towards Godâs work in the soul of our neighbour, and respect +even those peculiarities which are often the most obvious first-fruits +of conversion, and which make it difficult for us to walk in the same +comfort with these persons, and keep step with them as easily as once we +did. A reluctance to live like other good people, an inability to share +their innocent amusements, a distaste for the very duties of this life, +a harsh or reserved bearing towards unconverted persons, an awkwardness +in speaking of their religious experience, as well as an awkwardness in +applying it to the ordinary circumstances of their life,âthese and many +other of the results of Godâs work on the soul should not be rudely +dealt with, but respected; for though not in themselves either seemly or +beneficial, they are evidence of Godâs touch.</p> + +<p>After this contest with the angel, the meeting of Jacob with Esau has no +separate significance. Jacob succeeds with his brother because already +he has prevailed with God. He is on a satisfactory footing now with the +Sovereign who alone can bestow the land and judge betwixt him and his +brother. Jacob can no longer suppose that the chief obstacle to his advance is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span> +the resentment of Esau. He has felt and submitted to a +stronger hand than Esauâs. Such schooling we all need; and get, if we +will take it. Like Jacob, we have to make our way to our end through +numberless human interferences and worldly obstacles. Some of these we +have to flee from, as Jacob from Laban; others we must meet and +overcome, as our Esaus. Our own sin or mistake has put us under the +power of some whose influence is disastrous; others, though we are not +under their power at all, yet, consciously or unconsciously to +themselves, continually cross our path and thwart us, keep us back and +prevent us from effecting what we desire, and from shaping things about +us according to our own ideas. And there will, from time to time, be +present to our minds obvious ways in which we could defeat the +opposition of these persons, and by which we fancy we could triumph over +them. And what we are here taught is, that we need look for no triumph, +and it is a pity for us if we win a triumph over any human opposition, +however purely secular and unchristian, without first having prevailed +with God in the matter. He comes in between us and all men and things, +and, laying His hand on us, arrests us from further progress till we +have to the very bottom and in every part adjusted the affair with +Himâand then, standing right with Him, we can very easily, or at least +we <i>can</i>, get right with all things. And it should be a suggestive and +fruitful thought to the most of us that, in all cases in which we sin +against our brother, God presents Himself as the champion of the wronged +party. One day or other we must meet not the strongest putting of all +those cases in which we have erred as the offended party could himself +put them, but we must meet them as put by the Eternal Advocate of justice +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span> +and right, who saw our spirit, our merely selfish calculating, +our base motive, our impure desire, our unrighteous deed. Gladly would +Jacob have met the mightiest of Esauâs host in place of this invincible +opponent, and it is this same Mighty One, this same watchful guardian of +right Who threw Himself in Jacobâs way, Who has His eye on us, Who has +tracked us through all our years, and Who will certainly one time appear +in our path as the champion of every one we have wronged, of every one +whose soul we have put in jeopardy, of every one to whom we have not +done what God intended we should do, of every one whom we have attempted +merely to make use of; and in stating their case and showing us what +justice and duty would have required of us, He will make us feel, what +we cannot feel till He Himself convinces us, that, in all our dealings +with men, wherein we have wronged them we have wronged Him.</p> + +<p>The narrative now prepares to leave Jacob and make room for Joseph. It +brings him back to Bethel, thereby completing the history of his triumph +over the difficulties with which his life had been so thickly studded. +The interest and much of the significance of a manâs life come to an end +when position and success are achieved. The remaining notices of Jacobâs +experience are of a sorrowful kind; he lives under a cloud until at the +close the sun shines out again. We have seen him in his youth making +experiments in life; in his prime founding a family and winning his way +by slow and painful steps to his own place in the world; and now he +enters on the last stage of his life, a stage in which signs of breaking +up appear almost as soon as he attains his aim and place in life.</p> + +<p>After all that had happened to Jacob, we should +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span> +have expected him to make for Bethel as rapidly as his unwieldy company could be moved +forwards. But the pastures that had charmed the eye of his grandfather +captivated Jacob as well. He bought land at Shechem, and appeared +willing to settle there. The vows which he had uttered with such fervour +when his future was precarious are apparently quite forgotten, or more +probably neglected, now that danger seems past. To go to Bethel involved +the abandonment of admirable pastures, and the introduction of new +religious views and habits into his family life. A man who has large +possessions, difficult and precarious relations to sustain with the +world, and a household unmanageable from its size, and from the variety +of dispositions included in it, requires great independence and +determination to carry out domestic reform on religious grounds. Even a +slight change in our habits is often delayed because we are shy of +exposing to observation fresh and deep convictions on religious +subjects. Besides, we forget our fears and our vows when the time of +hardship passes away; and that which, as young men, we considered almost +hopeless, we at length accept as our right, and omit all remembrance and +gratitude. A spiritual experience that is separated from your present by +twenty years of active life, by a foreign residence, by marriage, by the +growing up of a family around you, by other and fresher spiritual +experiences, is apt to be very indistinctly remembered. The obligations +you then felt and owned have been overlaid and buried in the lapse of +years. And so it comes that a low tone is introduced into your life, and +your homes cease to be model homes.</p> + +<p>Out of this condition Jacob was roughly awakened. Sinning by +unfaithfulness and softness towards his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span> +family, he is, according to the usual law, punished by family disaster of the most painful kind. The +conduct of Simeon and Levi was apparently due quite as much to family +pride and religious fanaticism as to brotherly love or any high moral +view. In them first we see how the true religion, when held by coarse +and ungodly men, becomes the root of all evil. We see the first instance +of that fanaticism which so often made the Jews a curse rather than a +blessing to other nations. Indeed, it is but an instance of the +injustice, cruelty, and violence that at all times result where men +suppose that they themselves are raised to quite peculiar privileges and +to a position superior to their fellows, without recognising also that +this position is held by the grace of a holy God and for the good of +their fellows.</p> + +<p>Jacob is now compelled to make a virtue of necessity. He flees to Bethel +to escape the vengeance of the Shechemites. To such serious calamities +do men expose themselves by arguing with conscience and by refusing to +live up to their engagements. How can men be saved from living merely +for sheep-feeding and cattle-breeding and trade and enjoyment? how can +they be saved from gradually expelling from their character all +principle and all high sentiment that conflicts with immediate advantage +and present pleasure, save by such irresistible blows as here compelled +Jacob to shift his camp? He has spiritual perception enough left to see +what is meant. The order is at once issued: âPut away the strange gods +that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments: and let us +arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who +answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.â Thus +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span> +frankly does he acknowledge his error, and repair, so far +as he can, the evil he has done. Thus decidedly does he press Godâs +command on those whom he had hitherto encouraged or connived at. Even +from his favourite Rachel he takes her gods and buries them. The fierce +Simeon and Levi, proud of the blood with which they had washed out their +sisterâs stain, are ordered to cleanse their garments and show some +seemly sorrow, if they can.</p> + +<p>If years go by without any such incident occurring in our life as drives +us to a recognition of our moral laxity and deterioration, and to a +frank and humble return to a closer walk with God, we had need to strive +to awaken ourselves and ascertain whether we are living up to old vows +and are really animated by thoroughly worthy motives. It was when Jacob +came back to the very spot where he had lain on the open hill-side, and +pointed out to his wives and children the stone he had set up to mark +the spot, that he felt humbled as he cast his eye over the flocks and +tents he now owned. And if you can, like Jacob, go back to spots in your +life which were very woful and perplexed, years even when all continued +dreary, dark, and hopeless, when friendlessness and poverty, bereavement +or disease, laid their chilling, crushing hands upon you, times when you +could not see what possible good there was for you in the world; and if +now all this is solved, and your condition is in the most striking +contrast to what you can remember, it becomes you to make acknowledgment +to God such as you may have made to your friends, such acknowledgment as +makes it plain that you are touched by His kindness. The acknowledgment +Jacob made was sensible and honest. He put away the gods which had divided the worship +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span> +of his family. In our life there is probably that +which constantly tends to usurp an undue place in our regard; something +which gives us more pleasure than the thought of God, or from which we +really expect a more palpable benefit than we expect from God, and +which, therefore, we cultivate with far greater assiduity. How easily, +if we really wish to be on a clear footing with God, can we discover +what things should be cast revengefully from us, buried and stamped upon +and numbered with the things of the past. Are there not in your life any +objects for the sake of which you sacrifice that nearness to God, and +that sure hold of Him you once enjoyed? Are you not conscious of any +pursuits, or hopes, or pleasures, or employments which practically have +the effect of making you indifferent to spiritual advancement, and which +make you shy of Bethelâshy of all that sets clear before you your +indebtedness to God, and your own past vows and resolves?</p> + +<p>âBut,â continues the narrative, â<i>but</i> Deborah, Rebekahâs nurse, died;â +that is, although Jacob and his house were now living in the fear of +God, that did not exempt them from the ordinary distresses of family +life. And among these, one that falls on us with a chastening and mild +sadness all its own, occurs when there passes from the family one of its +oldest members, and one who has by the delicate tact of love gained +influence over all, and has by the common consent become the arbiter and +mediator, the confidant and counsellor of the family. They, indeed, are +the true salt of the earth whose own peace is so deep and abiding, and +whose purity is so thorough and energetic, that into their ear we can +disburden the troubled heart or the guilty conscience, as the wildest brook disturbs +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span> +not and the most polluted fouls not the settled depths +of the all-cleansing ocean. Such must Deborah have been, for the oak +under which she was buried was afterwards known as âthe oak of weeping.â +Specially must Jacob himself have mourned the death of her whose face +was the oldest in his remembrance, and with whom his mother and his +happy early days were associated. Very dear to Jacob, as to most men, +were those who had been connected with and could tell him of his +parents, and remind him of his early years. Deborah, by treating him +still as a little boy, perhaps the only one who now called him by the +pet name of childhood, gave him the pleasantest relief from the cares of +manhood and the obsequious deportment of the other members of his +household towards him. So that when she went a great blank was made to +him: no longer was the wise and happy old face seen in her tent door to +greet him of an evening; no longer could he take refuge in the +peacefulness of her old age from the troubles of his lot: she being +gone, a whole generation was gone, and a new stage of life was entered +on.</p> + +<p>But a heavier blow, the heaviest that death could inflict, soon fell +upon him. She who had been as Godâs gift and smile to him since ever he +had left Bethel at the first is taken from him now that he is restored +to Godâs house. The number of his sons is completed, and the mother is +removed. Suddenly and unexpectedly the blow fell, as they were +journeying and fearing no ill. Notwithstanding the confident and +cheering, though ambiguous, assurances of those about her, she had that +clear knowledge of her own state which, without contradicting, simply +put aside such assurances, and, as her soul was departing, feebly +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span> +named her son Benoni, Son of my sorrow. She felt keenly what was, to a nature +like hers, the very anguish of disappointment. She was never to feel the +little creature stirring in her arms with personal human life, nor see +him growing up to manhood as the son of his fatherâs right hand. It was +this sad death of Rachelâs which made her the typical mother in Israel. +It was not an unclouded, merely prosperous life which could fitly have +foreshadowed the lives of those by whom the promised seed was to come; +and least of all of the virgin to whom it was said, âA sword shall +pierce through thine own soul also.â It was the wail of Rachel that +poetical minds among the Jews heard from time to time mourning their +national disastersââRachel weepingâ for her children, when by captivity +they were separated from their mother country, or when, by the sword of +Herod, the mothers of Bethlehem were bereaved of their babes. But it was +also observed that that which brought this anguish on the mothers of +Bethlehem was the birth there of the last Son of Israel, the blossom of +this long-growing plant, suddenly born after a long and barren period, +the son of Israelâs right hand.</p> + +<p>Still another death is registered in this chapter. It took place twelve +years after Joseph went into Egypt, but is set down here for +convenience. Esau and Jacob are, for the last time, brought together +over their dead fatherâand for the last time, as they see that family +likeness which comes out so strikingly in the face of the dead, do they +feel drawn with brotherly affection to greet one another as sons of one +father. In the dead Isaac, too, they find an object of veneration more +impressive than they had found in the living father: the infirmities of +age are exchanged for the mystery +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span> +and majesty of death; the man has +passed out of reach of pity, of contempt; the shrill, uncontrolled +treble is no longer heard, there are no weak, plaintive movements, no +childishness; but a solemn, august silence, a silence that seems to bid +on-lookers be still and refrain from disturbing the first communings of +the departed spirit with things unseen.</p> + +<p>The tenderness of these two brothers towards one another and towards +their father was probably quickened by remorse when they met at his +deathbed. They could not, perhaps, think that they had hastened his end +by causing him anxieties which age has not strength to throw off; but +they could not miss the reflection that the life now closed and finally +sealed up might have been a much brighter life had they acted the part +of dutiful, loving sons. Scarcely can one of our number pass from among +us without leaving in our minds some self-reproach that we were not more +kindly towards him, and that now he is beyond our kindness; that our +opportunity for being brotherly towards <i>him</i> is for ever gone. And when +we have very manifestly erred in this respect, perhaps there are among +all the stings of a guilty conscience few more bitterly piercing than +this. Many a son who has stood unmoved by the tears of a living +motherâhis mother by whom he lives, who has cherished him as her own +soul, who has forgiven and forgiven and forgiven him, who has toiled and +prayed, and watched for himâthough he has hardened himself against her +looks of imploring love and turned carelessly from her entreaties and +burst through all the fond cords and snares by which she has sought to +keep him, has yet broken down before the calm, unsolicitous, resting +face of the dead. Hitherto he has not listened to her pleadings, and now she pleads no more. Hitherto +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span> +she has heard no word of pure love from +him, and now she hears no more. Hitherto he has done nothing for her of +all that a son may do, and now there is nothing he can do. All the +goodness of her life gathers up and stands out at once, and the time for +gratitude is past. He sees suddenly, as by the withdrawal of a veil, all +that that worn body has passed through for him, and all the goodness +these features have expressed, and now they can never light up with +joyful acceptance of his love and duty. Such grief as this finds its one +alleviation in the knowledge that we may follow those who have gone +before us; that we may yet make reparation. And when we think how many +we have let pass without those frank, human, kindly offices we might +have rendered, the knowledge that we also shall be gathered to our +people comes in as very cheering. It is a grateful thought that there is +a place where we shall be able to live rightly, where selfishness will +not intrude and spoil all, but will leave us free to be to our neighbour +all that we ought to be and all that we would be.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="XXV" id="XXV"></a>XXV.</h2> + +<h3>JOSEPHâS DREAMS.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xxxvii.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>âSurely the wrath of man shall praise +thee.ââ<span class="smcap">Psalm</span> lxxvi. 10.</p></div> + +<p>The migration of Israel from Canaan to Egypt was a step of prime +importance in the history. Great difficulties surrounded it, and very +extraordinary means were used to bring it about. The preparatory steps +occupied about twenty years, and nearly a fourth of the Book of Genesis +is devoted to this period. This migration was a new idea. So little was +it the result of an accidental dearth, or of any of those unforeseen +calamities which cause families to emigrate from our own country, that +God had forewarned Abraham himself that it must be. But only when it was +becoming matter of actual experience and of history did God make known +the precise object to be accomplished by it. This He makes known to +Jacob as he passes from Canaan; and as, in abandoning the land he had so +painfully won, his heart sinks, he is sustained by the assurance, âFear +not to go down into Egypt; I will there make thee a great nation.â</p> + +<p>The meaning of the step and the suitableness of the time and of the +place to which Israel migrated, are apparent. For more than two hundred +years now had Abraham and his descendants been wandering as +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span> +pilgrims, and as yet there were no signs of Godâs promise being kept to them. That +promise had been of a land and of a seed. Great fecundity had been +promised to the race; but instead of that there had been a remarkable +and perplexing barrenness, so that after two centuries one tent could +contain the whole male population. In Jacobâs time the population began +to increase, but just in proportion as this part of the promise showed +signs of fulfilment did the other part seem precarious. For, in +proportion to their increase, the family became hostile to the +Canaanites, and how should they ever get past that critical point in +their history at which they would be strong enough to excite the +suspicion, jealousy, and hatred of the indigenous tribes, and yet not +strong enough to defend themselves against this enmity? Their presence +was tolerated, just as our countrymen tolerated the presence of French +refugees, on the score of their impotence to do harm. They were placed +in a quite anomalous position; a single family who had continued for two +hundred years in a land which they could only seem in jest to call +theirs, dwelling as guests amid the natives, maintaining peculiar forms +of worship and customs. Collision with the inhabitants seemed +unavoidable as soon as their real character and pretensions oozed out, +and as soon as it seemed at all likely that they really proposed to +become owners and masters in the land. And, in case of such collision, +what could be the result, but that which has ever followed where a few +score men, brave enough to be cut down where they stood, have been +exposed to mass after mass of fierce and blood-thirsty barbarians? A +small number of men have often made good their entrance into lands where +the inhabitants greatly outnumbered them, but these have +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span> +commonly been highly disciplined troops, as in the case of the handful of Spaniards +who seized Mexico and Peru; or they have been backed by a power which +could aid with vast resources, as when the Romans held this country, or +when the English lad in India left his pen on his desk and headed his +few resolute countrymen, and held his own against unnumbered millions. +It may be argued that if even Abraham with his own household swept +Canaan clear of invaders, it might now have been possible for his +grandson to do as much with increased means at his disposal. But, not to +mention that every man has not the native genius for command and +military enterprise which Abraham had, it must be taken into account +that a force which is quite sufficient for a marauding expedition or a +night attack, is inadequate for the exigencies of a campaign of several +yearsâ duration. The war which Jacob must have waged, had hostilities +been opened, must have been a war of extermination, and such a war must +have desolated the house of Israel if victorious, and, more probably by +far, would have quite annihilated it.</p> + +<p>It is to obviate these dangers, and to secure that Israel grow without +let or hindrance, that Jacobâs household is removed to a land where +protection and seclusion would at once be secured to them. In the land +of Goshen, secured from molestation partly by the influence of Joseph, +but much more by the caste-prejudices of the Egyptians, and their hatred +of all foreigners, and shepherds in particular, they enjoyed such +prosperity and attained so rapidly the magnitude of a nation that some, +forgetful alike of the promise of God and of the natural advantages of +Israelâs position, have refused to credit the accounts given us of the +increase in their population. In a land so roomy, so +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span> +fertile, and so secluded as that in which they were now settled, they had every +advantage for making the transition from a family to a nation. Here they +were preserved from all temptation to mingle with neighbours of a +different race, and so lose their special place as a people called out +by God to stand alone. The Egyptians would have scorned the marriages +which the Canaanites passionately solicited. Here the very contempt in +which they were held proved to be their most valuable bulwark. And if +Christians have any of the wisdom of the serpent, they will often find +in the contempt or exclusiveness of worldly men a convenient barrier, +preventing them, indeed, from enjoying some privileges, but at the same +time enabling them, without molestation, to pursue their own way. I +believe young people especially feel put about by the deprivations which +they have to suffer in order to save their religious scruples; they are +shut off from what their friends and associates enjoy, and they perceive +that they are not so well liked as they would be had they less desire to +live by conscience and by Godâs will. They feel ostracized, banished, +frowned upon, laid under disabilities; but all this has its +compensations: it forms for them a kind of Goshen where they may worship +and increase, it runs a fence around them which keeps them apart from +much that tempts and from much that enfeebles.</p> + +<p>The residence of Israel in Egypt served another important purpose. By +contact with the most civilised people of antiquity they emerged from +the semi-barbarous condition in which they had previously been living. +Going into Egypt mere shepherds, as Jacob somewhat plaintively and +deprecatingly says to Pharaoh; not even possessed, so far as we know, of the fundamental +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span> +arts on which civilisation rests, unable to record in +writing the revelations God made, or to read them if recorded; having +the most rudimentary ideas of law and justice, and having nothing to +keep them together and give them form and strength, save the one idea +that God meant to confer on them great distinction; they were +transferred into a land where government had been so long established +and law had come to be so thoroughly administered that life and property +were as safe as among ourselves to-day, where science had made such +advances that even the weather-beaten and time-stained relics of it seem +to point to regions into which even the bold enterprise of modern +investigation has not penetrated, and where all the arts needful for +life were in familiar use, and even some practised which modern times +have as yet been unable to recover. To no better school could the +barbarous sons of Bilhah and Zilpah have been sent; to no more fitting +discipline could the lawless spirits of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi have +been subjected. In Egypt, where human life was sacred, where truth was +worshipped as a deity, and where law was invested with the sanctity +which belonged to what was supposed to have descended from heaven, they +were brought under influences similar to those which ancient Rome +exerted over conquered races.</p> + +<p>The unwitting pioneer of this great movement was a man in all respects +fitted to initiate it happily. In Joseph we meet a type of character +rare in any race, and which, though occasionally reproduced in Jewish +history, we should certainly not have expected to meet with at so early +a period. For what chiefly strikes one in Joseph is a combination of +grace and power, which is commonly looked upon as the peculiar result +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span> +of civilising influences, knowledge of history, familiarity with foreign +races, and hereditary dignity. In David we find a similar flexibility +and grace of character, and a similar personal superiority. We find the +same bright and humorous disposition helping him to play the man in +adverse circumstances; but we miss in David Josephâs self-control and +incorruptible purity, as we also miss something of his capacity for +difficult affairs of state. In Daniel this latter capacity is abundantly +present, and a facility equal to Josephâs in dealing with foreigners, +and there is also a certain grace or nobility in the Jewish Vizier; but +Joseph had a surplus of power which enabled him to be cheerful and alert +in doleful circumstances, which Daniel would certainly have borne +manfully but probably in a sterner and more passive mood. Joseph, +indeed, seemed to inherit and happily combine the highest qualities of +his ancestors. He had Abrahamâs dignity and capacity, Isaacâs purity and +power of self-devotion, Jacobâs cleverness and buoyancy and tenacity. +From his motherâs family he had personal beauty, humour, and management.</p> + +<p>A young man of such capabilities could not long remain insensible to his +own powers or indifferent to his own destiny. Indeed, the conduct of his +father and brothers towards him must have made him self-conscious, even +though he had been wholly innocent of introspection. The force of the +impression he produced on his family may be measured by the circumstance +that the princely dress given him by his father did not excite his +brothersâ ridicule but their envy and hatred. In this dress there was a +manifest suitableness to his person, and this excited them to a keen +resentment of the distinction. So too they felt +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span> +that his dreams were not the mere whimsicalities of a lively fancy, but were possessed of a +verisimilitude which gave them importance. In short, the dress and the +dreams were insufferably exasperating to the brothers, because they +proclaimed and marked in a definite way the feeling of Josephâs +superiority which had already been vaguely rankling in their +consciousness. And it is creditable to Joseph that this superiority +should first have emerged in connection with a point of conduct. It was +in moral stature that the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah felt that they were +outgrown by the stripling whom they carried with them as their drudge. +Neither are we obliged to suppose that Joseph was a gratuitous +tale-bearer, or that when he carried their evil report to his father he +was actuated by a prudish, censorious, or in any way unworthy spirit. +That he very well knew how to hold his tongue no man ever gave more +adequate proof; but he that understands that there is a time to keep +silence necessarily sees also that there is a time to speak. And no one +can tell what torture that pure young soul may have endured in the +remote pastures, when left alone to withstand day after day the outrage +of these coarse and unscrupulous men. An elder brother, if he will, can +more effectually guard the innocence of a younger brother than any other +relative can, but he can also inflict a more exquisite torture.</p> + +<p>Joseph, then, could not but come to think of his future and of his +destiny in this family. That his father should make a pet of him rather +than of Benjamin, he would refer to the circumstance that he was the +oldest son of the wife of his choice, of her whom first he had loved, +and who had no rival while he lived. To so charming a companion as Joseph must +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span> +always have been, Jacob would naturally impart all the +traditions and hopes of the family. In him he found a sympathetic and +appreciative listener, who wiled him on to endless narrative, and whose +imaginativeness quickened his own hopes and made the future seem grander +and the world more wide. And what Jacob had to tell could fall into no +kindlier soil than the opening mind of Joseph. No hint was lost, every +promise was interpreted by some waiting aspiration. And thus, like every +youth of capacity, he came to have his day-dreams. These day-dreams, +though derided by those who cannot see the CÊsar in the careless +trifler, and though often awkward and even offensive in their +expression, are not always the mere discontented cravings of youthful +vanity, but are frequently instinctive gropings towards the position +which the nature is fitted to fill. âOur wishes,â it has been said, âare +the forefeeling of our capabilities;â and certainly where there is any +special gift or genius in a man, the wish of his youth is predictive of +the attainment of manhood. Whims, no doubt, there are, passing phases +through which natural growth carries us, flutterings of the needle when +too near some powerful influence; yet amidst all variations the true +direction will be discernible and ultimately will be dominant. And it is +a great art to discover what we are fit for, so that we may settle down +to our own work, or patiently wait for our own place, without enviously +striving to rob every other man of his crown and so losing our own. It +is an art that saves us much fretting and disappointment and waste of +time, to understand early in life what it is we can accomplish, and what +precisely we mean to be at; âto recognise in our personal gifts or +station, in the circumstances and complications of our +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span> +life, in our relations to others, or to the worldâthe will of God teaching us what +we are, and for what we ought to live.â How much of life often is gone +before its possessor sees the use he can put it to, and ceases to beat +the air! How much of life is an ill-considered but passionate striving +after what can never be attained, or a vain imitation of persons who +have quite different talents and opportunities from ourselves, and who +are therefore set to quite another work than ours.</p> + +<p>It was because Josephâs dreams embodied his waking ambition that they +were of importance. Dreams become significant when they are the +concentrated essence of the main stream of the waking thoughts, and +picturesquely exhibit the tendency of the character. âIn a dream,â says +Elihu, âin a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in +slumberings upon the bed; then He openeth the ears of men, and sealeth +their instruction, that He may withdraw man from his purpose.â This is +precisely the use of dreams: our tendencies, unbridled by reason and +fact, run on to results; the purposes which the business and other good +influences of the day have kept down act themselves out in our dreams, +and we see the character unimpeded by social checks, and as it would be +were it unmodified by the restraints and efforts and external +considerations of our conscious hours. Our vanity, our pride, our +malice, our impurity, our deceit, our every evil passion, has free play, +and shows us its finished result, and in so vivid and true though +caricatured a form that we are startled and withdrawn from our purpose. +The evil thought we have suffered to creep about our heart seems in our +dreams to become a deed, and we wake in horror and thank God we can yet +refrain. Thus the poor woman, who in utter destitution +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span> +was beginning to find her child a burden, dreamt she had drowned it, and woke in horror +at the fancied sound of the plungeâwoke to clasp her little one to her +breast with the thrill of a grateful affection that never again gave +way. So that while no man is so foolish as to expect instruction from +every dream any more than from every thought that visits his waking +mind, yet every one who has been accumulating some knowledge of himself +is aware that he has drawn a large part of this from his unconscious +hours. As the naturalist would know but a small part of the animal +kingdom by studying the creatures that show themselves in the daylight, +so there are moles and bats of the spirit that exhibit themselves most +freely in the darkness; and there are jungles and waste places in the +character which, if you look on them only in the sunshine, may seem safe +and lovely, but which at night show themselves to be full of all +loathsome and savage beasts.</p> + +<p>With the simplicity of a guileless mind, and with the natural proneness +of members of one family to tell in the morning the dreams they have +had, Joseph tells to the rest what seems to himself interesting, if not +very suggestive. Possibly he thought very little of his dream till he +saw how much importance his brothers attached to it. Possibly there +might be discernible in his tone and look some mixture of youthful +arrogance. And in his relation of the second dream, there was +discernible at least a confidence that it would be realised, which was +peculiarly intolerable to his brothers, and to his father seemed a +dangerous symptom that called for rebuke. And yet âhis father observed +the saying;â as a parent has sometimes occasion to check his child, and +yet, having done so, feels that that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span> +does not end the matter; that his +boy and he are in somewhat different spheres, so that while he was +certainly justified in punishing such and such a manifestation of his +character, there is yet something behind that he does not quite +understand, and for which possibly punishment may not be exactly the +suitable award.</p> + +<p>We fall into Jacobâs mistake when we refuse to acknowledge as genuine +and God-inspired any religious experience which we ourselves have not +passed through, and which appears in a guise that is not only +unfamiliar, but that is in some particulars objectionable. Up to the +measure of our own religious experience, we recognise as genuine, and +sympathise with, the parallel experience of others; but when they rise +above us and get beyond us, we begin to speak of them as visionaries, +enthusiasts, dreamers. We content ourselves with pointing again and +again to the blots in their manner, and refuse to read the future +through the ideas they add to our knowledge. But the future necessarily +lies, not in the definite and finished attainment, but in the indefinite +and hazy and dream-like germs that have yet growth in them. The future +is not with Jacob, the rebuker, but with the dreaming, and, possibly, +somewhat offensive Joseph. It was certainly a new element Joseph +introduced into the experience of Godâs people. He saw, obscurely +indeed, but with sufficient clearness to make him thoughtful, that the +man whom God chooses and makes a blessing to others is so far advanced +above his fellows that they lean upon him and pay him homage as if he +were in the place of God to them. He saw that his higher powers were to +be used for his brethren, and that the high destiny he somehow felt to +be his was to be won by doing service +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span> +so essential that his family would bow before him and give themselves into his hand. He saw this, as +every man whose love keeps pace with his talent sees it, and he so far +anticipated the dignity of Him who, in the deepest self-sacrifice, +assumed a position and asserted claims which enraged His brethren and +made even His believing mother marvel. Joseph knew that the welfare of +his family rested not with the Esau-like good-nature of Reuben, still +less with the fanatical ferocity of Simeon and Levi, not with the +servile patience of Issachar, nor with the natural force and dignity of +Judah, but with some deeper qualities which, if he himself did not yet +possess, he at least valued and aspired to.</p> + +<p>Whatever Joseph thought of the path by which he was to reach the high +dignity which his dreams foreshadowed, he was soon to learn that the +path was neither easy nor short. Each man thinks that, for himself at +least, an exceptional path will be broken out, and that without +difficulties and humiliations he will inherit the kingdom. But it cannot +be so. And as the first step a lad takes towards the attainment of his +position often involves him in trouble and covers him with confusion, +and does so even although he ultimately finds that it was the only path +by which he could have reached his goal; so, that which was really the +first step towards Josephâs high destiny, no doubt seemed to him most +calamitous and fatal. It certainly did so to his brothers, who thought +that they were effectually and for ever putting an end to Josephâs +pretensions. âBehold, this dreamer cometh; come now therefore, and let +us slay him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.â They +were, however, so far turned from their purpose by Reuben as to put him +in a pit, meaning to leave him to die; and, doubtless, they +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span> +thought themselves lenient in doing so. The less violent the death inflicted, +the less of murder seems to be in it; so that he who slowly kills the +body by only wounding the affections often counts himself no murderer at +all, because he strikes no blood-shedding blow, and can deceive himself +into the idea that it is the working of his victimâs own spirit that is +doing the damage.</p> + +<p>The tank into which Josephâs brethren cast him was apparently one of +those huge reservoirs excavated by shepherds in the East, that they may +have a supply of water for their flocks in the end of the dry season, +when the running waters fail them. Being so narrow at the mouth that +they can be covered by a single stone, they gradually widen and form a +large subterranean room; and the facility they thus afford for the +confinement of prisoners was from the first too obvious not to be +commonly taken advantage of. In such a place was Joseph left to die: +under the ground, sinking in mire, his flesh creeping at the touch of +unseen slimy creatures, in darkness, alone; that is to say, in a species +of confinement which tames the most reckless and maddens the best +balanced spirits, which shakes the nerve of the calmest, and has +sometimes left the blankness of idiocy in masculine understandings. A +few wild cries that ring painfully round his prison show him he need +expect no help from without; a few wild and desperate beatings round the +shelving walls of rock show him there is no possibility of escape; he +covers his face, or casts himself on the floor of his dungeon to escape +within himself, but only to find this also in vain, and to rise and +renew efforts he knows to be fruitless. Here, then, is what has come of +his fine dreams. With shame he now remembers the beaming +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span> +confidence with which he had related them; with bitterness he thinks of the bright +life above him, from which these few feet cut him so absolutely off, and +of the quick termination that has been put to all his hopes.</p> + +<p>Into such tanks do young persons especially get cast; finding themselves +suddenly dropped out of the lively scenery and bright sunshine in which +they have been living, down into roomy graves where they seem left to +die at leisure. They had conceived a way of being useful in the world; +they had found an aim or a hope; they had, like Joseph, discerned their +place and were making towards it, when suddenly they seem to be thrown +out and are left to learn that the world can do very well without them, +that the sun and moon and the eleven stars do not drop from their +courses or make wail because of their sad condition. High aims and +commendable purposes are not so easily fulfilled as they fancied. The +faculty and desire in them to be of service are not recognised. Men do +not make room for them, and God seems to disregard the hopes He has +excited in them. The little attempt at living they have made seems only +to have got themselves and others into trouble. They begin to think it a +mistake their being in the world at all; they curse the day of their +birth. Others are enjoying this life, and seem to be making something of +it, having found work that suits and develops them; but, for their own +part, they cannot get fitted into life at any point, and are excluded +from the onward movement of the world. They are again and again flung +back, until they fear they are not to see the fulfilment of any one +bright dream that has ever visited them, and that they are never, never +at all, to live out the life it is in them to live, or find light +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span> +and scope for maturing those germs of the rich human nature that they feel +within them.</p> + +<p>All this is in the way to attainment. This or that check, this long +burial for years, does not come upon you merely because stoppage and +hindrance have been useful to others, but because your advancement lies +through these experiences. Young persons naturally feel strongly that +life is all before them, that this life is, in the first place, their +concern, and that God must be proved sufficient for this life, able to +bring them to their ideal. And the first lesson they have to learn is, +that mere youthful confidence and energy are not the qualities that +overcome the world. They have to learn that humility, and the ambition +that seeks great things, but not for ourselves, are the qualities really +indispensable. But do men become humble by being told to become so, or +by knowing they ought to be so? God must make us humble by the actual +experience we meet with in our ordinary life. Joseph, no doubt, knew +very well, what his aged grandfather must often have told him, that a +man must die before he begins to live. But what could an ambitious, +happy youth make of this, till he was thrown into the pit and left +there? as truly passing through the bitterness of death as Isaac had +passed through it, and as keenly feeling the pain of severance from the +light of life. Then, no doubt, he thought of Isaac, and of Isaacâs God, +till between himself and the impenetrable dungeon-walls the everlasting +arms seemed to interpose, and through the darkness of his death-like +solitude the face of Jacobâs God appeared to beam upon him, and he came +to feel what we must, by some extremity, all be made to feel, that it +was not in this worldâs life but in God he lived, that nothing could befall him which God did +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span> +not will, and that what God had for him to do, +God would enable him to do.</p> + +<p>The heartless barbarity with which the brethren of Joseph sat down to +eat and drink the very dainties he had brought them from his father, +while they left him, as they thought, to starve, has been regarded by +all later generations as the height of hard-hearted indifference. Amos, +at a loss to describe the recklessness of his own generation, falls back +upon this incident, and cries woe upon those âthat drink wine in bowls, +and anoint themselves with the chief ointment, but they are not grieved +for the affliction of Joseph.â We reflect, if we do not substantially +reproduce, their sin when we are filled with animosity against those who +usher in some higher kind of life, effort, or worship, than we ourselves +as yet desire or are fit for, and which, therefore, reflects shame on +our incapacity; and when we would fain, without using violence, get rid +of such persons. There are often schemes set on foot by better men than +ourselves, against which somehow our spirit rises, yet which, did we +consider, we should at the most say with the cautious Gamaliel, Let us +beware of doing anything to hinder this, let us see whether, perchance, +it be not of God. Sometimes there are in families individuals who do not +get the encouragement in well-doing they might expect in a Christian +family, but are rather frowned upon and hindered by the other members of +it, because they seem to be inaugurating a higher style of religion than +the family is used to, and to be reflecting from their own conduct a +condemnation of what has hitherto been current.</p> + +<p>This treatment, who among us has not extended to Him who in His whole +experience so closely resembles Joseph? So long as Christ is to us merely, as it were, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span> +the pet of the family, the innocent, guileless, +loving Being on whom we can heap pretty epithets, and in whom we find +play for our best affections, to whom it is easier to show ourselves +affectionate and well-disposed than to the brothers who mingle with us +in all our pursuits; so long as He remains to us as a child whose +demands it is a relaxation to fulfil, we fancy that we are giving Him +our hearts, and that He, if any, has our love. But when He declares to +us His dreams, and claims to be our Lord, to whom with most absolute +homage we must bow, who has a right to rule and means to rule over us, +who will have His will done by us and not our own, then the love we +fancied seems to pass into something like aversion. His purposes we +would fain believe to be the idle fancies of a dreamer which He Himself +does not expect us to pay much heed to. And if we do not resent the +absolute surrender of ourselves to Him which He demands, if the bowing +down of our fullest sheaves and brightest glory to Him is too little +understood by us to be resented; if we think such dreams are not to come +true, and that He does not mean much by demanding our homage, and +therefore do not resent the demand; yet possibly we can remember with +shame how we have âanointed ourselves with the chief ointment,â lain +listlessly enjoying some of those luxuries which our Brother has brought +us from the Fatherâs house, and yet let Himself and His cause be buried +out of sightâenjoyed the good name of Christian, the pleasant social +refinements of a Christian land, even the peace of conscience which the +knowledge of the Christianâs God produces, and yet turned away from the +deeper emotions which His personal entreaties stir, and from those +self-sacrificing efforts which His cause requires if it is to prosper. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span></p> + +<p>There are, too, unstable Reubens still, whom something always draws +aside, and who are ever out of the way when most needed; who, like him, +are on the other side of the hill when Christâs cause is being betrayed; +who still count their own private business that which must be done, and +Godâs work that which may be doneâwork for themselves necessary, and +Godâs work only voluntary and in the second place. And there are also +those who, though they would be honestly shocked to be charged with +murdering Christâs cause, can yet leave it to perish.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="XXVI" id="XXVI"></a>XXVI.</h2> + +<h3>JOSEPH IN PRISON.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xxxix.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>âBlessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, +he shall receive the crown of life.ââ<span class="smcap">James</span> i. 12.</p></div> + +<p>Dramatists and novelists who make it their business to give accurate +representations of human life, proceed upon the understanding that there +is a plot in it, and that if you take the beginning or middle without +the end, you must fail to comprehend these prior parts. And a plot is +pronounced good in proportion as, without violating truth to nature, it +brings the leading characters into situations of extreme danger or +distress, from which there seems no possible exit, and in which the +characters themselves may have fullest opportunity to display and ripen +their individual excellences. A life is judged poor and without +significance, certainly unworthy of any longer record than a monumental +epitaph may contain, if there be in it no critical passages, no +emergencies when all anticipation of the next step is baffled, or when +ruin seems certain. Though it has been brought to a successful issue, +yet, to make it worthy of our consideration, it must have been brought +to this issue through hazard, through opposition, contrary to many +expectations that were plausibly entertained at the several stages of its career +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span> +All men, in short, are agreed that the value of a human life +consists very much in the hazards and conflicts through which it is +carried; and yet we resent Godâs dealing with us when it comes to be our +turn to play the hero, and by patient endurance and righteous endeavour +to bring our lives to a successful issue. How flat and tame would this +narrative have read had Joseph by easy steps come to the dignity he at +last reached through a series of misadventures that called out and +ripened all that was manly and strong and tender in his character. And +take out of your own life all your difficulties, all that ever pained, +agitated, depressed you, all that disappointed or postponed your +expectations, all that suddenly called upon you to act in trying +situations, all that thoroughly put you to the proofâtake all this +away, and what do you leave, but a blank insipid life that not even +yourself can see any interest in?</p> + +<p>And when we speak of Josephâs life as typical, we mean that it +illustrates on a great scale and in picturesque and memorable situations +principles which are obscurely operative in our own experience. It +pleases the fancy to trace the incidental analogies between the life of +Joseph and that of our Lord. As our Lord, so Joseph was the beloved of +his father, sent by him to visit his brethren, and see after their +well-being, seized and sold by them to strangers, and thus raised to be +their Saviour and the Saviour of the world. Joseph in prison pronouncing +the doom of one of his fellow-prisoners and the exaltation of the other, +suggests the scene on Calvary where the one fellow-sufferer was taken, +the other left. Josephâs contemporaries had of course no idea that his +life foreshadowed the life of the Redeemer, yet they must have seen, or ought to have +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span> +seen, that the deepest humiliation is often the path to +the highest exaltation, that the deliverer sent by God to save a people +may come in the guise of a slave, and that false accusations, +imprisonment, years of suffering, do not make it impossible nor even +unlikely that he who endures all these may be Godâs chosen Son.</p> + +<p>In Josephâs being lifted out of the pit only to pass into slavery, many +a man of Josephâs years has seen a picture of what has happened to +himself. From a position in which they have been as if buried alive, +young men not uncommonly emerge into a position preferable certainly to +that out of which they have been brought, but in which they are +compelled to work beyond their strength, and <i>that</i> for some superior in +whom they have no special interest. Grinding toil, and often cruel +insult, are their portion; and no necklace heavy with tokens of honour +that afterwards may be allotted them can ever quite hide the scars made +by the iron collar of the slave. One need not pity them over much, for +they are young and have a whole life-time of energy and power of +resistance in their spirit. And yet they will often call themselves +slaves, and complain that all the fruit of their labour passes over to +others and away from themselves, and all prospect of the fulfilment of +their former dreams is quite cut off. That which haunts their heart by +day and by night, that which they seem destined and fit for, they never +get time nor liberty to work out and attain. They are never viewed as +proprietors of themselves, who may possibly have interests of their own +and hopes of their own.</p> + +<p>In Josephâs case there were many aggravations of the soreness of such a +condition. He had not one friend in the country. He had no knowledge of the language, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span> +no knowledge of any trade that could make him valuable in +Egyptânothing, in short, but his own manhood and his faith in God. His +introduction to Egypt was of the most dispiriting kind. What could he +expect from strangers, if his own brothers had found him so obnoxious? +Now when a man is thus galled and stung by injury, and has learned how +little he can depend upon finding good faith and common justice in the +world, his character will show itself in the attitude he assumes towards +men and towards life generally. A weak nature, when it finds itself thus +deceived and injured, will sullenly surrender all expectation of good, +and will vent its spleen on the world by angry denunciations of the +heartless and ungrateful ways of men. A proud nature will gather itself +up from every blow, and determinedly work its way to an adequate +revenge. A mean nature will accept its fate, and while it indulges in +cynical and spiteful observations on human life, will greedily accept +the paltriest rewards it can secure. But the supreme healthiness of +Josephâs nature resists all the infectious influences that emanate from +the world around him, and preserves him from every kind of morbid +attitude towards the world and life. So easily did he throw off all vain +regrets and stifle all vindictive and morbid feelings, so readily did he +adjust himself to and so heartily enter into life as it presented itself +to him, that he speedily rose to be overseer in the house of Potiphar. +His capacity for business, his genial power of devoting himself to other +menâs interests, his clear integrity, were such, that this officer of +Pharaohâs could find no more trustworthy servant in all Egyptââhe left +all that he had in Josephâs hand: and he knew not ought he had, save the +bread which he did eat.â</p> + +<p>Thus Joseph passed safely through a critical period +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span> +of his lifeâthe period during which men assume the attitude towards life and their +fellow-men which they commonly retain throughout. Too often we accept +the weapons with which the world challenges us, and seek to force our +way by means little more commendable than the injustice and coldness we +ourselves resent. Joseph gives the first great evidence of moral +strength by rising superior to this temptation, to which almost all men +in one degree or other succumb. You can hear him saying, deep down in +his heart and almost unconsciously to himself: If the world is full of +hatred, there is all the more need that at least one man should forgive +and love; if menâs hearts are black with selfishness, ambition, and +lust, all the more reason for me to be pure and to do my best for all +whom my service can reach; if cruelty, lying, and fraud meet me at every +step, all the more am I called to conquer these by integrity and +guilelessness.</p> + +<p>His capacity, then, and power of governing others, were no longer dreams +of his own, but qualities with which he was accredited by those who +judged dispassionately and from the bare actual results. But this +recognition and promotion brought with it serious temptation. So capable +a person was he that a year or two had brought him to the highest post +he could expect as a slave. His advancement, therefore, only brought his +actual attainment into more painful contrast with the attainment of his +dreams. As this sense of disappointment becomes more familiar to his +heart, and threatens, under the monotonous routine of his household +work, to deepen into a habit, there suddenly opens to him a new and +unthought-of path to high position. An intrigue with Potipharâs wife +might lead to the very advancement he sought. It might lift him +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span> +out of the condition of a slave. It may have been known to him that other men +had not scrupled so to promote their own interests. Besides, Joseph was +young, and a nature like his, lively and sympathetic, must have felt +deeply that in his position he was not likely to meet such a woman as +could command his cordial love. That the temptation was in any degree to +the sensual side of his nature there is no evidence whatever. For all +that the narrative says, Potipharâs wife may not have been attractive in +person. She <i>may</i> have been; and as she used persistently, âday by day,â +every art and wile by which she could lure Joseph to her mind, in some +of his moods and under such circumstances as she would study to arrange +he may have felt even this element of the temptation. But it is too +little observed, and especially by young men who have most need to +observe it, that in such temptations it is not only what is sensual that +needs to be guarded against, but also two much deeper-lying +tendenciesâthe craving for loving recognition, and the desire to +respond to the feminine love for admiration and devotion. The latter +tendency may not seem dangerous, but I am sure that if an analysis could +be made of the broken hearts and shame-crushed lives around us, it would +be found that a large proportion of misery is due to a kind of +uncontrolled and mistaken chivalry. Men of masculine make are prone to +show their regard for women. This regard, when genuine and manly, will +show itself in purity of sympathy and respectful attention. But when +this regard is debased by a desire to please and ingratiate oneself, men +are precipitated into the unseemly expressions of a spurious manhood. +The other cravingâthe craving for loveâacts also in a somewhat latent +way. It is this craving which drives men to seek to satisfy +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span> +themselves with the expressions of love, as if thus they could secure love itself. +They do not distinguish between the two; they do not recognise that what +they most deeply desire is love, rather than the expression of it; and +they awake to find that precisely in so far as they have accepted the +expression without the sentiment, in so far have they put love itself +beyond their reach.</p> + +<p>This temptation was, in Josephâs case, aggravated by his being in a +foreign country, unrestrained by the expectations of his own family, or +by the eye of those he loved. He had, however, that which restrained +him, and made the sin seem to him an impossible wickedness, the thought +of which he could not, for a moment, entertain. âBehold, my master +wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that +he hath to my hand; there is none greater in this house than I; neither +hath he kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife: +how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?â Gratitude +to the man who had pitied him in the slave market, and shown a generous +confidence in a comparative stranger, was, with Joseph, a stronger +sentiment than any that Potipharâs wife could stir in him. One can well +believe it. We know what enthusiastic devotedness a young man of any +worth delights to give to his superior who has treated him with justice, +generosity, and confidence; who himself occupies a station of importance +in public life; and who, by a dignified graciousness of demeanour, can +make even the slave feel that he too is a man, and that through his +slaveâs dress his proper manhood and worth are recognised. There are few +stronger sentiments than the enthusiasm or quiet fidelity that can thus +be kindled, and the influence such a superior wields over the young +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span> +mind is paramount. To disregard the rights of his master seemed to +Joseph a great wickedness and sin against God. The treachery of the sin +strikes him; his native discernment of the true rights of every party in +the case cannot, for a moment, be hoodwinked. He is not a man who can, +even in the excitement of temptation, overlook the consequences his sin +may have on others. Not unsteadied by the flattering solicitations of +one so much above him in rank, nor sullied by the contagion of her +vehement passion; neither afraid to incur the resentment of one who so +regarded him, nor kindled to any impure desire by contact with her +blazing lust; neither scrupling thoroughly to disappoint her in himself, +nor to make her feel her own great guilt, he flung from him the strong +inducements that seemed to net him round and entangle him as his garment +did, and tore himself, shocked and grieved, from the beseeching hand of +his temptress.</p> + +<p>The incident is related not because it was the most violent temptation +to which Joseph was ever exposed, but because it formed a necessary link +in the chain of circumstances that brought him before Pharaoh. And +however strong this temptation may have been, more men would be found +who could thus have spoken to Potipharâs wife than who could have kept +silence when accused by Potiphar. For his purity you will find his +equal, one among a thousand; for his mercy scarcely one. For there is +nothing more intensely trying than to live under false and painful +accusations, which totally misrepresent and damage your character; which +effectually bar your advancement, and which yet you have it in your +power to disprove. Joseph, feeling his indebtedness to Potiphar, +contents himself with the simple averment that he himself is innocent. The word +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span> +is on his tongue that can put a very different face on the +matter, but rather than utter that word, Joseph will suffer the stroke +that otherwise must fall on his masterâs honour; will pass from his high +place and office of trust, through the jeering or possibly +compassionating slaves, branded as one who has betrayed the frankest +confidence, and is fitter for the dungeon than the stewardship of +Potiphar. He is content to lie under the cruel suspicion that he had in +the foulest way wronged the man whom most he should have regarded, and +whom in point of fact he did enthusiastically serve. There was one man +in Egypt whose good-will he prized, and this man now scorned and +condemned him, and this for the very act by which Joseph had proved most +faithful and deserving.</p> + +<p>And even after a long imprisonment, when he had now no reputation to +maintain, and when such a little bit of court scandal as he could have +retailed would have been highly palatable and possibly useful to some of +those polished ruffians and adventurers who made their dungeon ring with +questionable tales, and with whom the free and levelling intercourse of +prison life had put him on the most familiar footing, and when they +twitted and taunted him with his supposed crime, and gave him the prison +sobriquet that would most pungently embody his villainy and failure, and +when it might plausibly have been pleaded by himself that such a woman +should be exposed, Joseph uttered no word of recrimination, but quietly +endured, knowing that Godâs providence could allow him to be merciful; +protesting, when needful, that he himself was innocent, but seeking to +entangle no one else in his misfortune.</p> + +<p>It is this that has made the world seem so terrible a place to +manyâthat the innocent must so often suffer +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span> +for the guilty, and that, without appeal, the pure and loving must lie in chains and bitterness, +while the wicked live and see good days. It is this that has made men +most despairingly question whether there be indeed a God in heaven Who +knows who the real culprit is, and yet suffers a terrible doom slowly to +close around the innocent; Who sees where the guilt lies, and yet moves +no finger nor speaks the word that would bring justice to light, shaming +the secure triumph of the wrongdoer, and saving the bleeding spirit from +its agony. It was this that came as the last stroke of the passion of +our Lord, that He was numbered among the transgressors; it was this that +caused or materially increased the feeling that God had deserted Him; +and it was this that wrung from Him the cry which once was wrung from +David, and may well have been wrung from Joseph, when, cast into the +dungeon as a mean and treacherous villain, whose freedom was the peril +of domestic peace and honour, he found himself again helpless and +forlorn, regarded now not as a mere worthless lad, but as a criminal of +the lowest type. And as there always recur cases in which exculpation is +impossible just in proportion as the party accused is possessed of +honourable feeling, and where silent acceptance of doom is the result +not of convicted guilt, but of the very triumph of self-sacrifice, we +must beware of over-suspicion and injustice. There is nothing in which +we are more frequently mistaken than in our suspicions and harsh +judgments of others.</p> + +<p>âBut the Lord was with Joseph, and allowed him mercy, and gave him +favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison.â As in Potipharâs +house, so in the kingâs house of detention, Josephâs fidelity and +serviceableness made him seem indispensable, and by sheer force of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span> +character he occupied the place rather of governor than of prisoner. The +discerning men he had to do with, accustomed to deal with criminals and +suspects of all shades, very quickly perceived that in Josephâs case +justice was at fault, and that he was a mere scape-goat. Well might +Potipharâs wife, like Pilateâs, have had warning dreams regarding the +innocent person who was being condemned; and probably Potiphar himself +had suspicion enough of the true state of matters to prevent him from +going to extremities with Joseph, and so to imprison him more out of +deference to the opinion of his household, and for the sake of +appearances, than because Joseph alone was the object of his anger. At +any rate, such was the vitality of Josephâs confidence in God, and such +was the light-heartedness that sprang from his integrity of conscience, +that he was free from all absorbing anxiety about himself, and had +leisure to amuse and help his fellow-prisoners, so that such promotion +as a gaol could afford he won, from a dungeon to a chain, from a chain +to his word of honour. Thus even in the unlatticed dungeon the sun and +moon look in upon him and bow to him; and while his sheaf seems at its +poorest, all rust and mildew, the sheaves of his masters do homage.</p> + +<p>After the arrival of two such notable criminals as the chief butler and +baker of Pharaohâthe chamberlain and steward of the royal +householdâJoseph, if sometimes pensive, must yet have had sufficient +entertainment at times in conversing with men who stood by the king, and +were familiar with the statesmen, courtiers, and military men who +frequented the house of Potiphar. He had now ample opportunity for +acquiring information which afterwards stood him in good stead, for +apprehending the character of Pharaoh, and for making +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span> +himself acquainted with many details of his government, and with the general +condition of the people. Officials in disgrace would be found much more +accessible and much more communicative of important information than +officials in court favour could have been to one in Josephâs position.</p> + +<p>It is not surprising that three nights before Pharaohâs birthday these +functionaries of the court should have recalled in sleep such scenes as +that day was wont to bring round, nor that they should vividly have seen +the parts they themselves used to play in the festival. Neither is it +surprising that they should have had very anxious thoughts regarding +their own fate on a day which was chosen for deciding the fate of +political or courtly offenders. But it is remarkable that they having +dreamed these dreams Joseph should have been found willing to interpret +them. One desires some evidence of Josephâs attitude towards God during +this period when Godâs attitude towards him might seem doubtful, and +especially one would like to know what Joseph by this time thought of +his juvenile dreams, and whether in the prison his face wore the same +beaming confidence in his own future which had smitten the hearts of his +brothers with impatient envy of the dreamer. We seek some evidence, and +here we find it. Josephâs willingness to interpret the dreams of his +fellow-prisoners proves that he still believed in his own, that among +his other qualities he had this characteristic also of a steadfast and +profound soul, that he âreverenced as a man the dreams of his youth.â +Had he not done so, and had he not yet hoped that somehow God would +bring truth out of them, he would surely have said: Donât you believe in +dreams; they will only get you into difficulties. He would have said what some +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span> +of us could dictate from our own thoughts: I wonât meddle +with dreams any more; I am not so young as I once was; doctrines and +principles that served for fervent romantic youth seem puerile now, when +I have learned what human life actually is; I canât ask this man, who +knows the world and has held the cup for Pharaoh, and is aware what a +practical shape the kingâs anger takes, to cherish hopes similar to +those which often seem so remote and doubtful to myself. My religion has +brought me into trouble: it has lost me my situation, it has kept me +poor, it has made me despised, it has debarred me from enjoyment. Can I +ask this man to trust to inward whisperings which seem to have so misled +me? No, no; let every man bear his own burden. If he wishes to become +religious, let not me bear the responsibility. If he will dream, let him +find some other interpreter.</p> + +<p>This casual conversation, then, with his fellow-prisoners was for Joseph +one of those perilous moments when a man holds his fate in his hand, and +yet does not know that he is specially on trial, but has for his +guidance and safe-conduct through the hazard only the ordinary +safeguards and lights by the aid of which he is framing his daily life. +A man cannot be forewarned of trial, if the trial is to be a fair test +of his habitual life. He must not be called to the lists by the heraldâs +trumpet warning him to mind his seat and grasp his weapon; but must be +suddenly set upon if his habit of steadiness and balance is to be +tested, and the warrior-instinct to which the right weapon is ever at +hand. As Joseph, going the round of his morning duty and spreading what +might stir the appetite of these dainty courtiers, noted the gloom on +their faces, had he not been of a nature to take upon himself the sorrows of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span> +others, he might have been glad to escape from their +presence, fearful lest he should be infected by their depression, or +should become an object on which they might vent their ill-humour. But +he was girt with a healthy cheerfulness that could bear more than his +own burden; and his pondering of his own experience made him sensitive +to all that affected the destinies of other men.</p> + +<p>Thus Joseph in becoming the interpreter of the dreams of other men +became the fulfiller of his own. Had he made light of the dreams of his +fellow-prisoners because he had already made light of his own, he would, +for aught we can see, have died in the dungeon. And, indeed, what hope +is left for a man, and what deliverance is possible, when he makes light +of his own most sacred experience, and doubts whether after all there +was any Divine voice in that part of his life which once he felt to be +full of significance? Sadness, cynical worldliness, irritability, sour +and isolating selfishness, rapid deterioration in every part of the +characterâthese are the results which follow our repudiation of past +experience and denial of truth that once animated and purified us; when, +at least, this repudiation and denial are not themselves the results of +our advance to a higher, more animating, and more purifying truth. We +cannot but leave behind us many âchildish things,â beliefs that we now +recognise as mere superstitions, hopes and fears which do not move the +maturer mind; we cannot but seek always to be stripping ourselves of +modes of thinking which have served their purpose and are out of date, +but we do so only for the sake of attaining freer movement in all +serviceable and righteous conduct, and more adequate covering for the +permanent weaknesses of our own natureâânot for +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span> +that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon,â that truth partial and dawning may be +swallowed up in the perfect light of noon. And when a supposed advance +in the knowledge of things spiritual robs us of all that sustains true +spiritual life in us, and begets an angry contempt of our own past +experience and a proud scorning of the dreams that agitate other men; +when it ministers not at all to the growth in us of what is tender and +pure and loving and progressive, but hardens us to a sullen or coarsely +riotous or coldly calculating character, we cannot but question whether +it is not a delusion rather than a truth that has taken possession of +us.</p> + +<p>If it is fanciful, it is yet almost inevitable, to compare Joseph at +this stage of his career to the great Interpreter who stands between God +and us, and makes all His signs intelligible. Those Egyptians could not +forbear honouring Joseph, who was able to solve to them the mysteries on +the borders of which the Egyptian mind continually hovered, and which it +symbolized by its mysterious sphinxes, its strange chambers of imagery, +its unapproachable divinities. And we bow before the Lord Jesus Christ, +because He can read our fate and unriddle all our dim anticipations of +good and evil, and make intelligible to us the visions of our own +hearts. There is that in us, as in these men, from which a skilled eye +could already read our destiny. In the eye of One who sees the end from +the beginning, and can distinguish between the determining influences of +character and the insignificant manifestations of a passing mood, we are +already designed to our eternal places. And it is in Christ alone your +future is explained. You cannot understand your future without taking +Him into your confidence. You go forward +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span> +blindly to meet you know not what, unless you listen to His interpretation of the vague presentiments +that visit you. Without Him what can we make of those suspicions of a +future judgment, or of those yearnings after God, that hang about our +hearts? Without Him what can we make of the idea and hope of a better +life than we are now living, or of the strange persuasion that all will +yet be wellâa persuasion that seems so groundless, and which yet will +not be shaken off, but finds its explanation in Christ? The excess of +side light that falls across our path from the present seems only to +make the future more obscure and doubtful, and from Him alone do we +receive any interpretation of ourselves that even seems to be +satisfying. Our fellow-prisoners are often seen to be so absorbed in +their own affairs that it is vain to seek light from them; but He, with +patient, self-forgetting friendliness, is ever disengaged, and even +elicits, by the kindly and interrogating attitude He takes towards us, +the utterance of all our woes and perplexities. And it is because He has +had dreams Himself that He has become so skilled an interpreter of ours. +It is because in His own life He had His mind hard pressed for a +solution of those very problems which baffle us, because He had for +Himself to adjust Godâs promise to the ordinary and apparently casual +and untoward incidents of a human life, and because He had to wait long +before it became quite clear how one Scripture after another was to be +fulfilled by a course of simple confiding obedienceâit is because of +this experience of His own, that He can now enter into and rightly guide +to its goal every longing we cherish.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="XXVII" id="XXVII"></a>XXVII.</h2> + +<h3>PHARAOHâS DREAMS.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xli.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>âThus saith the Lord, that frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and +maketh diviners mad; that confirmeth the word of His servant, and +performeth the counsel of His messengers: that saith of Cyrus, He is +My shepherd, and shall perform all My pleasure.ââ<span class="smcap">Isa.</span> xliv. 25, 28.</p></div> + +<p>The preceding act in this great dramaâthe act comprising the scenes of +Josephâs temptation, unjust imprisonment, and interpretation of his +fellow-prisonersâ dreamsâwas written for the sake of explaining how +Joseph came to be introduced to Pharaoh. Other friendships may have been +formed in the prison, and other threads may have been spun which went to +make up the life of Joseph, but this only is pursued. For a time, +however, there seemed very little prospect that this would prove to be +the thread on which his destiny hung. Joseph made a touching appeal to +the Chief Butler: âyet did not the Chief Butler remember Joseph, but +forgat him.â You can see him in the joy of his release affectionately +pressing Josephâs hand as the kingâs messengers knocked off his fetters. +You can see him assuring Joseph, by his farewell look, that he might +trust him; mistaking mere elation at his own release for warmth of +feeling towards Joseph, though perhaps even already feeling just the slightest touch +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span> +of awkwardness at being seen on such intimate terms +with a Hebrew slave. How could he, when in the palace of Pharaoh and +decorated with the insignia of his office and surrounded by courtiers, +break through the formal etiquette of the place? What with the pleasant +congratulations of old friends, and the accumulation of business since +he had been imprisoned, and the excitement of restoration from so low +and hopeless to so high and busy a position, the promise to Joseph is +obliterated from his mind. If it once or twice recurs to his memory, he +persuades himself he is waiting for a good opening to mention Joseph. It +would perhaps be unwarrantable to say that he admits the idea that he is +in no way indebted to Joseph, since all that Joseph had done was to +interpret, but by no means to determine, his fate.</p> + +<p>The analogy which we could not help seeing between Josephâs relation to +his fellow-prisoners, and our Lordâs relation to us, pursues us here. +For does not the bond between us and Him seem often very slender, when +once we have received from Him the knowledge of the Kingâs good-will, +and find ourselves set in a place of security? Is not Christ with many a +mere stepping-stone for their own advancement, and of interest only so +long as they are in anxiety about their own fate? Their regard for Him +seems abruptly to terminate as soon as they are ushered to freer air. +Brought for a while into contact with Him, the very peace and prosperity +which that intercourse has introduced them to become opiates to dull +their memory and their gratitude. They have received all they at present +desire, they have no more dreams, their life has become so plain and +simple and glad that they need no interpreter. They seem to regard Him no more than +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span> +an official is regarded who is set to discharge to all +comers some duty for which he is paid; who mingles no love with his +work, and from whom they would receive the same benefits whether he had +any personal interest in them or no. But there is no Christianity where +there is no loving remembrance of Christ. If your contact with Him has +not made Him your Friend whom you can by no possibility forget, you have +missed the best result of your introduction to Him. It makes one think +meanly of the Chief Butler that such a personality as Josephâs had not +more deeply impressed himâthat everything he heard and saw among the +courtiers did not make him say to himself: There is a friend of mine, in +prison hard by, that for beauty, wisdom, and vivacity would more than +match the finest of you all. And it says very little for us if we can +have known anything of Christ without seeing that in Him we have what is +nowhere else, and without finding that He has become the necessity of +our life to whom we turn at every point.</p> + +<p>But, as things turned out, it was perhaps as well for Joseph that his +promising friend did forget him. For, supposing the Chief Butler had +overcome his natural reluctance to increase his own indebtedness to +Pharaoh by interceding for a friend, supposing he had been willing to +risk the friendship of the Captain of the Guard by interfering in so +delicate a matter, and supposing Pharaoh had been willing to listen to +him, what would have been the result? Probably that Joseph would have +been sold away to the quarries, for certainly he could not have been +restored to Potipharâs house; or, at the most, he might have received +his liberty, and a free pass out of Egypt. That is to say, he would have +obtained liberty to return to sheep-shearing and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span> +cattle-dealing and checkmating his brotherâs plots. In any probable case his career would +have tended rather towards obscurity than towards the fulfilment of his +dreams.</p> + +<p>There seems equal reason to congratulate Joseph on his friendâs +forgetfulness, when we consider its probable effects, not on his career, +but on his character. When he was left in prison after so sudden and +exciting an incursion of the outer world as the kingâs messengers would +make, his mind must have run chiefly in two lines of thought. Naturally +he would feel some envy of the man who was being restored; and when day +after day passed and more than the former monotony of prison routine +palled on his spirit; when he found how completely he was forgotten, and +how friendless and lone a creature he was in that strange land where +things had gone so mysteriously against him; when he saw before him no +other fate than that which he had seen befall so many a slave thrown +into a dungeon at his masterâs pleasure and never more heard of, he must +have been sorely tempted to hate the whole world, and especially those +brethren who had been the beginning of all his misfortunes. Had there +been any selfishness in solution in Josephâs character, this is the +point at which it would have quickly crystallized into permanent forms. +For nothing more certainly elicits and confirms selfishness than bad +treatment. But from his conduct on his release, we see clearly enough +that through all this trying time his heroism was not only that of the +strong man who vows that though the whole world is against him the day +will come when the world shall have need of him, but of the saint of God +in whom suffering and injustice leave no bitterness against his fellows, +nor even provoke one slightest morbid utterance.</p> + +<p>But another process must have been going on in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span> +Josephâs mind at the same time. He must have felt that it was a very serious thing that he +had been called upon to do in interpreting Godâs will to his +fellow-prisoners. No doubt he fell into it quite naturally and aptly, +because it was liker his proper vocation, and more of his character +could come out in it than in anything he had yet done. Still, to be +mixed up thus with matters of life and death concerning other people, +and to have men of practical ability and experience and high position +listening to him as to an oracle, and to find that in very truth a great +power was committed to him, was calculated to have <i>some</i> considerable +result one way or other on Joseph. And these two years of unrelieved and +sobering obscurity cannot but be considered most opportune. For one of +two things is apt to follow the worldâs first recognition of a manâs +gifts. He is either induced to pander to the worldâs wonder and become +artificial and strained in all he does, so losing the spontaneity and +naturalness and sincerity which characterise the best work; or he is +awed and steadied. And whether the one or the other result follow, will +depend very much on the other things that are happening to him. In +Josephâs case it was probably well that after having made proof of his +powers he was left in such circumstances as would not only give him time +for reflection, but also give a humble and believing turn to his +reflections. He was not at once exalted to the priestly caste, nor +enrolled among the wise men, nor put in any position in which he would +have been under constant temptation to display and trifle with his +power; and so he was led to the conviction that deeper even than the joy +of receiving the recognition and gratitude of men was the abiding +satisfaction of having done the thing God had given him to do. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span></p> + +<p>These two years, then, during which Josephâs active mind must +necessarily have been forced to provide food for itself, and have been +thrown back upon his past experience, seem to have been of eminent +service in maturing his character. The self-possessed dignity and ease +of command which appear in him from the moment when he is ushered into +Pharaohâs presence have their roots in these two years of silence. As +the bones of a strong man are slowly, imperceptibly knit, and gradually +take the shape and texture they retain throughout; so during these years +there was silently and secretly consolidating a character of almost +unparalleled calmness and power. One has no words to express how +tantalizing it must have been to Joseph to see this Egyptian have his +dreams so gladly and speedily fulfilled, while he himself, who had so +long waited on the true God, was left waiting still, and now so utterly +unbefriended that there seemed no possible way of ever again connecting +himself with the world outside the prison walls. Being pressed thus for +an answer to the question, What does God mean to make of my life? he was +brought to see and to hold as the most important truth for him, that the +first concern is, that Godâs purposes be accomplished; the second, that +his own dreams be fulfilled. He was enabled, as we shall see in the +sequel, to put God truly in the first place, and to see that by +forwarding the interests of other men, even though they were but +light-minded chief butlers at a foreign court, he might be as +serviceably furthering the purposes of God, as if he were forwarding his +own interests. He was compelled to seek for some principle that would +sustain and guide him in the midst of much disappointment and +perplexity, and he found it in the conviction that the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span> +essential thing to be accomplished in this world, and to which every man must lay his +shoulder, is Godâs purpose. Let that go on, and all else that should go +on will go on. And he further saw that he best fulfils Godâs purpose +who, without anxiety and impatience, does the duty of the day, and gives +himself without stint to the âcharities that soothe and heal and bless.â</p> + +<p>His perception of the breadth of Godâs purpose, and his profound and +sympathetic and active submission to it, were qualities too rare not to +be called into influential exercise. After two years he is suddenly +summoned to become Godâs interpreter to Pharaoh. The Egyptian king was +in the unhappy though not uncommon position of having a revelation from +God which he could not read, intimations and presentiments he could not +interpret. To one man is given the revelation, to another the +interpretation. The official dignity of the king is respected, and to +him is given the revelation which concerns the welfare of the whole +people. But to read Godâs meaning in a revelation requires a spiritual +intelligence trained to sympathy with His purposes, and such a spirit +was found in Joseph alone.</p> + +<p>The dreams of Pharaoh were thoroughly Egyptian. The marvel is, that a +symbolism so familiar to the Egyptian eye should not have been easily +legible to even the most slenderly gifted of Pharaohâs wise men. âIn my +dream,â says the king, âbehold, I stood upon the bank of the river: and, +behold, there came up out of the river seven kine,â and so on. Every +land or city is proud of its river, but none has such cause to be so as +Egypt of its Nile. The country is accurately as well as poetically +called âthe gift of Nile.â Out of the river do really come good or bad +years, fat or lean kine. Wholly dependent on its annual rise and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span> +overflow for the irrigating and enriching of the soil, the people +worship it and love it, and at the season of its overflow give way to +the most rapturous expressions of joy. The cow also was reverenced as +the symbol of the earthâs productive power. If then, as Joseph avers, +God wished to show to Pharaoh that seven years of plenty were +approaching, this announcement could hardly have been made plainer in +the language of dreams than by showing to Pharaoh seven well-favoured +kine coming up out of the bountiful river to feed on the meadow made +richly green by its waters. If the king had been sacrificing to the +river, such a sight, familiar as it was to the dwellers by the Nile, +might well have been accepted by him as a promise of plenty in the land. +But what agitated Pharaoh, and gave him the shuddering presentiment of +evil which accompanies some dreams, was the sequel. âBehold, seven other +kine came up after them, poor and very ill-favoured and lean-fleshed, +such as I never saw in all the land of Egypt for badness: and the lean +and the ill-favoured kine did eat up the first seven fat kine: and when +they had eaten them up it could not be known that they had eaten them; +but they were still ill-favoured, as at the beginning,ââa picture which +to the inspired dream-reader represented seven years of famine so +grievous, that the preceding plenty should be swallowed up and not be +known. A similar image occurred to a writer who, in describing a more +recent famine in the same land, says: âThe year presented itself as a +monster whose wrath must annihilate all the resources of life and all +the means of subsistence.â</p> + +<p>It tells in favour of the court magicians and wise men that not one of +them offered an interpretation of dreams to which it would certainly not have been +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span> +difficult to attach some tolerably feasible interpretation. +Probably these men were as yet sincere devotees of astrology and occult +science, and not the mere jugglers and charlatans their successors seem +to have become. When men cannot make out the purpose of God regarding +the future of the race, it is not wonderful that they should endeavour +to catch the faintest, most broken echo of His voice to the world, +wherever they can find it. Now there is a wide region, a borderland +between the two worlds of spirit and of matter, in which are found a +great many mysterious phenomena which cannot be explained by any known +laws of nature, and through which men fancy they get nearer to the +spiritual world. There are many singular and startling appearances, +coincidences, forebodings, premonitions which men have always been +attracted towards, and which they have considered as open ways of +communication between God and man. There are dreams, visions, strange +apprehensions, freaks of memory, and other mental phenomena, which, when +all classed together, assorted, and skilfully applied to the reading of +the future, once formed quite a science by itself. When men have no word +from God to depend upon, no knowledge at all of where either the race or +individuals are going to, they will eagerly grasp at anything that even +seems to shed a ray of light on their future. We for the most part make +light of that whole category of phenomena, because we have a more sure +word of prophecy by which, as with a light in a dark place, we can tell +where our next step should be, and what the end shall be. But invariably +in heathen countries, where no guiding Spirit of God was believed in, +and where the absence of His revealed will left numberless points of duty +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span> +doubtful and all the future dark, there existed in lieu of this a +class of persons who, under one name or other, undertook to satisfy the +craving of men to see into the future, to forewarn them of danger, and +advise them regarding matters of conduct and affairs of state.</p> + +<p>At various points of the history of Godâs revelation these professors of +occult science appear. In each case a profound impression is made by the +superior wisdom or power displayed by the âwise menâ of God. But in +reading the accounts we have of these collisions between the wisdom of +God and that of the magicians, a slight feeling of uneasiness sometimes +enters the mind. You may feel that these wonders of Joseph, Moses, and +Daniel have a romantic air about them, and you feel, perhaps, a slight +scruple in granting that God would lend Himself to such +displaysâdisplays so completely out of date in our day. But we are to +consider not only that there is nothing of the kind more certain than +that dreams do sometimes even now impart most significant warning to +men; but, also, that the time in which Joseph lived was the childhood of +the world, when God had neither spoken much to men, nor could speak +much, because as yet they had not learned His language, but were only +being slowly taught it by signs suited to their capacity. If these men +were to receive any knowledge beyond what their own unaided efforts +could attain, they must be taught in a language they understood. They +could not be dealt with as if they had already attained a knowledge and +a capacity which could only be theirs many centuries after; they must be +dealt with by signs and wonders which had perhaps little moral teaching +in them, but yet gave evidence of Godâs nearness and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span> +power such as they could and did understand. God thus stretched out His hand to men in the +darkness, and let them feel His strength before they could look on His +face and understand His nature.</p> + +<p>It is the existence at the court of Pharaoh of this highly respected +class of dream-interpreters and wise men, which lends significance to +the conduct of Joseph when summoned into the royal presence. Such wisdom +as he displayed in reading Pharaohâs visions was looked upon as +attainable by means within the reach of any man who had sufficient +faculty for the science. And the first idea in the minds of the +courtiers would probably have been, had Joseph not solemnly protested +against it, that he was an adept where they were apprentices and +bunglers, and that his success was due purely to professional skill. +This was of course perfectly well known to Joseph, who for a number of +years had been familiar with the ideas prevalent at the court of +Pharaoh; and he might have argued that there could be no great harm in +at least effecting his deliverance from an unjust imprisonment by +allowing Pharaoh to suppose that it was to him he was indebted for the +interpretation of his dreams. But his first word to Pharaoh is a +self-renouncing exclamation: âNot in me: <i>God</i> shall give Pharaoh an +answer of peace.â Two years had elapsed since anything had occurred +which looked the least like the fulfilment of his own dreams, or gave +him any hope of release from prison; and now, when measuring himself +with these courtiers and feeling able to take his place with the best of +them, getting again a breath of free air and feeling once more the charm +of life, and having an opening set before his young ambition, being so +suddenly transferred from a place where his very existence seemed to be forgotten +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span> +to a place where Pharaoh himself and all his court eyed him +with the intensest interest and anxiety, it is significant that he +should appear regardless of his own fate, but jealously careful of the +glory of God. Considering how jealous men commonly are of their own +reputation, and how impatiently eager to receive all the credit that is +due to them for their own share in any good that is doing, and +considering of what essential importance it seemed that Joseph should +seize this opportunity of providing for his own safety and advancement, +and should use this as the tide in his affairs that led to fortune, his +words and bearing before Pharaoh undoubtedly disclose a deeply +in-wrought fidelity to God, and a magnanimous patience regarding his own +personal interests.</p> + +<p>For it is extremely unlikely that in proposing to Pharaoh to set a man +over this important business of collecting corn to last through the +years of famine, it presented itself to Joseph as a conceivable result +that he should be the person appointedâhe a Hebrew, a slave, a +prisoner, cleaned but for the nonce, could not suppose that Pharaoh +would pass over all those tried officers and ministers of state around +him and fix upon a youth who was wholly untried, and who might, by his +different race and religion, prove obnoxious to the people. Joseph may +have expected to make interest enough with Pharaoh to secure his +freedom, and possibly some subordinate berth where he could hopefully +begin the world again; but his only allusion to himself is of a +depreciatory kind, while his reference to God is marked with a profound +conviction that this is Godâs doing, and that to Him is due whatever is +due. Well may the Hebrew race be proud of those men like Joseph and +Daniel, who stood in the presence of foreign +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span> +monarchs in a spirit of perfect fidelity to God, commanding the respect of all, and clothed with +the dignity and simplicity which that fidelity imparted. It matters not +to Joseph that there may perhaps be none in that land who can appreciate +his fidelity to God or understand his motive. It matters not what he may +lose by it, or what he could gain by falling in with the notions of +those around him. He himself knows the real state of the case, and will +not act untruly to his God, even though for years he seems to have been +forgotten by Him. With Daniel he says in spirit, âLet thy gifts be to +thyself, and give thy rewards to another. As for me, this secret is not +revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but that +the interpretation may be known to the king, and that thou mayest know +the thoughts of thine heart. He that revealeth secrets maketh known to +thee what shall come to pass.â There is something particularly noble and +worthy of admiration in a man thus standing alone and maintaining the +fullest allegiance to God, without ostentation, and with a quiet dignity +and naturalness that show he has a great fund of strength behind.</p> + +<p>That we do not misjudge Josephâs character or ascribe to him qualities +which were invisible to his contemporaries, is apparent from the +circumstance that Pharaoh and his advisers, with little or no +hesitation, agreed that to no man could they more safely entrust their +country in this emergency. The mere personal charm of Joseph might have +won over those experienced advisers of the crown to make compensation +for his imprisonment by an unusually handsome reward, but no mere +attractiveness of person and manner, nor even the unquestionable +guilelessness of his bearing, could have induced them to put such an affair as this into +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span> +his hands. Plainly they were impressed with Joseph; +almost supernaturally impressed, and felt God through him. He stood +before them as one mysteriously appearing in their emergency, sent out +of unthought-of quarters to warn and save them. Happily there was as yet +no jealousy of the God of the Hebrews, nor any exclusiveness on the part +of the chosen people: Pharaoh and Joseph alike felt that there was one +God over all and through all. And it was Josephâs self-abnegating +sympathy with the purposes of this Supreme God that made him a +transparent medium, so that in his presence the Egyptians felt +themselves in the presence of God. It is so always. Influence in the +long run belongs to those who rid their minds of all private aims, and +get close to the great centre in which all the race meets and is cared +for. Men feel themselves safe with the unselfish, with persons in whom +they meet principle, justice, truth, love, God. We are unattractive, +useless, uninfluential, just because we are still childishly craving a +private and selfish good. We know that a life which does not pour itself +freely into the common stream of public good is lost in dry and sterile +sands. We know that a life spent upon self is contemptible, barren, +empty, yet how slowly do we come to the attitude of Joseph, who watched +for the fulfilment of Godâs purposes, and found his happiness in +forwarding what God designed for the people.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="XXVIII" id="XXVIII"></a>XXVIII.</h2> + +<h3>JOSEPHâS ADMINISTRATION.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Gen.</span> xli. 37â57, and xlvii. 13â26.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>âHe made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance: To +bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators +wisdom.ââ<span class="smcap">Psalm.</span> cv. 21, 22.</p></div> + +<p>âMany a monument consecrated to the memory of some nobleman gone to his +long home, who during life had held high rank at the court of Pharaoh, +is decorated with the simple but laudatory inscription, âHis ancestors +were unknown peopleâââso we are told by our most accurate informant +regarding Egyptian affairs. Indeed, the tales we read of adventurers in +the East, and the histories which recount how some dynasties have been +founded, are sufficient evidence that, in other countries besides Egypt, +sudden elevation from the lowest to the highest rank is not so unusual +as amongst ourselves. Historians have recently made out that in one +period of the history of Egypt there are traces of a kind of Semitic +mania, a strong leaning towards Syrian and Arabian customs, phrases, and +persons. Such manias have occurred in most countries. There was a period +in the history of Rome when everything that had a Greek flavour was +admired; an Anglo-mania once affected a portion of the French +population, and reciprocally, French manners and ideas have at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span> +times found a welcome among ourselves. It is also clear that for a time Lower +Egypt was under the dominion of foreign rulers who were in race more +nearly allied to Joseph than to the native population. But there is no +need that so complicated a question as the exact date of this foreign +domination be debated here, for there was that in Josephâs bearing which +would have commended him to any sagacious monarch. Not only did the +court accept him as a messenger from God, but they could not fail to +recognise substantial and serviceable human qualities alongside of what +was mysterious in him. The ready apprehension with which he appreciated +the magnitude of the danger, the clear-sighted promptitude with which he +met it, the resource and quiet capacity with which he handled a matter +involving the entire condition of Egypt, showed them that they were in +the presence of a true statesman. No doubt the confidence with which he +described the best method of dealing with the emergency was the +confidence of one who was convinced he was speaking for God. This was +the great distinction they perceived between Joseph and ordinary +dream-interpreters. It was not guesswork with him. The same distinction +is always apparent between revelation and speculation. Revelation speaks +with authority; speculation gropes its way, and when wisest is most +diffident. At the same time Pharaoh was perfectly right in his +inference: âForasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so +discreet and wise as thou art.â He believed that God had chosen him to +deal with this matter because he was wise in heart, and he believed his +wisdom would remain because God had chosen him.</p> + +<p>At length, then, Joseph saw the fulfilment of his dreams within his reach. The coat of many colours +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span> +with which his father had paid a +tribute to the princely person and ways of the boy, was now replaced by +the robe of state and the heavy gold necklace which marked him out as +second to Pharaoh. Whatever nerve and self-command and humble dependence +on God his varied experience had wrought in him were all needed when +Pharaoh took his hand and placed his own ring on it, thus transferring +all his authority to him, and when turning from the king he received the +acclamations of the court and the people, bowed to by his old masters, +and acknowledged the superior of all the dignitaries and potentates of +Egypt. Only once besides, so far as the Egyptian inscriptions have yet +been deciphered, does it appear that any subject was raised to be Regent +or Viceroy with similar powers. Joseph is, as far as possible, +naturalised as an Egyptian. He receives a name easier of pronunciation +than his own, at least to Egyptian tonguesâZaphnath-Paaneah, which, +however, was perhaps only an official title meaning âGovernor of the +district of the place of life,â the name by which one of the Egyptian +counties or states was known. The king crowned his liberality and +completed the process of naturalisation by providing him with a wife, +Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah, priest of On. This city was not far +from Avaris or Haouar, where Josephâs Pharaoh, Ra-apepi II., at this +time resided. The worship of the sun-god, Ra, had its centre at On (or +Heliopolis, as it was called by the Greeks), and the priests of On took +precedence of all Egyptian priests. Joseph was thus connected with one +of the most influential families in the land, and if he had any scruples +about marrying into an idolatrous family, they were too insignificant to +influence his conduct, or leave any trace in the narrative. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span></p> + +<p>His attitude towards God and his own family was disclosed in the names +which he gave to his children. In giving names which had a meaning at +all, and not merely a taking sound, he showed that he understood, as +well he might, that every human life has a significance and expresses +some principle or fact. And in giving names which recorded his +acknowledgment of Godâs goodness, he showed that prosperity had as +little influence as adversity to move him from his allegiance to the God +of his fathers. His first son he called Manasseh, <i>Making to forget</i>, +âfor God,â said he, âhath made me forget all my toil and all my fatherâs +houseâânot as if he were now so abundantly satisfied in Egypt that the +thought of his fatherâs house was blotted from his mind, but only that +in this child the keen longings he had felt for kindred and home were +somewhat alleviated. He again found an object for his strong family +affection. The void in his heart he had so long felt was filled by the +little babe. A new home was begun around him. But this new affection +would not weaken, though it would alter the character of, his love for +his father and brethren. The birth of this child would really be a new +tie to the land from which he had been stolen. For, however ready men +are to spend their own life in foreign service, you see them wishing +that their children should spend their days among the scenes with which +their own childhood was familiar.</p> + +<p>In the naming of his second son Ephraim he recognises that God had made +him fruitful in the most unlikely way. He does not leave it to us to +interpret his life, but records what he himself saw in it. It has been +said: âTo get at the truth of any history is good; but a manâs own +historyâwhen he reads that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span> +truly, ... and knows what he is about and +has been about, it is a Bible to him.â And now that Joseph, from the +height he had reached, could look back on the way by which he had been +led to it, he cordially approved of all that God had done. There was no +resentment, no murmuring. He would often find himself looking back and +thinking, Had I found my brothers where I thought they were, had the pit +not been on the caravan-road, had the merchants not come up so +opportunely, had I not been sold at all or to some other master, had I +not been imprisoned, or had I been put in another wardâhad any one of +the many slender links in the chain of my career been absent, how +different might my present state have been. How plainly I now see that +all those sad mishaps that crushed my hopes and tortured my spirit were +steps in the only conceivable path to my present position.</p> + +<p>Many a man has added his signature to this acknowledgment of Josephâs, +and confessed a providence guiding his life and working out good for him +through injuries and sorrows, as well as through honours, marriages, +births. As in the heat of summer it is difficult to recall the sensation +of winterâs bitter cold, so the fruitless and barren periods of a manâs +life are sometimes quite obliterated from his memory. God has it in His +power to raise a man higher above the level of ordinary happiness than +ever he has sunk below it; and as winter and spring-time, when the seed +is sown, are stormy and bleak and gusty, so in human life seed-time is +not bright as summer nor cheerful as autumn; and yet it is then, when +all the earth lies bare and will yield us nothing, that the precious +seed is sown: and when we confidently commit our labour or patience of to-day to God, the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span> +land of our affliction, now bare and desolate, will +certainly wave for us, as it has waved for others, with rich produce +whitened to the harvest.</p> + +<p>There is no doubt then that Joseph had learned to recognise the +providence of God as a most important factor in his life. And the man +who does so, gains for his character all the strength and resolution +that come with a capacity for waiting. He saw, most legibly written on +his own life, that God is never in a hurry. And for the resolute +adherence to his seven-yearsâ policy such a belief was most necessary. +Nothing, indeed, is said of opposition or incredulity on the part of the +Egyptians. But was there ever a policy of such magnitude carried out in +any country without opposition or without evilly-disposed persons using +it as a weapon against its promoter? No doubt during these years he had +need of all the personal determination as well as of all the official +authority he possessed. And if, on the whole, remarkable success +attended his efforts, we must ascribe this partly to the unchallengeable +justice of his arrangements, and partly to the impression of commanding +genius Joseph seems everywhere to have made. As with his father and +brethren he was felt to be superior, as in Potipharâs house he was +quickly recognised, as in the prison no prison-garb or slave-brand could +disguise him, as in the court his superiority was instinctively felt, so +in his administration the people seem to have believed in him.</p> + +<p>And if, on the whole and in general, Joseph was reckoned a wise and +equitable ruler, and even adored as a kind of saviour of the world, it +would be idle in us to canvass the wisdom of his administration. When we +have not sufficient historical material to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span> +apprehend the full significance of any policy, it is safe to accept the judgment of men who +not only knew the facts, but were themselves so deeply involved in them +that they would certainly have felt and expressed discontent had there +been ground for doing so. The policy of Joseph was simply to economize +during the seven years of abundance to such an extent that provision +might be made against the seven years of famine. He calculated that +one-fifth of the produce of years so extraordinarily plenteous would +serve for the seven scarce years. This fifth he seems to have bought in +the kingâs name from the people, buying it, no doubt, at the cheap rates +of abundant years. When the years of famine came, the people were +referred to Joseph; and, till their money was gone, he sold corn to +them, probably not at famine prices. Next he acquired their cattle, and +finally, in exchange for food, they yielded to him both their lands and +their persons. So that the result of the whole was, that the people who +would otherwise have perished were preserved, and in return for this +preservation they paid a tax or rent on their farm-lands to the amount +of one-fifth of their produce. The people ceased to be proprietors of +their own farms, but they were not slaves with no interest in the soil, +but tenants sitting at easy rentsâa fair enough exchange for being +preserved in life. This kind of taxation is eminently fair in principle, +securing, as it does, that the wealth of the king and government shall +vary with the prosperity of the whole land. The chief difficulty that +has always been experienced in working it, has arisen from the necessity +of leaving a good deal of discretionary power in the hands of the +collectors, who have generally been found not slow to abuse this power. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span></p> + +<p>The only semblance of despotism in Josephâs policy is found in the +curious circumstance that he interfered with the peopleâs choice of +residence, and shifted them from one end of the land to another. This +may have been necessary not only as a kind of seal on the deed by which +the lands were conveyed to the king, and as a significant sign to them +that they were mere tenants, but also Joseph probably saw that for the +interests of the country, if not of agricultural prosperity, this +shifting had become necessary for the breaking up of illegal +associations, nests of sedition, and sectional prejudices and enmities which were endangering the +community.<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> +Modern experience supplies us with instances in which, by such a policy, a country might be +regenerated and a seven yearsâ famine hailed as a blessing if, without +famishing the people, it put them unconditionally into the hands of an +able, bold, and beneficent ruler. And this was a policy which could be +much better devised and executed by a foreigner than by a native.</p> + +<p>Egyptâs indebtedness to Joseph was, in fact, two-fold. In the first +place he succeeded in doing what many strong governments have failed to +do: he enabled a large population to survive a long and severe famine. +Even with all modern facilities for transport and for making the +abundance of remote countries available for times of scarcity, it has +not always been found possible to save our own fellow-subjects from +starvation. In a prolonged famine which occurred in Egypt during the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span> +middle ages, the inhabitants, reduced to the unnatural habits which are +the most painful feature of such times, not only ate their own dead, but +kidnapped the living on the streets of Cairo and consumed them in +secret. One of the most touching memorials of the famine with which +Joseph had to deal is found in a sepulchral inscription in Arabia. A +flood of rain laid bare a tomb in which lay a woman having on her person +a profusion of jewels which represented a very large value. At her head +stood a coffer filled with treasure, and a tablet with this inscription: +âIn Thy name, O God, the God of Himyar, I, Tayar, the daughter of Dzu +Shefar, sent my steward to Joseph, and he delaying to return to me, I +sent my handmaid with a measure of silver to bring me back a measure of +flour; and not being able to procure it, I sent her with a measure of +gold; and not being able to procure it, I sent her with a measure of +pearls; and not being able to procure it, I commanded them to be ground; +and finding no profit in them, I am shut up here.â If this inscription +is genuineâand there seems no reason to call it in questionâit shows +that there is no exaggeration in the statement of our narrator that the +famine was very grievous in other lands as well as in Egypt. And, +whether genuine or not, one cannot but admire the grim humour of the +starving woman getting herself buried in the jewels which had suddenly +dropped to less than the value of a loaf of bread.</p> + +<p>But besides being indebted to Joseph for their preservation, the +Egyptians owed to him an extension of their influence; for, as all the +lands round about became dependent on Egypt for provision, they must +have contracted a respect for the Egyptian administration. They must +also have added greatly to Egyptâs wealth +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span> +and during those years of constant traffic many commercial connections must have been formed which +in future years would be of untold value to Egypt. But above all, the +permanent alterations made by Joseph on their tenure of land, and on +their places of abode, may have convinced the most sagacious of the +Egyptians that it was well for them that their money had failed, and +that they had been compelled to yield themselves unconditionally into +the hands of this remarkable ruler. It is the mark of a competent +statesman that he makes temporary distress the occasion for permanent +benefit; and from the confidence Joseph won with the people, there seems +every reason to believe that the permanent alterations he introduced +were considered as beneficial as certainly they were bold.</p> + +<p>And for our own spiritual uses it is this point which seems chiefly +important. In Joseph is illustrated the principle that, in order to the +attainment of certain blessings, unconditional submission to Godâs +delegate is required. If we miss this, we miss a large part of what his +history exhibits, and it becomes a mere pretty story. The prominent idea +in his dreams was that he was to be worshipped by his brethren. In his +exaltation by Pharaoh, the absolute authority given to him is again +conspicuous: âWithout thee shall no man lift up hand or foot in all the +land of Egypt.â And still the same autocracy appears in the fact that +not one Egyptian who was helpful to him in this matter is mentioned; and +no one has received such exclusive possession of a considerable part of +Scripture, so personal and outstanding a place. All this leaves upon the +mind the impression that Joseph becomes a benefactor, and in his degree +a saviour, to men by becoming their absolute master. When this was hinted in his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span> +dreams at first his brothers fiercely resented it. But +when they were put to the push by famine, both they and the Egyptians +recognised that he was appointed by God to be their saviour, while at +the same time they markedly and consciously submitted themselves to him. +Men may always be expected to recognise that he who can save them alive +in famine has a right to order the bounds of their habitation; and also +that in the hands of one who, from disinterested motives, has saved +them, they are likely to be quite as safe as in their own. And if we are +all quite sure of this, that men of great political sagacity can +regulate our affairs with tenfold the judgment and success that we +ourselves could achieve, we cannot wonder that in matters still higher, +and for which we are notoriously incompetent, there should be One into +whose hands it is well to commit ourselvesâOne whose judgment is not +warped by the prejudices which blind all mere natives of this world, but +who, separate from sinners yet naturalised among us, can both detect and +rectify everything in our condition which is less than perfect. If there +are certainly many cases in which explanations are out of the question, +and in which the governed, if they are wise, will yield themselves to a +trusted authority, and leave it to time and results to justify his +measures, any one, I think, who anxiously considers our spiritual +condition must see that here too obedience is for us the greater part of +wisdom, and that, after all speculation and efforts at sufficing +investigation, we can still do no better than yield ourselves absolutely +to Jesus Christ. He alone understands our whole position; He alone +speaks with the authority that commands confidence, because it is felt +to be the authority of the truth. We feel the present pressure of +famine; we have discernment enough, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span> +some of us, to know we are in danger, but we cannot penetrate deeply either into the cause or the +possible consequences of our present state. But Christâif we may +continue the figureâlegislates with a breadth of administrative +capacity which includes not only our present distress but our future +condition, and, with the boldness of one who is master of the whole +case, requires that we put ourselves wholly into His hand. He takes the +responsibility of all the changes we make in obedience to Him, and +proposes so to relieve us that the relief shall be permanent, and that +the very emergency which has thrown us upon His help shall be the +occasion of our transference not merely out of the present evil, but +into the best possible form of human life.</p> + +<p>From this chapter, then, in the history of Joseph, we may reasonably +take occasion to remind ourselves, first, that in all things pertaining +to God unconditional submission to Christ is necessarily required of us. +Apart from Christ we cannot tell what are the necessary elements of a +permanently happy state; nor, indeed, even whether there is any such +state awaiting us. There is a great deal of truth in what is urged by +unbelievers to the effect that spiritual matters are in great measure +beyond our cognizance, and that many of our religious phrases are but, +as it were, thrown out in the direction of a truth but do not perfectly +represent it. No doubt we are in a provisional state, in which we are +not in direct contact with the absolute truth, nor in a final attitude +of mind towards it; and certain representations of things given in the +Word of God may seem to us not to cover the whole truth. But this only +compels the conclusion that for us Christ is the way, the truth, and the +life. To probe existence to the bottom is plainly not in our power. To say precisely what God is, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span> +how we are to carry ourselves towards +Him, is possible only to him who has been with God and is God. To submit +to the Spirit of Christ, and to live under those influences and views +which formed His life, is the only method that promises deliverance from +that moral condition which makes spiritual vision impossible.</p> + +<p>We may remind ourselves, secondly, that this submission to Christ should +be consistently adhered to in connection with those outward occurrences +in our life which give us opportunity of enlarging our spiritual +capacity. There can be little doubt that there would be presented to +Joseph many a plan for the better administration of this whole matter, +and many a petition from individuals craving exemption from the +seemingly arbitrary and certainly painful and troublesome edict +regulating change of residence. Many a man would think himself much +wiser than the minister of Pharaoh in whom was the Spirit of God. When +we act in a similar manner, and take upon us to specify with precision +the changes we should like to see in our condition, and the methods by +which these changes might best be accomplished, we commonly manifest our +own incompetence. The changes which the strong hand of Providence +enforces, the dislocation which our life suffers from some irresistible +blow, the necessity laid upon us to begin life again and on apparently +disadvantageous terms, are naturally resented; but these things being +certainly the result of some unguardedness, improvidence, or weakness in +our past state, are necessarily the means most appropriate for +disclosing to us these elements of calamity and for securing our +permanent welfare. We rebel against such perilous and sweeping +revolutions as the basing of our life on a new foundation demands; we would disregard the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span> +appointments of Providence if we could; but both +our voluntary consent to the authority of Christ and the impossibility +of resisting His providential arrangements, prevent us from refusing to +fall in with them, however needless and tyrannical they seem, and +however little we perceive that they are intended to accomplish our +permanent well-being. And it is in after years, when the pain of +severance from old friends and habits is healed, and when the discomfort +of adapting ourselves to a new kind of life is replaced by peaceful and +docile resignation to new conditions, that we reach the clear perception +that the changes we resented have in point of fact rendered harmless the +seeds of fresh disaster, and rescued us from the results of long bad +government. He who has most keenly felt the hardship of being diverted +from his original course in life, will in after life tell you that had +he been allowed to hold his own land, and remain his own master in his +old loved abode, he would have lapsed into a condition from which no +worthy harvest could be expected. If a man only wishes that his own +conceptions of prosperity be realised, then let him keep his land in his +own hand and work his material irrespective of Godâs demands; for +certainly if he yields himself to God, his own ideas of prosperity will +not be realised. But if he suspects that God may have a more liberal +conception of prosperity and may understand better than he what is +eternally beneficial, let him commit himself and all his material of +prosperity without doubting into Godâs hand, and let him greedily obey +all Godâs precepts; for in neglecting one of these, he so far neglects +and misses what God would have him enter into.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> +âIt happened very often that the inhabitants of one +district threatened an attack on the occupants of another on account of +some dispute about divine or human questions. The hostile feelings of +the opponents not unfrequently broke out into a hard struggle, and it +required the whole armed power of the king to extinguish at its first +outburst the flaming torch of war, kindled by domineering chiefs of +nomes or ambitious priests.ââBrugsch, <i>History of Egypt</i>, i. 16.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="XXIX" id="XXIX"></a>XXIX.</h2> + +<h3>VISITS OF JOSEPHâS BRETHREN.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Gen.</span> xlii.âxliv.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>âFear not: for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought +evil against me; but God meant it unto good.ââ<span class="smcap">Gen.</span> 1. 19, 20.</p></div> + +<p>The purpose of God to bring Israel into Egypt was accomplished by the +unconscious agency of Josephâs natural affection for his kindred. +Tenderness towards home is usually increased by residence in a foreign +land; for absence, like a little death, sheds a halo round those +separated from us. But Joseph could not as yet either re-visit his old +home or invite his fatherâs family into Egypt. Even, indeed, when his +brothers first appeared before him, he seems to have had no immediate +intention of inviting them as a family to settle in the country of his +adoption, or even to visit it. If he had cherished any such purpose or +desire he might have sent down wagons at once, as he at last did, to +bring his fatherâs household out of Canaan. Why, then, did he proceed so +cautiously? Whence this mystery, and disguise, and circuitous compassing +of his end? What intervened between the first and last visit of his +brethren to make it seem advisable to disclose himself and invite them? +Manifestly there had intervened enough to give Joseph insight into the +state of mind his brethren were in, enough to satisfy +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span> +him they were not the men they had been, and that it was safe to ask them and would be +pleasant to have them with him in Egypt. Fully alive to the elements of +disorder and violence that once existed among them, and having had no +opportunity of ascertaining whether they were now altered, there was no +course open but that which he adopted of endeavouring in some unobserved +way to discover whether twenty years had wrought any change in them.</p> + +<p>For effecting this object he fell on the expedient of imprisoning them, +on pretence of their being spies. This served the double purpose of +detaining them until he should have made up his mind as to the best +means of dealing with them, and of securing their retention under his +eye until some display of character might sufficiently certify him of +their state of mind. Possibly he adopted this expedient also because it +was likely deeply to move them, so that they might be expected to +exhibit not such superficial feelings as might have been elicited had he +set them down to a banquet and entered into conversation with them over +their wine, but such as men are surprised to find in themselves, and +know nothing of in their lighter hours. Joseph was, of course, well +aware that in the analysis of character the most potent elements are +only brought into clear view when the test of severe trouble is applied, +and when men are thrown out of all conventional modes of thinking and +speaking.</p> + +<p>The display of character which Joseph awaited he speedily obtained. For +so new an experience to these free dwellers in tents as imprisonment +under grim Egyptian guards worked wonders in them. Men who have +experienced such treatment aver that nothing more effectually tames and +breaks the spirit: it is not the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[385]</a></span> +being confined for a definite time +with the certainty of release in the end, but the being shut up at the +caprice of another on a false and absurd accusation; the being cooped up +at the will of a stranger in a foreign country, uncertain and hopeless +of release. To Josephâs brethren so sudden and great a calamity seemed +explicable only on the theory that it was retribution for the great +crime of their life. The uneasy feeling which each of them had hidden in +his own conscience, and which the lapse of twenty years had not +materially alleviated, finds expression: âAnd they said one to another, +We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish +of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is +this distress come upon us.â The similarity of their position to that in +which they had placed their brother stimulates and assists their +conscience. Joseph, in the anguish of his soul, had protested his +innocence, but they had not listened; and now their own protestations +are treated as idle wind by this Egyptian. Their own feelings, +representing to them what they had caused Joseph to suffer, stir a +keener sense of their guilt than they seem ever before to have reached. +Under this new light they see their sin more clearly, and are humbled by +the distress into which it has brought them.</p> + +<p>When Joseph sees this, his heart warms to them. He may not yet be quite +sure of them. A prison-repentance is perhaps scarcely to be trusted. He +sees they would for the moment deal differently with him had they the +opportunity, and would welcome no one more heartily than himself, whose +coming among them had once so exasperated them. Himself keen in his +affections, he is deeply moved, and his eyes fill with tears as he +witnesses their emotion and grief on his account. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[386]</a></span> +Fain would he relieve them from their remorse and apprehensionâwhy, then, does he forbear? +Why does he not at this juncture disclose himself? It has been +satisfactorily proved that his brethren counted their sale of him the +great crime of their life. Their imprisonment has elicited evidence that +that crime had taken in their conscience the capital place, the place +which a man finds some one sin or series of sins will take, to follow +him with its appropriate curse, and hang over his future like a cloudâa +sin of which he thinks when any strange thing happens to him, and to +which he traces all disasterâa sin so iniquitous that it seems capable +of producing any results however grievous, and to which he has so given +himself that his life seems to be concentrated there, and he cannot but +connect with it all the greater ills that happen to him. Was not this, +then, security enough that they would never again perpetrate a crime of +like atrocity? Every man who has almost at all observed the history of +sin in himself, will say that most certainly it was quite insufficient +security against their ever again doing the like. Evidence that a man is +conscious of his sin, and, while suffering from its consequences, feels +deeply its guilt, is not evidence that his character is altered.</p> + +<p>And because we believe men so much more readily than God, and think that +they do not require, for formâs sake, such needless pledges of a changed +character as God seems to demand, it is worth observing that Joseph, +moved as he was even to tears, felt that common prudence forbade him to +commit himself to his brethren without further evidence of their +disposition. They had distinctly acknowledged their guilt, and in his +hearing had admitted that the great calamity that had befallen them was no more than they +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[387]</a></span> +deserved; yet Joseph, judging merely as an +intelligent man who had worldly interests depending on his judgment, +could not discern enough here to justify him in supposing that his +brethren were changed men. And it might sometimes serve to expose the +insufficiency of our repentance were clear-seeing men the judges of it, +and did they express their opinion of its trustworthiness. We may think +that God is needlessly exacting when He requires evidence not only of a +changed mind about past sin, but also of such a mind being now in us as +will preserve us from future sin; but the truth is, that no man whose +common worldly interests were at stake would commit himself to us on any +less evidence. God, then, meaning to bring the house of Israel into +Egypt in order to make progress in the Divine education He was giving to +them, could not introduce them into that land in a state of mind which +would negative all the discipline they were there to receive.</p> + +<p>These men then had to give evidence that they not only saw, and in some +sense repented of, their sin, but also that they had got rid of the evil +passion which had led to it. This is what God means by repentance. Our +sins are in general not so microscopic that it requires very keen +spiritual discernment to perceive them. But to be quite aware of our +sin, and to acknowledge it, is not to repent of it. Everything falls +short of thorough repentance which does not prevent us from committing +the sin anew. We do not so much desire to be accurately informed about +our past sins, and to get right views of our past selves; we wish to be +no longer sinners, we wish to pass through some process by which we may +be separated from that in us which has led us into sin. Such a process +there is, for these men passed through it. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[388]</a></span></p> + +<p>The test which revealed the thoroughness of his brothersâ repentance was +unintentionally applied by Joseph. When he hid his cup in Benjaminâs +sack, all that he intended was to furnish a pretext for detaining +Benjamin, and so gratifying his own affection. But, to his astonishment, +his trick effected far more than he intended; for the brothers, +recognising now their brotherhood, circled round Benjamin, and, to a +man, resolved to go back with him to Egypt. We cannot argue from this +that Joseph had misapprehended the state of mind in which his brothers +were, and in his judgment of them had been either too timorous or too +severe; nor need we suppose that he was hampered by his relations to +Pharaoh, and therefore unwilling to connect himself too closely with men +of whom he might be safer to be rid; because it was this very peril of +Benjaminâs that matured their brotherly affection. They themselves could +not have anticipated that they would make such a sacrifice for Benjamin. +But throughout their dealings with this mysterious Egyptian, they felt +themselves under a spell, and were being gradually, though perhaps +unconsciously, softened, and in order to complete the change passing +upon them, they but required some such incident as this of Benjaminâs +arrest. This incident seemed by some strange fatality to threaten them +with a renewed perpetration of the very crime they had committed against +Rachelâs other son. It threatened to force them to become again the +instrument of bereaving their father of his darling child, and bringing +about that very calamity which they had pledged themselves should never +happen. It was an incident, therefore, which, more than any other, was +likely to call out their family love. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[389]</a></span></p> + +<p>The scene lives in every oneâs memory. They were going gladly back to +their own country with corn enough for their children, proud of their +entertainment by the lord of Egypt; anticipating their fatherâs +exultation when he heard how generously they had been treated and when +he saw Benjamin safely restored, feeling that in bringing him back they +almost compensated for having bereaved him of Joseph. Simeon is +revelling in the free air that blew from Canaan and brought with it the +scents of his native land, and breaks into the old songs that the strait +confinement of his prison had so long silencedâall of them together +rejoicing in a scarcely hoped-for success; when suddenly, ere the first +elation is spent, they are startled to see the hasty approach of the +Egyptian messenger, and to hear the stern summons that brought them to a +halt, and boded all ill. The few words of the just Egyptian, and his +calm, explicit judgment, âYe have done evil in so doing,â pierce them +like a keen bladeâthat they should be suspected of robbing one who had +dealt so generously with them; that all Israel should be put to shame in +the sight of the stranger! But they begin to feel relief as one brother +after another steps forward with the boldness of innocence; and as sack +after sack is emptied, shaken, and flung aside, they already eye the +steward with the bright air of triumph; when, as the very last sack is +emptied, and as all breathlessly stand round, amid the quick rustle of +the corn, the sharp rattle of metal strikes on their ear, and the gleam +of silver dazzles their eyes as the cup rolls out in the sunshine. This, +then, is the brother of whom their father was so careful that he dared +not suffer him out of his sight! This is the precious youth +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[390]</a></span> +whose life was of more value than the lives of all the brethren, and to keep whom a +few months longer in his fatherâs sight Simeon had been left to rot in a +dungeon! This is how he repays the anxiety of the family and their love, +and this is how he repays the extraordinary favour of Joseph! By one +rash childish act had this fondled youth, to all appearance, brought +upon the house of Israel irretrievable disgrace, if not complete +extinction. Had these men been of their old temper, their knives had +very speedily proved that their contempt for the deed was as great as +the Egyptianâs; by violence towards Benjamin they might have cleared +themselves of all suspicion of complicity; or, at the best, they might +have considered themselves to be acting in a fair and even lenient +manner if they had surrendered the culprit to the steward, and once +again carried back to their father a tale of blood. But they were under +the spell of their old sin. In all disaster, however innocent they now +were, they saw the retribution of their old iniquity; they seem scarcely +to consider whether Benjamin was innocent or guilty, but as humbled, +God-smitten men, âthey rent their clothes, and laded every man his ass, +and returned to the city.â</p> + +<p>Thus Joseph in seeking to gain <i>one</i> brother found elevenâfor now there +could be no doubt that they were very different men from those brethren +who had so heartlessly sold into slavery their fatherâs favouriteâmen +now with really brotherly feelings, by penitence and regard for their +father so wrought together into one family, that this calamity, intended +to fall only on one of their number, did in falling on him fall on them +all. So far from wishing now to rid themselves of Rachelâs son and their fatherâs favourite, who had +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[391]</a></span> +been put by their father in so prominent a +place in his affection, they will not even give him up to suffer what +seemed the just punishment of his theft, do not even reproach him with +having brought them all into disgrace and difficulty, but, as humbled +men who knew they had greater sins of their own to answer for, went +quietly back to Egypt, determined to see their younger brother through +his misfortune or to share his bondage with him. Had these men not been +thoroughly changed, thoroughly convinced that at all costs upright +dealing and brotherly love should continue; had they not possessed that +first and last of Christian virtues, love to their brother, then nothing +could so certainly have revealed their want of it as this apparent theft +of Benjaminâs. It seemed in itself a very likely thing that a lad +accustomed to plain modes of life, and whose character it was to âravin +as a wolf,â should, when suddenly introduced to the gorgeous Egyptian +banqueting-house with all its sumptuous furnishings, have coveted some +choice specimen of Egyptian art, to carry home to his father as proof +that he could not only bring himself back in safety, but scorned to come +back from any expedition empty-handed. It was not unlikely either that, +with his motherâs own superstition, he might have conceived the bold +design of robbing this Egyptian, so mysterious and so powerful, +according to his brothersâ account, and of breaking that spell which he +had thrown over them; he may thus have conceived the idea of achieving +for himself a reputation in the family, and of once for all redeeming +himself from the somewhat undignified, and to one of his spirit somewhat +uncongenial, position of the youngest of a family. If, as is possible, +he had let any such idea ooze out in talking with his brethren as they went +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[392]</a></span> +down to Egypt, and only abandoned it on their indignant and urgent +remonstrance, then when the cup, Josephâs chief treasure according to +his own account, was discovered in Benjaminâs sack, the case must have +looked sadly against him even in the eyes of his brethren. No +protestations of innocence in a particular instance avail much when the +character and general habits of the accused point to guilt. It is quite +possible, therefore, that the brethren, though willing to believe +Benjamin, were yet not so thoroughly convinced of his innocence as they +would have desired. The fact that they themselves had found their money +returned in their sacks, made for Benjamin; yet in most cases, +especially where circumstances corroborate it, an accusation even +against the innocent takes immediate hold and cannot be summarily and at +once got rid of.</p> + +<p>Thus was proof given that the house of Israel was now in truth one +family. The men who, on very slight instigation, had without compunction +sold Joseph to a life of slavery, cannot now find it in their heart to +abandon a brother who, to all appearance, was worthy of no better life +than that of a slave, and who had brought them all into disgrace and +danger. Judah had no doubt pledged himself to bring the lad back without +scathe to his father, but he had done so without contemplating the +possibility of Benjamin becoming amenable to Egyptian law. And no one +can read the speech of Judahâone of the most pathetic on recordâin +which he replies to Josephâs judgment that Benjamin alone should remain +in Egypt, without perceiving that he speaks not as one who merely seeks +to redeem a pledge, but as a good son and a good brother. He speaks, +too, as the mouth-piece of the rest, and as he had taken the lead in Josephâs sale, so he does not +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[393]</a></span> +shrink from standing forward and +accepting the heavy responsibility which may now light upon the man who +represents these brethren. His former faults are redeemed by the +courage, one may say heroism, he now shows. And as he spoke, so the rest +felt. They could not bring themselves to inflict a new sorrow on their +aged father; neither could they bear to leave their young brother in the +hands of strangers. The passions which had alienated them from one +another, and had threatened to break up the family, are subdued. There +is now discernible a common feeling that binds them together, and a +common object for which they willingly sacrifice themselves. They are, +therefore, now prepared to pass into that higher school to which God +called them in Egypt. It mattered little what strong and equitable laws +they found in the land of their adoption, if they had no taste for +upright living; it mattered little what thorough national organization +they would be brought into contact with in Egypt, if in point of fact +they owned no common brotherhood, and were willing rather to live as +units and every man for himself than for any common interest. But now +they were prepared, open to teaching, and docile.</p> + +<p>To complete our apprehension of the state of mind into which the +brethren were brought by Josephâs treatment of them, we must take into +account the assurance he gave them, when he made himself known to them, +that it was not they but God who had sent him into Egypt, and that God +had done this for the purpose of preserving the whole house of Israel. +At first sight this might seem to be an injudicious speech, calculated +to make the brethren think lightly of their guilt, and to remove the +just impressions they now entertained of the unbrotherliness of their conduct to Joseph. And it +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[394]</a></span> +might have been an injudicious speech to +impenitent men; but no further view of sin can lighten its heinousness +to a really penitent sinner. Prove to him that his sin has become the +means of untold good, and you only humble him the more, and more deeply +convince him that while he was recklessly gratifying himself and +sacrificing others for his own pleasure, God has been mindful of others, +and, pardoning him, has blessed them. God does not need our sins to work +out His good intentions, but we give Him little other material; and the +discovery that through our evil purposes and injurious deeds God has +worked out His beneficent will, is certainly not calculated to make us +think more lightly of our sin or more highly of ourselves.</p> + +<p>Joseph in thus addressing his brethren did, in fact, but add to their +feelings the tenderness that is in all religious conviction, and that +springs out of the consciousness that in all our sin there has been with +us a holy and loving Father, mindful of His children. This is the final +stage of penitence. The knowledge that God has prevented our sin from +doing the harm it might have done, does relieve the bitterness and +despair with which we view our life, but at the same time it strengthens +the most effectual bulwark between us and sinâlove to a holy, +over-ruling God. This, therefore, may always be safely said to +penitents: Out of your worst sin God can bring good to yourself or to +others, and good of an apparently necessary kind; but good of a +permanent kind can result from your sin only when you have truly +repented of it, and sincerely wish you had never done it. Once this +repentance is really wrought in you, then, though your life can never be +the same as it might have been had you not sinned, it may be, in some +respects, a more richly developed life, a life +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[395]</a></span> +fuller of humility and love. You can never have what you sold for your sin; but the poverty +your sin has brought may excite within you thoughts and energies more +valuable than what you have lost, as these men lost a brother but found +a Saviour. The wickedness that has often made you bow your head and +mourn in secret, and which is in itself unutterable shame and loss, may, +in Godâs hand, become food against the day of famine. You cannot ever +have the enjoyments which are possible only to those whose conscience is +laden with no evil remembrances, and whose nature, uncontracted and +unwithered by familiarity with sin, can give itself to enjoyment with +the abandonment and fearlessness reserved for the innocent. No more at +all will you have that fineness of feeling which only ignorance of evil +can preserve; no more that high and great conscientiousness which, once +broken, is never repaired; no more that respect from other men which for +ever and instinctively departs from those who have lost self-respect. +But you may have a more intelligent sympathy with other men and a keener +pity for them; the experience you have gathered too late to save +yourself may put it in your power to be of essential service to others. +You cannot win your way back to the happy, useful, evenly-developed life +of the comparatively innocent, but the life of the true-hearted penitent +is yet open to you. Every beat of your heart now may be as if it +throbbed against a poisoned dagger, every duty may shame you, every day +bring weariness and new humiliation, but let no pain or discouragement +avail to defraud you of the good fruits of true reconciliation to God +and submission to His lifelong discipline. See that you lose not both +lives, the life of the comparatively innocent and the life of the truly penitent.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[396]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="XXX" id="XXX"></a>XXX.</h2> + +<h3>THE RECONCILIATION.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Gen.</span> xlv.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>âBy faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the +children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his +bones.ââ<span class="smcap">Heb.</span> xi. 22.</p></div> + +<p>It is generally by some circumstance or event which perplexes, troubles, +or gladdens us, that new thoughts regarding conduct are presented to us, +and new impulses communicated to our life. And the circumstances through +which Josephâs brethren passed during the famine not only subdued and +softened them to a genuine family feeling, but elicited in Joseph +himself a more tender affection for them than he seems at first to have +cherished. For the first time since his entrance into Egypt did he feel, +when Judah spoke so touchingly and effectively, that the family of +Israel was one; and that he himself would be reprehensible did he make +further breaches in it by carrying out his intention of detaining +Benjamin. Moved by Judahâs pathetic appeal, and yielding to the generous +impulse of the moment, and being led by a right state of feeling to a +right judgment regarding duty, he claimed his brethren as brethren, and +proposed that the whole family be brought into Egypt.</p> + +<p>The scene in which the sacred writer describes the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[397]</a></span> +reconciliation of Joseph and his brothers is one of the most touching on record;âthe long +estrangement so happily terminated; the caution, the doubts, the +hesitation on Josephâs part, swept away at last by the resistless tide +of long pent-up emotion; the surprise and perplexity of the brethren as +they dared now to lift their eyes and scrutinize the face of the +governor, and discerned the lighter complexion of the Hebrew, the +features of the family of Jacob, the expression of their own brother; +the anxiety with which they wait to know how he means to repay their +crime, and the relief with which they hear that he bears them no +ill-willâeverything, in short, conduces to render this recognition of +the brethren interesting and affecting. That Joseph, who had controlled +his feeling in many a trying situation, should now have âwept aloud,â +needs no explanation. Tears always express a mingled feeling; at least +the tears of a man do. They may express grief, but it is grief with some +remorse in it, or it is grief passing into resignation. They may express +joy, but it is joy born of long sorrow, the joy of deliverance, joy that +can now afford to let the heart weep out the fears it has been holding +down. It is as with a kind of breaking of the heart, and apparent +unmanning of the man, that the human soul takes possession of its +greatest treasures; unexpected success and unmerited joy humble a man; +and as laughter expresses the surprise of the intellect, so tears +express the amazement of the soul when it is stormed suddenly by a great +joy. Joseph had been hardening himself to lead a solitary life in Egypt, +and it is with all this strong self-sufficiency breaking down within him +that he eyes his brethren. It is his love for them making its way +through all his ability to do without them, and sweeping away as a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[398]</a></span> +flood the bulwarks he had built round his heart,âit is this that breaks +him down before them, a man conquered by his own love, and unable to +control it. It compels him to make himself known, and to possess himself +of its objects, those unconscious brethren. It is a signal instance of +the law by which love brings all the best and holiest beings into +contact with their inferiors, and, in a sense, puts them in their power, +and thus eternally provides that the superiority of those that are high +in the scale of being shall ever be at the service of those who in +themselves are not so richly endowed. The higher any being is, the more +love is in him: that is to say, the higher he is, the more surely is he +bound to all who are beneath him. If God is highest of all, it is +because there is in Him sufficiency for all His creatures, and love to +make it universally available.</p> + +<p>It is one of our most familiar intellectual pleasures to see in the +experience of others, or to read, a lucid and moving account of emotions +identical with those which have once been our own. In reading an account +of what others have passed through, our pleasure is derived mainly from +two sourcesâeither from our being brought, by sympathy with them and in +imagination, into circumstances we ourselves have never been placed in, +and thus artificially enlarging our sphere of life, and adding to our +experience feelings which could not have been derived from anything we +ourselves have met with; or, from our living over again, by means of +their experience, a part of our life which had great interest and +meaning to us. It may be excusable, therefore, if we divert this +narrative from its original historical significance, and use it as the +mirror in which we may see reflected an important passage or crisis in +our own spiritual history. For though some may find +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[399]</a></span> +in it little that reflects their own experience, others cannot fail to be reminded of +feelings with which they were very familiar when first they were +introduced to Christ, and acknowledged by Him.</p> + +<p>1. The modes in which our Lord makes Himself known to men are various as +their lives and characters. But frequently the forerunning choice of a +sinner by Christ is discovered in such gradual and ill-understood +dealings as Joseph used with those brethren. It is the closing of a net +around them. They do not see what is driving them forward, nor whither +they are being driven; they are anxious and ill at ease; and not +comprehending what ails them, they make only ineffectual efforts for +deliverance. There is no recognition of the hand that is guiding all +this circuitous and mysterious preparatory work, nor of the eye that +affectionately watches their perplexity, nor are they aware of any +friendly ear that catches each sigh in which they seem hopelessly to +resign themselves to the relentless past from which they cannot escape. +They feel that they are left alone to make what they can now of the life +they have chosen and made for themselves; that there is floating behind +and around them a cloud bearing the very essence exhaled from their +past, and ready to burst over them; a phantom that is yet real, and that +belongs both to the spiritual and material world, and can follow them in +either. They seem to be doomed menâmen who are never at all to get +disentangled from their old sin.</p> + +<p>If any one is in this baffled and heartless condition, fearing even good +lest it turn to evil in his hand; afraid to take the money that lies in +his sackâs mouth, because he feels there is a snare in it; if any one is +sensible that life has become unmanageable in his hands, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[400]</a></span> +that he is being drawn on by an unseen power which he does not understand, then let +him consider in the scene before us how such a condition ends or may +end. It took many months of doubt, and fear, and mystery to bring those +brethren to such a state of mind as made it advisable for Joseph to +disclose himself, to scatter the mystery, and relieve them of the +unaccountable uneasiness that possessed their minds. And your perplexity +will not be allowed to last longer than it is needful. But it is often +needful that we should first learn that in sinning we have introduced +into our life a baffling, perplexing element, have brought our life into +connection with inscrutable laws which we cannot control, and which we +feel may at any moment destroy us utterly. It is not from carelessness +on Christâs part that His people are not always and from the first +rejoicing in the assurance and appreciation of His love. It is His +carefulness which lays a restraining hand on the ardour of His +affection. We see that this burst of tears on Josephâs part was genuine, +we have no suspicion that he was feigning an emotion he did not feel; we +believe that his affection at last could not be restrained, that he was +fairly overcome,âcan we not trust Christ for as genuine a love, and +believe that His emotion is as deep? We are, in a word, reminded by this +scene, that there is always in Christ a greater love seeking the +friendship of the sinner than there is in the sinner seeking for Christ. +The search of the sinner for Christ is always a dubious, hesitating, +uncertain groping; while on Christâs part there is a clear-seeing, +affectionate solicitude which lays joyful surprises along the sinnerâs +path, and enjoys by anticipation the gladness and repose which are +prepared for him in the final recognition and reconcilement. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[401]</a></span></p> + +<p>2. In finding their brother again, those sons of Jacob found also their +own better selves which they had long lost. They had been living in a +lie, unable to look the past in the face, and so becoming more and more +false. Trying to leave their sin behind them, they always found it +rising in the path before them, and again they had to resort to some new +mode of laying this uneasy ghost. They turned away from it, busied +themselves among other people, refused to think of it, assumed all kinds +of disguise, professed to themselves that they had done no great wrong; +but nothing gave them deliveranceâthere was their old sin quietly +waiting for them in their tent door when they went home of an evening, +laying its hand on their shoulder in the most unlooked-for places, and +whispering in their ear at the most unwelcome seasons. A great part of +their mental energy had been spent in deleting this mark from their +memory, and yet day by day it resumed its supreme place in their life, +holding them under arrest as they secretly felt, and keeping them +reserved to judgment.</p> + +<p>So, too, do many of us live as if yet we had not found the life eternal, +the kind of life that we can always go on withârather as those who are +but making the best of a life which can never be very valuable, nor ever +perfect. There seem voices calling us back, assuring us we must yet +retrace our steps, that there are passages in our past with which we are +not done, that there is an inevitable humiliation and penitence awaiting +us. It is through that we can alone get back to the good we once saw and +hoped for; there were right desires and resolves in us once, views of a +well-spent life which have been forgotten and pressed out of +remembrance, but all these rise again in the presence of Christ. +Reconciled to Him and claimed by Him, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[402]</a></span> +all hope is renewed within us. If +He makes Himself known to us, if He claims connection with us, have we +not here the promise of all good? If He, after careful scrutiny, after +full consideration of all the circumstances, bids us claim as our +brother Him to whom all power and glory are given, ought not this to +quicken within us everything that is hopeful, and ought it not to +strengthen us for all frank acknowledgment of the past and true +humiliation on account of it?</p> + +<p>3. A third suggestion is made by this narrative. Joseph commanded from +his presence all who might be merely curious spectators of his burst of +feeling, and might, themselves unmoved, criticise this new feature of +the governorâs character. In all love there is a similar reserve. The +true friend of Christ, the man who is profoundly conscious that between +himself and Christ there is a bond unique and eternal, longs for a time +when he may enjoy greater liberty in uttering what he feels towards his +Lord and Redeemer, and when, too, Christ Himself shall by telling and +sufficient signs put it for ever beyond doubt that this love is more +than responded to. Words sufficiently impassioned have indeed been put +into our lips by men of profound spiritual feeling, but the feeling +continually weighs upon us that some more palpable mutual recognition is +desirable between persons so vitally and peculiarly knit together as +Christ and the Christian are. Such recognition, indubitable and +reciprocal, must one day take place. And when Christ Himself shall have +taken the initiative, and shall have caused us to understand that we are +verily the objects of His love, and shall have given such expression to +His knowledge of us as we cannot now receive, we on our part shall be +able to reciprocate, or at least to accept, this greatest +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[403]</a></span> +of possessions, the brotherly love of the Son of God. Meanwhile this +passage in Josephâs history may remind us that behind all sternness of +expression there may pulsate a tenderness that needs thus to disguise +itself; and that to those who have not yet recognised Christ, He is +better than He seems. Those brethren no doubt wonder now that even +twenty yearsâ alienation should have so blinded them. The relaxation of +the expression from the sternness of an Egyptian governor to the +fondness of family love, the voice heard now in the familiar mother +tongue, reveal the brother; and they who have shrunk from Christ as if +He were a cold official, and who have never lifted their eyes to +scrutinize His face, are reminded that He can so make Himself known to +them that not all the wealth of Egypt would purchase from them one of +the assurances they have received from Him.</p> + +<p>The same warm tide of feeling which carried away all that separated +Joseph from his brethren bore him on also to the decision to invite his +fatherâs entire household into Egypt. We are reminded that the history +of Joseph in Egypt is an episode, and that Jacob is still the head of +the house, maintaining its dignity and guiding its movements. The +notices we get of him in this latter part of his history are very +characteristic. The indomitable toughness of his youth remained with him +in his old age. He was one of those old men who maintain their vigour to +the end, the energy of whose age seems to shame and overtax the prime of +common men; whose minds are still the clearest, their advice the safest, +their word waited for, their perception of the actual state of affairs +always in advance of their juniors, more modern and fully abreast of the +times in their ideas than the latest born of their children. Such +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[404]</a></span> +an old age we recognise in Jacobâs half-scornful chiding of the +helplessness of his sons even after they had heard that there was corn +in Egypt. âWhy look ye one upon another? Behold! I have heard that there +is corn in Egypt; get ye down thither and buy for us from thence.â +Jacob, the man who had wrestled through life and bent all things to his +will, cannot put up with the helpless dejection of this troop of strong +men, who have no wit to devise an escape for themselves, and no +resolution to enforce upon the others any device that may occur to them. +Waiting still like children for some one else to help them, having +strength to endure but no strength to undertake the responsibility of +advising in an emergency, they are roused by their father, who has been +eyeing this condition of theirs with some curiosity and with some +contempt, and now breaks in upon it with his âWhy look ye one upon +another?â It is the old Jacob, full of resources, prompt and +imperturbable, equal to every turn of fortune, and never knowing how to +yield.</p> + +<p>Even more clearly do we see the vigour of Jacobâs old age when he comes +in contact with Joseph. For many years Joseph had been accustomed to +command; he had unusual natural sagacity and a special gift of insight +from God, but he seems a child in comparison with Jacob. When he brings +his two sons to get their grandfatherâs blessing, Jacob sees what Joseph +has no inkling of, and peremptorily declines to follow the advice of his +wise son. With all Josephâs sagacity there were points in which his +blind father saw more clearly than he. Joseph, who could teach the +Egyptian senators wisdom, standing thus at a loss even to understand his +father, and suggesting in his ignorance futile corrections, is a picture +of the incapacity of natural affection +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[405]</a></span> +to rise to the wisdom of Godâs love, and of the finest natural discernment to anticipate Godâs purposes +or supply the place of a lifelong experience.</p> + +<p>Jacobâs warm-heartedness has also survived the chills and shocks of a +long lifetime. He clings now to Benjamin as once he clung to Joseph. And +as he had wrought for Rachel fourteen years, and the love he bare to her +made them seem but a few days, so for twenty years now had he remembered +Joseph who had inherited this love, and he shows by his frequent +reference to him that he was keeping his word and going down to the +grave mourning for his son. To such a man it must have been a severe +trial indeed to be left alone in his tents, deprived of all his twelve +sons; and we hear his old faith in God steadying the voice that yet +trembles with emotion as he says, âIf I be bereaved of my children, I am +bereaved.â It was a trial not, indeed, so painful as that of Abraham +when he lifted the knife over the life of his only son; but it was so +similar to it as inevitably to suggest it to the mind. Jacob also had to +yield up all his children, and to feel, as he sat solitary in his tent, +how utterly dependent upon God he was for their restoration; that it was +not he but God alone who could build the house of Israel.</p> + +<p>The anxiety with which he gazed evening after evening towards the +setting sun, to descry the returning caravan, was at last relieved. But +his joy was not altogether unalloyed. His sons brought with them a +summons to shift the patriarchal encampment into Egyptâa summons which +evidently nothing would have induced Jacob to respond to had it not come +from his long-lost Joseph, and had it not thus received what he felt to +be a divine sanction. The extreme reluctance which Jacob showed to the journey, we must be careful +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[406]</a></span> +to refer to its true source. The Asiatics, +and especially shepherd tribes, move easily. One who thoroughly knows +the East says: âThe Oriental is not afraid to go far, if he has not to +cross the sea; for, once uprooted, distance makes little difference to +him. He has no furniture to carry, for, except a carpet and a few brass +pans, he uses none. He has no trouble about meals, for he is content +with parched grain, which his wife can cook anywhere, or dried dates, or +dried flesh, or anything obtainable which will keep. He is, on a march, +careless where he sleeps, provided his family are around himâin a +stable, under a porch, in the open air. He never changes his clothes at +night, and he is profoundly indifferent to everything that the Western +man understands by âcomfort.ââ But there was in Jacobâs case a +peculiarity. He was called upon to abandon, for an indefinite period, +the land which God had given him as the heir of His promise. With very +great toil and not a little danger had Jacob won his way back to Canaan +from Mesopotamia; on his return he had spent the best years of his life, +and now he was resting there in his old age, having seen his childrenâs +children, and expecting nothing but a peaceful departure to his fathers. +But suddenly the wagons of Pharaoh stand at his tent-door, and while the +parched and bare pastures bid him go to the plenty of Egypt, to which +the voice of his long-lost son invites him, he hears a summons which, +however trying, he cannot disregard.</p> + +<p>Such an experience is perpetually reproduced. Many are they who having +at length received from God some long-expected good are quickly summoned +to relinquish it again. And while the waiting for what seems +indispensable to us is trying, it is tenfold more so to have +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[407]</a></span> +to part with it when at last obtained, and obtained at the cost of much besides. +That particular arrangement of our worldly circumstances which we have +long sought, we are almost immediately thrown out of. That position in +life, or that object of desire, which God Himself seems in many ways to +have encouraged us to seek, is taken from us almost as soon as we have +tasted its sweetness. The cup is dashed from our lips at the very moment +when our thirst was to be fully slaked. In such distressing +circumstances we cannot <i>see</i> the end God is aiming at; but of this we +may be certain, that He does not wantonly annoy, or relish our +discomfiture, and that when we are compelled to resign what is partial, +it is that we may one day enjoy what is complete, and that if for the +present we have to forego much comfort and delight, this is only an +absolutely necessary step towards our permanent establishment in all +that can bless and prosper us.</p> + +<p>It is this state of feeling which explains the words of Jacob when +introduced to Pharaoh. A recent writer, who spent some years on the +banks of the Nile and on its waters, and who mixed freely with the +inhabitants of Egypt, says: âOld Jacobâs speech to Pharaoh really made +me laugh, because it is so exactly like what a Fellah says to a Pacha, +âFew and evil have the days of the years of my life been,â Jacob being a +most prosperous man, but it is manners to say all that.â But Eastern +manners need scarcely be called in to explain a sentiment which we find +repeated by one who is generally esteemed the most self-sufficing of +Europeans. âI have ever been esteemed,â Goethe says, âone of Fortuneâs +chiefest favourites; nor will I complain or find fault with the course +my life has taken. Yet, truly, there has been nothing but toil and care; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[408]</a></span> +and I may say that, in all my seventy-five years, I have never +had a month of genuine comfort. It has been the perpetual rolling of a +stone, which I have always had to raise anew.â Jacobâs life had been +almost ceaseless disquiet and disappointment. A man who had fled his +country, who had been cheated into a marriage, who had been compelled by +his own relative to live like a slave, who was only by flight able to +save himself from a perpetual injustice, whose sons made his life +bitter,âone of them by the foulest outrage a father could suffer, two +of them by making him, as he himself said, to stink in the nostrils of +the inhabitants of the land he was trying to settle in, and all of them +by conspiring to deprive him of the child he most dearly lovedâa man +who at last, when he seemed to have had experience of every form of +human calamity, was compelled by famine to relinquish the land for the +sake of which he had endured all and spent all, might surely be forgiven +a little plaintiveness in looking back upon his past. The wonder is to +find Jacob to the end unbroken, dignified, and clear-seeing, capable and +commanding, loving and full of faith.</p> + +<p>Cordial as the reconciliation between Joseph and his brethren seemed, it +was not as thorough as might have been desired. So long, indeed, as +Jacob lived, all went well; but âwhen Josephâs brethren saw that their +father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will +certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.â No wonder +Joseph wept when he received their message. He wept because he saw that +he was still misunderstood and distrusted by his brethren; because he +felt, too, that had they been more generous men themselves, they would +more easily have believed in his forgiveness; and because his pity was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[409]</a></span> +stirred for these men, who recognised that they were so completely in +the power of their younger brother. Joseph had passed through severe +conflicts of feeling about them, had been at great expense both of +emotion and of outward good on their account, had risked his position in +order to be able to serve them, and here is his reward! They supposed he +had been but biding his time, that his apparent forgetfulness of their +injury had been the crafty restraint of a deep-seated resentment; or, at +best, that he had been unconsciously influenced by regard for his +father, and now, when that influence was removed, the helpless condition +of his brethren might tempt him to retaliate. This exhibition of a +craven and suspicious spirit is unexpected, and must have been +profoundly saddening to Joseph. Yet here, as elsewhere, he is +magnanimous. Pity for them turns his thoughts from the injustice done to +himself. He comforts them, and speaks kindly to them, saying, Fear ye +not; I will nourish you and your little ones.</p> + +<p>Many painful thoughts must have been suggested to Joseph by this +conduct. If, after all he had done for his brethren, they had not yet +learned to love him, but met his kindness with suspicion, was it not +probable that underneath his apparent popularity with the Egyptians +there might lie envy, or the cold acknowledgment that falls far short of +love? This sudden disclosure of the real feeling of his brethren towards +him must necessarily have made him uneasy about his other friendships. +Did every one merely make use of him, and did no one give him pure love +for his own sake? The people he had saved from famine, was there one of +them that regarded him with anything resembling personal affection? +Distrust seemed to pursue Joseph from first to last. First his own family misunderstood +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[410]</a></span> +and persecuted him. Then his Egyptian master had +returned his devoted service with suspicion and imprisonment. And now +again, after sufficient time for testing his character might seem to +have elapsed, he was still looked upon with distrust by those who of all +others had best reason to believe in him. But though Joseph had through +all his life been thus conversant with suspicion, cruelty, falsehood, +ingratitude, and blindness, though he seemed doomed to be always +misread, and to have his best deeds made the ground of accusation +against him, he remained not merely unsoured, but equally ready as ever +to be of service to all. The finest natures may be disconcerted and +deadened by universal distrust; characters not naturally unamiable are +sometimes embittered by suspicion; and persons who are in the main +high-minded do stoop, when stung by such treatment, to rail at the +world, or to question all generous emotion, steadfast friendship, or +unimpeachable integrity. In Joseph there is nothing of this. If ever man +had a right to complain of being unappreciated, it was he; if ever man +was tempted to give up making sacrifices for his relatives, it was he. +But through all this he bore himself with manly generosity, with simple +and persistent faith, with a dignified respect for himself and for other +men. In the ingratitude and injustice he had to endure, he only found +opportunity for a deeper unselfishness, a more God-like forbearance. And +that such may be the outcome of the sorest parts of human experience we +have one day or other need to remember. When our good is evil spoken of, +our motives suspected, our most sincere sacrifices scrutinized by an +ignorant and malicious spirit, our most substantial and well-judged acts +of kindness received with suspicion, and the love that is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[411]</a></span> +in them quite rejected, it is then we have opportunity to show that to us belongs the +Christian temper that can pardon till seventy times seven, and that can +persist in loving where love meets no response, and benefits provoke no +gratitude.</p> + +<p>How Joseph spent the years which succeeded the famine we have no means +of knowing; but the closing act of his life seemed to the narrator so +significant as to be worthy of record. âJoseph said unto his brethren, I +die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto +the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And Joseph +took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit +you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.â The Egyptians must have +chiefly been struck by the simplicity of character which this request +betokened. To the great benefactors of our country, the highest award is +reserved to be given after death. So long as a man lives, some rude +stroke of fortune or some disastrous error of his own may blast his +fame; but when his bones are laid with those who have served their +country best, a seal is set on his life, and a sentence pronounced which +the revision of posterity rarely revokes. Such honours were customary +among the Egyptians; it is from their tombs that their history can now +be written. And to none were such honours more accessible than to +Joseph. But after a life in the service of the state he retains the +simplicity of the Hebrew lad. With the magnanimity of a great and pure +soul, he passed uncontaminated through the flatteries and temptations of +court-life; and, like Moses, âesteemed the reproach of Christ greater +riches than the treasures of Egypt.â He has not indulged in any +affectation of simplicity, nor has he, in the pride that apes humility, declined +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[412]</a></span> +the ordinary honours due to a man in his position. He wears +the badges of office, the robe and the gold necklace, but these things +do not reach his spirit. He has lived in a region in which such honours +make no deep impression; and in his death he shows where his heart has +been. The small voice of God, spoken centuries ago to his forefathers, +deafens him to the loud acclaim with which the people do him homage.</p> + +<p>By later generations this dying request of Josephâs was looked upon as +one of the most remarkable instances of faith. For many years there had +been no new revelation. The rising generations that had seen no man with +whom God had spoken, were little interested in the land which was said +to be theirs, but which they very well knew was infested by fierce +tribes who, on at least one occasion during this period, inflicted +disastrous defeat on one of the boldest of their own tribes. They were, +besides, extremely attached to the country of their adoption; they +luxuriated in its fertile meadows and teeming gardens, which kept them +supplied at little cost of labour with delicacies unknown on the hills +of Canaan. This oath, therefore, which Joseph made them swear, may have +revived the drooping hopes of the small remnant who had any of his own +spirit. They saw that he, their most sagacious man, lived and died in +full assurance that God would visit His people. And through all the +terrible bondage they were destined to suffer, the bones of Joseph, or +rather his embalmed body, stood as the most eloquent advocate of Godâs +faithfulness, ceaselessly reminding the despondent generations of the +oath which God would yet enable them to fulfil. As often as they felt +inclined to give up all hope and the last surviving Israelitish +peculiarity, there was the unburied coffin remonstrating; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[413]</a></span> +Joseph still, even when dead, refusing to let his dust mingle with Egyptian earth.</p> + +<p>And thus, as Joseph had been their pioneer who broke out a way for them +into Egypt, so did he continue to hold open the gate and point the way +back to Canaan. The brethren had sold him into this foreign land, +meaning to bury him for ever; he retaliated by requiring that the tribes +should restore him to the land from which he had been expelled. Few men +have opportunity of showing so noble a revenge; fewer still, having the +opportunity, would so have used it. Jacob had been carried up to Canaan +as soon as he was dead: Joseph declines this exceptional treatment, and +prefers to share the fortunes of his brethren, and will then only enter +on the promised land when all his people can go with him. As in life, so +in death, he took a large view of things, and had no feeling that the +world ended in him. His career had taught him to consider national +interests; and now, on his death-bed, it is from the point of view of +his people that he looks at the future.</p> + +<p>Several passages in the life of Joseph have shown us that where the +Spirit of Christ is present, many parts of the conduct will suggest, if +they do not actually resemble, acts in the life of Christ. The attitude +towards the future in which Joseph sets his people as he leaves them, +can scarcely fail to suggest the attitude which Christians are called to +assume. The prospect which the Hebrews had of fulfilling their oath grew +increasingly faint, but the difficulties in the way of its performance +must only have made them more clearly see that they depended on God for +entrance on the promised inheritance. And so may the difficulty of our +duties as Christâs followers measure for us the amount of grace God has +provided for us. The commands that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[414]</a></span> +make you sensible of your weakness, +and bring to light more clearly than ever how unfit for good you are, +are witnesses to you that God will visit you and enable you to fulfil +the oath He has required you to take. The children of Israel could not +suppose that a man so wise as Joseph had ended his life with a childish +folly, when he made them swear this oath, and could not but renew their +hope that the day would come when his wisdom would be justified by their +ability to discharge it. Neither ought it to be beyond our belief that, +in requiring from us such and such conduct, our Lord has kept in view +our actual condition and its possibilities, and that His commands are +our best guide towards a state of permanent felicity. He that aims +always at the performance of the oath he has taken, will assuredly find +that God will not stultify Himself by failing to support him.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[415]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="XXXI" id="XXXI"></a>XXXI.</h2> + +<h3>THE BLESSINGS OF THE TRIBES.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Genesis</span> xlviii. and xlix.</h4> + +<p>Jacobâs blessing of his sons marks the close of the patriarchal +dispensation. Henceforth the channel of Godâs blessing to man does not +consist of one person only, but of a people or nation. It is still <i>one +seed</i>, as Paul reminds us, a unit that God will bless, but this unit is +now no longer a single personâas Abraham, Isaac, or Jacobâbut one +people, composed of several parts, and yet one whole; equally +representative of Christ, as the patriarchs were, and of equal effect +every way in receiving Godâs blessing and handing it down until Christ +came. The Old Testament Church, quite as truly as the New, formed one +whole with Christ. Apart from Him it had no meaning, and would have had +no existence. It was the promised seed, always growing more and more to +its perfect development in Christ. As the promise was kept to Abraham +when Isaac was born, and as Isaac was truly the promised seedâin so far +as he was a part of the series that led on to Christ, and was given in +fulfilment of the promise that promised Christ to the worldâso all +through the history of Israel we must bear in mind that in them God is +fulfilling this same promise, and that they are the promised seed in so +far as they are one with Christ. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[416]</a></span> +And this interprets to us all those +passages of the prophets regarding which men have disputed whether they +are to be applied to Israel or to Christ: passages in which God +addresses Israel in such words as, âBehold My servant,â âMine elect,â +and so forth, and in the interpretation of which it has been thought +sufficient proof that they do not apply to Christ, to prove that they do +apply to Israel; whereas, on the principle just laid down, it might much +more safely be argued that because they apply to Israel, therefore they +apply to Christ. And it is at this pointâwhere Israel distributes among +his sons the blessing which heretofore had all lodged in himselfâthat +we see the first multiplication of Christâs representatives; the +mediation going on no longer through individuals, but through a nation; +and where individuals are still chosen by God, as commonly they are, for +the conveyance of Godâs communications to earth, these individuals, +whether priests or prophets, are themselves but the official +representatives of the nation.</p> + +<p>As the patriarchal dispensation ceases, it secures to the tribes all the +blessing it has itself contained. Every father desires to leave to his +sons whatever he has himself found helpful, but as they gather round his +dying bed, or as he sits setting his house in order, and considering +what portion is appropriate for each, he recognises that to some of them +it is quite useless to bequeath the most valuable parts of his property, +while in others he discerns a capacity which promises the improvement of +all that is entrusted to it. And from the earliest times the various +characters of the tribes were destined to modify the blessing conveyed +to them by their father. The blessing of Israel is now distributed, and +each receives what each can take; and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[417]</a></span> +while in some of the individual tribes there may seem to be very little of blessing at all, yet, taken +together, they form a picture of the common outstanding features of +human nature, and of that nature as acted upon by Godâs blessing, and +forming together one body or Church. A peculiar interest attaches to the +history of some nations, and is not altogether absent from our own, from +the precision with which we can trace the character of families, +descending often with the same unmistakable lineaments from father to +son for many generations.<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> +One knows at once to what families to look +for restless and turbulent spirits, ready for conspiracy and revolution; +and one knows also where to seek steady and faithful loyalty, +public-spiritedness, or native ability. And in Israelâs national +character there was room for the great distinguishing features of the +tribes, and to show the richness and variety with which the promise of +God could fulfil itself wherever it was received. The distinguishing +features which Jacob depicts in the blessings of his sons are +necessarily veiled under the poetic figures of prophecy, and spoken of +as they would reveal themselves in worldly matters; but these features +were found in all the generations of the tribes, and displayed +themselves in things spiritual also. For a man has not two characters, +but one; and what he is in the world, that he is in his religion. In our +own country, it is seen how the forms of worship, and even the doctrines +believed, and certainly the modes of religious thought and feeling, +depend on the natural character, and the natural character on the local +situation of the respective sections of the community. No doubt in a +country like ours, where men so constantly +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[418]</a></span> +migrate from place to place, and where one common literature tends to mould us all to the same way of +thinking, you do get men of all kinds in every place; yet even among +ourselves the character of a place is generally still visible, and +predominates over all that mingles with it. Much more must this +character have been retained in a country where each man could trace his +ancestry up to the father of the tribe, and cultivated with pride the +family characteristics, and had but little intercourse, either literary +or personal, with other minds and other manners. As we know by dialect +and by the manners of the people when we pass into a new country, so +must the Israelite have known by the eye and ear when he had crossed the +county frontier, when he was conversing with a Benjamite, and when with +a descendant of Judah. We are not therefore to suppose that any of these +utterances of Jacob are mere geographical predictions, or that they +depict characteristics which might appear in civil life, but not in +religion and the Church, or that they would die out with the first +generation.</p> + +<p>In these blessings, therefore, we have the history of the Church in its +most interesting form. In these sons gathered round him, the patriarch +sees his own nature reflected piece by piece, and he sees also the +general outline of all that must be produced by such natures as these +men have. The whole destiny of Israel is here in germ, and the spirit of +prophecy in Jacob sees and declares it. It has often been +remarked<a name="FNanchor_3" id="FNanchor_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> +that as a man draws near to death, he seems to see many things in a much +clearer light, and especially gets glimpses into the future, which are hidden from others.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[419]</a></span> +<span class="i0">âThe soulâs dark cottage, battered and decayed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lets in new light through chinks that time hath made.â<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>Being nearer to eternity, he instinctively measures things by its +standard, and thus comes nearer a just valuation of all things before +his mind, and can better distinguish reality from appearance. Jacob has +studied these sons of his for fifty years, and has had his acute +perception of character painfully enough called to exercise itself on +them. He has all his life long had a liking for analysing menâs inner +life, knowing that, when he understands that, he can better use them for +his own ends; and these sons of his own have cost him thought enough +over and above that sometimes penetrating interest which a father will +take in the growth of a sonâs character; and now he knows them +thoroughly, understands their temptations, their weaknesses, their +capabilities, and, as a wise head of a house, can, with delicate and +unnoticed skill, balance the one against the other, ward off awkward +collisions, and prevent the evil from destroying the good. This +knowledge of Jacob prepares him for being the intelligent agent by whom +God predicts in outline the future of His Church.</p> + +<p>One cannot but admire, too, the faith which enables Jacob to apportion +to his sons the blessings of a land which had not been much of a +resting-place to himself, and regarding the occupation of which his sons +might have put to him some very difficult questions. And we admire this +dignified faith the more on reflecting that it has often been very +grievously lacking in our own caseâthat we have felt almost ashamed of +having so little of a present tangible kind to offer, and of being +obliged to speak only of invisible and future blessings; to set a +spiritual consolation over against a worldly grief; to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[420]</a></span> +point a man whose fortunes are ruined to an eternal inheritance; or to speak to one +who knows himself quite in the power of sin of a remedy which has often +seemed illusory to ourselves. Some of us have got so little comfort or +strength from religion ourselves, that we have no heart to offer it to +others; and most of us have a feeling that we should seem to trifle were +we to offer invisible aid against very visible calamity. At least we +feel that we are doing a daring thing in making such an offer, and can +scarce get over the desire that we had something to speak of which sight +could appreciate, and which did not require the exercise of faith. Again +and again the wish rises within us that to the sick man we could bring +health as well as the promise of forgiveness, and that to the poor we +could grant an earthly, while we make known a heavenly, inheritance. One +who has experienced these scruples, and known how hard it is to get rid +of them, will know also how to honour the faith of Jacob, by which he +assumes the right to bless Pharaohâthough he is himself a mere +sojourner by sufferance in Pharaohâs land, and living on his bountyâand +by which he gathers his children round him and portions out to them a +land which seemed to have been most barren to himself, and which now +seemed quite beyond his reach. The enjoyments of it, which he himself +had not very deeply tasted, he yet knew were real; and if there were a +look of scepticism, or of scorn, on the face of any one of his sons; if +the unbelief of any received the prophetic utterances as the ravings of +delirium, or the fancies of an imbecile and worn-out mind going back to +the scenes of its youth, in Jacob himself there was so simple and +unsuspecting a faith in Godâs promise, that he dealt with the land as if it +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[421]</a></span> +were the only portion worth bequeathing to his sons, as if every +Canaanite were already cast out of it, and as if he knew his sons could +never be tempted by the wealth of Egypt to turn with contempt from the +land of promise. And if we would attain to this boldness of his, and be +able to speak of spiritual and future blessings as very substantial and +valuable, we must ourselves learn to make much of Godâs promise, and +leave no taint of unbelief in our reception of it.</p> + +<p>And often we are rebuked by finding that when we do offer things +spiritual, even those who are wrapped in earthly comforts appreciate and +accept the better gifts. So it was in Josephâs case. No doubt the +highest posts in Egypt were open to his sons; they might have been +naturalised, as he himself had been, and, throwing in their lot with the +land of their adoption, might have turned to their advantage the rank +their father held, and the reputation he had earned. But Joseph turns +from this attractive prospect, brings them to his father, and hands them +over to the despised shepherd-life of Israel. One need scarcely point +out how great a sacrifice this was on Josephâs part. So universally +acknowledged and legitimate a desire is it to pass to oneâs children the +honour achieved by a life of exertion, that states have no higher +rewards to confer on their most useful servants than a title which their +descendants may wear. But Joseph would not suffer his children to risk +the loss of their share in Godâs peculiar blessing, not for the most +promising openings in life, or the highest civil honours. If the +thoroughly open identification of them with the shepherds, and their +profession of a belief in a distant inheritance, which must have made +them appear madmen in the eyes of the Egyptians, if this was to cut +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[422]</a></span> +them off from worldly advancement, Joseph was not careful of this, for +resolved he was that, at any cost, they should be among Godâs people. +And his faith received its reward; the two tribes that sprang from him +received about as large a portion of the promised land as fell to the +lot of all the other tribes put together.</p> + +<p>You will observe that Ephraim and Manasseh were adopted as sons of +Jacob. Jacob tells Joseph, âThey shall be mine,â not my grandsons, but +as Reuben and Simeon. No other sons whom Joseph might have were to be +received into this honour, but these two were to take their place on a +level with their uncles as heads of tribes, so that Joseph is +represented through the whole history by the two populous and powerful +tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. No greater honour could have been put on +Joseph, nor any more distinct and lasting recognition made of the +indebtedness of his family to him, and of how he had been as a father +bringing new life to his brethren, than this, that his sons should be +raised to the rank of heads of tribes, on a level with the immediate +sons of Jacob. And no higher honour could have been put on the two lads +themselves than that they should thus be treated as if they were their +father Josephâas if they had his worth and his rank. He is merged in +them, and all that he has earned is, throughout the history, to be +found, not in his own name, but in theirs. It all proceeds from him; but +his enjoyment is found in their enjoyment, his worth acknowledged in +their fruitfulness. Thus did God familiarise the Jewish mind through its +whole history with the idea, if they chose to think and have ideas, of +adoption, and of an adoption of a peculiar kind, of an adoption where already there was an heir +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[423]</a></span> +who, by this adoption, has his name and worth +merged in the persons now received into his place. Ephraim and Manasseh +were not received alongside of Joseph, but each received what Joseph +himself might have had, and Josephâs name as a tribe was henceforth only +to be found in these two. This idea was fixed in such a way, that for +centuries it was steeping into the minds of men, so that they might not +be astonished if God should in some other case, say the case of His own +Son, adopt men into the rank He held, and let His estimate of the worth +of His Son, and the honour He puts upon Him, be seen in the adopted. +This being so, we need not be alarmed if men tell us that imputation is +a mere legal fiction, or human invention; a legal fiction it may be, but +in the case before us it was the never-disputed foundation of very +substantial blessings to Ephraim and Manasseh; and we plead for nothing +more than that God would act with us as here He did act with these two, +that He would make us His direct heirs, make us His own sons, and give +us what He who presents us to Him to receive His blessing did earn, and +merits at the Fatherâs hand.</p> + +<p>We meet with these crossed hands of blessing frequently in Scripture; +the younger son blessed above the elderâas was needful, lest grace +should become confounded with nature, and the belief gradually grow up +in menâs minds that natural effects could never be overcome by grace, +and that in every respect grace waited upon nature. And these crossed +hands we meet still; for how often does God quite reverse <i>our</i> order, +and bless most that about which we had less concern, and seem to put a +slight on that which has engrossed our best affection. It is so, often +in precisely the way in which Joseph found it so; the son whose +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[424]</a></span> +youth is most anxiously cared for, to whom the interests of the younger +members of the family are sacrificed, and who is commended to God +continually to receive His right-hand blessing, this son seems neither +to receive nor to dispense much blessing; but the younger, less thought +of, left to work his own way, is favoured by God, and becomes the +comfort and support of his parents when the elder has failed of his +duty. And in the case of much that we hold dear, the same rule is seen; +a pursuit we wish to be successful in we can make little of, and are +thrown back from continually, while something else into which we have +thrown ourselves almost accidentally prospers in our hand and blesses +us. Again and again, for years together, we put forward some cherished +desire to Godâs right hand, and are displeased, like Joseph, that still +the hand of greater blessing should pass to some other thing. Does God +not know what is oldest with us, what has been longest at our hearts, +and is dearest to us? Certainly He does: âI know it, My son, I know it,â +He answers to all our expostulations. It is not because He does not +understand or regard your predilections, your natural and excusable +preferences, that He sometimes refuses to gratify your whole desire, and +pours upon you blessings of a kind somewhat different from these you +most earnestly covet. He will give you the whole that Christ hath +merited; but for the application and distribution of that grace and +blessing you must be content to trust Him. You may be at a loss to know +why He does no more to deliver you from some sin, or why He does not +make you more successful in your efforts to aid others, or why, while He +so liberally prospers you in one part of your condition, you get so much less in another that is far +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[425]</a></span> +nearer your heart; but God does what He +will with His own, and if you do not find in one point the whole +blessing and prosperity you think should flow from such a Mediator as +you have, you may only conclude that what is lacking there will +elsewhere be found more wisely bestowed. And is it not a perpetual +encouragement to us that God does not merely crown what nature has +successfully begun, that it is not the likely and the naturally good +that are most blessed, but that God hath chosen the foolish things of +the world to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world to +confound the things that are mighty; and base things of the world and +things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are +not, to bring to nought things that are?</p> + +<p>In Reuben, the first-born, conscience must have been sadly at war with +hope as he looked at the blind, but expressive, face of his father. He +may have hoped that his sin had not been severely thought of by his +father, or that the fatherâs pride in his first-born would prompt him to +hide, though it could not make him forget it. Probably the gross offence +had not been made known to the family. At least, the words âhe went upâ +may be understood as addressed in explanation to the brethren. It may +indeed have been that the blind old man, forcibly recalling the +long-past transgression, is here uttering a mournful, regretful +soliloquy, rather than addressing any one. It may be that these words +were uttered to himself as he went back upon the one deed that had +disclosed to him his sonâs real character, and rudely hurled to the +ground all the hopes he had built up for his first-born. Yet there is no +reason to suppose, on the other hand, that the sin had been previously known or alluded to in the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[426]</a></span> +family. Reubenâs hasty, passionate nature +could not understand that if Jacob had felt that sin of his deeply, he +should not have shown his resentment; he had stunned his father with the +heavy blow, and because he did not cry out and strike him in return, he +thought him little hurt. So do shallow natures tremble for a night after +their sin, and when they find that the sun rises and men greet them as +cordially as before, and that no hand lays hold on them from the past, +they think little more of their sinâdo not understand that fatal calm +that precedes the storm. Had the memory of Reubenâs sin survived in +Jacobâs mind all the sad events that had since happened, and all the +stirring incidents of the emigration and the new life in Egypt? Could +his father at the last hour, and after so many thronged years, and +before his brethren, recall the old sin? He is relieved and confirmed in +his confidence by the first words of Jacob, words ascribing to him his +natural position, a certain conspicuous dignity too, and power such as +one may often see produced in men by occupying positions of authority, +though in their own character there be weakness. But all the excellence +that Jacob ascribes to Reuben serves only to embitter the doom +pronounced upon him. Men seem often to expect that a future can be +<i>given</i> to them irrespective of what they themselves are, that a series +of blessings and events might be prepared for them, and made over to +them; whereas every manâs future must be made by himself, and is already +in great part formed by the past. It was a vain expectation of Reuben to +expect that he, the impetuous, unstable, superficial son, could have the +future of a deep, and earnest, and dutiful nature, or that his children +should derive no taint from their parent, but be as the children of Joseph. No manâs +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[427]</a></span> +future need be altogether a doom to him, for God may +bless to him the evil fruit his life has borne; but certainly no man +need look for a future which has no relation to his own character. His +future will always be made up of <i>his</i> deeds, <i>his</i> feelings, and the +circumstances which <i>his</i> desires have brought him into.</p> + +<p>The future of Reuben was of a negative, blank kindââThou shalt <i>not</i> +excel;â his unstable character must empty it of all great success. And +to many a heart since have these words struck a chill, for to many they +are as a mirror suddenly held up before them. They see themselves when +they look on the tossing sea, rising and pointing to the heavens with +much noise, but only to sink back again to the same everlasting level. +Men of brilliant parts and great capacity are continually seen to be +lost to society by instability of purpose. Would they only pursue one +direction, and concentrate their energies on one subject, they might +become true heirs of promise, blessed and blessing; but they seem to +lose relish for every pursuit on the first taste of successâall their +energy seems to have boiled over and evaporated in the first glow, and +sinks as the water that has just been noisily boiling when the fire is +withdrawn from under it. No impression made upon them is permanent: like +water, they are plastic, easily impressible, but utterly incapable of +retaining an impression; and therefore, like water, they have a downward +tendency, or at the best are but retained in their place by pressure +from without, and have no eternal power of growth. And the misery of +this character is often increased by the <i>desire</i> to excel which +commonly accompanies instability. It is generally this very desire which +prompts a man to hurry from one aim to another, to give up one path to excellence +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[428]</a></span> +when he sees that other men are making way upon another: +having no internal convictions of his own, he is guided mostly by the +successes of other men, the most dangerous of all guides. So that such a +man has all the bitterness of an eager desire doomed never to be +satisfied. Conscious to himself of capacity for something, feeling in +him the excellency of power, and having that âexcellency of dignity,â or +graceful and princely refinement, which the knowledge of many things, +and intercourse with many kinds of people, have imparted to him, he +feels all the more that pervading weakness, that greedy, lustful craving +for all kinds of priority, and for enjoying all the various advantages +which other men severally enjoy, which will not let him finally choose +and adhere to his own line of things, but distracts him by a thousand purposes which ever defeat one +another.<a name="FNanchor_4" id="FNanchor_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>The sin of the next oldest sons was also remembered against them, and +remembered apparently for the same reasonâbecause the character was +expressed in it. The massacre of the Shechemites was not an accidental +outrage that any other of the sons of Jacob might equally have +perpetrated, but the most glaring of a number of expressions of a fierce +and cruel disposition in these two men. In Jacobâs prediction of their +future, he seems to shrink with horror from his own progenyâlike her +who dreamt she would give birth to a firebrand. He sees the possibility +of the direst results flowing from such a temper, and, under God, +provides against these by scattering the tribes, and thus weakening +their power for evil. They had been +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[429]</a></span> +banded together so as the more easily and securely to accomplish their murderous purposes. âSimeon and +Levi are brethrenââshowing a close affinity, and seeking one anotherâs +society and aid, but it is for bad purposes; and therefore they must be +divided in Jacob and scattered in Israel. This was accomplished by the +tribe of Levi being distributed over all the other tribes as the +ministers of religion. The fiery zeal, the bold independence, and the +pride of being a distinct people, which had been displayed in the +slaughter of the Shechemites, might be toned down and turned to good +account when the sword was taken out of their hand. Qualities such as +these, which produce the most disastrous results when fit instruments +can be found, and when men of like disposition are suffered to band +themselves together, may, when found in the individual and kept in check +by circumstances and dissimilar dispositions, be highly beneficial.</p> + +<p>In the sin, Levi seems to have been the moving spirit, Simeon the +abetting tool, and in the punishment, it is the more dangerous tribe +that is scattered, so that the other is left companionless. In the +blessings of Moses, the tribe of Simeon is passed over in silence; and +that the tribe of Levi should have been so used for Godâs immediate +service stands as evidence that punishments, however severe and +desolating, even threatening something bordering on extinction, may yet +become blessings to Godâs people. The sword of murder was displaced in +Leviâs hand by the knife of sacrifice; their fierce revenge against +sinners was converted into hostility against sin; their apparent zeal +for the forms of their religion was consecrated to the service of the +tabernacle and temple; their fanatical pride, which prompted them to treat all other +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[430]</a></span> +people as the offscouring of the earth, was informed by +a better spirit, and used for the upbuilding and instruction of the +people of Israel. In order to understand why this tribe, of all others, +should have been chosen for the service of the sanctuary and for the +instruction of the people, we must not only recognise how their being +scattered in punishment of their sin over all the land fitted them to be +the educators of the nation and the representatives of all the tribes, +but also we must consider that the sin itself which Levi had committed +broke the one command which men had up till this time received from the +mouth of God; no law had as yet been published but that which had been +given to Noah and his sons regarding bloodshed, and which was given in +circumstances so appalling, and with sanctions so emphatic, that it +might ever have rung in menâs ears, and stayed the hand of the murderer. +In saying, âAt the hand of every manâs brother will I require the life +of man,â God had shown that human life was to be counted sacred. He +Himself had swept the race from the face of the earth, but adding this +command immediately after, He showed all the more forcibly that +punishment was His own prerogative, and that none but those appointed by +Him might shed bloodââVengeance is Mine, saith the Lord.â To take +private revenge, as Levi did, was to take the sword out of Godâs hand, +and to say that God was not careful enough of justice, and but a poor +guardian of right and wrong in the world; and to destroy human life in +the wanton and cruel manner in which Levi had destroyed the Shechemites, +and to do it under colour and by the aid of religious zeal, was to God +the most hateful of sins. But none can know the hatefulness of a sin so distinctly as he who has +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[431]</a></span> +fallen into it, and is enduring the punishment +of it penitently and graciously, and therefore Levi was of all others +the best fitted to be entrusted with those sacrificial symbols which set +forth the value of all human life, and especially of the life of Godâs +own Son. Very humbling must it have been for the Levite who remembered +the history of his tribe to be used by God as the hand of His justice on +the victims that were brought in substitution for that which was so +precious in the sight of God.</p> + +<p>The blessing of Judah is at once the most important and the most +difficult to interpret in the series. There is enough in the history of +Judah himself, and there is enough in the subsequent history of the +tribe, to justify the ascription to him of all lion-like qualitiesâa +kingly fearlessness, confidence, power, and success; in action a +rapidity of movement and might that make him irresistible, and in repose +a majestic dignity of bearing. As the serpent is the cognisance of Dan, +the wolf of Benjamin, the hind of Naphtali, so is the lion of the tribe +of Judah. He scorns to gain his end by a serpentine craft, and is +himself easily taken in; he does not ravin like a wolf, merely +plundering for the sake of booty, but gives freely and generously, even +to the sacrifice of his own person: nor has he the mere graceful and +ineffective swiftness of the hind, but the rushing onset of the lionâa +character which, more than any other, men reverence and admireââJudah, +<i>thou</i> art he whom thy brethren shall praiseââand a character which, +more than any other, fits a man to take the lead and rule. If there were +to be kings in Israel, there could be little doubt from which tribe they +could best be chosen; a wolf of the tribe of Benjamin, like Saul, not +only hung on the rear of retreating Philistines and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[432]</a></span> +spoiled them, but made a prey of his own people, and it is in David we find the true king, +the man who more than any other satisfies menâs ideal of the prince to +whom they will pay homage;âfalling indeed into grievous error and sin, +like his forefather, but, like him also, right at heart, so generous and +self-sacrificing that men served him with the most devoted loyalty, and +were willing rather to dwell in caves with him than in palaces with any +other.</p> + +<p>The kingly supremacy of Judah was here spoken of in words which have +been the subject of as prolonged and violent contention as any others in +the Word of God. âThe sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a +lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come.â These words are very +generally understood to mean that Judahâs supremacy would continue until +it culminated or flowered into the personal reign of Shiloh; in other +words, that Judahâs sovereignty was to be perpetuated in the person of +Jesus Christ. So that this prediction is but the first whisper of that +which was afterwards so distinctly declared, that Davidâs seed should +sit on the throne for ever and ever. It was not accomplished in the +letter, any more than the promise to David was; the tribe of Judah +cannot in any intelligible sense be said to have had rulers of her own +up to the coming of Christ, or for some centuries previous to that date. +For those who would quickly judge God and His promise by what they could +see in their own day, there was enough to provoke them to challenge God +for forgetting His promise. But in due time <i>the</i> King of men, He to +whom all nations have gathered, did spring from this tribe; and need it +be said that the very fact of His appearance proved that the supremacy +had not departed from Judah? This prediction, then, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[433]</a></span> +partook of the character of very many of the Old Testament prophecies; there was +sufficient fulfilment in the letter to seal, as it were, the promise, +and give men a token that it was being accomplished, and yet so +mysterious a falling short, as to cause men to look beyond the literal +fulfilment, on which alone their hopes had at first rested, to some far +higher and more perfect spiritual fulfilment.</p> + +<p>But not only has it been objected that the sceptre departed from Judah +long before Christ came, and that therefore the word Shiloh cannot refer +to Him, but also it has been truly said that wherever else the word +occurs it is the name of a townâthat town, viz., where the ark for a +long time was stationed, and from which the allotment of territory was +made to the various tribes; and the prediction has been supposed to mean +that Judah should be the leading tribe till the land was entered. Many +objections to this naturally occur, and need not be stated. But it comes +to be an inquiry of some interest, How much information regarding a +personal Messiah did the brethren receive from this prophecy? A question +very difficult indeed to answer. The word Shiloh means âpeace-making,â +and if they understood this as a proper name, they must have thought of +a person such as Isaiah designates as the Prince of Peaceâa name it was +similar to that wherewith David called his son Solomon, in the +expectation that the results of his own lifetime of disorder and battle +would be reaped by his successor in a peaceful and prosperous reign. It +can scarcely be thought likely, indeed, that this single term âShiloh,â +which might be applied to many things besides a person, should give to +the sons of Jacob any distinct idea of a personal Deliverer; but it might be sufficient to keep +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[434]</a></span> +before their eyes, and specially before the +tribe of Judah, that the aim and consummation of all lawgiving and +ruling was peace. And there was certainly contained in this blessing an +assurance that the purpose of Judah would not be accomplished, and +therefore that the existence of Judah as a tribe would not terminate, +until peace had been through its means brought into the world: thus was +the assurance given, that the productive power of Judah should not fail +until out of that tribe there had sprung that which should give peace.</p> + +<p>But to us who have seen the prediction accomplished, it plainly enough +points to <i>the</i> Lion of the tribe of Judah, who in His own person +combined all kingly qualities. In Him we are taught by this prediction +to discover once more the single Person who stands out on the page of +this worldâs history as satisfying menâs ideal of what their King should +be, and of how the race should be represented;âthe One who without any +rival stands in the mindâs eye as that for which the best hopes of men +were waiting, still feeling that the race could do more than it had +done, and never satisfied but in Him.</p> + +<p>Zebulun, the sixth and last of Leahâs sons, was so called because said +Leah, âNow will my husband <i>dwell with me</i>â (such being the meaning of +the name), âfor I have borne him six sons.â All that is predicted +regarding this tribe is that his <i>dwelling</i> should be by the sea, and +near the PhÅnician city Zidon. This is not to be taken as a strict +geographical definition of the tract of country occupied by Zebulun, as +we see when we compare it with the lot assigned to it and marked out in +the Book of Joshua; but though the border of the tribe did not reach to Zidon, and though it can only +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[435]</a></span> +have been a mere tongue of land belonging +to it that ran down to the Mediterranean shore, yet the situation +ascribed to it is true to its character as a tribe that had commercial +relations with the PhÅnicians, and was of a decidedly mercantile +turn. We find this same feature indicated in the blessing of Moses: +âRejoice, Zebulun, in thy <i>going out</i>, and Issachar in thy +tentsââZebulun having the enterprise of a seafaring community, and +Issachar the quiet bucolic contentment of an agricultural or pastoral +population: Zebulun always restlessly eager for emigration or commerce, +for <i>going out</i> of one kind or other; Issachar satisfied to live and die +in his own tents. It is still, therefore, character rather than +geographical position that is here spoken ofâthough it is a trait of +character that is peculiarly dependent on geographical position: we, for +example, because islanders, having become the maritime power and the +merchants of the world; not being shut off from other nations by the +encompassing sea, but finding paths by it equally in all directions +ready provided for every kind of traffic.</p> + +<p>Zebulun, then, was to represent the commerce of Israel, its <i>outgoing</i> +tendency; was to supply a means of communication and bond of connection +with the world outside, so that through it might be conveyed to the +nations what was saving in Israel, and that what Israel needed from +other lands might also find entrance. In the Church also, this is a +needful quality: for our well-being there must ever exist among us those +who are not afraid to launch on the wide and pathless sea of opinion; +those in whose ears its waves have from their childhood sounded with a +fascinating invitation, and who at last, as if possessed by some spirit +of unrest, loose from the firm earth, and go in quest of lands not yet discovered, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[436]</a></span> +or are impelled to see for themselves what till now they +have believed on the testimony of others. It is not for all men to quit +the shore, and risk themselves in the miseries and disasters of so +comfortless and hazardous a life; but happy the people which possesses, +from one generation to another, men who must see with their own eyes, +and to whose restless nature the discomforts and dangers of an unsettled +life have a charm. It is not the instability of Reuben that we have in +these men, but the irrepressible longing of the born seaman, who <i>must</i> +lift the misty veil of the horizon and penetrate its mystery. And we are +not to condemn, even when we know we should not imitate, men who cannot +rest satisfied with the ground on which we stand, but venture into +regions of speculation, of religious thought which we have never +trodden, and may deem hazardous. The nourishment we receive is not all +native-grown; there are views of truth which may very profitably be +imported from strange and distant lands; and there is no land, no +province of thought, from which we may not derive what may +advantageously be mixed with our own ideas; no direction in which a +speculative mind can go in which it may not find something which may +give a fresh zest to what we already use, or be a real addition to our +knowledge. No doubt men who refuse to confine themselves to one way of +viewing truthâmen who venture to go close to persons of very different +opinions from their own, who determine for themselves to prove all +things, who have no very special love for what they were native to and +originally taught, who show rather a taste for strange and new +opinionsâthese persons live a life of great hazard, and in the end are +generally, like men who have been much at sea, unsettled; they have not fixed opinions, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[437]</a></span> +and are in themselves, as individual men, +unsatisfactory and unsatisfied; but still they have done good to the +community, by bringing to us ideas and knowledge which otherwise we +could not have obtained. Such men God gives us to widen our views; to +prevent us from thinking that we have the best of everything; to bring +us to acknowledge that others, who perhaps in the main are not so +favoured as ourselves, are yet possessed of some things we ourselves +would be the better of. And though these men must themselves necessarily +hang loosely, scarcely attached very firmly to any part of the Church, +like a seafaring population, and often even with a border running very +close to heathenism, yet let us own that the Church has need of +suchâthat without them the different sections of the Church would know +too little of one another, and too little of the facts of this worldâs +life. And as the seafaring population of a country might be expected to +show less interest in the soil of their native land than others, and yet +we know that in point of fact we are dependent on no class of our +population so much for leal patriotism, and for the defence of our +country, so one has observed that the Church also must make similar use +of her Zebulunsâof men who, by their very habit of restlessly +considering all views of truth which are alien to our own ways of +thinking, have become familiar with, and better able to defend us +against, the error that mingles with these views.</p> + +<p>Issachar receives from his father a character which few would be proud +of or would envy, but which many are very content to bear. As the strong +ass that has its stall and its provender provided can afford to let the +free beasts of the forest vaunt their liberty, so there is a very +numerous class of men who have no care to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[438]</a></span> +assert their dignity as human beings, or to agitate regarding their rights as citizens, so long as +their obscurity and servitude provide them with physical comforts, and +leave them free of heavy responsibilities. They prefer a life of ease +and plenty to a life of hardship and glory. They are not lazy nor idle, +but are quite willing to use their strength so long as they are not +overdriven out of their sleekness. They have neither ambition nor +enterprise, and willingly bow their shoulders to bear, and become the +servants of those who will free them from the anxiety of planning and +managing, and give them a fair and regular remuneration for their +labour. This is not a noble nature, but in a world in which ambition so +frequently runs through a thorny and difficult path to a disappointing +and shameful end, this disposition has much to say in its own defence. +It will often accredit itself with unchallengeable common sense, and +will maintain that it alone enjoys life and gets the good of it. They +will tell you they are the only true utilitarians, that to be oneâs own +master only brings cares, and that the degradation of servitude is only +an idea; that <i>really</i> servants are quite as well off as masters. Look +at them: the one is as a strong, powerful, well-cared-for animal, his +work but a pleasant exercise to him, and when it is over never following +him into his rest; he eats the good of the land, and has what all seem +to be in vain striving for, rest and contentment: the other, the master, +has indeed his position, but that only multiplies his duties; he has +wealth, but that proverbially only increases his cares and the mouths +that are to consume it; it is <i>he</i> who has the air of a bondsman, and +never, meet him when you may, seems wholly at ease and free from care.</p> + +<p>Yet, after all that can be said in favour of the bargain +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[439]</a></span> +an Issachar makes, and however he may be satisfied to rest, and in a quiet, peaceful +way enjoy life, men feel that at the best there is something despicable +about such a character. He gives his labour and is fed, he pays his +tribute and is protected; but men feel that they ought to meet the +dangers, responsibilities, and difficulties of life in their own +persons, and at first hand, and not buy themselves off so from the +burden of individual self-control and responsibility. The animal +enjoyment of this life and its physical comforts may be a very good +ingredient in a national character: it might be well for Israel to have +this patient, docile mass of strength in its midst: it may be well for +our country that there are among us not only men eager for the highest +honours and posts, but a great multitude of men perhaps equally +serviceable and capable, but whose desires never rise beyond the +ordinary social comforts; the contentedness of such, even though +reprehensible, tempers or balances the ambition of the others, and when +it comes into personal contact rebukes its feverishness. They, as well +as the other parts of society, have amidst their error a truthâthe +truth that the ideal world in which ambition, and hope, and imagination +live is not everything; that the material has also a reality, and that +though hope does bless mankind, yet attainment is also something, even +though it be a little. Yet this truth is not the whole truth, and is +only useful as an ingredient, as a part, not as the whole; and when we +fall from any high ideal of human life which we have formed, and begin +to find comfort and rest in the mere physical good things of this world, +we may well despise ourselves. There is a pleasantness still in the land +that appeals to us all; a luxury in observing the risks and struggles of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[440]</a></span> +others while ourselves secure and at rest; a desire to make life +easy, and to shirk the responsibility and toil that public-spiritedness +entails. Yet of what tribe has the Church more cause to complain than of +those persons who seem to imagine that they have done enough when they +have joined the Church and received their own inheritance to enjoy; who +are alive to no emergency, nor awake to the need of others; who have no +idea at all of their being a part of the community, for which, as well +as for themselves, there are duties to discharge; who couch, like the +ass of Issachar, in their comfort without one generous impulse to make +common cause against the common evils and foes of the Church, and are +unvisited by a single compunction that while they lie there, submitting +to whatever fate sends, there are kindred tribes of their own being +oppressed and spoiled?</p> + +<p>There seems to have been an improvement in this tribe, an infusion of +some new life into it. In the time of Deborah, indeed, it is with a note +of surprise that, while celebrating the victory of Israel, she names +even Issachar as having been roused to action, and as having helped in +the common causeââthe princes of Issachar were with Deborah, <i>even</i> +Issachar;â but we find them again in the days of David wiping out their +reproach, and standing by him manfully. And there an apparently new +character is given to themââthe children of Issachar, which were men +that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do.â +This quite accords, however, with the kind of practical philosophy which +we have seen to be imbedded in Issacharâs character. Men they were not +distracted by high thoughts and ambitions, but who judged things +according to their substantial value to themselves; and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[441]</a></span> +who were, therefore, in a position to give much good advice on practical +mattersâadvice which would always have a tendency to trend too much +towards mere utilitarianism and worldliness, and to partake rather of +crafty politic diplomacy than of far-seeing statesmanship, yet +trustworthy for a certain class of subjects. And here, too, they +represent the same class in the Church, already alluded to; for one +often finds that men who will not interrupt their own comfort, and who +have a kind of stolid indifference as to what comes of the good of the +Church, have yet also much shrewd practical wisdom; and were these men, +instead of spending their sagacity in cynical denunciation of what the +Church does, to throw themselves into the cause of the Church, and +heartily advise her what she <i>ought</i> to do, and help in the doing of it, +their observation of human affairs, and political understanding of the +times, would be turned to good account, instead of being a reproach.</p> + +<p>Next came the eldest son of Rachelâs handmaid, and the eldest son of +Leahâs handmaid, Dan and Gad. Danâs name, meaning âjudge,â is the +starting point of the predictionââDan shall judge his people.â This +word âjudgeâ we are perhaps somewhat apt to misapprehend; it means +rather to defend than to sit in judgment on; it refers to a judgment +passed between oneâs own people and their foes, and an execution of such +judgment in the deliverance of the people and the destruction of the +foe. We are familiar with this meaning of the word by the constant +reference in the Old Testament to Godâs <i>judging</i> His people; this being +always a cause of joy as their sure deliverance from their enemies. So +also it is used of those men who, when Israel had no king, rose from time to time as the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[442]</a></span> +champions of the people, to lead them against the +foe, and who are therefore familiarly called âThe Judges.â From the +tribe of Dan the most conspicuous of these arose, Samson, namely, and it +is probably mainly with reference to this fact that Jacob so +emphatically predicts of <i>this</i> tribe, âDan shall judge his people.â And +notice the appended clause (as reflecting shame on the sluggish +Issachar), âas one of the tribes of Israel,â recognising always that his +strength was not for himself alone, but for his country; that he was not +an isolated people who had to concern himself only with his own affairs, +but <i>one</i> of the tribes of Israel. The manner, too, in which Dan was to +do this was singularly descriptive of the facts subsequently evolved. +Dan was a very small and insignificant tribe, whose lot originally lay +close to the Philistines on the southern border of the land. It might +seem to be no obstacle whatever to the invading Philistines as they +passed to the richer portion of Judah, but this little tribe, through +Samson, smote these terrors of the Israelites with so sore and alarming +a destruction as to cripple them for years and make them harmless. We +see, therefore, how aptly Jacob compares them to the venomous snake that +lurks in the road and bites the horsesâ heels; the dust-coloured adder +that a man treads on before he is aware, and whose poisonous stroke is +more deadly than the foe he is looking for in front. And especially +significant did the imagery appear to the Jews, with whom this poisonous +adder was indigenous, but to whom the horse was the symbol of foreign +armament and invasion. The whole tribe of Dan, too, seems to have +partaken of that âgrim humourâ with which Samson saw his foes walk time +after time into the traps he set for them, and give +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[443]</a></span> +themselves an easy prey to himâa humour which comes out with singular piquancy in the +narrative given in the Book of Judges of one of the forays of this +tribe, in which they carried off Micahâs priest and even his gods.</p> + +<p>But why, in the full flow of his eloquent description of the varied +virtues of his sons, does the patriarch suddenly check himself, lie back +on his pillows, and quietly say, âI have waited for Thy salvation, O +Godâ? Does he feel his strength leave him so that he cannot go on to +bless the rest of his sons, and has but time to yield his own spirit to +God? Are we here to interpolate one of those scenes we are all fated to +witness when some eagerly watched breath seems altogether to fail before +the last words have been uttered, when those who have been standing +apart, through sorrow and reverence, quickly gather round the bed to +catch the last look, and when the dying man again collects himself and +finishes his work? Probably Jacob, having, as it were, projected himself +forward into those stirring and warlike times he has been speaking of, +so realises the danger of his people, and the futility even of such help +as Danâs when God does not help, that, as if from the midst of doubtful +war, he cries, as with a battle cry, âI have waited for Thy salvation, O +God.â His longing for victory and blessing to his sons far overshot the +deliverance from Philistines accomplished by Samson. That deliverance he +thankfully accepts and joyfully predicts, but in the spirit of an +Israelite indeed, and a genuine child of the promise, he remains +unsatisfied, and sees in all such deliverance only the pledge of Godâs +coming nearer and nearer to His people, bringing with Him <i>His</i> eternal +salvation. In Dan, therefore, we have not the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[444]</a></span> +catholic spirit of Zebulun, nor the practical, though sluggish, temper of Issachar; but we +are guided rather to the disposition which ought to be maintained +through all Christian life, and which, with special care, needs to be +cherished in Church-lifeâa disposition to accept with gratitude all +success and triumph, but still to aim through all at that highest +victory which God alone can accomplish for His people. It is to be the +battle-cry with which every Christian and every Church is to preserve +itself, not merely against external foes, but against the far more +disastrous influence of self-confidence, pride, and glorying in +manââFor <i>Thy</i> salvation, O God, do we wait.â</p> + +<p>Gad also is a tribe whose history is to be warlike, his very name +signifying a marauding, guerilla troop; and his history was to +illustrate the victories which Godâs people gain by tenacious, watchful, +ever-renewed warfare. The Church has often prospered by her Dan-like +insignificance; the world not troubling itself to make war upon her. But +oftener Gad is a better representative of the mode in which her +successes are gained. We find that the men of Gad were among the most +valuable of Davidâs warriors, when his necessity evoked all the various +skill and energy of Israel. âOf the Gadites,â we read, âthere separated +themselves unto David into the hold of the wilderness men of might, and +men of war fit for the battle, that could handle shield and buckler, +whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as the roes +upon the mountains: one of the least of them was better than an hundred, +and the greatest mightier than a thousand.â And there is something +particularly inspiriting to the individual Christian in finding this +pronounced as part of the blessing of Godâs peopleââa troop shall overcome +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[445]</a></span> +him, <i>but he shall</i> overcome at the last.â It is this that +enables us to persevereâthat we have Godâs assurance that present +discomfiture does not doom us to final defeat. If you be among the +children of promise, among those that gather round God to catch His +blessing, you shall overcome at the last. You may now feel as if +assaulted by treacherous, murderous foes, irregular troops, that betake +themselves to every cruel deceit, and are ruthless in spoiling you; you +may be assailed by so many and strange temptations that you are +bewildered and cannot lift a hand to resist, scarce seeing where your +danger comes from; you may be buffeted by messengers of Satan, +distracted by a sudden and tumultuous incursion of a crowd of cares so +that you are moved away from the old habits of your life amid which you +seem to stand safely; your heart may seem to be the rendezvous of all +ungodly and wicked thoughts, you may feel trodden under foot and overrun +by sin, but, with the blessing of God, you shall overcome at the last. +Only cultivate that dogged pertinacity of Gad, which has no thought of +ultimate defeat, but rallies cheerfully and resolutely after every +discomfiture.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> +Merivaleâs <i>Romans under the Empire</i>, vi. 261.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3" id="Footnote_3"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> +Plato, <i>Repub.</i> i. 5, etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4" id="Footnote_4"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> +The subsequent history of the tribe shows that the +character of its father was transmitted. âNo judge, no prophet, not one +of the tribe of Reuben, is mentioned.â (<i>Vide</i> Smithâs Dictionary, +<i>Reuben</i>.)</p></div> +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Expositor's Bible: The Book of +Genesis, by Marcus Dods + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE: GENESIS *** + +***** This file should be named 39395-h.htm or 39395-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/3/9/39395/ + +Produced by Colin Bell, Nigel Blower and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Genesis + +Author: Marcus Dods + +Editor: W. Robertson Nicoll + +Release Date: April 7, 2012 [EBook #39395] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE: GENESIS *** + + + + +Produced by Colin Bell, Nigel Blower and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + [Transcriber's Note: + + _Italic words_ have been enclosed in underscores. + + As the oe ligature cannot be included in this format, it has been + replaced with the separate letters in "manoeuvre" and "Phoenician". + + A few minor typographical errors have been silently corrected. + Some inconsistent hyphenation has been retained. + + The Table of Contents refers to original page numbers.] + + + + THE BOOK + OF + GENESIS. + + BY + MARCUS DODS, D.D., + + AUTHOR OF "ISRAEL'S IRON AGE," + "THE PARABLES OF OUR LORD," + "THE PRAYER THAT TEACHES TO PRAY," ETC. + + NEW YORK: + A. C. ARMSTRONG AND SON + 714, BROADWAY. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + CHAPTER I. + THE CREATION 1 + + CHAPTER II. + THE FALL 15 + + CHAPTER III. + CAIN AND ABEL 28 + + CHAPTER IV. + CAIN'S LINE, AND ENOCH 42 + + CHAPTER V. + THE FLOOD 55 + + CHAPTER VI. + NOAH'S FALL 68 + + CHAPTER VII. + THE CALL OF ABRAHAM 81 + + CHAPTER VIII. + ABRAM IN EGYPT 96 + + CHAPTER IX. + LOT'S SEPARATION FROM ABRAM 108 + + CHAPTER X. + ABRAM'S RESCUE OF LOT 121 + + CHAPTER XI. + COVENANT WITH ABRAM 134 + + CHAPTER XII. + BIRTH OF ISHMAEL 147 + + CHAPTER XIII. + THE COVENANT SEALED 159 + + CHAPTER XIV. + ABRAHAM'S INTERCESSION FOR SODOM 172 + + CHAPTER XV. + DESTRUCTION OF THE CITIES OF THE PLAIN 186 + + CHAPTER XVI. + SACRIFICE OF ISAAC 198 + + CHAPTER XVII. + ISHMAEL AND ISAAC 212 + + CHAPTER XVIII. + PURCHASE OF MACHPELAH 226 + + CHAPTER XIX. + ISAAC'S MARRIAGE 240 + + CHAPTER XX. + ESAU AND JACOB 254 + + CHAPTER XXI. + JACOB'S FRAUD 267 + + CHAPTER XXII. + JACOB'S FLIGHT AND DREAM 279 + + CHAPTER XXIII. + JACOB AT PENIEL 293 + + CHAPTER XXIV. + JACOB'S RETURN 307 + + CHAPTER XXV. + JOSEPH'S DREAMS 321 + + CHAPTER XXVI. + JOSEPH IN PRISON 339 + + CHAPTER XXVII. + PHARAOH'S DREAMS 355 + + CHAPTER XXVIII. + JOSEPH'S ADMINISTRATION 369 + + CHAPTER XXIX. + VISITS OF JOSEPH'S BRETHREN 383 + + CHAPTER XXX. + THE RECONCILIATION 396 + + CHAPTER XXXI. + THE BLESSINGS OF THE TRIBES 415 + + + + +I. + +_THE CREATION._ + +GENESIS i. and ii. + + +If any one is in search of accurate information regarding the age of +this earth, or its relation to the sun, moon, and stars, or regarding +the order in which plants and animals have appeared upon it, he is +referred to recent text-books in astronomy, geology, and palaeontology. +No one for a moment dreams of referring a serious student of these +subjects to the Bible as a source of information. It is not the object +of the writers of Scripture to impart physical instruction or to enlarge +the bounds of scientific knowledge. But if any one wishes to know what +connection the world has with God, if he seeks to trace back all that +now is to the very fountain-head of life, if he desires to discover some +unifying principle, some illuminating purpose in the history of this +earth, then we confidently refer him to these and the subsequent +chapters of Scripture as his safest, and indeed his only, guide to the +information he seeks. Every writing must be judged by the object the +writer has in view. If the object of the writer of these chapters was to +convey physical information, then certainly it is imperfectly fulfilled. +But if his object was to give an intelligible account of God's relation +to the world and to man, then it must be owned that he has been +successful in the highest degree. + +It is therefore unreasonable to allow our reverence for this writing to +be lessened because it does not anticipate the discoveries of physical +science; or to repudiate its authority in its own department of truth +because it does not give us information which it formed no part of the +writer's object to give. As well might we deny to Shakespeare a masterly +knowledge of human life, because his dramas are blotted by historical +anachronisms. That the compiler of this book of Genesis did not aim at +scientific accuracy in speaking of physical details is obvious, not +merely from the general scope and purpose of the Biblical writers, but +especially from this, that in these first two chapters of his book he +lays side by side two accounts of man's creation which no ingenuity can +reconcile. These two accounts, glaringly incompatible in details, but +absolutely harmonious in their leading ideas, at once warn the reader +that the writer's aim is rather to convey certain ideas regarding man's +spiritual history and his connection with God, than to describe the +process of creation. He does describe the process of creation, but he +describes it only for the sake of the ideas regarding man's relation to +God and God's relation to the world which he can thereby convey. Indeed +what we mean by scientific knowledge was not in all the thoughts of the +people for whom this book was written. The subject of creation, of the +beginning of man upon earth, was not approached from that side at all; +and if we are to understand what is here written we must burst the +trammels of our own modes of thought and read these chapters not as a +chronological, astronomical, geological, biological statement, but as a +moral or spiritual conception. + +It will, however, be said, and with much appearance of justice, that +although the first object of the writer was not to convey scientific +information, yet he might have been expected to be accurate in the +information he did advance regarding the physical universe. This is an +enormous assumption to make on _a priori_ grounds, but it is an +assumption worth seriously considering because it brings into view a +real and important difficulty which every reader of Genesis must face. +It brings into view the twofold character of this account of creation. +On the one hand it is irreconcilable with the teachings of science. On +the other hand it is in striking contrast to the other cosmogonies which +have been handed down from pre-scientific ages. These are the two patent +features of this record of creation and both require to be accounted +for. Either feature alone would be easily accounted for; but the two +co-existing in the same document are more baffling. We have to account +at once for a want of perfect coincidence with the teachings of science, +and for a singular freedom from those errors which disfigure all other +primitive accounts of the creation of the world. The one feature of the +document is as patent as the other and presses equally for explanation. + +Now many persons cut the knot by simply denying that both these features +exist. There is no disagreement with science, they say. I speak for many +careful enquirers when I say that this cannot serve as a solution of the +difficulty. I think it is to be freely admitted that, from whatever +cause and however justifiably, the account of creation here given is not +in strict and detailed accordance with the teaching of science. All +attempts to force its statements into such accord are futile and +mischievous. They are futile because they do not convince independent +enquirers, but only those who are unduly anxious to be convinced. And +they are mischievous because they unduly prolong the strife between +Scripture and science, putting the question on a false issue. And above +all, they are to be condemned because they do violence to Scripture, +foster a style of interpretation by which the text is forced to say +whatever the interpreter desires, and prevent us from recognising the +real nature of these sacred writings. The Bible needs no defence such as +false constructions of its language bring to its aid. They are its worst +friends who distort its words that they may yield a meaning more in +accordance with scientific truth. If, for example, the word 'day' in +these chapters, does not mean a period of twenty-four hours, the +interpretation of Scripture is hopeless. Indeed if we are to bring these +chapters into any comparison at all with science, we find at once +various discrepancies. Of a creation of sun, moon, and stars, subsequent +to the creation of this earth, science can have but one thing to say. Of +the existence of fruit trees prior to the existence of the sun, science +knows nothing. But for a candid and unsophisticated reader without a +special theory to maintain, details are needless. + +Accepting this chapter then as it stands, and believing that only by +looking at the Bible as it actually is can we hope to understand God's +method of revealing Himself, we at once perceive that ignorance of some +departments of truth does not disqualify a man for knowing and imparting +truth about God. In order to be a medium of revelation a man does not +need to be in advance of his age in secular learning. Intimate +communion with God, a spirit trained to discern spiritual things, a +perfect understanding of and zeal for God's purpose, these are qualities +quite independent of a knowledge of the discoveries of science. The +enlightenment which enables men to apprehend God and spiritual truth, +has no necessary connection with scientific attainments. David's +confidence in God and his declarations of His faithfulness are none the +less valuable, because he was ignorant of a very great deal which every +school-boy now knows. Had inspired men introduced into their writings +information which anticipated the discoveries of science, their state of +mind would be inconceivable, and revelation would be a source of +confusion. God's methods are harmonious with one another, and as He has +given men natural faculties to acquire scientific knowledge and +historical information, He did not stultify this gift by imparting such +knowledge in a miraculous and unintelligible manner. There is no +evidence that inspired men were in advance of their age in the knowledge +of physical facts and laws. And plainly, had they been supernaturally +instructed in physical knowledge they would so far have been +unintelligible to those to whom they spoke. Had the writer of this book +mingled with his teaching regarding God, an explicit and exact account +of how this world came into existence--had he spoken of millions of +years instead of speaking of days--in all probability he would have been +discredited, and what he had to say about God would have been rejected +along with his premature science. But speaking from the point of view of +his contemporaries, and accepting the current ideas regarding the +formation of the world, he attached to these the views regarding God's +connection with the world which are most necessary to be believed. What +he had learned of God's unity and creative power and connection with +man, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, he imparts to his +contemporaries through the vehicle of an account of creation they could +all understand. It is not in his knowledge of physical facts that he is +elevated above his contemporaries, but in his knowledge of God's +connection with all physical facts. No doubt, on the other hand, his +knowledge of God reacts upon the entire contents of his mind and saves +him from presenting such accounts of creation as have been common among +polytheists. He presents an account purified by his conception of what +was worthy of the supreme God he worshipped. His idea of God has given +dignity and simplicity to all he says about creation, and there is an +elevation and majesty about the whole conception, which we recognise as +the reflex of his conception of God. + +Here then instead of anything to discompose us or to excite unbelief, we +recognise one great law or principle on which God proceeds in making +Himself known to men. This has been called the Law of Accommodation. It +is the law which requires that the condition and capacity of those to +whom the revelation is made must be considered. If you wish to instruct +a child, you must speak in language the child can understand. If you +wish to elevate a savage, you must do it by degrees, accommodating +yourself to his condition, and winking at much ignorance while you +instil elementary knowledge. You must found all you teach on what is +already understood by your pupil, and through that you must convey +further knowledge and train his faculties to higher capacity. So was it +with God's revelation. The Jews were children who had to be trained +with what Paul somewhat contemptuously calls "weak and beggarly +elements," the A B C of morals and religion. Not even in morals could +the absolute truth be enforced. Accommodation had to be practised even +here. Polygamy was allowed as a concession to their immature stage of +development: and practices in war and in domestic law were permitted or +enjoined which were inconsistent with absolute morality. Indeed the +whole Jewish system was an adaptation to an immature state. The dwelling +of God in the Temple as a man in his house, the propitiating of God with +sacrifice as of an Eastern king with gifts; this was a teaching by +picture, a teaching which had as much resemblance to the truth and as +much mixture of truth as they were able then to receive. No doubt this +teaching did actually mislead them in some of their ideas; but it kept +them on the whole in a right attitude towards God, and prepared them for +growing up to a fuller discernment of the truth. + +Much more was this law observed in regard to such matters as are dealt +with in these chapters. It was impossible that in their ignorance of the +rudiments of scientific knowledge, the early Hebrews should understand +an absolutely accurate account of how the world came into being; and if +they could have understood it, it would have been useless, dissevered as +it must have been from the steps of knowledge by which men have since +arrived at it. Children ask us questions in answer to which we do not +tell them the exact full truth, because we know they cannot possibly +understand it. All that we can do is to give them some provisional +answer which conveys to them some information they can understand, and +which keeps them in a right state of mind, although this information +often seems absurd enough when compared with the actual facts and truth +of the matter. And if some solemn pedant accused us of supplying the +child with false information, we would simply tell him he knew nothing +about children. Accurate information on these matters will infallibly +come to the child when he grows up; what is wanted meanwhile is to give +him information which will help to form his conduct without gravely +misleading him as to facts. Similarly, if any one tells me he cannot +accept these chapters as inspired by God, because they do not convey +scientifically accurate information regarding this earth, I can only say +that he has yet to learn the first principles of revelation, and that he +misunderstands the conditions on which all instruction must be given. + +My belief then is, that in these chapters we have the ideas regarding +the origin of the world and of man which were naturally attainable in +the country where they were first composed, but with those important +modifications which a monotheistic belief necessarily suggested. So far +as merely physical knowledge went, there is probably little here that +was new to the contemporaries of the writer; but this already familiar +knowledge was used by him as the vehicle for conveying his faith in the +unity, love and wisdom of God the creator. He laid a firm foundation for +the history of God's relation to man. This was his object, and this he +accomplished. The Bible is the book to which we turn for information +regarding the history of God's revelation of Himself, and of His will +towards men; and in these chapters we have the suitable introduction to +this history. No changes in our knowledge of physical truth can at all +affect the teaching of these chapters. What they teach regarding the +relation of man to God is independent of the physical details in which +this teaching is embodied, and can as easily be attached to the most +modern statement of the physical origin of the world and of man. + +What then are the truths taught us in these chapters? The first is that +there has been a creation, that things now existing have not just grown +of themselves, but have been called into being by a presiding +intelligence and an originating will. No attempt to account for the +existence of the world in any other way has been successful. A great +deal has in this generation been added to our knowledge of the +efficiency of material causes to produce what we see around us; but when +we ask what gives harmony to these material causes, and what guides them +to the production of certain ends, and what originally produced them, +the answer must still be, not matter but intelligence and purpose. The +best informed and most penetrating minds of our time affirm this. John +Stuart Mill says: "It must be allowed that in the present state of our +knowledge the adaptations in nature afford a large balance of +probability in favour of creation by intelligence." Professor Tyndall +adds his testimony and says: "I have noticed during years of +self-observation that it is not in hours of clearness and vigour that +[the doctrine of material atheism] commends itself to my mind--that in +the hours of stronger and healthier thought it ever dissolves and +disappears, as offering no solution of the mystery in which we dwell and +of which we form a part." + +There is indeed a prevalent suspicion, that in presence of the +discoveries made by evolutionists the argument from design is no longer +tenable. Evolution shows us that the correspondence of the structure of +animals, with their modes of life, has been generated by the nature of +the case; and it is concluded that a blind mechanical necessity and not +an intelligent design rules all. But the discovery of the process by +which the presently existing living forms have been evolved, and the +perception that this process is governed by laws which have always been +operating, do not make intelligence and design at all less necessary, +but rather more so. As Professor Huxley himself says: "The teleological +and mechanical views of nature are not necessarily exclusive. The +teleologist can always defy the evolutionist to disprove that the +primordial molecular arrangement was not intended to evolve the +phenomena of the universe." Evolution, in short, by disclosing to us the +marvellous power and accuracy of natural law, compels us more +emphatically than ever to refer all law to a supreme, originating +intelligence. + +This then is the first lesson of the Bible; that at the root and origin +of all this vast material universe, before whose laws we are crushed as +the moth, there abides a living conscious Spirit, who wills and knows +and fashions all things. The belief of this changes for us the whole +face of nature, and instead of a chill, impersonal world of forces to +which no appeal can be made, and in which matter is supreme, gives us +the home of a Father. If you are yourself but a particle of a huge and +unconscious universe--a particle which, like a flake of foam, or a drop +of rain, or a gnat, or a beetle, lasts its brief space and then yields +up its substance to be moulded into some new creature; if there is no +power that understands you and sympathizes with you and makes provision +for your instincts, your aspirations, your capabilities; if man is +himself the highest intelligence, and if all things are the purposeless +result of physical forces; if, in short, there is no God, no +consciousness at the beginning as at the end of all things, then nothing +can be more melancholy than our position. Our higher desires which seem +to separate us so immeasurably from the brutes, we have, only that they +may be cut down by the keen edge of time, and wither in barren +disappointment; our reason we have, only to enable us to see and measure +the brevity of our span, and so live our little day, not joyously as the +unforeseeing beasts, but shadowed by the hastening gloom of anticipated, +inevitable and everlasting night; our faculty for worshipping and for +striving to serve and to resemble the perfect living One, that faculty +which seems to be the thing of greatest promise and of finest quality in +us, and to which is certainly due the largest part of what is admirable +and profitable in human history, is the most mocking and foolishest of +all our parts. But, God be thanked, He has revealed himself to us; has +given us in the harmonious and progressive movement of all around us, +sufficient indication that, even in the material world, intelligence and +purpose reign; an indication which becomes immensely clearer as we pass +into the world of man; and which, in presence of the person and life of +Christ attains the brightness of a conviction which illuminates all +besides. + +The other great truth which this writer teaches is, that man was the +chief work of God, for whose sake all else was brought into being. The +work of creation was not finished till he appeared: all else was +preparatory to this final product. That man is the crown and lord of +this earth is obvious. Man instinctively assumes that all else has been +made for him, and freely acts upon this assumption. But when our eyes +are lifted from this little ball on which we are set and to which we +are confined, and when we scan such other parts of the universe as are +within our ken, a keen sense of littleness oppresses us; our earth is +after all so minute and apparently inconsiderable a point when compared +with the vast suns and planets that stretch system on system into +illimitable space. When we read even the rudiments of what astronomers +have discovered regarding the inconceivable vastness of the universe, +the huge dimensions of the heavenly bodies, and the grand scale on which +everything is framed, we find rising to our lips, and with tenfold +reason, the words of David: "When I consider Thy heavens, the work of +Thy fingers; the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained; what is +man that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that Thou visitest +him?" Is it conceivable that on this scarcely discernible speck in the +vastness of the universe, should be played out the chiefest act in the +history of God? Is it credible that He whose care it is to uphold this +illimitable universe, should be free to think of the wants and woes of +the insignificant creatures who quickly spend their little lives in this +inconsiderable earth? + +But reason seems all on the side of Genesis. God must not be considered +as sitting apart in a remote position of general superintendence, but as +present with all that is. And to Him who maintains these systems in +their respective relations and orbits, it can be no burden to relieve +the needs of individuals. To think of ourselves as too insignificant to +be attended to is to derogate from God's true majesty and to +misunderstand His relation to the world. But it is also to misapprehend +the real value of spirit as compared with matter. Man is dear to God +because he is like Him. Vast and glorious as it is, the sun cannot think +God's thoughts; can fulfil but cannot intelligently sympathize with +God's purpose. Man, alone among God's works, can enter into and approve +of God's purpose in the world and can intelligently fulfil it. Without +man the whole material universe would have been dark and unintelligible, +mechanical and apparently without any sufficient purpose. Matter, +however fearfully and wonderfully wrought, is but the platform and +material in which spirit, intelligence and will, may fulfil themselves +and find development. Man is incommensurable with the rest of the +universe. He is of a different kind and by his moral nature is more akin +to God than to His works. + +Here the beginning and the end of God's revelation join hands and throw +light on one another. The nature of man was that in which God was at +last to give His crowning revelation, and for that no preparation could +seem extravagant. Fascinating and full of marvel as is the history of +the past which science discloses to us; full as these slow-moving +millions of years are in evidences of the exhaustless wealth of nature, +and mysterious as the delay appears, all that expenditure of resources +is eclipsed and all the delay justified when the whole work is crowned +by the Incarnation, for in it we see that all that slow process was the +preparation of a nature in which God could manifest Himself as a Person +to persons. This is seen to be an end worthy of all that is contained in +the physical history of the world: this gives completeness to the whole +and makes it a unity. No higher, other end need be sought, none could be +conceived. It is this which seems worthy of those tremendous and subtle +forces which have been set at work in the physical world, this which +justifies the long lapse of ages filled with wonders unobserved, and +teeming with ever new life; this above all which justifies these latter +ages in which all physical marvels have been outdone by the tragical +history of man upon earth. Remove the Incarnation and all remains dark, +purposeless, unintelligible: grant the Incarnation, believe that in +Jesus Christ the Supreme manifested Himself personally, and light is +shed upon all that has been and is. + +Light is shed on the individual life. Are you living as if you were the +product of blind mechanical laws, and as if there were no object worthy +of your life and of all the force you can throw into your life? Consider +the Incarnation of the Creator, and ask yourself if sufficient object is +not given to you in His call that you be conformed to His image and +become the intelligent executor of His purposes? Is life not worth +having even on these terms? The man that can still sit down and bemoan +himself as if there were no meaning in existence, or lounge languidly +through life as if there were no zest or urgency in living, or try to +satisfy himself with fleshly comforts, has surely need to turn to the +opening page of Revelation and learn that God saw sufficient object in +the life of man, enough to compensate for millions of ages of +preparation. If it is possible that you should share in the character +and destiny of Christ, can a healthy ambition crave anything more or +higher? If the future is to be as momentous in results as the past has +certainly been filled with preparation, have you no caring to share in +these results? Believe that there is a purpose in things; that in +Christ, the revelation of God, you can see what that purpose is, and +that by wholly uniting yourself to Him and allowing yourself to be +penetrated by His Spirit you can participate with Him in the working out +of that purpose. + + + + +II. + +_THE FALL._ + +GENESIS iii. + + +Profound as the teaching of this narrative is, its meaning does not lie +on the surface. Literal interpretation will reach a measure of its +significance, but plainly there is more here than appears in the letter. +When we read that the serpent was more subtile than any beast of the +field which the Lord God had made, and that he tempted the woman, we at +once perceive that it is not with the outer husk of the story we are to +concern ourselves, but with the kernel. The narrative throughout speaks +of nothing but the brute serpent; not a word is said of the devil, not +the slightest hint is given that the machinations of a fallen angel are +signified. The serpent is compared to the other beasts of the field, +showing that it is the brute serpent that is spoken of. The curse is +pronounced on the beast, not on a fallen spirit summoned for the purpose +before the Supreme; and not in terms which could apply to a fallen +spirit, but in terms that are applicable only to the serpent that +crawls. Yet every reader feels that this is not the whole mystery of the +fall of man: moral evil cannot be accounted for by referring it to a +brute source. No one, I suppose, believes that the whole tribe of +serpents crawl as a punishment of an offence committed by one of their +number, or that the whole iniquity and sorrow of the world are due to an +actual serpent. Plainly this is merely a pictorial representation +intended to convey some general impressions and ideas. Vitally important +truths underlie the narrative and are bodied forth by it; but the way to +reach these truths is not to adhere too rigidly to the literal meaning, +but to catch the general impression which it seems fitted to make. + +No doubt this opens the door to a great variety of interpretation. No +two men will attach to it precisely the same meaning. One says, the +serpent is a symbol for Satan, but Adam and Eve are historical persons. +Another says, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is a figure, +but the driving out from the garden is real. Another maintains that the +whole is a picture, putting in a visible, intelligible shape certain +vitally important truths regarding the history of our race. So that +every man is left very much to his own judgment, to read the narrative +candidly and in such light from other sources as he has, and let it make +its own impression upon him. This would be a sad result if the object of +the Bible were to bring us all to a rigid uniformity of belief in all +matters; but the object of the Bible is not that, but the far higher +object of furnishing all varieties of men with sufficient light to lead +them to God. And this being so, variety of interpretation in details is +not to be lamented. The very purpose of such representations as are here +given is to suit all stages of mental and spiritual advancement. Let the +child read it and he will learn what will live in his mind and influence +him all his life. Let the devout man who has ranged through all science +and history and philosophy come back to this narrative, and he feels +that he has here the essential truth regarding the beginnings of man's +tragical career upon earth. + +We should, in my opinion, be labouring under a misapprehension if we +supposed that none even of the earliest readers of this account saw the +deeper meaning of it. When men who felt the misery of sin and lifted up +their hearts to God for deliverance, read the words addressed to the +serpent, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy +seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his +heel"--is it reasonable to suppose that such men would take these words +in their literal sense, and satisfy themselves with the assurance that +serpents, though dangerous, would be kept under, and would find in the +words no assurance of that very thing they themselves were all their +lifetime striving after, deliverance from the evil thing which lay at +the root of all sin? No doubt some would accept the story in its literal +meaning,--shallow and careless men whose own spiritual experience never +urged them to see any spiritual significance in the words would do so; +but even those who saw least in the story, and put a very shallow +interpretation on its details, could scarcely fail to see its main +teaching. + +The reader of this perennially fresh story is first of all struck with +the account given of man's primitive condition. Coming to this narrative +with our minds coloured by the fancies of poets and philosophers, we are +almost startled by the check which the plain and sober statements of +this account give to an unpruned fancy. We have to read the words again +and again to make sure we have not omitted something which gives support +to those glowing descriptions of man's primitive condition. Certainly he +is described as innocent and at peace with God, and in this respect no +terms can exaggerate his happiness. But in other respects the language +of the Bible is surprisingly moderate. Man is represented as living on +fruit, and as going unclothed, and, so far as appears, without any +artificial shelter either from the heat of the sun or the cold of night. +None of the arts were as yet known. All working of metals had yet to be +discovered, so that his tools must have been of the rudest possible +description; and the arts, such as music, which adorn life and make +leisure enjoyable, were also still in the future. + +But the most significant elements in man's primitive condition are +represented by the two trees of the garden; by trees, because with +plants alone he had to do. In the centre of the garden stood the tree of +life, the fruit of which bestowed immortality. Man was therefore +naturally mortal, though apparently with a capacity for immortality. How +this capacity would have actually carried man on to immortality had he +not sinned, it is vain to conjecture. The mystical nature of the tree of +life is fully recognised in the New Testament, by our Lord, when He +says: "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, +which is in the midst of the Paradise of God;" and by John, when he +describes the new Jerusalem: "In the midst of the street of it, and on +either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve +manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of +the tree were for the healing of the nations." Both these +representations are intended to convey, in a striking and pictorial +form, the promise of life everlasting. + +And as of the tree of life which stands in the Paradise of the future it +is said "Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have +right to the tree of life;" so in Eden man's immortality was suspended +on the condition of obedience. And the trial of man's obedience is +imaged in the other tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. +From the child-like innocence in which man originally was, he was to +pass forward into the condition of moral manhood, which consists not in +mere innocence, but in innocence maintained in presence of temptation. +The savage is innocent of many of the crimes of civilized men because he +has no opportunity to commit them; the child is innocent of some of the +vices of manhood because he has no temptation to them. But this +innocence is the result of circumstance, not of character; and if savage +or child is to become a mature moral being he must be tried by altered +circumstances, by temptation and opportunity. To carry man forward to +this higher stage trial is necessary, and this trial is indicated by the +tree of knowledge. The fruit of this tree is prohibited, to indicate +that it is only in presence of what is forbidden man can be morally +tested, and that it is only by self-command and obedience to law, and +not by the mere following of instincts, that man can attain to moral +maturity. The prohibition is that which makes him recognise a +distinction between good and evil. He is put in a position in which good +is not the only thing he can do; an alternative is present to his mind, +and the choice of good in preference to evil is made possible to him. In +presence of this tree child-like innocence was no longer possible. The +self-determination of manhood was constantly required. Conscience, +hitherto latent, was now evoked and took its place as man's supreme +faculty. + +It is in vain to think of exhausting this narrative. We can, at the +most, only remark upon some of the most salient points. + +(1) Temptation comes like a serpent; like the most subtile beast of the +field; like that one creature which is said to exert a fascinating +influence on its victims, fastening them with its glittering eye, +stealing upon them by its noiseless, low and unseen approach, perplexing +them by its wide circling folds, seeming to come upon them from all +sides at once, and armed not like the other beasts with one weapon of +offence--horn, or hoof, or teeth--but capable of crushing its victim +with every part of its sinuous length. It lies apparently dead for +months together, but when roused it can, as the naturalist tells us, +"outclimb the monkey, outswim the fish, outleap the zebra, outwrestle +the athlete, and crush the tiger." How naturally in describing +temptation do we borrow language from the aspect and movements of this +creature. It does not need to hunt down its victims by long continued +pursuit, its victims come and put themselves within its reach. Unseen, +temptation lies by our path, and before we have time to think we are +fascinated and bewildered, its coils rapidly gather round us and its +stroke flashes poison through our blood. Against sin, when once it has +wreathed itself around us, we seem helpless to contend; the very powers +with which we could resist are benumbed or pinned useless to our +side--our foe seems all round us, and to extricate one part is but to +become entangled in another. As the serpent finds its way everywhere, +over every fence or barrier, into every corner and recess, so it is +impossible to keep temptation out of the life; it appears where least we +expect it and when we think ourselves secure. + +(2) Temptation succeeds at first by exciting our curiosity. It is a +wise saying that "our great security against sin lies in being shocked +at it. Eve gazed and reflected when she should have fled." The serpent +created an interest, excited her curiosity about this forbidden fruit. +And as this excited curiosity lies near the beginning of sin in the +race, so does it in the individual. I suppose if you trace back the +mystery of iniquity in your own life and seek to track it to its source, +you will find it to have originated in this craving to taste evil. No +man originally meant to become the sinner he has become. He only +intended, like Eve, to taste. It was a voyage of discovery he meant to +make; he did not think to get nipped and frozen up and never more return +from the outer cold and darkness. He wished before finally giving +himself to virtue, to see the real value of the other alternative. + +This dangerous craving has many elements in it. There is in it the +instinctive drawing towards what is mysterious. One veiled figure in an +assembly will attract more scrutiny than the most admired beauty. An +appearance in the heavens that no one can account for will nightly draw +more eyes than the most wonderful sunset. To lift veils, to penetrate +disguises, to unravel complicated plots, to solve mysteries, this is +always inviting to the human mind. The tale which used to thrill us in +childhood, of the one locked room, the one forbidden key, bears in it a +truth for men as well as for children. What is hidden must, we conclude, +have some interest for us--else why hide it from us? What is forbidden +must have some important bearing upon us. Else why forbid it? Things +which are indifferent to us are left in our way, obvious, and without +concealment. But as action has been taken regarding the things that are +forbidden, action in view of our relation to them, it is natural to us +to desire to know what these things are and how they affect us. + +There is added to this in young persons, a sense of incompleteness. They +wish to be grown up. Few boys wish to be always boys. They long for the +signs of manhood, and seek to possess that knowledge of life and its +ways which they very much identify with manhood. But too commonly they +mistake the path to manhood. They feel as if they had a wider range of +liberty and were more thoroughly men when they transgress the limits +assigned by conscience. They feel as if there were a new and brighter +world outside that which is fenced round by strict morality, and they +tremble with excitement on its borders. It is a fatal delusion. Only by +choosing the good in presence of the evil are true manhood and real +maturity gained. True manliness consists mainly in self control, in a +patient waiting upon nature and God's law and when youth impatiently +breaks through the protecting fence of God's law, and seeks growth by +knowing evil, it misses that very advancement it seeks, and cheats +itself out of the manhood it apes. + +(3) Through this craving for an enlarged experience unbelief in God's +goodness finds entrance. In the presence of forbidden pleasure we are +tempted to feel as if God were grudging us enjoyment. The very arguments +of the serpent occur to our mind. No harm will come of our indulging; +the prohibition is needless, unreasonable and unkind; it is not based on +any genuine desire for our welfare. This fence that shuts us out from +knowing good and evil is erected by a timorous asceticism, by a +ridiculous misconception of what truly enlarges human nature; it shuts +us into a poor narrow life. And thus suspicions of God's perfect wisdom +and goodness find entrance; we begin to think we know better than He +what is good for us, and can contrive a richer, happier life than He has +provided for us. Our loyalty to Him is loosened, and already we have +lost hold of His strength and are launched on the current that leads to +sin, misery, and shame. When we find ourselves saying Yes, where God has +said No; when we see desirable things where God has said there is death; +when we allow distrust of Him to rankle in our mind, when we chafe +against the restrictions under which we live and seek liberty by +breaking down the fence instead of by delighting in God, we are on the +highway to all evil. + +(4) If we know our own history we cannot be surprised to read that one +taste of evil ruined our first parents. It is so always. The one taste +alters our attitude towards God and conscience and life. It is a +veritable Circe's cup. The actual experience of sin is like the one +taste of alcohol to a reclaimed drunkard, like the first taste of blood +to a young tiger, it calls out the latent devil and creates a new nature +within us. At one brush it wipes out all the peace, and joy, and +self-respect, and boldness of innocence, and numbers us among the +transgressors, among the shame-faced, and self-despising, and hopeless. +It leaves us possessed with unhappy thoughts which lead us away from +what is bright, and honourable, and good, and like the letting out of +water it seems to have tapped a spring of evil within us. It is but one +step, but it is like the step over a precipice or down the shaft of a +mine; it cannot be taken back, it commits to an altogether different +state of things. + +(5) The first result of sin is shame. The form in which the knowledge +of good and evil comes to us is the knowing we are naked, the +consciousness that we are stripped of all that made us walk unabashed +before God and men. The promise of the serpent while broken in the +sense is fulfilled to the ear; the eyes of Adam and Eve were opened and +they knew that they were naked. Self-reflection begins, and the first +movement of conscience produces shame. Had they resisted temptation, +conscience would have been born but not in self-condemnation. Like +children they had hitherto been conscious only of what was external to +themselves, but now their consciousness of a power to choose good and +evil is awakened and its first exercise is accompanied with shame. They +feel that in themselves they are faulty, that they are not in +themselves complete; that though created by God, they are not fit for +His eye. The lower animals wear no clothes because they have no +knowledge of good and evil; children feel no need of covering because +as yet self-consciousness is latent, and their conduct is determined +for them; those who are re-made in the image of God and glorified as +Christ is, cannot be thought of as clothed, for in them there is no +sense of sin. But Adam's clothing himself and hiding himself were the +helpless attempts of a guilty conscience to evade the judgment of +truth. + +(6) But when Adam found he was no longer fit for God's eye, God provided +a covering which might enable him again to live in His presence without +dismay. Man had exhausted his own ingenuity and resources, and exhausted +them without finding relief to his shame. If his shame was to be +effectually removed, God must do it. And the clothing in coats of skins +indicates the restoration of man, not indeed to pristine innocence, but +to peace with God. Adam felt that God did not wish to banish him +lastingly from His presence, nor to see him always a trembling and +confused penitent. The self-respect and progressiveness, the reverence +for law and order and God, which came in with clothes, and which we +associate with the civilised races, were accepted as tokens that God was +desirous to co-operate with man, to forward and further him in all good. + +It is also to be remarked that the clothing which God provided was in +itself different from what man had thought of. Adam took leaves from an +inanimate, unfeeling tree; God deprived an animal of life, that the +shame of His creature might be relieved. This was the last thing Adam +would have thought of doing. To us life is cheap and death familiar, but +Adam recognised death as the punishment of sin. Death was to early man a +sign of God's anger. And he had to learn that sin could be covered not +by a bunch of leaves snatched from a bush as he passed by and that would +grow again next year, but only by pain and blood. Sin cannot be atoned +for by any mechanical action nor without expenditure of feeling. +Suffering must ever follow wrong-doing. From the first sin to the last, +the track of the sinner is marked with blood. Once we have sinned we +cannot regain permanent peace of conscience save through pain, and this +not only pain of our own. The first hint of this was given as soon as +conscience was aroused in man. It was made apparent that sin was a real +and deep evil, and that by no easy and cheap process could the sinner be +restored. The same lesson has been written on millions of consciences +since. Men have found that their sin reaches beyond their own life and +person, that it inflicts injury and involves disturbance and distress, +that it changes utterly our relation to life and to God, and that we +cannot rise above its consequences save by the intervention of God +Himself, by an intervention which tells us of the sorrow He suffers on +our account. + +For the chief point is that it is God who relieves man's shame. Until we +are certified that God desires our peace of mind we cannot be at peace. +The cross of Christ is the permanent witness to this desire on God's +part. No one can read what Christ has done for us without feeling sure +that for himself there is a way back to God from all sin--that it is +God's desire that his sin should be covered, his iniquity forgiven. Too +often that which seems of prime importance to God seems of very slight +importance to us. To have our life founded solidly in harmony with the +Supreme, seems often to excite no desire within us. It is about sin we +find man first dealing with God, and until you have satisfied God and +yourself regarding this prime and fundamental matter of your own +transgression and wrong-doing you look in vain for any deep and lasting +growth and satisfaction. Have you no reason to be ashamed before God? +Have you loved Him in any proportion to His worthiness to be loved? Have +you cordially and habitually fallen in with His will? Have you zealously +done His work in the world? Have you fallen short of no good He intended +you should do and gave you opportunity to do? Is there no reason for +shame on your part before God? Has His desire to cover sin no +application to you? Can you not understand His meaning when He comes to +you with offers of pardon and acts of oblivion? Surely the candid mind, +the clear-judging conscience can be at no loss to explain God's +solicitous concern for the sinner; and must humbly own that even that +unfathomable Divine emotion which is exhibited in the cross of Christ, +is no exaggerated and theatrical demonstration, but the actual carrying +through of what was really needed for the restoration of the sinner. Do +not live as if the cross of Christ had never been, or as if you had +never sinned and had no connection with it. Strive to learn what it +means; strive to deal fairly with it and fairly with your own +transgressions and with your present actual relation to God and His +will. + + + + +III. + +_CAIN AND ABEL._ + +GENESIS iv. + + +It is not the purpose of this narrator to write the history of the +world. It is not his purpose to write even the history of mankind. His +object is to write the history of redemption. Starting from the broad +fact of man's alienation from God, he means to trace that element in +human history which results in the perfect re-union of God and man. The +key-note has been struck in the promise already given that the seed of +the woman should prevail over the seed of the serpent, that the effects +of man's voluntary dissociation from God should be removed. It is the +fulfilment of this promise which is traced by this writer. He steadily +pursues that one line of history which runs directly towards this +fulfilment; turning aside now and again to pursue, to a greater or less +distance, diverging lines, but always returning to the grand highway on +which the promise travels. His method is first to dispose of collateral +matter and then to proceed with his main theme. As here, he first +disposes of the line of Cain and then returns to Seth through whom the +line of promise is maintained. + +The first thing we have to do with outside the garden is death--the +curse of sin speedily manifests itself in its most terrible form. But +the sinner executes it himself. The first death is a murder. As if to +show that all death is a wrong inflicted on us and proceeds not from God +but from sin, it is inflicted by sin and by the hand of man. Man becomes +his own executioner, and takes part with Satan, the murderer from the +beginning. But certainly the first feeling produced by these events must +have been one of bitter disappointment, as if the promise were to be +lost in the curse. + +The story of Cain and Abel was to all appearance told in order to point +out that from the very first men have been divided into two great +classes, viewed in connection with God's promise and presence in the +world. Always there have been those who believed in God's love and +waited for it, and those who believed more in their own force and +energy. Always there have been the humble and self-diffident who hoped +in God, and the proud and self-reliant who felt themselves equal to all +the occasions of life. And this story of Cain and Abel and the +succeeding generations does not conceal the fact, that for the purposes +of this world there has been visible an element of weakness in the godly +line, and that it is to the self-reliant and God-defying energy of the +descendants of Cain that we owe much of the external civilisation of the +world. While the descendants of Seth pass away and leave only this +record, that they "walked with God," there are found among Cain's +descendants, builders of cities, inventors of tools and weapons, music +and poetry and the beginnings of culture. + +These two opposed lines are in the first instance represented by Cain +and Abel. With each child that comes into the world some fresh hope is +brought; and the name of Cain points to the expectation of his parents +that in him a fresh start would be made. Alas! as the boy grew they saw +how vain such expectation was and how truly their nature had passed into +his, and how no imparted experience of theirs, taught him from without, +could countervail the strong propensities to evil which impelled him +from within. They experienced that bitterest punishment which parents +undergo, when they see their own defects and infirmities and evil +passions repeated in their children and leading them astray as they once +led themselves; when in those who are to perpetuate their name and +remembrance on earth they see evidence that their faults also will be +perpetuated; when in those whom they chiefly love they have a mirror +ceaselessly held up to them forcing them to remember the follies and +sins of their own youth. Certainly in the proud, self-willed, sullen +Cain no redemption was to be found. + +Both sons own the necessity of labour. Man is no longer in the primitive +condition, in which he had only to stretch out his hand when hungry, and +satisfy his appetite. There are still some regions of the earth in which +the trees shower fruit, nutritious and easily preserved, on men who shun +labour. Were this the case throughout the world, the whole of life would +be changed. Had we been created self-sufficing or in such conditions as +involved no necessity of toil, nothing would be as it now is. It is the +need of labour that implies occasional starvation and frequent poverty, +and gives occasion to charity. It is the need of labour which involves +commerce and thereby sows the seed of greed, worldliness, ambition, +drudgery. The ultimate physical wants of men, food and clothes, are the +motive of the greater part of all human activity. Trace to their causes +the various industries of men, the wars, the great social movements, +all that constitutes history, and you find that the bulk of all that is +done upon earth is done because men must have food and wish to have it +as good and with as little labour as possible. The broad facts of human +life are in many respects humiliating. + +The disposition of men is consequently shown in the occupations they +choose and the idea of life they carry into them. Some, like Abel, +choose peaceful callings that draw out feeling and sympathy; others +prefer pursuits which are stirring and active. Cain chose the tillage of +the ground, partly no doubt from the necessity of the case, but probably +also with the feeling that he could subdue nature to his own purposes +notwithstanding the curse that lay upon it. Do we not all sometimes feel +a desire to take the world as it is, curse and all, and make the most of +it; to face its disease with human skill, its disturbing and destructive +elements with human forethought and courage, its sterility and +stubbornness with human energy and patience? What is stimulating men +still to all discovery and invention, to forewarn seamen of coming +storms, to break a precarious passage for commerce through eternal ice +or through malarious swamps, to make life at all points easier and more +secure? Is it not the energy which opposition excites? We know that it +will be hard work; we expect to have thorns and thistles everywhere, but +let us see whether this may not after all be a thoroughly happy world, +whether we cannot cultivate the curse altogether out of it. This is +indeed the very work God has given man to do--to subdue the earth and +make the desert blossom as the rose. God is with us in this work, and he +who believes in God's purpose and strives to reclaim nature and compel +it to some better products than it naturally yields, is doing God's +work in the world. The misery is that so many do it in the spirit of +Cain, in a spirit of self-confident or sullen alienation from God, +willing to endure all hardship but unable to lay themselves at God's +feet with every capacity for work and every field He has given them to +till for Him and in a spirit of humble love to co-operate with Him. To +this spirit of godless energy, of merely selfish or worldly ambition and +enterprise, the world owes not only much of its poverty and many of its +greatest disasters, but also the greater part of its present advantages +in external civilisation. But from this spirit can never arise the +meekness, the patience, the tenderness, the charity which sweeten the +life of society and are more to be desired than gold; from this spirit +and all its achievements the natural outcome is the proud, vindictive, +self-glorifying war-song of a Lamech. + +The incompatibility of the two lines and the persecuting spirit of the +godless are set forth by the after history of Cain and Abel. The one +line is represented in Cain, who with all his energy and indomitable +courage, is depicted as of a dark, morose, suspicious, jealous, violent +temper; a man born under the shadow of the fall. Abel is described in +contrast as guileless and sunny, free from harshness and resentment. +What was in Cain was shown by what came out of him, murder. The reason +of the rejection of his offering was his own evil condition of heart. +"If thou doest well, shalt not thou also be accepted;" implying that he +was not accepted because he was not doing well. His offering was a mere +form; he complied with the fashion of the family; but in spirit he was +alienated from God, cherishing thoughts which the rejection of his +offering brings to a head. He may have seen that the younger son won +more of the parents' affection, that his company was more welcome. +Jealousy had been produced, that deep jealousy of the humble and godly +which proud men of the world cannot help betraying and which has so very +often in the world's history produced persecution. + +This cannot be considered too weak a motive to carry so enormous a +crime. Even in a highly civilised age we find an English statesman +saying: "Pique is one of the strongest motives in the human mind. Fear +is strong but transient. Interest is more lasting, perhaps, and steady, +but weaker; I will ever back pique against them both. It is the spur the +devil rides the noblest tempers with, and will do more work with them in +a week, than with other poor jades in a twelve-month." And the age of +Cain and Abel was an age in which impulse and action lay close together, +and in which jealousy is notoriously strong. To this motive John +ascribes the act: "Wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were +evil, and his brother's righteous." + +We have now learned better how to disguise our feelings; and we are +compelled to control them better; but now and again we meet with a +deep-seated hatred of goodness which might give rise to almost any +crime. Few of us can say that for our own part we have extinguished +within us the spirit that disparages and depreciates and fixes the +charge of hypocrisy or refers good actions to interested motives, +searches out failings and watches for haltings and is glad when a blot +is found. Few are filled with unalloyed grief when the man who has borne +an extraordinary reputation turns out to be just like the rest of us. +Many of us have a true delight in goodness and humble ourselves before +it when we see it, and yet we know also what it is to be exasperated by +the presence of superiority. I have seen a schoolboy interrupt his +brother's prayers, and gird at him for his piety, and strive to draw him +into sin, and do the devil's work with zest and diligence. And where +goodness is manifestly in the minority how constantly does it excite +hatred that pours itself out in sneers and ridicule and ignorant +calumny. + +But this narrative significantly refers this early quarrel to religion. +There is no bitterness to compare with that which worldly men who +profess religion, feel towards those who cultivate a spiritual religion. +They can never really grasp the distinction between external worship and +real godliness. They make their offerings, they attend to the rites of +the religion to which they belong and are beside themselves with +indignation if any person or event suggests to them that they might have +saved themselves all their trouble, because these do not at all +constitute religion. They uphold the Church, they admire and praise her +beautiful services, they use strong but meaningless language about +infidelity, and yet when brought in contact with spirituality and +assured that regeneration and penitent humility are required above all +else in the kingdom of God, they betray an utter inability to comprehend +the very rudiments of the Christian religion. Abel has always to go to +the wall because he is always the weaker party, always in the minority. +Spiritual religion, from the very nature of the case, must always be in +the minority; and must be prepared to suffer loss, calumny, and +violence, at the hands of the worldly religious, who have contrived for +themselves a worship that calls for no humiliation before God and no +complete surrender of heart and will to Him. Cain is the type of the +ignorant religious, of the unregenerate man who thinks he merits God's +favour as much as any one else; and Cain's conduct is the type of the +treatment which the Christ-like and intelligent godly are always likely +to receive at such hands. + +We never know where we may be led by jealousy and malice. One of the +striking features of this incident is the rapidity with which small sins +generate great ones. When Cain went in the joy of harvest and offered +his first fruits no thought could be further from his mind than murder. +It may have come as suddenly on himself as on the unsuspecting Abel, but +the germ was in him. Great sins are not so sudden as they seem. +Familiarity with evil thought ripens us for evil action; and a moment of +passion, an hour's loss of self-control, a tempting occasion, may hurry +us into irremediable evil. And even though this does not happen, +envious, uncharitable, and malicious thoughts make our offerings as +distasteful as Cain's. He that loveth not his brother knoweth not God. +First be reconciled to thy brother, says our Lord, and then come and +offer thy gift. + +Other truths are incidentally taught in this narrative. + +(1) The acceptance of the offering depends on the acceptance of the +offerer. God had respect to Abel and his offering--the man first and +then the offering. God looks through the offering to the state of soul +from which it proceeds; or even, as the words would indicate, sees the +soul first and judges and treats the offering according to the inward +disposition. God does not judge of what you are by what you say to Him +or do for Him, but He judges what you say to Him and do for Him by what +you are. "By _faith_" says a New Testament writer, "Abel offered a more +acceptable sacrifice than Cain." He had the faith which enabled him to +believe that God is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently +seek Him. His attitude towards God was sound; his life was a diligent +seeking to please God; and from all such persons God gladly receives +acknowledgment. When the offering is the true expression of the soul's +gratitude, love, devotedness, then it is acceptable. When it is a merely +external offering, that rather veils than expresses the real feeling; +when it is not vivified and rendered significant by any spiritual act on +the part of the worshipper, it is plainly of no effect. + +What is true of all sacrifices is true of the sacrifice of Christ. It +remains invalid and of none effect to those who do not through it yield +themselves to God. Sacrifices were intended to be the embodiment and +expression of a state of feeling towards God, of a submission or +offering of men's selves to God; of a return to that right relation +which ought ever to subsist between creature and Creator. Christ's +sacrifice is valid for us when it is that outward thing which best +expresses our feeling towards God and through which we offer or yield +ourselves to God. His sacrifice is the open door through which God +freely admits all who aim at a consecration and obedience like to His. +It is valid for us when through it we sacrifice ourselves. Whatever His +sacrifice expresses we desire to take and use as the only satisfactory +expression of our own aims and desires. Did Christ perfectly submit to +and fulfil the will of God? So would we. Did He acknowledge the infinite +evil of sin and patiently bear its penalties, still loving the Holy and +Righteous God? So would we endure all chastening, and still resist unto +blood striving against sin. + +(2) Again, we here find a very sharp and clear statement of the welcome +truth, that continuance in sin is never a necessity, that God points the +way out of sin, and that from the first He has been on man's side and +has done all that could be done to keep men from sinning. Observe how He +expostulates with Cain. Take note of the plain, explicit fairness of the +words in which He expostulates with him--instance, as it is, of how +absolutely in the right God always is, and how abundantly He can justify +all His dealings with us. God says as it were to Cain; Come now: and let +us reason together. All God wants of any man is to be reasonable; to +look at the facts of the case. "If thou doest well, shalt thou not (as +well as Abel) be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the +door," that is, if thou doest not well, the sin is not Abel's nor any +one's but thine own, and therefore anger at another is not the proper +remedy, but anger at yourself, and repentance. + +No language could more forcibly exhibit the unreasonableness of not +meeting God with penitent and humble acknowledgment. God has fully met +our case, and has satisfied all its demands, has set Himself to serve us +and laid Himself out to save us pain and misery, and has so entirely +succeeded in making salvation and blessedness possible to us, that if we +continue in sin we must trample not only upon God's love and our own +reason, but on the very means of salvation. State your case at the +worst, bring forward every reason why your countenance should be fallen +as Cain's and why your face should lower with the gloom of eternal +despair--say that you have as clear evidence as Cain had that your +offerings are displeasing to God, and that while others are accepted you +receive no token from Him,--in answer to all your arguments, these +words addressed to Cain rise up. If not accepted already you have the +means of being so. If you do well to be hardened in sin it is not +because it is necessary, nor because God desires it. If you are to +continue in sin you must put aside His hand. It can only be _sin_ which +causes you either to despair of salvation or keeps you any way separate +from God--there is no other thing worse than sin, and for sin there is +an offering provided. You have not fallen into some lower grade of +beings than that which is designated sinners, and it is sinners that God +in His mercy hems in with this inevitable dilemma He presented to Cain. + +If, therefore, you continue at war with God it is not because you must +not do otherwise: if you go forward to any new thought, plan, or action +unpardoned; if acceptance of God's forgiveness and entrance into a state +of reconciliation with Him be not your first action, then you must +thrust aside His counsel, backed though it is with every utterance of +your own reason. Some of us may be this day or this week in as critical +a position as Cain, having as truly as he the making or marring of our +future in our hands, seeing clearly the right course, and all that is +good, humble, penitent and wise in us urging us to follow that course, +but our pride and self-will holding us back. How often do men thus +barter a future of blessing for some mean gratification of temper or +lust or pride; how often by a reckless, almost listless and indifferent +continuance in sin do they let themselves be carried on to a future as +woful as Cain's; how often when God expostulates with them do they make +no answer and take no action, as if there were nothing to be gained by +listening to God--as if it were a matter of no importance what future I +go to--as if in the whole eternity that lies in reserve there were +nothing worth making a choice about--nothing about which it is worth my +while to rouse the whole energy of which I am capable, and to make, by +God's grace, the determination which shall alter my whole future--to +choose for myself and assert myself. + +(3) The writer to the Hebrews makes a very striking use of this event. +He borrows from it language in which to magnify the efficacy of Christ's +sacrifice, and affirms that the blood of Christ speaketh better things, +or, as it must rather be rendered, crieth louder than the blood of Abel. +Abel's blood, we see, cried for vengeance, for evil things for Cain, +called God to make inquisition for blood, and so pled as to secure the +banishment of the murderer. The Arabs have a belief that over the grave +of a murdered man his spirit hovers in the form of a bird that cries +"Give me drink, give me drink," and only ceases when the blood of the +murderer is shed. Cain's conscience told him the same thing; there was +no criminal law threatening death to the murderer, but he felt that men +would kill him if they could. He heard the blood of Abel crying from the +earth. The blood of Christ also cries to God, but cries not for +vengeance but for pardon. And as surely as the one cry was heard and +answered in very substantial results; so surely does the other cry call +down from heaven its proper and beneficent effects. It is as if the +earth would not receive and cover the blood of Christ, but ever exposes +it before God and cries to Him to be faithful and just to forgive us our +sins. This blood cries louder than the other. If God could not overlook +the blood of one of His servants, but adjudged to it its proper +consequences, neither is it possible that He should overlook the blood +of His Son and not give to it its proper result. + +If then you feel in your conscience that you are as guilty as Cain, and +if sins clamour around you which are as dangerous as his, and which cry +out for judgment upon you, accept the assurance that the blood of Christ +has a yet louder cry for mercy. If you had been Abel's murderer, would +you have been justly afraid of God's anger? Be as sure of God's mercy +now. If you had stood over his lifeless body and seen the earth refusing +to cover his blood, if you felt the stain of it crimson on your +conscience and if by night you started from your sleep striving vainly +to wash it from your hands, if by every token you felt yourself exposed +to a just punishment, your fear would be just and reasonable were +nothing else revealed to you. But there is another blood equally +indelible, equally clamorous. In it you have in reality what is +elsewhere pretended in fable, that the blood of the murdered man will +not wash out, but through every cleansing oozes up again a dark stain on +the oaken floor. This blood can really not be washed out, it cannot be +covered up and hid from God's eye, its voice cannot be stifled, and its +cry is all for mercy. + +With how different a meaning then comes now to us this question of +God's: "Where is thy brother?" Our Brother also is slain. Him Whom God +sent among us to reverse the curse, to lighten the burden of this life, +to be the loving member of the family on Whom each leans for help and +looks to for counsel and comfort--Him Who was by His goodness to be as +the dayspring from on high in our darkness, we found _too_ good for our +endurance and dealt with as Cain dealt with his more righteous brother. +But He Whom we slew God has raised again to give repentance and +remission of sins, and assures us that His blood cleanseth from all sin. +To every one therefore He repeats this question, "Where is thy brother?" +He repeats it to every one who is living with a conscience stained with +sin; to every one that knows remorse and walks with the hanging head of +shame; to every one whose whole life is saddened by the consciousness +that all is not settled between God and himself; to every one who is +sinning recklessly as if Christ's blood had never been shed for sin; and +to every one who, though seeking to be at peace with God, is troubled +and downcast--to all God says, "Where is thy brother?" tenderly +reminding us of the absolute satisfaction for sin that has been made, +and of the hope towards God we have through the blood of His Son. + + + + +IV. + +_CAIN'S LINE, AND ENOCH._ + +GENESIS iv. 12-24. + + +"My punishment is greater than I can bear," so felt Cain as soon as his +passion had spent itself and the consequences of his wickedness became +apparent--and so feels every one who finds he has now to live in the +presence of the irrevocable deed he has done. It seems too heavy a +penalty to endure for the one hour of passion; and yet as little as Cain +could rouse the dead Abel so little can we revive the past we have +destroyed. Thoughtlessness has set in motion agencies we are powerless +to control; the whole world is changed to us. One can fancy Cain turning +to see if his victim gave no sign of life, striving to reanimate the +dead body, calling the familiar name, but only to see with growing +dismay that the one blow had finished all with which that name was +associated, and that he had made himself a new world. So are we drawn +back and back in thought to that which has for ever changed life to us, +striving to see if there is no possibility of altering the past, but +only to find we might quite as well try to raise the dead. No voice +responds to our cries of grief and dismay and too late repentance. All +life now seems but a reaping of the consequences of the past. We have +put ourselves in every respect at a disadvantage. The earth seems +cursed so that we are hampered in our employments and cannot make as +much of them as we would had we been innocent. We have got out of right +relations to our fellow-men and cannot feel the same to them as we ought +to feel; and the face of God is hid from us, so that now and again as +time after time our hopes are blighted, our life darkened and disturbed +by the obvious results of our own past deeds, we are tempted to cry out +with Cain: "My punishment is greater than I can bear." + +Yet Cain's punishment was less than he expected. He was not put to death +as he would have been at any later period of the world's history, but +was banished. And even this punishment was lightened by his having a +token from God, that he would not be put to death by any zealous avenger +of Abel. He would experience the hardships of a man entering unexplored +territory, but to an enterprising spirit this would not be without its +charms. As the fresh beauties of the world's youth were disclosed to him +and by their bright and peaceful friendliness allayed the bitterness of +his spirit, and as the mysteries and dangers of the new regions excited +him and called his thoughts from the past, some of the old delight in +life may have been recovered by him. Probably in many a lonely hour the +recollection of his crime would return and with it all the horrors of a +remorse which would drive rest and peace from his soul, and render him +the most wretched of men. But busied as he was with his new enterprises, +there is little doubt that he would find it, as it is still found, not +impossible to banish such dreary thoughts and live in the measure of +contentment which many enjoy who are as far from God as Cain. + +It is not difficult to detect the spirit he carried with him, and the +tone he gave to his line of the race. The facts recorded are few but +significant. He begat a son, he built a city; and he gave to both the +name Enoch, that is "initiation," or "beginning," as if he were saying +in his heart, "What so great harm after all in cutting short one line in +Abel? I can begin another and find a new starting point for the race. I +am driven forth cursed as a vagabond, but a vagabond I will not be; I +will make for myself a settled abode, and I will fence it round with +knife-blade thorns so that no man will be able to assault me." + +In this settling of Cain, however, we see not any symptom of his ceasing +to be a vagabond, but the surest evidence that now he was content to be +a fugitive from God and had cut himself off from hope. His heart had +found rest and had found it apart from God. _Here_, in this city he +would make a fresh beginning for himself and for men. Here he abandoned +all clinging memories of former things, of his old home and of the God +there worshipped. He had wisdom enough not to call his city by his own +name, and so invite men to consider his former career or trace back +anything to his old life. He cut it all off from him; his crime, his God +also, all that was in it was to be no more to him and his comrades. He +would make a clean start, and that men might be led to expect a great +future he called his city, Enoch, a Beginning. + +But it is one thing to forgive ourselves, another thing to have God's +forgiveness. It is one thing to reconcile ourselves to the curse that +runs through our life, another thing to be reconciled to God and so +defeat the curse. It is sometimes, though by no means always, possible +to escape some of the consequences of sin: we can change our front so as +to lessen the breadth of life that is exposed to them, or we can +accustom and harden ourselves to a very second-rate kind of life. We can +teach ourselves to live without much love in our homes or in our +connections with those outside; we can learn to be satisfied if we can +pay our way and make the time pass and be outwardly like other people; +we can build a little city, and be content to be on no very friendly +terms with any but the select few inside the trench, and actually be +quite satisfied if we can _defend ourselves against_ the rest of men; we +can forget the one commandment, that we should love one another. We can +all find much in the world to comfort, to lull, to soothe sorrowful but +wholesome remembrances; much to aid us in an easy treatment of the +curse; much to shed superficial brightness on a life darkened and +debased by sin, much to hush up the sad echoes that mutter from the dark +mountains of vanity we have left behind us, much that assures us we have +nothing to do but forget our old sins and busily occupy ourselves with +new duties. But no David will say, nor will any man of true spiritual +discernment say, "Blessed is the man whose transgression is +_forgotten_;" but only, "Blessed is the man whose transgression is +forgiven." By all means make a fresh start, a new beginning, but let it +be in your own broken heart, in a spirit humble and contrite, frankly +acknowledging your guilt and finding rest and settlement for your soul +in reconciliation with God. + +It is in the family of Lamech the characteristics of Cain's line are +most distinctly seen, and the significance of their tendencies becomes +apparent. As Cain had set himself to cultivate the curse out of the +world, so have his children derived from him the self-reliant hardiness +and hardihood which are resolute to make of this world as bright and +happy a home as may be. They make it their task to subdue the world and +compel it to yield them a life in which they can delight. They are so +far successful that in a few generations they have formed a home in +which all the essentials of civilized life are found--the arts are +cultivated and female society is appreciated. + +Of his three sons, Jabal--or "Increase"--was "the father of such as +dwell in tents and of such as have cattle." He had originality enough to +step beyond all traditional habits and to invent a new mode of life. +Hitherto men had been tied to one spot by their fixed habitations, or +found shelter when overtaken by storm in caves or trees. To Jabal the +idea first occurs, I can carry my house about with me and regulate its +movements and not it mine. I need not return every night this long weary +way from the pastures, but may go wherever grass is green and streams +run cool. He and his comrades would thus become aware of the vast +resources of other lands, and would unconsciously lay the foundations +both of commerce and of wars of conquest. For both in ancient and more +modern times the most formidable armies have been those vast moving +shepherd races bred outside the borders of civilization and flooding as +with an irresistible tide the territories of more settled and less hardy +tribes. + +Jubal again was, as his name denotes, the reputed father of all such as +handle the harp and the organ, stringed and wind instruments. The stops +of the reed or flute and the divisions of the string being once +discovered, all else necessarily followed. The twanging of a bow-string +in a musical ear was enough to give the suggestion to an observant mind; +the varying notes of the birds; the winds expressing at one time +unbridled fury and at another a breathing benediction, could not fail to +move and stir the susceptible spirit. The spontaneous though untuned +singing of children, that follows no mere melody made by another to +express _his_ joy, but is the instinctive expression of their own joy, +could not but give however meagrely the first rudiments of music. But +here was the man who first made a piece of wood help him; who out of the +commonest material of the physical world found for himself a means of +expressing the most impalpable moods of his spirit. Once the idea was +caught that matter inanimate as well as animate was man's servant and +could do his finest work for him, Jabal and his brother Jubal would make +rapid work between them. If the rude matter of the world could _sing_ +for them, what might it not do for them? They would see that there was a +precision in machine-work which man's hand could not rival--a regularity +which no nervous throb could throw out and no feeling interrupt, and yet +at the same time when they found how these rude instruments responded to +every finest shade of feeling, and how all external nature seemed able +to express what was in man, must it not have been the birth of poetry as +well as of music? Jubal in short originates what we now compendiously +describe as the Fine Arts. + +The third brother again may be taken as the originator of the Useful +Arts--though not exclusively--for being the instructor of every +artificer in brass and iron, having something of his brother's genius +for invention and more than his brother's handiness and practical +faculty for embodying his ideas in material forms, he must have promoted +all arts which require tools for their culture. + +Thus among these three brothers we find distributed the various kinds of +genius and faculty which ever since have enriched the world. Here in +germ was really all that the world can do. The great lines in which +individual and social activity have since run were then laid down. + +This notable family circle was completed by Naamah, the sister of +Tubal-Cain. The strength of female influence began to be felt +contemporaneously with the cultivation of the arts. Very early in the +world's history it was perceived that although debarred from the rougher +activities of life, women have an empire of their own. Men have the +making of civilisation, but women have the making of men. It is they who +form the character of the individual and give its tone to the society in +which they live. It is natural to men to consider the feelings and +tastes of women and to adapt their manners and conversation to them; and +it is for women to exercise worthily the sway they thus possess. +Practically and to a large extent women settle what subjects shall be +spoken of, and in what tone, trifling or serious; and each ought +therefore to recognise her own burden of responsibility, and see to it +that the deference paid to her shall not lower him who pays it, and that +the respect shown to her shall help him who shows it to respect what is +pure and true, charitable, just, and worthy. Let women show that it is +worldly trifling or slanderous malignity or empty tittle-tattle that +delights them, then they act the part of Eve and tempt to sin; let them +show that they prize most highly the mirth that is innocent and the +conversation that is elevating and helpful, and while they win +admiration for themselves they win it also for what is healthy and +purifying. No woman can renounce her influence; helpful or hurtful she +certainly is and must be in proportion as she is pleasing and +attractive. + +Thus early did it appear how much of what is admirable and serviceable +clung to human nature apart from any recognition of God. The worldly +life was then what it is now, a life not wholly and obviously polluted +by excess, nor destroyed by violence, but displaying features which +appeal to our sensibilities and provoke applause; a life of manifold +beauty, of great power and resource, of abundant promise. There is +abundant material in the world for beautifying and elevating human life, +and this material may be used and is used by men who acknowledge neither +its origin in God nor the ends He would serve by it. The interests of +men may be advanced and the best work of the world done by three +distinct classes of men--by those who work as God's children in thorough +sympathy with His purposes; by those who do not know God but who are +humble in heart and would sympathise with God's purposes, did they +become acquainted with them; and by those who are proud and self-willed, +positively alienated from God, and who do the world's work for their own +ends. And so far as the external work goes the last-named class of men +may be most efficient. In mental endowment, social and political wisdom, +scientific aptitude, and all that tends to substantial utility, it is +quite possible they may excel the godly, for "not many noble, not many +wise are called." But we have nothing to measure permanent success by, +save conformity with God's will; and we have nothing by which we can +estimate how character will endure and how deeply it is rooted save +conformity with the nature of God. If a man believes in God, in one +Supreme Who rules and orders all things for just, holy and wise ends; +if he is in sympathy with the nature and will of God and finds his +truest satisfaction in forwarding the purposes of God, then you have a +guarantee for this man's continuance in good and for his ultimate +success. + +The precarious nature of all godless civilisation and the real tendency +of self-sufficing pride are shown in Lamech. + +It is in Lamech the tendency culminates and in him the issue of all this +brilliant but godless life is seen. Therefore though he is the father, +the historian speaks of him _after_ his children. In his one recorded +utterance his character leaps to view definite and complete--a character +of boundless force, self-reliance and godlessness. It is a little +uncertain whether he means that he has actually slain a man, or whether +he is putting a hypothetical case--the character of his speech is the +same whichever view is taken. + + "I have slain," he says, or suppose I slay, "a man for wounding me, + A young man for hurting me: + But if Cain shall be avenged seven-fold--then Lamech seventy and + seven-fold." + +That is, I take vengeance for myself with those good weapons my son has +forged for me. He has furnished me with a means of defence many times +more effectual than God's avenging of Cain. This is the climax of the +self-sufficiency to which the line of Cain has been tending. Cain +besought God's protection; he needed God for at least one purpose, this +one thread bound him yet to God. Lamech has no need of God for any +purpose; what his sons can make and his own right hand do is enough for +him. This is what comes of finding enough in the world without God--a +boastful, self-sufficient man, dangerous to society, the incarnation of +the pride of life. In the long run separation from God becomes isolation +from man and cruel self-sufficiency. + +The line of Seth is followed from father to son, for the sake of showing +that the promise of a seed which should be victorious over evil was +being fulfilled. Apparently it is also meant that during this uneventful +period long ages elapsed. Nothing can be told of these old world people +but that they lived and died, leaving behind them heirs to transmit the +promise. + +Only once is the monotony broken; but this in so striking a manner as to +rescue us from the idea that the historian is mechanically copying a +barren list of names. For in the seventh generation, contemporaneous +with the culmination of Cain's line in the family of Lamech, we come +upon the simple but anything but mechanical statement: "Enoch walked +with God and he was not; for God took him." The phrase is full of +meaning. Enoch walked with God because he was His friend and liked His +company, because he was going in the same direction as God, and had no +desire for anything but what lay in God's path. We walk with God when He +is in all our thoughts; not because we consciously think of Him at all +times, but because He is naturally suggested to us by all we think of; +as when any person or plan or idea has become important to us, no matter +what we think of, our thought is always found recurring to this +favourite object, so with the godly man everything has a connection with +God and must be ruled by that connection. When some change in his +circumstances is thought of, he has first of all to determine how the +proposed change will affect his connection with God--will his conscience +be equally clear, will he be able to live on the same friendly terms +with God and so forth. When he falls into sin he cannot rest till he +has resumed his place at God's side and walks again with Him. This is +the general nature of walking with God; it is a persistent endeavour to +hold all our life open to God's inspection and in conformity to His +will; a readiness to give up what we find does cause any +misunderstanding between us and God; a feeling of loneliness if we have +not some satisfaction in our efforts at holding fellowship with God, a +cold and desolate feeling when we are conscious of doing something that +displeases Him. This walking with God necessarily tells on the whole +life and character. As you instinctively avoid subjects which you know +will jar upon the feelings of your friend, as you naturally endeavour to +suit yourself to your company, so when the consciousness of God's +presence begins to have some weight with you, you are found +instinctively endeavouring to please Him, repressing the thoughts you +know He disapproves, and endeavouring to educate such dispositions as +reflect His own nature. + +It is easy then to understand how we may practically walk with God--it +is to open to Him all our purposes and hopes, to seek His judgment on +our scheme of life and idea of happiness--it is to be on thoroughly +friendly terms with God. Why then do any not walk with God? Because they +seek what is wrong. You would walk with Him if the same idea of good +possessed you as possesses Him; if you were as ready as He to make no +deflexion from the straight path. Is not the very crown of life depicted +in the testimony given to Enoch, that "he pleased God"? Cannot you take +your way through life with a resolute and joyous spirit if you are +conscious that you please Him Who judges not by appearances, not by your +manners, but by your real state, by your actual character and the +eternal promise it bears? Things were not made easy to Enoch. In evil +days, with much to mislead him, with everything to oppose him, he had by +faith and diligent seeking, as the Epistle to the Hebrews says, to +cleave to the path on which God walked, often left in darkness, often +thrown off the track, often listening but unable to hear the footfall of +God or to hear his own name called upon, receiving no sign but still +diligently seeking the God he knew would lead him only to good. Be it +yours to give such diligence. Do not accept it as a thing fixed that you +are to be one of the graceless and ungodly, always feeble, always +vacillating, always without a character, always in doubt about your +state, and whether life might not be some other and better thing to you. + +"Enoch was not, for God took him." Suddenly his place on earth was empty +and men drew their own conclusions. He had been known as the Friend of +God, where could he be but in God's dwelling-place? No sickness had +slowly worn him to the grave, no mark of decay had been visible in his +unabated vigour. His departure was a favour conferred and as such men +recognised it. "God has taken him," they said, and their thoughts +followed upward, and essayed to conceive the finished bliss of the man +whom God has taken away where blessing may be more fully conferred. His +age corresponded to our thirty-three, the age when the world has usually +got fair hold of a man, when a man has found his place in life and means +to live and see good days. The awkward, unfamiliar ways of youth that +keep him outside of much of life are past, and the satiety of age is not +yet reached; a man has begun to learn there is something he can do, and +has not yet learned how little. It is an age at which it is most +painful to relinquish life, but it was at this age God took him away, +and men knew it was in kindness. Others had begun to gather round him, +and depend upon him, hopes were resting in him, great things were +expected of him, life was strong in him. But let life dress itself in +its most attractive guise, let it shine on a man with its most +fascinating smile, let him be happy at home and the pleasing centre of a +pleasing circle of friends, let him be in that bright summer of life +when a man begins to fear he is too prosperous and happy, and yet there +is for man a better thing than all this, a thing so immeasurably and +independently superior to it that all this may be taken away and yet the +man be far more blessed. If God would confer His highest favours, He +must take a man out of all this and bring him closer to Himself. + + + + +V. + +_THE FLOOD._ + +GENESIS v.-ix. + + +The first great event which indelibly impressed itself on the memory of +the primeval world was the Flood. There is every reason to believe that +this catastrophe was co-extensive with the human population of the +world. In every branch of the human family traditions of the event are +found. These traditions need not be recited, though some of them bear a +remarkable likeness to the Biblical story, while others are very +beautiful in their construction, and significant in individual points. +Local floods happening at various times in different countries could not +have given birth to the minute coincidences found in these traditions, +such as the sending out of the birds, and the number of persons saved. +But we have as yet no material for calculating how far human population +had spread from the original centre. It might apparently be argued that +it could not have spread to the sea-coast, or that at any rate no ships +had as yet been built large enough to weather a severe storm; for a +thoroughly nautical population could have had little difficulty in +surviving such a catastrophe as is here described. But all that can be +affirmed is that there is no evidence that the waters extended beyond +the inhabited part of the earth; and from certain details of the +narrative, this part of the earth may be identified as the great plain +of the Euphrates and Tigris. + +Some of the expressions used in the narrative might indeed lead us to +suppose that the writer understood the catastrophe to have extended over +the whole globe; but expressions of similar largeness elsewhere occur in +passages where their meaning must be restricted. Probably the most +convincing evidence of the limited extent of the Flood is furnished by +the animals of Australia. The animals that abound in that island are +different from those found in other parts of the world, but are similar +to the species which are found fossilized in the island itself, and +which therefore must have inhabited these same regions long anterior to +the Flood. If then the Flood extended to Australia and destroyed all +animal life there, what are we compelled to suppose as the order of +events? We must suppose that the creatures, visited by some presentiment +of what was to happen many months after, selected specimens of their +number, and that these specimens by some unknown and quite inconceivable +means crossed thousands of miles of sea, found their way through all +kinds of perils from unaccustomed climate, food, and beasts of prey; +singled out Noah by some inscrutable instinct, and surrendered +themselves to his keeping. And after the year in the ark expired, they +turned their faces homewards, leaving behind them no progeny, again +preserving themselves intact, and transporting themselves by some +unknown means to their island home. This, if the Deluge was universal, +must have been going on with thousands of animals from all parts of the +globe; and not only were these animals a stupendous miracle in +themselves, but wherever they went they were the occasion of miracle in +others, all the beasts of prey refraining from their natural food. The +fact is, the thing will not bear stating. + +But it is not the physical but the moral aspects of the Flood with which +we have here to do. And, first, this narrator explains its cause. He +ascribes it to the abnormal wickedness of the antediluvians. To describe +the demoralised condition of society before the Flood, the strongest +language is used. "God saw that the wickedness of man was great," +monstrous in acts of violence, and in habitual courses and established +usages. "Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil +continually,"--there was no mixture of good, no relentings, no +repentances, no visitings of compunction, no hesitations and debatings. +It was a world of men fierce and energetic, violent and lawless, in +perpetual war and turmoil; in which if a man sought to live a righteous +life, he had to conceive it of his own mind and to follow it out unaided +and without the countenance of any. + +This abnormal wickedness again is accounted for by the abnormal +marriages from which the leaders of these ages sprang. Everything seemed +abnormal, huge, inhuman. As there are laid bare to the eye of the +geologist in those archaic times vast forms bearing a likeness to forms +we are now familiar with, but of gigantic proportions and wallowing in +dim, mist-covered regions; so to the eye of the historian there loom +through the obscurity colossal forms perpetrating deeds of more than +human savagery, and strength, and daring; heroes that seem formed in a +different mould from common men. + +However we interpret the narrative, its significance for us is plain. +There is nothing prudish in the Bible. It speaks with a manly frankness +of the beauty of women and its ensnaring power. The Mosaic law was +stringent against intermarriage with idolatresses, and still in the New +Testament something more than an echo of the old denunciation of such +marriages is heard. Those who were most concerned about preserving a +pure morality and a high tone in society were keenly alive to the +dangers that threatened from this quarter. It is a permanent danger to +character because it is to a permanent element in human nature that the +temptation appeals. To many in every generation, perhaps to the +majority, this is the most dangerous form in which worldliness presents +itself; and to resist this the most painful test of principle. With +natures keenly sensitive to beauty and superficial attractiveness, some +are called upon to make their choice between a conscientious cleaving to +God and an attachment to that which in the form is perfect but at heart +is defective, depraved, godless. Where there is great outward attraction +a man fights against the growing sense of inward uncongeniality, and +persuades himself he is too scrupulous and uncharitable, or that he is a +bad reader of character. There may be an undercurrent of warning; he may +be sensible that his whole nature is not satisfied and it may seem to +him ominous that what is best within him does not flourish in his new +attachment, but rather what is inferior, if not what is worst. But all +such omens and warnings are disregarded and stifled by some such silly +thought as that consideration and calculation are out of place in such +matters. And what is the result? The result is the same as it ever was. +Instead of the ungodly rising to the level of the godly, he sinks to +hers. The worldly style, the amusements, the fashions once distasteful +to him, but allowed for her sake, become familiar, and at last wholly +displace the old and godly ways, the arrangements that left room for +acknowledging God in the family; and there is one household less as a +point of resistance to the incursion of an ungodly tone in society, one +deserter more added to the already too crowded ranks of the ungodly, and +the life-time if not the eternity of one soul embittered. Not without a +consideration of the temptations that do actually lead men astray did +the law enjoin: "Thou shalt not make a covenant with the inhabitants of +the land, nor take of their daughters unto thy sons." + +It seems like a truism to say that a greater amount of unhappiness has +been produced by mismanagement, folly, and wickedness in the relation +subsisting between men and women than by any other cause. God has given +us the capacity of love to regulate this relation and be our safe guide +in all matters connected with it. But frequently, from one cause or +another, the government and direction of this relation are taken out of +the hands of love and put into the thoroughly incompetent hands of +convenience, or fancy, or selfish lust. A marriage contracted from any +such motive is sure to bring unhappiness of a long-continued, wearing +and often heart-breaking kind. Such a marriage is often the form in +which retribution comes for youthful selfishness and youthful +licentiousness. You cannot cheat nature. Just in so far as you allow +yourself to be ruled in youth by a selfish love of pleasure, in so far +do you incapacitate yourself for love. You sacrifice what is genuine and +satisfying, because provided by nature, to what is spurious, +unsatisfying, and shameful. You cannot afterwards, unless by a long and +bitter discipline, restore the capacity of warm and pure love in your +heart. Every indulgence in which true love is absent is another blow +given to the faculty of love within you--you make yourself in that +capacity decrepit, paralyzed, dead. You have lost, you have killed the +faculty that should be your guide in all these matters, and so you are +at last precipitated without this guidance into a marriage formed from +some other motive, formed therefore against nature, and in which you are +the everlasting victim of nature's relentless justice. Remember that you +cannot have both things, a youth of loveless pleasure and a loving +marriage--you must make your choice. For as surely as genuine love kills +all evil desire; so surely does evil desire kill the very capacity of +love, and blind utterly its wretched victim to the qualities that ought +to excite love. + +The language used of God in relation to this universal corruption +strikes every one as remarkable. "It repented the Lord that He had made +man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart." This is what is +usually termed anthropomorphism, _i.e._ the presenting of God in terms +applicable only to man; it is an instance of the same mode of speaking +as is used when we speak of God's hand or eye or heart. These +expressions are not absolutely true, but they are useful and convey to +us a meaning which could scarcely otherwise be expressed. Some persons +think that the use of these expressions proves that in early times God +was thought of as wearing a body and as being very like ourselves in His +inward nature. And even in our day we have been ridiculed for speaking +of God as a magnified man. Now in the first place the use of such +expressions does not prove that even the earliest worshippers of God +believed Him to have eyes and hands and a body. _We_ freely use the same +expressions though we have no such belief. We use them because our +language is formed for human uses and on a human level, and we have no +capacity to frame a better. And in the second place, though not +absolutely true they do help us towards the truth. We are told that it +degrades God to think of Him as hearing prayer and accepting praise; +nay, that to think of Him as a Person at all, is to degrade Him. We +ought to think of Him as the Absolutely Unknowable. But which degrades +God most, and which exalts Him most? If we find that it is impossible to +worship an absolutely unknowable, if we find that practically such an +idea is a mere nonentity to us, and that we cannot in point of fact pay +any homage or show any consideration to such an empty abstraction, is +not this really to lower God? And if we find that when we think of Him +as a Person, and ascribe to Him all human virtue in an infinite degree, +we can rejoice in Him and worship Him with true adoration, is not this +to exalt Him? While we call Him our Father we know that this title is +inadequate, while we speak of God as planning and decreeing we know that +we are merely making shift to express what is inexpressible by us--we +know that our thoughts of Him are never adequate and that to think of +Him at all is to lower Him, is to think of Him inadequately; but when +the practical alternative is such as it is, we find we do well to think +of Him with the highest personal attributes we can conceive. For to +refuse to ascribe such attributes to Him because this is degrading Him, +is to empty our minds of any idea of Him which can stimulate either to +worship or to duty. If by ridding our minds of all anthropomorphic ideas +and refusing to think of God as feeling, thinking, acting as men do, we +could thereby get to a really higher conception of Him, a conception +which would practically make us worship Him more devotedly and serve +Him more faithfully, then by all means let us do so. But if the result +of refusing to think of Him as in many ways like ourselves, is that we +cease to think of Him at all or only as a dead impersonal force, then +this certainly is not to reach a higher but a lower conception of Him. +And until we see our way to some truly higher conception than that which +we have of a Personal God, we had better be content with it. + +In short, we do well to be humble, and considering that we know very +little about existence of any kind, and least of all about God's, and +that our God has been presented to us in human form, we do well to +accept Christ as our God, to worship, love, and serve Him, finding Him +sufficient for all our wants of this life, and leaving it to other times +to get the solution of anything that is not made plain to us in Him. +This is one boon that the science and philosophy of our day have +unintentionally conferred upon us. They have laboured to make us feel +how remote and inaccessible God is, how little we can know Him, how +truly He is past finding out; they have laboured to make us feel how +intangible and invisible and incomprehensible God is, but the result of +this is that we turn with all the stronger longing to Him who is the +Image of the Invisible God, and on whom a voice has fallen from the +excellent glory, "This is My beloved Son, hear Him." + +The Flood itself we need not attempt to describe. It has been remarked +that though the narrative is vivid and forcible, it is entirely wanting +in that sort of description which in a modern historian or poet would +have occupied the largest space. "We see nothing of the death-struggle; +we hear not the cry of despair; we are not called upon to witness the +frantic agony of husband and wife, and parent and child, as they fled in +terror before the rising waters. Nor is a word said of the sadness of +the one righteous man, who, safe himself, looked upon the destruction +which he could not avert." The Chaldean tradition which is the most +closely allied to the Biblical account is not so reticent. Tears are +shed in heaven over the catastrophe, and even consternation affected its +inhabitants, while within the ark itself the Chaldean Noah says, "When +the storm came to an end and the terrible water-spout ceased, I opened +the window and the light smote upon my face. I looked at the sea +attentively observing, and the whole of humanity had returned to mud, +like seaweed the corpses floated. I was seized with sadness; I sat down +and wept and my tears fell upon my face." + +There can be little question that this is a true description of Noah's +feeling. And the sense of desolation and constraint would rather +increase in Noah's mind than diminish. Month after month elapsed; he was +coming daily nearer the end of his food, and yet the waters were +unabated. He did not know how long he was to be kept in this dark, +disagreeable place. He was left to do his daily work without any +supernatural signs to help him against his natural anxieties. The +floating of the ark and all that went on in it had no mark of God's hand +upon it. He was indeed _safe_ while others had been destroyed. But of +what good was this safety to be? Was he ever to get out of this +prison-house? To what straits was he to be first reduced? So it is often +with ourselves. We are left to fulfil God's will without any sensible +tokens to set over against natural difficulties, painful and pinching +circumstances, ill health, low spirits, failure of favourite projects +and old hopes--so that at last we come to think that perhaps safety is +all we are to have in Christ, a mere exemption from suffering of one +kind purchased by the endurance of much suffering of another kind; that +we are to be thankful for pardon on any terms; and escaping with our +_life_, must be content though it be bare. Why, how often does a +Christian wonder whether, after all, he has chosen a life that he can +endure, whether the monotony and the restraints of the Christian life +are not inconsistent with true enjoyment? + +This strife between the felt restriction of the Christian life and the +natural craving for abundant life, for entrance into all that the +world can show us, and experience of all forms of enjoyment--this +strife goes on unceasingly in the heart of many of us as it goes on +from age to age in the world. Which is the true view of life, which is +the view to guide _us_ in choosing and refusing the enjoyments and +pursuits that are presented to us? Are we to believe that the ideal +man for this life is he who has tasted all culture and delight, who +believes in nature, recognising no fall and seeking for no redemption, +and makes enjoyment his end; or he who sees that all enjoyment is +deceptive till man is set right morally, and who spends himself on +this, knowing that blood and misery must come before peace and rest, +and crowned as our King and Leader, not with a garland of roses, but +with the crown of Him Who is greatest of all, because servant of +all--to Whom the most sunken is not repulsive, and Who will not +abandon the most hopeless? This comes to be very much the question, +whether this life is final or preparatory?--whether, therefore, our +work in it should be to check lower propensities and develop and train +all that is best in character, so as to be fit for highest life and +enjoyment in a world to come--or should take ourselves as we find +ourselves, and delight in this present world? whether this is a placid +eternal state, in which things are very much as they should be, and in +which therefore we can live freely and enjoy freely; or whether it is +a disordered, initial condition in which our main task should be to do +a little towards putting things on a better rail and getting at least +the germ and small beginnings of future good planted in one another? +So that in the midst of all felt restriction, there is the highest +hope, that one day we shall go forth from the narrow precincts of our +ark, and step out into the free bright sunshine, in a world where +there is nothing to offend, and that the time of our deprivation will +seem to have been well spent indeed, if it has left within us a +capacity permanently to enjoy love, holiness, justice, and all that is +delighted in by God Himself. + +The use made of this event in the New Testament is remarkable. It is +compared by Peter to baptism, and both are viewed as illustrations of +salvation by destruction. The eight souls, he says, who were in the ark, +"were saved by water." The water which destroyed the rest saved them. +When there seemed little hope of the godly line being able to withstand +the influence of the ungodly, the Flood came and left Noah's family in a +new world, with freedom to order all things according to their own +ideas. In this Peter sees some analogy to baptism. In baptism, the +penitent who believes in the efficacy of Christ's blood to purge away +sin, lets his defilement be washed away and rises new and clean to the +life Christ gives. In Christ the sinner finds shelter for himself and +destruction for his sins. It is God's wrath against sin that saves us by +destroying our sins; just as it was the Flood which devastated the +world, that at the same time, and thereby, saved Noah and his family. + +In this event, too, we see the completeness of God's work. Often we feel +reluctant to surrender our sinful habits to so final a destruction as is +implied in being one with Christ. The expense at which holiness is to be +bought seems almost too great. So much that has given us pleasure must +be parted with; so many old ties sundered, a condition of holiness +presents an aspect of dreariness and hopelessness; like the world after +the flood, not a moving thing on the surface of the earth, everything +levelled, prostrate, and washed even with the ground; here the corpse of +a man, there the carcase of a beast; here mighty forest timber swept +prone like the rushes on the banks of a flooded stream, and there a city +without inhabitants, everything dank, dismal and repellent. But this is +only one aspect of the work; the beginning, necessary if the work is to +be thorough. If any part of the sinful life remain it will spring up to +mar what God means to introduce us to. Only that is to be preserved +which we can take with us into our ark. Only that is to pass on into our +life which we can retain while we are in true connection with Christ, +and which we think can help us to live as His friends, and to serve Him +zealously. + +This event then gives us some measure by which we can know how much God +will do to maintain holiness upon earth. In this catastrophe every one +who strives after godliness may find encouragement, seeing in it the +Divine earnestness of God for good and against evil. There is only one +other event in history that so conspicuously shows that holiness among +men is the object for which God will sacrifice everything else. There is +no need now of any further demonstration of God's purpose in this world +and His zeal for carrying it out. And may it not be expected of us His +children, that we stand in presence of the cross until our cold and +frivolous hearts catch something of the earnestness, the "resisting unto +blood striving against sin," which is exhibited there? The Flood has not +been forgotten by almost any people under heaven, but its moral result +is _nil_. But he whose memory is haunted by a dying Redeemer, by the +thought of One Whose love found its most appropriate and practical +result in dying for him, _is_ prevented from much sin, and finds in that +love the spring of eternal hope, that which his soul in the deep privacy +of his most sacred thoughts can feed upon with joy, that which he builds +himself round and broods over as his inalienable possession. + + + + +VI. + +_NOAH'S FALL._ + +GENESIS ix. 20-27. + + +Noah in the ark was in a position of present safety but of much anxiety. +No sign of any special protection on God's part was given. The waters +seem to stand at their highest level still; and probably the risk of the +ark's grounding on some impracticable peak, or precipitous hill-side, +would seem as great a danger as the water itself. Five months had +elapsed, and though the rain had ceased the sky was heavy and +threatening, and every day now was worth many measures of corn in the +coming harvest. A reflection of the anxiety within the ark is seen in +the expression, "And God remembered Noah." It was needful to say so, for +there was as yet no outward sign of this. + +To such anxieties all are subject who have availed themselves of the +salvation God provides. At the first there is an easy faith in God's +aid; there are many signs of His presence; the subjects in whom +salvation operates have no disposition or temptation to doubt that God +is with them and is working for them. But this initial stage is +succeeded by a very different state of things. We seem to be left to +ourselves to cope with the world and all its difficulties and +temptations in our own strength. Much as we crave some sign that God +remembers us, no sign is given. We no longer receive the same urgent +impulses to holiness of life; we have no longer the same freshness in +devotion as if speaking to a God at hand. There is nothing which of +itself and without reasoning about it says to us, Here is God's hand +upon me. + +In fact, the great part of our life has to be spent under these +conditions, and we need to hold some well-ascertained principle +regarding God's dealings, if our faith is to survive. And here in God's +treatment of Noah we see that God may as certainly be working for us +when not working directly upon us, as when His presence is palpable. His +absence from us is as needful as His presence. The clouds are as +requisite for our salvation as the sunny sky. When therefore we find +that salvation from sin is a much slower and more anxious matter than we +once expected it to be, we are not to suppose that God is not hearing +our prayers. When Noah day by day cried to God for relief, and yet night +after night found himself "cribb'd, cabin'd, and confined," with no sign +from God but such as faith could apprehend, depend upon it he had very +different feelings from those with which he first stepped into the ark. +And when we are left to one monotonous rut of duty and to an unchanging +and dry form of devotion, when we are called to learn to live by faith +not by sight, to learn that God's purposes with us are spiritual, and +that slow and difficult growth in self-command and holiness is the best +proof that He hears our prayers, we must strive to believe that this +also is a needful part of our salvation; and we must especially be on +our guard against supposing that as God has ceased to disclose Himself +to us, and so to make faith easy, we may cease to disclose ourselves to +Him. + +For this is the natural and very frequent result of such an experience. +Discouraged by the obscurity of God's ways and the difficulty of +believing when the mind is not sustained by success or by new thoughts +or manifest tokens of God's presence, we naturally cease to look for any +clear signs of God's concernment about our state, and rest from all +anxious craving to know God's will about us. To this temptation the +majority of Christian people yield, and allow themselves to become +indifferent to spiritual truth and increasingly interested in the +non-mysterious facts of the present world, attending to present duties +in a mechanical way, seeing that their families have enough to eat and +that all in their little ark are provided for. But to this temptation +Noah did not yield. Though to all appearance abandoned by God, he did +what he could to ascertain what was beyond his immediate sight and +present experience. He sent out his raven and his dove. Not satisfied +with his first enquiry by the raven, which could flit from one piece of +floating garbage to another, he sent out the dove, and continued to do +so at intervals of seven days. + +Noah sent out the raven first, probably because it had been the most +companionable bird and seemed the wisest, preferable to "the silly +dove;" but it never came back with God's message. And so has one often +found that an enquiry into God's will, the examination, for example, of +some portion of Scripture, undertaken with a prospect of success and +with good human helps, has failed, and has failed in this peculiar +ravenlike way; the enquiry has settled down on some worthless point, on +some rotting carcase, on some subject of passing interest or worldly +learning, and brings back no message of God to us. On the other hand, +the continued use, Sabbath after Sabbath, of God's appointed means, and +the patient waiting for some message of God to come to us through what +seems a most unlikely messenger, will often be rewarded. It may be but a +single leaf plucked off that we get, but enough to convince us that God +has been mindful of our need, and is preparing for us a habitable world. + +Many a man is like the raven, feeding himself on the destruction of +others, satisfied with knowing how God has dealt with others. He thinks +he has done his part when he has found out who has been sinning and what +has been the result. But the dove will not settle on any such +resting-place, and is dissatisfied until for herself she can pluck off +some token that God's anger is turned away and that now there is peace +on earth. And if only you wait God's time and renew your endeavours to +find such tokens, some assurance will be given you, some green and +growing thing, some living part, however small, of the new creation +which will certify you of your hope. + +On the first day of the first month, New Year's day, Noah removed the +covering of the ark, which seems to have stranded on the Armenian +tableland, and looked out upon the new world. He cannot but have felt +his responsibility, as a kind of second Adam. And many questionings must +have arisen in his mind regarding the relation of the new to the old. +Was there to be any connection with the old world at all, or was all to +begin afresh? Were the promises, the traditions, the events, the +genealogies of the old world of any significance now? The Flood +distinctly marked the going out of one order of things and the +establishment of another. Man's career and development, or what we call +history, had not before the Flood attained its goal. If this development +was not to be broken short off, and if God's purpose in creation was to +be fulfilled, then the world must still go on. Some worlds may perhaps +die young, as individuals die young. Others endure through hair-breadth +escapes and constant dangers, find their way like our planet through +showers of fire, and pass without collision the orbits of huge bodies, +carrying with them always, as our world does, the materials of their +destruction within themselves. But catastrophes do not cut short, but +evolve God's purposes. The Flood came that God's purpose might be +fulfilled. The course of nature was interrupted, the arrangements of +social and domestic life were overturned, all the works of men were +swept away that this purpose might be fulfilled. It was expedient that +one generation should die for all generations; and this generation +having been taken out of the way, fresh provision is made for the +co-operation of man with God. On man's part there is an emphatic +acknowledgment of God by sacrifice; on God's part there is a renewed +grant to man of the world and its fulness, a renewed assurance of His +favour. + +This covenant with Noah was on the plane of nature. It is man's natural +life in the world which is the subject of it. The sacredness of life is +its great lesson. Men might well wonder whether God did not hold life +cheap. In the old world violence had prevailed. But while Lamech's sword +may have slain its thousands, God had in the Flood slain tens of +thousands. The covenant, therefore, directs that human life must be +reverenced. The primal blessing is renewed. Men are to multiply and +replenish the earth; and the slaughter of a man was to be reckoned a +capital crime; and the maintenance of life was guaranteed by a special +clause, securing the regularity of the seasons. If, then, you ask, Was +this just a beginning again where Adam began? Did God just wipe out man +as a boy wipes his slate clean, when he finds his calculation is turning +out wrong? Had all these generations learned nothing; had the world not +grown at all since its birth?--the answer is, it had grown, and in two +most important respects,--it had come to the knowledge of the uniformity +of nature, and the necessity of human law. This great departure from the +uniformity of nature brought into strong relief its normal uniformity, +and gave men their first lesson in the recognition of a God who governs +by fixed laws. And they learned also from the Flood that wickedness must +not be allowed to grow unchecked and attain dimensions which nothing +short of a flood can cope with. + +Fit symbol of this covenant was the rainbow. Seeming to unite heaven and +earth, it pictured to those primitive people the friendliness existing +between God and man. Many nations have looked upon it as not merely one +of the most beautiful and striking objects in nature, but as the +messenger of heaven to men. And arching over the whole horizon, it +exhibits the all-embracing universality of the promise. They accepted it +as a sign that God has no pleasure in destruction, that He does not give +way to moods, that He does not always chide, that if weeping may endure +for a night joy is sure to follow. If any one is under a cloud, leading +a joyless, hopeless, heartless life, if any one has much apparent reason +to suppose that God has given him up to catastrophe, and lets things +run as they may, there is some satisfaction in reading this natural +emblem and recognising that without the cloud, nay, without the cloud +breaking into heavy sweeping rains, there cannot be the bow, and that no +cloud of God's sending is permanent, but will one day give place to +unclouded joy. Let the prayer of David be yours, "I know, O Lord, that +Thy judgments are right, and that Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted +me. Let, I pray Thee, Thy merciful kindness be for my comfort according +to Thy word unto Thy servant." + +It may be felt that the matters about which God spoke to Noah were +barely religious, certainly not spiritual. But to take God as our God in +any one particular is to take Him as our God for all. If we can eat our +daily bread as given to us by our Father in heaven, then we are heirs of +the righteousness which is by faith. It is because we wait for some +wonderful and out-of-the-way proofs that God is keeping faith with us +that we so much lack a real and living faith. If you think of God only +in connection with some spiritual difficulty, or if you are waiting for +some critical spiritual experience about which you may deal with +God,--if you are not transacting with Him about your daily work, about +your temporal wants and difficulties, about your friendships and your +tastes, about that which makes up the bulk of your thought, feeling, and +action, then you have yet to learn what living with God means. You have +yet to learn that God the Infinite Creator of all is present in all your +life. We are not in advance of Noah, but behind him, if we cannot speak +to God about common things. + +Besides, the relation of man to God was sufficiently determined by this +covenant. When any man in that age began to ask himself the question +which all men in all ages ask, How shall I win the favour of God? it +must, or it might, at once have struck him, Why, God has already +favoured me and has bound Himself to me by express and solemn pledges. +And radically this is all that any one needs to know. It is not a change +in God's attitude towards you that is required. What is required is that +you believe what is actually the case, that the Holy God loves you +already and is already seeking to bless you by making you like Himself. +Believe that, and let the faith of it sink more and more deeply into +your spirit, and you will find that you are saved from your sin. + +What remains to be told of Noah is full of moral significance. Rare +indeed is a _wholly_ good man; and happy indeed is he who throughout his +youth, his manhood, and his age lets principle govern all his actions. +The righteous and rescued Noah lying drunk on his tent-floor is a +sorrowful spectacle. God had given him the earth, and this was the use +he made of the gift; melancholy presage of the fashion of his posterity. +He had God to help him to bear his responsibilities, to refresh and +gladden him; but he preferred the fruit of his vineyard. Can the most +sacred or impressive memories secure a man against sin? Noah had the +memory of a race drowned for sin and of a year in solitude with God. Can +the dignity and weight of responsibility steady a man? This man knew +that to him God had declared His purpose and that he only could carry it +forward to fulfilment. In that heavy helpless figure, fallen insensible +in his tent, is as significant a warning as in the Flood. + +Noah's sin brings before us two facts about sin. First, that the +smaller temptations are often the most effectual. The man who is +invulnerable on the field of battle amidst declared and strong enemies +falls an easy prey to the assassin in his own home. When all the world +was against him, Noah was able to face single-handed both scorn and +violence, but in the midst of his vineyard, among his own people who +understood him and needed no preaching or proof of his virtue, he +relaxed. + +He was no longer in circumstances so difficult as to force him to watch +and pray, as to drive him to God's side. The temptations Noah had before +known were mainly from without; he now learnt that those from within are +more serious. Many of us find it comparatively easy to carry clean hands +before the public, or to demean ourselves with tolerable seemliness in +circumstances where the temptation may be very strong but is also very +patent; but how careless are we often in our domestic life, and how +little strain do we put upon ourselves in the company of those whom we +can trust. What petulance and irritability, what angry and slanderous +words, what sensuality and indolence could our own homes witness to! +Noah is not the only man who has walked uprightly and kept his garment +unspotted from the world so long as the eye of man was on him, but who +has lain uncovered on his own tent-floor. + +Secondly, we see here how a man may fall into new forms of sin, and are +reminded especially of one of the most distressing facts to be observed +in the world, viz., that men in their prime and even in their old age +are sometimes overtaken in sins of sensuality from which hitherto they +have kept themselves pure. We are very ready to think we know the full +extent of wickedness to which we may go; that by certain sins _we_ +shall never be much tempted. And in some of our predictions we may be +correct; our temperament or our circumstances may absolutely preclude +some sins from mastering us. Yet who has made but a slight alteration in +his circumstances, added a little to his business, made some new family +arrangements, or changed his residence, without being astonished to find +how many new sources of evil seem to have been opened within him? While +therefore you rejoice over sins defeated, beware of thinking your work +is nearly done. Especially let those of us who have for years been +fighting mainly against one sin beware of thinking that if only _that_ +were defeated we should be free from sin. As a man who has long suffered +from one bodily disease congratulates himself that at least he knows +what he may expect in the way of pain, and will not suffer as some other +man he has heard of does suffer; whereas though one disease may kill +others, yet some diseases only prepare the body for the assault of worse +ailments than themselves, and the constitution at last breaks up under a +combination of ills that make the sufferer a pity to his friends and a +perplexity to his physicians. And so is it in the spirit; you cannot say +that because you are so consumed by one infirmity, others can find no +room in you. In short, there is nothing that can secure us against the +unspeakable calamity of falling into new sins, except the direction +given by our Lord, "Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation." +There _is need_ of watching, else this precept had never been uttered; +too many things absolutely needful for us to do have to be enjoined upon +us to leave any room for the injunction of precepts that are +unnecessary, and he who is not watching has no security that he shall +not sin so as to be a scandal to his friends and a shame to himself. + +Noah's sin brought to light the character of his three sons--the coarse +irreverence of Ham, the dignified delicacy and honour of Shem and +Japheth. The bearing of men towards the sins of others is always a +touchstone of character. The full exposure of sin where good is expected +to come of the exposure and when it is done with sorrow and with shame +is one thing, and the exposure of sin to create a laugh and merely to +amuse is another. They are the true descendants of Ham, whether their +faces be black or white, and whether they go with no clothes or with +clothes that are the product of much thought and anxiety, who find +pleasure in the mere contemplation of deeds of shame, in real life, on +the boards of the theatre, in daily journals, or in works of fiction. +Extremes meet, and the savage grossness of Ham is found in many who +count themselves the last and finest product of culture. It is found +also in the harder and narrower set of modern investigators, who glory +in exposing the scientific weakness of our forefathers, and make a jest +of the mistakes of men to whom they owe much of their freedom, and whose +shoe latchet they are not worthy to tie, so far as the deeper moral +qualities go. + +But neither is religious society free from this same sin. The faults and +mistakes and sins of others are talked over, possibly with some show of +regret, but with, as we know, very little real shame and sadness, for +these feelings prompt us, not to talk them over in companies where no +good can be done in the way of remedy, but to cover them as these +sorrowing sons of Noah, with averted eye and humbled head. Charity is +the prime grace enjoined upon us and charity _covers_ a multitude of +sins. And whatever excuses for exposing others we may make, however we +may say it is only a love of truth and fair play that makes us drag to +light the infirmities of a man whom others are praising, we may be very +sure that if all _evil_ motives were absent this kind of evil speaking +would cease among us. But there is a malignity in sin that leaves its +bitter root in us all, and causes us to be glad when those whom we have +been regarding as our superiors are reduced to our poor level. And there +is a cowardliness in sin which cannot bear to be alone, and eagerly +hails every symptom of others being in the same condemnation. + +Before exposing another, think first whether your own conduct could bear +a similar treatment, whether you have never done the thing you desire to +conceal, said the thing you would blush to hear repeated, or thought the +thought you could not bear another to read. And if you be a Christian, +does it not become you to remember what you yourself have learnt of the +slipperiness of this world's ways, of your liability to fall, of your +sudden exposure to sin from some physical disorder, or some slight +mistake which greatly extenuates your sin, but which you could not plead +before another? And do you know nothing of the difficulty of conquering +one sin that is rooted in your constitution, and the strife that goes on +in a man's own soul and in secret though he show little immediate fruit +of it in his life before men? Surely it becomes us to give a man credit +for much good resolution and much sore self-denial and endeavour, even +when he fails and sins still, because such we know to be our own case, +and if we disbelieve in others until they can walk with perfect +rectitude, if we condemn them for one or two flaws and blemishes, we +shall be tempted to show the same want of charity towards ourselves, and +fall at length into that miserable and hopeless condition that believes +in no regenerating spirit nor in any holiness attainable by us. + + + + +VII. + +_THE CALL OF ABRAHAM._ + +GENESIS xi. 27-xii. 5. + + +With Abraham there opens a new chapter in the history of the race; a +chapter of the profoundest significance. The consequences of Abraham's +movements and beliefs have been limitless and enduring. All succeeding +time has been influenced by him. And yet there is in his life a +remarkable simplicity, and an entire absence of such events as impress +contemporaries. Among all the forgotten millions of his own time he +stands alone a recognisable and memorable figure. But around his figure +there gathers no throng of armed followers; with his name, no vast +territorial dominion, no new legislation, not even any work of +literature or art is associated. The significance of his life was not +military, nor legislative, nor literary, but religious. To him must be +carried back the belief in one God. We find him born and brought up +among idolaters; and although it is certain there were others besides +himself who here and there upon earth had dimly arrived at the same +belief as he, yet it is certainly from him the Monotheistic belief has +been diffused. Since his day the world has never been without its +explicit advocacy. It is his belief in the true God, in a God who +manifested His existence and His nature by responding to this belief, +it is this belief and the place he gave it as the regulating principle +of all his movements and thoughts, that have given him his everlasting +influence. + +With Abraham there is also introduced the first step in a new method +adopted by God in the training of men. The dispersion of men and the +divergence of their languages are now seen to have been the necessary +preliminary to this new step in the education of the world--the fencing +round of one people till they should learn to know God and understand +and exemplify His government. It is true, God reveals Himself to all men +and governs all; but by selecting one race with special adaptations, and +by giving to it a special training, God might more securely and more +rapidly reveal Himself to all. Each nation has certain characteristics, +a national character which grows by seclusion from the influences which +are forming other races. There is a certain mental and moral +individuality stamped upon every separate people. Nothing is more +certainly retained; nothing more certainly handed down from generation +to generation. It would therefore be a good practical means of +conserving and deepening the knowledge of God, if it were made the +national interest of a people to preserve it, and if it were closely +identified with the national characteristics. This was the method +adopted by God. He meant to combine allegiance to Himself with national +advantages, and spiritual with national character, and separation in +belief with a distinctly outlined and defensible territory. + +This method, in common with all Divine methods, was in strict keeping +with the natural evolution of history. The migration of Abraham occurred +in the epoch of migrations. But although for centuries before Abraham +new nations had been forming, none of them had belief in God as its +formative principle. Wave upon wave of warriors, shepherds, colonists +have left the prolific plains of Mesopotamia. Swarm after swarm has left +that busy hive, pushing one another further and further west and east, +but all have been urged by natural impulses, by hunger, commerce, love +of adventure and conquest. By natural likings and dislikings, by policy, +and by dint of force the multitudinous tribes of men were finding their +places in the world, the weaker being driven to the hills, and being +schooled there by hard living till their descendants came down and +conquered their conquerors. All this went on without regard to any very +high motives. As it was with the Goths who invaded Italy for her wealth, +as it is now with those who people America and Africa because there is +land or room enough, so it was then. But at last God selects one man and +says, "_I_ will make of thee a great nation." The origin of this nation +is not facile love of change nor lust of territory, but belief in God. +Without this belief this people had not been. No other account can be +given of its origin. Abraham is himself already the member of a tribe, +well-off and likely to be well-off; he has no large family to provide +for, but he is separated from his kindred and country, and led out to be +himself a new beginning, and this because, as he himself throughout his +life said, he heard God's call and responded to it. + +The city which claims the distinction of being Abraham's birthplace, or +at least of giving its name to the district where he was born, is now +represented by a few mounds of ruins rising out of the flat marshy +ground on the western bank of the Euphrates, not far above the point +where it joins its waters to those of the Tigris and glides on to the +Persian gulf. In the time of Abraham, Ur was the capital city which gave +its name to one of the most populous and fertile regions of the earth. +The whole land of Accad which ran up from the sea-coast to Upper +Mesopotamia (or Shinar) seems to have been known as Ur-ma, the land of +Ur. This land was of no great extent, being little if at all larger than +Scotland, but it was the richest of Asia. The high civilisation which +this land enjoyed even in the time of Abraham has been disclosed in the +abundant and multifarious Babylonian remains which have recently been +brought to light. + +What induced Terah to abandon so prosperous a land can only be +conjectured. It is possible that the idolatrous customs of the +inhabitants may have had something to do with his movements. For while +the ancient Babylonian records reveal a civilisation surprisingly +advanced, and a social order in some respects admirable, they also make +disclosures regarding the worship of the gods which must shock even +those who are familiar with the immoralities frequently fostered by +heathen religions. The city of Ur was not only the capital, it was the +holy city of the Chaldeans. In its northern quarter rose high above the +surrounding buildings the successive stages of the temple of the +moon-god, culminating in a platform on which the priests could both +accurately observe the motions of the stars and hold their night-watches +in honour of their god. In the courts of this temple might be heard +breaking the silence of midnight, one of those magnificent hymns, still +preserved, in which idolatry is seen in its most attractive dress, and +in which the Lord of Ur is invoked in terms not unworthy of the living +God. But in these same temple-courts Abraham may have seen the +firstborn led to the altar, the fruit of the body sacrificed to atone +for the sin of the soul; and here too he must have seen other sights +even more shocking and repulsive. Here he was no doubt taught that +strangely mixed religion which clung for generations to some members of +his family. Certainly he was taught in common with the whole community +to rest on the seventh day; as he was trained to look to the stars with +reverence and to the moon as something more than the light which was set +to rule the night. + +Possibly then Terah may have been induced to move northwards by a desire +to shake himself free from customs he disapproved. The Hebrews +themselves seem always to have considered that his migration had a +religious motive. "This people," says one of their old writings, "is +descended from the Chaldeans, and they sojourned heretofore in +Mesopotamia because they would not follow the gods of their fathers +which were in the land of Chaldea. For they left the way of their +ancestors and worshipped the God of heaven, the God whom they knew; so +they cast them out from the face of their gods, and they fled into +Mesopotamia and sojourned there many days. Then their God commanded them +to depart from the place where they sojourned and to go into the land of +Canaan." But if this is a true account of the origin of the movement +northwards, it must have been Abraham rather than his father who was the +moving spirit of it; for it is certainly Abraham and not Terah who +stands as the significant figure inaugurating the new era. + +If doubt rests on the moving cause of the migration from Ur, none rests +on that which prompted Abraham to leave Charran and journey towards +Canaan. He did so in obedience to what he believed to be a Divine +command, and in faith on what he understood to be a Divine promise. How +he became aware that a Divine command thus lay upon him we do not know. +Nothing could persuade him that he was not commanded. Day by day he +heard in his soul what he recognised as a Divine voice, saying: "Get +thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's +house, unto a land that I will show thee!" This was God's first +revelation of Himself to Abraham. Up to this time Abraham to all +appearance had no knowledge of any God but the deities worshipped by his +fathers in Chaldea. Now, he finds within himself impulses which he +cannot resist and which he is conscious he ought not to resist. He +believes it to be his duty to adopt a course which may look foolish and +which he can justify only by saying that his conscience bids him. He +recognises, apparently for the first time, that through his conscience +there speaks to him a God Who is supreme. In dependence on this God he +gathered his possessions together and departed. + +So far, one may be tempted to say, no very unusual faith was required. +Many a poor girl has followed a weakly brother or a dissipated father to +Australia or the wild west of America; many a lad has gone to the deadly +west coast of Africa with no such prospects as Abraham. For Abraham had +the double prospect which makes migration desirable. Assure the colonist +that he will find land and have strong sons to till and hold and leave +it to, and you give him all the motive he requires. These were the +promises made to Abraham--a land and a seed. Neither was there at this +period much difficulty in believing that both promises would be +fulfilled. The land he no doubt expected to find in some unoccupied +territory. And as regards the children, he had not yet faced the +condition that only through Sarah was this part of the promise to be +fulfilled. + +But the peculiarity in Abraham's abandonment of present certainties for +the sake of a future and unseen good is, that it was prompted not by +family affection or greed or an adventurous disposition, but by faith in +a God Whom no one but himself recognised. It was the first step in a +life-long adherence to an Invisible, Spiritual Supreme. It was that +first step which committed him to life-long dependence upon and +intercourse with One Who had authority to regulate his movements and +power to bless him. From this time forth all that he sought in life was +the fulfilment of God's promise. He staked his future upon God's +existence and faithfulness. Had Abraham abandoned Charran at the command +of a widely ruling monarch who promised him ample compensation, no +record would have been made of so ordinary a transaction. But this was +an entirely new thing and well worth recording, that a man should leave +country and kindred and seek an unknown land under the impression that +thus he was obeying the command of the unseen God. While others +worshipped sun, moon, and stars, and recognised the Divine in their +brilliance and power, in their exaltation above earth and control of +earth and its life, Abraham saw that there was something greater than +the order of nature and more worthy of worship, even the still small +voice that spoke within his own conscience of right and wrong in human +conduct, and that told him how his own life must be ordered. While all +around him were bowing down to the heavenly host and sacrificing to them +the highest things in human nature, he heard a voice falling from these +shining ministers of God's will, which said to him, "See thou do it not, +for we are thy fellow-servants; worship thou God!" This was the triumph +of the spiritual over the material; the acknowledgment that in God there +is something greater than can be found in nature; that man finds his +true affinity not in the things that are seen but in the unseen Spirit +that is over all. It is this that gives to the figure of Abraham its +simple grandeur and its permanent significance. + +Under the simple statement "The Lord said unto Abram, Get thee out of +thy country," there are probably hidden years of questioning and +meditation. God's revelation of Himself to Abram in all probability did +not take the determinate form of articulate command without having +passed through many preliminary stages of surmise and doubt and mental +conflict. But once assured that God is calling him, Abraham responds +quickly and resolutely. The revelation has come to a mind in which it +will not be lost. As one of the few theologians who have paid attention +to the method of revelation has said: "A Divine revelation does not +dispense with a certain character and certain qualities of mind in the +person who is the instrument of it. A man who throws off the chains of +authority and association must be a man of extraordinary independence +and strength of mind, although he does so in obedience to a Divine +revelation; because no miracle, no sign or wonder which accompanies a +revelation can by its simple stroke force human nature from the innate +hold of custom and the adhesion to and fear of established opinion; can +enable it to confront the frowns of men, and take up truth opposed to +general prejudice, except there is in the man himself, who is the +recipient of the revelation, a certain strength of mind and +independence which concurs with the Divine intention." + +That Abraham's faith triumphed over exceptional difficulties and enabled +him to do what no other motive would have been strong enough to +accomplish, there is therefore no call to assert. During his after-life +his faith was severely tried, but the mere abandonment of his country in +the hope of gaining a better was the ordinary motive of his day. It was +the _ground_ of this hope, the belief in God, which made Abraham's +conduct original and fruitful. That sufficient inducement was presented +to him is only to say that God is reasonable. There is always sufficient +inducement to obey God; because life is reasonable. No man was ever +commanded or required to do anything which it was not for his advantage +to do. Sin is a mistake. But so weak are we, so liable to be moved by +the things present to us and by the desire for immediate gratification, +that it never ceases to be wonderful and admirable when a sense of duty +enables a man to forego present advantage and to believe that present +loss is the needful preliminary of eternal gain. + +Abraham's faith is chosen by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews as +an apt illustration of his definition of Faith, that it is "the +substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." One +property of faith is that it gives to things future and which are as yet +only hoped for all the reality of actual present existence. Future +things may be said to have no existence for those who do not believe in +them. They are not taken into account. Men do not shape their conduct +with any reference to them. But when a man believes in certain events +that are to be, this faith of his lends to these future things the +reality, the "substance" which things actually existing in the present +have. They have the same weight with him, the same influence upon his +conduct. + +Without some power to realize the future and to take account of what is +to be as well as of what already is, we could not carry on the common +affairs of life. And success in life very greatly depends on foresight, +or the power to see clearly what is to be and give it due weight. The +man who has no foresight makes his plans, but being unable to apprehend +the future his plans are disconcerted. Indeed it is one of the most +valuable gifts a man can have, to be able to say with tolerable accuracy +what is to happen and what is not; to be able to sift rumours, common +talk, popular impressions, probabilities, chances, and to be able to +feel sure what the future will really be; to be able to weigh the +character and commercial prospects of the men he deals with, so as to +see what must be the issue of their operations and whom he may trust. +Many of our most serious mistakes in life arise from our inability to +imagine the consequences of our actions and to forefeel how these +consequences will affect us. + +Now faith largely supplies the want of this imaginative foresight. It +lends substance to things future. It believes the account given of the +future by a trustworthy authority. In many ordinary matters all men are +dependent on the testimony of others for their knowledge of the result +of certain operations. The astronomer, the physiologist, the navigator, +each has his department within which his predictions are accepted as +authoritative. But for what is beyond the ken of science no faith in our +fellow-men avails. Feeling that if there is a life beyond the grave, it +must have important bearings on the present, we have yet no data by +which to calculate what will then be, or only data so difficult to use +that our calculations are but guesswork. But faith accepts the testimony +of God as unhesitatingly as that of man and gives reality to the future +He describes and promises. It believes that the life God calls us to is +a better life, and it enters upon it. It believes that there is a world +to come in which all things are new and all things eternal; and, so +believing, it cannot but feel less anxious to cling to this world's +goods. That which embitters all loss and deepens sorrow is the feeling +that this world is all; but faith makes eternity as real as time and +gives substantial existence to that new and limitless future in which we +shall have time to forget the sorrows and live past the losses of this +present world. + +The radical elements of greatness are identical from age to age, and the +primal duties which no good man can evade do not vary as the world grows +older. What we admire in Abraham we feel to be incumbent on ourselves. +Indeed the uniform call of Christ to all His followers is even in form +almost identical with that which stirred Abraham, and made him the +father of the faithful. "Follow Me," says our Lord, "and every one that +forsaketh houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or +wife, or children, or lands, for My name's sake, shall receive an +hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life." And there is something +perennially edifying in the spectacle of a man who believes that God has +a place and a use for him in the world, and who puts himself at God's +disposal; who enters upon life refusing to be bound by the circumstances +of his upbringing, by the expectations of his friends, by prevailing +customs, by prospect of gain and advancement among men; and resolved to +listen to the highest voice of all, to discover what God has for him to +do upon earth and where he is likely to find most of God; who virtually +and with deepest sincerity says, Let God choose my destination: I have +good land here, but if God wishes me elsewhere, elsewhere I go: who, in +one word, believes in the call of God to himself, who admits it into the +springs of his conduct, and recognises that for him also the highest +life his conscience can suggest is the only life he can live, no matter +how cumbrous and troublesome and expensive be the changes involved in +entering it. Let the spectacle take hold of your imagination--the +spectacle of a man believing that there is something more akin to +himself and higher than the material life and the great laws that govern +it, and going calmly and hopefully forward into the unknown, because he +knows that God is with him, that in God is our true life, that man +liveth not by bread only, but by every word that cometh out of the mouth +of God. + +Even thus then may we bring our faith to a true and reliable test. All +men who have a confident expectation of future good make sacrifices or +run risks to obtain it. Mercantile life proceeds on the understanding +that such ventures are reasonable and will always be made. Men might if +they liked spend their money on present pleasure, but they rarely do so. +They prefer to put it into concerns or transactions from which they +expect to reap large returns. They have faith and as a necessary +consequence they make ventures. So did these Hebrews--they ran a great +risk, they gave up the sole means of livelihood they had any experience +of and entered what they knew to be a bare desert, because they believed +in the land that lay beyond and in God's promise. What then has your +faith done? What have you ventured that you would not have ventured but +for God's promise? Suppose Christ's promise failed, in what would you be +the losers? Of course you would lose what you call your hope of +heaven--but what would you find you had lost in this world? When a +merchant's ships are wrecked or when his investment turns out bad, he +loses not only the gain he hoped for, but the means he risked. Suppose +then Christ were declared bankrupt, unable to fulfil your expectations, +would you really find that you had ventured so much upon His promise +that you are deeply involved in His bankruptcy, and are much worse off +in this world and now than you would otherwise have been? Or may I not +use the words of one of the most cautious and charitable of men, and +say, "I really fear, when we come to examine, it will be found that +there is nothing we resolve, nothing we do, nothing we do not do, +nothing we avoid, nothing we choose, nothing we give up, nothing we +pursue, which we should not resolve, and do, and not do, and avoid, and +choose, and give up, and pursue, if Christ had not died and heaven were +not promised us." If this be the case--if you would be neither much +better nor much worse though Christianity were a fable--if you have in +nothing become poorer in this world that your reward in heaven may be +greater, if you have made no investments and run no risks, then really +the natural inference is that your faith in the future inheritance is +small. Barnabas sold his Cyprus property because he believed heaven was +his, and his bit of land suddenly became a small consideration; useful +only in so far as he could with the mammon of unrighteousness make +himself a mansion in heaven. Paul gave up his prospects of advancement +in the nation, of which he would of course as certainly have become the +leader and first man as he took that position in the Church, and plainly +tells us that having made so large a venture on Christ's word, he would +if this word failed be a great loser, of all men most miserable because +he had risked his all _in this life_ on it. People sometimes take +offence at Paul's plain way of speaking of the sacrifices he had made, +and of Peter's plain way of saying "we have left all and followed Thee, +what shall we have therefore?" but when people have made sacrifices they +know it and can specify them, and a faith that makes no sacrifices is no +good either in this world's affairs or in religion. Self-consciousness +may not be a very good thing: but self-deception is a worse. + +Here as elsewhere a clear hope sprang from faith. Recognising God, +Abraham knew that there was for men a great future. He looked forward to +a time when all men should believe as he did, and in him all families of +the earth be blessed. No doubt in these early days when all men were on +the move and striving to make a name and a place for themselves, an +onward look might be common. But the far-reaching extent, the certainty, +and the definiteness of Abraham's view of the future were unexampled. +There far back in the hazy dawn he stood while the morning mists hid the +horizon from every other eye, and he alone discerns what is to be. One +clear voice and one only rings out in unfaltering tones and from amidst +the babel of voices that utter either amazing follies or misdirected +yearnings, gives the one true forecast and direction--the one living +word which has separated itself from and survived all the +prognostications of Chaldean sooth-sayers and priests of Ur, because it +has never ceased to give life to men. It has created for itself a +channel and you can trace it through the centuries by the living green +of its banks and the life it gives as it goes. For this hope of Abraham +has been fulfilled; the creed and its accompanying blessing which that +day lived in the heart of one man only has brought blessing to all the +families of the earth. + + + + +VIII. + +_ABRAM IN EGYPT._ + +GENESIS xii. 6-20. + + +Abram still journeying southward and not as yet knowing where his +shifting camp was finally to be pitched, came at last to what may be +called the heart of Palestine, the rich district of Shechem. Here stood +the oak of Moreh, a well-known landmark and favourite meeting-place. In +after years every meadow in this plain was owned and occupied, every +vineyard on the slopes of Ebal fenced off, every square yard specified +in some title-deed. But as yet the country seems not to have been +densely populated. There was room for a caravan like Abram's to move +freely through the country, liberty for a far-stretching encampment such +as his to occupy the lovely vale that lies between Ebal and Gerizim. As +he rested here and enjoyed the abundant pasture, or as he viewed the +land from one of the neighbouring hills, the Lord appeared to him and +made him aware that this was the land designed for him. Here accordingly +under the spreading oak round whose boughs had often clung the smoke of +idolatrous sacrifice, Abram erects an altar to the living God in devout +acceptance of the gift, taking possession as it were of the land jointly +for God and for himself. Little harm will come of worldly possessions so +taken and so held. + +As Abram traversed the land, wondering what were the limits of his +inheritance, it may have seemed far too large for his household. Soon he +experiences a difficulty of quite the opposite kind; he is unable to +find in it sustenance for his followers. Any notion that God's +friendship would raise him above the touch of such troubles as were +incident to the times, places, and circumstances in which his life was +to be spent, is quickly dispelled. The children of God are not exempt +from any of the common calamities; they are only expected and aided to +be calmer and wiser in their endurance and use of them. That we suffer +the same hardships as all other men is no proof that we are not +eternally associated with God, and ought never to persuade us our faith +has been in vain. + +Abram, as he looked at the bare, brown, cracked pastures and at the dry +watercourses filled only with stones, thought of the ever-fresh plains +of Mesopotamia, the lovely gardens of Damascus, the rich pasturage of +the northern borders of Canaan; but he knew enough of his own heart to +make him very careful lest these remembrances should make him turn back. +No doubt he had come to the promised land expecting it to be the real +Utopia, the Paradise which had haunted his thoughts as he lay among the +hills of Ur watching his flocks under the brilliant midnight sky. No +doubt he expected that here all would be easy and bright, peaceful and +luxurious. His first experience is of famine. He has to look on his herd +melting away, his favourite cattle losing their appearance, his servants +murmuring and obliged to scatter. In his dreams he must have night after +night seen the old country, the green breadth of the land that Euphrates +watered, the heavy headed corn bending before the warm airs of his +native land; but morning by morning he wakes to the same anxieties, to +the sad reality of parched and burnt-up pastures, shepherds hanging +about with gloomy looks, his own heart distressed and failing. He was +also a stranger here who could not look for the help an old resident +might have counted on. It was probably years since God had made any sign +to him. Was the promised land worth having after all? Might he not be +better off among his old friends in Charran? Should he not brave their +ridicule and return? He will not so much as make it possible to return. +He will not even for temporary relief go north towards his old country, +but will go to Egypt, where he cannot stay, and from which he must +return to Canaan. + +Here, then, is a man who plainly believes that God's promise cannot +fail; that God will magnify His promise, and that it above all else is +worth waiting for. He believes that the man who seeks without flinching +and through all disappointment and bareness to do God's will, shall one +day have an abundantly satisfying reward, and that meanwhile association +with God in carrying forward His abiding purposes with men is more for a +man to live upon than the cattle upon a thousand hills. And thus famine +rendered to Abram no small service if it quickened within him the +consciousness that the call of God was not to ease and prosperity, to +land-owning and cattle-breeding, but to be God's agent on earth for the +fulfilment of remote but magnificent purposes. His life might seem to be +down among the commonplace vicissitudes, pasture might fail, and his +well-stocked camp melt away, but out of his mind there could not fade +the future God had revealed to him. If it had been his ambition to give +his name to a tribe and be known as a wide-ruling chief, that ambition +is now eclipsed by his desire to be a step towards the fulfilment of +that real end for which the whole world is. The belief that God has +called him to do His work has lifted him above concern about personal +matters; life has taken a new meaning in his eyes by its connection with +the Eternal. + +The extraordinary country to which Abram betook himself, and which was +destined to exercise so profound an influence on his descendants, had +even at this early date attained a high degree of civilisation. The +origin of this civilisation is shrouded in obscurity, as the source of +the great river to which the country owes its prosperity for many +centuries kept the secret of its birth. As yet scholars are unable to +tell us with certainty what Pharaoh was on the throne when Abram went +down into Egypt. The monuments have preserved the effigies of two +distinct types of rulers; the one simple, kindly, sensible, stately, +handsome, fearless, as of men long accustomed to the throne. These are +the faces of the native Egyptian rulers. The other type of face is heavy +and massive, proud and strong but full of care, with neither the +handsome features nor the look of kindliness and culture which belong to +the other. These are the faces of the famous Shepherd kings who held +Egypt in subjection, probably at the very time when Abram was in the +land. + +For our purposes it matters little whether Abram's visit occurred while +the country was under native or under foreign rule, for long before the +Shepherd kings entered Egypt it enjoyed a complete and stable +civilisation. Whatever dynasty Abram found on the throne, he certainly +found among the people a more refined social life than he had seen in +his native city, a much purer religion, and a much more highly developed +moral code. He must have kept himself entirely aloof from Egyptian +society if he failed to discover that they believed in a judgment after +death, and that this judgment proceeded upon a severe moral code. Before +admission into the Egyptian heaven the deceased must swear that "he has +not stolen nor slain any one intentionally; that he has not allowed his +devotions to be seen; that he has not been guilty of hypocrisy or lying; +that he has not calumniated any one nor fallen into drunkenness or +adultery; that he has not turned away his ear from the words of truth; +that he has been no idle talker; that he has not slighted the king or +his father." To a man in Abram's state of mind the Egyptian creed and +customs must have conveyed many valuable suggestions. + +But virtuous as in many respects the Egyptians were, Abram's fears as he +approached their country were by no means groundless. The event proved +that whatever Sarah's age and appearance at this time were, his fears +were something more than the fruit of a husband's partiality. Possibly +he may have heard the ugly story which has recently been deciphered from +an old papyrus, and which tells how one of the Pharaohs, acting on the +advice of his princes, sent armed men to fetch a beautiful woman and +make away with her husband. But knowing the risk he ran, why did he go? +He contemplated the possibility of Sarah's being taken from him; but, if +this should happen, what became of the promised seed? We cannot suppose +that, driven by famine from the promised land, he had lost all hope +regarding the fulfilment of the other part of the promise. Probably his +idea was that some of the great men might take a fancy to Sarah, and +that he would so temporise with them and ask for her such large gifts as +would hold them off for a while until he could provide for his people +and get clear out of the land. It had not occurred to him that she might +be taken to the palace. Whatever his idea of the probable course of +events was, his proposal to guide them by disguising his true +relationship to Sarah was unjustifiable. And his feelings during these +weeks in Egypt must have been far from enviable as he learned that of +all virtues the Egyptians set greatest store by truth, and that lying +was the vice they held in greatest abhorrence. + +Here then was the whole promise and purpose of God in a most precarious +position; the land abandoned, the mother of the promised seed in a harem +through whose guards no force on earth could penetrate. Abram could do +nothing but go helplessly about, thinking what a fool he had been, and +wishing himself well back among the parched hills of Bethel. Suddenly +there is a panic in the royal household; and Pharaoh is made aware that +he was on the brink of what he himself considered a great sin. Besides +effecting its immediate purpose, this visitation might have taught +Pharaoh that a man cannot safely sin within limits prescribed by +himself. He had not intended such evil as he found himself just saved +from committing. But had he lived with perfect purity, this liability to +fall into transgression, shocking to himself, could not have existed. +Many sins of most painful consequence we commit, not of deliberate +purpose, but because our previous life has been careless and lacking in +moral tone. We are mistaken if we suppose that we can sin within a +certain safe circle and never go beyond it. + +By this intervention on God's part Abram was saved from the consequences +of his own scheme, but he was not saved from the indignant rebuke of the +Egyptian monarch. This rebuke indeed did not prevent him from a +repetition of the same conduct in another country, conduct which was met +with similar indignation: "What have I offended thee, that thou hast +brought on me and on my kingdom this great sin? Thou hast done deeds +unto me that ought not to be done. What sawest thou that thou hast done +this thing?" This rebuke did not seem to sink deeply into the conscience +of Abram's descendants, for the Jewish history is full of instances in +which leading men do not shrink from man[oe]uvre, deceit and lying. Yet +it is impossible to suppose that Abram's conception of God was not +vastly enlarged by this incident, and this especially in two +particulars. + +(1) Abram must have received a new impression regarding God's truth. It +would seem that as yet he had no very clear idea of God's holiness. He +had the idea of God which Mohammedans entertain, and past which they +seem unable to get. He conceived of God as the Supreme Ruler; he had a +firm belief in the unity of God and probably a hatred of idolatry and a +profound contempt for idolaters. He believed that this Supreme God could +always and easily accomplish His will, and that the voice that inwardly +guided him was the voice of God. His own character had not yet been +deepened and dignified by prolonged intercourse with God and by close +observation of His actual ways; and so as yet he knows little of what +constitutes the true glory of God. + +For learning that truth is an essential attribute of God he could not +have gone to a better school than Egypt. His own reliance on God's +promise might have been expected to produce in him a high esteem for +truth and a clear recognition of its essential place in the Divine +character. Apparently it had only partially had this effect. The +heathen, therefore, must teach him. Had not Abram seen the look of +indignation and injury on the face of Pharaoh, he might have left the +land feeling that his scheme had succeeded admirably. But as he went at +the head of his vastly increased household, the envy of many who saw his +long train of camels and cattle, he would have given up all could he +have blotted from his mind's eye the reproachful face of Pharaoh and +nipped out this entire episode from his life. He was humbled both by his +falseness and his foolishness. He had told a lie, and told it when truth +would have served him better. For the very precaution he took in passing +off Sarai as his sister was precisely what encouraged Pharaoh to take +her, and produced the whole misadventure. It was the heathen monarch who +taught the father of the faithful his first lesson in God's holiness. + +What he so painfully learned we must all learn, that God does not need +lying for the attainment of His ends, and that double-dealing is always +short-sighted and the proper precursor of shame. Frequently men are +tempted like Abram to seek a God-protected and God-prospered life by +conduct that is not thoroughly straightforward. Some of us who statedly +ask God to bless our endeavours, and who have no doubt that God approves +the ends we seek to accomplish, do yet adopt such means of attaining our +ends as not even men with any high sense of honour would countenance. To +save ourselves from trouble, inconvenience, or danger, we are tempted to +evasions and shifts which are not free from guilt. The more one sees of +life, the higher value does he set on truth. Let lying be called by +whatever flattering title men please--let it pass for diplomacy, +smartness, self-defence, policy, or civility--it remains the device of +the coward, the absolute bar to free and healthy intercourse, a vice +which diffuses itself through the whole character and makes growth +impossible. Trade and commerce are always hampered and retarded, and +often overwhelmed in disaster, by the determined and deliberate +doubleness of those who engage in them; charity is minimised and +withheld from its proper objects by the suspiciousness engendered in us +by the almost universal falseness of men; and the habit of making things +seem to others what they are not, reacts upon the man himself and makes +it difficult for him to feel the abiding effective reality of anything +he has to do with or even of his own soul. If then we are to know the +living and true God we must ourselves be true, transparent, and living +in the light as He is the Light. If we are to reach His ends we must +adopt His means and abjure all crafty contrivances of our own. If we are +to be His heirs and partners in the work of the world, we must first be +His children, and show that we have attained our majority by manifesting +an indubitable resemblance to His own clear truth. + +(2) But whether Abram fully learned this lesson or not, there can be +little doubt that at this time he did receive fresh and abiding +impressions of God's faithfulness and sufficiency. In Abram's first +response to God's call he exhibited a remarkable independence and +strength of character. His abandonment of home and kindred on account of +a religious faith which he alone possessed, was the act of a man who +relied much more on himself than on others and who had the courage of +his convictions. This qualification for playing a great part in human +affairs he undoubtedly had. But he had also the defects of his +qualities. A weaker man would have shrunk from going into Egypt and +would have preferred to see his flocks dwindle rather than take so +venturesome a step. No such hesitations could trammel Abram's +movements. He felt himself equal to all occasions. That part of his +character which was reproduced in his grandson Jacob, a readiness to +rise to every emergency that called for management and diplomacy, an +aptitude for dealing with men and using them for his purposes--this came +to the front now! To all the timorous suggestions of his household he +had one reply: Leave it all to me; I will bring you through. So he +entered Egypt confident that single-handed he could cope with their +Pharaohs, priests, magicians, guards, judges, warriors; and find his way +through the finely-meshed net that held and examined every person and +action in the land. + +He left Egypt in a much more healthy state of mind, practically +convinced of his own inability to work his way to the happiness God had +promised him, and equally convinced of God's faithfulness and power to +bring him through all the embarrassments and disasters into which his +own folly and sin might bring him. His own confidence and management had +placed God's promise in a position of extreme hazard; and without the +intervention of God Abram saw that he could neither recover the mother +of the promised seed nor return to the land of promise. Abram is put to +shame even in the eyes of his household slaves; and with what burning +shame must he have stood before Sarai and Pharaoh, and received back his +wife from him whose wickedness he had feared, but who so far from +meaning to sin as Abram suspected, was indignant that Abram should have +made it even possible. He returned to Canaan humbled and very little +disposed to feel confident in his own powers of managing in emergencies; +but quite assured that God might at all times be relied on. He was +convinced that God was not depending upon him, but he upon God. He saw +that God did not trust to his cleverness and craft, no, nor even to his +willingness to do and endure God's will, but that He was trusting in +Himself, and that by His faithfulness to His own promise, by His +watchfulness and providence, He would bring Abram through all the +entanglements caused by his own poor ideas of the best way to work out +God's ends and attain to His blessing. He saw, in a word, that the +future of the world lay not with Abram but with God. + +This certainly was a great and needful step in the knowledge of God. +Thus early and thus unmistakably was man taught in how profound and +comprehensive a sense God is his Saviour. Commonly it takes a man a long +time to learn that it is God who is saving him, but one day he learns +it. He learns that it is not his own faith but God's faithfulness that +saves him. He perceives that he needs God throughout, from first to +last; not only to make him offers, but to enable him to accept them; not +only to incline him to accept them to-day, but to maintain within him at +all times this same inclination. He learns that God not only makes him a +promise and leaves him to find his own way to what is promised; but that +He is with him always, disentangling him day by day from the results of +his own folly and securing for him not only possible but actual +blessedness. + +Few discoveries are so welcome and gladdening to the soul. Few give us +the same sense of God's nearness and sovereignty; few make us feel so +deeply the dignity and importance of our own salvation and career. This +is God's affair; a matter in which are involved not merely our personal +interests, but God's responsibility and purposes. God calls us to be +His, and He does not send us a-warring on our own charges, but +throughout furnishes us with _everything_ we need. When we go down to +Egypt, when we quite diverge from the path that leads to the promised +land and worldly straits tempt us to turn our back upon God's altar and +seek relief by our own arrangements and devices, when we forget for a +while how God has identified our interests with His own and tacitly +abjure the vows we have silently registered before Him, even then He +follows us and watches over us and lays His hand upon us and bids us +back. And this only is our hope. Not in any determination of our own to +cleave to Him and to live in faith on His promise can we trust. If we +have this determination, let us cherish it, for this is God's present +means of leading us onwards. But should this determination fail, the +shame with which you recognise your want of steadfastness may prove a +stronger bond to hold you to Him than the bold confidence with which +to-day you view the future. The waywardness, the foolishness, the +obstinate depravity that cause you to despair, God will conquer. With +untiring patience, with all-foreseeing love, He stands by you and will +bring you through. His gifts and calling are without repentance. + + + + +IX. + +_LOT'S SEPARATION FROM ABRAM._ + +GENESIS xiii. + + +Abram left Egypt thinking meanly of himself, highly of God. This humble +frame of mind is disclosed in the route he chooses; he went straight +back "unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, unto the +altar which he had made there at the first." With a childlike simplicity +he seems to own that his visit to Egypt had been a mistake. He had gone +there supposing that he was thrown upon his own resources, and that in +order to keep himself and his dependants alive he must have recourse to +craft and dishonesty. By retracing his steps and returning to the altar +at Bethel, he seems to acknowledge that he should have remained there +through the famine in dependence on God. + +Whoever has attempted a similar practical repentance, visible to his own +household and affecting their place of abode or daily occupations, will +know how to estimate the candour and courage of Abram. To own that some +distinctly marked portion of our life, upon which we entered with great +confidence in our own wisdom and capacity, has come to nothing and has +betrayed us into reprehensible conduct, is mortifying indeed. To admit +that we have erred and to repair our error by returning to our old way +and practice, is what few of us have the courage to do. If we have +entered on some branch of business or gone into some attractive +speculation, or if we have altered our demeanour towards some friend, +and if we are finding that we are thereby tempted to doubleness, to +equivocation, to injustice, our only hope lies in a candid and +straightforward repentance, in a manly and open return to the state of +things that existed in happier days and which we should never have +abandoned. Sometimes we are aware that a blight began to fall on our +spiritual life from a particular date, and we can easily and distinctly +trace an unhealthy habit of spirit to a well-marked passage in our +outward career; but we shrink from the sacrifice and shame involved in a +thoroughgoing restoration of the old state of things. We are always so +ready to fancy we have done enough, if we get one heartfelt word of +confession uttered; so ready, if we merely turn our faces towards God, +to think our restoration complete. Let us make a point of getting +through mere beginnings of repentance, mere intention to recover God's +favour and a sound condition of life, and let us return and return till +we bow at God's very altar again, and know that His hand is laid upon us +in blessing as at the first. + +Out of Egypt Abram brought vastly increased wealth. Each time he +encamped, quite a town of black tents quickly rose round the spot where +his fixed spear gave the signal for halting. And along with him there +journeyed his nephew, apparently of almost equal, or at least +considerable wealth; not dependent on Abram, nor even a partner with +him, for "Lot also had flocks and herds and tents." So rapidly was their +substance increasing that no sooner did they become stationary than +they found that the land was not able to furnish them with sufficient +pasture. The Canaanite and the Perizzite would not allow them unlimited +pasture in the neighbourhood of Bethel; and as the inevitable result of +this the rival shepherds, eager to secure the best pasture for their own +flocks and the best wells for their own cattle and camels, came to high +words and probably to blows about their respective rights. + +To both Abram and Lot it must have occurred that this competition +between relatives was unseemly, and that some arrangement must be come +to. And when at last some unusually blunt quarrel took place in presence +of the chiefs, Abram divulges to Lot the scheme which had suggested +itself to him. This state of things, he says, must come to an end; it is +unseemly, unwise, and unrighteous. And as they walk on out of the circle +of tents to discuss the matter without interruption, they come to a +rising ground where the wide prospect brings them naturally to a pause. +Abram looking north and south and seeing with the trained eye of a large +flock-master that there was abundant pasture for both, turns to Lot with +a final proposal: "Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, +I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to +the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the +left." + +Thus early did wealth produce quarrelling among relatives. The men who +had shared one another's fortunes while comparatively poor, no sooner +become wealthy than they have to separate. Abram prevented quarrel by +separation. "Let us," he says, "come to an understanding. And rather +than be separate in heart, let us be separate in habitation." It is +always a sorrowful time in family history when it comes to this, that +those who have had a common purse and have not been careful to know what +exactly is theirs and what belongs to the other members of the family, +have at last to make a division and to be as precise and documentary as +if dealing with strangers. It is always painful to be compelled to own +that law can be more trusted than love, and that legal forms are a surer +barrier against quarrelling than brotherly kindness. It is a confession +we are sometimes compelled to make, but never without a mixture of +regret and shame. + +As yet the character of Lot has not been exhibited, and we can only +calculate from the relation he bears to Abram what his answer to the +proposal will probably be. We know that Abram has been the making of his +nephew, and that the land belongs to Abram; and we should expect that in +common decency Lot would set aside the generous offer of his uncle and +demand that he only should determine the matter. "It is not for me to +make choice in a land which is wholly yours. My future does not carry in +it the import of yours. It is a small matter what kind of subsistence I +secure or where I find it. Choose for yourself, and allot to me what is +right." We see here what a safeguard of happiness in life right feeling +is. To be in right and pleasant relations with the persons around us +will save us from error and sin even when conscience and judgment give +no certain decision. The heart which feels gratitude is beyond the need +of being schooled and compelled to do justly. To the man who is +affectionately disposed it is superfluous to insist upon the rights of +other persons. The instinct which tells a man what is due to others and +makes him sensitive to their wrongs will preserve him from many an +ignominious action which would degrade his whole life. But such +instinct was awanting in Lot. His character though in some respects +admirable had none of the generosity of Abram's in it. He had allowed +himself on countless previous occasions to take advantage of Abram's +unselfishness. Generosity is not always infectious; often it encourages +selfishness in child, relative, or neighbour. And so Lot instead of +rivalling, traded on his uncle's magnanimity; and chose him all the +plains of Jordan because in his eye it was the richest part of the land. + +This choice of Sodom as a dwelling-place was the great mistake of Lot's +life. He is the type of that very large class of men who have but one +rule for determining them at the turning points of life. He was swayed +solely by the consideration of worldly advantage. He has nothing deep, +nothing high in him. He recognises no duty to Abram, no gratitude, no +modesty; he has no perception of spiritual relations, no sense that God +should have something to say in the partition of the land. Lot may be +acquitted of a good deal which at first sight one is prompted to lay to +his charge, but he cannot be acquitted of showing an eagerness to better +himself, regardless of all considerations but the promise of wealth +afforded by the fertility of the Jordan valley. He saw a quick though +dangerous road to wealth. There seemed a certainty of success in his +earthly calling, a risk only of moral disaster. He shut his eyes to the +risk that he might grasp the wealth; and so doing, ruined both himself +and his family. + +The situation is one which is ceaselessly repeated. To men in business +or in the cultivation of literature or art, or in one of the +professions, there are presented opportunities of attaining a better +position by cultivating the friendship or identifying oneself with the +practice of men whose society is not in itself desirable. Society is +made up of little circles, each of which has its own monopoly of some +social or commercial or political advantage, and its own characteristic +tone and enjoyments and customs. And if a man will not join one of these +circles and accommodate himself to the mode of carrying on business and +to the style of living it has identified with itself, he must forego the +advantages which entrance to that circle would secure for him. As +clearly as Lot saw that the well-watered plain stretching away under the +sunshine was the right place to exercise his vocation as a flock-master, +so do we see that associated with such and such persons and recognised +as one of them, we shall be able more effectively than in any other +position to use whatever natural gifts we have, and win the recognition +and the profit these gifts seem to warrant. There is but one drawback. +"The men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly." +There is a tone you do not like; you hesitate to identify yourself with +men who live solely and with cynical frankness only for gain; whose +every sentence betrays the contemptible narrowness of soul to which +worldliness condemns men; who live for money and who glory in their +shame. + +The very nature of the world in which we live makes such temptation +universal. And to yield is common and fatal. We persuade ourselves we +need not enter into close relations with the persons we propose to have +business connections with. Lot would have been horrified, that day he +made his choice, had it been told him his daughters would marry men of +Sodom. But the swimmer who ventures into the outer circle of the +whirlpool finds that his own resolve not to go further presents a very +weak resistance to the water's inevitable suction. We fancy perhaps +that to refuse the companionship of any class of men is pharisaic; that +we have no business to condemn the attitude towards the Church, or the +morality, or the style of living adopted by any class of men among us. +This is the mere cant of liberalism. We do not condemn persons who +suffer from smallpox, but a smallpox hospital would be about the last +place we should choose for a residence. Or possibly we imagine we shall +be able to carry some better influences into the society we enter. A +vain imagination; the motive for choosing the society has already sapped +our power for good. + +Many of the errors of worldly men only reveal their most disastrous +consequences in the second generation. Like some virulent diseases they +have a period of incubation. Lot's family grew up in a very different +atmosphere from that which had nourished his own youth in Abram's tents. +An adult and robust Englishman can withstand the climate of India; but +his children who are born in it cannot. And the position in society +which has been gained in middle life by the carefully and hardily +trained child of a God-fearing household, may not very visibly damage +his own character, but may yet be absolutely fatal to the morality of +his children. Lot may have persuaded himself he chose the dangerous +prosperity of Sodom mainly for the sake of his children; but in point of +fact he had better have seen them die of starvation in the most barren +and parched desolation. And the parent who disregards conscience and +chooses wealth or position, fancying that thus he benefits his children, +will find to his life-long sorrow that he has entangled them in +unimagined temptations. + +But the man who makes Lot's choice not only does a great injury to his +children, but cuts himself off from all that is best in life. We are +safe to say that after leaving Abram's tents Lot never again enjoyed +unconstrainedly happy days. The men born and brought up in Sodom were +possibly happy after their kind and in their fashion; but Lot was not. +His soul was daily vexed. Many a time while hearing the talk of the men +his daughters had married, must Lot have gone out with a sore heart, and +looked to the distant hills that hid the tents of Abram, and longed for +an hour of the company he used to enjoy. And the society to which you +are tempted to join yourself may not be unhappy, but you can take no +surer means of beclouding, embittering, and ruining your whole life than +by joining it. You cannot forget the thoughts you once had, the +friendships you once delighted in, the hopes that shed brightness +through all your life. You cannot blot out the ideal that once you +cherished as the most animating element of your life. Every day there +will be that rising in your mind which is in the sharpest contrast to +the thoughts of those with whom you are associated. You will despise +them for their shallow, worldly ideas and ways; but you will despise +yourself still more, being conscious that what they are through +ignorance and upbringing, you are in virtue of your own foolish and mean +choice. There is that in you which rebels against the superficial and +external measure by which they judge things, and yet you have +deliberately chosen these as your associates, and can only think with +heart-broken regret of the high thoughts that once visited you and the +hopes you have now no means of fulfilling. Your life is taken out of +your own hands; you find yourself in bondage to the circumstances you +have chosen; and you are learning in bitterness, disappointment, and +shame, that indeed "a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the +things which he possesseth." To determine your life solely by the +prospect of worldly success is to risk the loss of the best things in +life. To sacrifice friendship or conscience to success in your calling +is to sacrifice what is best to what is lowest, and to blind yourself to +the highest human happiness. For happily the essential elements of the +highest happiness are as open to the poor as to the rich, to the +unsuccessful as to the successful--love of wife and children, congenial +and educating friendships, the knowledge of what the best men have done +and the wisest men have said; the pleasure and impulse, the sentiments +and beliefs which result from our knowledge of the heroic deeds done +from year to year among men; the enlivening influence of examples that +tell on all men alike, young and old, rich and poor; the insight and +strength of character that are won in the hard wrestle with life; the +growing consciousness that God is in human life, that He is ours and +that we are His--these things and all that makes human life of value are +universal as air and sunshine, but must be missed by those who make the +world their object. + +Though in point of fact Lot cut himself off by his choice from direct +participation in the special inheritance to which Abram was called by +God, it might perhaps be too much to say that his choice of the valley +of Jordan was an explicit renunciation of the special blessedness of +those who find their joy in responding to God's call and doing His work +in the world. It might also be extravagant to say that his choice of the +richest land was prompted by the feeling that he was not included in the +promise to Abram, and might as well make the most of his present +opportunities. But it is certain that Abram's generosity to Lot arose +out of his sense that in God he himself had abundant possession. In +Egypt he had learned that in order to secure all that is worth having a +man need never resort to duplicity, trickery, bold lying. He now learns +that in order to enter on his own God-provided lot, he need shut no +other man out of his. He is taught that to acknowledge amply the rights +of other men is the surest road to the enjoyment of his own rights. He +is taught that there is room in God's plan for every man to follow his +most generous impulses and the highest views of life that visit him. + +It was Abram's simple belief that God's promise was meant and was +substantial, that made him indifferent as to what Lot might choose. His +faith was judged in this scene, and was proved to be sound. This man +whose very calling it was to own this land, could freely allow Lot to +choose the best of it. Why? Because he has learned that it is not by any +plan of his own he is to come into possession; that God Who promised is +to give him the land in His own way, and that his part is to act +uprightly, mercifully, like God. Wherever there is faith, the same +results will appear. He who believes that God is pledged to provide for +him cannot be greedy, anxious, covetous; can only be liberal, even +magnanimous. Any one can thus test his own faith. If he does not find +that what God promises weighs substantially when put in the scales with +gold; if he does not find that the accomplishment of God's purpose with +him in the world is to him the most valuable thing, and actually compels +him to think lightly of worldly position and ordinary success; if he +does not find that in point of fact the gains which content a man of +the world shrivel and lose interest, he may feel tolerably certain he +has no faith and is not counting as certain what God has promised. + +It is commonly observed that wealth pursues the men who part with it +most freely. Abram had this experience. No sooner had he allowed Lot to +choose his portion than God gave him assurance that the whole would be +his. It is "the meek" who "inherit the earth." Not only have they, in +their very losses and while suffering wrong at the hands of their +fellows, a purer joy than those who wrong them; but they know themselves +heirs of God with the certainty of enjoying all His possessions that can +avail for their advantage. Declining to devote themselves as living +sacrifices to business they hold their soul at leisure for what brings +truest happiness, for friendship, for knowledge, for charity. Even in +this life they may be said to inherit the earth, for all its richest +fruits are theirs--the ground may belong to other men, but the beauty of +the landscape is theirs without burden--and ever and anon they hear such +words as were now uttered to Abram. They alone are inclined or able to +receive renewed assurances that God is mindful of His promise and will +abundantly bless them. It is they who are in no haste to be rich, and +are content to abide in the retired hill-country where they can freely +assemble round God's altar, it is they who seek first the kingdom of God +and make sure of that, whatever else they put in hazard, to whom God's +encouragements come. You wonder at the certainty with which others speak +of hearing God's voice and that so seldom you have the joy of knowing +that God is directing and encouraging you. Why should you wonder, if you +very well know that your attention is directed mainly to the world, +that your heart trembles and thrills with all the fluctuations of your +earthly hopes, that you wait for news and listen to every hint that can +affect your position in life? Can you wonder that an ear trained to be +so sensitive to the near earthly sounds, should quite have lost the +range of heavenly voices? + +Of the assurance here given him Abram was probably much in need when Lot +had withdrawn with his flocks and servants. When the warmth of feeling +cooled and allowed the somewhat unpleasant facts of the case to press +upon his mind; and when he heard his shepherds murmuring that after all +the strife they had maintained for their master's rights, he should have +weakly yielded these to Lot; and when he reflected, as now he inevitably +would reflect, how selfish and ungrateful Lot had shown himself to be, +he must have been tempted to think he had possibly made a mistake in +dealing so generously with such a man. This reflection on himself might +naturally grow into a reflection upon God, Who might have been expected +so to order matters as to give the best country to the best man. All +such reflections are precluded by the renewed grant he now receives of +the whole land. + +It is always as difficult to govern our heart wisely after as before +making a sacrifice. It is as difficult to keep the will decided as to +make the original decision; and it is more difficult to think +affectionately of those for whom the sacrifice has been made, when the +change in their condition and our own is actually accomplished. There is +a natural reaction after a generous action which is not always +sufficiently resisted. And when we see that those who refuse to make any +sacrifices are more prosperous and less ruffled in spirit than ourselves +we are tempted to take matters into our own hand, and, without waiting +upon God, to use the world's quick ways. At such times we find how +difficult it is to hold an advanced position, and how much unbelief +mingles with the sincerest faith, and what vile dregs of selfishness +sully the clearest generosity; we find our need of God and of those +encouragements and assistances He can impart to the soul. Happy are we +if we receive them and are enabled thereby to be constant in the good we +have begun; for all sacrifice is good begun. And as Abram saw, when the +cities of the plain were destroyed, how kindly God had guided him; so +when our history is complete, we shall have no inclination to grumble at +any passage of our life which we entered by generosity and faith in God, +but shall see how tenderly God has held us back from much that our soul +has been ardently desiring, and which we thought would be the making of +us. + + + + +X. + +_ABRAM'S RESCUE OF LOT._ + +GENESIS xiv. + + +This chapter evidently incorporates a contemporary account of the events +recorded. So antique a document was it even when it found its place in +this book, that the editor had to modernize some of its expressions that +it might be intelligible. The places mentioned were no longer known by +the names here preserved--Bela, the vale of Siddim, En-mishpat, the +valley of Shaveh, all these names were unknown even to the persons who +dwelt in the places once so designated. It can scarcely have been Abram +who wrote down the narrative, for he himself is spoken of as Abram the +Hebrew, the man born beyond the Euphrates, which is a way of speaking of +himself no one would naturally adopt. From the clear outline given of +the route followed by the expedition of Chedorlaomer, it might be +supposed that some old staff-secretary had reported on the campaign. +However that may be, the discoveries of the last two or three years have +shed light on the outlandish names that have stood for four thousand +years in this document, and on the relations subsisting between Elam and +Palestine. + +On the bricks now preserved in our own British Museum the very names we +read in this chapter can be traced, in the slightly altered form which +is always given to a name when pronounced by different races. +Chedorlaomer is the Hebrew transliteration of Kudur Lagamar; Lagamar was +the name of one of the Chaldean deities, and the whole name means +Lagamar's son, evidently a name of dignity adopted by the king of Elam. +Elam comprehended the broad and rich plains to the east of the lower +course of the Tigris, together with the mountain range (8,000 to 10,000 +feet high) that bounds them. Elam was always able to maintain its own +against Assyria and Babylonia, and at this time it evidently exercised +some kind of supremacy not only over these neighbouring powers, but as +far west as the valley of the Jordan. The importance of keeping open the +valley of the Jordan is obvious to every one who has interest enough in +the subject to look at a map. That valley was the main route for trading +caravans and for military expeditions between the Euphrates and Egypt. +Whoever held that valley might prove a most formidable annoyance and +indeed an absolute interruption to commercial or political relations +between Egypt and Elam, or the Eastern powers. Sometimes it might serve +the purpose of East and West to have a neutral power between them, as +became afterwards clear in the history of Israel, but oftener it was the +ambition of either Egypt or of the East to hold Canaan in subjection. A +rebellion therefore of these chiefs occupying the vale of Siddim was +sufficiently important to bring the king of Elam from his distant +capital, attaching to his army as he came, his tributaries Amraphel king +of Shinar or northern Chaldea, Arioch king of a district on the east of +the Euphrates, and finally Tidal, or rather Tur-gal _i.e._ the great +chief, who ruled over the nations or tribes to the north of Babylonia. + +Susa, the capital of Elam, lies almost on the same parallel as the vale +of Siddim, but between them lie many hundred miles of impracticable +desert. Chedorlaomer and his army followed therefore much the same route +as Terah in his emigration, first going north-west up the Euphrates and +then crossing it probably at Carchemish, or above it, and coming +southward towards Canaan. But the country to the east of the Jordan and +the Dead Sea was occupied by warlike and marauding tribes who would have +liked nothing better than to swoop down on a rich booty-laden Eastern +army. With the sagacity of an old soldier therefore, Chedorlaomer makes +it his first business to sweep this rough ground, and so cripple the +tribes in his passage southwards, that when he swept round the lower end +of the Dead Sea and up the Jordan valley he should have nothing to fear +at least on his right flank. The tribe that first felt his sword was +that of the Rephaim, or giants. Their stronghold was Ashteroth Karnaim, +or Ashteroth of the two horns, a town dedicated to the goddess Astarte +whose symbol was the crescent or two-horned moon. The Zuzims and the +Emims, "a people great and many and tall," as we read in Deuteronomy, +next fell before the invading host. The Horites, _i.e._ cave-dwellers or +troglodytes, would scarcely hold Chedorlaomer long, though from their +hilly fastnesses they might do him some damage. Passing through their +mountains he came upon the great road between the Dead Sea and the +Elanitic gulf--but he crossed this road and still held westward till he +reached the edge of what is roughly known as the Desert of Sinai. Here, +says the narrative (ver. 7), they returned, that is, this was their +furthest point south and west, and here they turned and made for the +vale of Siddim, smiting the Amalekites and the Amorites on their route. + +This is the only part of the army's route that is at all obscure. The +last place they are spoken of as touching before reaching the vale of +Siddim is Hazezon-Tamar, or as it was afterwards and is still called +Engedi. Now Engedi lies on the western shore of the Dead Sea about half +way up from south to north. It lies on a very steep, indeed artificially +made, pass and is a place of much greater importance on that account +than its size would make it. The road between Moab and Palestine runs by +the western margin of the Dead Sea up to this point, but beyond this +point the shore is impracticable, and the only road is through the +Engedi pass on to the higher ground above. If the army chose this route +then they were compelled to force this pass; if on the other hand they +preferred during their whole march from Kadesh to keep away west of the +Dead Sea on the higher ground, then they would only detail a company to +pounce upon Engedi, as the main army passed behind and above. In either +case the main body must have been if not actually within sight of, yet +only a few miles from, the encampment of Abram. + +At length as they dropped down through the practicable passes into the +vale of Siddim their grand object became apparent, and the kings of the +five allied towns, probably warned by the hill-tribes weeks before, drew +out to meet them. But it is not easy to check an army in full career, +and the wells of bitumen, which those who knew the ground might have +turned to good purpose against the foreigners, actually hindered the +home troops and became a trap to them. The rout was complete. No second +stand or rally was attempted. The towns were sacked, the fields swept, +and so swift were the movements of the invaders that although Abram was +barely twenty miles off, and no doubt started for the rescue of Lot the +hour he got the news, he did not overtake the army, laden as it was with +spoil and retarded by prisoners and wounded, until they had reached the +sources of Jordan. + +But well-conceived and brilliantly executed as this campaign had been, +the experienced warrior had failed to take account of the most +formidable opponent he would have to reckon with. Those that escaped +from the slaughter at Sodom took to the hills, and either knowing they +would find shelter with Abram or more probably blindly running on, found +themselves at nightfall within sight of the encampment at Hebron. There +is no delay on Abram's part; he hastily calls out his men, each +snatching his bow, his sword, and his spear, and slinging over his +shoulders a few days' provision. The neighbouring Amorite chiefs Aner, +Mamre and Eshcol join them, probably with a troop each, and before many +hours are lost they are down the passes and in hot pursuit. Not however +till they had traversed a hundred and twenty miles or more do they +overtake the Eastern army. But at Dan, at the very springs of the +Jordan, they find them, and making a night attack throw them into utter +confusion and pursue them as far as Hobah, a village near Damascus, that +retains to this day the same name. + +One is naturally curious to see how Abram will conduct himself in +circumstances so unaccustomed. From leading a quiet pastoral life he +suddenly becomes the most important man in the country, a man who can +make himself felt from the Nile to the Tigris. From a herd he becomes a +hero. But, notoriously, power tries a man, and, as one has often seen +persons make very glaring mistakes in such altered circumstances and +alter their characters and beliefs to suit and take advantage of the new +material and opportunities presented to them, we are interested in +seeing how a man whose one rule of action has hitherto been faith in a +promise given him by God, will pass through such a trial. Can a +spiritual quality like faith be of much service in rough campaigning and +when the man of faith is mixed up with persons of doubtful character and +unscrupulous conduct, and brought into contact with considerable +political powers? Can we trace to Abram's faith any part of his action +at this time? No sooner is the question put than we see that his faith +in God's promise was precisely that which gave him balance and dignity, +courage and generosity in dealing with the three prominent persons in +the narrative. He could afford to be forgiving and generous to his grand +competitor Lot, precisely because he felt sure God would deal generously +with himself. He could afford to acknowledge Melchizedek and any other +authority that might appear, as his superior, and he would not take +advantage, even when at the head of his men eager for more fighting, of +the peaceful king who came out to propitiate him, because he knew that +God would give him his land without wronging other people. And he +scorned the wages of the king of Sodom, holding himself to be no +mercenary captain, nor indebted to any one but God. In a word, you see +faith producing all that is of importance in his conduct at this time. + +Lot is the person who of all others might have been expected to be +forward in his expressions of gratitude to Abram--not a word of his is +recorded. Ashamed he cannot but have been, for if Abram said not a word +of reproach, there would be plenty of Lot's old friends among Abram's +men who could not lose so good an opportunity of twitting him about the +good choice he had made. And considering how humiliating it would have +been for him to go back with Abram and abandon the district of his +adoption, we can scarcely wonder that he should have gone quietly back +to Sodom, well as he must by this time have known the nature of the +risks he ran there. For, after all, this warning was not very loud. The +same thing, or a similar thing, might have happened had he remained with +Abram. The warning was unobtrusive as the warnings in life mostly are; +audible to the ear that has been accustomed to listen to the still small +voice of conscience, inaudible to the ear that is trained to hear quite +other voices. God does not set angels and flaming swords in every man's +path. The little whisper that no one hears but ourselves only and that +says quite quietly that we are continuing in a wrong course, is as +certain an indication that we are in danger, as if God were to proclaim +our case from heaven with thunder or the voice of an archangel. And when +a man has persistently refused to listen to conscience it ceases to +speak, and he loses the power to discern between good and evil and is +left wholly without a guide. He may be running straight to destruction +and he does not know it. You cannot live under two principles of action, +regard to worldly interest and regard to conscience. You can train +yourself to great acuteness in perceiving and following out what is for +your worldly advantage, or you can train yourself to great acuteness of +conscience; but you must make your choice, for in proportion as you gain +sensitiveness in the one direction you lose it in the other. If your eye +is _single_ your whole body is full of light; but if the light that is +in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! + +Melchizedek is generally recognised as the most mysterious and +unaccountable of historical personages; appearing here in the King's +Vale no one knows whence, and disappearing no one knows whither, but +coming with his hands full of substantial gifts for the wearied +household of Abram, and the captive women that were with him. Of each of +the patriarchs we can tell the paternity; the date of his birth, and the +date of his death; but this man stands with none to claim him, he forms +no part of any series of links by which the oldest and the present times +are connected. Though possessed of the knowledge of the Most High God, +his name is not found in any of those genealogies which show us how that +knowledge passed from father to son. Of all the other great men whose +history is recorded a careful genealogy is given; but here the writer +breaks his rule, and breaks it where, had there not been substantial +reason, he would most certainly have adhered to it. For here is the +greatest man of the time, a man before whom Abram the father of the +faithful, the honoured of all nations, bowed and paid tithes; and yet he +appears and passes away likest to a vision of the night. Perhaps even in +his own time there was none that could point to the chamber where first +he was cradled, nor show the tent round which first he played in his +boyhood, nor hoard up a single relic of the early years of the man that +had risen to be the first man upon earth in those days. So that the +Apostle speaks of him as a very type of all that is mysterious and +abrupt in appearance and disappearance, "without father, without mother, +without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life," and +as he significantly adds, "made like unto the Son of God." For as +Melchizedek stands thus on the page of history, so our Lord in +reality--as the one has no recorded pedigree, and holds an office +beginning and ending in his own person, so our Lord, though born of a +woman, stands separate from sinners and quite out of the ordinary line +of generations, and exercises an office which he received hereditarily +from none, and which he could commit to no successor. As the one stands +apparently disconnected from all before and after him, so the Other in +point of fact did thus suddenly emerge from eternity, a problem to all +who saw Him; owning the authority of earthly parents, yet claiming an +antiquity greater than Abram's; appearing suddenly to the captivity led +captive, with His hands full of gifts, and His lips dropping words of +blessing. + +Melchizedek is the one personage on earth whom Abram recognises as his +spiritual superior. Abram accepts his blessing and pays him tithes; +apparently as priest of the Most High God; so that in paying to him, +Abram is giving the tenth of his spoils to God. This is not any mere +courtesy of private persons. It was done in presence of various parties +of jealously watchful retainers. Men of rank and office and position +_consider_ how they should act to one another and who should take +precedence. And Abram did deliberately and with a perfect perception of +what he was doing, whatever he now did. Manifestly therefore God's +revelation of Himself was not as yet confined to the one line running +from Abram to Christ. Here was a man of whom we really do not know +whether he was a Canaanite, a son of Ham or a son of Shem; yet Abram +recognises him as having knowledge of the true God, and even bows to him +as his spiritual superior in office if not in experience. This shows us +how little jealousy Abram had of others being favoured by God, how +little he thought _his_ connection with God would be less secure if +other men enjoyed a similar connection, and how heartily he welcomed +those who with different rites and different prospects yet worshipped +the living God. It shows us also how apt we are to limit God's ways of +working; and how little we understand of the connections He has with +those who are not situated as we ourselves are. Here while all our +attention is concentrated on Abram as carrying the whole spiritual hope +of the world, there emerges from an obscure Canaanite valley a man +nearer to God than Abram is. From how many unthought-of places such men +may at any time come out upon us, we really can never tell. + +Again Melchizedek is evidently a title, not a name--the word means King +of Righteousness, or Righteous King. It may have been a title adopted by +a line of kings, or it may have been peculiar to this one man. But these +old Canaanites, if Canaanites they were, had got hold of a great +principle when they gave this title to the king of their city of Salem +or Peace. They perceived that it was the righteousness, the justice, of +their king that could best uphold their peaceful city. They saw that the +right king for them was a man not grinding his neighbours by war and +taxes, not overriding the rights of others and seeking always +enlargement of his own dominion; nor a merely merciful man, inclined to +treat sin lightly and leaning always to laxity; but the man they would +choose to give them peace was the righteous man who might sometimes seem +overscrupulous, sometimes over-stern, who would sometimes be called +romantic and sometimes fanatical, but through all whose dealings it +would be obvious that justice to all parties was the aim in view. Some +of them might not be good enough to love a ruler who made no more of +their special interest than he did of others, but all would possibly +have wit enough to see that only by justice could they have peace. It is +the reflex of God's government in which righteousness is the foundation +of peace, a righteousness unflinching and invariable, promulgating holy +laws and exacting punishment from all who break them. It is this that +gives us hope of eternal peace, that we know God has not left out of +account facts that must yet be reckoned with, nor merely lulled the +unquiet forebodings of conscience, but has let every righteous law and +principle find full scope, has done righteously in offering us pardon so +that nothing can ever turn up to deprive us of our peace. And it is +quite in vain that any individual holds before his mind the prospect of +peace, _i.e._ of permanent satisfaction, so long as he is not seeking it +by righteousness. In so far as he is keeping his conscience from +interfering, in so far is he making it impossible to himself to enter +into the condition for the sake of which he is keeping conscience from +regulating his conduct. + +Lastly, Abram's refusal of the king of Sodom's offers is significant. +Naturally enough, and probably in accordance with well-established +usage, the king proposes that Abram should receive the rescued goods and +the spoil of the invading army. But Abram knew men, and knew that +although now Sodom was eager to show that he felt himself indebted to +Abram, the time would come when he would point to this occasion as +laying the foundation of Abram's fortune. When a man rises in the world +every one will tell you of the share he had in raising him, and will +convey the impression that but for assistance rendered by the speaker he +would not have been what he now is. Abram knows that he is destined to +rise, and knows also by Whose help he is to rise. He intends to receive +all from God; and therefore not a thread from Sodom. He puts his refusal +in the form adopted by the man whose mind is made up beyond revisal. He +has "vowed" it. He had anticipated such offers and had considered their +bearing on his relations to God and man; and taking advantage of the +unembarrassed season in which the offer was as yet only a possibility, +he had resolved that when it was actually made he would refuse it, no +matter what advantages it seemed to offer. So should we in our better +seasons and when we know we are viewing things healthily, +conscientiously, and righteously, determine what our conduct is to be, +and if possible so commit ourselves to it that when the right frame is +passed we cannot draw back from the right conduct. Abram had done so, +and however tempting the spoils of the Eastern kings were, they did not +move him. His vow had been made to the Possessor of heaven and earth, in +Whose hand were riches beyond the gifts of Sodom. + +Here again it is the man of faith that appears. He shows a noble +jealousy of God's prerogative to bless him. He will not give men +occasion to say that any earthly monarch has enriched him. It shall be +made plain that it is on God he is depending. In all men of faith there +will be something of this spirit. They cannot fail so to frame their +life as to let it come clearly out that for happiness, for success, for +comfort, for joy, they are in the main depending on God. That this +cannot be done in the complex life of modern society, no one will +venture to say in presence of this incident. Could we more easily have +shown our reliance upon God in the hurry of a sudden foray, in the +turmoil and intense action of a midnight attack and hand to hand +conflict, in the excitement and elation of a triumphal progress, the +kings of the country vying with one another to do us honour and the +rescued captives lauding our valour and generosity? No one fails to see +what it was that balanced Abram in this intoxicating march. No one asks +what enabled him, while leading his armed followers flushed with success +through a land weakened by recent dismay and disaster, to restrain them +and himself from claiming the whole land as his. No one asks what gave +him moral perception to see that the opportunity given him of winning +the land by the sword was a temptation not a guiding providence. To +every reader it is obvious that his dependence on God was his safeguard +and his light. God would bring him by fair and honourable means to his +own. There was no need of violence, no need of receiving help from +doubtful allies. This is true nobility; and this, faith always produces. +But it must be a faith like Abram's; not a quick and superficial growth, +but a deeply-rooted principle. For against all temptations this only is +our sure defence, that already our hearts are so filled with God's +promise that other offers find no craving in us, no empty dissatisfied +spot on which they can settle. To such faith God responds by the +elevating and strengthening assurance, "I am thy shield, and thy +exceeding great reward." + + + + +XI. + +_COVENANT WITH ABRAM._ + +GENESIS xv. + + +Of the nine Divine manifestations made during Abram's life this is the +fifth. At Ur, at Kharran, at the oak of Moreh, at the encampment between +Bethel and Ai, and now at Mamre, he received guidance and encouragement +from God. Different terms are used regarding these manifestations. +Sometimes it is said "The Lord appeared unto him;" here for the first +time in the course of God's revelation occurs that expression which +afterwards became normal, "The word of the Lord came unto Abram." +Throughout the subsequent history this word of the Lord continues to +come, often at long intervals, but always meeting the occasion and needs +of His people and joining itself on to what had already been declared, +until at last the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, giving thus to +all men assurance of the nearness and profound sympathy of their God. To +repeat this revelation is impossible. A repetition of it would be a +denial of its reality. For a second life on earth is allowed to no man; +and were our Lord to live a second human life it were proof He was no +true man, but an anomalous, unaccountable, uninstructive, appearance or +simulacrum of a man. + +But though these revelations of God are finished, though complete +knowledge of God is given in Christ, God comes to the individual still +through the Spirit Whose office it is to take of the things of Christ +and show them to us. And in doing so the law is observed which we see +illustrated here. God comes to a man with further encouragement and +light for a new step when he has conscientiously used the light he +already has. The temper that "seeks for a sign" and expects that some +astounding Providence should be sent to make us religious is by no means +obsolete. Many seem to expect that before they act on the knowledge they +have, they will receive more. They put off giving themselves to the +service of God under some kind of impression that some striking event or +much more distinct knowledge is required to give them a decided turn to +a religious life. In so doing they invert God's order. It is when we +have conscientiously followed such light as we have, and faithfully done +all that we know to be right, that God gives us further light. It was +immediately on the back of faithful action that Abram received new help +to his faith. + +The time was seasonable for other reasons. Never did Abram feel more in +need of such assurance. He had been successful in his midnight attack +and had scattered the force from beyond Euphrates, but he knew the +temper of these Eastern monarchs well enough to be aware that there was +nothing they hailed with greater pleasure than a pretext for extending +their conquests and adding to their territory. To Abram it must have +appeared certain that the next campaigning season would see his country +invaded and his little encampment swept away by the Eastern host. Most +appropriate, therefore, are the words: "Fear not, Abram: I am thy +shield." + +But another train of thoughts occupied Abram's mind perhaps even more +unceasingly at this time. After busy engagement comes dulness; after +triumph, flatness and sadness. I have pursued kings, got myself a great +name, led captivity captive. Men are speaking of me in Sodom, and +finding that in me they have a useful and important ally. But what is +all this to my purpose? Am I any nearer my inheritance? I have got all +that men might think I needed; they may be unable to understand why now, +of all times, I should seem heartless; but, O Lord, Thou knowest how +empty these things seem to me, and what wilt Thou give me? Abram could +not understand why he was kept so long waiting. The child given when he +was a hundred years old might equally have been given twenty-five years +before, when he first came to the land of Canaan. All Abram's servants +had their children, there was no lack of young men born in his +encampment. He could not leave his tent without hearing the shouts of +other men's children, and having them cling to his garments--but "to me +Thou hast given no seed; and lo! one born in mine house, a slave, is +mine heir." + +Thus it often is that while a man is receiving much of what is generally +valued in the world, the one thing he himself most prizes is beyond his +reach. He has his hope irremovably fixed on something which he feels +would complete his life and make him a thoroughly happy man; there is +one thing which, above all else, would be a right and helpful blessing +to him. He speaks of it to God. For years it has framed a petition for +itself when no other desire could make itself heard. Back and back to +this his heart comes, unable to find rest in anything so long as this is +withheld. He cannot help feeling that it is God who is keeping it from +him. He is tempted to say, "What is the use of all else to me, why give +me things Thou knowest I care little for, and reserve the one thing on +which my happiness depends?" As Abram might have said; "Why make me a +great name in the land, when there is no one to keep it alive in men's +memories; why increase my possessions when there is none to inherit but +a stranger?" + +Is there then any resulting benefit to character in this so common +experience of delayed expectations? In Abram's case there certainly was. +It was in these years he was drawn close enough to God to hear Him say, +"_I_ am thy exceeding great reward." He learned in the multitude of his +debatings about God's promise and the delay of its fulfilment, that God +was more than all His gifts. He had started as a mere hopeful colonist +and founder of a family; these twenty-five years of disappointment made +him the friend of God and the Father of the Faithful. Slowly do we also +pass from delight in God's gifts to delight in Himself, and often by a +similar experience. From what have you received truest and deepest +pleasure in life? Is it not from your friendships? Not from what your +friends have given you or done for you; rather from what you have done +for them; but chiefly from your affectionate intercourse. You, being +persons, must find your truest joy in persons, in personal love, +personal goodness and wisdom. But friendship has its crown in the +friendship of God. The man who knows God as his friend and is more +certain of God's goodness and wisdom and steadfastness than he can be of +the worth of the man he has loved and trusted and delighted in from his +boyhood, the man who is always accompanied by a latent sense of God's +observation and love, is truly living in the peace of God that passeth +understanding. This raises him above the touch of worldly losses and +restores him in all distresses, even to the surprise of observers; his +language is, "There may be many that will say, Who will show us any +good? Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us. _Thou_ +hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and +their wine increased." + +But evidently there was still another feeling in Abram's heart at this +particular point in his career. He could not bear to think he was to +miss that very thing which God had promised him. The keen yearning for +an heir which God's promise had stirred in him was not lost sight of in +the great saying, "_I_ am thy exceeding great reward." When he was +journeying back to his encampment not a shoestring richer than he left, +and while he heard his men, disappointed of booty, murmuring that he +should be so scrupulous, he cannot but have felt some soreness that he +should be set before his little world as a man who had the enjoyment +neither of this world's rewards nor of God. And here must have come the +strong temptation that comes to every man: Might it not be as well to +take what he could get, to enjoy what was put fairly within his reach, +instead of waiting for what seemed so uncertain as God's gift? It is +painful to be exposed to the observation of others or to our own +observation, as persons who, on the one hand, refuse to seek happiness +in the world's way, and yet are not finding it in God. You have possibly +with some magnanimity rejected a tempting offer because there were +conditions attached to which conscience could not reconcile itself; but +you find that you are in consequence suffering greater privations than +you expected and that no providential intervention seems to be made to +reward your conscientiousness. Or you suddenly become aware that though +you have for years refused to be mirthful or influential or successful +or comfortable in the world's way and on the world's terms, you are yet +getting no substitute for what you refuse. You will not join the world's +mirth, but then you are morose and have no joy of any kind. You will not +use means you disapprove of for influencing men, but neither have you +the influence of a strong Christian character. In fact by giving up the +world you seem to have contracted and weakened instead of enlarging and +deepening your life. + +In such a condition we can but imitate Abram and cast ourselves more +resolutely on God. If you find it most weary and painful to deny +yourself in these special ways which have fallen to be your experience, +you can but utter your complaint to God, assured that in Him you will +find consideration. He knows why He has called you, why He has given you +strength to abandon worldly hopes; He appreciates your adherence to Him +and He will renew your faith and hope. If day by day you are saying, +"Lead Thou me on," if you say, "What wilt Thou give me?" not in +complaint but in lively expectation, encouragement enough will be yours. + +The means by which Abram's faith was renewed were appropriate. He has +been seeing in the tumult and violence and disappointment of the world +much to suggest the thought that God's promise could never work itself +out in the face of the rude realities around him. So God leads him out +and points him to the stars, each one called by his name, and thus +reminds the Chaldaean who had so often gazed at and studied them in +their silent steady courses, that his God has designs of infinite sweep +and comprehension; that throughout all space His worlds obey His will +and all harmoniously play their part in the execution of His vast +design; that we and all our affairs are in a strong hand, but moving in +orbits so immense that small portions of them do not show us their +direction and may seem to be out of course. Abram is led out alone with +the mighty God, and to every saved soul there comes such a crisis when +before God's majesty we stand awed and humbled, all complaints hushed, +and indeed our personal interests disappear or become so merged in God's +purposes that we think only of Him; our mistakes and wrong-doing are +seen now not so much as bringing misery upon ourselves as interrupting +and perverting His purposes, and His word comes home to our hearts as +stable and satisfying. + +It was in this condition that Abram believed God, and He counted it to +him for righteousness. Probably if we read this without Paul's +commentary on it in the fourth of Romans, we should suppose it meant no +more than that Abram's faith, exercised as it was in trying +circumstances, met with God's cordial approval. The faith or belief here +spoken of was a resolute renewal of the feeling which had brought him +out of Chaldaea. He put himself fairly and finally into God's hand to be +blessed in God's way and in God's time, and this act of resignation, +this resolve that he would not force his own way in the world but would +wait upon God, was looked upon by God as deserving the name of +righteousness, just as much as honesty and integrity in his conduct with +Lot or with his servants. Paul begs us to notice that an act of faith +accepting God's favour is a very different thing from a work done for +the sake of winning God's favour. God's favour is always a matter of +grace, it is favour conferred on the undeserving; it is never a matter +of debt, it is never favour conferred because it has been won. To put +this beyond doubt he appeals to this righteousness of Abram's. How, he +asks, did Abram achieve righteousness? Not by observing ordinances and +commandments; for there were none to observe; but by trusting God, by +believing that already without any working or winning of his, God loved +him and designed blessedness for him, in short by referring his prospect +of happiness and usefulness wholly to God and not at all to himself. +This is the essential quality of the godly; and having this, Abram had +that root which produced all actual righteousness and likeness to God. + +It is sufficiently obvious in such a life as Abram's why faith is the +one thing needful. Faith is required because it is only when a man +believes God's promise and rests in His love that he can co-operate with +God in severing himself from iniquitous prospects and in so living for +spiritual ends as to enter the life and the blessedness God calls him +to. The boy who does not believe his father, when he comes to him in the +midst of his play and tells him he has something for him which will +please him still better, suffers the penalty of unbelief by losing what +his father would have given him. All missing of true enjoyment and +blessedness results from unbelief in God's promise. Men do not walk in +God's ways because they do not believe in God's ends. They do not +believe that spiritual ends are as substantial and desirable as those +that are physical. + +Abram's faith is easily recognised, because not only had he not wrought +for the blessing God promised him, but it was impossible for him even +to see how it could be achieved. That which God promised was apparently +quite beyond the reach of human power. It serves then as an admirable +illustration of the essence of faith; and Paul uses it as such. It is +not because faith is the root of all actual righteousness that Paul +describes it as "imputed for righteousness." It is because faith at once +gives a man possession of what no amount of working could ever achieve. +God now offers in Christ righteousness, that is to say, justification, +the forgiveness of sins and acceptance with God with all the fruits of +this acceptance, the indwelling Divine Spirit and life everlasting. He +offers this freely as he offered to Abram what Abram could never have +won for himself. And all that we are asked to do is to accept it. This +is all we are asked to do in order to our becoming the forgiven and +accepted children of God. After becoming so, there of course remains an +infinite amount of service to be rendered, of work to be done, of +self-discipline to be undergone. But in answer to the awakened sinner's +enquiry, "What must I do to be saved," Paul replies, "You are to _do_ +nothing; nothing you can do can win God's favour, because that favour is +already yours; nothing you can do can achieve the rectification of your +present condition, but Christ has achieved it. Believe that God is with +you and that Christ can deliver you and commit yourself cordially to the +life you are called to, hopeful that what is promised will be +fulfilled." + +Abram's faith cordial as it was, yet was not independent of some +sensible sign to maintain it. The sign given was twofold: the smoking +furnace and a prediction of the sojourn of Abram's posterity in Egypt. +The symbols were similar to those by which on other occasions the +presence of God was represented. Fire, cleansing, consuming, and +unapproachable, seemed to be the natural emblem of God's holiness. In +the present instance it was especially suitable, because the +manifestation was made after sundown and when no other could have been +seen. The cutting up of the carcases and passing between the pieces was +one of the customary forms of contract. It was one of the many devices +men have fallen upon to make sure of one another's word. That God should +condescend to adopt these modes of pledging Himself to men is +significant testimony to His love; a love so resolved on accomplishing +the good of men that it resents no slowness of faith and accommodates +itself to unworthy suspicions. It makes itself as obvious and pledges +itself with as strong guarantees to men as if it were the love of a +mortal whose feelings might change and who had not clearly foreseen all +consequences and issues. + +The prediction of the long sojourn of Abram's posterity in Egypt was not +only helpful to those who had to endure the Egyptian bondage, but also +to Abram himself. He no doubt felt the temptation, from which at no time +the Church has been free, to consider himself the favourite of heaven +before whose interests all other interests must bow. He is here taught +that other men's rights must be respected as well as his, and that not +one hour before absolute justice requires it, shall the land of the +Amorites be given to his posterity. And that man is considerably past +the rudimentary knowledge of God who understands that every act of God +springs from justice and not from caprice, and that no creature upon +earth is sooner or later unjustly dealt with, by the Supreme Ruler. In +the life of Abram it becomes visible, how, by living with God and +watching for every expression of His will, a man's knowledge of the +Divine nature enlarges; and it is also interesting to observe that +shortly after this he grounds all his pleading for Sodom on the truth he +had learned here: "Shall not the Judge of _all the earth_ do right?" + +The announcement that a long interval must elapse before the promise was +fulfilled must no doubt have been a shock to Abram; and yet it was +sobering and educative. It is a great step we take when we come clearly +to understand that God has a great deal to do with us before we can +fully inherit the promise. For God's promise, so far from making +everything in the future easy and bright, is that which above all else +discloses how stern a reality life is; how severe and thorough that +discipline must be which makes us capable of achieving God's purposes +with us. A horror of great darkness may well fall upon the man who +enters into covenant with God, who binds himself to that Being whom no +pain nor sacrifice can turn aside from the pursuance of aims once +approved. When we look forward and consider the losses, the privations, +the self-denials, the delays, the pains, the keen and real discipline, +the lowliness of the life to which fellowship with God leads men, +darkness and gloom and smoke darken our prospect and discourage us; but +the smoke is that which arises from a purifying fire that purges away +all that prevents us from living spiritually, a darkness very different +from that which settles over the life which amidst much present +brightness carries in it the consciousness that its course is downwards, +that the blows it suffers are deadening, that its sun is steadily +nearing its setting and that everlasting night awaits it. + +But over all other feelings this solemn transacting with God must have +produced in Abram a humble ecstasy of confidence. The wonderful mercy +and kindness of God in thus binding Himself to a weak and sinful man +cannot but have given him new thoughts of God and new thoughts of +himself. With fresh elevation of mind and superiority to ordinary +difficulties and temptations would he return to his tent that night. In +how different a perspective would all things stand to him now that the +Infinite God had come so near to him. Things which yesterday fretted or +terrified him seemed now remote: matters which had occupied his thought +he did not now notice or remember. He was now the Friend of God, taken +up into a new world of thoughts and hopes; hiding in his heart the +treasure of God's covenant, brooding over the infinite significance and +hopefulness of his position as God's ally. + +For indeed this was a most extraordinary and a most encouraging event. +The Infinite God drew near to Abram and made a contract with him. God as +it were said to him, I wish you to count upon Me, to make sure of Me: I +therefore pledge Myself by these accustomed forms to be your Friend. + +But it was not as an isolated person, nor for his own private interests +alone that Abram was thus dealt with by God. It was as a medium of +universal blessing that he was taken into covenant with God. The +kindness of God which he experienced was merely an intimation of the +kindness all men would experience. The laying aside of unapproachable +dignity and entrance into covenant with a man was the proclamation of +His readiness to be helpful to all and to bring Himself within reach of +all. That you may have a God at hand He thus brought Himself down to men +and human ways, that your life may not be vain and useless, dark and +misguided, and that you may find that you have a part in a well-ordered +universe in which a holy God cares for all and makes His strength and +wisdom available for all. Do not allow these intimations of His mercy to +go for nothing but use them as intended for your guidance and +encouragement. + + + + +XII. + +_BIRTH OF ISHMAEL._ + +GENESIS xvi. + + +In this unpretending chapter we have laid bare to us the origin of one +of the most striking facts in the history of religion: namely, that from +the one person of Abram have sprung Christianity and that religion which +has been and still is its most formidable rival and enemy, +Mohammedanism. To Ishmael, the son of Abram, the Arab tribes are proud +to trace their pedigree. Through him they claim Abram as their father, +and affirm that they are his truest representatives, the sons of his +first-born. In Mohammed, the Arabian, they see the fulfilment of the +blessing of Abram, and they have succeeded in persuading a large part of +the world to believe along with them. Little did Sarah think when she +persuaded Abram to take Hagar that she was originating a rivalry which +has run with keenest animosity through all ages and which oceans of +blood have not quenched. The domestic rivalry and petty womanish spites +and resentments so candidly depicted in this chapter, have actually +thrown on the world from that day to this one of its darkest and least +hopeful shadows. The blood of our own countrymen, it may be of our own +kindred, will yet flow in this unappeasable quarrel. So great a matter +does a little fire kindle. So lasting and disastrous are the issues of +even slight divergences from pure simplicity. + +It is instructive to observe how long this matter of obtaining an heir +for Abram occupies the stage of sacred history and in how many aspects +it is shown. The stage is rapidly cleared of whatever else might +naturally have invited attention, and interest is concentrated on the +heir that is to be. The risks run by the appointed mother, the doubts of +the father, the surrender now of the mother's rights,--all this is +trivial if it concerned only one household, important only when you view +it as significant for the race. It was thus men were taught thoughtfully +to brood upon the future and to believe that, though Divine, blessing +and salvation would spring from earth: man was to co-operate with God, +to recognise himself as capable of uniting with God in the highest of +all purposes. At the same time, this long and continually deferred +expectation of Abram was the simple means adopted by God to convince men +once for all that the promised seed is not of nature but of grace, that +it is God who sends all effectual and determining blessing, and that we +must learn to adapt ourselves to His ways and wait upon Him. + +The first man, then, whose religious experience and growth are recorded +for us at any length, has this one thing to learn, to trust God's word +and wait for it. In this everything is included. But gradually it +appears to us all that this is the great difficulty, to wait; to let God +take His own time to bless us. It is hard to believe in God's perfect +love and care when we are receiving no present comfort or peace; hard to +believe we shall indeed be sanctified when we seem to be abandoned to +sinful habit; hard to pass all through life with some pain, or some +crushing trouble, or some harassing anxiety, or some unsatisfied +craving. It is easy to start with faith, most trying to endure patiently +to the end. It is thus God educates His children. Compelled to wait for +some crowning gift, we cannot but study God's ways. It is thus we are +forced to look below the surface of life to its hidden meanings and to +construe God's dealings with ourselves apart from the experience of +other men. It is thus we are taught actually to loosen our hold of +things temporal and to lay hold on what is spiritual and real. He who +leaves himself in God's hand will one day declare that the pains and +sorrows he suffered were trifling in comparison with what he has won +from them. + +But Sarah could not wait. She seems to have fixed ten years as the +period during which she would wait; but at the expiry of this term she +considered herself justified in helping forward God's tardy providence +by steps of her own. One cannot severely blame her. When our hearts are +set upon some definite blessing, things seem to move too slowly and we +can scarcely refrain from urging them on without too scrupulously +enquiring into the character of our methods. We are willing to wait for +a certain time, but beyond that we must take the matter into our own +hand. This incident shows, what all life shows, that whatever be the +boon you seek, you do yourself an injury if you cease to seek it in the +best possible form and manner, and decline upon some lower thing which +you can secure by some easy stratagem of your own. + +The device suggested by Sarah was so common that the wonder is that it +had not long before been tried. Jealousy or instinctive reluctance may +have prevented her from putting it in force. She might no doubt have +understood that God, always working out His purposes in consistency +with all that is most honourable and pure in human conduct, requires of +no one to swerve a hair's breadth from the highest ideal of what a human +life should be, and that just in proportion as we seek the best gifts +and the most upright and pure path to them does God find it easy to +bless us. But in her case it was difficult to continue in this belief; +and at length she resolved to adopt the easy and obvious means of +obtaining an heir. It was unbelieving and foolish, but not more so than +our adoption of practices common in our day and in our business which we +know are not the best, but which we nevertheless make use of to obtain +our ends because the most righteous means possible do not seem workable +in our circumstances. Are you not conscious that you have sometimes used +a means of effecting your purpose, which you would shrink from using +habitually, but which you do not scruple to use to tide you over a +difficulty, an extraordinary device for an extraordinary emergency, a +Hagar brought in for a season to serve a purpose, not a Sarah accepted +from God and cherished as an eternal helpmeet. It is against this we are +here warned. From a Hagar can at the best spring only an Ishmael, while +in order to obtain the blessing God intends we must betake ourselves to +God's barren-looking means. + +The evil consequences of Sarah's scheme were apparent first of all in +the tool she made use of. Agur the son of Jakeh says: "For three things +the earth is disquieted, and for four which it cannot bear. For a +servant when he reigneth, and a fool when he is filled with meat; for an +odious woman when she is married, and an handmaid that is heir to her +mistress." Naturally this half-heathen girl, when she found that her +son would probably inherit all Abram's possessions, forgot herself, and +looked down on her present, nominal mistress. A flood of new fancies +possessed her vacant mind and her whole demeanour becomes insulting to +Sarah. The slave-girl could not be expected to sympathize with the +purpose which Abram and Sarah had in view when they made use of her. +They had calculated on finding only the unquestioning, mechanical +obedience of the slave, even while raising her practically to the +dignity of a wife. They had fancied that even to the deepest feelings of +her woman's heart, even in maternal hopes, she would be plastic in their +hands, their mere passive instrument. But they have entirely +miscalculated. The slave has feelings as quick and tender as their own, +a life and a destiny as tenaciously clung to as their God-appointed +destiny. Instead of simplifying their life they have merely added to it +another source of complexity and annoyance. It is the common fate of all +who use others to satisfy their own desires and purposes. The +instruments they use are never so soulless and passive as it is wished. +If persons cannot serve you without deteriorating in their own +character, you have no right to ask them to serve you. To use human +beings as if they were soulless machines is to neglect radical laws and +to inflict the most serious injury on our fellow-men. Mistresses who do +not treat their servants with consideration, recognising that they are +as truly women as themselves, with all a woman's hopes and feelings, and +with a life of their own to live, are committing a grievous wrong, and +evil will come of it. + +In such an emergency as now arose in Abram's household, character shows +itself clearly. Sarah's vexation at the success of her own scheme, her +recrimination and appeal for strange justice, her unjustifiable +treatment of Hagar, Abram's Bedouin disregard of the jealousies of the +women's tent, his Gallio-like repudiation of judgment in such quarrels, +his regretful vexation and shame that through such follies, mistakes, +and wranglings, God had to find a channel for His promise to flow--all +this discloses the painful ferment into which Abram's household was +thrown. Sarah's attempt to rid herself with a high hand of the +consequences of her scheme was signally unsuccessful. In the same +inconsiderate spirit in which she had put Hagar in her place, she now +forces her to flee, and fancies that she has now rid herself and her +household of all the disagreeable consequences of her experiment. She is +grievously mistaken. The slave comes back upon her hands, and comes back +with the promise of a son who should be a continual trouble to all about +him. All through Ishmael's boyhood Abram and Sarah had painfully to reap +the fruits of what they had sown. We only make matters worse when we +endeavour by injustice and harshness to crush out the consequences of +wrong-doing. The difficulties into which sin has brought us can only be +effectually overcome by sincere contrition and humiliation. It is not +all in a moment nor by one happy stroke you can rectify the sin or +mistake of a moment. If by your wise devices you have begotten young +Ishmaels, if something is every day grieving you and saying to you, +"This comes of your careless inconsiderate conduct in the past," then +see that in your vexation there is real penitence and not a mere +indignant resentment against circumstances or against other people, and +see that you are not actually continuing the fault which first gave +birth to your present sorrow and entanglement. + +When Hagar fled from her mistress she naturally took the way to her old +country. Instinctively her feet carried her to the land of her birth. +And as she crossed the desert country where Palestine, Egypt and Arabia +meet, she halted by a fountain, spent with her flight and awed by the +solitude and stillness of the desert. Her proud spirit is broken and +tamed, the fond memories of her adopted home and all its customs and +ways and familiar faces and occupations, overtake her when she pauses +and her heart reacts from the first excitement of hasty purpose and +reckless execution. To whom could she go in Egypt? Was there one there +who would remember the little slave girl or who would care to show her a +kindness? Has she not acted madly in fleeing from her only protectors? +The desolation around her depicts her own condition. No motion stirs as +far as her eye can reach, no bird flies, no leaf trembles, no cloud +floats over the scorching sun, no sound breaks the death-like quiet; she +feels as if in a tomb, severed from all life, forgotten of all. Her +spirit is breaking under this sense of desolation, when suddenly her +heart stands still as she hears a voice utter her own name "Hagar, +Sarai's maid." As readily as every other person when God speaks to them, +does Hagar recognise Who it is who has followed her into this blank +solitude. In her circumstances to hear the voice of God left no room for +disobedience. The voice of God made audible through the actual +circumstances of our daily life acquires a force and an authority we +never attached to it otherwise. + +Probably, too, Hagar would have gone back to Abram's tents at the +bidding of a less authoritative voice than this. Already she was +softening and repenting. She but needed some one to say, "Go back." You +may often make it easier for a proud man to do a right thing by giving +him a timely word. Frequently men stand in the position of Hagar, +knowing the course they ought to adopt and yet hesitating to adopt it +until it is made easy to them by a wise and friendly word. + +In the promise of a son which was here given to Hagar and the prediction +concerning his destiny, while there was enough to teach both her and +Abram that he was not to be the heir of the promise, there was also much +to gratify a mother's pride and be to Hagar a source of continual +satisfaction. The son was to bear a name which should commemorate God's +remembrance of her in her desolation. As often as she murmured it over +the babe or called it to the child or uttered it in sharp remonstrance +to the refractory boy, she was still reminded that she had a helper in +God who had heard and would hear her. The prediction regarding the child +has been strikingly fulfilled in his descendants; the three +characteristics by which they are distinguished being precisely those +here mentioned. "He will be a wild man," literally, "a wild ass among +men," reminding us of the description of this animal in Job: "Whose +house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwelling. He +scorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth he the crying of +the driver. The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth +after every green thing." Like the zebra that cannot be domesticated, +the Arab scorns the comforts of civilized life, and adheres to the +primitive dress, food, and mode of life, delighting in the sensation of +freedom, scouring the deserts, sufficient with his horse and spear for +every emergency. His hand also is against every man, looking on all as +his natural enemies or as his natural prey; in continual feud of tribe +against tribe and of the whole race against all of different blood and +different customs. And yet he "dwells in the presence of his brethren;" +though so warlike a temper would bode his destruction and has certainly +destroyed other races, this Ishmaelite stock continues in its own lands +with an uninterrupted history. In the words of an authoritative writer: +"They have roved like the moving sands of their deserts; but their race +has been rooted while the individual wandered. That race has neither +been dissipated by conquest, nor lost by migration, nor confounded with +the blood of other countries. They have continued to dwell in the +presence of all their brethren, a distinct nation, wearing upon the +whole the same features and aspects which prophecy first impressed upon +them." + +What struck Hagar most about this interview was God's presence with her +in this remote solitude. She awakened to the consciousness that duty, +hope, God, are ubiquitous, universal, carried in the human breast, not +confined to any place. Her hopes, her haughtiness, her sorrows, her +flight, were all known. The feeling possessed her which was afterwards +expressed by the Psalmist: "Thou knowest my down-sitting, and mine +uprising, Thou understandest my thoughts afar off. Thou compassest my +path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. Thou +tellest my wanderings; put Thou my tears in Thy bottle; are they not in +Thy book?" Even here where I thought to have escaped every eye, have I +been following and at length found Him that seeth me. As truly and even +more perceptibly than in Abram's tents, God is with her here in the +desert. To evade duty, to leave responsibility behind us, is impossible. +In all places we are God's children, bound to accept the +responsibilities of our nature. In all places God is with us, not only +to point out our duty but to give us the feeling that in adhering to +duty we adhere to Him, and that it is because He values us that He +presses duty upon us. With Him is no respect of persons; the servant is +in his sight as vivid a personality as the mistress, and God appears not +to the overbearing mistress but to the overborne servant. + +Happy they who when God has thus met them and sent them back on their +own footsteps, a long and weary return, have still been so filled with a +sense of God's love in caring for them through all their errors, that +they obey and return. All round about His people does God encamp, all +round about His flock does the faithful Shepherd watch and drive back +upon the fold each wanderer. Not only to those who are consciously +seeking Him does God reveal Himself, but often to us at the very +farthest point of our wandering, at our extremity, when another day's +journey would land us in a region from which there is no return. When +our regrets for the past become intolerably poignant and bitter; when we +see a waste of years behind us barren as the sand of the desert, with +nothing done but what should but cannot be undone; when the heart is +stupefied with the sense of its madness and of the irretrievable loss it +has sustained, or when we look to the future and are persuaded little +can grow up in it out of such a past, when we see that all that would +have prepared us for it has been lightly thrown aside or spent +recklessly for nought, when our hearts fail us, this is God besetting us +behind and before. And may He grant us strength to pray, "Show me Thy +ways, O Lord, teach me Thy paths. Lead me in Thy truth and teach me: +for Thou art the God of my salvation; on Thee do I wait all the day." + +The quiet glow of hopefulness with which Hagar returned to Abram's +encampment should possess the spirit of every one of us. Hagar's +prospects were not in all respects inviting. She knew the kind of +treatment she was likely to receive at the hands of Sarah. She was to be +a bondwoman still. But God had persuaded her of His care and had given +her a hope large enough to fill her heart. That hope was to be fulfilled +by a return to the home she had fled from, by a humbling and painful +experience. There is no person for whom God has not similar +encouragement. Frequently persons forget that God is in their life, +fulfilling His purposes. They flee from what is painful; they lose their +bearings in life and know not which way to turn; they do not fancy there +is help for them in God. Yet God is with them; by these very +circumstances that reduce them to desolateness and despair He leads them +to hope in Him. Each one of us has a place in His purpose; and that +place we shall find not by fleeing from what is distressing but by +submitting ourselves cheerfully to what He appoints. God's purpose is +real, and life is real, meant to accomplish not our present passing +pleasure, but lasting good in conformity with God's purpose. Be sure +that when you are bidden back to duties that seem those of a slave, you +are bidden to them by God, Whose purposes are worthy of Himself and +Whose purposes include you and all that concerns you. + +There are, I think, few truths more animating than this which is here +taught us, that God has a purpose with each of us; that however +insignificant we seem, however friendless, however hardly used, however +ousted even from our natural place in this world's households, God has a +place for us; that however we lose our way in life we are not lost from +His eye; that even when we do not think of choosing Him He in His +Divine, all-embracing love chooses us, and throws about us bonds from +which we cannot escape. Of Hagar many were complacently thinking it was +no great matter if she were lost, and some might consider themselves +righteous because they said she deserved whatever mishap might befall +her. But not so God. Of some of us, it may be, others may think no great +blank would be made by our loss; but God's compassion and care and +purpose comprehend the least worthy. The very hairs of your head are all +numbered by Him. Nothing is so trivial and insignificant as to escape +His attention, nothing so intractable that He cannot use it for good. +Trust in Him, obey Him, and your life will yet be useful and happy. + + + + +XIII. + +_THE COVENANT SEALED._ + +GENESIS xvii. + + +According to the dates here given fourteen years had passed since Abram +had received any intimation of God's will regarding him. Since the +covenant had been made some twenty years before, no direct communication +had been received; and no message of any kind since Ishmael's birth. It +need not, therefore, surprise us that we are often allowed to remain for +years in a state of suspense, uncertain about the future, feeling that +we need more light and yet unable to find it. All truth is not +discovered in a day, and if that on which we are to found for eternity +take us twenty years or a life's experience to settle it in its place, +why should we on this account be overborne with discouragement? They who +love the truth and can as little abstain from seeking it as the artist +can abstain from admiring what is lovely, will assuredly have their +reward. To be expectant yet not impatient, unsatisfied yet not +unbelieving, to hold mind and heart open, assured that light is sown for +the upright and that all that is has lessons for the teachable, this is +our proper attitude. + + Think you, 'mid all this mighty sum + Of things for ever speaking, + That nothing of itself will come, + But we must still be seeking? + +We appreciate the significance of a revelation in proportion as we +understand the state of mind to which it is made. Abram's state of mind +is disclosed in the exclamation: "Oh, that Ishmael might live before +Thee!" He had learned to love the bold, brilliant, domineering boy. He +saw how the men liked to serve him and how proud they were of the young +chief. No doubt his wild intractable ways often made his father anxious. +Sarah was there to point out and exaggerate all his faults and to +prognosticate mischief. But there he was, in actual flesh and blood, +full of life and interest in everything, daily getting deeper into the +affections of Abram, who allowed and could not but allow his own life to +revolve very much around the dashing, attractive lad. So that the +reminder that he was not the promised heir was not entirely welcome. +When he was told that the heir of promise was to be Sarah's child, he +could not repress the somewhat peevish exclamation: "Oh, that Ishmael +might serve Thy turn!" Why call me off again from this actual attainment +to the vague, shadowy, non-existent heir of promise, who surely can +never have the brightness of eye and force of limb and lordly ways of +this Ishmael? Would that what already exists in actual substance before +the eye might satisfy Thee and fulfil Thine intention and supersede the +necessity of further waiting! Must I again loosen my hold, and part with +my chief attainment? Must I cut my moorings and launch again upon this +ocean of faith with a horizon always receding and that seems absolutely +boundless? + +We are familiar with this state of mind. We wish God would leave us +alone. We have found a very attractive substitute for what He promises, +and we resent being reminded that our substitute is not, after all, the +veritable, eternal, best possession. It satisfies our taste, our +intellect, our ambition; it sets us on a level with other men and gives +us a place in the world; but now and again we feel a void it does not +fill. We have attained comfortable circumstances, success in our +profession, our life has in it that which attracts applause and sheds a +brilliance over it; and we do not like being told that this is not all. +Our feeling is Oh, that this might do! that this might be accepted as +perfect attainment! it satisfies me (all but a little bit); might it not +satisfy God? Why summon me again away from domestic happiness, +intellectual enjoyment, agreeable occupations, to what really seems so +unattainable as perfect fellowship with God in the fulfilment of His +promise? Why spend all my life in waiting and seeking for high spiritual +things when I have so much with which I can be moderately satisfied? For +our complaint often is not that God gives so little but that He offers +too much, more than we care to have: that He never will let us be +content with anything short of what perfectly fulfils His perfect love +and purpose. + +This being Abram's state of mind, he is aroused from it by the words: "I +am the Almighty God; walk before Me and be thou perfect." I am the +Almighty God, able to fulfil your highest hopes and accomplish for you +the brightest ideal that ever My words set before you. There is no need +of paring down the promise till it square with human probabilities, no +need of relinquishing one hope it has begotten, no need of adopting some +interpretation of it which may make it seem easier to fulfil, and no +need of striving to fulfil it in any second-rate way. All possibility +lies in this: I am the Almighty God. Walk before Me and be thou perfect, +therefore. Do not train your eye to earthly distances and earthly +magnitudes and limit your hope accordingly, but live in the presence of +the Almighty God. Do not defer the advices of conscience and of your +purest aspirations to some other possible world; do not settle down at +the low level of godless nature and of the men around you; do not give +way to what you yourself know to be weakness and evidence of defeat; do +not let self-indulgence take the place of My commandments, indolence +supplant resolution and the likelihoods of human calculation obliterate +the hopes stirred by the Divine call: Be thou perfect. Is not this a +summons that comes appropriately to every man? Whatever be our +contentment, our attainments, our possessions, a new light is shed upon +our condition when we measure it by God's idea and God's resources. Is +my life God's ideal? Does that which satisfies me satisfy Him? + +The purpose of God's present appearance to Abram was to renew the +covenant, and this He does in terms so explicit, so pregnant, so +magnificent that Abram must have seen more distinctly than ever that he +was called to play a very special part in God's providence. That kings +should spring from him, a mere pastoral nomad in an alien country, could +not suggest itself to Abram as a likely thing to happen. Indeed, though +a line of kings or two lines of kings did spring from him through Isaac, +the terms of the prediction seem scarcely exhausted by that fulfilment. +And accordingly Paul without hesitation or reserve transfers this +prediction to a spiritual region, and is at pains to show that the many +nations of whom Abram was to be the father, were not those who inherited +his blood, his natural appearance, his language and earthly inheritance, +but those who inherited his spiritual qualities and the heritage in God +to which his faith gave him entrance. And he argues that no difference +of race or disadvantages of worldly position can prevent any man from +serving himself heir to Abram, because the seed, to whom as well as to +Abram the promise was made, was Christ, and in Christ there is neither +Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free, but all are one. + +In connection then with this covenant in which God promised that He +would be a God to Abram and to his seed, two points of interest to us +emerge. First that Christ is Abram's heir. In His use of God's promise +we see its full significance. In His life-long appropriation of God we +see what God meant when He said, "I will be a God to thee and to thy +seed." We find our Lord from the first living as one who felt His life +encompassed by God, embraced and comprehended in that higher life which +God lives through all and in all. His life was all and whole a life in +God. He recognised what it is to have a God, one Whose will is supreme +and unerringly good, Whose love is constant and eternal, Who is the +first and the last, beyond Whom and from under Whom we can never pass. +He moved about in the world in so perfectly harmonious a correspondence +with God, so merging Himself in God and His purpose and with so +unhesitating a reliance upon Him, that He seemed and was but a +manifestation of God, God's will embodied, God's child, God expressing +Himself in human nature. He showed us once for all the blessedness of +true dependence, fidelity and faith. He showed us how that simple +promise 'I will be a God to thee,' received in faith, lifts the human +life into fellowship with all that is hopeful and inspiring, with all +that is purifying, with all that is real and abiding. + +But a second point is, that Jesus was the heir of Abram not merely +because He was his descendant, a Jew with all the advantages of the +Jew, but because, like Abram, He was full of faith. God was the +atmosphere of His life. But He claimed God not because He was Jewish, +but because He was human. Through the Jews God had made Himself known, +but it was to what was human not to what was Jewish He appealed. And it +was as Son of man not as son of Israel or of Adam that Jesus responded +to God and lived with Him as His God. Not by specially Jewish rites did +Jesus approach and rest in God, but by what is universal and human, by +prayer to the Father, by loving obedience, by faith and submission. And +thus we too may be joint-heirs with Christ and possess God. And if we +think of ourselves as left to struggle with natural defects amidst +irreversible natural laws; if we begin to pray very heartlessly, as if +He who once listened were now asleep or could do nothing; if our life +seems profitless, purposeless, and all unhinged; then let us look back +to this sure promise of God, that He will be our God: our God, for, if +Christ's God, then ours, for if we be Christ's then are we Abram's seed +and heirs according to the promise. How few in any given day are living +on this promise: how few attach reality to God's continuous revelation +of Himself, the reality in this world's transitory history: how few can +believe in the nearness and observance and love of God, how few can +strenuously seek to be holy or understand where abiding happiness is to +be found; for all these things are here. Yet who knocks at this door? +Who makes, as Christ made, his life a unity with God, undismayed, +unmurmuring, unreluctant, neither fearful of God nor disobedient, but +diligent, earnest, jubilant, because God has said, "I will be thy God." +Do you believe these things and can you forbear to use them? Do you +believe that it is open to you, whosoever you are, to have the Eternal +and Supreme God for your God, that He may use all His Divine nature in +your behalf; have you conceived what it is that God means when He +extends to you this offer, and can you decline to accept it, can you do +otherwise than cherish it and seek to find more and more in it every day +you live? + +Two seals were at this time affixed to the covenant: the one for Abram +himself, the other for every one who shared with him in his blessings of +the covenant. The first consisted in the change of his own name to +Abraham, "the father of a multitude," and of his wife's to Sarah, +"princess" or "queen," because she was now announced as the destined +mother of kings. And however Abraham would be annoyed to see the hardly +suppressed smile on the ironical faces of his men as he boldly commanded +them to call him by a name whose verification seemed so grievously to +lag; and however indignant and pained he may have been to hear the young +Ishmael jeering Sarah with her new name, and lending to it every tone of +mockery and using it with insolent frequency, yet Abraham knew that +these names were not given to deceive; and probably as the name of +Abraham has become one of the best known names on earth, so to himself +did it quickly acquire a preciousness as God's voice abiding with him, +God's promise renewed to him through every man that addressed him, until +at length the child of promise lying on his knees took up its first +syllable and called him "Abba." + +This seal was special to Abraham and Sarah, the other was public. All +who desired to partake with Abraham in the security, hope, and happiness +of having God as their God, were to submit to circumcision. This sign +was to determine who were included in the covenant. By this outward mark +encouragement and assurance of faith were to be quickened in the heart +of all Abraham's descendants. + +The mark chosen was significant. It was indeed not distinctive in its +outward form; so little so that at this day no fewer than one hundred +and fifty millions of the race make use of the same rite for one purpose +or other. All the descendants of Ishmael of course continue it, but also +all who have their religion, that is, all Mohammedans; but besides +these, some tribes in South America, some in Australia, some in the +South Sea Islands, and a large number of Kaffir tribes. The ancient +Egyptians certainly practised it, and it has been suggested that Abraham +may have become acquainted with the practice during his sojourn in +Egypt. It is however uncertain whether the practice in Egypt runs back +to so early a time. If it were an established Egyptian usage, then of +course Hagar would demand for her boy at the usual age the rite which +she had always associated with entrance on a new stage of life. But even +supposing this was the case, the rite was none the less available for +the new use to which it was now put. The rainbow existed before the +Flood; bread and wine existed before the night of the Lord's Supper; +baptisms of various kinds were practised before the days of the +Apostles. And for this very reason, when God desired a natural emblem of +the stability of the seasons He chose a striking feature of nature on +which men were already accustomed to look with pleasure and hope; when +He desired symbols of the body and blood of the Redeemer He took those +articles which already had a meaning as the most efficacious human +nutriment; when He desired to represent to the eye the renunciation of +the old life and the birth to a new life which we have by union with +Christ, He took that rite which was already known as the badge of +discipleship; and when He desired to impress men by symbol with the +impurity of nature and with our dependence on God for the production of +all acceptable life, He chose that rite which, whether used before or +not, did most strikingly represent this. + +With the significance of circumcision to other men who practise it, we +have here nothing to do. It is as the chief sacrament of the old +covenant, by which God meant to aid all succeeding generations of +Hebrews in believing that God was their God. And this particular mark +was given, rather than any other, that they might recognise and ever +remember that human nature was unable to generate its own Saviour, that +in man there is a native impurity which must be laid aside when he comes +into fellowship with the Holy God. And these circumcised races, although +in many respects as unspiritual as others, have yet in general perceived +that God is different from nature, a Holy Being to Whom we cannot attain +by any mere adherence to nature, but only by the aid He Himself extends +to us in ways for which nature makes no provision. The lesson of +circumcision is an old one and rudely expressed, but it is vital; and no +abhorrence of the circumcised for the uncircumcised too strongly, +however unjustly, emphasizes the distinction that actually subsists +between those who believe in nature and those who believe in God. + +The lesson is old, but the circumcision of the heart to which the +outward mark pointed, is ever required. That is the true seal of our +fellowship with God; the earnest of the Spirit which gives promise of +eternal union with the Holy One; the relentings, the shame, the +softening of heart, the adoration and reverence for the holiness of God, +the thirst for Him, the joy in His goodness, these are the first fruits +of the Spirit, which lead on to our calling God Father, and feeling that +to be alone with Him is our happiness. It is this putting aside of our +natural confidence in nature and absorption in nature, and this turning +to God as our confidence and our life, which constitutes the true +circumcision of the heart. + +Believing as Abraham was, he could not forbear smiling when God said +that Sarah would be the mother of the promised seed. This incredulity of +Abraham was so significant that it was commemorated in the name of +Isaac, the laugher. This heir was typical of all God's best gifts, at +first reckoned impossible, at last filling the heart with gladness. The +smile of incredulity became the laughter of joy when the child was born +and Sarah said, "God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will +laugh with me." It is they who expect things so incongruous and so +impossible to nature unaided that they smile even while they believe, +who will one day find their hopes fulfilled and their hearts running +over with joyful laughter. If your heart is fixed only on what you can +accomplish for yourself, no great joy can ever be yours. But frame your +actual hopes in accordance with the promise of God, expect holiness, +fulness of joy, animating partnership with God in the highest matters, +the resurrection of the dead, the life everlasting, and one day you will +say, "God hath made me to laugh." But Abraham prostrating himself to +hide a smile is the symbol of our common attitude. We profess to believe +in a God of unspeakable power and goodness, but even while we do so we +find it impossible to attach a sense of reality to His promises. They +are kindly, well-intentioned words, but are apparently spoken in neglect +of solid, obstinate facts. How hard is it for us to learn that God is +the great reality, and that the reality of all else may be measured by +its relation to Him. + +Sarah's laughter had a different meaning. Indeed Sarah does not appear +to have been by any means a blameless character. Her conduct towards +Hagar showed us that she was a woman capable of generous impulses but +not of the strain of continued magnanimous conduct. She was capable of +yielding her wifely rights on the impulse of the brilliant scheme that +had struck her, but like many other persons who can begin a magnanimous +or generous course of conduct, she could not follow it up to the end, +but failed disgracefully in her conduct towards her rival. So now again +she betrays characteristic weakness. When the strangers came to +Abraham's tent, and announced that she was to become a mother, she +smiled in superior, self-assured, woman's wisdom. When the promise +threatened no longer to hover over her household as a mere sublime and +exalting idea which serves its purpose if it keep them in mind that God +has spoken to them, but to take place now among the actualities of daily +occurrence, she hails this announcement with a laugh of total +incredulity. Whatever she had made of God's word, she had not thought it +was really and veritably to come to pass; she smiled at the simplicity +which could speak of such an unheard-of thing. + +This is true to human nature. It reminds you how you have dealt with +God's promises,--nay, with God's commandments--when they offered to make +room for themselves in the everyday life of which you are masters, +every detail of which you have arranged, seeming to know absolutely the +laws and principles on which your particular line of life must be +carried on. Have you never smiled at the simplicity which could set +about making actual, about carrying out in practical life, in society, +in work, in business, those thoughts, feelings and purposes, which God's +promises beget? Sarah did not laugh outright, but smiled behind the +Lord; she did not mock Him to His face, but let the compassionate +expression pass over her face with which we listen to the glowing hopes +of the young enthusiast who does not know the world. Have we not often +put aside God's voice precisely thus; saying within us, We know what +kind of things can be done by us and others and what need not be +attempted; we know what kind of frailties in social intercourse we must +put up with, and not seek to amend; what kind of practices it is vain to +think of abolishing; we know what use to make of God's promise and what +use not to make of it; how far to trust it, and how far to give greater +weight to our knowledge of the world and our natural prudence and sense? +Does not our faith, like Sarah's, vary in proportion as the promise to +be believed is unpractical? If the promise seems wholly to concern +future things, we cordially and devoutly assent; but if we are asked to +believe that God intends within the year to do so-and-so, if we are +asked to believe that the result of God's promise will be found taking a +substantial place among the results of our own efforts--then the +derisive smile of Sarah forms on our face. + +To look at the crowds of persons professing religion, one would suppose +nothing was commoner than faith. There is nothing rarer. Devoutness is +common; righteousness of life is common; a contempt for every kind of +fraud and underhand practice is common; a highminded disregard for this +world's gains and glories is common; an abhorrence of sensuality and an +earnest thirst for perfection are common--but faith? Will the Son of man +when He comes find it on earth? May not the messengers of God yet say, +Who hath believed our report? Why, the great majority of Christian +people have never been near enough to spiritual things to know whether +they are or are not, they have never narrowly weighed spiritual issues +and trembled as they watched the uncertain balance, they say they +believe God and a future of happiness because they really do not know +what they are talking about--they have not measured the magnitude of +these things. Faith is not a blind and careless assent to matters of +indifference, faith is not a state of mental suspense with a hope that +things may turn out to be as the Bible says. Faith is the firm +persuasion that these things are so. And he who at once knows the +magnitude of these things and believes that they are so, must be filled +with a joy that makes him independent of the world, with an enthusiasm +which must seem to the world like insanity. It is quite a different +world in which the man of faith lives. + + + + +XIV. + +_ABRAHAM'S INTERCESSION FOR SODOM._ + +GENESIS xviii. + + +The scene with which this chapter opens is one familiar to the observer +of nomad life in the East. During the scorching heat and glaring light +of noon, while the birds seek the densest foliage and the wild animals +lie panting in the thicket and everything is still and silent as +midnight, Abraham sits in his tent door under the spreading oak of +Mamre. Listless, languid, and dreamy as he is, he is at once aroused +into brightest wakefulness by the sudden apparition of three strangers. +Remarkable as their appearance no doubt must have been, it would seem +that Abraham did not recognise the rank of his visitors; it was, as the +writer to the Hebrews says, "unawares" that he entertained angels. But +when he saw them stand as if inviting invitation to rest, he treated +them as hospitality required him to treat any wayfarers. He sprang to +his feet, ran and bowed himself to the ground, and begged them to rest +and eat with him. With the extraordinary, and as it seems to our colder +nature extravagant courtesy of an Oriental, he rates at the very lowest +the comforts he can supply; it is only a little water he can give to +wash their feet, a morsel of bread to help them on their way, but they +will do him a kindness if they accept these small attentions at his +hands. He gives, however, much more than he offered, seeks out the +fatted calf and serves while his guests sit and eat. The whole scene is +primitive and Oriental, and "presents a perfect picture of the manner in +which a modern Bedawee Sheykh receives travellers arriving at his +encampment;" the hasty baking of bread, the celebration of a guest's +arrival by the killing of animal food not on other occasions used even +by large flock-masters; the meal spread in the open air, the black tents +of the encampment stretching back among the oaks of Mamre, every +available space filled with sheep, asses, camels,--the whole is one of +those clear pictures which only the simplicity of primitive life can +produce. + +Not only, however, as a suitable and pretty introduction which may +ensure our reading the subsequent narrative is it recorded how +hospitably Abraham received these three. Later writers saw in it a +picture of the beauty and reward of hospitality. It is very true, +indeed, that the circumstances of a wandering pastoral life are +peculiarly favourable to the cultivation of this grace. Travellers being +the only bringers of tidings are greeted from a selfish desire to hear +news as well as from better motives. Life in tents, too, of necessity +makes men freer in their manners. They have no door to lock, no inner +rooms to retire to, their life is spent outside, and their character +naturally inclines to frankness and freedom from the suspicions, fears, +and restraints of city life. Especially is hospitality accounted the +indispensable virtue, and a breach of it as culpable as a breach of the +sixth commandment, because to refuse hospitality is in many regions +equivalent to subjecting a wayfarer to dangers and hardships under +which he is almost certain to succumb. + + "This tent is mine," said Yussouf, "but no more + Than it is God's; come in, and be at peace; + Freely shalt thou partake of all my store, + As I of His Who buildeth over these + Our tents His glorious roof of night and day, + And at Whose door none ever yet heard Nay." + +Still we are of course bound to import into our life all the suggestions +of kindly conduct which any other style of living gives us. And the +writer to the Hebrews pointedly refers to this scene and says, "Let us +not be forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have +entertained angels unawares." And often in quite a prosaic and +unquestionable manner does it become apparent to a host, that the guest +he has been entertaining has been sent by God, an angel indeed +ministering to his salvation, renewing in him thoughts that had been +dying out, filling his home with brightness and life like the smile of +God's own face, calling out kindly feelings, provoking to love and to +good works, effectually helping him onwards and making one more stage of +his life endurable and even blessed. And it is not to be wondered at +that our Lord Himself should have continually inculcated this same +grace; for in His whole life and by His most painful experience were men +being tested as to who among them would take the stranger in. He who +became man for a little that He might for ever consecrate the dwelling +of Abraham and leave a blessing in his household, has now become man for +evermore, that we may learn to walk carefully and reverentially through +a life whose circumstances and conditions, whose little socialities and +duties, and whose great trials and strains He found fit for Himself for +service to the Father. This tabernacle of our human body has by His +presence been transformed from a tent to a temple, and this world and +all its ways that He approved, admired, and walked in, is holy ground. +But as He came to Abraham trusting to his hospitality, not sending +before him a legion of angels to awe the patriarch but coming in the +guise of an ordinary wayfarer; so did He come to His own and make His +entrance among us, claiming only the consideration which He claims for +the least of His people, and granting to whoever gave Him _that_ the +discovery of His Divine nature. Had there been ordinary hospitality in +Bethlehem that night before the taxing, then a woman in Mary's condition +had been cared for and not superciliously thrust among the cattle, and +our race had been delivered from the everlasting reproach of refusing +its God a cradle to be born and sleep His first sleep in, as it refused +Him a bed to die in, and left chance to provide Him a grave in which to +sleep His latest sleep. And still He is coming to us all requiring of us +this grace of hospitality, not only in the case of every one who asks of +us a cup of cold water and whom our Lord Himself will personate at the +last day and say, "_I_ was a stranger and ye took Me in;" but also in +regard to those claims upon our heart's reception which He only in His +own person makes. + +But while we are no doubt justified in gathering such lessons from this +scene, it can scarcely have been for the sake of inculcating hospitality +that these angels visited Abraham. And if we ask, Why did God on this +occasion use this exceptional form of manifesting Himself; why, instead +of approaching Abraham in a vision or in word as had been found +sufficient on former occasions, did He now adopt this method of +becoming Abraham's guest and eating with him?--the only apparent reason +is that He meant this also to be the test applied to Sodom. There too +His angels were to appear as wayfarers, dependent on the hospitality of +the town, and by the people's treatment of these unknown visitors their +moral state was to be detected and judged. The peaceful meal under the +oaks of Mamre, the quiet and confidential walk over the hills in the +afternoon when Abraham in the humble simplicity of a godly soul was +found to be fit company for these three--this scene where the Lord and +His messengers receive a becoming welcome and where they leave only +blessing behind them, is set in telling contrast to their reception in +Sodom, where their coming was the signal for the outburst of a brutality +one blushes to think of, and elicited all the elements of a mere hell +upon earth. + +Lot would fain have been as hospitable as Abraham. Deeper in his nature +than any other consideration was the traditional habit of hospitality. +To this he would have sacrificed everything--the rights of strangers +were to him truly inviolable. Lot was a man who could as little see +strangers without inviting them to his house as Abraham could. He would +have treated them handsomely as his uncle; and what he could do he did. +But Lot had by his choice of a dwelling made it impossible he should +afford safe and agreeable lodging to any visitor. He did his best, and +it was not his reception of the angels that sealed Sodom's doom, and yet +what shame he must have felt that he had put himself in circumstances in +which his chief virtue could not be practised. So do men tie their own +hands and cripple themselves so that even the good they would take +pleasure in doing is either wholly impossible or turns to evil. + +In divulging to Abraham His purpose in visiting Sodom, it is enounced +here that God acted on a principle which seems afterwards to have become +almost proverbial. Surely the Lord will do nothing but He revealeth His +secret unto His servants the prophets. There are indeed two grounds +stated for making known to Abraham this catastrophe. The reason that we +should naturally expect, viz. that he might go on and warn Lot is not +one of them. Why then make any announcement to Abraham if the +catastrophe cannot be averted, and if Abraham is to turn back to his own +encampment? The first reason is: "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing +which I do? _Seeing that Abraham_ shall surely become a great and mighty +nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him." In +other words, Abraham has been made the depository of a blessing for all +nations, and account must therefore be given to him when any people is +summarily removed beyond the possibility of receiving this blessing. If +a man has got a grant for the emancipation of the slaves in a certain +district, and is informed on landing to put this grant in force that +fifty slaves are to be executed that day, he has certainly a right to +know and he will inevitably desire to know that this execution is to be, +and why it is to be. When an officer goes to negotiate an exchange of +prisoners, if two of the number cannot be exchanged, but are to be shot, +he must be informed of this and account of the matter must be given him. +Abraham often brooding on God's promise, living indeed upon it, must +have felt a vague sympathy with all men, and a sympathy not at all +vague, but most powerful and practical with the men in the Jordan valley +whom he had rescued from Chedorlaomer. If he was to be a blessing to any +nation it must surely be to those who were within an afternoon's walk of +his encampment and among whom his nephew had taken up his abode. +Suppose he had not been told, but had risen next morning and seen the +dense cloud of smoke overhanging the doomed cities, might he not with +some justice have complained that although God had spoken to him the +previous day, not one word of this great catastrophe had been breathed +to him. + +The second reason is expressed in the nineteenth verse; God had chosen +Abraham that he might command his children and his household after him +to keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment that the Lord +might fulfil His promise to Abraham. That is to say, as it was only by +obedience and righteousness that Abraham and his seed were to continue +in God's favour, it was fair that they should be encouraged to do so by +seeing the fruits of unrighteousness. So that as the Dead Sea lay +throughout their whole history on their borders reminding them of the +wages of sin, they might never fail rightly to interpret its meaning, +and in every great catastrophe read the lesson "except ye repent ye +shall all likewise perish." They could never attribute to chance this +predicted judgment. And in point of fact frequent and solemn reference +was made to this standing monument of the fruit of sin. + +As yet there was no moral law proclaimed by any external authority. +Abraham had to discover what justice and goodness were from the dictates +of his own conscience and from his observation upon men and things. But +he was at all events persuaded that only so long as he and his sought +honestly to live in what they considered to be righteousness would they +enjoy God's favour. And they read in the destruction of Sodom a clear +intimation that certain forms of wickedness were detestable to God. + +The earnestness with which Abraham intercedes for the cities of the +plain reveals a new side of his character. One could understand a strong +desire on his part that Lot should be rescued, and no doubt the +preservation of Lot formed one of his strongest motives to intercede, +yet Lot is never named, and it is, I think, plain that he had more than +the safety of Lot in view. He prayed that the city might be spared, not +that the righteous might be delivered out of its ruin. Probably he had a +lively interest in the people he had rescued from captivity, and felt a +kind of protectorate over them as he sometimes looked down on them from +the hills near his own tents. He pleads for them as he had fought for +them, with generosity, boldness and perseverance; and it was his +boldness and unselfishness in fighting for them that gave him boldness +in praying for them. + +There has come into vogue in this country a kind of intercession which +is the exact reverse of this of Abraham--an obtuse, mechanical +intercession about whose efficacy one may cherish a reasonable +suspicion. The Bible and common sense bid us pray with the Spirit and +with the _understanding_; but at some meetings for prayer you are asked +to pray for people you do not know and have no real interest in. You are +not told even their names, so that if an answer is sent you could not +identify the answer, nor is any clue given you by which if God should +propose to use you for their help you could know where the help was to +be applied. For all you know the slip of paper handed in among a score +of others may misrepresent the circumstances; and even supposing it does +not, what likeness to the effectual fervent prayer of an anxious man has +the petition that is once read in your hearing and at once and for ever +blotted from your mind by a dozen others of the same kind. Not so did +Abraham pray: he prayed for those he knew and had fought for; and I see +no warrant for expecting that our prayers will be heard for persons +whose good we seek in no other way than prayer, in none of those ways +which in all other matters our conduct proves we judge more effectual +than prayer. When Lot was carried captive Abraham did not think it +enough to put a petition for him in his evening prayer. He went and +_did_ the needful thing, so that now when there is nothing else he can +do but pray, he intercedes, as few of us can without self-reproach or +feeling that had we only done our part there might now be no need of +prayer. What confidence can a parent have in praying for a son who is +going to a country where vice abounds, if he has done little or nothing +to infix in his boy's mind a love of virtue? In some cases the very +persons who pray for others are themselves the obstacles preventing the +answer. Were we to ask ourselves how much we are prepared to do for +those for whom we pray, we should come to a more adequate estimate of +the fervency and sincerity of our prayers. + +The element in Abraham's intercession that jars on the reader is the +trading temper that strives always to get the best possible terms. +Abraham seems to think God can be beaten down and induced to make +smaller and smaller demands. No doubt this style of prayer was suggested +to Abraham by the statement on God's part that He was going to Sodom to +see if its iniquity was so great as it was reported; that is, to number, +as it were, the righteous men in it. Abraham seizes upon this and asks +if He would not spare it if fifty were found in it. But Abraham knowing +Sodom as he did could not have supposed this number would be found. +Finding, then, that God meets him so far, he goes on step by step +getting larger in his demands, until when he comes to ten he feels that +to go farther would be intolerably presumptuous. Along with this +audacious beating down of God, there is a genuine and profound reverence +and humility which at each renewal of the petition dictate some such +expression as: "I who am but dust and ashes," "Let not my Lord be +angry." + +It is remarkable too that, throughout, it is for justice Abraham pleads, +and for justice of a limited and imperfect kind. He proceeds on the +assumption that the town will be judged as a town, and either wholly +saved or wholly destroyed. He has no idea of individual discrimination +being made, those only suffering who had sinned. And yet it is this +principle of discrimination on which God ultimately proceeds, rescuing +Lot. Yet is not this intercession the history of what every one who +prays passes through, beginning with the idea that God is to be won over +to more liberal views and a more munificent intention, and ending with +the discovery that God gives what we should count it shameless audacity +to ask? We begin to pray, + + "As if ourselves were better certainly + Than what we come to--Maker and High Priest" + +and we leave off praying assured that the whole is to be managed by a +righteousness and love and wisdom, which we cannot plan for, which any +love or desire of ours would only limit the action of, and which must be +left to work out its own purposes in its own marvellous ways. We begin, +feeling that we have to beat down a reluctant God and that we can guide +the mind of God to some better thing than He intends: when the answer +comes we recognise that what we set as the limit of our expectation God +has far over-stepped, and that our prayer has done little more than show +our inadequate conception of God's mercy. + +Not only in this respect but throughout this chapter there is betrayed +an inadequate conception of God. The language is adapted to the use of +men who are as yet unable to conceive of one Infinite, Eternal Spirit. +They think of Him as one who needs to come down and institute an inquiry +into the state of Sodom, if He is to know with accuracy the moral +condition of its inhabitants. We can freely use the same language, but +we put into it a meaning that the words do not literally bear: Abraham +and his contemporaries used and accepted the words in their literal +sense. And yet the man who had ideas of God in some respects so +rudimentary was God's Friend, received singular tokens of His favour, +found His whole life illuminated with His presence, and was used as the +point of contact between heaven and earth, so that if you desire the +first lessons in the knowledge of God which will in time grow into full +information, it is to the tent of Abraham, you must go. This surely is +encouraging; for who is not conscious of much difficulty in thinking +rightly of God? Who does not feel that precisely here, where the light +should be brightest, clouds and darkness seem to gather? It may indeed +be said that what was excusable in Abraham is inexcusable in us; that we +have that day, that full noon of Christ to which he could only, out of +the dusky dawn, look forward. But after all may not a man with some +justice say: Give me an afternoon with God, such as Abraham had; give me +the opportunity of converse with a God submitting Himself to question +and answer, to those means and instruments of ascertaining truth which I +daily employ in other matters, and I will ask no more? Christ has given +us entrance into the final stage of our knowledge of God, teaching us +that God is a Spirit and that we cannot see the Father; that Christ +Himself left earth and withdrew from the bodily eye that we might rely +more upon spiritual modes of apprehension and think of God as a Spirit. +But we are not at all times able to receive this teaching, we are +children still and fall back with longing for the times when God walked +and spoke with man. And this being so, we are encouraged by the +experience of Abraham. We shall not be disowned by God though we do not +know Him perfectly. We can but begin where we are, not pretending that +that is clear and certain to us which in fact is not so, but freely +dealing with God according to the light we have, hoping that we too, +like Abraham, shall see the day of Christ and be glad; shall one day +stand in the full light of ascertained and eternal truth, knowing as we +are known. + +In conclusion, we shall find when we read the following chapter, and +especially the prayer of Lot that he might not be driven to the wild +mountain district, but might occupy the little town of Zoar which was +saved for his sake--we shall find, that much light is reflected on this +prayer of Abraham. Without trenching on what may be more fitly spoken of +afterwards, it may now be observed that the difference between Lot and +Abraham, as between man and man generally, comes out nowhere more +strikingly than in their prayers. Abraham had never prayed for himself +with a tithe of the persistent earnestness with which he prays for +Sodom--a town which was much indebted to him, but towards which for +more reasons than one a smaller man would have borne a grudge. Lot, on +the other hand, much indebted to Sodom, identified indeed with it, one +of its leading citizens, connected by marriage with its inhabitants, is +in no agony about its destruction, and has indeed but one prayer to +offer, and that is, that when all his fellow-townsmen are destroyed, he +may be comfortably provided for. While the men he has bargained and +feasted with, the men he has made money out of and married his daughters +to, are in the agonies of an appalling catastrophe and so near that the +smoke of their torment sweeps across his retreat, he is so disengaged +from regrets and compassion that he can nicely weigh the comparative +comfort and advantage of city and rural life. One would have thought +better of the man if he had declined the angelic rescue and resolved to +stand by those in death whose society he had so coveted in life. And it +is significant that while the generous, large-hearted, devout pleading +of Abraham is in vain, the miserable, timorous, selfish petition of Lot +is heard and answered. It would seem as if sometimes God were hopeless +of men, and threw to them in contempt the gifts they crave, giving them +the poor stations in this life their ambition is set upon, because He +sees they have made themselves incapable of enduring hardness, and so +quelling their lower nature. An answered prayer is not always a +blessing, sometimes it is a doom: "He sent them meat to the full: but +while their meat was yet in their mouths, the wrath of God came upon +them and slew the fattest of them." + +Probably had Lot felt any inclination to pray for his townsmen he would +have seen that for him to do so would be unseemly. His circumstances, +his long association with the Sodomites, and his accommodation of +himself to their ways had both eaten the soul out of him and set him on +quite a different footing towards God from that occupied by Abraham. A +man cannot on a sudden emergency lift himself out of the circumstances +in which he has been rooted, nor peel off his character as if it were +only skin deep. Abraham had been living an unworldly life in which +intercourse with God was a familiar employment. His prayer was but the +seasonable flower of his life, nourished to all its beauty by the +habitual nutriment of past years. Lot in his need could only utter a +peevish, pitiful, childish cry. He had aimed all his life at being +comfortable, he could not now wish anything more than to be comfortable. +"Stand out of my sunshine," was all he could say, when he held by the +hand the plenipotentiary of heaven, and when the roar of the conflict of +moral good and evil was filling his ears--a decent man, a righteous man, +but the world had eaten out his heart till he had nothing to keep him in +sympathy with heaven. + +Such is the state to which men in our society, as in Sodom, are brought +by risking their spiritual life to make the most of this world. + + + + +XV. + +_DESTRUCTION OF THE CITIES OF THE PLAIN._ + +GENESIS xix. + + +While Abraham was pleading with the Lord the angels were pursuing their +way to Sodom. And in doing so they apparently observed the laws of those +human forms which they had assumed. They did not spread swift wings and +alight early in the afternoon at the gates of the city; but taking the +usual route, they descended from the hills which separated Abraham's +encampment from the plain of the Jordan, and as the sun was setting +reached their destination. In the deep recess which is found at either +side of the gateway of an Eastern city, Lot had taken his accustomed +seat. Wearied and vexed with the din of the revellers in the street, and +oppressed with the sultry doom-laden atmosphere, he was looking out +towards the cool and peaceful hills, purple with the sinking sun behind +them, and letting his thoughts first follow and then outrun his eye; he +was now picturing and longing for the unseen tents of Abraham, and +almost hearing the cattle lowing round at evening and all the old sounds +his youth had made familiar. + +He is recalled to the actual present by the footfall of the two men, and +little knowing the significance of his act, invites them to spend the +night under his roof. It has been observed that the historian seems to +intend to bring out the quietness and the ordinary appearance of the +entire circumstances. All goes on as usual. There is nothing in the +setting sun to say that for the last time it has shone on these rich +meadows, or that in twelve hours its rising will be dimmed by the smoke +of the burning cities. The ministers of so appalling a justice as was +here displayed enter the city as ordinary travellers. When a crisis +comes, men do not suddenly acquire an intelligence and insight they have +not habitually cultivated. They cannot suddenly put forth an energy nor +exhibit an apt helpfulness which only character can give. When the test +comes, we stand or fall not according to what we would wish to be and +now see the necessity of being, but according to what former +self-discipline or self-indulgence has made us. + +How then shall this angelic commission of enquiry proceed? Shall it call +together the elders of Sodom--or shall it take Lot outside the city and +cross-examine him, setting down names and dates and seeking to come to a +fair judgment. Not at all--there is a much surer way of detecting +character than by any process of examination by question and answer. To +each of us God says: + + "Since by its _fruit_ a tree is judged, + Show me thy fruit, the _latest act_ of thine! + For in the _last_ is summed the first, and all,-- + What thy life last put heart and soul into, + There shall I taste thy product." + +It is thus these angels proceed. They do not startle the inhabitants of +Sodom into any abnormal virtue nor present opportunity for any unwonted +iniquity. They give them opportunity to act in their usual way. Nothing +could well be more ordinary than the entrance to the city of two +strangers at sunset. There is nothing in this to excite, to throw men +off their guard, to overbalance the daily habit, or give exaggerated +expression to some special feature of character. It is thus we are all +judged--by the insignificant circumstances in which we act without +reflection, without conscious remembrance of an impending judgment, with +heart and soul and full enjoyment. + +First Lot is judged. Lot's character is a singularly mixed one. With all +his selfishness, he was hospitable and public-spirited. Lover of good +living, as undoubtedly he was, his courage and strength of character are +yet unmistakable. His sitting at the gate in the evening to offer +hospitality may fairly be taken as an indication of his desire to screen +the wickedness of his townsmen, and also to shield the stranger from +their brutality. From the style in which the mob addressed him, it is +obvious that he had made himself offensive by interfering to prevent +wrong-doing. He was nicknamed "the Censor," and his eye was felt to +carry condemnation. It is true there is no evidence that his opposition +had been of the slightest avail. How could it avail with men who knew +perfectly well that with all his denunciation of their wicked ways, he +preferred their money-making company to the desolation of the hills, +where he would be vexed with no filthy conversation, but would also find +no markets? Still it is to Lot's credit that in such a city, with none +to observe, none to applaud, and none to second him, he should have been +able to preserve his own purity of life and steadily to resist +wrong-doing. It would be cynical to say that he cultivated austerity and +renounced popular vices as a salve to a conscience wounded by his own +greed. + +That he had the courage which lies at the root of strength of character +became apparent as the last dark night of Sodom wore on. To go out among +a profligate, lawless mob, wild with passion and infuriated by +opposition--to go out and shut the door behind him--was an act of true +courage. His confidence in the influence he had gained in the town +cannot have blinded him to the temper of the raging crowd at his door. +To defend his unknown guests he put himself in a position in which men +have frequently lost life. + +In the first few hours of his last night in Sodom, there is much that is +admirable and pathetic in Lot's conduct. But when we have said that he +was bold and that he hated other men's sins, we have exhausted the more +attractive side of his character. The inhuman collectedness of mind with +which, in the midst of a tremendous public calamity, he could scheme for +his own private well-being is the key to his whole character. He had no +feeling. He was cold-blooded, calculating, keenly alive to his own +interest, with all his wits about him to reap some gain to himself out +of every disaster; the kind of man out of whom wreckers are made, who +can with gusto strip gold rings off the fingers of doomed corpses; out +of whom are made the villains who can rifle the pockets of their dead +comrades on a battlefield, or the politicians who can still ride on the +top of the wave that hurls their country on the rocks. When Abraham gave +him his choice of a grazing ground, no rush of feeling, no sense of +gratitude, prevented him from making the most of the opportunity. When +his house was assailed, he had coolness, when he went out to the mob, to +shut the door behind him that those within might not hear his bargain. +When the angel, one might almost say, was flurried by the impending and +terrible destruction, and was hurrying him away, he was calm enough to +take in at a glance the whole situation and on the spot make provision +for himself. There was no need to tell him not to look back as his wife +did: no deep emotion would overmaster him, no unconquerable longing to +see the last of his dear friends in Sodom would make him lose one second +of his time. Even the loss of his wife was not a matter of such +importance as to make him forget himself and stand to mourn. In every +recorded act of his life appears this same unpleasant characteristic. + +Between Lot and Judas there is an instructive similarity. Both had +sufficient discernment and decision of character to commit themselves to +the life of faith, abandoning their original residence and ways of life. +Both came to a shameful end, because the motive even of the sacrifices +they made was self-interest. Neither would have had so dark a career had +he more justly estimated his own character and capabilities, and not +attempted a life for which he was unfit. They both put themselves into a +false position; than which nothing tends more rapidly to deteriorate +character. Lot was in a doubly false position, because in Sodom as well +as in Abraham's shifting camp he was out of place. He voluntarily bound +himself to men he could not love. One side of his nature was paralysed; +and that the side which in him especially required development. It is +the influence of home life, of kindly surroundings, of friendships, of +congenial employment, of everything which evokes the free expression of +what is best in us; it is this which is a chief factor in the +development of every man. But instead of the genial and fertilising +influence of worthy friendships, and ennobling love, Lot had to pretend +good-will where he felt none, and deceit and coldness grew upon him in +place of charity. Besides, a man in a false position in life, out of +which he can by any sacrifice deliver himself, is never at peace with +God until he does deliver himself. And any attempt to live a righteous +life with an evil conscience is foredoomed to failure. + +And if it still be felt that Lot was punished with extreme severity, and +that if every man who chose a good grazing ground or a position in life +which was likely to advance his fortune were thereby doomed to end his +days in a cave and under the darkest moral brand, society would be quite +disintegrated, it must be remembered, that in order to advance his +interests in life, Lot sacrificed much that a man is bound by all means +to cherish; and further, it must be said that our destinies are thus +determined. The whole iniquity and final consequences of our disposition +are not laid before us in the mass; but to give the rein to any evil +disposition is to yield control of our own life and commit ourselves to +guidance which cannot result in good, and is of a nature to result in +utter shame and wretchedness. + +Turning from the rescued to the destroyed, we recognise how sufficient a +test of their moral condition the presence of the angels was. The +inhabitants of Sodom quickly afford evidence that they are ripe for +judgment. They do nothing worse than their habitual conduct led them to +do. It is not for this one crime they are punished; its enormity is only +the legible instance which of itself convicts them. They are not aware +of the frightful nature of the crime they seek to commit. They fancy it +is but a renewal of their constant practice. They rush headlong on +destruction and do not know it. How can it be otherwise? If a man _will +not_ take warning, if he will persist in sin, then the day comes when he +is betrayed into iniquity the frightful nature of which he did not +perceive, but which is the natural result of the life he has led. He +goes on and will not give up his sin till at last the final damning act +is committed which seals his doom. Character tends to express itself in +one perfectly representative act. The habitual passion, whatever it is, +is always alive and seeking expression. Sometimes one consideration +represses it, sometimes another; but these considerations are not +constant, while the passion is, and must therefore one day find its +opportunity--its opportunity not for that moderate, guarded, disguised +expression which passes without notice, but for the full utterance of +its very essence. So it was here, the whole city, small and great, young +and old, from every quarter came together unanimous and eager in +prosecuting the vilest wickedness. No further investigation or proof was +needed: it has indeed passed into a proverb: "they _declare_ their sin +as Sodom." + +To punish by a special commission of enquiry is quite unusual in God's +government. Nations are punished for immorality or for vicious +administration of law or for neglect of sanitary principles by the +operation of natural laws. That is to say, there is a distinctly +traceable connection between the crime and its punishment; the one being +the natural cause of the other. That nations should be weakened, +depopulated, and ultimately sink into insignificance, is the natural +result of a development of the military spirit of a country and the love +of glory. That a population should be decimated by cholera or small-pox +is the inevitable result of neglecting intelligible laws of health. It +seems to me absurd to put this destruction of Sodom in the same +category. The descent of meteoric stones from the sky is not the natural +result of immorality. The vices of these cities have disastrous national +results which are quite legibly written in some races existing in the +present day. We have here to do not with what is natural but with what +is miraculous. Of course it is open to any one to say, "It was merely +accidental--it was a mere coincidence that a storm of lightning so +violent as to set fire to the bituminous soil should rage in the valley, +while on the hills a mile or two off all was serene; it was a mere +coincidence that meteoric stones or some instrument of conflagration +should set on fire just these cities, not only one of them but four of +them, and no more." And certainly were there nothing more to go upon +than the fact of their destruction, this coincidence, however +extraordinary, must still be admitted as wholly natural, and having no +relation to the character of the people destroyed. It might be set down +as pure accident, and be classed with storms at sea, or volcanic +eruptions, which are due to physical causes and have no relation to the +moral character of those involved, but indiscriminately destroy all who +happen to be present. + +But we have to account not only for the fact of the destruction but for +its prediction both to Abraham and to Lot. Surely it is only reasonable +to allow that such prediction was supernatural; and the prediction being +so, it is also reasonable to accept the account of the event given by +the predicters of it, and understand it not as an ordinary physical +catastrophe, but as an event contrived with a view to the moral +character of those concerned, and intended as an infliction of +punishment for moral offences. And before we object to a style of +dealing with nations so different from anything we now detect, we must +be sure that a quite different style of dealing was not at that time +required. If there is an intelligent training of the world, it must +follow the same law which requires that a parent deal in one way with +his boy of ten and in another with his adult son. + +Of Lot's wife the end is recorded in a curt and summary fashion. "His +wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt." The +angel, knowing how closely on the heels of the fugitives the storm would +press, had urgently enjoined haste, saying, "Look not behind thee, +neither stay thou in all the plain." Rapid in its pursuit as a prairie +fire, it was only the swift who could escape it. To pause was to be +lost. The command, "Look not behind thee" was not given because the +scene was too awful to behold for what men can endure, men may behold, +and Abraham looked upon it from the hill above. It was given simply from +the necessity of the case and from no less practical and more arbitrary +reason. Accordingly when the command was neglected, the consequence was +felt. Why the infatuated woman looked back one can only conjecture. The +woful sounds behind her, the roar of the flame and of Jordan driven +back, the crash of falling houses and the last forlorn cry of the doomed +cities, all the confused and terrific din that filled her ear, may well +have paralysed her and almost compelled her to turn. But the use our +Lord makes of her example shows us that He ascribed her turning to a +different motive. He uses her as a warning to those who seek to save out +of the destruction more than they have time to save, and so lose all. +"He which shall be on the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him +not come down to take it away; and he that is in the field, let him +likewise not return back. Remember Lot's wife." It would seem, then, as +if our Lord ascribed her tragic fate to her reluctance to abandon her +household stuff. She was a wife after Lot's own heart, who in the midst +of danger and disaster had an eye to her possessions. The smell of fire, +the hot blast in her hair, the choking smoke of blazing bitumen, +suggested to her only the thought of her own house decorations, her +hangings, and ornaments, and stores. She felt keenly the hardship of +leaving so much wealth to be the mere food of fire. The thought of such +intolerable waste made her more breathless with indignation than her +rapid flight. Involuntarily as she looks at the bleak, stony mountains +before her, she thinks of the rich plain behind; she turns for one last +look, to see if it is impossible to return, impossible to save anything +from the wreck. The one look transfixes her, rivets her with dismay and +horror. Nothing she looked for can be seen; all is changed in wildest +confusion. Unable to move, she is overtaken and involved in the +sulphurous smoke, the bitter salts rise out of the earth and stifle her +and encrust around her and build her tomb where she stands. + +Lot's wife by her death proclaims that if we crave to make the best of +both worlds, we shall probably lose both. Her disposition is not rare +and exceptional as the pillar of salt which was its monument. She is not +the only woman whose heart is so fixedly set upon her household +possessions that she cannot listen to the angel-voices that would guide +her. Are there none but Lot's wife who show that to them there is +nothing so important, nothing else indeed to live for at all, but the +management of a house and the accumulation of possessions? If all who +are of the same mind as Lot's wife shared her fate the world would +present as strange a spectacle as the Dead Sea presents at this day. For +radically it was her divided mind which was her ruin. She had good +impulses, she saw what she ought to do, but she did not do it with a +mind made up. Other things divided her thoughts and diverted her +efforts. What else is it ruins half the people who suppose themselves +well on the way of life? The world is in their heart; they cannot pursue +with undivided mind the promptings of a better wisdom. Their heart is +with their treasure, and their treasure is really not in spiritual +excellence, not in purity of character, not in the keen bracing air of +the silent mountains where God is known, but in the comforts and gains +of the luxurious plain behind. + +We are to remember Lot's wife that we may bear in mind how possible it +is that persons who promise well and make great efforts and bid fair to +reach a place of safety may be overtaken by destruction. We can perhaps +tell of exhausting effort, we may have outstripped many in practical +repentance, but all this may only be petrified by present carelessness +into a monument recording how nearly a man may be saved and yet be +destroyed. "Have ye suffered all these things in vain, if it be yet in +vain?" "Ye have run well, what now hinders you?" The question always is, +not, what have you done, but what are you now doing? Up to the site of +the pillar, Lot's wife had done as well as Lot, had kept pace with the +angels; but her failure at that point destroyed her. + +The same urgency may not be felt by all; but it should be felt by all to +whose conscience it has been distinctly intimated that they have become +involved in a state of matters which is ruinous. If you are conscious +that in your life there are practices which may very well issue in moral +disaster, an angel has taken you by the hand and bid you flee. For you +to delay is madness. Yet this is what people will do. Sagacious men of +the world, even when they see the probability of disaster, cannot bear +to come out with loss. They will always wait a little longer to see if +they cannot rescue something more, and so start on a fresh course with +less inconvenience. They will not understand that it is better to live +bare and stripped with a good conscience and high moral achievement, +than in abundance with self-contempt. What they have, always seems more +to them than what they are. + + + + +XVI. + +_SACRIFICE OF ISAAC._ + +GENESIS xxii. + + +The sacrifice of Isaac was the supreme act of Abraham's life. The faith +which had been schooled by so singular an experience and by so many +minor trials was here perfected and exhibited as perfect. The strength +which he had been slowly gathering during a long and trying life was +here required and used. This is the act which shines like a star out of +those dark ages, and has served for many storm-tossed souls over whom +God's billows have gone, as a mark by which they could still shape their +course when all else was dark. The devotedness which made the sacrifice, +the trust in God that endured when even such a sacrifice was demanded, +the justification of this trust by the event, and the affectionate +fatherly acknowledgment with which God gloried in the man's loyalty and +strength of character--all so legibly written here--come home to every +heart in the time of its need. Abraham has here shown the way to the +highest reach of human devotedness and to the heartiest submission to +the Divine will in the most heart-rending circumstances. Men and women +living our modern life are brought into situations which seem as +torturing and overwhelming as those of Abraham, and all who are in such +conditions find, in his loyal trust in God, sympathetic and effectual +aid. + +In order to understand God's part in this incident and to remove the +suspicion that God imposed upon Abraham as a duty what was really a +crime, or that He was playing with the most sacred feelings of His +servant, there are one or two facts which must not be left out of +consideration. In the first place, Abraham did not think it wrong to +sacrifice his son. His own conscience did not clash with God's command. +On the contrary, it was through his own conscience God's will impressed +itself upon him. No man of Abraham's character and intelligence could +suppose that any word of God could make that right which was in itself +wrong, or would allow the voice of conscience to be drowned by some +mysterious voice from without. If Abraham had supposed that in all +circumstances it was a crime to take his son's life, he could not have +listened to any voice that bade him commit this crime. The man who in +our day should put his child to death and plead that he had a Divine +warrant for it would either be hanged or confined as insane. No miracle +would be accepted as a guarantee for the Divine dictation of such an +act. No voice from heaven would be listened to for a moment, if it +contradicted the voice of the universal conscience of mankind. But in +Abraham's day the universal conscience had only approbation to express +for such a deed as this. Not only had the father absolute power over the +son, so that he might do with him what he pleased; but this particular +mode of disposing of a son would be considered singular only as being +beyond the reach of ordinary virtue. Abraham was familiar with the idea +that the most exalted form of religious worship was the sacrifice of the +first-born. He felt, in common with godly men in every age, that to +offer to God cheap sacrifices while we retain for ourselves what is +truly precious, is a kind of worship that betrays our low estimate of +God rather than expresses true devotion. He may have been conscious that +in losing Ishmael he had felt resentment against God for depriving him +of so loved a possession; he may have seen Canaanite fathers offering +their children to gods he knew to be utterly unworthy of any sacrifice; +and this may have rankled in his mind until he felt shut up to offer his +all to God in the person of his son, his only son, Isaac. At all events, +however it became his conviction that God desired him to offer his son, +this was a sacrifice which was in no respect forbidden by his own +conscience. + +But although not wrong in Abraham's judgment, this sacrifice was wrong +in the eye of God; how then can we justify God's command that He should +make it? We justify it precisely on that ground which lies patent on the +face of the narrative--God meant Abraham to make the sacrifice in +spirit, not in the outward act; He meant to write deeply on the Jewish +mind the fundamental lesson regarding sacrifice, that it is in the +spirit and will all true sacrifice is made. God intended what actually +happened, that Abraham's sacrifice should be complete and that human +sacrifice should receive a fatal blow. So far from introducing into +Abraham's mind erroneous ideas about sacrifice, this incident finally +dispelled from his mind such ideas and permanently fixed in his mind the +conviction that the sacrifice God seeks is the devotion of the living +soul not the consumption of a dead body. God met him on the platform of +knowledge and of morality to which he had attained, and by requiring him +to sacrifice his son taught him and all his descendants in what sense +alone such sacrifice can be acceptable. God meant Abraham to sacrifice +his son, but not in the coarse material sense. God meant him to yield +the lad truly to Him; to arrive at the consciousness that Isaac more +truly belonged to God than to him, his father. It was needful that +Abraham and Isaac should be in perfect harmony with the Divine will. +Only by being really and absolutely in God's hand could they, or can any +one, reach the whole and full good designed for them by God. + +How old Isaac was at the time of this sacrifice there is no means of +accurately ascertaining. He was probably in the vigour of early manhood. +He was able to take his share in the work of cutting wood for the burnt +offering and carrying the faggots a considerable distance. It was +necessary too that this sacrifice should be made on Isaac's part not +with the timorous shrinking or ignorant boldness of a boy, but with the +full comprehension and deliberate consent of maturer years. It is +probable that Abraham was already preparing, if not to yield to Isaac +the family headship, yet to introduce him to a share in the +responsibilities he had so long borne alone. From the touching +confidence in one another which this incident exhibits, a light is +reflected on the fond intercourse of former years. Isaac was at that +time of life when a son is closest to a father, mature but not +independent; when all that a father can do has been done, but while as +yet the son has not passed away into a life of his own. + +And Isaac was no ordinary son. The man of business who has encouraged +and solaced himself in his toil by the hope that his son will reap the +fruit of it and make his old age easy and honoured, but who outlives +his son and sees the effort of his life go for nothing; the proprietor +who bears an ancient name and sees his heir die--these are familiar +objects of pathetic interest, and no heart is so hard as to refuse a +tear of sympathy when brought into view of such heart-withering +bereavements. But in Abraham all fatherly feelings had been evoked and +strengthened and deepened by a quite peculiar experience. By a special +and most effectual discipline he had been separated from the objects +which ordinarily divide men's attention and eke out their contentment in +life, and his whole hopes had been compelled to centre in his son. It +was not the perpetuation of a name nor the transmission of a well-known +and valuable property; it was not even the gratification of the most +justifiable and tender of human affections, that was crushed and +thwarted in Abraham by this command; but it was also and especially that +hope which had been aroused and fostered in him by extraordinary +providences and which concerned, as he believed, not himself alone but +all men. + +Manifestly no harder task could have been set to Abraham, than that +which was imposed on him by the command, "Take now thy son, thine only +son, Isaac, whom thou lovest," this son of thine in whom all the +promises are yea and amen to thee, this son for whose sake thou gavest +up home and kindred, and banished thy firstborn Ishmael, this son whom +thou lovest, and offer him for a burnt-offering. This son, Abraham might +have said, whom I have been taught to cherish, putting aside all other +affections that I might love him above all, I am now with my own hand to +slay, to slay with all the terrible niceties and formalities of +sacrifice _and with all the love and adoration of sacrifice_. I am with +my own hand to destroy all that makes life valuable to me, and as I do +so I am to love and worship Him who commands this sacrifice. I am to go +to Isaac, whom I have taught to look forward to the fairest happiest +life, and I am to contradict all I ever told him and tell him now that +he has only grown to maturity that he might be cut down in the flush and +hope of opening manhood. What can Abraham have thought? Possibly the +thought would occur that God was now recalling the great gift He had +made. There is always enough conscience of sin in the purest human heart +to engender self-reproach and fear on the faintest occasion; and when so +signal a token of God's displeasure as this was sent, Abraham may well +have believed himself to have been unwittingly guilty of some great +crime against God, or have now thought with bitterness of the languid +devotion he had been offering Him. I have in sacrificing a lamb been as +if I had been cutting off a dog's neck, profane and thoughtless in my +worship, and now God is solemnising me indeed. I have in thought or +desire kept back the prime of my flock, and God is now teaching me that +a man may not rob God. Who could have been surprised if in this horror +of great darkness the mind of Abraham had become unhinged? Who could +wonder if he had slain _himself_ to make the loss of Isaac impossible? +Who could wonder if he had sullenly ignored the command, waited for +further light, or rejected an alliance with God which involved such +lamentable conditions? Nothing that could befall him in consequence of +disobedience, he might have supposed, could exceed in pain the agony of +obedience. And it is always easier to endure the pain inflicted upon us +by circumstances than to do with our own hand and free will what we know +will involve us in suffering. It is not mere resignation but active +obedience that was required of Abraham. His was not the passive +resignation of the man out of whose reach death or disaster has swept +his dearest treasures, and who is helped to resignation by the +consciousness that no murmuring can bring them back--his was the far +more difficult active resignation, which has still in possession all +that it prizes, and may withhold these treasures if it pleases, but is +called by a higher voice than that of self-pleasing to sacrifice them +all. + +But though Abraham was the chief, he was not the sole actor in this +trying scene. To Isaac this was the memorable day of his life, and +quiescent and passive as his character seems to have been, it cannot but +have been stirred and strained now in every fibre of it. Abraham could +not find it in his heart to disclose to his son the object of the +journey; even to the last he kept him unconscious of the part he was +himself to play. Two long days' journey, days of intense inward +commotion to Abraham, they went northward. On the third day the servants +were left, and father and son went on alone, unaccompanied and +unwitnessed. "So they went," as the narrative twice over says, "both of +them together," but with minds how differently filled; the father's +heart torn with anguish, and distracted by a thousand thoughts, the +son's mind disengaged, occupied only with the new scenes and with +passing fancies. Nowhere in the narrative does the completeness of the +mastery Abraham had gained over his natural feelings appear more +strikingly than in the calmness with which he answers Isaac's question. +As they approach the place of sacrifice Isaac observes the silent and +awe-struck demeanour of his father, and fears that it may have been +through absence of mind he has neglected to bring the lamb. With a +gentle reverence he ventures to attract Abraham's attention: "My +father;" and he said, "Here am I, my son." And he said, "Behold the fire +and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" It is one of +those moments when only the strongest heart can bear up calmly and when +only the humblest faith has the right word to say. "My son, the Lord +will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering." + +Not much longer could the terrible truth be hidden from Isaac. With what +feelings must he have seen the agonised face of his father as he turned +to bind him and as he learned that he must prepare not to sacrifice but +to be sacrificed. Here then was the end of those great hopes on which +his youth had been fed. What could such contradiction mean? Was he to +submit even to his father in such a matter? Why should he not +expostulate, resist, flee? Such ideas seem to have found short +entertainment in the mind of Isaac. Trained by long experience to trust +his father, he obeys without complaint or murmur. Still it cannot cease +to be matter of admiration and astonishment that a young man should have +been able on so brief a notice, through so shocking a way, and with so +startling a reversal of his expectations, to forego all right to choose +for himself, and yield himself implicitly to what he believed to be +God's will. By a faith so absolute Isaac became indeed the heir of +Abraham. When he laid himself on the altar, trusting his father and his +God, he came of age as the true seed of Abraham and entered on the +inheritance, making God his God. At that supreme moment he made himself +over to God, he put himself at God's disposal; if his death was to be +helpful in fulfilling God's purpose he was willing to die. It was God's +will that must be done, not his. He knew that God could not err, could +not harm His people; he was ignorant of the design which his death could +fulfil, but he felt sure that his sacrifice was not asked in vain. He +had familiarised himself with the thought that he belonged to God; that +he was on earth for God's purposes not for his own; so that now when he +was suddenly summoned to lay himself formally and finally on God's +altar, he did not hesitate to do so. He had learned that there are +possessions more worth preserving than life itself, that + + "Manhood is the one immortal thing + Beneath Time's changeful sky"-- + +he had learned that "length of days is knowing when to die." + +No one who has measured the strain that such sacrifice puts upon human +nature can withhold his tribute of cordial admiration for so rare a +devotedness, and no one can fail to see that by this sacrifice Isaac +became truly the heir of Abraham. And not only Isaac, but every man +attains his majority by sacrifice. Only by losing our life do we begin +to live. Only by yielding ourselves truly and unreservedly to God's +purpose do we enter the true life of men. The giving up of self, the +abandonment of an isolated life, the bringing of ourselves into +connection with God, with the Supreme and with the whole, this is the +second birth. To reach that full stream of life which is moved by God's +will and which is the true life of men, we must so give ourselves up to +God, that each of His commandments, each of His providences, all by +which He comes into connection with us, has its due effect upon us. If +we only seek from God help to carry out our own conception of life, if +we only desire His power to aid us in making of this life what we have +resolved it shall be, we are far indeed from Isaac's conception of God +and of life. But if we desire that God fulfil in us, and through us His +own conception of what our life should be, the only means of attaining +this desire is to put ourselves fairly into God's hand, unflinchingly to +do what we believe to be His will irrespective of present darkness and +pain and privation. He who thus bids an honest farewell to earth and +lets himself be bound and laid upon God's altar, is conscious that in +renouncing himself he has won God and become His heir. + +Have you thus given yourselves to God? I do not ask if your sacrifice +has been perfect, nor whether you do not ever seek great things still +for yourselves; but do you know what it is thus to yield yourself to +God, to put God first, yourself second or nowhere? Are you even +occasionally quite willing to sink your own interests, your own +prospects, your own native tastes, to have your own worldly hopes +delayed or blighted, your future darkened? Have you even brought your +intellect to bear upon this first law of human life, and determined for +yourself whether it is the case or not that man's life, in order to be +profitable, joyful, and abiding, must be lived in God? Do you recognise +that human life is not for the individual's good, but for the common +good, and that only in God can each man find his place and his work? All +that we give up to Him we have in an ampler form. The very affections +which we are called to sacrifice are purified and deepened rather than +lost. When Abraham resigned his son to God and received him back, their +love took on a new delicacy and tenderness. They were more than ever to +one another after this interference of God. And He meant it to be so. +Where our affections are thwarted or where our hopes are blasted, it is +not our injury, but our good, that is meant, a fineness and purity, an +eternal significance and depth, are imparted to affections that are +annealed by passing through the fire of trial. + +Not till the last moment did God interpose with the gladdening words, +"Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him; for +now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, +thine only son, from Me." The significance of this was so obvious that +it passed into a proverb: "In the mount of the Lord it shall be +provided." It was there, and not at any earlier point, Abraham saw the +provision that had been made for an offering. Up to the moment when he +lifted the knife over all he lived for, it was not seen that other +provision was made. Up to the moment when it was indubitable that both +he and Isaac were obedient unto death, and when in will and feeling they +had sacrificed themselves, no substitute was visible, but no sooner was +the sacrifice complete in spirit than God's provision was disclosed. It +was the spirit of sacrifice, not the blood of Isaac, that God desired. +It was the noble generosity of Abraham that God delighted in, not the +fatherly grief that would have followed the actual death of Isaac. It +was the heroic submission of father and son that God saw with delight, +rejoicing that men were found capable of the utmost of heroism, of +patient and unflinching adherence to duty. At any point short of the +consummation, interposition would have come too soon, and would have +prevented this educative and elevating display of the capacity of men +for the utmost that life can require of them. Had the provision of God +been made known one minute before the hand of Abraham was raised to +strike, it would have remained doubtful whether in the critical moment +one or other of the parties might not have failed. But when the +sacrifice was complete, when already the bitterness of death was past, +when all the agonizing conflict was over, the anguish of the father +mastered, and the dismay of the son subdued to perfect conformity with +the supreme will, then the full reward of victorious conflict was given, +and God's meaning flashed through the darkness, and His provision was +seen. + +This is the universal law. We find God's provision only on the mount of +sacrifice, not at any stage short of this, but only there. We must go +the whole way in faith; what lies before us as duty, we must do; often +in darkness and utter misery, seeing no possibility of escape or relief, +we must climb the hill where we are to abandon all that has given joy +and hope to our life; and not before the sacrifice has been actually +made can we enter into the heaven of victory God provides. You may be +called to sacrifice your youth, your hopes of a career, your affections, +that you may uphold and soothe the lingering days of one to whom you are +naturally bound. Or your whole life may have centred in an affection +which circumstances demand you shall abandon; you may have to sacrifice +your natural tastes and give up almost everything you once set your +heart on; and while to others the years bring brightness and variety and +scope, to you they may be bringing only monotonous fulfilment of insipid +and uncongenial tasks. You may be in circumstances which tempt you to +say, Does God see the inextricable difficulty I am in? Does He estimate +the pain I must suffer if immediate relief do not come? Is obedience to +Him only to involve me in misery from which other men are exempt? You +may even say that although a substitute was found for Isaac, no +substitute has been found for the sacrifice you have had to make, but +you have been compelled actually to lose what was dear to you as life +itself. But when the character has been fully tried, when the utmost +good to character has been accomplished, and when delay of relief would +only increase misery, then relief comes. Still the law holds good, that +as soon as you in spirit yield to God's will, and with a quiet +submissiveness consent to the loss or pain inflicted upon you, in that +hour your whole attitude to your circumstances is transformed, you find +rest and assured hope. Two things are certain: that, however painful +your condition is, God's intention is not to injure, but to advance you, +and that hopeful submission is wiser, nobler, and every way better than +murmuring and resentment. + +Finally, these words, "The Lord will provide," which Abraham uttered in +that exalted frame of mind which is near to the prophetic ecstasy, have +been the burden sung by every sincere and thoughtful worshipper as he +ascended the hill of God to seek forgiveness of his sin, the burden +which the Lord's worshipping congregation kept on its tongue through all +the ages, till at length, as the angel of the Lord had opened the eyes +of Abraham to see the ram provided, the voice of the Baptist "crying in +the wilderness" to a fainting and well-nigh despairing few turned their +eye to God's great provision with the final announcement, "Behold the +Lamb of God." Let us accept this as a motto which we may apply, not only +in all temporal straits, when we can see no escape from loss and misery, +but also in all spiritual emergency, when sin seems a burden too great +for us to bear, and when we seem to lie under the uplifted knife of +God's judgment. Let us remember that God's desire is not that we suffer +pain, but that we learn obedience, that we be brought to that true and +thorough confidence in Him which may fit us to fulfil His loving +purposes. Let us, above all, remember that we cannot know the grace of +God, cannot experience the abundant provision He has made for weak and +sinful men, until we have climbed the mount of sacrifice and are able to +commit ourselves wholly to Him. Not by attacking our manifold enemies +one by one, nor by attempting the great work of sanctification +piecemeal, shall we ever make much growth or progress, but by giving +ourselves up wholly to God and by becoming willing to live in Him and as +His. + + + + +XVII. + +_ISHMAEL AND ISAAC._ + +GEN. xxi., xxii. + + "Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a + freewoman. * * * Which things are an allegory."--GALATIANS iv. 22. + + "Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his + son."--GENESIS xxii. 10. + + +In the birth of Isaac, Abraham at length sees the long-delayed +fulfilment of the promise. But his trials are by no means over. He has +himself introduced into his family the seeds of discord and disturbance, +and speedily the fruit is borne. Ishmael, at the birth of Isaac, was a +lad of fourteen years, and, reckoning from Eastern customs, he must have +been over sixteen when the feast was made in honour of the weaned child. +Certainly he was quite old enough to understand the important and not +very welcome alteration in his prospects which the birth of this new son +effected. He had been brought up to count himself the heir of all the +wealth and influence of Abraham. There was no alienation of feeling +between father and son: no shadow had flitted over the bright prospect +of the boy as he grew up; when suddenly and unexpectedly there was +interposed between him and his expectation the effectual barrier of this +child of Sarah's. The importance of this child to the family was in due +course indicated in many ways offensive to Ishmael; and when the feast +was made, his spleen could no longer be repressed. This weaning was the +first step in the direction of an independent existence, and this would +be the point of the feast in celebration. The child was no longer a mere +part of the mother, but an individual, a member of the family. The hopes +of the parents were carried forward to the time when he should be quite +independent of them. + +But in all this there was great food for the ridicule of a thoughtless +lad. It was precisely the kind of thing which could easily be mocked +without any great expenditure of wit by a boy of Ishmael's age. The too +visible pride of the aged mother, the incongruity of maternal duties +with ninety years, the concentration of attention and honours on so +small an object,--all this was, doubtless, a temptation to a boy who had +probably at no time too much reverence. But the words and gestures which +others might have disregarded as childish frolic, or, at worst, as the +unseemly and ill-natured impertinence of a boy who knew no better, stung +Sarah, and left a poison in her blood that infuriated her. "Cast out +that bondwoman and her son," she demanded of Abraham. Evidently she +feared the rivalry of this second household of Abraham, and was resolved +it should come to an end. The mocking of Ishmael is but the violent +concussion that at last produces the explosion, for which material has +long been laid in train. She had seen on Abraham's part a clinging to +Ishmael, which she was unable to appreciate. And though her harsh +decision was nothing more than the dictate of maternal jealousy, it did +prevent things from running on as they were until even a more painful +family quarrel must have been the issue. + +The act of expulsion was itself unaccountably harsh. There was nothing +to prevent Abraham sending the boy and his mother under an escort to +some safe place; nothing to prevent him from giving the lad some share +of his possessions sufficient to provide for him. Nothing of this kind +was done. The woman and the boy were simply put to the door; and this, +although Ishmael had for years been counted Abraham's heir, and though +he was a member of the covenant made with Abraham. There may have been +some law giving Sarah absolute power over her maid; but if any law gave +her power to do what was now done, it was a thoroughly barbarous one, +and she was a barbarous woman who used it. + +It is one of those painful cases in which one poor creature, clothed +with a little brief authority, stretches it to the utmost in vindictive +maltreatment of another. Sarah happened to be mistress, and, instead of +using her position to make those under her happy, she used it for her +own convenience, for the gratification of her own spite, and to make +those beneath her conscious of her power by their suffering. She +happened to be a mother, and instead of bringing her into sympathy with +all women and their children, this concentrated her affection with a +fierce jealousy on her own child. She breathed freely when Hagar and +Ishmael were fairly out of sight. A smile of satisfied malice betrayed +her bitter spirit. No thought of the sufferings to which she had +committed a woman who had served her well for years, who had yielded +everything to her will, and who had no other natural protector but her, +no glimpses of Abraham's saddened face, visited her with any relentings. +It mattered not to her what came of the woman and the boy to whom she +really owed a more loving and careful regard than to any except Abraham +and Isaac. It is a story often repeated. One who has been a member of +the household for many years is at last dismissed at the dictate of some +petty pique or spite as remorselessly and inhumanly as a piece of old +furniture might be parted with. Some thoroughly good servant, who has +made sacrifices to forward his employer's interest, is at last, through +no offence of his own, found to be in his employer's way, and at once +all old services are forgotten, all old ties broken, and the authority +of the employer, legal but inhuman, is exercised. It is often those who +can least defend themselves who are thus treated; no resistance is +possible, and also, alas! the party is too weak to face the wilderness +on which she is thrown out, and if any cares to follow her history, we +may find her at the last gasp under a bush. + +Still, both for Abraham and for Ishmael it was better this severance +should take place. It was grievous to Abraham; and Sarah saw that for +this very reason it was necessary. Ishmael was his first-born, and for +many years had received the whole of his parental affection: and, +looking on the little Isaac, he might feel the desirableness of keeping +another son in reserve, lest this strangely-given child might as +strangely pass away. Coming to him in a way so unusual, and having +perhaps in his appearance some indication of his peculiar birth, he +might seem scarcely fit for the rough life Abraham himself had led. On +the other hand, it was plain that in Ishmael were the very qualities +which Isaac was already showing that he lacked. Already Abraham was +observing that with all his insolence and turbulence there was a natural +force and independence of character which might come to be most useful +in the patriarchal household. The man who had pursued and routed the +allied kings could not but be drawn to a youth who already gave promise +of capacity for similar enterprises--and this youth his own son. But can +Abraham have failed to let his fancy picture the deeds this lad might +one day do at the head of his armed slaves? And may he not have dreamt +of a glory in the land not altogether such as the promise of God +encouraged him to look for, but such as the tribes around would +acknowledge and fear? All the hopes Abraham had of Ishmael had gained +firm hold of his mind before Isaac was born; and before Isaac grew up, +Ishmael must have taken the most influential place in the house and +plans of Abraham. His mind would thus have received a strong bias +towards conquest and forcible modes of advance. He might have been led +to neglect, and, perhaps, finally despise, the unostentatious blessings +of heaven. + +If, then, Abraham was to become the founder, not of one new warlike +power in addition to the already too numerous warlike powers of the +East, but of a religion which should finally develop into the most +elevating and purifying influence among men, it is obvious that Ishmael +was not at all a desirable heir. Whatever pain it gave to Abraham to +part with him, separation in some form had become necessary. It was +impossible that the father should continue to enjoy the filial affection +of Ishmael, his lively talk, and warm enthusiasm, and adventurous +exploits, and at the same time concentrate his hope and his care on +Isaac. He had, therefore, to give up, with something of the sorrow and +self-control he afterwards underwent in connection with the sacrifice of +Isaac, the lad whose bright face had for so many years shone in all his +paths. And in some such way are we often called to part with prospects +which have wrought themselves very deep into our spirit, and which, +indeed, just because they are very promising and seductive, have become +dangerous to us, upsetting the balance of our life, and throwing into +the shade objects and purposes which ought to be outstanding. And when +we are thus required to give up what we were looking to for comfort, for +applause, and for profit, the voice of God in its first admonition +sometimes seems to us little better than the jealousy of a woman. Like +Sarah's demand, that none should share with her son, does the +requirement seem which indicates to us that we must set nothing on a +level with God's direct gifts to us. We refuse to see why we may not +have all the pleasures and enjoyments, all the display and brilliance +that the world can give. We feel as if we were needlessly restricted. +But this instance shows us that when circumstances compel us to give up +something of this kind which we have been cherishing, room is given for +a better thing than itself to grow. + +For Ishmael himself, too, wronged as he was in the mode of his +expulsion, it was yet far better that he should go. Isaac _was_ the true +heir. No jeering allusions to his late birth or to his appearance could +alter that fact. And to a temper like Ishmael's it was impossible to +occupy a subordinate, dependent position. All he required to call out +his latent powers was to be thrown thus on his own resources. The daring +and high spirit and quickness to take offence and use violence, which +would have wrought untold mischief in a pastoral camp, were the very +qualities which found fit exercise in the desert, and seemed there only +in keeping with the life he had to lead. And his hard experience at +first would at his age do him no harm, but good only. To be compelled to +face life single-handed at the age of sixteen is by no means a fate to +be pitied. It was the making of Ishmael, and is the making of many a lad +in every generation. + +But the two fugitives are soon reminded that, though expelled from +Abraham's tents and protection, they are not expelled from his God. +Ishmael finds it true that when father and mother forsake him, the Lord +takes him up. At the very outset of his desert life he is made conscious +that God is still his God, mindful of his wants, responsive to his cry +of distress. It was not through Ishmael the promised seed was to come, +but the descendants of Ishmael had every inducement to retain faith in +the God of Abraham, who listened to their father's cry. The fact of +being excluded from certain privileges did not involve that they were to +be excluded from all privileges. God still "heard the voice of the lad, +and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven." + +It is this voice of God to Hagar that so speedily, and apparently once +for all, lifts her out of despair to cheerful hope. It would appear as +if her despair had been needless; at least from the words addressed to +her, "What aileth thee, Hagar?" it would appear as if she might herself +have found the water that was close at hand, if only she had been +disposed to look for it. But she had lost heart, and perhaps with her +despair was mingled some resentment, not only at Sarah, but at the whole +Hebrew connection, including the God of the Hebrews, who had before +encouraged her. Here was the end of the magnificent promise which that +God had made her before her child was born--a helpless human form +gasping its life away without a drop of water to moisten the parched +tongue and bring light to the glazing eyes, and with no easier couch +than the burning sand. Was it for this, the bitterest drop that, apart +from sin, can be given to any parent to drink, she had been brought from +Egypt and led through all her past? Had her hopes been nursed by means +so extraordinary only that they might be so bitterly blighted? Thus she +leapt to her conclusions, and judged that because her skin of water had +failed God had failed her too. No one can blame her, with her boy dying +before her, and herself helpless to relieve one pang of his suffering. +Hitherto in the well-furnished tents of Abraham she had been able to +respond to his slightest desire. Thirst he had never known, save as the +relish to some boyish adventure. But now, when his eyes appeal to her in +dying anguish, she can but turn away in helpless despair. She cannot +relieve his simplest want. Not for her own fate has she any tears, but +to see her pride, her life and joy, perishing thus miserably, is more +than she can bear. + +No one can blame, but every one may learn from her. When angry +resentment and unbelieving despair fill the mind, we may perish of +thirst in the midst of springs. When God's promises produce no faith, +but seem to us so much waste paper, we are necessarily in danger of +missing their fulfilment. When we ascribe to God the harshness and +wickedness of those who represent Him in the world, we commit moral +suicide. So far from the promises given to Hagar being now at the point +of extinction, this was the first considerable step towards their +fulfilment. When Ishmael turned his back on the familiar tents, and +flung his last gibe at Sarah, he was really setting out to a far richer +inheritance, so far as this world goes, than ever fell to Isaac and his +sons. + +But the chief use Paul makes of this entire episode in the history is to +see in it an allegory, a kind of picture made up of real persons and +events, representing the impossibility of law and gospel living +harmoniously together, the incompatibility of a spirit of service with a +spirit of sonship. Hagar, he says, is in this picture the likeness of +the law given from Sinai, which gendereth to bondage. Hagar and her son, +that is to say, stand for the law and the kind of righteousness produced +by the law,--not superficially a bad kind; on the contrary, a +righteousness with much dash and brilliance and strong manly force about +it, but at the root defective, faulty in its origin, springing from the +slavish spirit. And first Paul bids us notice how the free-born is +persecuted and mocked by the slave-born, that is, how the children of +God who are trying to live by love and faith in Christ are put to shame +and made uneasy by the law. They believe they are God's dear children, +that they are loved by Him, and may go out and in freely in His house as +their own home, using all that is His with the freedom of His heirs; but +the law mocks them, frightens them, tells them _it_ is God's first-born, +law lying far back in the dimness of eternity, coeval with God Himself. +It tells them they are puny and weak, scarcely out of their mother's +arms, tottering, lisping creatures, doing much mischief, but none of the +housework, at best only getting some little thing to pretend to work at. +In contrast to their feeble, soft, unskilled weakness, it sets before +them a finely-moulded, athletic form, becoming disciplined to all work, +and able to take a place among the serviceable and able-bodied. But with +all this there is in that puny babe a life begun which will grow and +make it the true heir, dwelling in the house and possessing what it has +not toiled for, while the vigorous, likely-looking lad must go into the +wilderness and make a possession for himself with his own bow and spear. + +Now, of course, righteousness of life and character, or perfect manhood, +is the end at which all that we call salvation aims, and that which can +give us the purest, ripest character is salvation for us; that which can +make us, for all purposes, most serviceable and strong. And when we are +confronted with persons who might speak of service we cannot render, of +an upright, unfaltering carriage we cannot assume, of a general human +worthiness we can make no pretension to, we are justly perturbed, and +should regain our equanimity only under the influence of the most +undoubted truth and fact. If we can honestly say in our hearts, +"Although we can show no such work done, and no such masculine growth, +yet we have a life in us which is of God, and will grow;" if we are sure +that we have the spirit of God's children, a spirit of love and +dutifulness, we may take comfort from this incident. We may remind +ourselves that it is not he who has at the present moment the best +appearance who always abides in the father's home, but he who is by +birth the heir. Have we or have we not the spirit of the Son? not +feeling that we must every evening make good our claim to another +night's lodging by showing the task we have accomplished, but being +conscious that the interests in which we are called to work are our own +interests, that we are heirs in the father's house, so that all we do +for the house is really done for ourselves. Do we go out and in with +God, feeling no need of His commands, our own eye seeing where help is +required, and our own desires being wholly directed towards that which +engages all His attention and work? + +For Paul would have each of us apply, allegorically, the words, Cast out +the bondwoman and her son, that is, cast out the legal mode of earning a +standing in God's house, and with this legal mode cast out all the +self-seeking, the servile fear of God, the self-righteousness, and the +hard-heartedness it engenders. Cast out wholly from yourself the spirit +of the slave, and cherish the spirit of the son and heir. The slave-born +may seem for a while to have a firm footing in the father's house, but +it cannot last. The temper and tastes of Ishmael are radically different +from those of Abraham, and when the slave-born becomes mature, the wild +Egyptian strain will appear in his character. Moreover, he looks upon +the goods of Abraham as plunder; he cannot rid himself of the feeling of +an alien, and this would, at length, show itself in a want of frankness +with Abraham--slowly, but surely, the confidence between them would be +worn out. Nothing but being a child of God, being born of the Spirit, +can give the feeling of intimacy, confidence, unity of interest, which +constitutes true religion. All we do as slaves goes for nothing; that is +to say, all we do, not because we see the good of it, but because we are +commanded; not because we have any liking for the thing done, but +because we wish to be paid for it. The day is coming when we shall +attain our majority, when it will be said to us by God, Now, do whatever +you like, whatever you have a mind to; no surveillance, no commands are +now needed; I put all into your own hand. What, in these circumstances, +should we straightway do? Should we, for the love of the thing, carry on +the same work to which God's commands had driven us; should we, if left +absolutely in charge, find nothing more attractive than just to +prosecute that idea of life and the world set before us by Christ? Or, +should we see that we had merely been keeping ourselves in check for a +while, biding our time, untamed as Ishmael, craving the rewards but not +the life of the children of God? The most serious of all questions +these--questions that determine the issues of our whole life, that +determine whether our home is to be where all the best interests of men +and the highest blessings of God have their seat, or in the pathless +desert where life is an aimless wandering, dissociated from all the +forward movements of men. + +The distinction between the servile spirit and the spirit of sonship +being thus radical, it could be by no mere formality, or exhibition of +his legal title, that Isaac became the heir of God's heritage. His +sacrifice on Moriah was the requisite condition of his succession to +Abraham's place; it was the only suitable celebration of his majority. +Abraham himself had been able to enter into covenant with God only by +sacrifice; and sacrifice not of a dead and external kind, but vivified +by an actual surrender of himself to God, and by so true a perception of +God's holiness and requirements, that he was in a horror of great +darkness. By no other process can any of his heirs succeed to the +inheritance. A true resignation of self, in whatever outward form this +resignation may appear, is required that we may become one with God in +His holy purposes and in His eternal blessedness. There could be no +doubt that Abraham had found a true heir, when Isaac laid himself on the +altar and steadied his heart to receive the knife. Dearer to God, and of +immeasurably greater value than any service, was this surrender of +himself into the hand of his Father and his God. In this was promise of +all service and all loving fellowship. "Precious in the sight of the +Lord is the death of His saints. O Lord, truly I am Thy servant; I am +Thy servant, the son of Thine handmaid: Thou hast loosed my bonds." + +So incomparable with the most distinguished service did this sacrifice +of Isaac's self appear, that the record of his active life seems to have +had no interest to his contemporaries or successors. There was but this +one thing to say of him. No more seemed needful. The sacrifice was +indeed great, and worthy of commemoration. No act could so conclusively +have shown that Isaac was thoroughly at one with God. He had much to +live for; from his birth there hovered around him interests and hopes of +the most exciting and flattering nature; a new kind of glory such as had +not yet been attained on earth was to be attained, or, at any rate, +approached in him. This glory was certain to be realised, being +guaranteed by God's promise, so that his hopes might launch out in the +boldest confidence and give him the aspect and bearing of a king; while +it was uncertain in the time and manner of its realisation, so that the +most attractive mystery hung around his future. Plainly his was a life +worth entering on and living through; a life fit to engage and absorb a +man's whole desire, interest, and effort; a life such as might well make +a man gird himself and resolve to play the man throughout, that so each +part of it might reveal its secret to him, and that none of its wonder +might be lost. It was a life which, above all others, seemed worth +protecting from all injury and risk, and for which, no doubt, not a few +of the home-born servants in the patriarchal encampment would have +gladly ventured their own. There have, indeed, been few, if any, lives +of which it could so truly be said, The world cannot do without this--at +all hazards and costs this must be cherished. And all this must have +been even more obvious to its owner than to any one else, and must have +begotten in him an unquestioning assurance, that he at least had a +charmed life, and would live and see good days. Yet with whatever shock +the command of God came upon him, there is no word of doubt or +remonstrance or rebellion. He gave his life to Him who had first given +it to him. And thus yielding himself to God, he entered into the +inheritance, and became worthy to stand to all time the representative +heir of God, as Abraham by his faith had become the father of the +faithful. + + + + +XVIII. + +_PURCHASE OF MACHPELAH._ + +GENESIS xxiii. + + +It may be supposed to be a needless observation that our life is greatly +influenced by the fact that it speedily and certainly ends in death. But +it might be interesting, and it would certainly be surprising, to trace +out the various ways in which this fact influences life. Plainly every +human affair would be altered if we lived on here for ever, supposing +that were possible. What the world would be had we no predecessors, no +wisdom but what our own past experience and the genius of one generation +of men could produce, we can scarcely imagine. We can scarcely imagine +what life would be or what the world would be did not one generation +succeed and oust another and were we contemporary with the whole process +of history. It is the grand irreversible and universal law that we give +place and make room for others. The individual passes away, but the +history of the race proceeds. Here on earth in the meantime, and not +elsewhere, the history of the race is being played out, and each having +done his part, however small or however great, passes away. Whether an +individual, even the most gifted and powerful, could continue to be +helpful to the race for thousands of years, supposing his life were +continued, it is needless to inquire. Perhaps as steam has force only +at a certain pressure, so human force requires the condensation of a +brief life to give it elastic energy. But these are idle speculations. +They show us, however, that our life beyond death will be not so much a +prolongation of life as we now know it as an entire change in the form +of our existence; and they show us also that our little piece of the +world's work must be quickly done if it is to be done at all, and that +it will not be done at all unless we take our life seriously and own the +responsibilities we have to ourselves, to our fellows, to our God. + +Death comes sadly to the survivor, even when there is as little +untimeliness as in the case of Sarah; and as Abraham moved towards the +familiar tent the most intimate of his household would stand aloof and +respect his grief. The stillness that struck upon him, instead of the +usual greeting, as he lifted the tent-door; the dead order of all +inside; the one object that lay stark before him and drew him again and +again to look on what grieved him most to see; the chill which ran +through him as his lips touched the cold, stony forehead and gave him +sensible evidence how gone was the spirit from the clay--these are +shocks to the human heart not peculiar to Abraham. But few have been so +strangely bound together as these two were, or have been so manifestly +given to one another by God, or have been forced to so close a mutual +dependence. Not only had they grown up in the same family, and been +together separated from their kindred, and passed through unusual and +difficult circumstances together, but they were made co-heirs of God's +promise in such a manner that neither could enjoy it without the other. +They were knit together, not merely by natural liking and familiarity +of intercourse, but by God's choosing them as the instrument of His work +and the fountain of His salvation. So that in Sarah's death Abraham +doubtless read an intimation that his own work was done, and that his +generation is now out of date and ready to be supplanted. + +Abraham's grief is interrupted by the sad but wholesome necessity which +forces us from the blank desolation of watching by the dead to the +active duties that follow. She whose beauty had captivated two princes +must now be buried out of sight. So Abraham stands up from before his +dead. Such a moment requires the resolute fortitude and manly +self-control which that expression seems intended to suggest. There is +something within us which rebels against the ordinary ongoing of the +world side by side with our great woe; we feel as if either the whole +world must mourn with us, or we must go aside from the world and have +our grief out in private. The bustle of life seems so meaningless and +incongruous to one whom grief has emptied of all relish for it. We seem +to wrong the dead by every return of interest we show in the things of +life which no longer interest _him_. Yet he speaks truly who says:-- + + "When sorrow all our heart would ask, + We need not shun our daily task, + And hide ourselves for calm; + The herbs we seek to heal our woe, + Familiar by our pathway grow, + Our common air is balm." + +We must resume our duties, not as if nothing had happened, not proudly +forgetting death and putting grief aside as if this life did not need +the chastening influence of such realities as we have been engaged +with, or as if its business could not be pursued in an affectionate and +softened spirit, but acknowledging death as real and as humbling and +sobering. + +Abraham then goes forth to seek a grave for Sarah, having already with a +common predilection fixed on the spot where he himself would prefer to +be laid. He goes accordingly to the usual meeting-place or exchange of +these times, the city-gate, where bargains were made, and where +witnesses for their ratification could always be had. Men who are +familiar with Eastern customs rather spoil for us the scene described in +this chapter by assuring us that all these courtesies and large offers +are merely the ordinary forms preliminary to a bargain, and were as +little meant to be literally understood as we mean to be literally +understood when we sign ourselves "your most obedient servant." Abraham +asks the Hittite chiefs to approach Ephron on the subject, because all +bargains of the kind are negotiated through mediators. Ephron's offer of +the cave and field is merely a form. Abraham quite understood that +Ephron only indicated his willingness to deal, and so he urges him to +state his price, which Ephron is not slow to do; and apparently his +price was a handsome one such as he could not have asked from a poorer +man, for he adds, "What are four hundred shekels between wealthy men +like you and me? Without more words let the bargain be closed--bury thy +dead." + +The first landed property, then, of the patriarchs is a grave. In this +tomb were laid Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca; here, too, Jacob +buried Leah, and here Jacob himself desired to be laid after his death, +his last words being, "Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in +the field of Ephron the Hittite." This grave, therefore, becomes the +centre of the land. Where the dust of our fathers is, there is our +country; and as you may often hear aged persons, who are content to die +and have little else to pray for, still express a wish that they may +rest in the old well-remembered churchyard where their kindred lie, and +may thus in the weakness of death find some comfort, and in its +solitariness some companionship from the presence of those who tenderly +sheltered the helplessness of their childhood; so does this place of the +dead become henceforth the centre of attraction for all Abraham's seed +to which still from Egypt their longings and hopes turn, as to the one +magnetic point which, having once been fixed there, binds them ever to +the land. It is this grave which binds them to the land. This laying of +Sarah in the tomb is the real occupation of the land. + +During the lapse of ages, all around this spot has been changed again +and again; but at some remote period, possibly as early as the time of +David, the reverence of the Jews built these tombs round with masonry so +substantial that it still endures. Within the space thus enclosed there +stood for long a Christian church, but since the Mohammedan domination +was established, a mosque has covered the spot. This mosque has been +guarded against Christian intrusion with a jealousy almost as rigid as +that which excludes all unbelievers from approaching Mecca. And though +the Prince of Wales was a few years ago allowed to enter the mosque, he +was not permitted to make any examination of the vaults beneath, where +the original tomb must be. + +It is evident that this narrative of the purchase of Machpelah and the +burial of Sarah was preserved, not so much on account of the personal +interest which Abraham had in these matters, as on account of the +manifest significance they had in connection with the history of his +faith. He had recently heard from his own kindred in Mesopotamia, and it +might very naturally have occurred to him that the proper place to bury +Sarah was in his fatherland. The desire to lie among one's people is a +very strong Eastern sentiment. Even tribes which have no dislike to +emigration make provision that at death their bodies shall be restored +to their own country. The Chinese notoriously do so. Abraham, therefore, +could hardly have expressed his faith in a stronger form than by +purchasing a burying-ground for himself in Canaan. It was equivalent to +saying in the most emphatic form that he believed this country would +remain in perpetuity the country of his children and people. He had as +yet given no such pledge as this was, that he had irrevocably abandoned +his fatherland. He had bought no other landed property; he had built no +house. He shifted his encampment from place to place as convenience +dictated, and there was nothing to hinder him from returning at any time +to his old country. But now he fixed himself down; he said, as plainly +as acts can say, that his mind was made up that this was to be in all +time coming his land; this was no mere right of pasture rented for the +season, no mere waste land he might occupy with his tents till its owner +wished to reclaim it; it was no estate he could put into the market +whenever trade should become dull and he might wish to realise or to +leave the country; but it was a kind of property which he could not sell +and could not abandon. + +Again, his determination to hold it in perpetuity is evident not only +from the nature of the property, but also from the formal purchase and +conveyance of it--the complete and precise terms in which the +transaction is completed. The narrative is careful to remind us again +and again that the whole transaction was negotiated in the audience of +the people of the land, of all those who went in at the gate, that the +sale was thoroughly approved and witnessed by competent authorities. The +precise subjects made over to Abraham are also detailed with all the +accuracy of a legal document--"the field of Ephron, which was in +Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field and the cave which was +therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the +borders round about, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession in the +presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of +his city." Abraham had no doubt of the friendliness of such men as Aner, +Eshcol, and Mamre, his ancient allies, but he was also aware that the +best way to maintain friendly relations was to leave no loophole by +which difference of opinion or disagreement might enter. Let the thing +be in black and white, so that there may be no misunderstanding as to +terms, no expectations doomed to be unfulfilled, no encroachments which +must cause resentment, if not retaliation. Law probably does more to +prevent quarrels than to heal them. As statesmen and historians tell us +that the best way to secure peace is to be prepared for war, so legal +documents seem no doubt harsh and unfriendly, but really are more +effective in maintaining peace and friendliness than vague promises and +benevolent intentions. In arranging affairs and engagements one is +always tempted to say, Never mind about the money, see how the thing +turns out and we can settle that by-and-bye; or, in looking at a will, +one is tempted to ask, of what strength is Christian feeling--not to say +family affection--if all these hard-and-fast lines need to be drawn +round the little bit of property which each is to have? But experience +shows that this is false delicacy, and that kindliness and charity may +be as fully and far more safely expressed in definite and legal terms +than in loose promises or mere understandings. + +Again, Abraham's idea in purchasing this sepulchre is brought out by the +circumstance that he would not accept the offer of the children of Heth +to use one of their sepulchres. This was not pride of blood or any +feeling of that sort, but the right feeling that what God had promised +as His own peculiar gift must not seem to be given by men. Possibly no +great harm might have come of it if Abraham had accepted the gift of a +mere cave, or a shelf in some other man's burying-ground; but Abraham +could not bear to think that any captious person should ever be able to +say that the inheritance promised by God was really the gift of a +Hittite. + +Similar captiousness appears not only in the experience of the +individual Christian, but also in the treatment religion gets from the +world. It is quite apparent, that is to say, that the world counts +itself the real proprietor here, and Christianity a stranger fortunately +or unfortunately thrown upon its shores and upon _its mercy_. One cannot +miss noticing the patronising way of the world towards the Church and +all that is connected with it, as if it alone could give it those things +needful for its prosperity--and especially willing is it to come forward +in the Hittite fashion and offer to the sojourner a sepulchre where it +may be decently buried, and as a dead thing lie out of the way. + +But thoughts of a still wider reach were no doubt suggested to Abraham +by this purchase. Often must he have brooded on the sacrifice of Isaac, +seeking to exhaust its meaning. Many a talk in the dusk must his son and +he have had about that most strange experience. And no doubt the one +thing that seemed always certain about it was, that it is through death +a man truly becomes the heir of God; and here again in this purchase of +a tomb for Sarah it is the same fact that stares him in the face. He +becomes a proprietor when death enters his family; he himself, he feels, +is likely to have no more than this burial-acre of possession of his +land; it is only by dying he enters on actual possession. Till then he +is but a tenant, not a proprietor; as he says to the children of Heth, +he is but a stranger and a sojourner among them, but at death he will +take up his permanent dwelling in their midst. Was this not to suggest +to him that there might be a deeper meaning underlying this, and that +possibly it was only by death he could enter fully into all that God +intended he should receive? No doubt in the first instance it was a +severe trial to his faith to find that even at his wife's death he had +acquired no firmer foothold in the land. No doubt it was the very +triumph of his faith that though he himself had never had a settled, +permanent residence in the land, but had dwelt in tents, moving about +from place to place, just as he had done the first year of his entrance +upon it, yet he died in the unalterable persuasion that the land was +his, and that it would one day be filled with his descendants. It was +the triumph of his faith that he believed in the performance of the +promise as he had originally understood it; that he believed in the gift +of the actual visible land. But it is difficult to believe that he did +not come to the persuasion that God's friendship was more than any +single thing He promised; difficult to suppose he did not feel +something of what our Lord expressed in the words that God is the God of +the living, not of the dead; that those who are His enter by death into +some deeper and richer experience of His love. + +Such is the interpretation put upon Abraham's attitude of mind by the +writer, who of all others saw most deeply into the moving principles of +the Old Testament dispensation and the connection between old things and +new--I mean the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews. He says that +persons who act as Abraham did declare plainly that they seek a country; +and if on finding they did not get the country in which they sojourned +they thought the promise had failed, they might, he says, have found +opportunity to return to the country whence they came at first. And why +did they not do so? Because they sought a better, that is, an heavenly +country. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He +hath prepared for them a city; as if He said, God would have been +ashamed of Abraham if he had been content with less, and had not aspired +to something more than he received in the land of Canaan. + +Now how else could Abraham's mind have been so effectually lifted to +this exalted hope as by the disappointment of his original and much +tamer hope? Had he gained possession of the land in the ordinary way of +purchase or conquest, and had he been able to make full use of it for +the purposes of life; had he acquired meadows where his cattle might +graze, towns where his followers might establish themselves, would he +not almost certainly have fallen into the belief that in these pastures +and by his worldly wealth and quiet and prosperity he was already +exhausting God's promise regarding the land? But buying the land for +his dead he is forced to enter upon it from the right side, with the +idea that not by present enjoyment of its fertility is God's promise to +him exhausted. Both in the getting of his heir and in the acquisition of +his land his mind is led to contemplate things beyond the range of +earthly vision and earthly success. He is led to the thought that God +having become his God, this means blessing eternal as God Himself. In +short Abraham came to believe in a life beyond the grave on very much +the same grounds as many people still rely on. They feel that this life +has an unaccountable poverty and meagreness in it. They feel that they +themselves are much larger than the life here allotted to them. They are +out of proportion. It may be said that this is their own fault; they +should make life a larger, richer thing. But that is only apparently +true; the very brevity of life, which no skill of theirs can alter, is +itself a limiting and disappointing condition. Moreover, it seems +unworthy of God as well as of man. As soon as a worthy conception of God +possesses the soul, the idea of immortality forthwith follows it. We +instinctively feel that God can do far more for us than is done in this +life. Our knowledge of Him here is most rudimentary; our connection with +Him obscure and perplexed, and wanting in fulness of result; we seem +scarcely to know whose we are, and scarcely to be reconciled to the +essential conditions of life, or even to God;--we are, in short, in a +very different kind of life from that which we can conceive and desire. +Besides, a serious belief in God, in a personal Spirit, removes at a +touch all difficulties arising from materialism. If God lives and yet +has no senses or bodily appearance, we also may so live; and if His is +the higher state and the more enjoyable state, we need not dread to +experience life as disembodied spirits. + +It is certainly a most acceptable lesson that is read to us here--viz., +that God's promises do not shrivel, but grow solid and expand as we +grasp them. Abraham went out to enter on possession of a few fields a +little richer than his own, and he found an eternal inheritance. +Naturally we think quite the opposite of God's promises; we fancy they +are grandiloquent and magnify things, and that the actual fulfilment +will prove unworthy of the language describing it. But as the woman who +came to touch the hem of Christ's garment with some dubious hope that +thus her body might be healed, found herself thereby linked to Christ +for evermore, so always, if we meet God at any one point and honestly +trust Him for even the smallest gift, He makes that the means of +introducing Himself to us and getting us to understand the value of His +better gifts. And indeed, if this life were all, might not God well be +ashamed to call Himself our God? When He calls Himself our God He bids +us expect to find in Him inexhaustible resources to protect and satisfy +and enrich us. He bids us cherish boldly all innocent and natural +desires, believing that we have in Him one who can gratify every such +desire. But if this life be all, who can say existence has been +perfectly satisfactory--if there be no reversal of what has here gone +wrong, no restoration of what has here been lost, if there be no life in +which conscience and ideas and hopes find their fulfilment and +satisfaction, who can say he is content and could ask no more of God? +Who can say he does not see what more God could do for him than has here +been done? Doubtless there are many happy lives, doubtless there are +lives which carry in them a worthiness and a sacredness which manifest +God's presence, but even such lives only more powerfully suggest a state +in which all lives shall be holy and happy, and in which, freed from +inward uneasiness and shame and sorrow, we shall live unimpeded the +highest life, life as we feel it ought to be. The very joys men have +here experienced suggest to them the desirableness of continued life; +the love they have known can only intensify their yearning for this +perpetual enjoyment; their whole experience of this life has served to +reveal to them the endless possibilities of growth and of activity that +are bound up in human nature; and if death is to end all this, what more +has life been to any of us than a seed-time without a harvest, an +education without any sphere of employment, a vision of good that can +never be ours, a striving after the unattainable? If this is all that +God can give us we must indeed be disappointed in Him. + +But He is disappointed in us if we do not aspire to more than this. In +this sense also He is ashamed to be called our God. He is ashamed to be +known as the God of men who never aspire to higher blessings than +earthly comfort and present prosperity. He is ashamed to be known as +connected with those who think so lightly of His power that they look +for nothing beyond what every man calculates on getting in this world. +God means all present blessings and all blessings of a lower kind to +lure us on to trust Him and seek more and more from Him. In these early +promises of His He says nothing expressly and distinctly of things +eternal. He appeals to the immediate wants and present longings of +men--just as our Lord while on earth drew men to Himself by healing +their diseases. Take, then, any one promise of God, and, however small +it seems at first, it will grow in your hand; you will find always that +you get more than you bargained for, that you cannot take even a little +without going further and receiving all. + + + + +XIX. + +_ISAAC'S MARRIAGE._ + +GENESIS xxiv. + + "Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth + the Lord, she shall be praised."--PROV. xxxi. 30. + + +"When a son has attained the age of twenty years, his father, if able, +should marry him, and then take his hand and say, I have disciplined +thee, and taught thee, and married thee; I now seek refuge with God from +thy mischief in the present world and the next." This Mohammedan +tradition expresses with tolerable accuracy the idea of the Eastern +world, that a father has not discharged his responsibilities towards his +son until he finds a wife for him. Abraham no doubt fully recognised his +duty in this respect, but he had allowed Isaac to pass the usual age. He +was thirty-seven at his mother's death, forty when the events of this +chapter occurred. This delay was occasioned by two causes. The bond +between Isaac and his mother was an unusually strong one; and alongside +of that imperious woman a young wife would have found it even more +difficult than usual to take a becoming place. Besides, where was a wife +to be found? No doubt some of Abraham's Hittite friends would have +considered any daughter of theirs exceptionally fortunate who should +secure so good an alliance. The heir of Abraham was no inconsiderable +person even when measured by Hittite expectations. And it may have taxed +Abraham's sagacity to find excuses for not forming an alliance which +seemed so natural, and which would have secured to him and his heirs a +settled place in the country. This was so obvious, common, easily +accomplished a means of gaining a footing for Isaac among somewhat +dangerous neighbours, that it stands to reason Abraham must often have +weighed its advantages. + +But as often as he weighed the advantages of this solution of his +difficulty, so often did he reject them. He was resolved that the race +should be of pure Hebrew blood. His own experience in connection with +Hagar had given this idea a settled prominence in his mind. And, +accordingly, in his instructions to the servant whom he sent to find a +wife for Isaac, two things were insisted on--1st, that she should not be +a Canaanite; and, 2nd, that on no pretext should Isaac be allowed to +leave the land of promise and visit Mesopotamia. The steward, knowing +something of men and women, foresaw that it was most unlikely that a +young woman would forsake her own land and preconceived hopes and go +away with a stranger to a foreign country. Abraham believes she will be +persuaded. But in any case, he says, one thing must be seen to; Isaac +must on no account be induced to leave the promised land even to visit +Mesopotamia. God will furnish Isaac with a wife without putting him into +circumstances of great temptation, without requiring him to go into +societies in the slightest degree injurious to his faith. In fact, +Abraham refused to do what countless Christian mothers of marriageable +sons and daughters do without compunction. He had an insight into the +real influences that form action and determine careers which many of us +sadly lack. + +And his faith was rewarded. The tidings from his brother's family +arrived in the nick of time. Light, he found, was sown for the upright. +It happened with him as it has doubtless often happened with ourselves, +that though we have been looking forward to a certain time with much +anxiety, unable even to form a plan of action, yet when the time +actually came, things seemed to arrange themselves, and the thing to do +became quite obvious. Abraham was persuaded God would send His angel to +bring the affair to a happy issue. And when we seem drifting towards +some great upturning of our life, or when things seem to come all of a +sudden and in crowds upon us, so that we cannot judge what we should do, +it is an animating thought that another eye than ours is penetrating the +darkness, finding for us a way through all entanglement and making +crooked things straight for us. + +But the patience of Isaac was quite as remarkable as the faith of +Abraham. He was now forty years old, and if, as he had been told, the +great aim of his life, the great service he was to render to the world, +was bound up with the rearing of a family, he might with some reason be +wondering why circumstances were so adverse to the fulfilment of this +vocation. Must he not have been tempted, as his father had been, to take +matters into his own hand? Fathers are perhaps too scrupulous about +telling their sons instructive passages from their own experience; but +when Abraham saw Isaac exercised and discomposed about this matter, he +can scarcely have failed to strengthen his spirit by telling him +something of his own mistakes in life. Abraham must have seen that +everything depended on Isaac's conduct, and that he had a very +difficult part to play. He himself had been supernaturally encouraged to +leave his own land and sojourn in Canaan; on the other hand, by the time +Jacob grew up, the idea of the promised land had become traditional and +fixed; though even Jacob, had he found Laban a better master, might have +permanently renounced his expectations in Canaan. But Isaac enjoyed the +advantages neither of the first nor of the third generation. The coming +into Canaan was not his doing, and he saw how little of the land Abraham +had gained. He was under strong temptation to disbelieve. And when he +measured his condition with that of other young men, he certainly +required unusual self-control. And to every one who would urge, Youth is +passing, and I am not getting what I expected at God's hand; I have not +received that providential leading I was led to expect, nor do I find +that my life is made simpler; it is very well to tell me to wait, but +life is slipping away, and we may wait too long--to every one whose +heart urges such murmurs, Abraham through Isaac would say: But if you +wait for God you get something, some positive good, and not some mere +appearance of good; you at last do get begun, you get into life at the +right door; whereas if you follow some other way than that which you +believe God wishes to lead you in, you get nothing. + +Isaac's continence had its reward. In the suitableness of Rebekah to a +man of his nature, we see the suitableness of all such gifts of God as +are really waited for at His hand. God may keep us longer waiting than +the world does, but He gives us never the wrong thing. Isaac had no idea +of Rebekah's character; he could only yield himself to God's knowledge +of what he needed; and so there came to him, from a country he had +never seen, a help-meet singularly adapted to his own character. One +cannot read of her lively, bustling, almost forward, but obliging and +generous conduct at the well, nor of her prompt, impulsive departure to +an unknown land, without seeing, as no doubt Eliezer very quickly saw, +that this was exactly the woman for Isaac. In this eager, ardent, +active, enterprising spirit, his own retiring and contemplative, if not +sombre disposition found its appropriate relief and stimulus. Hers was a +spirit which might indeed, with so mild a lord, take more of the +management of affairs than was befitting; and when the wear and tear of +life had tamed down the girlish vivacity with which she spoke to Eliezer +at the well, and leapt from the camel to meet her lord, her +active-mindedness does appear in the disagreeable shape of the clever +scheming of the mother of a family. In her sons you see her qualities +exaggerated: from her, Esau derived his activity and open-handedness; +and in Jacob, you find that her self-reliant and unscrupulous management +has become a self-asserting craft which leads him into much trouble, if +it also sometimes gets him out of difficulties. But such as Rebekah was, +she was quite the woman to attract Isaac and supplement his character. + +So in other cases where you find you must leave yourself very much in +God's hand, what He sends you will be found more precisely adapted to +your character than if you chose it for yourself. You find your whole +nature has been considered,--your aims, your hopes, your wants, your +position, whatever in you waits for something unattained. And as in +giving to Isaac the intended mother of the promised seed, God gave him a +woman who fitted in to all the peculiarities of his nature, and was a +comfort and a joy to him in his own life; so we shall always find that +God, in satisfying His own requirements, satisfies at the same time our +wants--that God carries forward His work in the world by the +satisfaction of the best and happiest feelings of our nature, so that it +is not only the result that is blessedness, but blessing is created +along its whole course. + +Abraham's servant, though not very sanguine of success, does all in his +power to earn it. He sets out with an equipment fitted to inspire +respect and confidence. But as he draws nearer and nearer to the city of +Nahor, revolving the delicate nature of his errand, and feeling that +definite action must now be taken, he sees so much room for making an +irreparable mistake that he resolves to share his responsibility with +the God of his master. And the manner in which he avails himself of +God's guidance is remarkable. He does not ask God to guide him to the +house of Bethuel; indeed, there was no occasion to do so, for any child +could have pointed out the house to him. But he was a cautious person, +and he wished to make his own observations on the appearance and conduct +of the younger women of the household, before in any way committing +himself to them. He was free to make these observations at the well; +while he felt it must be very awkward to enter Laban's house with the +possibility of leaving it dissatisfied. At the same time, he felt it was +for God rather than for him to choose a wife for Isaac. So he made an +arrangement by which the interposition of God was provided for. He meant +to make his own selection, guided necessarily by the comparative +attractiveness of the women who came for water, possibly also by some +family likeness to Sarah or Isaac he might expect to see in any women +of Bethuel's house; but knowing the deceitfulness of appearances, he +asked God to confirm and determine his own choice by moving the girl he +should address to give him a certain answer. Having arranged this, +"Behold! Rebekah came out with her pitcher upon her shoulder, and the +damsel was very fair to look upon." In the Bible the beauty of women is +frankly spoken of without prudery or mawkishness as an influence in +human affairs. The beauty of Rebekah at once disposed Eliezer to address +her, and his first impression in her favour was confirmed by the +obliging, cheerful alacrity with which she did very much more than she +was asked, and, indeed, took upon herself, through her kindness of +disposition, a task of some trouble and fatigue. + +It is important to observe then in what sense and to what extent this +capable servant asked a sign. He did not ask for a bare, intrinsically +insignificant sign. He might have done so. He might have proposed as a +test, Let her who stumbles on the first step of the well be the designed +wife of Isaac; or, Let her who comes with a certain-coloured flower in +her hand--or so forth. But the sign he chose was significant, because +dependent on the character of the girl herself; a sign which must reveal +her good-heartedness and readiness to oblige and courteous activity in +the entertainment of strangers--in fact, the outstanding Eastern virtue. +So that he really acted very much as Isaac himself must have done. He +would make no approach to any one whose appearance repelled him; and +when satisfied in this particular, he would test her disposition. And of +course it was these qualities of Rebekah which afterwards caused Isaac +to feel that this was the wife God had designed for him. It was not by +any arbitrary sign that he or any man could come to know who was the +suitable wife for him, but only by the love she aroused within him. God +has given this feeling to direct choice in marriage; and where this is +wanting, nothing else whatever, no matter how astoundingly providential +it seems, ought to persuade a man that such and such a person is +designed to be his wife. + +There are turning points in life at once so momentous in their +consequence, and affording so little material for choice, that one is +much tempted to ask for more than providential leading. Not only among +savages and heathen have omens been sought. Among Christians there has +been manifest a constant disposition to appeal to the lot, or to accept +some arbitrary way of determining which course we should follow. In very +many predicaments we should be greatly relieved were there some one who +could at once deliver us from all hesitation and mental conflict by one +authoritative word. There are, perhaps, few things more frequently and +determinedly wished for, nor regarding which we are so much tempted to +feel that such a thing should be, as some infallible guide before whom +we could lay every difficulty; who would tell us at once what ought to +be done in each case, and whether we ought to continue as we are or make +some change. But only consider for a moment what would be the +consequence of having such a guide. At every important step of your +progress you would, of course, instantly turn to him; as soon as doubt +entered your mind regarding the moral quality of an action, or the +propriety of a course you think of adopting, you would be at your +counsellor. And what would be the consequence? The consequence would be, +that instead of the various circumstances, experiences, and temptations +of this life being a training to you, your conscience would every day +become less able to guide you, and your will less able to decide, until, +instead of being a mature son of God, who has learned to conform his +conscience and will to the will of God, you would be quite imbecile as a +moral creature. What God desires by our training here is, that we become +like to Him; that there be nurtured in us a power to discern between +good and evil; that by giving our own voluntary consent to His +appointments, and that by discovering in various and perplexing +circumstances what is the right thing to do, we may have our own moral +natures as enlightened, strengthened, and fully developed every way as +possible. The object of God in declaring His will to us is not to point +out particular steps, but to bring our wills into conformity with His, +so that whether we err in any particular step or no, we shall still be +near to Him in intention. He does with us as we with children. We do not +always at once relieve them from their little difficulties, but watch +with interest the working of their own conscience regarding the matter, +and will give them no sign till they themselves have decided. + +Evidently, therefore, before we may dare to ask a sign from God, the +case must be a very special one. If you are at present engaged in +something that is to your own conscience doubtful, and if you are not +hiding this from God, but would very willingly, so far as you know your +own mind, do in the matter what He pleases--if no further light is +coming to you, and you feel a growing inclination to put it to God in +this way: "Grant, O Lord, that something may happen by which I may know +Thy mind in this matter"--this is asking from God a kind of help which +He is very ready to give, often leading men to clearer views of duty by +events which happen within their knowledge, and which having no special +significance to persons whose minds are differently occupied, are yet +most instructive to those who are waiting for light on some particular +point. The danger is not here, but in fixing God down to the special +thing which shall happen as a sign between Him and you; which, when it +happens, gives no fresh light on the subject, leaves your mind still +_morally_ undecided, but only binds you, by an arbitrary bargain of your +own, to follow one course rather than another. This matter that you +would so summarily dispose of may be the very thread of your life which +God means to test you by; this state of indecision which you would +evade, God may mean to continue until your moral character grows strong +enough to rise above it to the right decision. + +No one will suppose that Rebekah's readiness to leave her home was due +to mere light-mindedness. Her motives were no doubt mixed. The worldly +position offered to her was good, and there was an attractive spice of +romance about the whole affair which would have its charm. She may also +be credited with some apprehension of the great future of Isaac's +family. In after life she certainly showed a very keen sense of the +value of the blessings peculiar to that household. And, probably above +all, she had an irresistible feeling that this was her destiny. She saw +the hand of God in her selection, and with a more or less conscious +faith in God she passed to her new life. + +Her first meeting with her future husband is not the least picturesque +passage in this most picturesque narrative. Isaac had gone out on that +side of the encampment by which he knew his father's messenger was most +likely to approach. He had gone out "to meditate at even-tide;" his +meditation being necessarily directed and intensified by his attitude of +critical expectancy. + +The evening light, in our country hanging dubiously between the glare of +noon and the darkness of midnight, invites to that condition of mind +which lies between the intense alertness of day and the deep oblivion of +sleep, and which seems the most favourable for the meditation of divine +things. The dusk of evening seems interposed between day and night to +invite us to that reflection which should intervene betwixt our labour +and our rest from labour, that we may leave our work behind us satisfied +that we have done what we could, or, seeing its faultiness, may still +lay us down to sleep with God's forgiveness. It is when the bright +sunlight has gone, and no more reproaches our inactivity, that friends +can enjoy prolonged intercourse, and can best unbosom to one another, as +if the darkness gave opportunity for a tenderness which would be ashamed +to show itself during the twelve hours in which a man shall work. And +all that makes this hour so beloved by the family circle, and so +conducive to friendly intercourse, makes it suitable also for such +intercourse with God as each human soul can attempt. Most of us suppose +we have some little plot of time railed off for God morning and evening, +but how often does it get trodden down by the profane multitude of this +world's cares, and quite occupied by encroaching secular engagements. +But evening is the time when many men are, and when all men ought to be +least hurried; when the mind is placid, but not yet prostrate; when the +body requires rest from its ordinary labour, but is not yet so oppressed +with fatigue as to make devotion a mockery; when the din of this world's +business is silenced, and as a sleeper wakes to consciousness when some +accustomed noise is checked, so the soul now wakes up to the thought of +itself and of God. I know not whether those of us who have the +opportunity have also the resolution to sequester ourselves evening by +evening, as Isaac did; but this I do know, that he who does so will not +fail of his reward, but will very speedily find that his Father who +seeth in secret is manifestly rewarding him. What we all need above all +things is to let the mind _dwell_ on divine things--to be able to sit +down knowing we have so much clear time in which we shall not be +disturbed, and during which we shall think directly under God's eye--to +get quite rid of the feeling of getting through with something, so that +without distraction the soul may take a deliberate survey of its own +matters. And so shall often God's gifts appear on our horizon when we +lift up our eyes, as Isaac "lifted up his eyes and saw the camels +coming" with his bride. + +Twilight, "nature's vesper-bell," or the light shaded at evening by the +hills of Palestine, seems, then, to have called Isaac to a familiar +occupation. This long-continued mourning for his mother, and his lonely +meditation in the fields, are both in harmony with what we know of his +character, and of his experience on Mount Moriah. Retiring and +contemplative, willing to conciliate by concession rather than to assert +and maintain his rights against opposition, glad to yield his own +affairs to the strong guidance of some other hand, tender and deep in +his affections, to him this lonely meditation seems singularly +appropriate. His dwelling, too, was remote, on the edge of the +wilderness, by the well which Hagar had named Lahai-roi. Here he dwelt +as one consecrated to God, feeling little desire to enter deeper into +the world, and preferring the place where the presence of God was least +disturbed by the society of men. But at this time he had come from the +south, and was awaiting at his father's encampment the result of +Eliezer's mission. And one can conceive the thrill of keen expectancy +that shot through him as he saw the female figure alighting from the +camel, the first eager exchange of greetings, and the gladness with +which he brought Rebekah into his mother Sarah's tent and was comforted +after his mother's death. The readiness with which he loved her seems to +be referred in the narrative to the grief he still felt for his mother; +for as a candle is never so easily lit as just after it has been put +out, so the affection of Isaac, still emitting the sad memorial of a +past love, more quickly caught at the new object presented. And thus was +consummated a marriage which shows us how thoroughly interwrought are +the plans of God and the life of man, each fulfilling the other. + +For as the salvation God introduces into the world is a practical, +every-day salvation to deliver us from the sins which this life tempts +us to, so God introduced this salvation by means of the natural +affections and ordinary arrangements of human life. God would have us +recognise in our lives what He shows us in this chapter, that He has +made provision for our wants, and that if we wait upon Him He will bring +us into the enjoyment of all we really need. So that if we are to make +any advance in appropriating to ourselves God's salvation, it can only +be by submitting ourselves implicitly to His providence, and taking care +that in the commonest and most secular actions of our lives we are +having respect to His will with us, and that in those actions in which +our own feelings and desires seem sufficient to guide us, we are having +regard to His controlling wisdom and goodness. We are to find room for +God everywhere in our lives, not feeling embarrassed by the thought of +His claims even in our least constrained hours, but subordinating to His +highest and holiest ends everything that our life contains, and +acknowledging as His gift what may seem to be our own most proper +conquest or earning. + + + + +XX. + +_ESAU AND JACOB._ + +GENESIS xxv. + + "He goeth as an ox goeth to the slaughter, till a dart strike + through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not + that it is for his life."--PROV. vii. 22, 23. + + +The character and career of Isaac would seem to tell us that it is +possible to have too great a father. Isaac was dwarfed and weakened by +growing up under the shadow of Abraham. Of his life there was little to +record, and what was recorded was very much a reproduction of some of +the least glorious passages of his father's career. The digging of wells +for his flocks was among the most notable events in his commonplace +life, and even in this he only re-opened the wells his father had dug. + +In him we see the result of growing up under too strong and dominant an +external influence. The free and healthy play of his own capacities and +will was curbed. The sons of outstanding fathers are much tempted to +follow in the wake of _their_ success, and be too much controlled and +limited by the example therein set to them. There is a great deal to +induce a son to do so; this calling has been successful in his father's +case, what better can he do than follow? Also he may get the use of his +_wells_--those sources his father has opened for the easier or more +abundant maintenance of those dependent on him, the business he has +established, the practice he has made, the connections he has +formed--these are useful if he follows in his father's line of life. But +all this tends, as in Isaac's case, to the stunting of the man himself. +Life is made too easy for him. + +Isaac has been called "the Wordsworth of the Old Testament," but his +meditative disposition seems to have degenerated into mere dreamy +apathy, which, at last, made him the tool of the more active-minded +members of his family, and was also attended by its common accompaniment +of sensuality. It seems also to have brought him to a condition of +almost entire bodily prostration, for a comparison of dates shows that +he must have spent forty or fifty years in blindness and incapacity for +all active duty. Neither can this greatly surprise us, for it is +abundantly open to our own observation that men of the finest spiritual +discernment, and of whose godliness in the main one cannot doubt, are +also frequently the prey of the most childish tastes, and most useless +even to the extent of doing harm in practical matters. They do not see +the evil that is growing in their own family; or, if they see it, they +cannot rouse themselves to check it. + +Isaac's marriage, though so promising in the outset, brought new trial +into his life. Rebekah had to repeat the experience of Sarah. The +intended mother of the promised seed was left for twenty years +childless--to contend with the doubts, surmises, evil proposals, proud +challengings of God, and murmurings, which must undoubtedly have arisen +even in so bright and spirited a heart as Rebekah's. It was thus she was +taught the seriousness of the position she had chosen for herself, and +gradually led to the implicit faith requisite for the discharge of its +responsibilities. Many young persons have a similar experience. They +seem to themselves to have chosen a wrong position, to have made a +thorough mistake in life, and to have brought themselves into +circumstances in which they only retard, or quite prevent, the +prosperity of those with whom they are connected. In proportion as +Rebekah loved Isaac, and entered into his prospects, must she have been +tempted to think she had far better have remained in Padan-aram. It is a +humbling thing to stand in some other person's way; but if it is by no +fault of ours, but in obedience to affection or conscience we are in +this position, we must, in humility and patience, wait upon Providence +as Rebekah did, and resist all morbid despondency. + +This second barrenness in the prospective mother of the promised seed +was as needful to all concerned as the first was; for the people of God, +no more than any others, can learn in one lesson. They must again be +brought to a real dependence on God as the Giver of the heir. The prayer +with which Isaac "entreated" the Lord for his wife "because she was +barren" was a prayer of deeper intensity than he could have uttered had +he merely remembered the story that had been told him of his own birth. +God must be recognised again and again and throughout as the Giver of +life to the promised line. We are all apt to suppose that when once we +have got a thing in train and working we can get on without God. How +often do we pray for the bestowal of a blessing, and forget to pray for +its continuance? How often do we count it enough that God has conferred +some gift, and, not inviting Him to continue His agency, but trusting to +ourselves, we mar His gift in the use? Learn, therefore, that although +God has given you means of working out His salvation, your Rebekah will +be barren without His continued activity. On His own means you must +re-invite His blessing, for without the continuance of His aid you will +make nothing of the most beautiful and appropriate helps He has given +you. + +It was by pain, anxiety, and almost dismay, that Rebekah received +intimation that her prayer was answered. In this she is the type of many +whom God hears. Inward strife, miserable forebodings, deep dejection, +are often the first intimations that God is listening to our prayer and +is beginning to work within us. You have prayed that God would make you +more a blessing to those about you, more useful in your place, more +answerable to His ends: and when your prayer has risen to its highest +point of confidence and expectation, you are thrown into what seems a +worse state than ever, your heart is broken within you, you say, Is this +the answer to my prayer, is this God's blessing; if it be so, why am I +thus? For things that make a man serious, happen when God takes him in +hand, and they that yield themselves to His service will not find that +that service is all honour and enjoyment. Its first steps will often +land us in a position we can make nothing of, and our attempts to aid +others will get us into difficulties with them; and especially will our +desire that Christ be formed in us bring into such lively action the +evil nature that is in us, that we are torn by the conflict, and our +heart lies like the ground of a fierce struggle, seamed and furrowed, +tossed and confused. As soon as there is a movement within us in one +direction, immediately there is an opposing movement: as soon as one of +the natures says, Do this; the other says, Do it not. The better nature +is gaining slightly the upper hand, and by a long, steady strain, seems +to be wearying out the other, when suddenly there is one quick stroke +and the evil nature conquers. And every movement of the parties is with +pain to ourselves; either conscience is wronged, and gives out its cry +of shame, or our natural desires are trodden down, and that also is +pain. And so disconnected and connected are we, so entirely one with +both parties, and yet so able to contemplate both that Rebekah's +distress seems aptly enough to symbolize our own. And whether the symbol +be apt or no, there can be no question that he who enquires of the Lord +as she did, will receive a similar assurance that there are two natures +within him, and that "the elder shall serve the younger," the nature +last formed, and that seems to give least promise of life, shall master +the original, eldest born child of the flesh. + +The children whose birth and destinies were thus predicted, at once gave +evidence of a difference even greater than that which will often strike +one as existing between two brothers, though rarely between twins. The +first was born, all over like a hairy garment, presenting the appearance +of being rolled up in a fur cloak or the skin of an animal--an +appearance which did not pass away in childhood, but so obstinately +adhered to him through life, that an imitation of his hands could be +produced with the hairy skin of a kid. This was by his parents +considered ominous. The want of the hairy covering which the lower +animals have, is one of the signs marking out man as destined for a +higher and more refined life than they; and when their son appeared in +this guise, they could not but fear it prognosticated his sensual, +animal career. So they called him Esau. And so did the younger son from +the first show his nature, catching the heel of his brother, as if he +were striving to be firstborn; and so they called him Jacob, the +heel-catcher or supplanter--as Esau afterwards bitterly observed, a name +which precisely suited his crafty, plotting nature, shown in his twice +over tripping up and overthrowing his elder brother. The name which Esau +handed down to his people was, however, not his original name, but one +derived from the colour of that for which he sold his birthright. It was +in that exclamation of his, "Feed me with that same _red_," that he +disclosed his character. + +So different in appearance at birth, they grew up of very different +character; and as was natural, he who had the quiet nature of his father +was beloved by the mother, and he who had the bold, practical skill of +the mother was clung to by the father. It seems unlikely that Rebekah +was influenced in her affection by anything but natural motives, though +the fact that Jacob was to be the heir must have been much on her mind, +and may have produced the partiality which maternal pride sometimes +begets. But before we condemn Isaac, or think the historian has not +given a full account of his love for Esau, let us ask what we have +noticed about the growth and decay of our own affections. We are ashamed +of Isaac; but have we not also been sometimes ashamed of ourselves on +seeing that our affections are powerfully influenced by the +gratification of tastes almost or quite as low as this of Isaac's? He +who cunningly panders to our taste for applause, he who purveys for us +some sweet morsel of scandal, he who flatters or amuses us, straightway +takes a place in our affections which we do not accord to men of much +finer parts, but who do not so minister to our sordid appetites. + +The character of Jacob is easily understood. It has frequently been +remarked of him that he is thoroughly a Jew, that in him you find the +good and bad features of the Jewish character very prominent and +conspicuous. He has that mingling of craft and endurance which has +enabled his descendants to use for their own ends those who have wronged +and persecuted them. The Jew has, with some justice and some injustice, +been credited with an obstinate and unscrupulous resolution to forward +his own interests, and there can be no question that in this respect +Jacob is the typical Jew--ruthlessly taking advantage of his brother, +watching and waiting till he was sure of his victim; deceiving his blind +father, and robbing him of what he had intended for his favourite son; +outwitting the grasping Laban, and making at least his own out of all +attempts to rob him; unable to meet his brother without stratagem; not +forgetting prudence even when the honour of his family is stained; and +not thrown off his guard even by his true and deep affection for Joseph. +Yet, while one recoils from this craftiness and management, one cannot +but admire the quiet force of character, the indomitable tenacity, and, +above all, the capacity for warm affection and lasting attachments, that +he showed throughout. + +But the quality which chiefly distinguished Jacob from his hunting and +marauding brother was his desire for the friendship of God and +sensibility to spiritual influences. It may have been Jacob's +consciousness of his own meanness that led him to crave connection with +some Being or with some prospect that might ennoble his nature and lift +him above his innate disposition. It is an old, old truth that not many +noble are called; and, seeing quite as plainly as others see their +feebleness and meanness, the ignoble conceive a self-loathing which is +sometimes the beginning of an unquenchable thirst for the high and holy +God. The consciousness of your bad, poor nature may revive within you +day by day, as the remembrance of physical weakness returns to the +invalid with every morning's light; but to what else can God so +effectively appeal when he offers you present fellowship with Himself +and eventual conformity to His own nature? + +It has been pointed out that the weakness in Esau's character which +makes him so striking a contrast to his brother is his inconstancy. + + "That one error + Fills him with faults; makes him run through all the sins." + +Constancy, persistence, dogged tenacity is certainly the striking +feature of Jacob's character. He could wait and bide his time; he could +retain one purpose year after year till it was accomplished. The very +motto of his life was, "I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me." He +watched for Esau's weak moment, and took advantage of it. He served +fourteen years for the woman he loved, and no hardship quenched his +love. Nay, when a whole lifetime intervened, and he lay dying in Egypt, +his constant heart still turned to Rachel, as if he had parted with her +but yesterday. In contrast with this tenacious, constant character +stands Esau, led by impulse, betrayed by appetite, everything by turns +and nothing long. To-day despising his birthright, to-morrow breaking +his heart for its loss; to-day vowing he will murder his brother, +to-morrow falling on his neck and kissing him; a man you cannot reckon +upon, and of too shallow a nature for anything to root itself deeply in. + +The event in which the contrasted characters of the twin brothers were +most decisively shown, so decisively shown that their destinies were +fixed by it, was an incident which, in its external circumstances, was +of the most ordinary and trivial kind. Esau came in hungry from hunting: +from dawn to dusk he had been taxing his strength to the utmost, too +eagerly absorbed to notice either his distance from home or his hunger; +it is only when he begins to return depressed by the ill-luck of the +day, and with nothing now to stimulate him, that he feels faint; and +when at last he reaches his father's tents, and the savoury smell of +Jacob's lentiles greets him, his ravenous appetite becomes an +intolerable craving, and he begs Jacob to give him some of his food. Had +Jacob done so with brotherly feeling there would have been nothing to +record. But Jacob had long been watching for an opportunity to win his +brother's birthright, and though no one could have supposed that an heir +to even a little property would sell it in order to get a meal five +minutes sooner than he could otherwise get it, Jacob had taken his +brother's measure to a nicety, and was confident that present appetite +would in Esau completely extinguish every other thought. + +It is perhaps worth noticing that the birthright in Ishmael's line, the +guardianship of the temple at Mecca, passed from one branch of the +family to another in a precisely similar way. We read that when the +guardianship of the temple and the governorship of the town "fell into +the hands of Abu Gabshan, a weak and silly man, Cosa, one of Mohammed's +ancestors, circumvented him while in a drunken humour, and bought of +him the keys of the temple, and with them the presidency of it, for a +bottle of wine. But Abu Gabshan being gotten out of his drunken fit, +sufficiently repented of his foolish bargain; from whence grew these +proverbs among the Arabs: More vexed with late repentance than Abu +Gabshan; and, More silly than Abu Gabshan--which are usually said of +those who part with a thing of great moment for a small matter." + +Which brother presents the more repulsive spectacle of the two in this +selling of the birthright it is hard to say. Who does not feel contempt +for the great, strong man, declaring he will die if he is required to +wait five minutes till his own supper is prepared; forgetting, in the +craving of his appetite, every consideration of a worthy kind; oblivious +of everything but his hunger and his food; crying, like a great baby, +Feed me with that _red_! So it is always with the man who has fallen +under the power of sensual appetite. He is always going to die if it is +not immediately gratified. He _must_ have his appetite satisfied. No +consideration of consequences can be listened to or thought of; the man +is helpless in the hands of his appetite--it rules and drives him on, +and he is utterly without self-control; nothing but physical compulsion +can restrain him. + +But the treacherous and self-seeking craft of the other brother is as +repulsive; the cold-blooded, calculating spirit that can hold every +appetite in check, that can cleave to one purpose for a life-time, and, +without scruple, take advantage of a twin-brother's weakness. Jacob +knows his brother thoroughly, and all his knowledge he uses to betray +him. He knows he will speedily repent of his bargain, so he makes him +swear he will abide by it. It is a relentless purpose he carries +out--he deliberately and unhesitatingly sacrifices his brother to +himself. + +Still, in two respects, Jacob is the superior man. He can appreciate the +birthright in his father's family, and he has constancy. Esau might be a +pleasant companion, far brighter and more vivacious than Jacob on a +day's hunting; free and open-handed, and not implacable; and yet such +people are not satisfactory friends. Often the most attractive people +have similar inconstancy; they have a superficial vivacity, and +brilliance, and charm, and good-nature, which invite a friendship they +do not deserve. + +Parents frequently make the mistake of Isaac, and think more highly of +the gay, sparkling, but shallow child, than of the child who cannot be +always smiling, but broods over what he conceives to be his wrongs. +Sulkiness is itself not a pleasing feature in a child's character, but +it may only be the childish expression of constancy, and of a depth of +character which is slow to let go any impression made upon it. On the +other hand, frankness and a quick throwing aside of passion and +resentment are pleasing features in a child, but often these are only +the expressions of a fickle character, rapidly changing from sun to +shower like an April day, and not to be trusted for retaining affection +or good impressions any longer than it retains resentment. + +But Esau's despising of his birthright is that which stamps the man and +makes him interesting to each generation. No one can read the simple +account of his reckless act without feeling how justly we are called +upon to "look diligently lest there be among us any profane person as +Esau, who, for one morsel of meat, sold his birthright." Had the +birthright been something to eat, Esau would not have sold it. What an +exhibition of human nature! What an exposure of our childish folly and +the infatuation of appetite! For Esau has company in his fall. We are +all stricken by his shame. We are conscious that if God had made +provision for the flesh we should have listened to Him more readily. +"But what will this birthright profit us?" We do not see the good it +does: were it something to keep us from disease, to give us long unsated +days of pleasure, to bring us the fruits of labour without the weariness +of it, to make money for us, where is the man who would not value +it--where is the man who would lightly give it up? But because it is +only the favour of God that is offered, His endless love, His holiness +made ours, this we will imperil or resign for every idle desire, for +every lust that bids us serve it a little longer. Born the sons of God, +made in His image, introduced to a birthright angels might covet, we yet +prefer to rank with the beasts of the field, and let our souls starve if +only our bodies be well tended and cared for. + +There is in Esau's conduct and after-experience so much to stir serious +thought, that one always feels reluctant to pass from it, and as if much +more ought to be made of it. It reflects so many features of our own +conduct, and so clearly shows us what we are from day to day liable to, +that we would wish to take it with us through life as a perpetual +admonition. Who does not know of those moments of weakness, when we are +fagged with work, and with our physical energy our moral tone has become +relaxed? Who does not know how, in hours of reaction from keen and +exciting engagements, sensual appetite asserts itself, and with what +petulance we inwardly cry, We shall die if we do not get this or that +paltry gratification? We are, for the most part, inconstant as Esau, +full of good resolves to-day, and to-morrow throwing them to the +winds--to-day proud of the arduousness of our calling, and girding +ourselves to self-control and self-denial, to-morrow sinking back to +softness and self-indulgence. Not once as Esau, but again and again we +barter peace of conscience and fellowship with God and the hope of +holiness, for what is, in simple fact, no more than a bowl of pottage. +Even after recognising our weakness and the lowness of our tastes, and +after repenting with self-loathing and misery, some slight pleasure is +enough to upset our steadfast mind, and make us as plastic as clay in +the hand of circumstances. It is with positive dismay one considers the +weakness and blindness of our hours of appetite and passion: how one +goes then like an ox to the slaughter, all unconscious of the pitfalls +that betray and destroy men, and how at any moment we ourselves may +truly sell our birthright. + + + + +XXI. + +_JACOB'S FRAUD._ + +GENESIS xxvii. + + "The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever."--PSALM xxxiii. 11. + + +There are some families whose miserable existence is almost entirely +made up of malicious plottings and counter-plottings, little mischievous +designs, and spiteful triumphs of one member or party in the family over +the other. It is not pleasant to have the veil withdrawn, and to see +that where love and eager self-sacrifice might be expected their places +are occupied by an eager assertion of rights, and a cold, proud, and +always petty and stupid, nursing of some supposed injury. In the story +told us so graphically in this page, we see the family whom God has +blessed sunk to this low level, and betrayed by family jealousies into +unseemly strife on the most sacred ground. Each member of the family +plans his own wicked device, and God by the evil of one defeats the evil +of another, and saves His own purpose to bless the race from being +frittered away and lost. And it is told us in order that, amidst all +this mess of human craft and selfishness, the righteousness and +stability of God's word of promise may be more vividly seen. Let us look +at the sin of each of the parties in order, and the punishment of each. + +In the Epistle to the Hebrews Isaac is commended for his faith in +blessing his sons. It was commendable in him that, in great bodily +weakness, he still believed himself to be the guardian of God's +blessing, and recognised that he had a great inheritance to bequeath to +his sons. But, in unaccountable and inconsistent contempt of God's +expressed purpose, he proposes to hand over this blessing to Esau. Many +things had occurred to fix his attention upon the fact that Esau was not +to be his heir. Esau had sold his birthright, and had married Hittite +women, and his whole conduct was, no doubt, of a piece with this, and +showed that, in his hands, any spiritual inheritance would be both +unsafe and unappreciated. That Isaac had some notion he was doing wrong +in giving to Esau what belonged to God, and what God meant to give to +Jacob, is shown from his precipitation in bestowing the blessing. He has +no feeling that he is authorized by God, and therefore he cannot wait +calmly till God should intimate, by unmistakable signs, that he is near +his end; but, seized with a panic lest his favourite should somehow be +left unblessed, he feels, in his nervous alarm, as if he were at the +point of death, and, though destined to live for forty-three years +longer, he calls Esau that he may hand over to him his dying testament. +How different is the nerve of a man when he knows he is doing God's +will, and when he is but fulfilling his own device. For the same reason, +he has to stimulate his spirit by artificial means. The prophetic +ecstasy is not felt by him; he must be exhilarated by venison and wine, +that, strengthened and revived in body, and having his gratitude aroused +afresh towards Esau, he may bless him with all the greater vigour. The +final stimulus is given when he smells the garments of Esau on Jacob, +and when that fresh earthy smell which so revives us in spring, as if +our life were renewed with the year, and which hangs about one who has +been in the open air, entered into Isaac's blood, and lent him fresh +vigour. + +It is a strange and, in some respects, perplexing spectacle that is here +presented to us--the organ of the Divine blessing represented by a blind +old man, laid on a "couch of skins," stimulated by meat and wine, and +trying to cheat God by bestowing the family blessing on the son of his +own choice to the exclusion of the divinely-appointed heir. Out of such +beginnings had God to educate a people worthy of Himself, and through +such hazards had He to guide the spiritual blessing He designed to +convey to us all. + +Isaac laid a net for his own feet. By his unrighteous and timorous haste +he secured the defeat of his own long-cherished scheme. It was his +hasting to bless Esau which drove Rebekah to checkmate him by winning +the blessing for her favourite. The shock which Isaac felt when Esau +came in and the fraud was discovered is easily understood. The +mortification of the old man must have been extreme when he found that +he had so completely taken himself in. He was reclining in the satisfied +reflection that for once he had overreached his astute Rebekah and her +astute son, and in the comfortable feeling that, at last, he had +accomplished his one remaining desire, when he learns from the exceeding +bitter cry of Esau that he has himself been duped. It was enough to +rouse the anger of the mildest and godliest of men, but Isaac does not +storm and protest--"he trembles exceedingly." He recognises, by a +spiritual insight quite unknown to Esau, that this is God's hand, and +deliberately confirms, with his eyes open, what he had done in +blindness: "I have blessed him: _Yea_, and he shall be blessed." Had he +wished to deny the validity of the blessing, he had ground enough for +doing so. He had not really given it: it had been stolen from him. An +act must be judged by its intention, and he had been far from intending +to bless Jacob. Was he to consider himself bound by what he had done +under a misapprehension? He had given a blessing to one person under the +impression that he was a different person; must not the blessing go to +him for whom it was designed? But Isaac unhesitatingly yielded. + +This clear recognition of God's hand in the matter, and quick submission +to Him, reveals a habit of reflection, and a spiritual thoughtfulness, +which are the good qualities in Isaac's otherwise unsatisfactory +character. Before he finished his answer to Esau, he felt he was a poor +feeble creature in the hand of a true and just God, who had used even +his infirmity and sin to forward righteous and gracious ends. It was his +sudden recognition of the frightful way in which he had been tampering +with God's will, and of the grace with which God had prevented him from +accomplishing a wrong destination of the inheritance, that made Isaac +tremble very exceedingly. + +In this humble acceptance of the disappointment of his life's love and +hope, Isaac shows us the manner in which we ought to bear the +consequences of our wrong-doing. The punishment of our sin often comes +through the persons with whom we have to do, unintentionally on their +part, and yet we are tempted to hate them because they pain and punish +us, father, mother, wife, child, or whoever else. Isaac and Esau were +alike disappointed. Esau only saw the supplanter, and vowed to be +revenged. Isaac saw God in the matter, and trembled. So when Shimei +cursed David, and his loyal retainers would have cut off his head for so +doing, David said, "Let him alone, and let him curse: it may be that the +Lord hath bidden him." We can bear the pain inflicted on us by men when +we see that they are merely the instruments of a divine chastisement. +The persons who thwart us and make our life bitter, the persons who +stand between us and our dearest hopes, the persons whom we are most +disposed to speak angrily and bitterly to, are often thorns planted in +our path by God to keep us on the right way. + +Isaac's sin propagated itself with the rapid multiplication of all sin. +Rebekah overheard what passed between Isaac and Esau, and although she +might have been able to wait until by fair means Jacob received the +blessing, yet when she sees Isaac actually preparing to pass Jacob by +and bless Esau, her fears are so excited that she cannot any longer +quietly leave the matter in God's hand, but must lend her own more +skilful management. It may have crossed her mind that she was justified +in forwarding what she knew to be God's purpose. She saw no other way of +saving God's purpose and Jacob's rights than by her interference. The +emergency might have unnerved many a woman, but Rebekah is equal to the +occasion. She makes the threatened exclusion of Jacob the very means for +at last finally settling the inheritance upon him. She braves the +indignation of Isaac and the rage of Esau, and fearless herself, and +confident of success, she soon quiets the timorous and cautious +objections of Jacob. She knows that for straightforward lying and acting +a part she was sure of good support in Jacob. Luther says, "Had it been +me, I'd have dropped the dish." But Jacob had no such tremors--could +submit his hands and face to the touch of Isaac, and repeat his lie as +often as needful. + +An old man bedridden like Isaac becomes the subject of a number of +little deceptions which may seem, and which may be, very unimportant in +themselves, but which are seen to wear down the reverence due to the +father of a family, and which imperceptibly sap the guileless sincerity +and truthfulness of those who practise them. This overreaching of Isaac +by dressing Jacob in Esau's clothes, might come in naturally as one of +those daily deceptions which Rebekah was accustomed to practise on the +old man whom she kept quite in her own hand, giving him as much or as +little insight into the doings of the family as seemed advisable to her. +It would never occur to her that she was taking God in hand; it would +seem only as if she were making such use of Isaac's infirmity as she was +in the daily practice of doing. + +But to account for an act is not to excuse it. Underlying the conduct of +Rebekah and Jacob was the conviction that they would come better speed +by a little deceit of their own than by suffering God to further them in +His own way--that though God would certainly not practise deception +Himself, He might not object to others doing so--that in this emergency +holiness was a hampering thing which might just for a little be laid +aside that they might be more holy afterwards--that though no doubt in +ordinary circumstances, and as a normal habit, deceit is not to be +commended, yet in cases of difficulty, which call for ready wit, a +prompt seizure, and delicate handling, men must be allowed to secure +their ends in their own way. Their unbelief thus directly produced +immorality--immorality of a very revolting kind, the defrauding of +their relatives, and repulsive also because practised as if on God's +side, or, as we should now say, "in the interests of religion." + +To this day the method of Rebekah and Jacob is largely adopted by +religious persons. It is notorious that persons whose ends are good +frequently become thoroughly unscrupulous about the means they use to +accomplish them. They dare not say in so many words that they may do +evil that good may come, nor do they think it a tenable position in +morals that the end sanctifies the means; and yet their consciousness of +a justifiable and desirable end undoubtedly does blunt their +sensitiveness regarding the legitimacy of the means they employ. For +example, Protestant controversialists, persuaded that vehement +opposition to Popery is good, and filled with the idea of accomplishing +its downfall, are often guilty of gross misrepresentation, because they +do not sufficiently inform themselves of the actual tenets and practices +of the Church of Rome. In all controversy, religious and political, it +is the same. It is always dishonest to circulate reports that you have +no means of authenticating: yet how freely are such reports circulated +to blacken the character of an opponent, and to prove his opinions to be +dangerous. It is always dishonest to condemn opinions we have not +inquired into, merely because of some fancied consequence which these +opinions carry in them: yet how freely are opinions condemned by men who +have never been at the trouble carefully to inquire into their truth. +They do not feel the dishonesty of their position, because they have a +general consciousness that they are on the side of religion, and of what +has generally passed for truth. All keeping back of facts which are +supposed to have an unsettling effect is but a repetition of this sin. +There is no sin more hateful. Under the appearance of serving God, and +maintaining His cause in the world, it insults Him by assuming that if +the whole bare, undisguised truth were spoken, His cause would suffer. + +The fate of all such attempts to manage God's matters by keeping things +dark, and misrepresenting fact, is written for all who care to +understand in the results of this scheme of Rebekah's and Jacob's. They +gained nothing, and they lost a great deal, by their wicked +interference. They gained nothing; for God had promised that the +birthright would be Jacob's, and would have given it him in some way +redounding to his credit and not to his shame. And they lost a great +deal. The mother lost her son; Jacob had to flee for his life, and, for +all we know, Rebekah never saw him more. And Jacob lost all the comforts +of home, and all those possessions his father had accumulated. He had to +flee with nothing but his staff, an outcast to begin the world for +himself. From this first false step onwards to his death, he was pursued +by misfortune, until his own verdict on his life was, "Few and evil have +been the days of the years of my life." + +Thus severely was the sin of Rebekah and Jacob punished. It coloured +their whole after-life with a deep sombre hue. It was marked thus, +because it was a sin by all means to be avoided. It was virtually the +sin of blaming God for forgetting His promise, or of accusing Him of +being unable to perform it: so that they, Rebekah and Jacob, had, +forsooth, to take God's work out of His hands, and show Him how it ought +to be done. The announcement of God's purpose, instead of enabling them +quietly to wait for a blessing they knew to be certain, became in their +unrighteous and impatient hearts actually an inducement to sin. Abraham +was so bold and confident in his faith, at least latterly, that again +and again he refused to take as a gift from men, and on the most +honourable terms, what God had promised to give him: his grandson is so +little sure of God's truth, that he will rather trust his own falsehood; +and what he thinks God may forget to give him, he will steal from his +own father. Some persons have especial need to consider this sin--they +are tempted to play the part of Providence, to intermeddle where they +ought to refrain. Sometimes just a little thing is needed to make +everything go to our liking--the keeping back of one small fact, a +slight variation in the way of stating the matter, is enough--things +want just a little push in the right direction; it is wrong but very +slightly so. And so they are encouraged to close for a moment their eyes +and put to their hand. + +Of all the parties in this transaction none is more to blame than Esau. +He shows now how selfish and untruthful the sensual man really is, and +how worthless is the generosity which is merely of impulse and not +bottomed on principle. While he so furiously and bitterly blamed Jacob +for supplanting him, it might surely have occurred to him that it was +really he who was supplanting Jacob. He had no right, divine or human, +to the inheritance. God had never said that His possession should go to +the oldest, and had in this case said the express opposite. Besides, +inconstant as Esau was, he could scarcely have forgotten the bargain +that so pleased him at the time, and by which he had sold to his younger +brother all title to his father's blessings. Jacob was to blame for +seeking to win his own by craft, but Esau was more to blame for +endeavouring furtively to recover what he knew to be no longer his. His +bitter cry was the cry of a disappointed and enraged child, what Hosea +calls the "howl" of those who seem to seek the Lord, but are really +merely crying out, like animals, for corn and wine. Many that care very +little for God's love will seek His favours; and every wicked wretch who +has in his prosperity spurned God's offers, will, when he sees how he +has cheated himself, turn to God's gifts, though not to God, with a cry. +Esau would now very gladly have given a mess of pottage for the blessing +that secured to its receiver "the dew of heaven, the fatness of the +earth, and plenty of corn and wine." Like many another sinner, he wanted +both to eat his cake and have it. He wanted to spend his youth sowing to +the flesh, and have the harvest which those only can have who have sown +to the spirit. He wished both of two irreconcilable things--both the red +pottage and the birth right. He is a type of those who think very +lightly of spiritual blessings while their appetites are strong, but +afterwards bitterly complain that their whole life is filled with the +results of sowing to the flesh and not to the spirit. + + "We barter life for pottage; sell true bliss + For wealth or power, for pleasure or renown; + Thus, Esau-like, our Father's blessing miss, + Then wash with fruitless tears our faded crown." + +The words of the New Testament, in which it is said that Esau "found no +place for repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears," are +sometimes misunderstood. They do not mean that he sought what we +ordinarily call repentance, a change of mind about the value of the +birthright. He _had_ that; it was this that made him weep. What he +sought now was some means of undoing what he had done, of cancelling +the deed of which he repented. His experience does not tell us that a +man once sinning as Esau sinned becomes a hardened reprobate whom no +good influence can impress or bring to repentance, but it says that the +sin so committed leaves irreparable consequences--that no man can live a +youth of folly and yet find as much in manhood and maturer years as if +he had lived a careful and God-fearing youth. Esau had irrecoverably +lost that which he would now have given all he had to possess; and in +this, I suppose, he represents half the men who pass through this world. +He warns us that it is very possible, by careless yielding to appetite +and passing whim, to entangle ourselves irrecoverably for this life, if +not to weaken and maim ourselves for eternity. At the time, your act may +seem a very small and secular one, a mere bargain in the ordinary +course, a little transaction such as one would enter into carelessly +after the day's work is over, in the quiet of a summer evening or in the +midst of the family circle; or it may seem so necessary that you never +think of its moral qualities, as little as you question whether you are +justified in breathing; but you are warned that if there be in that act +a crushing out of spiritual hopes to make way for the free enjoyment of +the pleasures of sense--if there be a deliberate preference of the good +things of this life to the love of God--if, knowingly, you make light of +spiritual blessings, and count them unreal when weighed against obvious +worldly advantages--then the consequences of that act will in this life +bring to you great discomfort and uneasiness, great loss and vexation, +an agony of remorse, and a life-long repentance. You are warned of this, +and most touchingly, by the moving entreaties, the bitter cries and +tears of Esau. + +But even when our life is spoiled irreparably, a hope remains for our +character and ourselves--not certainly if our misfortunes embitter us, +not if resentment is the chief result of our suffering; but if, subduing +resentment, and taking blame to ourselves instead of trying to fix it on +others, we take revenge upon the real source of our undoing, and +extirpate from our own character the root of bitterness. Painful and +difficult is such schooling. It calls for simplicity, and humility, and +truthfulness--qualities not of frequent occurrence. It calls for abiding +patience; for he who begins thus to sow to the spirit late in life, must +be content with inward fruits, with peace of conscience, increase of +righteousness and humility, and must learn to live without much of what +all men naturally desire. + +While each member of Isaac's family has thus his own plan, and is +striving to fulfil his private intention, the result is, that God's +purpose is fulfilled. In the human agency, such faith in God as existed +was overlaid with misunderstanding and distrust of God. But +notwithstanding the petty and mean devices, the short-sighted slyness, +the blundering unbelief, the profane worldliness of the human parties in +the transaction, the truth and mercy of God still find a way for +themselves. Were matters left in our hands, we should make shipwreck +even of the salvation with which we are provided. We carry into our +dealings with it the same selfishness, and inconstancy, and worldliness +which made it necessary: and had not God patience to bear with, as well +as mercy to invite us; had He not wisdom to govern us in the use of His +grace, as well as wisdom to contrive its first bestowal, we should +perish with the water of life at our lips. + + + + +XXII. + +_JACOB'S FLIGHT AND DREAM._ + +GENESIS xxvii. 41-xxviii. + + "So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before Thee. + Nevertheless I am continually with Thee."--PSALM lxxiii. 22. + + +It is so commonly observed as to be scarcely worth again remarking, that +persons who employ a great deal of craft in the management of their +affairs are invariably entrapped in their own net. Life is so +complicated, and every matter of conduct has so many issues, that no +human brain can possibly foresee every contingency. Rebekah was a clever +woman, and quite competent to outwit men like Isaac and Esau, but she +had in her scheming neglected to take account of Laban, a man true +brother to herself in cunning. She had calculated on Esau's resentment, +and knew it would last only a few days, and this brief period she was +prepared to utilize by sending Jacob out of Esau's reach to her own kith +and kin, from among whom he might get a suitable wife. But she did not +reckon on Laban's making her son serve fourteen years for his wife, nor +upon Jacob's falling so deeply in love with Rachel as to make him +apparently forget his mother. + +In the first part of her scheme she feels herself at home. She is a +woman who knows exactly how much of her mind to disclose, so as +effectually to lead her husband to adopt her view and plan. She did not +bluntly advise Isaac to send Jacob to Padan-aram, but she sowed in his +apprehensive mind fears which she knew would make him send Jacob there; +she suggested the possibility of Jacob's taking a wife of the daughters +of Heth. She felt sure that _Isaac_ did not need to be told where to +send his son to find a suitable wife. So Isaac called Jacob, and said, +Go to Padan-aram, to the house of thy mother's father, and take thee a +wife thence. And he gave him the family blessing--God Almighty give thee +the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee--so +constituting him his heir, the representative of Abraham. + +The effect this had on Esau is very noticeable. He sees, as the +narrative tells us, a great many things, and his dull mind tries to make +some meaning out of all that is passing before him. The historian seems +intentionally to satirise Esau's attempt at reasoning, and the foolish +simplicity of the device he fell upon. He had an idea that Jacob's +obedience in going to seek a wife of another stock than he had connected +himself with would be pleasing to his parents; and perhaps he had an +idea that it would be possible to steal a march upon Jacob in his +absence, and by a more speedily effected obedience to his parents' +desire, win their preference, and perhaps move Isaac to alter his will +and reverse the blessing. Though living in the chosen family, he seems +to have had not the slightest idea that there was any higher will than +his father's being fulfilled in their doings. He does not yet see why he +himself should not be as blessed as Jacob; he cannot grasp at all the +distinction that grace makes; cannot take in the idea that God has +chosen a people to Himself, and that no natural advantage or force or +endowment can set a man among that people, but only God's choice. +Accordingly, he does not see any difference between Ishmael's family and +the chosen family; they are both sprung from Abraham, both are naturally +the same, and the fact that God expressly gave His inheritance past +Ishmael is nothing to Esau--an act of _God_ has no meaning to him. He +merely sees that he has not pleased his parents as well as he might by +his marriage, and his easy and yielding disposition prompts him to +remedy this. + +This is a fine specimen of the hazy views men have of what will bring +them to a level with God's chosen. Through their crass insensibility to +the high righteousness of God, there still does penetrate a perception +that if they are to please Him there are certain means to be used for +doing so. There are, they see, certain occupations and ways pursued by +Christians, and if by themselves adopting these they can please God, +they are quite willing to humour Him in this. Like Esau, they do not see +their way to drop their old connections, but if by making some little +additions to their habits, or forming some new connection, they can +quiet this controversy that has somehow grown up between God and His +children,--though, so far as they see, it is a very unmeaning +controversy,--they will very gladly enter into any little arrangement +for the purpose. We will not, of course, divorce the world, will not +dismiss from our homes and hearts what God hates and means to destroy, +will not accept God's will as our sole and absolute law, but we will so +far meet God's wishes as to add to what we have adopted something that +is almost as good as what God enjoins: we will make any little +alterations which will not quite upset our present ways. Much commoner +than hypocrisy is this dim-sighted, blundering stupidity of the really +profane worldly man, who thinks he can take rank with men whose natures +God has changed, by the mere imitation of some of their ways; who +thinks, that as he cannot without great labour, and without too +seriously endangering his hold on the world, do precisely what God +requires, God may be expected to be satisfied with a something like it. +Are we not aware of endeavouring at times to cloak a sin with some easy +virtue, to adopt some new and apparently good habit, instead of +destroying the sin we know God hates; or to offer to God, and palm upon +our own conscience, a mere imitation of what God is pleased with? Do you +attend Church, do you come and decorously submit to a service? That is +not at all what God enjoins, though it is like it. What He means is, +that you worship Him, which is a quite different employment. Do you +render to God some outward respect, have you adopted some habits in +deference to Him, do you even attempt some private devotion and +discipline of the spirit? Still what He requires is something that goes +much deeper than all that; namely, that you love Him. To conform to one +or two habits of godly people is not what is required of us; but to be +at heart godly. + +As Jacob journeyed northwards, he came, on the second or third evening +of his flight, to the hills of Bethel. As the sun was sinking he found +himself toiling up the rough path which Abraham may have described to +him as looking like a great staircase of rock and crag reaching from +earth to sky. Slabs of rock, piled one upon another, form the whole +hill-side, and to Jacob's eye, accustomed to the rolling pastures of +Beersheba, they would appear almost like a structure built for +superhuman uses, well founded in the valley below, and intended to +reach to unknown heights. Overtaken by darkness on this rugged path, he +readily finds as soft a bed and as good shelter as his shepherd-habits +require, and with his head on a stone and a corner of his dress thrown +over his face to preserve him from the moon, he is soon fast asleep. But +in his dreams the massive staircase is still before his eyes, and it is +no longer himself that is toiling up it as it leads to an unexplored +hill-top above him, but the angels of God are ascending and descending +upon it, and at its top is Jehovah Himself. + +Thus simply does God meet the thoughts of Jacob, and lead him to the +encouragement he needed. What was probably Jacob's state of mind when he +lay down on that hill-side? In the first place, and as he would have +said to any man he chanced to meet, he wondered what he would see when +he got to the top of this hill; and still more, as he may have said to +Rebekah, he wondered what reception he would meet with from Laban, and +whether he would ever again see his father's tents. This vision shows +him that his path leads to God, that it is He who occupies the future; +and, in his dream, a voice comes to him: "I am with thee, and will keep +thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into +this land." He had, no doubt, wondered much whether the blessing of his +father was, after all, so valuable a possession, whether it might not +have been wiser to take a share with Esau than to be driven out homeless +thus. God has never spoken to him; he has heard his father speak of +assurances coming to him from God, but as for him, through all the long +years of his life he has never heard what he could speak of as a voice +of God. But this night these doubts were silenced--there came to his +soul an assurance that never departed from it. He could have affirmed +he heard God saying to him: "I am the Lord God of thy father Abraham, +and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give +it." And lastly, all these thoughts probably centred in one deep +feeling, that he was an outcast, a fugitive from justice. He was glad he +was in so solitary a place, he was glad he was so far from Esau and from +every human eye; and yet--what desolation of spirit accompanied this +feeling: there was no one he could bid good-night to, no one he could +spend the evening hour with in quiet talk; he was a banished man, +whatever fine gloss Rebekah might put upon it, and deep down in his +conscience there was that which told him he was not banished without +cause. Might not God also forsake him--might not God banish him, and +might he not find a curse pursuing him, preventing man or woman from +ever again looking in his face with pleasure? Such fears are met by the +vision. This desolate spot, unvisited by sheep or bird, has become busy +with life, angels thronging the ample staircase. Here, where he thought +himself lonely and outcast, he finds he has come to the very gate of +heaven. His fond mother might, at that hour, have been visiting his +silent tent and shedding ineffectual tears on his abandoned bed, but he +finds himself in the very house of God, cared for by angels. As the +darkness had revealed to him the stars shining overhead, so when the +deceptive glare of waking life was dulled by sleep, he saw the actual +realities which before were hidden. + +No wonder that a vision which so graphically showed the open +communication between earth and heaven should have deeply impressed +itself on Jacob's descendants. What more effectual consolation could any +poor outcast, who felt he had spoiled his life, require than the memory +of this staircase reaching from the pillow of the lonely fugitive from +justice up into the very heart of heaven? How could any most desolate +soul feel quite abandoned so long as the memory retained the vision of +the angels thronging up and down with swift service to the needy? How +could it be even in the darkest hour believed that all hope was gone, +and that men might but curse God and die, when the mind turned to this +bridging of the interval between earth and heaven? + +In the New Testament we meet with an instance of the familiarity with +this vision which true Israelites enjoyed. Our Lord, in addressing +Nathanael, makes use of it in a way that proves this familiarity. Under +his fig-tree, whose broad leaves were used in every Jewish garden as a +screen from observation, and whose branches were trained down so as to +form an open-air oratory, where secret prayer might be indulged in +undisturbed, Nathanael had been declaring to the Father his ways, his +weaknesses, his hopes. And scarcely more astonished was Jacob when he +found himself the object of this angelic ministry on the lonely +hill-side, than was Nathanael when he found how one eye penetrated the +leafy screen, and had read his thoughts and wishes. Apparently he had +been encouraging himself with this vision, for our Lord, reading his +thoughts, says: "Because I said unto thee, When thou wast under the +fig-tree I saw thee, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than +these--thou shalt see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and +descending upon the Son of man." + +This, then, is a vision for us even more than for Jacob. It has its +fulfilment in the times after the Incarnation more manifestly than in +previous times. The true staircase by which heavenly messengers ascend +and descend is the Son of man. It is He who really bridges the interval +between heaven and earth, God and man. In His person these two are +united. You cannot tell whether Christ is more Divine or human, more God +or man--solidly based on earth, as this massive staircase, by His real +humanity, by His thirty-three years' engagement in all human functions +and all experiences of this life, He is yet familiar with eternity, His +name is "He that came down from heaven," and if your eye follows step by +step to the heights of His person, it rests at last on what you +recognise as Divine. His love it is that is wide enough to embrace God +on the one hand, and the lowest sinner on the other. Truly He is the +way, the stair, leading from the lowest depth of earth to the highest +height of heaven. In Him you find a love that embraces you as you are, +in whatever condition, however cast down and defeated, however +embittered and polluted--a love that stoops tenderly to you and +hopefully, and gives you once more a hold upon holiness and life, and in +that very love unfolds to you the highest glory of heaven and of God. + +When this comes home to a man in the hour of his need, it becomes the +most arousing revelation. He springs from the troubled slumber we call +life, and all earth wears a new glory and awe to him. He exclaims with +Jacob, "How dreadful is this place. Surely the Lord is in this place, +and I knew it not." The world that had been so bleak and empty to him, +is filled with a majestic vital presence. Jacob is no longer a mere +fugitive from the results of his own sin, a shepherd in search of +employment, a man setting out in the world to try his fortune; he is the +partner with God in the fulfilment of a Divine purpose. And such is the +change that passes on every man who believes in the Incarnation, who +feels himself to be connected with God by Jesus Christ; he recognises +the Divine intention to uplift his life, and to fill it with new hopes +and purposes. He feels that humanity is consecrated by the entrance of +the Son of God into it: he feels that all human life is holy ground +since the Lord Himself has passed through it. Having once had this +vision of God and man united in Christ, life cannot any more be to him +the poor, dreary, commonplace, wretched round of secular duties and +short-lived joys and terribly punished sins it was before: but it truly +becomes the very gate of heaven; from each part of it he knows there is +a staircase rising to the presence of God, and that out of the region of +pure holiness and justice there flow to him heavenly aids, tender +guidance, and encouragement. + +Do you think the idea of the Incarnation too aerial and speculative to +carry with you for help in rough, practical matters? The Incarnation is +not a mere idea, but a fact as substantial and solidly rooted in life as +anything you have to do with. Even the shadow of it Jacob saw carried in +it so much of what was real that when he was broad awake he trusted it +and acted on it. It was not scattered by the chill of the morning air, +nor by that fixed staring reality which external nature assumes in the +gray dawn as one object after another shows itself in the same spot and +form in which night had fallen upon it. There were no angels visible +when he opened his eyes; the staircase was there, but it was of no +heavenly substance, and if it had any secret to tell, it coldly and +darkly kept it. There was no retreat for the runaway from the poor +common facts of yesterday. The sky seemed as far from earth as it did +yesterday, his track over the hill as lonely, his brother's wrath as +real;--but other things also had become real; and as he looked back from +the top of the hill on the stone he had set up, he felt the words, "I am +with thee in all places whither thou goest," graven on his heart, and +giving him new courage; and he knew that every footfall of his was +making a Bethel, and that as he went he was carrying God through the +world. The bleakest rains that swept across the hills of Bethel could +never wash out of his mind the vision of bright-winged angels, as little +as they could wash off the oil or wear down the stone he had set up. The +brightest glare of this world's heyday of real life could not outshine +and cause them to disappear; and the vision on which we hope is not one +that vanishes at cock-crow, nor is He who connects us with God shy of +human handling, but substantial as ourselves. He offered Himself to +every kind of test, so that those who knew Him for years could say, with +the most absolute confidence, "That which we have heard, which we have +seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have +handled of the Word of Life ... declare we unto you, that ye also may +have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, +and with His Son Jesus Christ." + +Jacob obeyed a good instinct when he set up as a monumental stone that +which had served as his pillow while he dreamt and saw this inspiring +vision. He felt that, vivid as the impression on his mind then was, it +would tend to fade, and he erected this stone that in after days he +might have a witness that would testify to his present assurance. One +great secret in the growth of character is the art of prolonging the +quickening power of right ideas, of perpetuating just and inspiring +impressions. And he who despises the aid of all external helps for the +accomplishment of this object is not likely to succeed. Religion, some +men say, is an inward thing: it does not consist of public worship, +ordinances, and so forth, but it is a state of spirit. Very true; but he +knows little of human nature who fancies a state of spirit can be +maintained without the aid of external reminders, presentations to eye +and ear of central religious truths and facts. We have all of us had +such views of truth, and such corresponding desires and purposes, as +would transform us were they only permanent. But what a night has +settled on our past, how little have we found skill to prolong the +benefit arising from particular events or occasions. Some parts of our +life, indeed, require no monument, there is nothing _there_ we would +ever again think of, if possible; but, alas! these, for the most part, +have erected monuments of their own, to which, as with a sad +fascination, our eyes are ever turning--persons we have injured, or who, +somehow, so remind us of sin, that we shrink from meeting them--places +to which sins of ours have attached a reproachful meaning. And these +natural monuments must be imitated in the life of grace. By fixed hours +of worship, by rules and habits of devotion, by public worship, and +especially by the monumental ordinance of the Lord's Supper, must we +cherish the memory of known truth, and deepen former impressions. + +To the monument Jacob attached a vow, so that when he returned to that +spot the stone might remind him of the dependence on God he now felt, of +the precarious situation he was in when this vision appeared, and of all +the help God had afterwards given him. He seems to have taken up the +meaning of that endless chain of angels ceaselessly coming down full of +blessing, and going up empty of all but desires, requests, aspirations. +And if we are to live with clean conscience and with heart open to God, +we must so live that the messengers who bring God's blessings to us +shall not have an evil report to take back of the manner in which we +have received and spent His bounty. + +This whole incident makes a special appeal to those who are starting in +life. Jacob was no longer a young man, but he was unmarried, and he was +going to seek employment with nothing to begin the world with but his +shepherd's staff, the symbol of his knowledge of a profession. Many must +see in him a very exact reproduction of their own position. They have +left home, and it may be they have left it not altogether with pleasant +memories, and they are now launched on the world for themselves, with +nothing but their staff, their knowledge of some business. The spot they +have reached may seem as desolate as the rock where Jacob lay, their +prospects as doubtful as his. For such an one there is absolutely no +security but that which is given in the vision of Jacob--in the belief +that God will be with you in all places, and that even now on that life +which you are perhaps already wishing to seclude from all holy +influences, the angels of God are descending to bless and restrain you +from sin. Happy the man who, at the outset, can heartily welcome such a +connection of his life with God: unhappy he who welcomes whatever blots +out the thought of heaven, and who separates himself from all that +reminds him of the good influences that throng his path. The desire of +the young heart to see life and know the world is natural and innocent, +but how many fancy that in seeing the lowest and poorest perversions of +life they see life--how many forget that unless they keep their hearts +pure they can never enter into the best and richest and most enduring of +the uses and joys of human life. Even from a selfish motive and the mere +desire to succeed in the world, every one starting in life would do well +to consider whether he really has Jacob's blessing and is making his +vow. And certainly every one who has any honour, who is governed by any +of those sentiments that lead men to noble and worthy actions, will +frankly meet God's offers and joyfully accept a heavenly guidance and a +permanent connection with God. + +Before we dismiss this vision, it may be well to look at one instance of +its fulfilment, that we may understand the manner in which God fulfils +His promises. Jacob's experience in Haran was not so brilliant and +unexceptionable as he might perhaps expect. He did, indeed, at once find +a woman he could love, but he had to purchase her with seven years' +toil, which ultimately became fourteen years. He did not grudge this; +because it was customary, because his affections were strong, and +because he was too independent to send to his father for money to buy a +wife. But the bitterest disappointment awaited him. With the burning +humiliation of one who has been cheated in so cruel a way, he finds +himself married to Leah. He protests, but he cannot insist on his +protest, nor divorce Leah; for, in point of fact, he is conscious that +he is only being paid in his own coin, foiled with his own weapons. In +this veiled bride brought in to him on false pretences, he sees the just +retribution of his own disguise when with the hands of Esau he went in +and received his father's blessing. His mouth is shut by the remembrance +of his own past. But submitting to this chastisement, and recognising +in it not only the craft of his uncle, but the stroke of God, that which +he at first thought of as a cruel curse became a blessing. It was Leah +much more than Rachel that built up the house of Israel. To this +despised wife six of the tribes traced their origin, and among these was +the tribe of Judah. Thus he learned the fruitfulness of God's +retribution--that to be humbled by God is really to be built up, and to +be punished by Him the richest blessing. Through such an experience are +many persons led: when we would embrace the fruit of years of toil God +thrusts into our arms something quite different from our +expectation--something that not only disappoints, but that at first +repels us, reminding us of acts of our own we had striven to forget. Is +it with resentment you still look back on some such experience, when the +reward of years of toil evaded your grasp, and you found yourself bound +to what you would not have worked a day to obtain?--do you find yourself +disheartened and discouraged by the way in which you seem regularly to +miss the fruit of your labour? If so, no doubt it were useless to assure +you that the disappointment may be more fruitful than the hope +fulfilled, but it can scarcely be useless to ask you to consider whether +it is not the fact that in Jacob's case what was thrust upon him _was_ +more fruitful than what he strove to win. + + + + +XXIII. + +_JACOB AT PENIEL._ + +GENESIS xxxii. + + "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you + up."--JAMES iv. 10. + + +Jacob had a double reason for wishing to leave Padan-aram. He believed +in the promise of God to give him Canaan; and he saw that Laban was a +man with whom he could never be on a thoroughly good understanding. He +saw plainly that Laban was resolved to make what he could out of his +skill at as cheap a rate as possible--the characteristic of a selfish, +greedy, ungrateful, and therefore, in the end, ill-served master. Laban +and Esau were the two men who had hitherto chiefly influenced Jacob's +life. But they were very different in character. Esau could never see +that there was any important difference between himself and +Jacob--except that his brother was trickier. Esau was the type of those +who honestly think that there is not much in religion, and that saints +are but white-washed sinners. Laban, on the contrary, is almost +superstitiously impressed by the distinction between God's people and +others. But the chief practical issue of this impression is, not that he +seeks God's friendship for himself, but that he tries to make a +profitable use of God's friends. He seeks to get God's blessing, as it +were, at second-hand. If men could be related to God indirectly, as if +in law and not by blood, that would suit Laban. If God would admit men +to his inheritance on any other terms than being sons in the direct +line, if there were some relationship once removed, a kind of +sons-in-law, so that mere connection with the godly, though not with +God, would win His blessing, this would suit Laban. + +Laban is the man who appreciates the social value of virtue, +truthfulness, fidelity, temperance, godliness, but wishes to enjoy their +fruits without the pain of cultivating the qualities themselves. He is +scrupulous as to the character of those he takes into his employment, +and seeks to connect himself in business with good men. In his domestic +life, he acts on the idea which his experience has suggested to him, +that persons really godly will make his home more peaceful, better +regulated, safer than otherwise it might be. If he holds a position of +authority, he knows how to make use, for the preservation of order and +for the promotion of his own ends, of the voluntary efforts of Christian +societies, of the trustworthiness of Christian officials, and of the +support of the Christian community. But with all this recognition of the +reality and influence of godliness, he never for one moment entertains +the idea of himself becoming a godly man. In all ages there are Labans, +who clearly recognise the utility and worth of a connection with God, +who have been much mixed up with persons in whom that worth was very +conspicuous, and who yet, at the last, "depart and return unto their +place," like Jacob's father-in-law, without having themselves entered +into any affectionate relations with God. + +From Laban, then, Jacob was resolved to escape. And though to escape +with large droves of slow-moving sheep and cattle, as well as with many +women and children, seemed hopeless, the cleverness of Jacob did not +fail him here. He did not get beyond reach of pursuit; he could never +have expected to do so. But he stole away to such a distance from Haran +as made it much easier for him to come to terms with Laban, and much +more difficult for Laban to try any further device for detaining him. + +But, delivered as he was from Laban, he had an even more formidable +person to deal with. As soon as Laban's company disappear on the +northern horizon, Jacob sends messengers south to sound Esau. His +message is so contrived as to beget the idea in Esau's mind that his +younger brother is a person of some importance, and yet is prepared to +show greater deference to himself than formerly. But the answer brought +back by the messengers is the curt and haughty despatch of the man of +war to the man of peace. No notice is taken of Jacob's vaunted wealth. +No proposal of terms as if Esau had an equal to deal with, is carried +back. There is only the startling announcement: "Esau cometh to meet +thee, and four hundred men with him." Jacob at once recognises the +significance of this armed advance on Esau's part. Esau has not +forgotten the wrong he suffered at Jacob's hands, and he means to show +him that he is entirely in his power. + +Therefore was Jacob "greatly afraid and distressed." The joy with which, +a few days ago, he had greeted the host of God, was quite overcast by +the tidings brought him regarding the host of Esau. Things heavenly do +always look so like a mere show; visits of angels seem so delusive and +fleeting; the exhibition of the powers of heaven seems so often but as a +tournament painted on the sky, and so unavailable for the stern +encounters that await us on earth, that one seems, even after the most +impressive of such displays, to be left to fight on alone. No wonder +Jacob is disturbed. His wives and dependants gather round him in dismay; +the children, catching the infectious panic, cower with cries and +weeping about their mothers; the whole camp is rudely shaken out of its +brief truce by the news of this rough Esau, whose impetuosity and +warlike ways they had all heard of and were now to experience. The +accounts of the messengers would no doubt grow in alarming descriptive +detail as they saw how much importance was attached to their words. +Their accounts would also be exaggerated by their own unwarlike nature, +and by the indistinctness with which they had made out the temper of +Esau's followers, and the novelty of the equipments of war they had seen +in his camp. Could we have been surprised had Jacob turned and fled when +thus he was made to picture the troops of Esau sweeping from his grasp +all he had so laboriously earned, and snatching the promised inheritance +from him when in the very act of entering on possession? But though in +fancy he already hears their rude shouts of triumph as they fall upon +his defenceless band, and already sees the merciless horde dividing the +spoil with shouts of derision and coarse triumph, and though all around +him are clamouring to be led into a safe retreat, Jacob sees stretched +before him the land that is his, and resolves that, by God's help, he +shall win it. What he does is not the act of a man rendered incompetent +through fear, but of one who has recovered from the first shock of alarm +and has all his wits about him. He disposes his household and followers +in two companies, so that each might advance with the hope that it might +be the one which should not meet Esau; and having done all that his +circumstances permit, he commends himself to God in prayer. + +After Jacob had prayed to God, a happy thought strikes him, which he at +once puts in execution. Anticipating the experience of Solomon, that "a +brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city," he, in the +style of a skilled tactician, lays siege to Esau's wrath, and directs +against it train after train of gifts, which, like successive battalions +pouring into a breach, might at length quite win his brother. This +disposition of his peaceful battering trains having occupied him till +sunset, he retires to the short rest of a general on the eve of battle. +As soon as he judges that the weaker members of the camp are refreshed +enough to begin their eventful march, he rises and goes from tent to +tent awaking the sleepers, and quickly forming them into their usual +line of march, sends them over the brook in the darkness, and himself is +left alone, not with the depression of a man who waits for the +inevitable, but with the high spirits of intense activity, and with the +return of the old complacent confidence of his own superiority to his +powerful but sluggish-minded brother--a confidence regained now by the +certainty he felt, at least for the time, that Esau's rage could not +blaze through all the relays of gifts he had sent forward. Having in +this spirit seen all his camp across the brook, he himself pauses for a +moment, and looks with interest at the stream before him, and at the +promised land on its southern bank. This stream, too, has an interest +for him as bearing a name like his own--a name that signifies the +"struggler," and was given to the mountain torrent from the pain and +difficulty with which it seemed to find its way through the hills. +Sitting on the bank of the stream, he sees gleaming through the darkness +the foam that it churned as it writhed through the obstructing rocks, or +heard through the night the roar of its torrent as it leapt downwards, +tortuously finding its way towards Jordan; and Jacob says, So will I, +opposed though I be, win my way, by the circuitous routes of craft or by +the impetuous rush of courage, into the land whither that stream is +going. With compressed lips, and step as firm as when, twenty years +before, he left the land, he rises to cross the brook and enter the +land--he rises, and is seized in a grasp that he at once owns as +formidable. But surely this silent close, as of two combatants who at +once recognise one another's strength, this protracted strife, does not +look like the act of a depressed man, but of one whose energies have +been strung to the highest pitch, and who would have borne down the +champion of Esau's host had he at that hour opposed his entrance into +the land which Jacob claimed as his own, and into which, as his glove, +pledging himself to follow, he had thrown all that was dear to him in +the world. It was no common wrestler that would have been safe to meet +him in that mood. + +Why, then, was Jacob thus mysteriously held back while his household +were quietly moving forward in the darkness? What is the meaning, +purpose, and use of this opposition to his entrance? These are obvious +from the state of mind Jacob was in. He was going forward to meet Esau +under the impression that there was no other reason why he should not +inherit the land but only his wrath, and pretty confident that by his +superior talent, his mother-wit, he could make a tool of this stupid, +generous brother of his. And the danger was, that if Jacob's device had +succeeded, he would have been confirmed in these impressions, and have +believed that he had won the land from Esau, with God's help certainly, +but still by his own indomitable pertinacity of purpose and skill in +dealing with men. Now, this was not the state of the case at all. Jacob +had, by his own deceit, become an exile from the land, had been, in +fact, banished for fraud; and though God had confirmed to him the +covenant, and promised to him the land, yet Jacob had apparently never +come to any such thorough sense of his sin and entire incompetency to +win the birthright for himself, as would have made it _possible_ for him +to receive simply as God's gift this land which as God's gift was alone +valuable. Jacob does not yet seem to have taken up the difference +between inheriting a thing as God's gift, and inheriting it as the meed +of his own prowess. To such a man God cannot _give_ the land; Jacob +cannot receive it. He is thinking only of winning it, which is not at +all what God means, and which would, in fact, have annulled all the +covenant, and lowered Jacob and his people to the level simply of other +nations who had to win and keep their territories at their risk, and not +as the blessed of God. If Jacob then is to get the land, he must take it +as a gift, which he is not prepared to do. During the last twenty years +he has got many a lesson which might have taught him to distrust his own +management, and he had, to a certain extent, acknowledged God; but his +Jacob-nature, his subtle, scheming nature, was not so easily made to +stand erect, and still he is for wriggling himself into the promised +land. He is coming back to the land under the impression that God needs +to be managed, that even though we have His promises it requires +dexterity to get them fulfilled, that a man will get into the +inheritance all the readier for knowing what to veil from God and what +to exhibit, when to cleave to His word with great profession of most +humble and absolute reliance on Him, and when to take matters into one's +own hand. Jacob, in short, was about to enter the land as Jacob, the +supplanter, and that would never do; he was going to win the land from +Esau by guile, or as he might; and not to receive it from God. And, +therefore, just as he is going to step into it, there lays hold of him, +not an armed emissary of his brother, but a far more formidable +antagonist--if Jacob will win the land, if it is to be a mere trial of +skill, a wrestling match, it must at least be with the right person. +Jacob is met with his own weapons. He has not chosen war, so no armed +opposition is made; but with the naked force of his own nature, he is +prepared for any man who will hold the land against him; with such +tenacity, toughness, quick presence of mind, elasticity, as nature has +given him, he is confident he can win and hold his own. So the real +proprietor of the land strips himself for the contest, and lets him +feel, by the first hold he takes of him, that if the question be one of +mere strength he shall never enter the land. + +This wrestling therefore was by no means actually or symbolically +prayer. Jacob was not aggressive, nor did he stay behind his company to +spend the night in praying for them. It was God who came and laid hold +on Jacob to prevent him from entering the land in the temper he was in, +and as Jacob. He was to be taught that it was not only Esau's appeased +wrath, or his own skilful smoothing down of his brother's ruffled +temper, that gave him entrance; but that a nameless Being, Who came out +upon him from the darkness, guarded the land, and that by His passport +only could he find entrance. And henceforth, as to every reader of this +history so much more to Jacob's self, the meeting with Esau and the +overcoming of his opposition were quite secondary to and eclipsed by his +meeting and prevailing with this unknown combatant. + +This struggle had, therefore, immense significance for the history of +Jacob. It is, in fact, a concrete representation of the attitude he had +maintained towards God throughout his previous history; and it +constitutes the turning point at which he assumes a new and satisfactory +attitude. Year after year Jacob had still retained confidence in +himself; he had never been thoroughly humbled, but had always felt +himself able to regain the land he had lost by his sin. And in this +struggle he shows this same determination and self-confidence. He +wrestles on indomitably. As Kurtz, whom I follow in his interpretation +of this incident, says, "All along Jacob's life had been the struggle of +a clever and strong, a pertinacious and enduring, a self-confident and +self-sufficient person, who was sure of the result only when he helped +himself--a contest with God, who wished to break his strength and +wisdom, in order to bestow upon him real strength in divine weakness, +and real wisdom in divine folly." All this self-confidence culminates +now, and in one final and sensible struggle, his Jacob-nature, his +natural propensity to wrest what he desires and win what he aims at, +from the most unwilling opponent, does its very utmost and does it in +vain. His steady straining, his dexterous feints, his quick gusts of +vehement assault, make no impression on this combatant and move him not +one foot off his ground. Time after time his crafty nature puts out all +its various resources, now letting his grasp relax and feigning defeat, +and then with gathered strength hurling himself on the stranger, but all +in vain. What Jacob had often surmised during the last twenty years, +what had flashed through him like a sudden gleam of light when he found +himself married to Leah, that he was in the hands of one against whom it +is quite useless to struggle, he now again begins to suspect. And as the +first faint dawn appears, and he begins dimly to make out the face, the +quiet breathing of which he had felt on his own during the contest, the +man with whom he wrestles touches the strongest sinew in Jacob's body, +and the muscle on which the wrestler most depends shrivels at the touch +and reveals to the falling Jacob how utterly futile had been all his +skill and obstinacy, and how quickly the stranger might have thrown and +mastered him. + +All in a moment, as he falls, Jacob sees how it is with him, and Who it +is that has met him thus. As the hard, stiff, corded muscle shrivelled, +so shrivelled his obdurate, persistent self-confidence. And as he is +thrown, yet cleaves with the natural tenacity of a wrestler to his +conqueror; so, utterly humbled before this Mighty One whom now he +recognises and owns, he yet cleaves to Him and entreats His blessing. It +is at this touch, which discovers the Almighty power of Him with whom he +has been contending, that the whole nature of Jacob goes down before +God. He sees how foolish and vain has been his obstinate persistence in +striving to trick God out of His blessing, or wrest it from Him, and now +he owns his utter incapacity to advance one step in this way, he admits +to himself that he is stopped, weakened in the way, thrown on his back, +and can effect nothing, simply nothing, by what he thought would effect +all; and, therefore, he passes from wrestling to praying, and with +tears, as Hosea says, sobs out from the broken heart of the strong man, +"I will not let thee go except thou bless me." In making this transition +from the boldness and persistence of self-confidence to the boldness of +faith and humility, Jacob becomes Israel--the supplanter, being baffled +by his conqueror, rises a Prince. Disarmed of all other weapons, he at +last finds and uses the weapons wherewith God is conquered, and with the +simplicity and guilelessness now of an Israelite indeed, face to face +with God, hanging helpless with his arms around Him, he supplicates the +blessing he could not win. + +Thus, as Abraham had to become God's heir in the simplicity of humble +dependence on God; as Isaac had to lay himself on God's altar with +absolute resignation, and so become the heir of God, so Jacob enters on +the inheritance through the most thorough humbling. Abraham had to give +up all possessions and live on God's promise; Isaac had to give up life +itself; Jacob had to yield his very self, and abandon all dependence on +his own ability. The new name he receives signalizes and interprets this +crisis in his life. He enters his land not as Jacob, but as Israel. The +man who crossed the Jabbok was not the same as he who had cheated Esau +and outwitted Laban and determinedly striven this morning with the +angel. He was Israel, God's prince, entering on the land freely bestowed +on him by an authority none could resist; a man who had learned that in +order to receive from God, one must ask. + +Very significant to Jacob in his after life must have been the lameness +consequent on this night's struggle. He, the wrestler, had to go halting +all his days. He who had carried all his weapons in his own person, in +his intelligent watchful eye and tough right arm, he who had felt +sufficient for all emergencies and a match for all men, had now to limp +along as one who had been worsted and baffled and could not hide his +shame from men. So it sometimes happens that a man never recovers the +severe handling he has received at some turning point in his life. Often +there is never again the same elastic step, the same free and confident +bearing, the same apparent power, the same appearance to our fellow-men +of completeness in our life; but, instead of this, there is a humble +decision which, if it does not walk with so free a gait, yet knows +better what ground it is treading and by what right. To the end some men +bear the marks of the heavy stroke by which God first humbled them. It +came in a sudden shock that broke their health, or in a disappointment +which nothing now given can ever quite obliterate the trace of, or in +circumstances painfully and permanently altered. And the man has to say +with Jacob, I shall never now be what I might have been; I was resolved +to have my own way, and though God in His mercy did not suffer me to +destroy myself, yet to drive me from my purpose He was forced to use a +violence, under the effects of which I go halting all my days, saved and +whole, yet maimed to the end of time. I am not ashamed of the mark, at +least when I think of it as God's signature I am able to glory in it, +but it never fails to remind me of a perverse wilfulness I am ashamed +of. With many men God is forced to such treatment; if any of us are +under it, God forbid we should mistake its meaning and lie prostrate and +despairing in the darkness instead of clinging to Him Who has smitten +and will heal us. + +For the treatment which Jacob received at Peniel must not be set aside +as singular or exceptional. Sometimes God interposes between us and a +greatly-desired possession which we have been counting upon as our right +and as the fair and natural consequence of our past efforts and ways. +The expectation of this possession has indeed determined our movements +and shaped our life for some time past, and it would not only be +assigned to us by men as fairly ours, but God also has Himself seemed to +encourage us to win it. Yet when it is now within sight, and when we are +rising to pass the little stream which seems alone to separate us from +it, we are arrested by a strong, an irresistible hand. The reason is, +that God wishes us to be in such a state of mind that we shall receive +it as His gift, so that it becomes ours by an indefeasible title. + +Similarly, when advancing to a spiritual possession, such checks are not +without their use. Many men look with longing to what is eternal and +spiritual, and they resolve to win this inheritance. And this resolve +they often make as if its accomplishment depended solely on their own +endurance. They leave almost wholly out of account that the possibility +of their entering the state they long for is not decided by their +readiness to pass through any ordeal, spiritual or physical, which may +be required of them, but by God's willingness to give it. They act as if +by taking advantage of God's promises, and by passing through certain +states of mind and prescribed duties, they could, irrespective of God's +present attitude towards them and constant love, win eternal happiness. +In the life of such persons there must therefore come a time when their +own spiritual energy seems all to collapse in that painful, utter way +in which, when the body is exhausted, the muscles are suddenly found to +be cramped and heavy and no longer responsive to the will. They are made +to feel that a spiritual dislocation has taken place, and that their +eagerness to enter life everlasting no longer stirs the active energies +of the soul. + +In that hour the man learns the most valuable truth he can learn, that +it is God Who is wishing to save him, not he who must wrest a blessing +from an unwilling God. Instead of any longer looking on himself as +against the world, he takes his place as one who has the whole energy of +God's will at his back, to give him rightful entrance into all +blessedness. So long as Jacob was in doubt whether it was not some kind +of man that was opposing him, he wrestled on; and our foolish ways of +dealing with God terminate, when we recognise that He is not such an one +as ourselves. We naturally act as if God had some pleasure in thwarting +us--as if we could, and even ought to, maintain a kind of contest with +God. We deal with Him as if He were opposed to our best purposes and +grudged to advance us in all good, and as if He needed to be propitiated +by penitence and cajoled by forced feelings and sanctimonious demeanour. +We act as if we could make more way were God not in our way, as if our +best prospects began in our own conception and we had to win God over to +our views. If God is unwilling, then there is an end: no device nor +force will get us past Him. If He is willing, why all this unworthy +dealing with Him, as if the whole idea and accomplishment of salvation +did not proceed from Him? + + + + +XXIV. + +_JACOB'S RETURN._ + +GENESIS xxxv. + + "As for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of + Canaan in the way."--GEN. xlviii. 7. + + +The words of the Wrestler at the brook Jabbok, "Let me go, for the day +breaketh," express the truth that spiritual things will not submit +themselves to sensible tests. When we seek to let the full daylight, by +which we discern other objects, stream upon them, they elude our grasp. +When we fancy we are on the verge of having our doubts for ever +scattered, and our suppositions changed into certainties, the very +approach of clear knowledge and demonstration seems to drive those +sensitive spiritual presences into darkness. As Pascal remarked, and +remarked as the mouth-piece of all souls that have earnestly sought for +God, the world only gives us indications of the presence of a God Who +conceals Himself. It is, indeed, one of the most mysterious +characteristics of our life in this world, that the great Existence +which originates and embraces all other Beings, should Himself be so +silent and concealed: that there should be need of subtle arguments to +prove His existence, and that no argument ever conceived has been found +sufficiently cogent to convince all men. One is always tempted to say, +how easy to end all doubt, how easy for God so to reveal Himself as to +make unbelief impossible, and give to all men the glad consciousness +that they have a God. + +The reason of this "reserve" of God must lie in the nature of things. +The greatest forces in nature are silent and unobtrusive and +incomprehensible. Without the law of gravitation the universe would rush +into ruin, but who has ever seen this force? Its effects are everywhere +visible, but itself is shrouded in darkness and cannot be comprehended. +So much more must the Infinite Spirit remain unseen and baffling all +comprehension. "No man hath seen God at any time" must ever remain true. +To ask for God's name, therefore, as Jacob did, is a mistake. For almost +every one supposes that when he knows the name of a thing, he knows also +its nature. The giving of a name, therefore, tends to discourage +enquiry, and to beget an unfounded satisfaction as if, when we know what +a thing is called, we know what it is. The craving, therefore, which we +all feel in common with Jacob--to have all mystery swept from between us +and God, and to see Him face to face, so that we may know Him as we know +our friends--is a craving which cannot be satisfied. You cannot ever +know God as He is. Your mind cannot comprehend a Being who is pure +Spirit, inhabiting no body, present with you here but present also +hundreds of millions of miles away, related to time and to space and to +matter in ways utterly impossible for you to comprehend. + +What is possible, God has done. He has made Himself known in Christ. We +are assured, on testimony that stands every kind of test, that in Him, +if nowhere else, we find God. And yet even by Christ this same law of +reserve if not concealment was observed. Not only did He forbid men and +devils to proclaim who He was, but when men, weary of their own doubts +and debatings, impatiently challenged him, "If thou be the Christ tell +us plainly," He declined to do so. For really men must grow to the +knowledge of Him. Even a human face cannot be known by once or twice +seeing it; the practised artist often misses the expression best loved +by the intimate friend, or by the relative whose own nature interprets +to him the face in which he sees himself reflected. Much more can the +child of God only attain to the knowledge of his Father's face by first +of all _being_ a child of God, and then by gradually growing up into His +likeness. + +But though God's operation is in darkness the results of it are in the +light. "As Jacob passed over Peniel, the _sun rose_ upon him, and he +halted upon his thigh." As Jacob's company halted when they missed him, +and as many anxious eyes were turned back into the darkness, they were +unable still to see him; and even when the darkness began to scatter, +and they saw dimly and far off a human figure, the sharpest eyes among +them declare it cannot be Jacob, for the gait and walk, which alone they +can judge by at that distance and in that light, are not his. But when +at last the first ray of sunlight streams on him from over the hills of +Gilead, all doubt is at an end; it _is_ Jacob, but halting on his thigh. +And he himself finds it is not a strain which the walking of a few paces +will ease, nor a night cramp which will pass off, nor a mere dream which +would vanish in broad day, but a real permanent lameness which he must +explain to his company. Has he missed a step on the bank in the +darkness, or stumbled or slipped on the slippery stones of the ford? It +is a far more real thing to him than any such accident. So, however +others may discredit the results of a work on the soul which they have +not seen--however they may say of the first and most obvious results, +"This is but a sickness of soul which the rising sun will dispel; a +feigned peculiarity of walk which will be forgotten in the bustle of the +day's work"--it is not so, but every contact with real life makes it +more obvious that when God touches a man the result is real. And as +Jacob's household and children in all generations counted that sinew +which shrank sacred, and would not eat of it, so surely should we be +reverential towards God's work in the soul of our neighbour, and respect +even those peculiarities which are often the most obvious first-fruits +of conversion, and which make it difficult for us to walk in the same +comfort with these persons, and keep step with them as easily as once we +did. A reluctance to live like other good people, an inability to share +their innocent amusements, a distaste for the very duties of this life, +a harsh or reserved bearing towards unconverted persons, an awkwardness +in speaking of their religious experience, as well as an awkwardness in +applying it to the ordinary circumstances of their life,--these and many +other of the results of God's work on the soul should not be rudely +dealt with, but respected; for though not in themselves either seemly or +beneficial, they are evidence of God's touch. + +After this contest with the angel, the meeting of Jacob with Esau has no +separate significance. Jacob succeeds with his brother because already +he has prevailed with God. He is on a satisfactory footing now with the +Sovereign who alone can bestow the land and judge betwixt him and his +brother. Jacob can no longer suppose that the chief obstacle to his +advance is the resentment of Esau. He has felt and submitted to a +stronger hand than Esau's. Such schooling we all need; and get, if we +will take it. Like Jacob, we have to make our way to our end through +numberless human interferences and worldly obstacles. Some of these we +have to flee from, as Jacob from Laban; others we must meet and +overcome, as our Esaus. Our own sin or mistake has put us under the +power of some whose influence is disastrous; others, though we are not +under their power at all, yet, consciously or unconsciously to +themselves, continually cross our path and thwart us, keep us back and +prevent us from effecting what we desire, and from shaping things about +us according to our own ideas. And there will, from time to time, be +present to our minds obvious ways in which we could defeat the +opposition of these persons, and by which we fancy we could triumph over +them. And what we are here taught is, that we need look for no triumph, +and it is a pity for us if we win a triumph over any human opposition, +however purely secular and unchristian, without first having prevailed +with God in the matter. He comes in between us and all men and things, +and, laying His hand on us, arrests us from further progress till we +have to the very bottom and in every part adjusted the affair with +Him--and then, standing right with Him, we can very easily, or at least +we _can_, get right with all things. And it should be a suggestive and +fruitful thought to the most of us that, in all cases in which we sin +against our brother, God presents Himself as the champion of the wronged +party. One day or other we must meet not the strongest putting of all +those cases in which we have erred as the offended party could himself +put them, but we must meet them as put by the Eternal Advocate of +justice and right, who saw our spirit, our merely selfish calculating, +our base motive, our impure desire, our unrighteous deed. Gladly would +Jacob have met the mightiest of Esau's host in place of this invincible +opponent, and it is this same Mighty One, this same watchful guardian of +right Who threw Himself in Jacob's way, Who has His eye on us, Who has +tracked us through all our years, and Who will certainly one time appear +in our path as the champion of every one we have wronged, of every one +whose soul we have put in jeopardy, of every one to whom we have not +done what God intended we should do, of every one whom we have attempted +merely to make use of; and in stating their case and showing us what +justice and duty would have required of us, He will make us feel, what +we cannot feel till He Himself convinces us, that, in all our dealings +with men, wherein we have wronged them we have wronged Him. + +The narrative now prepares to leave Jacob and make room for Joseph. It +brings him back to Bethel, thereby completing the history of his triumph +over the difficulties with which his life had been so thickly studded. +The interest and much of the significance of a man's life come to an end +when position and success are achieved. The remaining notices of Jacob's +experience are of a sorrowful kind; he lives under a cloud until at the +close the sun shines out again. We have seen him in his youth making +experiments in life; in his prime founding a family and winning his way +by slow and painful steps to his own place in the world; and now he +enters on the last stage of his life, a stage in which signs of breaking +up appear almost as soon as he attains his aim and place in life. + +After all that had happened to Jacob, we should have expected him to +make for Bethel as rapidly as his unwieldy company could be moved +forwards. But the pastures that had charmed the eye of his grandfather +captivated Jacob as well. He bought land at Shechem, and appeared +willing to settle there. The vows which he had uttered with such fervour +when his future was precarious are apparently quite forgotten, or more +probably neglected, now that danger seems past. To go to Bethel involved +the abandonment of admirable pastures, and the introduction of new +religious views and habits into his family life. A man who has large +possessions, difficult and precarious relations to sustain with the +world, and a household unmanageable from its size, and from the variety +of dispositions included in it, requires great independence and +determination to carry out domestic reform on religious grounds. Even a +slight change in our habits is often delayed because we are shy of +exposing to observation fresh and deep convictions on religious +subjects. Besides, we forget our fears and our vows when the time of +hardship passes away; and that which, as young men, we considered almost +hopeless, we at length accept as our right, and omit all remembrance and +gratitude. A spiritual experience that is separated from your present by +twenty years of active life, by a foreign residence, by marriage, by the +growing up of a family around you, by other and fresher spiritual +experiences, is apt to be very indistinctly remembered. The obligations +you then felt and owned have been overlaid and buried in the lapse of +years. And so it comes that a low tone is introduced into your life, and +your homes cease to be model homes. + +Out of this condition Jacob was roughly awakened. Sinning by +unfaithfulness and softness towards his family, he is, according to the +usual law, punished by family disaster of the most painful kind. The +conduct of Simeon and Levi was apparently due quite as much to family +pride and religious fanaticism as to brotherly love or any high moral +view. In them first we see how the true religion, when held by coarse +and ungodly men, becomes the root of all evil. We see the first instance +of that fanaticism which so often made the Jews a curse rather than a +blessing to other nations. Indeed, it is but an instance of the +injustice, cruelty, and violence that at all times result where men +suppose that they themselves are raised to quite peculiar privileges and +to a position superior to their fellows, without recognising also that +this position is held by the grace of a holy God and for the good of +their fellows. + +Jacob is now compelled to make a virtue of necessity. He flees to Bethel +to escape the vengeance of the Shechemites. To such serious calamities +do men expose themselves by arguing with conscience and by refusing to +live up to their engagements. How can men be saved from living merely +for sheep-feeding and cattle-breeding and trade and enjoyment? how can +they be saved from gradually expelling from their character all +principle and all high sentiment that conflicts with immediate advantage +and present pleasure, save by such irresistible blows as here compelled +Jacob to shift his camp? He has spiritual perception enough left to see +what is meant. The order is at once issued: "Put away the strange gods +that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments: and let us +arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who +answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which +I went." Thus frankly does he acknowledge his error, and repair, so far +as he can, the evil he has done. Thus decidedly does he press God's +command on those whom he had hitherto encouraged or connived at. Even +from his favourite Rachel he takes her gods and buries them. The fierce +Simeon and Levi, proud of the blood with which they had washed out their +sister's stain, are ordered to cleanse their garments and show some +seemly sorrow, if they can. + +If years go by without any such incident occurring in our life as drives +us to a recognition of our moral laxity and deterioration, and to a +frank and humble return to a closer walk with God, we had need to strive +to awaken ourselves and ascertain whether we are living up to old vows +and are really animated by thoroughly worthy motives. It was when Jacob +came back to the very spot where he had lain on the open hill-side, and +pointed out to his wives and children the stone he had set up to mark +the spot, that he felt humbled as he cast his eye over the flocks and +tents he now owned. And if you can, like Jacob, go back to spots in your +life which were very woful and perplexed, years even when all continued +dreary, dark, and hopeless, when friendlessness and poverty, bereavement +or disease, laid their chilling, crushing hands upon you, times when you +could not see what possible good there was for you in the world; and if +now all this is solved, and your condition is in the most striking +contrast to what you can remember, it becomes you to make acknowledgment +to God such as you may have made to your friends, such acknowledgment as +makes it plain that you are touched by His kindness. The acknowledgment +Jacob made was sensible and honest. He put away the gods which had +divided the worship of his family. In our life there is probably that +which constantly tends to usurp an undue place in our regard; something +which gives us more pleasure than the thought of God, or from which we +really expect a more palpable benefit than we expect from God, and +which, therefore, we cultivate with far greater assiduity. How easily, +if we really wish to be on a clear footing with God, can we discover +what things should be cast revengefully from us, buried and stamped upon +and numbered with the things of the past. Are there not in your life any +objects for the sake of which you sacrifice that nearness to God, and +that sure hold of Him you once enjoyed? Are you not conscious of any +pursuits, or hopes, or pleasures, or employments which practically have +the effect of making you indifferent to spiritual advancement, and which +make you shy of Bethel--shy of all that sets clear before you your +indebtedness to God, and your own past vows and resolves? + +"But," continues the narrative, "_but_ Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died;" +that is, although Jacob and his house were now living in the fear of +God, that did not exempt them from the ordinary distresses of family +life. And among these, one that falls on us with a chastening and mild +sadness all its own, occurs when there passes from the family one of its +oldest members, and one who has by the delicate tact of love gained +influence over all, and has by the common consent become the arbiter and +mediator, the confidant and counsellor of the family. They, indeed, are +the true salt of the earth whose own peace is so deep and abiding, and +whose purity is so thorough and energetic, that into their ear we can +disburden the troubled heart or the guilty conscience, as the wildest +brook disturbs not and the most polluted fouls not the settled depths +of the all-cleansing ocean. Such must Deborah have been, for the oak +under which she was buried was afterwards known as "the oak of weeping." +Specially must Jacob himself have mourned the death of her whose face +was the oldest in his remembrance, and with whom his mother and his +happy early days were associated. Very dear to Jacob, as to most men, +were those who had been connected with and could tell him of his +parents, and remind him of his early years. Deborah, by treating him +still as a little boy, perhaps the only one who now called him by the +pet name of childhood, gave him the pleasantest relief from the cares of +manhood and the obsequious deportment of the other members of his +household towards him. So that when she went a great blank was made to +him: no longer was the wise and happy old face seen in her tent door to +greet him of an evening; no longer could he take refuge in the +peacefulness of her old age from the troubles of his lot: she being +gone, a whole generation was gone, and a new stage of life was entered +on. + +But a heavier blow, the heaviest that death could inflict, soon fell +upon him. She who had been as God's gift and smile to him since ever he +had left Bethel at the first is taken from him now that he is restored +to God's house. The number of his sons is completed, and the mother is +removed. Suddenly and unexpectedly the blow fell, as they were +journeying and fearing no ill. Notwithstanding the confident and +cheering, though ambiguous, assurances of those about her, she had that +clear knowledge of her own state which, without contradicting, simply +put aside such assurances, and, as her soul was departing, feebly named +her son Benoni, Son of my sorrow. She felt keenly what was, to a nature +like hers, the very anguish of disappointment. She was never to feel the +little creature stirring in her arms with personal human life, nor see +him growing up to manhood as the son of his father's right hand. It was +this sad death of Rachel's which made her the typical mother in Israel. +It was not an unclouded, merely prosperous life which could fitly have +foreshadowed the lives of those by whom the promised seed was to come; +and least of all of the virgin to whom it was said, "A sword shall +pierce through thine own soul also." It was the wail of Rachel that +poetical minds among the Jews heard from time to time mourning their +national disasters--"Rachel weeping" for her children, when by captivity +they were separated from their mother country, or when, by the sword of +Herod, the mothers of Bethlehem were bereaved of their babes. But it was +also observed that that which brought this anguish on the mothers of +Bethlehem was the birth there of the last Son of Israel, the blossom of +this long-growing plant, suddenly born after a long and barren period, +the son of Israel's right hand. + +Still another death is registered in this chapter. It took place twelve +years after Joseph went into Egypt, but is set down here for +convenience. Esau and Jacob are, for the last time, brought together +over their dead father--and for the last time, as they see that family +likeness which comes out so strikingly in the face of the dead, do they +feel drawn with brotherly affection to greet one another as sons of one +father. In the dead Isaac, too, they find an object of veneration more +impressive than they had found in the living father: the infirmities of +age are exchanged for the mystery and majesty of death; the man has +passed out of reach of pity, of contempt; the shrill, uncontrolled +treble is no longer heard, there are no weak, plaintive movements, no +childishness; but a solemn, august silence, a silence that seems to bid +on-lookers be still and refrain from disturbing the first communings of +the departed spirit with things unseen. + +The tenderness of these two brothers towards one another and towards +their father was probably quickened by remorse when they met at his +deathbed. They could not, perhaps, think that they had hastened his end +by causing him anxieties which age has not strength to throw off; but +they could not miss the reflection that the life now closed and finally +sealed up might have been a much brighter life had they acted the part +of dutiful, loving sons. Scarcely can one of our number pass from among +us without leaving in our minds some self-reproach that we were not more +kindly towards him, and that now he is beyond our kindness; that our +opportunity for being brotherly towards _him_ is for ever gone. And when +we have very manifestly erred in this respect, perhaps there are among +all the stings of a guilty conscience few more bitterly piercing than +this. Many a son who has stood unmoved by the tears of a living +mother--his mother by whom he lives, who has cherished him as her own +soul, who has forgiven and forgiven and forgiven him, who has toiled and +prayed, and watched for him--though he has hardened himself against her +looks of imploring love and turned carelessly from her entreaties and +burst through all the fond cords and snares by which she has sought to +keep him, has yet broken down before the calm, unsolicitous, resting +face of the dead. Hitherto he has not listened to her pleadings, and now +she pleads no more. Hitherto she has heard no word of pure love from +him, and now she hears no more. Hitherto he has done nothing for her of +all that a son may do, and now there is nothing he can do. All the +goodness of her life gathers up and stands out at once, and the time for +gratitude is past. He sees suddenly, as by the withdrawal of a veil, all +that that worn body has passed through for him, and all the goodness +these features have expressed, and now they can never light up with +joyful acceptance of his love and duty. Such grief as this finds its one +alleviation in the knowledge that we may follow those who have gone +before us; that we may yet make reparation. And when we think how many +we have let pass without those frank, human, kindly offices we might +have rendered, the knowledge that we also shall be gathered to our +people comes in as very cheering. It is a grateful thought that there is +a place where we shall be able to live rightly, where selfishness will +not intrude and spoil all, but will leave us free to be to our neighbour +all that we ought to be and all that we would be. + + + + +XXV. + +_JOSEPH'S DREAMS._ + +GENESIS xxxvii. + + "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee."--PSALM lxxvi. 10. + + +The migration of Israel from Canaan to Egypt was a step of prime +importance in the history. Great difficulties surrounded it, and very +extraordinary means were used to bring it about. The preparatory steps +occupied about twenty years, and nearly a fourth of the Book of Genesis +is devoted to this period. This migration was a new idea. So little was +it the result of an accidental dearth, or of any of those unforeseen +calamities which cause families to emigrate from our own country, that +God had forewarned Abraham himself that it must be. But only when it was +becoming matter of actual experience and of history did God make known +the precise object to be accomplished by it. This He makes known to +Jacob as he passes from Canaan; and as, in abandoning the land he had so +painfully won, his heart sinks, he is sustained by the assurance, "Fear +not to go down into Egypt; I will there make thee a great nation." + +The meaning of the step and the suitableness of the time and of the +place to which Israel migrated, are apparent. For more than two hundred +years now had Abraham and his descendants been wandering as pilgrims, +and as yet there were no signs of God's promise being kept to them. That +promise had been of a land and of a seed. Great fecundity had been +promised to the race; but instead of that there had been a remarkable +and perplexing barrenness, so that after two centuries one tent could +contain the whole male population. In Jacob's time the population began +to increase, but just in proportion as this part of the promise showed +signs of fulfilment did the other part seem precarious. For, in +proportion to their increase, the family became hostile to the +Canaanites, and how should they ever get past that critical point in +their history at which they would be strong enough to excite the +suspicion, jealousy, and hatred of the indigenous tribes, and yet not +strong enough to defend themselves against this enmity? Their presence +was tolerated, just as our countrymen tolerated the presence of French +refugees, on the score of their impotence to do harm. They were placed +in a quite anomalous position; a single family who had continued for two +hundred years in a land which they could only seem in jest to call +theirs, dwelling as guests amid the natives, maintaining peculiar forms +of worship and customs. Collision with the inhabitants seemed +unavoidable as soon as their real character and pretensions oozed out, +and as soon as it seemed at all likely that they really proposed to +become owners and masters in the land. And, in case of such collision, +what could be the result, but that which has ever followed where a few +score men, brave enough to be cut down where they stood, have been +exposed to mass after mass of fierce and blood-thirsty barbarians? A +small number of men have often made good their entrance into lands where +the inhabitants greatly outnumbered them, but these have commonly been +highly disciplined troops, as in the case of the handful of Spaniards +who seized Mexico and Peru; or they have been backed by a power which +could aid with vast resources, as when the Romans held this country, or +when the English lad in India left his pen on his desk and headed his +few resolute countrymen, and held his own against unnumbered millions. +It may be argued that if even Abraham with his own household swept +Canaan clear of invaders, it might now have been possible for his +grandson to do as much with increased means at his disposal. But, not to +mention that every man has not the native genius for command and +military enterprise which Abraham had, it must be taken into account +that a force which is quite sufficient for a marauding expedition or a +night attack, is inadequate for the exigencies of a campaign of several +years' duration. The war which Jacob must have waged, had hostilities +been opened, must have been a war of extermination, and such a war must +have desolated the house of Israel if victorious, and, more probably by +far, would have quite annihilated it. + +It is to obviate these dangers, and to secure that Israel grow without +let or hindrance, that Jacob's household is removed to a land where +protection and seclusion would at once be secured to them. In the land +of Goshen, secured from molestation partly by the influence of Joseph, +but much more by the caste-prejudices of the Egyptians, and their hatred +of all foreigners, and shepherds in particular, they enjoyed such +prosperity and attained so rapidly the magnitude of a nation that some, +forgetful alike of the promise of God and of the natural advantages of +Israel's position, have refused to credit the accounts given us of the +increase in their population. In a land so roomy, so fertile, and so +secluded as that in which they were now settled, they had every +advantage for making the transition from a family to a nation. Here they +were preserved from all temptation to mingle with neighbours of a +different race, and so lose their special place as a people called out +by God to stand alone. The Egyptians would have scorned the marriages +which the Canaanites passionately solicited. Here the very contempt in +which they were held proved to be their most valuable bulwark. And if +Christians have any of the wisdom of the serpent, they will often find +in the contempt or exclusiveness of worldly men a convenient barrier, +preventing them, indeed, from enjoying some privileges, but at the same +time enabling them, without molestation, to pursue their own way. I +believe young people especially feel put about by the deprivations which +they have to suffer in order to save their religious scruples; they are +shut off from what their friends and associates enjoy, and they perceive +that they are not so well liked as they would be had they less desire to +live by conscience and by God's will. They feel ostracized, banished, +frowned upon, laid under disabilities; but all this has its +compensations: it forms for them a kind of Goshen where they may worship +and increase, it runs a fence around them which keeps them apart from +much that tempts and from much that enfeebles. + +The residence of Israel in Egypt served another important purpose. By +contact with the most civilised people of antiquity they emerged from +the semi-barbarous condition in which they had previously been living. +Going into Egypt mere shepherds, as Jacob somewhat plaintively and +deprecatingly says to Pharaoh; not even possessed, so far as we know, of +the fundamental arts on which civilisation rests, unable to record in +writing the revelations God made, or to read them if recorded; having +the most rudimentary ideas of law and justice, and having nothing to +keep them together and give them form and strength, save the one idea +that God meant to confer on them great distinction; they were +transferred into a land where government had been so long established +and law had come to be so thoroughly administered that life and property +were as safe as among ourselves to-day, where science had made such +advances that even the weather-beaten and time-stained relics of it seem +to point to regions into which even the bold enterprise of modern +investigation has not penetrated, and where all the arts needful for +life were in familiar use, and even some practised which modern times +have as yet been unable to recover. To no better school could the +barbarous sons of Bilhah and Zilpah have been sent; to no more fitting +discipline could the lawless spirits of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi have +been subjected. In Egypt, where human life was sacred, where truth was +worshipped as a deity, and where law was invested with the sanctity +which belonged to what was supposed to have descended from heaven, they +were brought under influences similar to those which ancient Rome +exerted over conquered races. + +The unwitting pioneer of this great movement was a man in all respects +fitted to initiate it happily. In Joseph we meet a type of character +rare in any race, and which, though occasionally reproduced in Jewish +history, we should certainly not have expected to meet with at so early +a period. For what chiefly strikes one in Joseph is a combination of +grace and power, which is commonly looked upon as the peculiar result +of civilising influences, knowledge of history, familiarity with foreign +races, and hereditary dignity. In David we find a similar flexibility +and grace of character, and a similar personal superiority. We find the +same bright and humorous disposition helping him to play the man in +adverse circumstances; but we miss in David Joseph's self-control and +incorruptible purity, as we also miss something of his capacity for +difficult affairs of state. In Daniel this latter capacity is abundantly +present, and a facility equal to Joseph's in dealing with foreigners, +and there is also a certain grace or nobility in the Jewish Vizier; but +Joseph had a surplus of power which enabled him to be cheerful and alert +in doleful circumstances, which Daniel would certainly have borne +manfully but probably in a sterner and more passive mood. Joseph, +indeed, seemed to inherit and happily combine the highest qualities of +his ancestors. He had Abraham's dignity and capacity, Isaac's purity and +power of self-devotion, Jacob's cleverness and buoyancy and tenacity. +From his mother's family he had personal beauty, humour, and management. + +A young man of such capabilities could not long remain insensible to his +own powers or indifferent to his own destiny. Indeed, the conduct of his +father and brothers towards him must have made him self-conscious, even +though he had been wholly innocent of introspection. The force of the +impression he produced on his family may be measured by the circumstance +that the princely dress given him by his father did not excite his +brothers' ridicule but their envy and hatred. In this dress there was a +manifest suitableness to his person, and this excited them to a keen +resentment of the distinction. So too they felt that his dreams were +not the mere whimsicalities of a lively fancy, but were possessed of a +verisimilitude which gave them importance. In short, the dress and the +dreams were insufferably exasperating to the brothers, because they +proclaimed and marked in a definite way the feeling of Joseph's +superiority which had already been vaguely rankling in their +consciousness. And it is creditable to Joseph that this superiority +should first have emerged in connection with a point of conduct. It was +in moral stature that the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah felt that they were +outgrown by the stripling whom they carried with them as their drudge. +Neither are we obliged to suppose that Joseph was a gratuitous +tale-bearer, or that when he carried their evil report to his father he +was actuated by a prudish, censorious, or in any way unworthy spirit. +That he very well knew how to hold his tongue no man ever gave more +adequate proof; but he that understands that there is a time to keep +silence necessarily sees also that there is a time to speak. And no one +can tell what torture that pure young soul may have endured in the +remote pastures, when left alone to withstand day after day the outrage +of these coarse and unscrupulous men. An elder brother, if he will, can +more effectually guard the innocence of a younger brother than any other +relative can, but he can also inflict a more exquisite torture. + +Joseph, then, could not but come to think of his future and of his +destiny in this family. That his father should make a pet of him rather +than of Benjamin, he would refer to the circumstance that he was the +oldest son of the wife of his choice, of her whom first he had loved, +and who had no rival while he lived. To so charming a companion as +Joseph must always have been, Jacob would naturally impart all the +traditions and hopes of the family. In him he found a sympathetic and +appreciative listener, who wiled him on to endless narrative, and whose +imaginativeness quickened his own hopes and made the future seem grander +and the world more wide. And what Jacob had to tell could fall into no +kindlier soil than the opening mind of Joseph. No hint was lost, every +promise was interpreted by some waiting aspiration. And thus, like every +youth of capacity, he came to have his day-dreams. These day-dreams, +though derided by those who cannot see the Caesar in the careless +trifler, and though often awkward and even offensive in their +expression, are not always the mere discontented cravings of youthful +vanity, but are frequently instinctive gropings towards the position +which the nature is fitted to fill. "Our wishes," it has been said, "are +the forefeeling of our capabilities;" and certainly where there is any +special gift or genius in a man, the wish of his youth is predictive of +the attainment of manhood. Whims, no doubt, there are, passing phases +through which natural growth carries us, flutterings of the needle when +too near some powerful influence; yet amidst all variations the true +direction will be discernible and ultimately will be dominant. And it is +a great art to discover what we are fit for, so that we may settle down +to our own work, or patiently wait for our own place, without enviously +striving to rob every other man of his crown and so losing our own. It +is an art that saves us much fretting and disappointment and waste of +time, to understand early in life what it is we can accomplish, and what +precisely we mean to be at; "to recognise in our personal gifts or +station, in the circumstances and complications of our life, in our +relations to others, or to the world--the will of God teaching us what +we are, and for what we ought to live." How much of life often is gone +before its possessor sees the use he can put it to, and ceases to beat +the air! How much of life is an ill-considered but passionate striving +after what can never be attained, or a vain imitation of persons who +have quite different talents and opportunities from ourselves, and who +are therefore set to quite another work than ours. + +It was because Joseph's dreams embodied his waking ambition that they +were of importance. Dreams become significant when they are the +concentrated essence of the main stream of the waking thoughts, and +picturesquely exhibit the tendency of the character. "In a dream," says +Elihu, "in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in +slumberings upon the bed; then He openeth the ears of men, and sealeth +their instruction, that He may withdraw man from his purpose." This is +precisely the use of dreams: our tendencies, unbridled by reason and +fact, run on to results; the purposes which the business and other good +influences of the day have kept down act themselves out in our dreams, +and we see the character unimpeded by social checks, and as it would be +were it unmodified by the restraints and efforts and external +considerations of our conscious hours. Our vanity, our pride, our +malice, our impurity, our deceit, our every evil passion, has free play, +and shows us its finished result, and in so vivid and true though +caricatured a form that we are startled and withdrawn from our purpose. +The evil thought we have suffered to creep about our heart seems in our +dreams to become a deed, and we wake in horror and thank God we can yet +refrain. Thus the poor woman, who in utter destitution was beginning to +find her child a burden, dreamt she had drowned it, and woke in horror +at the fancied sound of the plunge--woke to clasp her little one to her +breast with the thrill of a grateful affection that never again gave +way. So that while no man is so foolish as to expect instruction from +every dream any more than from every thought that visits his waking +mind, yet every one who has been accumulating some knowledge of himself +is aware that he has drawn a large part of this from his unconscious +hours. As the naturalist would know but a small part of the animal +kingdom by studying the creatures that show themselves in the daylight, +so there are moles and bats of the spirit that exhibit themselves most +freely in the darkness; and there are jungles and waste places in the +character which, if you look on them only in the sunshine, may seem safe +and lovely, but which at night show themselves to be full of all +loathsome and savage beasts. + +With the simplicity of a guileless mind, and with the natural proneness +of members of one family to tell in the morning the dreams they have +had, Joseph tells to the rest what seems to himself interesting, if not +very suggestive. Possibly he thought very little of his dream till he +saw how much importance his brothers attached to it. Possibly there +might be discernible in his tone and look some mixture of youthful +arrogance. And in his relation of the second dream, there was +discernible at least a confidence that it would be realised, which was +peculiarly intolerable to his brothers, and to his father seemed a +dangerous symptom that called for rebuke. And yet "his father observed +the saying;" as a parent has sometimes occasion to check his child, and +yet, having done so, feels that that does not end the matter; that his +boy and he are in somewhat different spheres, so that while he was +certainly justified in punishing such and such a manifestation of his +character, there is yet something behind that he does not quite +understand, and for which possibly punishment may not be exactly the +suitable award. + +We fall into Jacob's mistake when we refuse to acknowledge as genuine +and God-inspired any religious experience which we ourselves have not +passed through, and which appears in a guise that is not only +unfamiliar, but that is in some particulars objectionable. Up to the +measure of our own religious experience, we recognise as genuine, and +sympathise with, the parallel experience of others; but when they rise +above us and get beyond us, we begin to speak of them as visionaries, +enthusiasts, dreamers. We content ourselves with pointing again and +again to the blots in their manner, and refuse to read the future +through the ideas they add to our knowledge. But the future necessarily +lies, not in the definite and finished attainment, but in the indefinite +and hazy and dream-like germs that have yet growth in them. The future +is not with Jacob, the rebuker, but with the dreaming, and, possibly, +somewhat offensive Joseph. It was certainly a new element Joseph +introduced into the experience of God's people. He saw, obscurely +indeed, but with sufficient clearness to make him thoughtful, that the +man whom God chooses and makes a blessing to others is so far advanced +above his fellows that they lean upon him and pay him homage as if he +were in the place of God to them. He saw that his higher powers were to +be used for his brethren, and that the high destiny he somehow felt to +be his was to be won by doing service so essential that his family +would bow before him and give themselves into his hand. He saw this, as +every man whose love keeps pace with his talent sees it, and he so far +anticipated the dignity of Him who, in the deepest self-sacrifice, +assumed a position and asserted claims which enraged His brethren and +made even His believing mother marvel. Joseph knew that the welfare of +his family rested not with the Esau-like good-nature of Reuben, still +less with the fanatical ferocity of Simeon and Levi, not with the +servile patience of Issachar, nor with the natural force and dignity of +Judah, but with some deeper qualities which, if he himself did not yet +possess, he at least valued and aspired to. + +Whatever Joseph thought of the path by which he was to reach the high +dignity which his dreams foreshadowed, he was soon to learn that the +path was neither easy nor short. Each man thinks that, for himself at +least, an exceptional path will be broken out, and that without +difficulties and humiliations he will inherit the kingdom. But it cannot +be so. And as the first step a lad takes towards the attainment of his +position often involves him in trouble and covers him with confusion, +and does so even although he ultimately finds that it was the only path +by which he could have reached his goal; so, that which was really the +first step towards Joseph's high destiny, no doubt seemed to him most +calamitous and fatal. It certainly did so to his brothers, who thought +that they were effectually and for ever putting an end to Joseph's +pretensions. "Behold, this dreamer cometh; come now therefore, and let +us slay him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams." They +were, however, so far turned from their purpose by Reuben as to put him +in a pit, meaning to leave him to die; and, doubtless, they thought +themselves lenient in doing so. The less violent the death inflicted, +the less of murder seems to be in it; so that he who slowly kills the +body by only wounding the affections often counts himself no murderer at +all, because he strikes no blood-shedding blow, and can deceive himself +into the idea that it is the working of his victim's own spirit that is +doing the damage. + +The tank into which Joseph's brethren cast him was apparently one of +those huge reservoirs excavated by shepherds in the East, that they may +have a supply of water for their flocks in the end of the dry season, +when the running waters fail them. Being so narrow at the mouth that +they can be covered by a single stone, they gradually widen and form a +large subterranean room; and the facility they thus afford for the +confinement of prisoners was from the first too obvious not to be +commonly taken advantage of. In such a place was Joseph left to die: +under the ground, sinking in mire, his flesh creeping at the touch of +unseen slimy creatures, in darkness, alone; that is to say, in a species +of confinement which tames the most reckless and maddens the best +balanced spirits, which shakes the nerve of the calmest, and has +sometimes left the blankness of idiocy in masculine understandings. A +few wild cries that ring painfully round his prison show him he need +expect no help from without; a few wild and desperate beatings round the +shelving walls of rock show him there is no possibility of escape; he +covers his face, or casts himself on the floor of his dungeon to escape +within himself, but only to find this also in vain, and to rise and +renew efforts he knows to be fruitless. Here, then, is what has come of +his fine dreams. With shame he now remembers the beaming confidence +with which he had related them; with bitterness he thinks of the bright +life above him, from which these few feet cut him so absolutely off, and +of the quick termination that has been put to all his hopes. + +Into such tanks do young persons especially get cast; finding themselves +suddenly dropped out of the lively scenery and bright sunshine in which +they have been living, down into roomy graves where they seem left to +die at leisure. They had conceived a way of being useful in the world; +they had found an aim or a hope; they had, like Joseph, discerned their +place and were making towards it, when suddenly they seem to be thrown +out and are left to learn that the world can do very well without them, +that the sun and moon and the eleven stars do not drop from their +courses or make wail because of their sad condition. High aims and +commendable purposes are not so easily fulfilled as they fancied. The +faculty and desire in them to be of service are not recognised. Men do +not make room for them, and God seems to disregard the hopes He has +excited in them. The little attempt at living they have made seems only +to have got themselves and others into trouble. They begin to think it a +mistake their being in the world at all; they curse the day of their +birth. Others are enjoying this life, and seem to be making something of +it, having found work that suits and develops them; but, for their own +part, they cannot get fitted into life at any point, and are excluded +from the onward movement of the world. They are again and again flung +back, until they fear they are not to see the fulfilment of any one +bright dream that has ever visited them, and that they are never, never +at all, to live out the life it is in them to live, or find light and +scope for maturing those germs of the rich human nature that they feel +within them. + +All this is in the way to attainment. This or that check, this long +burial for years, does not come upon you merely because stoppage and +hindrance have been useful to others, but because your advancement lies +through these experiences. Young persons naturally feel strongly that +life is all before them, that this life is, in the first place, their +concern, and that God must be proved sufficient for this life, able to +bring them to their ideal. And the first lesson they have to learn is, +that mere youthful confidence and energy are not the qualities that +overcome the world. They have to learn that humility, and the ambition +that seeks great things, but not for ourselves, are the qualities really +indispensable. But do men become humble by being told to become so, or +by knowing they ought to be so? God must make us humble by the actual +experience we meet with in our ordinary life. Joseph, no doubt, knew +very well, what his aged grandfather must often have told him, that a +man must die before he begins to live. But what could an ambitious, +happy youth make of this, till he was thrown into the pit and left +there? as truly passing through the bitterness of death as Isaac had +passed through it, and as keenly feeling the pain of severance from the +light of life. Then, no doubt, he thought of Isaac, and of Isaac's God, +till between himself and the impenetrable dungeon-walls the everlasting +arms seemed to interpose, and through the darkness of his death-like +solitude the face of Jacob's God appeared to beam upon him, and he came +to feel what we must, by some extremity, all be made to feel, that it +was not in this world's life but in God he lived, that nothing could +befall him which God did not will, and that what God had for him to do, +God would enable him to do. + +The heartless barbarity with which the brethren of Joseph sat down to +eat and drink the very dainties he had brought them from his father, +while they left him, as they thought, to starve, has been regarded by +all later generations as the height of hard-hearted indifference. Amos, +at a loss to describe the recklessness of his own generation, falls back +upon this incident, and cries woe upon those "that drink wine in bowls, +and anoint themselves with the chief ointment, but they are not grieved +for the affliction of Joseph." We reflect, if we do not substantially +reproduce, their sin when we are filled with animosity against those who +usher in some higher kind of life, effort, or worship, than we ourselves +as yet desire or are fit for, and which, therefore, reflects shame on +our incapacity; and when we would fain, without using violence, get rid +of such persons. There are often schemes set on foot by better men than +ourselves, against which somehow our spirit rises, yet which, did we +consider, we should at the most say with the cautious Gamaliel, Let us +beware of doing anything to hinder this, let us see whether, perchance, +it be not of God. Sometimes there are in families individuals who do not +get the encouragement in well-doing they might expect in a Christian +family, but are rather frowned upon and hindered by the other members of +it, because they seem to be inaugurating a higher style of religion than +the family is used to, and to be reflecting from their own conduct a +condemnation of what has hitherto been current. + +This treatment, who among us has not extended to Him who in His whole +experience so closely resembles Joseph? So long as Christ is to us +merely, as it were, the pet of the family, the innocent, guileless, +loving Being on whom we can heap pretty epithets, and in whom we find +play for our best affections, to whom it is easier to show ourselves +affectionate and well-disposed than to the brothers who mingle with us +in all our pursuits; so long as He remains to us as a child whose +demands it is a relaxation to fulfil, we fancy that we are giving Him +our hearts, and that He, if any, has our love. But when He declares to +us His dreams, and claims to be our Lord, to whom with most absolute +homage we must bow, who has a right to rule and means to rule over us, +who will have His will done by us and not our own, then the love we +fancied seems to pass into something like aversion. His purposes we +would fain believe to be the idle fancies of a dreamer which He Himself +does not expect us to pay much heed to. And if we do not resent the +absolute surrender of ourselves to Him which He demands, if the bowing +down of our fullest sheaves and brightest glory to Him is too little +understood by us to be resented; if we think such dreams are not to come +true, and that He does not mean much by demanding our homage, and +therefore do not resent the demand; yet possibly we can remember with +shame how we have "anointed ourselves with the chief ointment," lain +listlessly enjoying some of those luxuries which our Brother has brought +us from the Father's house, and yet let Himself and His cause be buried +out of sight--enjoyed the good name of Christian, the pleasant social +refinements of a Christian land, even the peace of conscience which the +knowledge of the Christian's God produces, and yet turned away from the +deeper emotions which His personal entreaties stir, and from those +self-sacrificing efforts which His cause requires if it is to prosper. + +There are, too, unstable Reubens still, whom something always draws +aside, and who are ever out of the way when most needed; who, like him, +are on the other side of the hill when Christ's cause is being betrayed; +who still count their own private business that which must be done, and +God's work that which may be done--work for themselves necessary, and +God's work only voluntary and in the second place. And there are also +those who, though they would be honestly shocked to be charged with +murdering Christ's cause, can yet leave it to perish. + + + + +XXVI. + +_JOSEPH IN PRISON._ + +GENESIS xxxix. + + "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, + he shall receive the crown of life."--JAMES i. 12. + + +Dramatists and novelists who make it their business to give accurate +representations of human life, proceed upon the understanding that there +is a plot in it, and that if you take the beginning or middle without +the end, you must fail to comprehend these prior parts. And a plot is +pronounced good in proportion as, without violating truth to nature, it +brings the leading characters into situations of extreme danger or +distress, from which there seems no possible exit, and in which the +characters themselves may have fullest opportunity to display and ripen +their individual excellences. A life is judged poor and without +significance, certainly unworthy of any longer record than a monumental +epitaph may contain, if there be in it no critical passages, no +emergencies when all anticipation of the next step is baffled, or when +ruin seems certain. Though it has been brought to a successful issue, +yet, to make it worthy of our consideration, it must have been brought +to this issue through hazard, through opposition, contrary to many +expectations that were plausibly entertained at the several stages of +its career All men, in short, are agreed that the value of a human life +consists very much in the hazards and conflicts through which it is +carried; and yet we resent God's dealing with us when it comes to be our +turn to play the hero, and by patient endurance and righteous endeavour +to bring our lives to a successful issue. How flat and tame would this +narrative have read had Joseph by easy steps come to the dignity he at +last reached through a series of misadventures that called out and +ripened all that was manly and strong and tender in his character. And +take out of your own life all your difficulties, all that ever pained, +agitated, depressed you, all that disappointed or postponed your +expectations, all that suddenly called upon you to act in trying +situations, all that thoroughly put you to the proof--take all this +away, and what do you leave, but a blank insipid life that not even +yourself can see any interest in? + +And when we speak of Joseph's life as typical, we mean that it +illustrates on a great scale and in picturesque and memorable situations +principles which are obscurely operative in our own experience. It +pleases the fancy to trace the incidental analogies between the life of +Joseph and that of our Lord. As our Lord, so Joseph was the beloved of +his father, sent by him to visit his brethren, and see after their +well-being, seized and sold by them to strangers, and thus raised to be +their Saviour and the Saviour of the world. Joseph in prison pronouncing +the doom of one of his fellow-prisoners and the exaltation of the other, +suggests the scene on Calvary where the one fellow-sufferer was taken, +the other left. Joseph's contemporaries had of course no idea that his +life foreshadowed the life of the Redeemer, yet they must have seen, or +ought to have seen, that the deepest humiliation is often the path to +the highest exaltation, that the deliverer sent by God to save a people +may come in the guise of a slave, and that false accusations, +imprisonment, years of suffering, do not make it impossible nor even +unlikely that he who endures all these may be God's chosen Son. + +In Joseph's being lifted out of the pit only to pass into slavery, many +a man of Joseph's years has seen a picture of what has happened to +himself. From a position in which they have been as if buried alive, +young men not uncommonly emerge into a position preferable certainly to +that out of which they have been brought, but in which they are +compelled to work beyond their strength, and _that_ for some superior in +whom they have no special interest. Grinding toil, and often cruel +insult, are their portion; and no necklace heavy with tokens of honour +that afterwards may be allotted them can ever quite hide the scars made +by the iron collar of the slave. One need not pity them over much, for +they are young and have a whole life-time of energy and power of +resistance in their spirit. And yet they will often call themselves +slaves, and complain that all the fruit of their labour passes over to +others and away from themselves, and all prospect of the fulfilment of +their former dreams is quite cut off. That which haunts their heart by +day and by night, that which they seem destined and fit for, they never +get time nor liberty to work out and attain. They are never viewed as +proprietors of themselves, who may possibly have interests of their own +and hopes of their own. + +In Joseph's case there were many aggravations of the soreness of such a +condition. He had not one friend in the country. He had no knowledge of +the language, no knowledge of any trade that could make him valuable in +Egypt--nothing, in short, but his own manhood and his faith in God. His +introduction to Egypt was of the most dispiriting kind. What could he +expect from strangers, if his own brothers had found him so obnoxious? +Now when a man is thus galled and stung by injury, and has learned how +little he can depend upon finding good faith and common justice in the +world, his character will show itself in the attitude he assumes towards +men and towards life generally. A weak nature, when it finds itself thus +deceived and injured, will sullenly surrender all expectation of good, +and will vent its spleen on the world by angry denunciations of the +heartless and ungrateful ways of men. A proud nature will gather itself +up from every blow, and determinedly work its way to an adequate +revenge. A mean nature will accept its fate, and while it indulges in +cynical and spiteful observations on human life, will greedily accept +the paltriest rewards it can secure. But the supreme healthiness of +Joseph's nature resists all the infectious influences that emanate from +the world around him, and preserves him from every kind of morbid +attitude towards the world and life. So easily did he throw off all vain +regrets and stifle all vindictive and morbid feelings, so readily did he +adjust himself to and so heartily enter into life as it presented itself +to him, that he speedily rose to be overseer in the house of Potiphar. +His capacity for business, his genial power of devoting himself to other +men's interests, his clear integrity, were such, that this officer of +Pharaoh's could find no more trustworthy servant in all Egypt--"he left +all that he had in Joseph's hand: and he knew not ought he had, save the +bread which he did eat." + +Thus Joseph passed safely through a critical period of his life--the +period during which men assume the attitude towards life and their +fellow-men which they commonly retain throughout. Too often we accept +the weapons with which the world challenges us, and seek to force our +way by means little more commendable than the injustice and coldness we +ourselves resent. Joseph gives the first great evidence of moral +strength by rising superior to this temptation, to which almost all men +in one degree or other succumb. You can hear him saying, deep down in +his heart and almost unconsciously to himself: If the world is full of +hatred, there is all the more need that at least one man should forgive +and love; if men's hearts are black with selfishness, ambition, and +lust, all the more reason for me to be pure and to do my best for all +whom my service can reach; if cruelty, lying, and fraud meet me at every +step, all the more am I called to conquer these by integrity and +guilelessness. + +His capacity, then, and power of governing others, were no longer dreams +of his own, but qualities with which he was accredited by those who +judged dispassionately and from the bare actual results. But this +recognition and promotion brought with it serious temptation. So capable +a person was he that a year or two had brought him to the highest post +he could expect as a slave. His advancement, therefore, only brought his +actual attainment into more painful contrast with the attainment of his +dreams. As this sense of disappointment becomes more familiar to his +heart, and threatens, under the monotonous routine of his household +work, to deepen into a habit, there suddenly opens to him a new and +unthought-of path to high position. An intrigue with Potiphar's wife +might lead to the very advancement he sought. It might lift him out of +the condition of a slave. It may have been known to him that other men +had not scrupled so to promote their own interests. Besides, Joseph was +young, and a nature like his, lively and sympathetic, must have felt +deeply that in his position he was not likely to meet such a woman as +could command his cordial love. That the temptation was in any degree to +the sensual side of his nature there is no evidence whatever. For all +that the narrative says, Potiphar's wife may not have been attractive in +person. She _may_ have been; and as she used persistently, "day by day," +every art and wile by which she could lure Joseph to her mind, in some +of his moods and under such circumstances as she would study to arrange +he may have felt even this element of the temptation. But it is too +little observed, and especially by young men who have most need to +observe it, that in such temptations it is not only what is sensual that +needs to be guarded against, but also two much deeper-lying +tendencies--the craving for loving recognition, and the desire to +respond to the feminine love for admiration and devotion. The latter +tendency may not seem dangerous, but I am sure that if an analysis could +be made of the broken hearts and shame-crushed lives around us, it would +be found that a large proportion of misery is due to a kind of +uncontrolled and mistaken chivalry. Men of masculine make are prone to +show their regard for women. This regard, when genuine and manly, will +show itself in purity of sympathy and respectful attention. But when +this regard is debased by a desire to please and ingratiate oneself, men +are precipitated into the unseemly expressions of a spurious manhood. +The other craving--the craving for love--acts also in a somewhat latent +way. It is this craving which drives men to seek to satisfy themselves +with the expressions of love, as if thus they could secure love itself. +They do not distinguish between the two; they do not recognise that what +they most deeply desire is love, rather than the expression of it; and +they awake to find that precisely in so far as they have accepted the +expression without the sentiment, in so far have they put love itself +beyond their reach. + +This temptation was, in Joseph's case, aggravated by his being in a +foreign country, unrestrained by the expectations of his own family, or +by the eye of those he loved. He had, however, that which restrained +him, and made the sin seem to him an impossible wickedness, the thought +of which he could not, for a moment, entertain. "Behold, my master +wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that +he hath to my hand; there is none greater in this house than I; neither +hath he kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife: +how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" Gratitude +to the man who had pitied him in the slave market, and shown a generous +confidence in a comparative stranger, was, with Joseph, a stronger +sentiment than any that Potiphar's wife could stir in him. One can well +believe it. We know what enthusiastic devotedness a young man of any +worth delights to give to his superior who has treated him with justice, +generosity, and confidence; who himself occupies a station of importance +in public life; and who, by a dignified graciousness of demeanour, can +make even the slave feel that he too is a man, and that through his +slave's dress his proper manhood and worth are recognised. There are few +stronger sentiments than the enthusiasm or quiet fidelity that can thus +be kindled, and the influence such a superior wields over the young +mind is paramount. To disregard the rights of his master seemed to +Joseph a great wickedness and sin against God. The treachery of the sin +strikes him; his native discernment of the true rights of every party in +the case cannot, for a moment, be hoodwinked. He is not a man who can, +even in the excitement of temptation, overlook the consequences his sin +may have on others. Not unsteadied by the flattering solicitations of +one so much above him in rank, nor sullied by the contagion of her +vehement passion; neither afraid to incur the resentment of one who so +regarded him, nor kindled to any impure desire by contact with her +blazing lust; neither scrupling thoroughly to disappoint her in himself, +nor to make her feel her own great guilt, he flung from him the strong +inducements that seemed to net him round and entangle him as his garment +did, and tore himself, shocked and grieved, from the beseeching hand of +his temptress. + +The incident is related not because it was the most violent temptation +to which Joseph was ever exposed, but because it formed a necessary link +in the chain of circumstances that brought him before Pharaoh. And +however strong this temptation may have been, more men would be found +who could thus have spoken to Potiphar's wife than who could have kept +silence when accused by Potiphar. For his purity you will find his +equal, one among a thousand; for his mercy scarcely one. For there is +nothing more intensely trying than to live under false and painful +accusations, which totally misrepresent and damage your character; which +effectually bar your advancement, and which yet you have it in your +power to disprove. Joseph, feeling his indebtedness to Potiphar, +contents himself with the simple averment that he himself is innocent. +The word is on his tongue that can put a very different face on the +matter, but rather than utter that word, Joseph will suffer the stroke +that otherwise must fall on his master's honour; will pass from his high +place and office of trust, through the jeering or possibly +compassionating slaves, branded as one who has betrayed the frankest +confidence, and is fitter for the dungeon than the stewardship of +Potiphar. He is content to lie under the cruel suspicion that he had in +the foulest way wronged the man whom most he should have regarded, and +whom in point of fact he did enthusiastically serve. There was one man +in Egypt whose good-will he prized, and this man now scorned and +condemned him, and this for the very act by which Joseph had proved most +faithful and deserving. + +And even after a long imprisonment, when he had now no reputation to +maintain, and when such a little bit of court scandal as he could have +retailed would have been highly palatable and possibly useful to some of +those polished ruffians and adventurers who made their dungeon ring with +questionable tales, and with whom the free and levelling intercourse of +prison life had put him on the most familiar footing, and when they +twitted and taunted him with his supposed crime, and gave him the prison +sobriquet that would most pungently embody his villainy and failure, and +when it might plausibly have been pleaded by himself that such a woman +should be exposed, Joseph uttered no word of recrimination, but quietly +endured, knowing that God's providence could allow him to be merciful; +protesting, when needful, that he himself was innocent, but seeking to +entangle no one else in his misfortune. + +It is this that has made the world seem so terrible a place to +many--that the innocent must so often suffer for the guilty, and that, +without appeal, the pure and loving must lie in chains and bitterness, +while the wicked live and see good days. It is this that has made men +most despairingly question whether there be indeed a God in heaven Who +knows who the real culprit is, and yet suffers a terrible doom slowly to +close around the innocent; Who sees where the guilt lies, and yet moves +no finger nor speaks the word that would bring justice to light, shaming +the secure triumph of the wrongdoer, and saving the bleeding spirit from +its agony. It was this that came as the last stroke of the passion of +our Lord, that He was numbered among the transgressors; it was this that +caused or materially increased the feeling that God had deserted Him; +and it was this that wrung from Him the cry which once was wrung from +David, and may well have been wrung from Joseph, when, cast into the +dungeon as a mean and treacherous villain, whose freedom was the peril +of domestic peace and honour, he found himself again helpless and +forlorn, regarded now not as a mere worthless lad, but as a criminal of +the lowest type. And as there always recur cases in which exculpation is +impossible just in proportion as the party accused is possessed of +honourable feeling, and where silent acceptance of doom is the result +not of convicted guilt, but of the very triumph of self-sacrifice, we +must beware of over-suspicion and injustice. There is nothing in which +we are more frequently mistaken than in our suspicions and harsh +judgments of others. + +"But the Lord was with Joseph, and allowed him mercy, and gave him +favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison." As in Potiphar's +house, so in the king's house of detention, Joseph's fidelity and +serviceableness made him seem indispensable, and by sheer force of +character he occupied the place rather of governor than of prisoner. The +discerning men he had to do with, accustomed to deal with criminals and +suspects of all shades, very quickly perceived that in Joseph's case +justice was at fault, and that he was a mere scape-goat. Well might +Potiphar's wife, like Pilate's, have had warning dreams regarding the +innocent person who was being condemned; and probably Potiphar himself +had suspicion enough of the true state of matters to prevent him from +going to extremities with Joseph, and so to imprison him more out of +deference to the opinion of his household, and for the sake of +appearances, than because Joseph alone was the object of his anger. At +any rate, such was the vitality of Joseph's confidence in God, and such +was the light-heartedness that sprang from his integrity of conscience, +that he was free from all absorbing anxiety about himself, and had +leisure to amuse and help his fellow-prisoners, so that such promotion +as a gaol could afford he won, from a dungeon to a chain, from a chain +to his word of honour. Thus even in the unlatticed dungeon the sun and +moon look in upon him and bow to him; and while his sheaf seems at its +poorest, all rust and mildew, the sheaves of his masters do homage. + +After the arrival of two such notable criminals as the chief butler and +baker of Pharaoh--the chamberlain and steward of the royal +household--Joseph, if sometimes pensive, must yet have had sufficient +entertainment at times in conversing with men who stood by the king, and +were familiar with the statesmen, courtiers, and military men who +frequented the house of Potiphar. He had now ample opportunity for +acquiring information which afterwards stood him in good stead, for +apprehending the character of Pharaoh, and for making himself +acquainted with many details of his government, and with the general +condition of the people. Officials in disgrace would be found much more +accessible and much more communicative of important information than +officials in court favour could have been to one in Joseph's position. + +It is not surprising that three nights before Pharaoh's birthday these +functionaries of the court should have recalled in sleep such scenes as +that day was wont to bring round, nor that they should vividly have seen +the parts they themselves used to play in the festival. Neither is it +surprising that they should have had very anxious thoughts regarding +their own fate on a day which was chosen for deciding the fate of +political or courtly offenders. But it is remarkable that they having +dreamed these dreams Joseph should have been found willing to interpret +them. One desires some evidence of Joseph's attitude towards God during +this period when God's attitude towards him might seem doubtful, and +especially one would like to know what Joseph by this time thought of +his juvenile dreams, and whether in the prison his face wore the same +beaming confidence in his own future which had smitten the hearts of his +brothers with impatient envy of the dreamer. We seek some evidence, and +here we find it. Joseph's willingness to interpret the dreams of his +fellow-prisoners proves that he still believed in his own, that among +his other qualities he had this characteristic also of a steadfast and +profound soul, that he "reverenced as a man the dreams of his youth." +Had he not done so, and had he not yet hoped that somehow God would +bring truth out of them, he would surely have said: Don't you believe in +dreams; they will only get you into difficulties. He would have said +what some of us could dictate from our own thoughts: I won't meddle +with dreams any more; I am not so young as I once was; doctrines and +principles that served for fervent romantic youth seem puerile now, when +I have learned what human life actually is; I can't ask this man, who +knows the world and has held the cup for Pharaoh, and is aware what a +practical shape the king's anger takes, to cherish hopes similar to +those which often seem so remote and doubtful to myself. My religion has +brought me into trouble: it has lost me my situation, it has kept me +poor, it has made me despised, it has debarred me from enjoyment. Can I +ask this man to trust to inward whisperings which seem to have so misled +me? No, no; let every man bear his own burden. If he wishes to become +religious, let not me bear the responsibility. If he will dream, let him +find some other interpreter. + +This casual conversation, then, with his fellow-prisoners was for Joseph +one of those perilous moments when a man holds his fate in his hand, and +yet does not know that he is specially on trial, but has for his +guidance and safe-conduct through the hazard only the ordinary +safeguards and lights by the aid of which he is framing his daily life. +A man cannot be forewarned of trial, if the trial is to be a fair test +of his habitual life. He must not be called to the lists by the herald's +trumpet warning him to mind his seat and grasp his weapon; but must be +suddenly set upon if his habit of steadiness and balance is to be +tested, and the warrior-instinct to which the right weapon is ever at +hand. As Joseph, going the round of his morning duty and spreading what +might stir the appetite of these dainty courtiers, noted the gloom on +their faces, had he not been of a nature to take upon himself the +sorrows of others, he might have been glad to escape from their +presence, fearful lest he should be infected by their depression, or +should become an object on which they might vent their ill-humour. But +he was girt with a healthy cheerfulness that could bear more than his +own burden; and his pondering of his own experience made him sensitive +to all that affected the destinies of other men. + +Thus Joseph in becoming the interpreter of the dreams of other men +became the fulfiller of his own. Had he made light of the dreams of his +fellow-prisoners because he had already made light of his own, he would, +for aught we can see, have died in the dungeon. And, indeed, what hope +is left for a man, and what deliverance is possible, when he makes light +of his own most sacred experience, and doubts whether after all there +was any Divine voice in that part of his life which once he felt to be +full of significance? Sadness, cynical worldliness, irritability, sour +and isolating selfishness, rapid deterioration in every part of the +character--these are the results which follow our repudiation of past +experience and denial of truth that once animated and purified us; when, +at least, this repudiation and denial are not themselves the results of +our advance to a higher, more animating, and more purifying truth. We +cannot but leave behind us many "childish things," beliefs that we now +recognise as mere superstitions, hopes and fears which do not move the +maturer mind; we cannot but seek always to be stripping ourselves of +modes of thinking which have served their purpose and are out of date, +but we do so only for the sake of attaining freer movement in all +serviceable and righteous conduct, and more adequate covering for the +permanent weaknesses of our own nature--"not for that we would be +unclothed, but clothed upon," that truth partial and dawning may be +swallowed up in the perfect light of noon. And when a supposed advance +in the knowledge of things spiritual robs us of all that sustains true +spiritual life in us, and begets an angry contempt of our own past +experience and a proud scorning of the dreams that agitate other men; +when it ministers not at all to the growth in us of what is tender and +pure and loving and progressive, but hardens us to a sullen or coarsely +riotous or coldly calculating character, we cannot but question whether +it is not a delusion rather than a truth that has taken possession of +us. + +If it is fanciful, it is yet almost inevitable, to compare Joseph at +this stage of his career to the great Interpreter who stands between God +and us, and makes all His signs intelligible. Those Egyptians could not +forbear honouring Joseph, who was able to solve to them the mysteries on +the borders of which the Egyptian mind continually hovered, and which it +symbolized by its mysterious sphinxes, its strange chambers of imagery, +its unapproachable divinities. And we bow before the Lord Jesus Christ, +because He can read our fate and unriddle all our dim anticipations of +good and evil, and make intelligible to us the visions of our own +hearts. There is that in us, as in these men, from which a skilled eye +could already read our destiny. In the eye of One who sees the end from +the beginning, and can distinguish between the determining influences of +character and the insignificant manifestations of a passing mood, we are +already designed to our eternal places. And it is in Christ alone your +future is explained. You cannot understand your future without taking +Him into your confidence. You go forward blindly to meet you know not +what, unless you listen to His interpretation of the vague presentiments +that visit you. Without Him what can we make of those suspicions of a +future judgment, or of those yearnings after God, that hang about our +hearts? Without Him what can we make of the idea and hope of a better +life than we are now living, or of the strange persuasion that all will +yet be well--a persuasion that seems so groundless, and which yet will +not be shaken off, but finds its explanation in Christ? The excess of +side light that falls across our path from the present seems only to +make the future more obscure and doubtful, and from Him alone do we +receive any interpretation of ourselves that even seems to be +satisfying. Our fellow-prisoners are often seen to be so absorbed in +their own affairs that it is vain to seek light from them; but He, with +patient, self-forgetting friendliness, is ever disengaged, and even +elicits, by the kindly and interrogating attitude He takes towards us, +the utterance of all our woes and perplexities. And it is because He has +had dreams Himself that He has become so skilled an interpreter of ours. +It is because in His own life He had His mind hard pressed for a +solution of those very problems which baffle us, because He had for +Himself to adjust God's promise to the ordinary and apparently casual +and untoward incidents of a human life, and because He had to wait long +before it became quite clear how one Scripture after another was to be +fulfilled by a course of simple confiding obedience--it is because of +this experience of His own, that He can now enter into and rightly guide +to its goal every longing we cherish. + + + + +XXVII. + +_PHARAOH'S DREAMS._ + +GENESIS xli. + + "Thus saith the Lord, that frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and + maketh diviners mad; that confirmeth the word of His servant, and + performeth the counsel of His messengers: that saith of Cyrus, He is + My shepherd, and shall perform all My pleasure."--ISA. xliv. 25, 28. + + +The preceding act in this great drama--the act comprising the scenes of +Joseph's temptation, unjust imprisonment, and interpretation of his +fellow-prisoners' dreams--was written for the sake of explaining how +Joseph came to be introduced to Pharaoh. Other friendships may have been +formed in the prison, and other threads may have been spun which went to +make up the life of Joseph, but this only is pursued. For a time, +however, there seemed very little prospect that this would prove to be +the thread on which his destiny hung. Joseph made a touching appeal to +the Chief Butler: "yet did not the Chief Butler remember Joseph, but +forgat him." You can see him in the joy of his release affectionately +pressing Joseph's hand as the king's messengers knocked off his fetters. +You can see him assuring Joseph, by his farewell look, that he might +trust him; mistaking mere elation at his own release for warmth of +feeling towards Joseph, though perhaps even already feeling just the +slightest touch of awkwardness at being seen on such intimate terms +with a Hebrew slave. How could he, when in the palace of Pharaoh and +decorated with the insignia of his office and surrounded by courtiers, +break through the formal etiquette of the place? What with the pleasant +congratulations of old friends, and the accumulation of business since +he had been imprisoned, and the excitement of restoration from so low +and hopeless to so high and busy a position, the promise to Joseph is +obliterated from his mind. If it once or twice recurs to his memory, he +persuades himself he is waiting for a good opening to mention Joseph. It +would perhaps be unwarrantable to say that he admits the idea that he is +in no way indebted to Joseph, since all that Joseph had done was to +interpret, but by no means to determine, his fate. + +The analogy which we could not help seeing between Joseph's relation to +his fellow-prisoners, and our Lord's relation to us, pursues us here. +For does not the bond between us and Him seem often very slender, when +once we have received from Him the knowledge of the King's good-will, +and find ourselves set in a place of security? Is not Christ with many a +mere stepping-stone for their own advancement, and of interest only so +long as they are in anxiety about their own fate? Their regard for Him +seems abruptly to terminate as soon as they are ushered to freer air. +Brought for a while into contact with Him, the very peace and prosperity +which that intercourse has introduced them to become opiates to dull +their memory and their gratitude. They have received all they at present +desire, they have no more dreams, their life has become so plain and +simple and glad that they need no interpreter. They seem to regard Him +no more than an official is regarded who is set to discharge to all +comers some duty for which he is paid; who mingles no love with his +work, and from whom they would receive the same benefits whether he had +any personal interest in them or no. But there is no Christianity where +there is no loving remembrance of Christ. If your contact with Him has +not made Him your Friend whom you can by no possibility forget, you have +missed the best result of your introduction to Him. It makes one think +meanly of the Chief Butler that such a personality as Joseph's had not +more deeply impressed him--that everything he heard and saw among the +courtiers did not make him say to himself: There is a friend of mine, in +prison hard by, that for beauty, wisdom, and vivacity would more than +match the finest of you all. And it says very little for us if we can +have known anything of Christ without seeing that in Him we have what is +nowhere else, and without finding that He has become the necessity of +our life to whom we turn at every point. + +But, as things turned out, it was perhaps as well for Joseph that his +promising friend did forget him. For, supposing the Chief Butler had +overcome his natural reluctance to increase his own indebtedness to +Pharaoh by interceding for a friend, supposing he had been willing to +risk the friendship of the Captain of the Guard by interfering in so +delicate a matter, and supposing Pharaoh had been willing to listen to +him, what would have been the result? Probably that Joseph would have +been sold away to the quarries, for certainly he could not have been +restored to Potiphar's house; or, at the most, he might have received +his liberty, and a free pass out of Egypt. That is to say, he would have +obtained liberty to return to sheep-shearing and cattle-dealing and +checkmating his brother's plots. In any probable case his career would +have tended rather towards obscurity than towards the fulfilment of his +dreams. + +There seems equal reason to congratulate Joseph on his friend's +forgetfulness, when we consider its probable effects, not on his career, +but on his character. When he was left in prison after so sudden and +exciting an incursion of the outer world as the king's messengers would +make, his mind must have run chiefly in two lines of thought. Naturally +he would feel some envy of the man who was being restored; and when day +after day passed and more than the former monotony of prison routine +palled on his spirit; when he found how completely he was forgotten, and +how friendless and lone a creature he was in that strange land where +things had gone so mysteriously against him; when he saw before him no +other fate than that which he had seen befall so many a slave thrown +into a dungeon at his master's pleasure and never more heard of, he must +have been sorely tempted to hate the whole world, and especially those +brethren who had been the beginning of all his misfortunes. Had there +been any selfishness in solution in Joseph's character, this is the +point at which it would have quickly crystallized into permanent forms. +For nothing more certainly elicits and confirms selfishness than bad +treatment. But from his conduct on his release, we see clearly enough +that through all this trying time his heroism was not only that of the +strong man who vows that though the whole world is against him the day +will come when the world shall have need of him, but of the saint of God +in whom suffering and injustice leave no bitterness against his fellows, +nor even provoke one slightest morbid utterance. + +But another process must have been going on in Joseph's mind at the +same time. He must have felt that it was a very serious thing that he +had been called upon to do in interpreting God's will to his +fellow-prisoners. No doubt he fell into it quite naturally and aptly, +because it was liker his proper vocation, and more of his character +could come out in it than in anything he had yet done. Still, to be +mixed up thus with matters of life and death concerning other people, +and to have men of practical ability and experience and high position +listening to him as to an oracle, and to find that in very truth a great +power was committed to him, was calculated to have _some_ considerable +result one way or other on Joseph. And these two years of unrelieved and +sobering obscurity cannot but be considered most opportune. For one of +two things is apt to follow the world's first recognition of a man's +gifts. He is either induced to pander to the world's wonder and become +artificial and strained in all he does, so losing the spontaneity and +naturalness and sincerity which characterise the best work; or he is +awed and steadied. And whether the one or the other result follow, will +depend very much on the other things that are happening to him. In +Joseph's case it was probably well that after having made proof of his +powers he was left in such circumstances as would not only give him time +for reflection, but also give a humble and believing turn to his +reflections. He was not at once exalted to the priestly caste, nor +enrolled among the wise men, nor put in any position in which he would +have been under constant temptation to display and trifle with his +power; and so he was led to the conviction that deeper even than the joy +of receiving the recognition and gratitude of men was the abiding +satisfaction of having done the thing God had given him to do. + +These two years, then, during which Joseph's active mind must +necessarily have been forced to provide food for itself, and have been +thrown back upon his past experience, seem to have been of eminent +service in maturing his character. The self-possessed dignity and ease +of command which appear in him from the moment when he is ushered into +Pharaoh's presence have their roots in these two years of silence. As +the bones of a strong man are slowly, imperceptibly knit, and gradually +take the shape and texture they retain throughout; so during these years +there was silently and secretly consolidating a character of almost +unparalleled calmness and power. One has no words to express how +tantalizing it must have been to Joseph to see this Egyptian have his +dreams so gladly and speedily fulfilled, while he himself, who had so +long waited on the true God, was left waiting still, and now so utterly +unbefriended that there seemed no possible way of ever again connecting +himself with the world outside the prison walls. Being pressed thus for +an answer to the question, What does God mean to make of my life? he was +brought to see and to hold as the most important truth for him, that the +first concern is, that God's purposes be accomplished; the second, that +his own dreams be fulfilled. He was enabled, as we shall see in the +sequel, to put God truly in the first place, and to see that by +forwarding the interests of other men, even though they were but +light-minded chief butlers at a foreign court, he might be as +serviceably furthering the purposes of God, as if he were forwarding his +own interests. He was compelled to seek for some principle that would +sustain and guide him in the midst of much disappointment and +perplexity, and he found it in the conviction that the essential thing +to be accomplished in this world, and to which every man must lay his +shoulder, is God's purpose. Let that go on, and all else that should go +on will go on. And he further saw that he best fulfils God's purpose +who, without anxiety and impatience, does the duty of the day, and gives +himself without stint to the "charities that soothe and heal and bless." + +His perception of the breadth of God's purpose, and his profound and +sympathetic and active submission to it, were qualities too rare not to +be called into influential exercise. After two years he is suddenly +summoned to become God's interpreter to Pharaoh. The Egyptian king was +in the unhappy though not uncommon position of having a revelation from +God which he could not read, intimations and presentiments he could not +interpret. To one man is given the revelation, to another the +interpretation. The official dignity of the king is respected, and to +him is given the revelation which concerns the welfare of the whole +people. But to read God's meaning in a revelation requires a spiritual +intelligence trained to sympathy with His purposes, and such a spirit +was found in Joseph alone. + +The dreams of Pharaoh were thoroughly Egyptian. The marvel is, that a +symbolism so familiar to the Egyptian eye should not have been easily +legible to even the most slenderly gifted of Pharaoh's wise men. "In my +dream," says the king, "behold, I stood upon the bank of the river: and, +behold, there came up out of the river seven kine," and so on. Every +land or city is proud of its river, but none has such cause to be so as +Egypt of its Nile. The country is accurately as well as poetically +called "the gift of Nile." Out of the river do really come good or bad +years, fat or lean kine. Wholly dependent on its annual rise and +overflow for the irrigating and enriching of the soil, the people +worship it and love it, and at the season of its overflow give way to +the most rapturous expressions of joy. The cow also was reverenced as +the symbol of the earth's productive power. If then, as Joseph avers, +God wished to show to Pharaoh that seven years of plenty were +approaching, this announcement could hardly have been made plainer in +the language of dreams than by showing to Pharaoh seven well-favoured +kine coming up out of the bountiful river to feed on the meadow made +richly green by its waters. If the king had been sacrificing to the +river, such a sight, familiar as it was to the dwellers by the Nile, +might well have been accepted by him as a promise of plenty in the land. +But what agitated Pharaoh, and gave him the shuddering presentiment of +evil which accompanies some dreams, was the sequel. "Behold, seven other +kine came up after them, poor and very ill-favoured and lean-fleshed, +such as I never saw in all the land of Egypt for badness: and the lean +and the ill-favoured kine did eat up the first seven fat kine: and when +they had eaten them up it could not be known that they had eaten them; +but they were still ill-favoured, as at the beginning,"--a picture which +to the inspired dream-reader represented seven years of famine so +grievous, that the preceding plenty should be swallowed up and not be +known. A similar image occurred to a writer who, in describing a more +recent famine in the same land, says: "The year presented itself as a +monster whose wrath must annihilate all the resources of life and all +the means of subsistence." + +It tells in favour of the court magicians and wise men that not one of +them offered an interpretation of dreams to which it would certainly not +have been difficult to attach some tolerably feasible interpretation. +Probably these men were as yet sincere devotees of astrology and occult +science, and not the mere jugglers and charlatans their successors seem +to have become. When men cannot make out the purpose of God regarding +the future of the race, it is not wonderful that they should endeavour +to catch the faintest, most broken echo of His voice to the world, +wherever they can find it. Now there is a wide region, a borderland +between the two worlds of spirit and of matter, in which are found a +great many mysterious phenomena which cannot be explained by any known +laws of nature, and through which men fancy they get nearer to the +spiritual world. There are many singular and startling appearances, +coincidences, forebodings, premonitions which men have always been +attracted towards, and which they have considered as open ways of +communication between God and man. There are dreams, visions, strange +apprehensions, freaks of memory, and other mental phenomena, which, when +all classed together, assorted, and skilfully applied to the reading of +the future, once formed quite a science by itself. When men have no word +from God to depend upon, no knowledge at all of where either the race or +individuals are going to, they will eagerly grasp at anything that even +seems to shed a ray of light on their future. We for the most part make +light of that whole category of phenomena, because we have a more sure +word of prophecy by which, as with a light in a dark place, we can tell +where our next step should be, and what the end shall be. But invariably +in heathen countries, where no guiding Spirit of God was believed in, +and where the absence of His revealed will left numberless points of +duty doubtful and all the future dark, there existed in lieu of this a +class of persons who, under one name or other, undertook to satisfy the +craving of men to see into the future, to forewarn them of danger, and +advise them regarding matters of conduct and affairs of state. + +At various points of the history of God's revelation these professors of +occult science appear. In each case a profound impression is made by the +superior wisdom or power displayed by the "wise men" of God. But in +reading the accounts we have of these collisions between the wisdom of +God and that of the magicians, a slight feeling of uneasiness sometimes +enters the mind. You may feel that these wonders of Joseph, Moses, and +Daniel have a romantic air about them, and you feel, perhaps, a slight +scruple in granting that God would lend Himself to such +displays--displays so completely out of date in our day. But we are to +consider not only that there is nothing of the kind more certain than +that dreams do sometimes even now impart most significant warning to +men; but, also, that the time in which Joseph lived was the childhood of +the world, when God had neither spoken much to men, nor could speak +much, because as yet they had not learned His language, but were only +being slowly taught it by signs suited to their capacity. If these men +were to receive any knowledge beyond what their own unaided efforts +could attain, they must be taught in a language they understood. They +could not be dealt with as if they had already attained a knowledge and +a capacity which could only be theirs many centuries after; they must be +dealt with by signs and wonders which had perhaps little moral teaching +in them, but yet gave evidence of God's nearness and power such as they +could and did understand. God thus stretched out His hand to men in the +darkness, and let them feel His strength before they could look on His +face and understand His nature. + +It is the existence at the court of Pharaoh of this highly respected +class of dream-interpreters and wise men, which lends significance to +the conduct of Joseph when summoned into the royal presence. Such wisdom +as he displayed in reading Pharaoh's visions was looked upon as +attainable by means within the reach of any man who had sufficient +faculty for the science. And the first idea in the minds of the +courtiers would probably have been, had Joseph not solemnly protested +against it, that he was an adept where they were apprentices and +bunglers, and that his success was due purely to professional skill. +This was of course perfectly well known to Joseph, who for a number of +years had been familiar with the ideas prevalent at the court of +Pharaoh; and he might have argued that there could be no great harm in +at least effecting his deliverance from an unjust imprisonment by +allowing Pharaoh to suppose that it was to him he was indebted for the +interpretation of his dreams. But his first word to Pharaoh is a +self-renouncing exclamation: "Not in me: _God_ shall give Pharaoh an +answer of peace." Two years had elapsed since anything had occurred +which looked the least like the fulfilment of his own dreams, or gave +him any hope of release from prison; and now, when measuring himself +with these courtiers and feeling able to take his place with the best of +them, getting again a breath of free air and feeling once more the charm +of life, and having an opening set before his young ambition, being so +suddenly transferred from a place where his very existence seemed to be +forgotten to a place where Pharaoh himself and all his court eyed him +with the intensest interest and anxiety, it is significant that he +should appear regardless of his own fate, but jealously careful of the +glory of God. Considering how jealous men commonly are of their own +reputation, and how impatiently eager to receive all the credit that is +due to them for their own share in any good that is doing, and +considering of what essential importance it seemed that Joseph should +seize this opportunity of providing for his own safety and advancement, +and should use this as the tide in his affairs that led to fortune, his +words and bearing before Pharaoh undoubtedly disclose a deeply +in-wrought fidelity to God, and a magnanimous patience regarding his own +personal interests. + +For it is extremely unlikely that in proposing to Pharaoh to set a man +over this important business of collecting corn to last through the +years of famine, it presented itself to Joseph as a conceivable result +that he should be the person appointed--he a Hebrew, a slave, a +prisoner, cleaned but for the nonce, could not suppose that Pharaoh +would pass over all those tried officers and ministers of state around +him and fix upon a youth who was wholly untried, and who might, by his +different race and religion, prove obnoxious to the people. Joseph may +have expected to make interest enough with Pharaoh to secure his +freedom, and possibly some subordinate berth where he could hopefully +begin the world again; but his only allusion to himself is of a +depreciatory kind, while his reference to God is marked with a profound +conviction that this is God's doing, and that to Him is due whatever is +due. Well may the Hebrew race be proud of those men like Joseph and +Daniel, who stood in the presence of foreign monarchs in a spirit of +perfect fidelity to God, commanding the respect of all, and clothed with +the dignity and simplicity which that fidelity imparted. It matters not +to Joseph that there may perhaps be none in that land who can appreciate +his fidelity to God or understand his motive. It matters not what he may +lose by it, or what he could gain by falling in with the notions of +those around him. He himself knows the real state of the case, and will +not act untruly to his God, even though for years he seems to have been +forgotten by Him. With Daniel he says in spirit, "Let thy gifts be to +thyself, and give thy rewards to another. As for me, this secret is not +revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but that +the interpretation may be known to the king, and that thou mayest know +the thoughts of thine heart. He that revealeth secrets maketh known to +thee what shall come to pass." There is something particularly noble and +worthy of admiration in a man thus standing alone and maintaining the +fullest allegiance to God, without ostentation, and with a quiet dignity +and naturalness that show he has a great fund of strength behind. + +That we do not misjudge Joseph's character or ascribe to him qualities +which were invisible to his contemporaries, is apparent from the +circumstance that Pharaoh and his advisers, with little or no +hesitation, agreed that to no man could they more safely entrust their +country in this emergency. The mere personal charm of Joseph might have +won over those experienced advisers of the crown to make compensation +for his imprisonment by an unusually handsome reward, but no mere +attractiveness of person and manner, nor even the unquestionable +guilelessness of his bearing, could have induced them to put such an +affair as this into his hands. Plainly they were impressed with Joseph; +almost supernaturally impressed, and felt God through him. He stood +before them as one mysteriously appearing in their emergency, sent out +of unthought-of quarters to warn and save them. Happily there was as yet +no jealousy of the God of the Hebrews, nor any exclusiveness on the part +of the chosen people: Pharaoh and Joseph alike felt that there was one +God over all and through all. And it was Joseph's self-abnegating +sympathy with the purposes of this Supreme God that made him a +transparent medium, so that in his presence the Egyptians felt +themselves in the presence of God. It is so always. Influence in the +long run belongs to those who rid their minds of all private aims, and +get close to the great centre in which all the race meets and is cared +for. Men feel themselves safe with the unselfish, with persons in whom +they meet principle, justice, truth, love, God. We are unattractive, +useless, uninfluential, just because we are still childishly craving a +private and selfish good. We know that a life which does not pour itself +freely into the common stream of public good is lost in dry and sterile +sands. We know that a life spent upon self is contemptible, barren, +empty, yet how slowly do we come to the attitude of Joseph, who watched +for the fulfilment of God's purposes, and found his happiness in +forwarding what God designed for the people. + + + + +XXVIII. + +_JOSEPH'S ADMINISTRATION._ + +GEN. xli. 37-57, and xlvii. 13-26. + + "He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance: To + bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators + wisdom."--PSALM. cv. 21, 22. + + +"Many a monument consecrated to the memory of some nobleman gone to his +long home, who during life had held high rank at the court of Pharaoh, +is decorated with the simple but laudatory inscription, 'His ancestors +were unknown people'"--so we are told by our most accurate informant +regarding Egyptian affairs. Indeed, the tales we read of adventurers in +the East, and the histories which recount how some dynasties have been +founded, are sufficient evidence that, in other countries besides Egypt, +sudden elevation from the lowest to the highest rank is not so unusual +as amongst ourselves. Historians have recently made out that in one +period of the history of Egypt there are traces of a kind of Semitic +mania, a strong leaning towards Syrian and Arabian customs, phrases, and +persons. Such manias have occurred in most countries. There was a period +in the history of Rome when everything that had a Greek flavour was +admired; an Anglo-mania once affected a portion of the French +population, and reciprocally, French manners and ideas have at times +found a welcome among ourselves. It is also clear that for a time Lower +Egypt was under the dominion of foreign rulers who were in race more +nearly allied to Joseph than to the native population. But there is no +need that so complicated a question as the exact date of this foreign +domination be debated here, for there was that in Joseph's bearing which +would have commended him to any sagacious monarch. Not only did the +court accept him as a messenger from God, but they could not fail to +recognise substantial and serviceable human qualities alongside of what +was mysterious in him. The ready apprehension with which he appreciated +the magnitude of the danger, the clear-sighted promptitude with which he +met it, the resource and quiet capacity with which he handled a matter +involving the entire condition of Egypt, showed them that they were in +the presence of a true statesman. No doubt the confidence with which he +described the best method of dealing with the emergency was the +confidence of one who was convinced he was speaking for God. This was +the great distinction they perceived between Joseph and ordinary +dream-interpreters. It was not guesswork with him. The same distinction +is always apparent between revelation and speculation. Revelation speaks +with authority; speculation gropes its way, and when wisest is most +diffident. At the same time Pharaoh was perfectly right in his +inference: "Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so +discreet and wise as thou art." He believed that God had chosen him to +deal with this matter because he was wise in heart, and he believed his +wisdom would remain because God had chosen him. + +At length, then, Joseph saw the fulfilment of his dreams within his +reach. The coat of many colours with which his father had paid a +tribute to the princely person and ways of the boy, was now replaced by +the robe of state and the heavy gold necklace which marked him out as +second to Pharaoh. Whatever nerve and self-command and humble dependence +on God his varied experience had wrought in him were all needed when +Pharaoh took his hand and placed his own ring on it, thus transferring +all his authority to him, and when turning from the king he received the +acclamations of the court and the people, bowed to by his old masters, +and acknowledged the superior of all the dignitaries and potentates of +Egypt. Only once besides, so far as the Egyptian inscriptions have yet +been deciphered, does it appear that any subject was raised to be Regent +or Viceroy with similar powers. Joseph is, as far as possible, +naturalised as an Egyptian. He receives a name easier of pronunciation +than his own, at least to Egyptian tongues--Zaphnath-Paaneah, which, +however, was perhaps only an official title meaning "Governor of the +district of the place of life," the name by which one of the Egyptian +counties or states was known. The king crowned his liberality and +completed the process of naturalisation by providing him with a wife, +Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah, priest of On. This city was not far +from Avaris or Haouar, where Joseph's Pharaoh, Ra-apepi II., at this +time resided. The worship of the sun-god, Ra, had its centre at On (or +Heliopolis, as it was called by the Greeks), and the priests of On took +precedence of all Egyptian priests. Joseph was thus connected with one +of the most influential families in the land, and if he had any scruples +about marrying into an idolatrous family, they were too insignificant to +influence his conduct, or leave any trace in the narrative. + +His attitude towards God and his own family was disclosed in the names +which he gave to his children. In giving names which had a meaning at +all, and not merely a taking sound, he showed that he understood, as +well he might, that every human life has a significance and expresses +some principle or fact. And in giving names which recorded his +acknowledgment of God's goodness, he showed that prosperity had as +little influence as adversity to move him from his allegiance to the God +of his fathers. His first son he called Manasseh, _Making to forget_, +"for God," said he, "hath made me forget all my toil and all my father's +house"--not as if he were now so abundantly satisfied in Egypt that the +thought of his father's house was blotted from his mind, but only that +in this child the keen longings he had felt for kindred and home were +somewhat alleviated. He again found an object for his strong family +affection. The void in his heart he had so long felt was filled by the +little babe. A new home was begun around him. But this new affection +would not weaken, though it would alter the character of, his love for +his father and brethren. The birth of this child would really be a new +tie to the land from which he had been stolen. For, however ready men +are to spend their own life in foreign service, you see them wishing +that their children should spend their days among the scenes with which +their own childhood was familiar. + +In the naming of his second son Ephraim he recognises that God had made +him fruitful in the most unlikely way. He does not leave it to us to +interpret his life, but records what he himself saw in it. It has been +said: "To get at the truth of any history is good; but a man's own +history--when he reads that truly, ... and knows what he is about and +has been about, it is a Bible to him." And now that Joseph, from the +height he had reached, could look back on the way by which he had been +led to it, he cordially approved of all that God had done. There was no +resentment, no murmuring. He would often find himself looking back and +thinking, Had I found my brothers where I thought they were, had the pit +not been on the caravan-road, had the merchants not come up so +opportunely, had I not been sold at all or to some other master, had I +not been imprisoned, or had I been put in another ward--had any one of +the many slender links in the chain of my career been absent, how +different might my present state have been. How plainly I now see that +all those sad mishaps that crushed my hopes and tortured my spirit were +steps in the only conceivable path to my present position. + +Many a man has added his signature to this acknowledgment of Joseph's, +and confessed a providence guiding his life and working out good for him +through injuries and sorrows, as well as through honours, marriages, +births. As in the heat of summer it is difficult to recall the sensation +of winter's bitter cold, so the fruitless and barren periods of a man's +life are sometimes quite obliterated from his memory. God has it in His +power to raise a man higher above the level of ordinary happiness than +ever he has sunk below it; and as winter and spring-time, when the seed +is sown, are stormy and bleak and gusty, so in human life seed-time is +not bright as summer nor cheerful as autumn; and yet it is then, when +all the earth lies bare and will yield us nothing, that the precious +seed is sown: and when we confidently commit our labour or patience of +to-day to God, the land of our affliction, now bare and desolate, will +certainly wave for us, as it has waved for others, with rich produce +whitened to the harvest. + +There is no doubt then that Joseph had learned to recognise the +providence of God as a most important factor in his life. And the man +who does so, gains for his character all the strength and resolution +that come with a capacity for waiting. He saw, most legibly written on +his own life, that God is never in a hurry. And for the resolute +adherence to his seven-years' policy such a belief was most necessary. +Nothing, indeed, is said of opposition or incredulity on the part of the +Egyptians. But was there ever a policy of such magnitude carried out in +any country without opposition or without evilly-disposed persons using +it as a weapon against its promoter? No doubt during these years he had +need of all the personal determination as well as of all the official +authority he possessed. And if, on the whole, remarkable success +attended his efforts, we must ascribe this partly to the unchallengeable +justice of his arrangements, and partly to the impression of commanding +genius Joseph seems everywhere to have made. As with his father and +brethren he was felt to be superior, as in Potiphar's house he was +quickly recognised, as in the prison no prison-garb or slave-brand could +disguise him, as in the court his superiority was instinctively felt, so +in his administration the people seem to have believed in him. + +And if, on the whole and in general, Joseph was reckoned a wise and +equitable ruler, and even adored as a kind of saviour of the world, it +would be idle in us to canvass the wisdom of his administration. When we +have not sufficient historical material to apprehend the full +significance of any policy, it is safe to accept the judgment of men who +not only knew the facts, but were themselves so deeply involved in them +that they would certainly have felt and expressed discontent had there +been ground for doing so. The policy of Joseph was simply to economize +during the seven years of abundance to such an extent that provision +might be made against the seven years of famine. He calculated that +one-fifth of the produce of years so extraordinarily plenteous would +serve for the seven scarce years. This fifth he seems to have bought in +the king's name from the people, buying it, no doubt, at the cheap rates +of abundant years. When the years of famine came, the people were +referred to Joseph; and, till their money was gone, he sold corn to +them, probably not at famine prices. Next he acquired their cattle, and +finally, in exchange for food, they yielded to him both their lands and +their persons. So that the result of the whole was, that the people who +would otherwise have perished were preserved, and in return for this +preservation they paid a tax or rent on their farm-lands to the amount +of one-fifth of their produce. The people ceased to be proprietors of +their own farms, but they were not slaves with no interest in the soil, +but tenants sitting at easy rents--a fair enough exchange for being +preserved in life. This kind of taxation is eminently fair in principle, +securing, as it does, that the wealth of the king and government shall +vary with the prosperity of the whole land. The chief difficulty that +has always been experienced in working it, has arisen from the necessity +of leaving a good deal of discretionary power in the hands of the +collectors, who have generally been found not slow to abuse this power. + +The only semblance of despotism in Joseph's policy is found in the +curious circumstance that he interfered with the people's choice of +residence, and shifted them from one end of the land to another. This +may have been necessary not only as a kind of seal on the deed by which +the lands were conveyed to the king, and as a significant sign to them +that they were mere tenants, but also Joseph probably saw that for the +interests of the country, if not of agricultural prosperity, this +shifting had become necessary for the breaking up of illegal +associations, nests of sedition, and sectional prejudices and enmities +which were endangering the community.[1] Modern experience supplies us +with instances in which, by such a policy, a country might be +regenerated and a seven years' famine hailed as a blessing if, without +famishing the people, it put them unconditionally into the hands of an +able, bold, and beneficent ruler. And this was a policy which could be +much better devised and executed by a foreigner than by a native. + +Egypt's indebtedness to Joseph was, in fact, two-fold. In the first +place he succeeded in doing what many strong governments have failed to +do: he enabled a large population to survive a long and severe famine. +Even with all modern facilities for transport and for making the +abundance of remote countries available for times of scarcity, it has +not always been found possible to save our own fellow-subjects from +starvation. In a prolonged famine which occurred in Egypt during the +middle ages, the inhabitants, reduced to the unnatural habits which are +the most painful feature of such times, not only ate their own dead, but +kidnapped the living on the streets of Cairo and consumed them in +secret. One of the most touching memorials of the famine with which +Joseph had to deal is found in a sepulchral inscription in Arabia. A +flood of rain laid bare a tomb in which lay a woman having on her person +a profusion of jewels which represented a very large value. At her head +stood a coffer filled with treasure, and a tablet with this inscription: +"In Thy name, O God, the God of Himyar, I, Tayar, the daughter of Dzu +Shefar, sent my steward to Joseph, and he delaying to return to me, I +sent my handmaid with a measure of silver to bring me back a measure of +flour; and not being able to procure it, I sent her with a measure of +gold; and not being able to procure it, I sent her with a measure of +pearls; and not being able to procure it, I commanded them to be ground; +and finding no profit in them, I am shut up here." If this inscription +is genuine--and there seems no reason to call it in question--it shows +that there is no exaggeration in the statement of our narrator that the +famine was very grievous in other lands as well as in Egypt. And, +whether genuine or not, one cannot but admire the grim humour of the +starving woman getting herself buried in the jewels which had suddenly +dropped to less than the value of a loaf of bread. + +But besides being indebted to Joseph for their preservation, the +Egyptians owed to him an extension of their influence; for, as all the +lands round about became dependent on Egypt for provision, they must +have contracted a respect for the Egyptian administration. They must +also have added greatly to Egypt's wealth and during those years of +constant traffic many commercial connections must have been formed which +in future years would be of untold value to Egypt. But above all, the +permanent alterations made by Joseph on their tenure of land, and on +their places of abode, may have convinced the most sagacious of the +Egyptians that it was well for them that their money had failed, and +that they had been compelled to yield themselves unconditionally into +the hands of this remarkable ruler. It is the mark of a competent +statesman that he makes temporary distress the occasion for permanent +benefit; and from the confidence Joseph won with the people, there seems +every reason to believe that the permanent alterations he introduced +were considered as beneficial as certainly they were bold. + +And for our own spiritual uses it is this point which seems chiefly +important. In Joseph is illustrated the principle that, in order to the +attainment of certain blessings, unconditional submission to God's +delegate is required. If we miss this, we miss a large part of what his +history exhibits, and it becomes a mere pretty story. The prominent idea +in his dreams was that he was to be worshipped by his brethren. In his +exaltation by Pharaoh, the absolute authority given to him is again +conspicuous: "Without thee shall no man lift up hand or foot in all the +land of Egypt." And still the same autocracy appears in the fact that +not one Egyptian who was helpful to him in this matter is mentioned; and +no one has received such exclusive possession of a considerable part of +Scripture, so personal and outstanding a place. All this leaves upon the +mind the impression that Joseph becomes a benefactor, and in his degree +a saviour, to men by becoming their absolute master. When this was +hinted in his dreams at first his brothers fiercely resented it. But +when they were put to the push by famine, both they and the Egyptians +recognised that he was appointed by God to be their saviour, while at +the same time they markedly and consciously submitted themselves to him. +Men may always be expected to recognise that he who can save them alive +in famine has a right to order the bounds of their habitation; and also +that in the hands of one who, from disinterested motives, has saved +them, they are likely to be quite as safe as in their own. And if we are +all quite sure of this, that men of great political sagacity can +regulate our affairs with tenfold the judgment and success that we +ourselves could achieve, we cannot wonder that in matters still higher, +and for which we are notoriously incompetent, there should be One into +whose hands it is well to commit ourselves--One whose judgment is not +warped by the prejudices which blind all mere natives of this world, but +who, separate from sinners yet naturalised among us, can both detect and +rectify everything in our condition which is less than perfect. If there +are certainly many cases in which explanations are out of the question, +and in which the governed, if they are wise, will yield themselves to a +trusted authority, and leave it to time and results to justify his +measures, any one, I think, who anxiously considers our spiritual +condition must see that here too obedience is for us the greater part of +wisdom, and that, after all speculation and efforts at sufficing +investigation, we can still do no better than yield ourselves absolutely +to Jesus Christ. He alone understands our whole position; He alone +speaks with the authority that commands confidence, because it is felt +to be the authority of the truth. We feel the present pressure of +famine; we have discernment enough, some of us, to know we are in +danger, but we cannot penetrate deeply either into the cause or the +possible consequences of our present state. But Christ--if we may +continue the figure--legislates with a breadth of administrative +capacity which includes not only our present distress but our future +condition, and, with the boldness of one who is master of the whole +case, requires that we put ourselves wholly into His hand. He takes the +responsibility of all the changes we make in obedience to Him, and +proposes so to relieve us that the relief shall be permanent, and that +the very emergency which has thrown us upon His help shall be the +occasion of our transference not merely out of the present evil, but +into the best possible form of human life. + +From this chapter, then, in the history of Joseph, we may reasonably +take occasion to remind ourselves, first, that in all things pertaining +to God unconditional submission to Christ is necessarily required of us. +Apart from Christ we cannot tell what are the necessary elements of a +permanently happy state; nor, indeed, even whether there is any such +state awaiting us. There is a great deal of truth in what is urged by +unbelievers to the effect that spiritual matters are in great measure +beyond our cognizance, and that many of our religious phrases are but, +as it were, thrown out in the direction of a truth but do not perfectly +represent it. No doubt we are in a provisional state, in which we are +not in direct contact with the absolute truth, nor in a final attitude +of mind towards it; and certain representations of things given in the +Word of God may seem to us not to cover the whole truth. But this only +compels the conclusion that for us Christ is the way, the truth, and the +life. To probe existence to the bottom is plainly not in our power. To +say precisely what God is, and how we are to carry ourselves towards +Him, is possible only to him who has been with God and is God. To submit +to the Spirit of Christ, and to live under those influences and views +which formed His life, is the only method that promises deliverance from +that moral condition which makes spiritual vision impossible. + +We may remind ourselves, secondly, that this submission to Christ should +be consistently adhered to in connection with those outward occurrences +in our life which give us opportunity of enlarging our spiritual +capacity. There can be little doubt that there would be presented to +Joseph many a plan for the better administration of this whole matter, +and many a petition from individuals craving exemption from the +seemingly arbitrary and certainly painful and troublesome edict +regulating change of residence. Many a man would think himself much +wiser than the minister of Pharaoh in whom was the Spirit of God. When +we act in a similar manner, and take upon us to specify with precision +the changes we should like to see in our condition, and the methods by +which these changes might best be accomplished, we commonly manifest our +own incompetence. The changes which the strong hand of Providence +enforces, the dislocation which our life suffers from some irresistible +blow, the necessity laid upon us to begin life again and on apparently +disadvantageous terms, are naturally resented; but these things being +certainly the result of some unguardedness, improvidence, or weakness in +our past state, are necessarily the means most appropriate for +disclosing to us these elements of calamity and for securing our +permanent welfare. We rebel against such perilous and sweeping +revolutions as the basing of our life on a new foundation demands; we +would disregard the appointments of Providence if we could; but both +our voluntary consent to the authority of Christ and the impossibility +of resisting His providential arrangements, prevent us from refusing to +fall in with them, however needless and tyrannical they seem, and +however little we perceive that they are intended to accomplish our +permanent well-being. And it is in after years, when the pain of +severance from old friends and habits is healed, and when the discomfort +of adapting ourselves to a new kind of life is replaced by peaceful and +docile resignation to new conditions, that we reach the clear perception +that the changes we resented have in point of fact rendered harmless the +seeds of fresh disaster, and rescued us from the results of long bad +government. He who has most keenly felt the hardship of being diverted +from his original course in life, will in after life tell you that had +he been allowed to hold his own land, and remain his own master in his +old loved abode, he would have lapsed into a condition from which no +worthy harvest could be expected. If a man only wishes that his own +conceptions of prosperity be realised, then let him keep his land in his +own hand and work his material irrespective of God's demands; for +certainly if he yields himself to God, his own ideas of prosperity will +not be realised. But if he suspects that God may have a more liberal +conception of prosperity and may understand better than he what is +eternally beneficial, let him commit himself and all his material of +prosperity without doubting into God's hand, and let him greedily obey +all God's precepts; for in neglecting one of these, he so far neglects +and misses what God would have him enter into. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] "It happened very often that the inhabitants of one district +threatened an attack on the occupants of another on account of some +dispute about divine or human questions. The hostile feelings of the +opponents not unfrequently broke out into a hard struggle, and it +required the whole armed power of the king to extinguish at its first +outburst the flaming torch of war, kindled by domineering chiefs of +nomes or ambitious priests."--Brugsch, _History of Egypt_, i. 16. + + + + +XXIX. + +_VISITS OF JOSEPH'S BRETHREN._ + +GEN. xlii.-xliv. + + "Fear not: for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought + evil against me; but God meant it unto good."--GEN. 1. 19, 20. + + +The purpose of God to bring Israel into Egypt was accomplished by the +unconscious agency of Joseph's natural affection for his kindred. +Tenderness towards home is usually increased by residence in a foreign +land; for absence, like a little death, sheds a halo round those +separated from us. But Joseph could not as yet either re-visit his old +home or invite his father's family into Egypt. Even, indeed, when his +brothers first appeared before him, he seems to have had no immediate +intention of inviting them as a family to settle in the country of his +adoption, or even to visit it. If he had cherished any such purpose or +desire he might have sent down wagons at once, as he at last did, to +bring his father's household out of Canaan. Why, then, did he proceed so +cautiously? Whence this mystery, and disguise, and circuitous compassing +of his end? What intervened between the first and last visit of his +brethren to make it seem advisable to disclose himself and invite them? +Manifestly there had intervened enough to give Joseph insight into the +state of mind his brethren were in, enough to satisfy him they were not +the men they had been, and that it was safe to ask them and would be +pleasant to have them with him in Egypt. Fully alive to the elements of +disorder and violence that once existed among them, and having had no +opportunity of ascertaining whether they were now altered, there was no +course open but that which he adopted of endeavouring in some unobserved +way to discover whether twenty years had wrought any change in them. + +For effecting this object he fell on the expedient of imprisoning them, +on pretence of their being spies. This served the double purpose of +detaining them until he should have made up his mind as to the best +means of dealing with them, and of securing their retention under his +eye until some display of character might sufficiently certify him of +their state of mind. Possibly he adopted this expedient also because it +was likely deeply to move them, so that they might be expected to +exhibit not such superficial feelings as might have been elicited had he +set them down to a banquet and entered into conversation with them over +their wine, but such as men are surprised to find in themselves, and +know nothing of in their lighter hours. Joseph was, of course, well +aware that in the analysis of character the most potent elements are +only brought into clear view when the test of severe trouble is applied, +and when men are thrown out of all conventional modes of thinking and +speaking. + +The display of character which Joseph awaited he speedily obtained. For +so new an experience to these free dwellers in tents as imprisonment +under grim Egyptian guards worked wonders in them. Men who have +experienced such treatment aver that nothing more effectually tames and +breaks the spirit: it is not the being confined for a definite time +with the certainty of release in the end, but the being shut up at the +caprice of another on a false and absurd accusation; the being cooped up +at the will of a stranger in a foreign country, uncertain and hopeless +of release. To Joseph's brethren so sudden and great a calamity seemed +explicable only on the theory that it was retribution for the great +crime of their life. The uneasy feeling which each of them had hidden in +his own conscience, and which the lapse of twenty years had not +materially alleviated, finds expression: "And they said one to another, +We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish +of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is +this distress come upon us." The similarity of their position to that in +which they had placed their brother stimulates and assists their +conscience. Joseph, in the anguish of his soul, had protested his +innocence, but they had not listened; and now their own protestations +are treated as idle wind by this Egyptian. Their own feelings, +representing to them what they had caused Joseph to suffer, stir a +keener sense of their guilt than they seem ever before to have reached. +Under this new light they see their sin more clearly, and are humbled by +the distress into which it has brought them. + +When Joseph sees this, his heart warms to them. He may not yet be quite +sure of them. A prison-repentance is perhaps scarcely to be trusted. He +sees they would for the moment deal differently with him had they the +opportunity, and would welcome no one more heartily than himself, whose +coming among them had once so exasperated them. Himself keen in his +affections, he is deeply moved, and his eyes fill with tears as he +witnesses their emotion and grief on his account. Fain would he relieve +them from their remorse and apprehension--why, then, does he forbear? +Why does he not at this juncture disclose himself? It has been +satisfactorily proved that his brethren counted their sale of him the +great crime of their life. Their imprisonment has elicited evidence that +that crime had taken in their conscience the capital place, the place +which a man finds some one sin or series of sins will take, to follow +him with its appropriate curse, and hang over his future like a cloud--a +sin of which he thinks when any strange thing happens to him, and to +which he traces all disaster--a sin so iniquitous that it seems capable +of producing any results however grievous, and to which he has so given +himself that his life seems to be concentrated there, and he cannot but +connect with it all the greater ills that happen to him. Was not this, +then, security enough that they would never again perpetrate a crime of +like atrocity? Every man who has almost at all observed the history of +sin in himself, will say that most certainly it was quite insufficient +security against their ever again doing the like. Evidence that a man is +conscious of his sin, and, while suffering from its consequences, feels +deeply its guilt, is not evidence that his character is altered. + +And because we believe men so much more readily than God, and think that +they do not require, for form's sake, such needless pledges of a changed +character as God seems to demand, it is worth observing that Joseph, +moved as he was even to tears, felt that common prudence forbade him to +commit himself to his brethren without further evidence of their +disposition. They had distinctly acknowledged their guilt, and in his +hearing had admitted that the great calamity that had befallen them was +no more than they deserved; yet Joseph, judging merely as an +intelligent man who had worldly interests depending on his judgment, +could not discern enough here to justify him in supposing that his +brethren were changed men. And it might sometimes serve to expose the +insufficiency of our repentance were clear-seeing men the judges of it, +and did they express their opinion of its trustworthiness. We may think +that God is needlessly exacting when He requires evidence not only of a +changed mind about past sin, but also of such a mind being now in us as +will preserve us from future sin; but the truth is, that no man whose +common worldly interests were at stake would commit himself to us on any +less evidence. God, then, meaning to bring the house of Israel into +Egypt in order to make progress in the Divine education He was giving to +them, could not introduce them into that land in a state of mind which +would negative all the discipline they were there to receive. + +These men then had to give evidence that they not only saw, and in some +sense repented of, their sin, but also that they had got rid of the evil +passion which had led to it. This is what God means by repentance. Our +sins are in general not so microscopic that it requires very keen +spiritual discernment to perceive them. But to be quite aware of our +sin, and to acknowledge it, is not to repent of it. Everything falls +short of thorough repentance which does not prevent us from committing +the sin anew. We do not so much desire to be accurately informed about +our past sins, and to get right views of our past selves; we wish to be +no longer sinners, we wish to pass through some process by which we may +be separated from that in us which has led us into sin. Such a process +there is, for these men passed through it. + +The test which revealed the thoroughness of his brothers' repentance was +unintentionally applied by Joseph. When he hid his cup in Benjamin's +sack, all that he intended was to furnish a pretext for detaining +Benjamin, and so gratifying his own affection. But, to his astonishment, +his trick effected far more than he intended; for the brothers, +recognising now their brotherhood, circled round Benjamin, and, to a +man, resolved to go back with him to Egypt. We cannot argue from this +that Joseph had misapprehended the state of mind in which his brothers +were, and in his judgment of them had been either too timorous or too +severe; nor need we suppose that he was hampered by his relations to +Pharaoh, and therefore unwilling to connect himself too closely with men +of whom he might be safer to be rid; because it was this very peril of +Benjamin's that matured their brotherly affection. They themselves could +not have anticipated that they would make such a sacrifice for Benjamin. +But throughout their dealings with this mysterious Egyptian, they felt +themselves under a spell, and were being gradually, though perhaps +unconsciously, softened, and in order to complete the change passing +upon them, they but required some such incident as this of Benjamin's +arrest. This incident seemed by some strange fatality to threaten them +with a renewed perpetration of the very crime they had committed against +Rachel's other son. It threatened to force them to become again the +instrument of bereaving their father of his darling child, and bringing +about that very calamity which they had pledged themselves should never +happen. It was an incident, therefore, which, more than any other, was +likely to call out their family love. + +The scene lives in every one's memory. They were going gladly back to +their own country with corn enough for their children, proud of their +entertainment by the lord of Egypt; anticipating their father's +exultation when he heard how generously they had been treated and when +he saw Benjamin safely restored, feeling that in bringing him back they +almost compensated for having bereaved him of Joseph. Simeon is +revelling in the free air that blew from Canaan and brought with it the +scents of his native land, and breaks into the old songs that the strait +confinement of his prison had so long silenced--all of them together +rejoicing in a scarcely hoped-for success; when suddenly, ere the first +elation is spent, they are startled to see the hasty approach of the +Egyptian messenger, and to hear the stern summons that brought them to a +halt, and boded all ill. The few words of the just Egyptian, and his +calm, explicit judgment, "Ye have done evil in so doing," pierce them +like a keen blade--that they should be suspected of robbing one who had +dealt so generously with them; that all Israel should be put to shame in +the sight of the stranger! But they begin to feel relief as one brother +after another steps forward with the boldness of innocence; and as sack +after sack is emptied, shaken, and flung aside, they already eye the +steward with the bright air of triumph; when, as the very last sack is +emptied, and as all breathlessly stand round, amid the quick rustle of +the corn, the sharp rattle of metal strikes on their ear, and the gleam +of silver dazzles their eyes as the cup rolls out in the sunshine. This, +then, is the brother of whom their father was so careful that he dared +not suffer him out of his sight! This is the precious youth whose life +was of more value than the lives of all the brethren, and to keep whom a +few months longer in his father's sight Simeon had been left to rot in a +dungeon! This is how he repays the anxiety of the family and their love, +and this is how he repays the extraordinary favour of Joseph! By one +rash childish act had this fondled youth, to all appearance, brought +upon the house of Israel irretrievable disgrace, if not complete +extinction. Had these men been of their old temper, their knives had +very speedily proved that their contempt for the deed was as great as +the Egyptian's; by violence towards Benjamin they might have cleared +themselves of all suspicion of complicity; or, at the best, they might +have considered themselves to be acting in a fair and even lenient +manner if they had surrendered the culprit to the steward, and once +again carried back to their father a tale of blood. But they were under +the spell of their old sin. In all disaster, however innocent they now +were, they saw the retribution of their old iniquity; they seem scarcely +to consider whether Benjamin was innocent or guilty, but as humbled, +God-smitten men, "they rent their clothes, and laded every man his ass, +and returned to the city." + +Thus Joseph in seeking to gain _one_ brother found eleven--for now there +could be no doubt that they were very different men from those brethren +who had so heartlessly sold into slavery their father's favourite--men +now with really brotherly feelings, by penitence and regard for their +father so wrought together into one family, that this calamity, intended +to fall only on one of their number, did in falling on him fall on them +all. So far from wishing now to rid themselves of Rachel's son and their +father's favourite, who had been put by their father in so prominent a +place in his affection, they will not even give him up to suffer what +seemed the just punishment of his theft, do not even reproach him with +having brought them all into disgrace and difficulty, but, as humbled +men who knew they had greater sins of their own to answer for, went +quietly back to Egypt, determined to see their younger brother through +his misfortune or to share his bondage with him. Had these men not been +thoroughly changed, thoroughly convinced that at all costs upright +dealing and brotherly love should continue; had they not possessed that +first and last of Christian virtues, love to their brother, then nothing +could so certainly have revealed their want of it as this apparent theft +of Benjamin's. It seemed in itself a very likely thing that a lad +accustomed to plain modes of life, and whose character it was to "ravin +as a wolf," should, when suddenly introduced to the gorgeous Egyptian +banqueting-house with all its sumptuous furnishings, have coveted some +choice specimen of Egyptian art, to carry home to his father as proof +that he could not only bring himself back in safety, but scorned to come +back from any expedition empty-handed. It was not unlikely either that, +with his mother's own superstition, he might have conceived the bold +design of robbing this Egyptian, so mysterious and so powerful, +according to his brothers' account, and of breaking that spell which he +had thrown over them; he may thus have conceived the idea of achieving +for himself a reputation in the family, and of once for all redeeming +himself from the somewhat undignified, and to one of his spirit somewhat +uncongenial, position of the youngest of a family. If, as is possible, +he had let any such idea ooze out in talking with his brethren as they +went down to Egypt, and only abandoned it on their indignant and urgent +remonstrance, then when the cup, Joseph's chief treasure according to +his own account, was discovered in Benjamin's sack, the case must have +looked sadly against him even in the eyes of his brethren. No +protestations of innocence in a particular instance avail much when the +character and general habits of the accused point to guilt. It is quite +possible, therefore, that the brethren, though willing to believe +Benjamin, were yet not so thoroughly convinced of his innocence as they +would have desired. The fact that they themselves had found their money +returned in their sacks, made for Benjamin; yet in most cases, +especially where circumstances corroborate it, an accusation even +against the innocent takes immediate hold and cannot be summarily and at +once got rid of. + +Thus was proof given that the house of Israel was now in truth one +family. The men who, on very slight instigation, had without compunction +sold Joseph to a life of slavery, cannot now find it in their heart to +abandon a brother who, to all appearance, was worthy of no better life +than that of a slave, and who had brought them all into disgrace and +danger. Judah had no doubt pledged himself to bring the lad back without +scathe to his father, but he had done so without contemplating the +possibility of Benjamin becoming amenable to Egyptian law. And no one +can read the speech of Judah--one of the most pathetic on record--in +which he replies to Joseph's judgment that Benjamin alone should remain +in Egypt, without perceiving that he speaks not as one who merely seeks +to redeem a pledge, but as a good son and a good brother. He speaks, +too, as the mouth-piece of the rest, and as he had taken the lead in +Joseph's sale, so he does not shrink from standing forward and +accepting the heavy responsibility which may now light upon the man who +represents these brethren. His former faults are redeemed by the +courage, one may say heroism, he now shows. And as he spoke, so the rest +felt. They could not bring themselves to inflict a new sorrow on their +aged father; neither could they bear to leave their young brother in the +hands of strangers. The passions which had alienated them from one +another, and had threatened to break up the family, are subdued. There +is now discernible a common feeling that binds them together, and a +common object for which they willingly sacrifice themselves. They are, +therefore, now prepared to pass into that higher school to which God +called them in Egypt. It mattered little what strong and equitable laws +they found in the land of their adoption, if they had no taste for +upright living; it mattered little what thorough national organization +they would be brought into contact with in Egypt, if in point of fact +they owned no common brotherhood, and were willing rather to live as +units and every man for himself than for any common interest. But now +they were prepared, open to teaching, and docile. + +To complete our apprehension of the state of mind into which the +brethren were brought by Joseph's treatment of them, we must take into +account the assurance he gave them, when he made himself known to them, +that it was not they but God who had sent him into Egypt, and that God +had done this for the purpose of preserving the whole house of Israel. +At first sight this might seem to be an injudicious speech, calculated +to make the brethren think lightly of their guilt, and to remove the +just impressions they now entertained of the unbrotherliness of their +conduct to Joseph. And it might have been an injudicious speech to +impenitent men; but no further view of sin can lighten its heinousness +to a really penitent sinner. Prove to him that his sin has become the +means of untold good, and you only humble him the more, and more deeply +convince him that while he was recklessly gratifying himself and +sacrificing others for his own pleasure, God has been mindful of others, +and, pardoning him, has blessed them. God does not need our sins to work +out His good intentions, but we give Him little other material; and the +discovery that through our evil purposes and injurious deeds God has +worked out His beneficent will, is certainly not calculated to make us +think more lightly of our sin or more highly of ourselves. + +Joseph in thus addressing his brethren did, in fact, but add to their +feelings the tenderness that is in all religious conviction, and that +springs out of the consciousness that in all our sin there has been with +us a holy and loving Father, mindful of His children. This is the final +stage of penitence. The knowledge that God has prevented our sin from +doing the harm it might have done, does relieve the bitterness and +despair with which we view our life, but at the same time it strengthens +the most effectual bulwark between us and sin--love to a holy, +over-ruling God. This, therefore, may always be safely said to +penitents: Out of your worst sin God can bring good to yourself or to +others, and good of an apparently necessary kind; but good of a +permanent kind can result from your sin only when you have truly +repented of it, and sincerely wish you had never done it. Once this +repentance is really wrought in you, then, though your life can never be +the same as it might have been had you not sinned, it may be, in some +respects, a more richly developed life, a life fuller of humility and +love. You can never have what you sold for your sin; but the poverty +your sin has brought may excite within you thoughts and energies more +valuable than what you have lost, as these men lost a brother but found +a Saviour. The wickedness that has often made you bow your head and +mourn in secret, and which is in itself unutterable shame and loss, may, +in God's hand, become food against the day of famine. You cannot ever +have the enjoyments which are possible only to those whose conscience is +laden with no evil remembrances, and whose nature, uncontracted and +unwithered by familiarity with sin, can give itself to enjoyment with +the abandonment and fearlessness reserved for the innocent. No more at +all will you have that fineness of feeling which only ignorance of evil +can preserve; no more that high and great conscientiousness which, once +broken, is never repaired; no more that respect from other men which for +ever and instinctively departs from those who have lost self-respect. +But you may have a more intelligent sympathy with other men and a keener +pity for them; the experience you have gathered too late to save +yourself may put it in your power to be of essential service to others. +You cannot win your way back to the happy, useful, evenly-developed life +of the comparatively innocent, but the life of the true-hearted penitent +is yet open to you. Every beat of your heart now may be as if it +throbbed against a poisoned dagger, every duty may shame you, every day +bring weariness and new humiliation, but let no pain or discouragement +avail to defraud you of the good fruits of true reconciliation to God +and submission to His lifelong discipline. See that you lose not both +lives, the life of the comparatively innocent and the life of the truly +penitent. + + + + +XXX. + +_THE RECONCILIATION._ + +GEN. xlv. + + "By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the + children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his + bones."--HEB. xi. 22. + + +It is generally by some circumstance or event which perplexes, troubles, +or gladdens us, that new thoughts regarding conduct are presented to us, +and new impulses communicated to our life. And the circumstances through +which Joseph's brethren passed during the famine not only subdued and +softened them to a genuine family feeling, but elicited in Joseph +himself a more tender affection for them than he seems at first to have +cherished. For the first time since his entrance into Egypt did he feel, +when Judah spoke so touchingly and effectively, that the family of +Israel was one; and that he himself would be reprehensible did he make +further breaches in it by carrying out his intention of detaining +Benjamin. Moved by Judah's pathetic appeal, and yielding to the generous +impulse of the moment, and being led by a right state of feeling to a +right judgment regarding duty, he claimed his brethren as brethren, and +proposed that the whole family be brought into Egypt. + +The scene in which the sacred writer describes the reconciliation of +Joseph and his brothers is one of the most touching on record;--the long +estrangement so happily terminated; the caution, the doubts, the +hesitation on Joseph's part, swept away at last by the resistless tide +of long pent-up emotion; the surprise and perplexity of the brethren as +they dared now to lift their eyes and scrutinize the face of the +governor, and discerned the lighter complexion of the Hebrew, the +features of the family of Jacob, the expression of their own brother; +the anxiety with which they wait to know how he means to repay their +crime, and the relief with which they hear that he bears them no +ill-will--everything, in short, conduces to render this recognition of +the brethren interesting and affecting. That Joseph, who had controlled +his feeling in many a trying situation, should now have "wept aloud," +needs no explanation. Tears always express a mingled feeling; at least +the tears of a man do. They may express grief, but it is grief with some +remorse in it, or it is grief passing into resignation. They may express +joy, but it is joy born of long sorrow, the joy of deliverance, joy that +can now afford to let the heart weep out the fears it has been holding +down. It is as with a kind of breaking of the heart, and apparent +unmanning of the man, that the human soul takes possession of its +greatest treasures; unexpected success and unmerited joy humble a man; +and as laughter expresses the surprise of the intellect, so tears +express the amazement of the soul when it is stormed suddenly by a great +joy. Joseph had been hardening himself to lead a solitary life in Egypt, +and it is with all this strong self-sufficiency breaking down within him +that he eyes his brethren. It is his love for them making its way +through all his ability to do without them, and sweeping away as a +flood the bulwarks he had built round his heart,--it is this that breaks +him down before them, a man conquered by his own love, and unable to +control it. It compels him to make himself known, and to possess himself +of its objects, those unconscious brethren. It is a signal instance of +the law by which love brings all the best and holiest beings into +contact with their inferiors, and, in a sense, puts them in their power, +and thus eternally provides that the superiority of those that are high +in the scale of being shall ever be at the service of those who in +themselves are not so richly endowed. The higher any being is, the more +love is in him: that is to say, the higher he is, the more surely is he +bound to all who are beneath him. If God is highest of all, it is +because there is in Him sufficiency for all His creatures, and love to +make it universally available. + +It is one of our most familiar intellectual pleasures to see in the +experience of others, or to read, a lucid and moving account of emotions +identical with those which have once been our own. In reading an account +of what others have passed through, our pleasure is derived mainly from +two sources--either from our being brought, by sympathy with them and in +imagination, into circumstances we ourselves have never been placed in, +and thus artificially enlarging our sphere of life, and adding to our +experience feelings which could not have been derived from anything we +ourselves have met with; or, from our living over again, by means of +their experience, a part of our life which had great interest and +meaning to us. It may be excusable, therefore, if we divert this +narrative from its original historical significance, and use it as the +mirror in which we may see reflected an important passage or crisis in +our own spiritual history. For though some may find in it little that +reflects their own experience, others cannot fail to be reminded of +feelings with which they were very familiar when first they were +introduced to Christ, and acknowledged by Him. + +1. The modes in which our Lord makes Himself known to men are various as +their lives and characters. But frequently the forerunning choice of a +sinner by Christ is discovered in such gradual and ill-understood +dealings as Joseph used with those brethren. It is the closing of a net +around them. They do not see what is driving them forward, nor whither +they are being driven; they are anxious and ill at ease; and not +comprehending what ails them, they make only ineffectual efforts for +deliverance. There is no recognition of the hand that is guiding all +this circuitous and mysterious preparatory work, nor of the eye that +affectionately watches their perplexity, nor are they aware of any +friendly ear that catches each sigh in which they seem hopelessly to +resign themselves to the relentless past from which they cannot escape. +They feel that they are left alone to make what they can now of the life +they have chosen and made for themselves; that there is floating behind +and around them a cloud bearing the very essence exhaled from their +past, and ready to burst over them; a phantom that is yet real, and that +belongs both to the spiritual and material world, and can follow them in +either. They seem to be doomed men--men who are never at all to get +disentangled from their old sin. + +If any one is in this baffled and heartless condition, fearing even good +lest it turn to evil in his hand; afraid to take the money that lies in +his sack's mouth, because he feels there is a snare in it; if any one is +sensible that life has become unmanageable in his hands, and that he is +being drawn on by an unseen power which he does not understand, then let +him consider in the scene before us how such a condition ends or may +end. It took many months of doubt, and fear, and mystery to bring those +brethren to such a state of mind as made it advisable for Joseph to +disclose himself, to scatter the mystery, and relieve them of the +unaccountable uneasiness that possessed their minds. And your perplexity +will not be allowed to last longer than it is needful. But it is often +needful that we should first learn that in sinning we have introduced +into our life a baffling, perplexing element, have brought our life into +connection with inscrutable laws which we cannot control, and which we +feel may at any moment destroy us utterly. It is not from carelessness +on Christ's part that His people are not always and from the first +rejoicing in the assurance and appreciation of His love. It is His +carefulness which lays a restraining hand on the ardour of His +affection. We see that this burst of tears on Joseph's part was genuine, +we have no suspicion that he was feigning an emotion he did not feel; we +believe that his affection at last could not be restrained, that he was +fairly overcome,--can we not trust Christ for as genuine a love, and +believe that His emotion is as deep? We are, in a word, reminded by this +scene, that there is always in Christ a greater love seeking the +friendship of the sinner than there is in the sinner seeking for Christ. +The search of the sinner for Christ is always a dubious, hesitating, +uncertain groping; while on Christ's part there is a clear-seeing, +affectionate solicitude which lays joyful surprises along the sinner's +path, and enjoys by anticipation the gladness and repose which are +prepared for him in the final recognition and reconcilement. + +2. In finding their brother again, those sons of Jacob found also their +own better selves which they had long lost. They had been living in a +lie, unable to look the past in the face, and so becoming more and more +false. Trying to leave their sin behind them, they always found it +rising in the path before them, and again they had to resort to some new +mode of laying this uneasy ghost. They turned away from it, busied +themselves among other people, refused to think of it, assumed all kinds +of disguise, professed to themselves that they had done no great wrong; +but nothing gave them deliverance--there was their old sin quietly +waiting for them in their tent door when they went home of an evening, +laying its hand on their shoulder in the most unlooked-for places, and +whispering in their ear at the most unwelcome seasons. A great part of +their mental energy had been spent in deleting this mark from their +memory, and yet day by day it resumed its supreme place in their life, +holding them under arrest as they secretly felt, and keeping them +reserved to judgment. + +So, too, do many of us live as if yet we had not found the life eternal, +the kind of life that we can always go on with--rather as those who are +but making the best of a life which can never be very valuable, nor ever +perfect. There seem voices calling us back, assuring us we must yet +retrace our steps, that there are passages in our past with which we are +not done, that there is an inevitable humiliation and penitence awaiting +us. It is through that we can alone get back to the good we once saw and +hoped for; there were right desires and resolves in us once, views of a +well-spent life which have been forgotten and pressed out of +remembrance, but all these rise again in the presence of Christ. +Reconciled to Him and claimed by Him, all hope is renewed within us. If +He makes Himself known to us, if He claims connection with us, have we +not here the promise of all good? If He, after careful scrutiny, after +full consideration of all the circumstances, bids us claim as our +brother Him to whom all power and glory are given, ought not this to +quicken within us everything that is hopeful, and ought it not to +strengthen us for all frank acknowledgment of the past and true +humiliation on account of it? + +3. A third suggestion is made by this narrative. Joseph commanded from +his presence all who might be merely curious spectators of his burst of +feeling, and might, themselves unmoved, criticise this new feature of +the governor's character. In all love there is a similar reserve. The +true friend of Christ, the man who is profoundly conscious that between +himself and Christ there is a bond unique and eternal, longs for a time +when he may enjoy greater liberty in uttering what he feels towards his +Lord and Redeemer, and when, too, Christ Himself shall by telling and +sufficient signs put it for ever beyond doubt that this love is more +than responded to. Words sufficiently impassioned have indeed been put +into our lips by men of profound spiritual feeling, but the feeling +continually weighs upon us that some more palpable mutual recognition is +desirable between persons so vitally and peculiarly knit together as +Christ and the Christian are. Such recognition, indubitable and +reciprocal, must one day take place. And when Christ Himself shall have +taken the initiative, and shall have caused us to understand that we are +verily the objects of His love, and shall have given such expression to +His knowledge of us as we cannot now receive, we on our part shall be +able to reciprocate, or at least to accept, this greatest of +possessions, the brotherly love of the Son of God. Meanwhile this +passage in Joseph's history may remind us that behind all sternness of +expression there may pulsate a tenderness that needs thus to disguise +itself; and that to those who have not yet recognised Christ, He is +better than He seems. Those brethren no doubt wonder now that even +twenty years' alienation should have so blinded them. The relaxation of +the expression from the sternness of an Egyptian governor to the +fondness of family love, the voice heard now in the familiar mother +tongue, reveal the brother; and they who have shrunk from Christ as if +He were a cold official, and who have never lifted their eyes to +scrutinize His face, are reminded that He can so make Himself known to +them that not all the wealth of Egypt would purchase from them one of +the assurances they have received from Him. + +The same warm tide of feeling which carried away all that separated +Joseph from his brethren bore him on also to the decision to invite his +father's entire household into Egypt. We are reminded that the history +of Joseph in Egypt is an episode, and that Jacob is still the head of +the house, maintaining its dignity and guiding its movements. The +notices we get of him in this latter part of his history are very +characteristic. The indomitable toughness of his youth remained with him +in his old age. He was one of those old men who maintain their vigour to +the end, the energy of whose age seems to shame and overtax the prime of +common men; whose minds are still the clearest, their advice the safest, +their word waited for, their perception of the actual state of affairs +always in advance of their juniors, more modern and fully abreast of the +times in their ideas than the latest born of their children. Such an +old age we recognise in Jacob's half-scornful chiding of the +helplessness of his sons even after they had heard that there was corn +in Egypt. "Why look ye one upon another? Behold! I have heard that there +is corn in Egypt; get ye down thither and buy for us from thence." +Jacob, the man who had wrestled through life and bent all things to his +will, cannot put up with the helpless dejection of this troop of strong +men, who have no wit to devise an escape for themselves, and no +resolution to enforce upon the others any device that may occur to them. +Waiting still like children for some one else to help them, having +strength to endure but no strength to undertake the responsibility of +advising in an emergency, they are roused by their father, who has been +eyeing this condition of theirs with some curiosity and with some +contempt, and now breaks in upon it with his "Why look ye one upon +another?" It is the old Jacob, full of resources, prompt and +imperturbable, equal to every turn of fortune, and never knowing how to +yield. + +Even more clearly do we see the vigour of Jacob's old age when he comes +in contact with Joseph. For many years Joseph had been accustomed to +command; he had unusual natural sagacity and a special gift of insight +from God, but he seems a child in comparison with Jacob. When he brings +his two sons to get their grandfather's blessing, Jacob sees what Joseph +has no inkling of, and peremptorily declines to follow the advice of his +wise son. With all Joseph's sagacity there were points in which his +blind father saw more clearly than he. Joseph, who could teach the +Egyptian senators wisdom, standing thus at a loss even to understand his +father, and suggesting in his ignorance futile corrections, is a picture +of the incapacity of natural affection to rise to the wisdom of God's +love, and of the finest natural discernment to anticipate God's purposes +or supply the place of a lifelong experience. + +Jacob's warm-heartedness has also survived the chills and shocks of a +long lifetime. He clings now to Benjamin as once he clung to Joseph. And +as he had wrought for Rachel fourteen years, and the love he bare to her +made them seem but a few days, so for twenty years now had he remembered +Joseph who had inherited this love, and he shows by his frequent +reference to him that he was keeping his word and going down to the +grave mourning for his son. To such a man it must have been a severe +trial indeed to be left alone in his tents, deprived of all his twelve +sons; and we hear his old faith in God steadying the voice that yet +trembles with emotion as he says, "If I be bereaved of my children, I am +bereaved." It was a trial not, indeed, so painful as that of Abraham +when he lifted the knife over the life of his only son; but it was so +similar to it as inevitably to suggest it to the mind. Jacob also had to +yield up all his children, and to feel, as he sat solitary in his tent, +how utterly dependent upon God he was for their restoration; that it was +not he but God alone who could build the house of Israel. + +The anxiety with which he gazed evening after evening towards the +setting sun, to descry the returning caravan, was at last relieved. But +his joy was not altogether unalloyed. His sons brought with them a +summons to shift the patriarchal encampment into Egypt--a summons which +evidently nothing would have induced Jacob to respond to had it not come +from his long-lost Joseph, and had it not thus received what he felt to +be a divine sanction. The extreme reluctance which Jacob showed to the +journey, we must be careful to refer to its true source. The Asiatics, +and especially shepherd tribes, move easily. One who thoroughly knows +the East says: "The Oriental is not afraid to go far, if he has not to +cross the sea; for, once uprooted, distance makes little difference to +him. He has no furniture to carry, for, except a carpet and a few brass +pans, he uses none. He has no trouble about meals, for he is content +with parched grain, which his wife can cook anywhere, or dried dates, or +dried flesh, or anything obtainable which will keep. He is, on a march, +careless where he sleeps, provided his family are around him--in a +stable, under a porch, in the open air. He never changes his clothes at +night, and he is profoundly indifferent to everything that the Western +man understands by 'comfort.'" But there was in Jacob's case a +peculiarity. He was called upon to abandon, for an indefinite period, +the land which God had given him as the heir of His promise. With very +great toil and not a little danger had Jacob won his way back to Canaan +from Mesopotamia; on his return he had spent the best years of his life, +and now he was resting there in his old age, having seen his children's +children, and expecting nothing but a peaceful departure to his fathers. +But suddenly the wagons of Pharaoh stand at his tent-door, and while the +parched and bare pastures bid him go to the plenty of Egypt, to which +the voice of his long-lost son invites him, he hears a summons which, +however trying, he cannot disregard. + +Such an experience is perpetually reproduced. Many are they who having +at length received from God some long-expected good are quickly summoned +to relinquish it again. And while the waiting for what seems +indispensable to us is trying, it is tenfold more so to have to part +with it when at last obtained, and obtained at the cost of much besides. +That particular arrangement of our worldly circumstances which we have +long sought, we are almost immediately thrown out of. That position in +life, or that object of desire, which God Himself seems in many ways to +have encouraged us to seek, is taken from us almost as soon as we have +tasted its sweetness. The cup is dashed from our lips at the very moment +when our thirst was to be fully slaked. In such distressing +circumstances we cannot _see_ the end God is aiming at; but of this we +may be certain, that He does not wantonly annoy, or relish our +discomfiture, and that when we are compelled to resign what is partial, +it is that we may one day enjoy what is complete, and that if for the +present we have to forego much comfort and delight, this is only an +absolutely necessary step towards our permanent establishment in all +that can bless and prosper us. + +It is this state of feeling which explains the words of Jacob when +introduced to Pharaoh. A recent writer, who spent some years on the +banks of the Nile and on its waters, and who mixed freely with the +inhabitants of Egypt, says: "Old Jacob's speech to Pharaoh really made +me laugh, because it is so exactly like what a Fellah says to a Pacha, +'Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been,' Jacob being a +most prosperous man, but it is manners to say all that." But Eastern +manners need scarcely be called in to explain a sentiment which we find +repeated by one who is generally esteemed the most self-sufficing of +Europeans. "I have ever been esteemed," Goethe says, "one of Fortune's +chiefest favourites; nor will I complain or find fault with the course +my life has taken. Yet, truly, there has been nothing but toil and +care; and I may say that, in all my seventy-five years, I have never +had a month of genuine comfort. It has been the perpetual rolling of a +stone, which I have always had to raise anew." Jacob's life had been +almost ceaseless disquiet and disappointment. A man who had fled his +country, who had been cheated into a marriage, who had been compelled by +his own relative to live like a slave, who was only by flight able to +save himself from a perpetual injustice, whose sons made his life +bitter,--one of them by the foulest outrage a father could suffer, two +of them by making him, as he himself said, to stink in the nostrils of +the inhabitants of the land he was trying to settle in, and all of them +by conspiring to deprive him of the child he most dearly loved--a man +who at last, when he seemed to have had experience of every form of +human calamity, was compelled by famine to relinquish the land for the +sake of which he had endured all and spent all, might surely be forgiven +a little plaintiveness in looking back upon his past. The wonder is to +find Jacob to the end unbroken, dignified, and clear-seeing, capable and +commanding, loving and full of faith. + +Cordial as the reconciliation between Joseph and his brethren seemed, it +was not as thorough as might have been desired. So long, indeed, as +Jacob lived, all went well; but "when Joseph's brethren saw that their +father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will +certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him." No wonder +Joseph wept when he received their message. He wept because he saw that +he was still misunderstood and distrusted by his brethren; because he +felt, too, that had they been more generous men themselves, they would +more easily have believed in his forgiveness; and because his pity was +stirred for these men, who recognised that they were so completely in +the power of their younger brother. Joseph had passed through severe +conflicts of feeling about them, had been at great expense both of +emotion and of outward good on their account, had risked his position in +order to be able to serve them, and here is his reward! They supposed he +had been but biding his time, that his apparent forgetfulness of their +injury had been the crafty restraint of a deep-seated resentment; or, at +best, that he had been unconsciously influenced by regard for his +father, and now, when that influence was removed, the helpless condition +of his brethren might tempt him to retaliate. This exhibition of a +craven and suspicious spirit is unexpected, and must have been +profoundly saddening to Joseph. Yet here, as elsewhere, he is +magnanimous. Pity for them turns his thoughts from the injustice done to +himself. He comforts them, and speaks kindly to them, saying, Fear ye +not; I will nourish you and your little ones. + +Many painful thoughts must have been suggested to Joseph by this +conduct. If, after all he had done for his brethren, they had not yet +learned to love him, but met his kindness with suspicion, was it not +probable that underneath his apparent popularity with the Egyptians +there might lie envy, or the cold acknowledgment that falls far short of +love? This sudden disclosure of the real feeling of his brethren towards +him must necessarily have made him uneasy about his other friendships. +Did every one merely make use of him, and did no one give him pure love +for his own sake? The people he had saved from famine, was there one of +them that regarded him with anything resembling personal affection? +Distrust seemed to pursue Joseph from first to last. First his own +family misunderstood and persecuted him. Then his Egyptian master had +returned his devoted service with suspicion and imprisonment. And now +again, after sufficient time for testing his character might seem to +have elapsed, he was still looked upon with distrust by those who of all +others had best reason to believe in him. But though Joseph had through +all his life been thus conversant with suspicion, cruelty, falsehood, +ingratitude, and blindness, though he seemed doomed to be always +misread, and to have his best deeds made the ground of accusation +against him, he remained not merely unsoured, but equally ready as ever +to be of service to all. The finest natures may be disconcerted and +deadened by universal distrust; characters not naturally unamiable are +sometimes embittered by suspicion; and persons who are in the main +high-minded do stoop, when stung by such treatment, to rail at the +world, or to question all generous emotion, steadfast friendship, or +unimpeachable integrity. In Joseph there is nothing of this. If ever man +had a right to complain of being unappreciated, it was he; if ever man +was tempted to give up making sacrifices for his relatives, it was he. +But through all this he bore himself with manly generosity, with simple +and persistent faith, with a dignified respect for himself and for other +men. In the ingratitude and injustice he had to endure, he only found +opportunity for a deeper unselfishness, a more God-like forbearance. And +that such may be the outcome of the sorest parts of human experience we +have one day or other need to remember. When our good is evil spoken of, +our motives suspected, our most sincere sacrifices scrutinized by an +ignorant and malicious spirit, our most substantial and well-judged acts +of kindness received with suspicion, and the love that is in them quite +rejected, it is then we have opportunity to show that to us belongs the +Christian temper that can pardon till seventy times seven, and that can +persist in loving where love meets no response, and benefits provoke no +gratitude. + +How Joseph spent the years which succeeded the famine we have no means +of knowing; but the closing act of his life seemed to the narrator so +significant as to be worthy of record. "Joseph said unto his brethren, I +die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto +the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And Joseph +took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit +you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence." The Egyptians must have +chiefly been struck by the simplicity of character which this request +betokened. To the great benefactors of our country, the highest award is +reserved to be given after death. So long as a man lives, some rude +stroke of fortune or some disastrous error of his own may blast his +fame; but when his bones are laid with those who have served their +country best, a seal is set on his life, and a sentence pronounced which +the revision of posterity rarely revokes. Such honours were customary +among the Egyptians; it is from their tombs that their history can now +be written. And to none were such honours more accessible than to +Joseph. But after a life in the service of the state he retains the +simplicity of the Hebrew lad. With the magnanimity of a great and pure +soul, he passed uncontaminated through the flatteries and temptations of +court-life; and, like Moses, "esteemed the reproach of Christ greater +riches than the treasures of Egypt." He has not indulged in any +affectation of simplicity, nor has he, in the pride that apes humility, +declined the ordinary honours due to a man in his position. He wears +the badges of office, the robe and the gold necklace, but these things +do not reach his spirit. He has lived in a region in which such honours +make no deep impression; and in his death he shows where his heart has +been. The small voice of God, spoken centuries ago to his forefathers, +deafens him to the loud acclaim with which the people do him homage. + +By later generations this dying request of Joseph's was looked upon as +one of the most remarkable instances of faith. For many years there had +been no new revelation. The rising generations that had seen no man with +whom God had spoken, were little interested in the land which was said +to be theirs, but which they very well knew was infested by fierce +tribes who, on at least one occasion during this period, inflicted +disastrous defeat on one of the boldest of their own tribes. They were, +besides, extremely attached to the country of their adoption; they +luxuriated in its fertile meadows and teeming gardens, which kept them +supplied at little cost of labour with delicacies unknown on the hills +of Canaan. This oath, therefore, which Joseph made them swear, may have +revived the drooping hopes of the small remnant who had any of his own +spirit. They saw that he, their most sagacious man, lived and died in +full assurance that God would visit His people. And through all the +terrible bondage they were destined to suffer, the bones of Joseph, or +rather his embalmed body, stood as the most eloquent advocate of God's +faithfulness, ceaselessly reminding the despondent generations of the +oath which God would yet enable them to fulfil. As often as they felt +inclined to give up all hope and the last surviving Israelitish +peculiarity, there was the unburied coffin remonstrating; Joseph still, +even when dead, refusing to let his dust mingle with Egyptian earth. + +And thus, as Joseph had been their pioneer who broke out a way for them +into Egypt, so did he continue to hold open the gate and point the way +back to Canaan. The brethren had sold him into this foreign land, +meaning to bury him for ever; he retaliated by requiring that the tribes +should restore him to the land from which he had been expelled. Few men +have opportunity of showing so noble a revenge; fewer still, having the +opportunity, would so have used it. Jacob had been carried up to Canaan +as soon as he was dead: Joseph declines this exceptional treatment, and +prefers to share the fortunes of his brethren, and will then only enter +on the promised land when all his people can go with him. As in life, so +in death, he took a large view of things, and had no feeling that the +world ended in him. His career had taught him to consider national +interests; and now, on his death-bed, it is from the point of view of +his people that he looks at the future. + +Several passages in the life of Joseph have shown us that where the +Spirit of Christ is present, many parts of the conduct will suggest, if +they do not actually resemble, acts in the life of Christ. The attitude +towards the future in which Joseph sets his people as he leaves them, +can scarcely fail to suggest the attitude which Christians are called to +assume. The prospect which the Hebrews had of fulfilling their oath grew +increasingly faint, but the difficulties in the way of its performance +must only have made them more clearly see that they depended on God for +entrance on the promised inheritance. And so may the difficulty of our +duties as Christ's followers measure for us the amount of grace God has +provided for us. The commands that make you sensible of your weakness, +and bring to light more clearly than ever how unfit for good you are, +are witnesses to you that God will visit you and enable you to fulfil +the oath He has required you to take. The children of Israel could not +suppose that a man so wise as Joseph had ended his life with a childish +folly, when he made them swear this oath, and could not but renew their +hope that the day would come when his wisdom would be justified by their +ability to discharge it. Neither ought it to be beyond our belief that, +in requiring from us such and such conduct, our Lord has kept in view +our actual condition and its possibilities, and that His commands are +our best guide towards a state of permanent felicity. He that aims +always at the performance of the oath he has taken, will assuredly find +that God will not stultify Himself by failing to support him. + + + + +XXXI. + +_THE BLESSINGS OF THE TRIBES._ + +GENESIS xlviii. and xlix. + + +Jacob's blessing of his sons marks the close of the patriarchal +dispensation. Henceforth the channel of God's blessing to man does not +consist of one person only, but of a people or nation. It is still _one +seed_, as Paul reminds us, a unit that God will bless, but this unit is +now no longer a single person--as Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob--but one +people, composed of several parts, and yet one whole; equally +representative of Christ, as the patriarchs were, and of equal effect +every way in receiving God's blessing and handing it down until Christ +came. The Old Testament Church, quite as truly as the New, formed one +whole with Christ. Apart from Him it had no meaning, and would have had +no existence. It was the promised seed, always growing more and more to +its perfect development in Christ. As the promise was kept to Abraham +when Isaac was born, and as Isaac was truly the promised seed--in so far +as he was a part of the series that led on to Christ, and was given in +fulfilment of the promise that promised Christ to the world--so all +through the history of Israel we must bear in mind that in them God is +fulfilling this same promise, and that they are the promised seed in so +far as they are one with Christ. And this interprets to us all those +passages of the prophets regarding which men have disputed whether they +are to be applied to Israel or to Christ: passages in which God +addresses Israel in such words as, "Behold My servant," "Mine elect," +and so forth, and in the interpretation of which it has been thought +sufficient proof that they do not apply to Christ, to prove that they do +apply to Israel; whereas, on the principle just laid down, it might much +more safely be argued that because they apply to Israel, therefore they +apply to Christ. And it is at this point--where Israel distributes among +his sons the blessing which heretofore had all lodged in himself--that +we see the first multiplication of Christ's representatives; the +mediation going on no longer through individuals, but through a nation; +and where individuals are still chosen by God, as commonly they are, for +the conveyance of God's communications to earth, these individuals, +whether priests or prophets, are themselves but the official +representatives of the nation. + +As the patriarchal dispensation ceases, it secures to the tribes all the +blessing it has itself contained. Every father desires to leave to his +sons whatever he has himself found helpful, but as they gather round his +dying bed, or as he sits setting his house in order, and considering +what portion is appropriate for each, he recognises that to some of them +it is quite useless to bequeath the most valuable parts of his property, +while in others he discerns a capacity which promises the improvement of +all that is entrusted to it. And from the earliest times the various +characters of the tribes were destined to modify the blessing conveyed +to them by their father. The blessing of Israel is now distributed, and +each receives what each can take; and while in some of the individual +tribes there may seem to be very little of blessing at all, yet, taken +together, they form a picture of the common outstanding features of +human nature, and of that nature as acted upon by God's blessing, and +forming together one body or Church. A peculiar interest attaches to the +history of some nations, and is not altogether absent from our own, from +the precision with which we can trace the character of families, +descending often with the same unmistakable lineaments from father to +son for many generations.[2] One knows at once to what families to look +for restless and turbulent spirits, ready for conspiracy and revolution; +and one knows also where to seek steady and faithful loyalty, +public-spiritedness, or native ability. And in Israel's national +character there was room for the great distinguishing features of the +tribes, and to show the richness and variety with which the promise of +God could fulfil itself wherever it was received. The distinguishing +features which Jacob depicts in the blessings of his sons are +necessarily veiled under the poetic figures of prophecy, and spoken of +as they would reveal themselves in worldly matters; but these features +were found in all the generations of the tribes, and displayed +themselves in things spiritual also. For a man has not two characters, +but one; and what he is in the world, that he is in his religion. In our +own country, it is seen how the forms of worship, and even the doctrines +believed, and certainly the modes of religious thought and feeling, +depend on the natural character, and the natural character on the local +situation of the respective sections of the community. No doubt in a +country like ours, where men so constantly migrate from place to place, +and where one common literature tends to mould us all to the same way of +thinking, you do get men of all kinds in every place; yet even among +ourselves the character of a place is generally still visible, and +predominates over all that mingles with it. Much more must this +character have been retained in a country where each man could trace his +ancestry up to the father of the tribe, and cultivated with pride the +family characteristics, and had but little intercourse, either literary +or personal, with other minds and other manners. As we know by dialect +and by the manners of the people when we pass into a new country, so +must the Israelite have known by the eye and ear when he had crossed the +county frontier, when he was conversing with a Benjamite, and when with +a descendant of Judah. We are not therefore to suppose that any of these +utterances of Jacob are mere geographical predictions, or that they +depict characteristics which might appear in civil life, but not in +religion and the Church, or that they would die out with the first +generation. + +In these blessings, therefore, we have the history of the Church in its +most interesting form. In these sons gathered round him, the patriarch +sees his own nature reflected piece by piece, and he sees also the +general outline of all that must be produced by such natures as these +men have. The whole destiny of Israel is here in germ, and the spirit of +prophecy in Jacob sees and declares it. It has often been remarked[3] +that as a man draws near to death, he seems to see many things in a much +clearer light, and especially gets glimpses into the future, which are +hidden from others. + + "The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed, + Lets in new light through chinks that time hath made." + +Being nearer to eternity, he instinctively measures things by its +standard, and thus comes nearer a just valuation of all things before +his mind, and can better distinguish reality from appearance. Jacob has +studied these sons of his for fifty years, and has had his acute +perception of character painfully enough called to exercise itself on +them. He has all his life long had a liking for analysing men's inner +life, knowing that, when he understands that, he can better use them for +his own ends; and these sons of his own have cost him thought enough +over and above that sometimes penetrating interest which a father will +take in the growth of a son's character; and now he knows them +thoroughly, understands their temptations, their weaknesses, their +capabilities, and, as a wise head of a house, can, with delicate and +unnoticed skill, balance the one against the other, ward off awkward +collisions, and prevent the evil from destroying the good. This +knowledge of Jacob prepares him for being the intelligent agent by whom +God predicts in outline the future of His Church. + +One cannot but admire, too, the faith which enables Jacob to apportion +to his sons the blessings of a land which had not been much of a +resting-place to himself, and regarding the occupation of which his sons +might have put to him some very difficult questions. And we admire this +dignified faith the more on reflecting that it has often been very +grievously lacking in our own case--that we have felt almost ashamed of +having so little of a present tangible kind to offer, and of being +obliged to speak only of invisible and future blessings; to set a +spiritual consolation over against a worldly grief; to point a man +whose fortunes are ruined to an eternal inheritance; or to speak to one +who knows himself quite in the power of sin of a remedy which has often +seemed illusory to ourselves. Some of us have got so little comfort or +strength from religion ourselves, that we have no heart to offer it to +others; and most of us have a feeling that we should seem to trifle were +we to offer invisible aid against very visible calamity. At least we +feel that we are doing a daring thing in making such an offer, and can +scarce get over the desire that we had something to speak of which sight +could appreciate, and which did not require the exercise of faith. Again +and again the wish rises within us that to the sick man we could bring +health as well as the promise of forgiveness, and that to the poor we +could grant an earthly, while we make known a heavenly, inheritance. One +who has experienced these scruples, and known how hard it is to get rid +of them, will know also how to honour the faith of Jacob, by which he +assumes the right to bless Pharaoh--though he is himself a mere +sojourner by sufferance in Pharaoh's land, and living on his bounty--and +by which he gathers his children round him and portions out to them a +land which seemed to have been most barren to himself, and which now +seemed quite beyond his reach. The enjoyments of it, which he himself +had not very deeply tasted, he yet knew were real; and if there were a +look of scepticism, or of scorn, on the face of any one of his sons; if +the unbelief of any received the prophetic utterances as the ravings of +delirium, or the fancies of an imbecile and worn-out mind going back to +the scenes of its youth, in Jacob himself there was so simple and +unsuspecting a faith in God's promise, that he dealt with the land as if +it were the only portion worth bequeathing to his sons, as if every +Canaanite were already cast out of it, and as if he knew his sons could +never be tempted by the wealth of Egypt to turn with contempt from the +land of promise. And if we would attain to this boldness of his, and be +able to speak of spiritual and future blessings as very substantial and +valuable, we must ourselves learn to make much of God's promise, and +leave no taint of unbelief in our reception of it. + +And often we are rebuked by finding that when we do offer things +spiritual, even those who are wrapped in earthly comforts appreciate and +accept the better gifts. So it was in Joseph's case. No doubt the +highest posts in Egypt were open to his sons; they might have been +naturalised, as he himself had been, and, throwing in their lot with the +land of their adoption, might have turned to their advantage the rank +their father held, and the reputation he had earned. But Joseph turns +from this attractive prospect, brings them to his father, and hands them +over to the despised shepherd-life of Israel. One need scarcely point +out how great a sacrifice this was on Joseph's part. So universally +acknowledged and legitimate a desire is it to pass to one's children the +honour achieved by a life of exertion, that states have no higher +rewards to confer on their most useful servants than a title which their +descendants may wear. But Joseph would not suffer his children to risk +the loss of their share in God's peculiar blessing, not for the most +promising openings in life, or the highest civil honours. If the +thoroughly open identification of them with the shepherds, and their +profession of a belief in a distant inheritance, which must have made +them appear madmen in the eyes of the Egyptians, if this was to cut +them off from worldly advancement, Joseph was not careful of this, for +resolved he was that, at any cost, they should be among God's people. +And his faith received its reward; the two tribes that sprang from him +received about as large a portion of the promised land as fell to the +lot of all the other tribes put together. + +You will observe that Ephraim and Manasseh were adopted as sons of +Jacob. Jacob tells Joseph, "They shall be mine," not my grandsons, but +as Reuben and Simeon. No other sons whom Joseph might have were to be +received into this honour, but these two were to take their place on a +level with their uncles as heads of tribes, so that Joseph is +represented through the whole history by the two populous and powerful +tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. No greater honour could have been put on +Joseph, nor any more distinct and lasting recognition made of the +indebtedness of his family to him, and of how he had been as a father +bringing new life to his brethren, than this, that his sons should be +raised to the rank of heads of tribes, on a level with the immediate +sons of Jacob. And no higher honour could have been put on the two lads +themselves than that they should thus be treated as if they were their +father Joseph--as if they had his worth and his rank. He is merged in +them, and all that he has earned is, throughout the history, to be +found, not in his own name, but in theirs. It all proceeds from him; but +his enjoyment is found in their enjoyment, his worth acknowledged in +their fruitfulness. Thus did God familiarise the Jewish mind through its +whole history with the idea, if they chose to think and have ideas, of +adoption, and of an adoption of a peculiar kind, of an adoption where +already there was an heir who, by this adoption, has his name and worth +merged in the persons now received into his place. Ephraim and Manasseh +were not received alongside of Joseph, but each received what Joseph +himself might have had, and Joseph's name as a tribe was henceforth only +to be found in these two. This idea was fixed in such a way, that for +centuries it was steeping into the minds of men, so that they might not +be astonished if God should in some other case, say the case of His own +Son, adopt men into the rank He held, and let His estimate of the worth +of His Son, and the honour He puts upon Him, be seen in the adopted. +This being so, we need not be alarmed if men tell us that imputation is +a mere legal fiction, or human invention; a legal fiction it may be, but +in the case before us it was the never-disputed foundation of very +substantial blessings to Ephraim and Manasseh; and we plead for nothing +more than that God would act with us as here He did act with these two, +that He would make us His direct heirs, make us His own sons, and give +us what He who presents us to Him to receive His blessing did earn, and +merits at the Father's hand. + +We meet with these crossed hands of blessing frequently in Scripture; +the younger son blessed above the elder--as was needful, lest grace +should become confounded with nature, and the belief gradually grow up +in men's minds that natural effects could never be overcome by grace, +and that in every respect grace waited upon nature. And these crossed +hands we meet still; for how often does God quite reverse _our_ order, +and bless most that about which we had less concern, and seem to put a +slight on that which has engrossed our best affection. It is so, often +in precisely the way in which Joseph found it so; the son whose youth +is most anxiously cared for, to whom the interests of the younger +members of the family are sacrificed, and who is commended to God +continually to receive His right-hand blessing, this son seems neither +to receive nor to dispense much blessing; but the younger, less thought +of, left to work his own way, is favoured by God, and becomes the +comfort and support of his parents when the elder has failed of his +duty. And in the case of much that we hold dear, the same rule is seen; +a pursuit we wish to be successful in we can make little of, and are +thrown back from continually, while something else into which we have +thrown ourselves almost accidentally prospers in our hand and blesses +us. Again and again, for years together, we put forward some cherished +desire to God's right hand, and are displeased, like Joseph, that still +the hand of greater blessing should pass to some other thing. Does God +not know what is oldest with us, what has been longest at our hearts, +and is dearest to us? Certainly He does: "I know it, My son, I know it," +He answers to all our expostulations. It is not because He does not +understand or regard your predilections, your natural and excusable +preferences, that He sometimes refuses to gratify your whole desire, and +pours upon you blessings of a kind somewhat different from these you +most earnestly covet. He will give you the whole that Christ hath +merited; but for the application and distribution of that grace and +blessing you must be content to trust Him. You may be at a loss to know +why He does no more to deliver you from some sin, or why He does not +make you more successful in your efforts to aid others, or why, while He +so liberally prospers you in one part of your condition, you get so much +less in another that is far nearer your heart; but God does what He +will with His own, and if you do not find in one point the whole +blessing and prosperity you think should flow from such a Mediator as +you have, you may only conclude that what is lacking there will +elsewhere be found more wisely bestowed. And is it not a perpetual +encouragement to us that God does not merely crown what nature has +successfully begun, that it is not the likely and the naturally good +that are most blessed, but that God hath chosen the foolish things of +the world to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world to +confound the things that are mighty; and base things of the world and +things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are +not, to bring to nought things that are? + +In Reuben, the first-born, conscience must have been sadly at war with +hope as he looked at the blind, but expressive, face of his father. He +may have hoped that his sin had not been severely thought of by his +father, or that the father's pride in his first-born would prompt him to +hide, though it could not make him forget it. Probably the gross offence +had not been made known to the family. At least, the words "he went up" +may be understood as addressed in explanation to the brethren. It may +indeed have been that the blind old man, forcibly recalling the +long-past transgression, is here uttering a mournful, regretful +soliloquy, rather than addressing any one. It may be that these words +were uttered to himself as he went back upon the one deed that had +disclosed to him his son's real character, and rudely hurled to the +ground all the hopes he had built up for his first-born. Yet there is no +reason to suppose, on the other hand, that the sin had been previously +known or alluded to in the family. Reuben's hasty, passionate nature +could not understand that if Jacob had felt that sin of his deeply, he +should not have shown his resentment; he had stunned his father with the +heavy blow, and because he did not cry out and strike him in return, he +thought him little hurt. So do shallow natures tremble for a night after +their sin, and when they find that the sun rises and men greet them as +cordially as before, and that no hand lays hold on them from the past, +they think little more of their sin--do not understand that fatal calm +that precedes the storm. Had the memory of Reuben's sin survived in +Jacob's mind all the sad events that had since happened, and all the +stirring incidents of the emigration and the new life in Egypt? Could +his father at the last hour, and after so many thronged years, and +before his brethren, recall the old sin? He is relieved and confirmed in +his confidence by the first words of Jacob, words ascribing to him his +natural position, a certain conspicuous dignity too, and power such as +one may often see produced in men by occupying positions of authority, +though in their own character there be weakness. But all the excellence +that Jacob ascribes to Reuben serves only to embitter the doom +pronounced upon him. Men seem often to expect that a future can be +_given_ to them irrespective of what they themselves are, that a series +of blessings and events might be prepared for them, and made over to +them; whereas every man's future must be made by himself, and is already +in great part formed by the past. It was a vain expectation of Reuben to +expect that he, the impetuous, unstable, superficial son, could have the +future of a deep, and earnest, and dutiful nature, or that his children +should derive no taint from their parent, but be as the children of +Joseph. No man's future need be altogether a doom to him, for God may +bless to him the evil fruit his life has borne; but certainly no man +need look for a future which has no relation to his own character. His +future will always be made up of _his_ deeds, _his_ feelings, and the +circumstances which _his_ desires have brought him into. + +The future of Reuben was of a negative, blank kind--"Thou shalt _not_ +excel;" his unstable character must empty it of all great success. And +to many a heart since have these words struck a chill, for to many they +are as a mirror suddenly held up before them. They see themselves when +they look on the tossing sea, rising and pointing to the heavens with +much noise, but only to sink back again to the same everlasting level. +Men of brilliant parts and great capacity are continually seen to be +lost to society by instability of purpose. Would they only pursue one +direction, and concentrate their energies on one subject, they might +become true heirs of promise, blessed and blessing; but they seem to +lose relish for every pursuit on the first taste of success--all their +energy seems to have boiled over and evaporated in the first glow, and +sinks as the water that has just been noisily boiling when the fire is +withdrawn from under it. No impression made upon them is permanent: like +water, they are plastic, easily impressible, but utterly incapable of +retaining an impression; and therefore, like water, they have a downward +tendency, or at the best are but retained in their place by pressure +from without, and have no eternal power of growth. And the misery of +this character is often increased by the _desire_ to excel which +commonly accompanies instability. It is generally this very desire which +prompts a man to hurry from one aim to another, to give up one path to +excellence when he sees that other men are making way upon another: +having no internal convictions of his own, he is guided mostly by the +successes of other men, the most dangerous of all guides. So that such a +man has all the bitterness of an eager desire doomed never to be +satisfied. Conscious to himself of capacity for something, feeling in +him the excellency of power, and having that "excellency of dignity," or +graceful and princely refinement, which the knowledge of many things, +and intercourse with many kinds of people, have imparted to him, he +feels all the more that pervading weakness, that greedy, lustful craving +for all kinds of priority, and for enjoying all the various advantages +which other men severally enjoy, which will not let him finally choose +and adhere to his own line of things, but distracts him by a thousand +purposes which ever defeat one another.[4] + +The sin of the next oldest sons was also remembered against them, and +remembered apparently for the same reason--because the character was +expressed in it. The massacre of the Shechemites was not an accidental +outrage that any other of the sons of Jacob might equally have +perpetrated, but the most glaring of a number of expressions of a fierce +and cruel disposition in these two men. In Jacob's prediction of their +future, he seems to shrink with horror from his own progeny--like her +who dreamt she would give birth to a firebrand. He sees the possibility +of the direst results flowing from such a temper, and, under God, +provides against these by scattering the tribes, and thus weakening +their power for evil. They had been banded together so as the more +easily and securely to accomplish their murderous purposes. "Simeon and +Levi are brethren"--showing a close affinity, and seeking one another's +society and aid, but it is for bad purposes; and therefore they must be +divided in Jacob and scattered in Israel. This was accomplished by the +tribe of Levi being distributed over all the other tribes as the +ministers of religion. The fiery zeal, the bold independence, and the +pride of being a distinct people, which had been displayed in the +slaughter of the Shechemites, might be toned down and turned to good +account when the sword was taken out of their hand. Qualities such as +these, which produce the most disastrous results when fit instruments +can be found, and when men of like disposition are suffered to band +themselves together, may, when found in the individual and kept in check +by circumstances and dissimilar dispositions, be highly beneficial. + +In the sin, Levi seems to have been the moving spirit, Simeon the +abetting tool, and in the punishment, it is the more dangerous tribe +that is scattered, so that the other is left companionless. In the +blessings of Moses, the tribe of Simeon is passed over in silence; and +that the tribe of Levi should have been so used for God's immediate +service stands as evidence that punishments, however severe and +desolating, even threatening something bordering on extinction, may yet +become blessings to God's people. The sword of murder was displaced in +Levi's hand by the knife of sacrifice; their fierce revenge against +sinners was converted into hostility against sin; their apparent zeal +for the forms of their religion was consecrated to the service of the +tabernacle and temple; their fanatical pride, which prompted them to +treat all other people as the offscouring of the earth, was informed by +a better spirit, and used for the upbuilding and instruction of the +people of Israel. In order to understand why this tribe, of all others, +should have been chosen for the service of the sanctuary and for the +instruction of the people, we must not only recognise how their being +scattered in punishment of their sin over all the land fitted them to be +the educators of the nation and the representatives of all the tribes, +but also we must consider that the sin itself which Levi had committed +broke the one command which men had up till this time received from the +mouth of God; no law had as yet been published but that which had been +given to Noah and his sons regarding bloodshed, and which was given in +circumstances so appalling, and with sanctions so emphatic, that it +might ever have rung in men's ears, and stayed the hand of the murderer. +In saying, "At the hand of every man's brother will I require the life +of man," God had shown that human life was to be counted sacred. He +Himself had swept the race from the face of the earth, but adding this +command immediately after, He showed all the more forcibly that +punishment was His own prerogative, and that none but those appointed by +Him might shed blood--"Vengeance is Mine, saith the Lord." To take +private revenge, as Levi did, was to take the sword out of God's hand, +and to say that God was not careful enough of justice, and but a poor +guardian of right and wrong in the world; and to destroy human life in +the wanton and cruel manner in which Levi had destroyed the Shechemites, +and to do it under colour and by the aid of religious zeal, was to God +the most hateful of sins. But none can know the hatefulness of a sin so +distinctly as he who has fallen into it, and is enduring the punishment +of it penitently and graciously, and therefore Levi was of all others +the best fitted to be entrusted with those sacrificial symbols which set +forth the value of all human life, and especially of the life of God's +own Son. Very humbling must it have been for the Levite who remembered +the history of his tribe to be used by God as the hand of His justice on +the victims that were brought in substitution for that which was so +precious in the sight of God. + +The blessing of Judah is at once the most important and the most +difficult to interpret in the series. There is enough in the history of +Judah himself, and there is enough in the subsequent history of the +tribe, to justify the ascription to him of all lion-like qualities--a +kingly fearlessness, confidence, power, and success; in action a +rapidity of movement and might that make him irresistible, and in repose +a majestic dignity of bearing. As the serpent is the cognisance of Dan, +the wolf of Benjamin, the hind of Naphtali, so is the lion of the tribe +of Judah. He scorns to gain his end by a serpentine craft, and is +himself easily taken in; he does not ravin like a wolf, merely +plundering for the sake of booty, but gives freely and generously, even +to the sacrifice of his own person: nor has he the mere graceful and +ineffective swiftness of the hind, but the rushing onset of the lion--a +character which, more than any other, men reverence and admire--"Judah, +_thou_ art he whom thy brethren shall praise"--and a character which, +more than any other, fits a man to take the lead and rule. If there were +to be kings in Israel, there could be little doubt from which tribe they +could best be chosen; a wolf of the tribe of Benjamin, like Saul, not +only hung on the rear of retreating Philistines and spoiled them, but +made a prey of his own people, and it is in David we find the true king, +the man who more than any other satisfies men's ideal of the prince to +whom they will pay homage;--falling indeed into grievous error and sin, +like his forefather, but, like him also, right at heart, so generous and +self-sacrificing that men served him with the most devoted loyalty, and +were willing rather to dwell in caves with him than in palaces with any +other. + +The kingly supremacy of Judah was here spoken of in words which have +been the subject of as prolonged and violent contention as any others in +the Word of God. "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a +lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come." These words are very +generally understood to mean that Judah's supremacy would continue until +it culminated or flowered into the personal reign of Shiloh; in other +words, that Judah's sovereignty was to be perpetuated in the person of +Jesus Christ. So that this prediction is but the first whisper of that +which was afterwards so distinctly declared, that David's seed should +sit on the throne for ever and ever. It was not accomplished in the +letter, any more than the promise to David was; the tribe of Judah +cannot in any intelligible sense be said to have had rulers of her own +up to the coming of Christ, or for some centuries previous to that date. +For those who would quickly judge God and His promise by what they could +see in their own day, there was enough to provoke them to challenge God +for forgetting His promise. But in due time _the_ King of men, He to +whom all nations have gathered, did spring from this tribe; and need it +be said that the very fact of His appearance proved that the supremacy +had not departed from Judah? This prediction, then, partook of the +character of very many of the Old Testament prophecies; there was +sufficient fulfilment in the letter to seal, as it were, the promise, +and give men a token that it was being accomplished, and yet so +mysterious a falling short, as to cause men to look beyond the literal +fulfilment, on which alone their hopes had at first rested, to some far +higher and more perfect spiritual fulfilment. + +But not only has it been objected that the sceptre departed from Judah +long before Christ came, and that therefore the word Shiloh cannot refer +to Him, but also it has been truly said that wherever else the word +occurs it is the name of a town--that town, viz., where the ark for a +long time was stationed, and from which the allotment of territory was +made to the various tribes; and the prediction has been supposed to mean +that Judah should be the leading tribe till the land was entered. Many +objections to this naturally occur, and need not be stated. But it comes +to be an inquiry of some interest, How much information regarding a +personal Messiah did the brethren receive from this prophecy? A question +very difficult indeed to answer. The word Shiloh means "peace-making," +and if they understood this as a proper name, they must have thought of +a person such as Isaiah designates as the Prince of Peace--a name it was +similar to that wherewith David called his son Solomon, in the +expectation that the results of his own lifetime of disorder and battle +would be reaped by his successor in a peaceful and prosperous reign. It +can scarcely be thought likely, indeed, that this single term "Shiloh," +which might be applied to many things besides a person, should give to +the sons of Jacob any distinct idea of a personal Deliverer; but it +might be sufficient to keep before their eyes, and specially before the +tribe of Judah, that the aim and consummation of all lawgiving and +ruling was peace. And there was certainly contained in this blessing an +assurance that the purpose of Judah would not be accomplished, and +therefore that the existence of Judah as a tribe would not terminate, +until peace had been through its means brought into the world: thus was +the assurance given, that the productive power of Judah should not fail +until out of that tribe there had sprung that which should give peace. + +But to us who have seen the prediction accomplished, it plainly enough +points to _the_ Lion of the tribe of Judah, who in His own person +combined all kingly qualities. In Him we are taught by this prediction +to discover once more the single Person who stands out on the page of +this world's history as satisfying men's ideal of what their King should +be, and of how the race should be represented;--the One who without any +rival stands in the mind's eye as that for which the best hopes of men +were waiting, still feeling that the race could do more than it had +done, and never satisfied but in Him. + +Zebulun, the sixth and last of Leah's sons, was so called because said +Leah, "Now will my husband _dwell with me_" (such being the meaning of +the name), "for I have borne him six sons." All that is predicted +regarding this tribe is that his _dwelling_ should be by the sea, and +near the Ph[oe]nician city Zidon. This is not to be taken as a strict +geographical definition of the tract of country occupied by Zebulun, as +we see when we compare it with the lot assigned to it and marked out in +the Book of Joshua; but though the border of the tribe did not reach to +Zidon, and though it can only have been a mere tongue of land belonging +to it that ran down to the Mediterranean shore, yet the situation +ascribed to it is true to its character as a tribe that had commercial +relations with the Ph[oe]nicians, and was of a decidedly mercantile +turn. We find this same feature indicated in the blessing of Moses: +"Rejoice, Zebulun, in thy _going out_, and Issachar in thy +tents"--Zebulun having the enterprise of a seafaring community, and +Issachar the quiet bucolic contentment of an agricultural or pastoral +population: Zebulun always restlessly eager for emigration or commerce, +for _going out_ of one kind or other; Issachar satisfied to live and die +in his own tents. It is still, therefore, character rather than +geographical position that is here spoken of--though it is a trait of +character that is peculiarly dependent on geographical position: we, for +example, because islanders, having become the maritime power and the +merchants of the world; not being shut off from other nations by the +encompassing sea, but finding paths by it equally in all directions +ready provided for every kind of traffic. + +Zebulun, then, was to represent the commerce of Israel, its _outgoing_ +tendency; was to supply a means of communication and bond of connection +with the world outside, so that through it might be conveyed to the +nations what was saving in Israel, and that what Israel needed from +other lands might also find entrance. In the Church also, this is a +needful quality: for our well-being there must ever exist among us those +who are not afraid to launch on the wide and pathless sea of opinion; +those in whose ears its waves have from their childhood sounded with a +fascinating invitation, and who at last, as if possessed by some spirit +of unrest, loose from the firm earth, and go in quest of lands not yet +discovered, or are impelled to see for themselves what till now they +have believed on the testimony of others. It is not for all men to quit +the shore, and risk themselves in the miseries and disasters of so +comfortless and hazardous a life; but happy the people which possesses, +from one generation to another, men who must see with their own eyes, +and to whose restless nature the discomforts and dangers of an unsettled +life have a charm. It is not the instability of Reuben that we have in +these men, but the irrepressible longing of the born seaman, who _must_ +lift the misty veil of the horizon and penetrate its mystery. And we are +not to condemn, even when we know we should not imitate, men who cannot +rest satisfied with the ground on which we stand, but venture into +regions of speculation, of religious thought which we have never +trodden, and may deem hazardous. The nourishment we receive is not all +native-grown; there are views of truth which may very profitably be +imported from strange and distant lands; and there is no land, no +province of thought, from which we may not derive what may +advantageously be mixed with our own ideas; no direction in which a +speculative mind can go in which it may not find something which may +give a fresh zest to what we already use, or be a real addition to our +knowledge. No doubt men who refuse to confine themselves to one way of +viewing truth--men who venture to go close to persons of very different +opinions from their own, who determine for themselves to prove all +things, who have no very special love for what they were native to and +originally taught, who show rather a taste for strange and new +opinions--these persons live a life of great hazard, and in the end are +generally, like men who have been much at sea, unsettled; they have not +fixed opinions, and are in themselves, as individual men, +unsatisfactory and unsatisfied; but still they have done good to the +community, by bringing to us ideas and knowledge which otherwise we +could not have obtained. Such men God gives us to widen our views; to +prevent us from thinking that we have the best of everything; to bring +us to acknowledge that others, who perhaps in the main are not so +favoured as ourselves, are yet possessed of some things we ourselves +would be the better of. And though these men must themselves necessarily +hang loosely, scarcely attached very firmly to any part of the Church, +like a seafaring population, and often even with a border running very +close to heathenism, yet let us own that the Church has need of +such--that without them the different sections of the Church would know +too little of one another, and too little of the facts of this world's +life. And as the seafaring population of a country might be expected to +show less interest in the soil of their native land than others, and yet +we know that in point of fact we are dependent on no class of our +population so much for leal patriotism, and for the defence of our +country, so one has observed that the Church also must make similar use +of her Zebuluns--of men who, by their very habit of restlessly +considering all views of truth which are alien to our own ways of +thinking, have become familiar with, and better able to defend us +against, the error that mingles with these views. + +Issachar receives from his father a character which few would be proud +of or would envy, but which many are very content to bear. As the strong +ass that has its stall and its provender provided can afford to let the +free beasts of the forest vaunt their liberty, so there is a very +numerous class of men who have no care to assert their dignity as human +beings, or to agitate regarding their rights as citizens, so long as +their obscurity and servitude provide them with physical comforts, and +leave them free of heavy responsibilities. They prefer a life of ease +and plenty to a life of hardship and glory. They are not lazy nor idle, +but are quite willing to use their strength so long as they are not +overdriven out of their sleekness. They have neither ambition nor +enterprise, and willingly bow their shoulders to bear, and become the +servants of those who will free them from the anxiety of planning and +managing, and give them a fair and regular remuneration for their +labour. This is not a noble nature, but in a world in which ambition so +frequently runs through a thorny and difficult path to a disappointing +and shameful end, this disposition has much to say in its own defence. +It will often accredit itself with unchallengeable common sense, and +will maintain that it alone enjoys life and gets the good of it. They +will tell you they are the only true utilitarians, that to be one's own +master only brings cares, and that the degradation of servitude is only +an idea; that _really_ servants are quite as well off as masters. Look +at them: the one is as a strong, powerful, well-cared-for animal, his +work but a pleasant exercise to him, and when it is over never following +him into his rest; he eats the good of the land, and has what all seem +to be in vain striving for, rest and contentment: the other, the master, +has indeed his position, but that only multiplies his duties; he has +wealth, but that proverbially only increases his cares and the mouths +that are to consume it; it is _he_ who has the air of a bondsman, and +never, meet him when you may, seems wholly at ease and free from care. + +Yet, after all that can be said in favour of the bargain an Issachar +makes, and however he may be satisfied to rest, and in a quiet, peaceful +way enjoy life, men feel that at the best there is something despicable +about such a character. He gives his labour and is fed, he pays his +tribute and is protected; but men feel that they ought to meet the +dangers, responsibilities, and difficulties of life in their own +persons, and at first hand, and not buy themselves off so from the +burden of individual self-control and responsibility. The animal +enjoyment of this life and its physical comforts may be a very good +ingredient in a national character: it might be well for Israel to have +this patient, docile mass of strength in its midst: it may be well for +our country that there are among us not only men eager for the highest +honours and posts, but a great multitude of men perhaps equally +serviceable and capable, but whose desires never rise beyond the +ordinary social comforts; the contentedness of such, even though +reprehensible, tempers or balances the ambition of the others, and when +it comes into personal contact rebukes its feverishness. They, as well +as the other parts of society, have amidst their error a truth--the +truth that the ideal world in which ambition, and hope, and imagination +live is not everything; that the material has also a reality, and that +though hope does bless mankind, yet attainment is also something, even +though it be a little. Yet this truth is not the whole truth, and is +only useful as an ingredient, as a part, not as the whole; and when we +fall from any high ideal of human life which we have formed, and begin +to find comfort and rest in the mere physical good things of this world, +we may well despise ourselves. There is a pleasantness still in the land +that appeals to us all; a luxury in observing the risks and struggles +of others while ourselves secure and at rest; a desire to make life +easy, and to shirk the responsibility and toil that public-spiritedness +entails. Yet of what tribe has the Church more cause to complain than of +those persons who seem to imagine that they have done enough when they +have joined the Church and received their own inheritance to enjoy; who +are alive to no emergency, nor awake to the need of others; who have no +idea at all of their being a part of the community, for which, as well +as for themselves, there are duties to discharge; who couch, like the +ass of Issachar, in their comfort without one generous impulse to make +common cause against the common evils and foes of the Church, and are +unvisited by a single compunction that while they lie there, submitting +to whatever fate sends, there are kindred tribes of their own being +oppressed and spoiled? + +There seems to have been an improvement in this tribe, an infusion of +some new life into it. In the time of Deborah, indeed, it is with a note +of surprise that, while celebrating the victory of Israel, she names +even Issachar as having been roused to action, and as having helped in +the common cause--"the princes of Issachar were with Deborah, _even_ +Issachar;" but we find them again in the days of David wiping out their +reproach, and standing by him manfully. And there an apparently new +character is given to them--"the children of Issachar, which were men +that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do." +This quite accords, however, with the kind of practical philosophy which +we have seen to be imbedded in Issachar's character. Men they were not +distracted by high thoughts and ambitions, but who judged things +according to their substantial value to themselves; and who were, +therefore, in a position to give much good advice on practical +matters--advice which would always have a tendency to trend too much +towards mere utilitarianism and worldliness, and to partake rather of +crafty politic diplomacy than of far-seeing statesmanship, yet +trustworthy for a certain class of subjects. And here, too, they +represent the same class in the Church, already alluded to; for one +often finds that men who will not interrupt their own comfort, and who +have a kind of stolid indifference as to what comes of the good of the +Church, have yet also much shrewd practical wisdom; and were these men, +instead of spending their sagacity in cynical denunciation of what the +Church does, to throw themselves into the cause of the Church, and +heartily advise her what she _ought_ to do, and help in the doing of it, +their observation of human affairs, and political understanding of the +times, would be turned to good account, instead of being a reproach. + +Next came the eldest son of Rachel's handmaid, and the eldest son of +Leah's handmaid, Dan and Gad. Dan's name, meaning "judge," is the +starting point of the prediction--"Dan shall judge his people." This +word "judge" we are perhaps somewhat apt to misapprehend; it means +rather to defend than to sit in judgment on; it refers to a judgment +passed between one's own people and their foes, and an execution of such +judgment in the deliverance of the people and the destruction of the +foe. We are familiar with this meaning of the word by the constant +reference in the Old Testament to God's _judging_ His people; this being +always a cause of joy as their sure deliverance from their enemies. So +also it is used of those men who, when Israel had no king, rose from +time to time as the champions of the people, to lead them against the +foe, and who are therefore familiarly called "The Judges." From the +tribe of Dan the most conspicuous of these arose, Samson, namely, and it +is probably mainly with reference to this fact that Jacob so +emphatically predicts of _this_ tribe, "Dan shall judge his people." And +notice the appended clause (as reflecting shame on the sluggish +Issachar), "as one of the tribes of Israel," recognising always that his +strength was not for himself alone, but for his country; that he was not +an isolated people who had to concern himself only with his own affairs, +but _one_ of the tribes of Israel. The manner, too, in which Dan was to +do this was singularly descriptive of the facts subsequently evolved. +Dan was a very small and insignificant tribe, whose lot originally lay +close to the Philistines on the southern border of the land. It might +seem to be no obstacle whatever to the invading Philistines as they +passed to the richer portion of Judah, but this little tribe, through +Samson, smote these terrors of the Israelites with so sore and alarming +a destruction as to cripple them for years and make them harmless. We +see, therefore, how aptly Jacob compares them to the venomous snake that +lurks in the road and bites the horses' heels; the dust-coloured adder +that a man treads on before he is aware, and whose poisonous stroke is +more deadly than the foe he is looking for in front. And especially +significant did the imagery appear to the Jews, with whom this poisonous +adder was indigenous, but to whom the horse was the symbol of foreign +armament and invasion. The whole tribe of Dan, too, seems to have +partaken of that "grim humour" with which Samson saw his foes walk time +after time into the traps he set for them, and give themselves an easy +prey to him--a humour which comes out with singular piquancy in the +narrative given in the Book of Judges of one of the forays of this +tribe, in which they carried off Micah's priest and even his gods. + +But why, in the full flow of his eloquent description of the varied +virtues of his sons, does the patriarch suddenly check himself, lie back +on his pillows, and quietly say, "I have waited for Thy salvation, O +God"? Does he feel his strength leave him so that he cannot go on to +bless the rest of his sons, and has but time to yield his own spirit to +God? Are we here to interpolate one of those scenes we are all fated to +witness when some eagerly watched breath seems altogether to fail before +the last words have been uttered, when those who have been standing +apart, through sorrow and reverence, quickly gather round the bed to +catch the last look, and when the dying man again collects himself and +finishes his work? Probably Jacob, having, as it were, projected himself +forward into those stirring and warlike times he has been speaking of, +so realises the danger of his people, and the futility even of such help +as Dan's when God does not help, that, as if from the midst of doubtful +war, he cries, as with a battle cry, "I have waited for Thy salvation, O +God." His longing for victory and blessing to his sons far overshot the +deliverance from Philistines accomplished by Samson. That deliverance he +thankfully accepts and joyfully predicts, but in the spirit of an +Israelite indeed, and a genuine child of the promise, he remains +unsatisfied, and sees in all such deliverance only the pledge of God's +coming nearer and nearer to His people, bringing with Him _His_ eternal +salvation. In Dan, therefore, we have not the catholic spirit of +Zebulun, nor the practical, though sluggish, temper of Issachar; but we +are guided rather to the disposition which ought to be maintained +through all Christian life, and which, with special care, needs to be +cherished in Church-life--a disposition to accept with gratitude all +success and triumph, but still to aim through all at that highest +victory which God alone can accomplish for His people. It is to be the +battle-cry with which every Christian and every Church is to preserve +itself, not merely against external foes, but against the far more +disastrous influence of self-confidence, pride, and glorying in +man--"For _Thy_ salvation, O God, do we wait." + +Gad also is a tribe whose history is to be warlike, his very name +signifying a marauding, guerilla troop; and his history was to +illustrate the victories which God's people gain by tenacious, watchful, +ever-renewed warfare. The Church has often prospered by her Dan-like +insignificance; the world not troubling itself to make war upon her. But +oftener Gad is a better representative of the mode in which her +successes are gained. We find that the men of Gad were among the most +valuable of David's warriors, when his necessity evoked all the various +skill and energy of Israel. "Of the Gadites," we read, "there separated +themselves unto David into the hold of the wilderness men of might, and +men of war fit for the battle, that could handle shield and buckler, +whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as the roes +upon the mountains: one of the least of them was better than an hundred, +and the greatest mightier than a thousand." And there is something +particularly inspiriting to the individual Christian in finding this +pronounced as part of the blessing of God's people--"a troop shall +overcome him, _but he shall_ overcome at the last." It is this that +enables us to persevere--that we have God's assurance that present +discomfiture does not doom us to final defeat. If you be among the +children of promise, among those that gather round God to catch His +blessing, you shall overcome at the last. You may now feel as if +assaulted by treacherous, murderous foes, irregular troops, that betake +themselves to every cruel deceit, and are ruthless in spoiling you; you +may be assailed by so many and strange temptations that you are +bewildered and cannot lift a hand to resist, scarce seeing where your +danger comes from; you may be buffeted by messengers of Satan, +distracted by a sudden and tumultuous incursion of a crowd of cares so +that you are moved away from the old habits of your life amid which you +seem to stand safely; your heart may seem to be the rendezvous of all +ungodly and wicked thoughts, you may feel trodden under foot and overrun +by sin, but, with the blessing of God, you shall overcome at the last. +Only cultivate that dogged pertinacity of Gad, which has no thought of +ultimate defeat, but rallies cheerfully and resolutely after every +discomfiture. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] Merivale's _Romans under the Empire_, vi. 261. + +[3] Plato, _Repub._ i. 5, etc. + +[4] The subsequent history of the tribe shows that the character of its +father was transmitted. "No judge, no prophet, not one of the tribe of +Reuben, is mentioned." 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